Playing Catch Up

Happy Monday from the Keiffers! Is anyone else reeling from the fact that it's already November?! I mean, seriously. Where is all the time going? As usual we are running to catch up with our lives around here but loving every minute of it! First of all, I am selling my camera on craigslist. So if you know of anyone that is looking for a hardly-used, nice camera please feel free to give them my info. I plan on upgrading to a more professional model since I would really like to learn how to take nice pictures and have more options, etc. It's amazing how many things you realize you don't need when learning to simplify and save up money.


Recently I had the priviledge of hearing my sister sing in church...the big church. She did an AMAZING job. Her solo song was "Rescue" by Newsong. This just happens to be one of my all-time favorite songs and hearing her voice sing it made it even better. In case you're wondering when MY church solo is, wonder no more! I don't sing. Like any good big sister, I spread my singing talent out between Claire and Brittany. Thus, leaving me with a slightly tone deaf sound. So if you happen to see me take the stage (and the mic) during church, please do whatever is necessary to get me off that platform!! There's a picture on facebook of our Clairee singing but in case you can't access that here is the picture: (I believe it was taken by our church photographer, who is extremely talented, Marks Moore)

work.it.girl.

Austin continues to keep us laughing. He's doing so many new things and learning words like crazy! He loves to "read," make animal noises, and call for his mama and dada. But his latest, seriously cute trick is sitting down on any little ledge or "seat." In fact, the other day, as I was packing our stuff for Ohio, I looked over to see the little man doing this on our pillows:

I.Love.It. It's hard running all over the place. Somedays you just have to take a little break wherever you can get one! :) Austin was also a little lion for Halloween. Since he's too little to take trick or treating we had a bunch of friends over with their little ones and the kids got to dress up. Before the chaos began, I took a quick picture with our lion king:

And finally, Luke and I have just finished recovering from our very fun trip to Ohio. He and I went to visit my brother and sister-in-law, Jared and Lindsay. While we were there we helped them put wood floors throughout the downstairs of their new house. We worked hard, had a blast, and made some pretty fun memories. A picture is worth a thousand words so here are a few for your viewing pleasure:

Before the floors

Doing a little sweeping and supervising

This is what I was supervising. The removal of the toilet and floor around the toilet...GROSS!

Working side by side with my husband :)

Taking a break from all the action

The purpose of this picture is two fold:

1) to show how tedious the process of cutting the boards was

and

2) to show everyone how AMAZINGLY talented my husband is

(thank you, lindsay, for insisting we take this picture!)

Here's a little preview of the finished floors. They looked gorgeous and, sadly, I did not get pictures of the finished product. We'll be waiting on Jared and Lindsay to send updated pics.

Needless to say, we were exhausted when we got back. And very motivated to save some money to replace our own floors. We always have so much fun with them, and I thank God alot for the sister-in-law He gave me. In fact, at one point during the weekend I thought to myself,

I hope we know them forever...

First, let me say that I was probably a little delirious at this point from so much hammering, floor laying, and sweeping. But I quickly realized that we would indeed know them forever since they're family! As fun as it was to get away with my sweetie, we were so glad to get back to our son and normal routine. I missed him terribly but thoroughly enjoyed some adult time, sans a one-year-old.

On my list for the next couple of weeks are the birthdays of my dad and sister, Thanksgiving at my house, and finding some time to get a head start on some Christmas stuff. Have I mentioned how much I LOVE this season?! Yep. I thought so. Hope you all are enjoying the start of November and finding some time to relax before the holiday season kick in!