We have floors!

So awesome! And I think Zoe agrees:

Our floors (laminate wood-look primarily, with linoleum in the laundry) have been installed, and the house trimmed out. Painting soon, then plumbing fixtures installed. I am SO RIDICULOUSLY HAPPY to have that awful carpet gone. It's been in the house since we purchased it 7 or so years ago, we've power-cleaned it probably three or four times, but it was still so disgusting. You just can't keep that stuff clean with animals around. I'd much rather have area rugs that I can remove from the house to have professionally cleaned, or, worst case, gotten rid of if need be.

You may notice spots for TVs -

care to donate one?

Just kidding, of course.

Maybe.

Insulation, breaking through, and sheetrock

We finally have one big connected house. The exterior doors arrived, allowing us to insulate and put up sheetrock, as well as bust a whole through Zoe's old bedroom and into the new hallway. The 'new house' has heating piped to it, but the ducts are closed off right now to (supposedly - ha!) prevent too much dust from getting into the 'old house.' In reality, there is dust everywhere: our couches need constant vacuuming, floors dusting, return air filters changing. Soon, though, the new floor will be in place, which should cut down on the dust drastically. Looking forward to that point, when this will really start to feel like a complete house, instead of two different parts.

Mo is old

For my birthday this year, Kyle and Zoe made a donation to the Missouri state board of tourism, and in exchange got these wonderful t-shirts:

Thanksgiving 2010

We enjoyed this past Thanksgiving in New Braunfels with plenty of food and family fun. The night before, Pops, Preston, Kyle, Emmy, and I all went out to a honky-tonk to listen to some music and have a few beers. We ended up going home with a freshly fried turkey, thanks to Pops' bidding skills. Kyle suffered through the car ride back to the house, and the rest of us devoured it as soon as we got in the door. The next day after a wonderful meal where everyone pitched in, we were able to watch little Mark's football game on TV. They didn't win that game, however the team is still able to play in the Armed Forces Bowl on December 30th - keep an eye out for him! They've had a great season so far.
Zoe loved the weekend, primarily because she was able to hang out with cousin Emma the whole time:

Emma perfects her two-wheel biking,
while Zoe tries to catch her on foot