My goal today is to get the Thanksgiving pictures up before Christmas.
Grace is ready for fun in the snow. Where is all the snow this year? She's also wearing her Minnesota Gophers hat for her Uncle Henry.

They were being so sweet with each other.

Papa Streby holding Grace and her cousin Mia Streby (Josh and Elizabeth's). We had a nice Streby Thanksgiving at Jim and Jo's this year. Josh and Elizabeth were in town from Washington. Mia and Grace don't see each other often, but get along so well when they do.

Mia and her daddy, Aimee's cousin Josh.

Humphrey Thanksgiving was at Dan and Barb's. Dave's brothers family's were all here! John and his newest cousin Lydia Jane (Aaron and Danielle's).

Dave plays our niece Ella (Mark and Kim's oldest) like a guitar.

Grace "holding" Lydia with much supervision.

John loves his new cousin. We have a very similar picture of him holding Grace. It doesn't seem like it's been that long.

We celebrated Ella's 3rd birthday with an ice cream cake.

Auntie Danielle holding Grace and her new beautiful girl, Lydia. This was taken after her baby shower. Grace had clothes on when the party started.

Super Dave!

This house is in Coshocton, OH. Dave is planning to spend next week helping a friend out with wrapping and siding it for another friend who is flipping the property. This does not sound like my idea of a vacation, but Dave's looking forward to the challenge and the time out of the office. Of course the skills he learns helping friends have come in handy around our house too. Here are some pictures of our living room floor before, during and after Dave refinished the floors two weeks ago.

This orange/brown carpet was here when we bought the house.

We chose to live with it until our kids were walking well.

Taking out the old carpet and pad.

The oringinal wood floor only goes a bit more than half way across the room because the previous owners did an addition to the house at some point. We were aware of this and planned to put carpet over the subfloor half of the room.

After sanding down to a smooth surface.

Dave and a friend/partner in large home improvement projects, Ross, stain and poly the floor.

Look at that shine!!!

This is the adjoining room the guys did two years ago.

The carpet was installed just a few days later. The kids love having thier side of the room for playing with toys and wrestling and rolling on soft new carpet.

I truly appreciate the carpet installer and his patience with our son. The man was here for two hours and was followed closely by a curious 4 year old the entire time. John knew he could not cross the line into the half of the room where the work was being done so he sat right up next to it or paced back and forth along it while asking "why?", "what's that?", "what were you for Halloween?"

Thank you so much Dave for all the hard work and hours you spend making our home better for our family.

Halloween 2008

John picked out the largest pumpkin in the patch this year. He cleaned out most of the ice-cold pumpkin "guts" himself and asked for the knife when it was time for carving. I handed him a marker instead and I cut out his design. I enjoyed the process remembering carving pumpkins this way as a kid with my brother and dad.

Grace's pattern was a little more difficult for me to follow with a knife so we just left hers un-carved this year.

John, trying to resemble his pumpkin.

All dressed up for trick-or-treat in Centerburg.

They looked good coming....

...and going. The tails are my favorite part. Dave called Grace "Little Stinker." John could not decide if he was a dragon or a dinosaur. It changed each time someone asked him.

John's preschool Fall Party. This was his turn to destroy the bat pinata they made as a class the week before. The teacher did a wonderful thing. When it broke the candy was already divided into 16 baggies, one for each student, much less competitve and dangerous. Notice the little sister in the skunk costume stealing an apple slice from a student's plate while the class is distracted.

One boy's dad who is a firefighter came in to talk to the class a couple of weeks ago. As you can see he made a big impression as there were three firefighter costumes in the group. John told Dave maybe he'll dress up like a banker next time.

Just an update.

Grace Noelle being her gorgeous self.
Push ups with dad. John enjoys these much more than Dave.
Dave is concerned about his arm. He has had a pain in one upper arm muscle for about a month now. The doctor prescribed a mediaction, but Dave's not feeling a difference yet. An MRI is the next step if no improvement comes from the meds. He's frustrated that he can't lift weights until the arm feels better.
Papa Humphrey as horsey. (Speaking of muscle soreness.)

Happy 60th Dad (aka Papa Streby)!

Aimee's dad turned 60 this weekend and Henry and Janine were in town for the party. We hadn't seen Henry in 10 months! It was a great weekend, especially for the kids. Grace cracked up as Uncle Henry read a favorite, The Five Little Monkeys.
It started as an experiment, prompted by the scientists in the family, to see how many balloons it would take to lift a toy car. The conclusion: it takes more balloons than we had.

Uncle Henry, John, "Aunt" Janine, and Grace in what John was refering to as their "meeting room." Mom was told clearly that I was not welcome in these meetings.
Papa blows the best bubbles. Grace is still perfecting this skill.
Papa and Grace work at shelling and eating sunflower seeds. We all agreed this was a lot of work for a tiny little seed. I like the identical looks of frustration on their faces in this picture.
Janine, John and Uncle Henry take a walk in Nana and Papa's back yard.
They're planning an October wedding for next year. I can't believe my little brother is old enough to like girls let alone marry one. We're so happy for him and are exctied to get to know Janine, who the kids already refer to as "Aunt Janine."

So many babies!

We have a new neice! Another beautiful Humphrey girl. Lydia Jane Danielle was born Sunday, October 12. Congratulations Uncle Aaron and Aunty Danielle. For many more pictures and stories visit thier blog listed in the sidebar. Uncle Aaron (Dave's youngest brother) is a daddy!
Aunty and Lydia.


Luna Penelope Streby and her proud Grandma Streby (Aimee's aunt Jo) last weekend. Luna is Aimee's cousin Juston and Julie Streby's new daughter.
Uncle Henry was in town last weekend! Here he is with Luna.
Then there's Robbie Streby. Parents Aimee's cousins Ben and Jonelle pictured as Robbie walks at just 9 months!

Our damage from the wind storm.

We were very fortunate to have not lost electricity but did have quite a bit of clean up on Monday morning. This is actually half of a tree on the roof over the dining room. There is a small dent in the deck from where the guys had to drop the limb when they were cutting it down, but no damage was done to the house. Dave and his friend Skylar cleaned up our yard and our neighbors in no time.
Centerburg had many closed roads due to fallen trees and low hanging lines. Praise the Lord, no one was hurt. Dave's grandparents who live just outside of town had to have their roof replaced. His parents, in Fredericktown, were without power for days. Aimee's parents, along with many, were without for a week.
A young tree in front of our house that may not make it. Dave pulled it back into position, but many roots were snapped by the wind.
If you look closely you can see Grace and John in what they believed to be their new fort. John called this pile of brush his "bird nest fort." He cried the day the men contacted by the village came with the chipper.

The Bobcats lost, but we had the best dressed kids in Athens!

Mom and dad (Mike and Peggy Streby) treated us to the Ohio University/Central Michigan game a couple of weeks ago. Although the Bobcats put forth great effort, they were defeated. We still had a great time. Mom had made these adorable outfits for the kids to wear to the game. Aimee's Uncle Jim and Aunt Jo were also there with John and Grace's cousin Kellan.
Nana Streby and Grace. I see some MacLean in this little girl.
John giving "5" to the O.U. Bobcat.

Thanks mom and dad for such a fun afternoon!