The finished product...

Here is the finished product of our glass blowing adventure. The red didn't show up very well in Bryan's ornament, but overall they are beautiful! The kids are going back today with Grandma & Grandpa to make more. Can't wait to see how theirs turn out!

Bryan's ornament

My ornament

Blowing Glass

Saturday we went and made our own blown glass ornaments, which was a blast! The hardest part I think was picking from the hundreds of color choices! It was hard to narrow it down, but we did. Bryan picked a red, green and white mixture and the kids and I picked a turquoise, lime green and pink mix for the 2nd one. I got to make one of the ornaments while Gabi took pictures, and Nick did the other one.

The temperature in the fire where the melted glass is was somewhere around 12oo degrees I think he said.

Here he is showing me how to mix the colors into the hot glass.

Then you stick it back into the fire to melt the glass pieces together into the base.

After the colors are mixed in you blow gently to make the ball. You blow really really lightly, like blowing out a candle. I thought you would have had to blow harder, but nope. Barely at all.

Here is the finished product when he puts the curly top on it to hang it from. It's still extremely hot so you can't see the final colors much at all. I'll post the finished products once we get them home.

Then it was Nick's turn.

Spinning, spinning, spinning

Adding some color

Mixing the colors together

And blowing to make it round.

I saw a blurb about making these on the news one morning, and called that day to make an appointment. The guy told us that was the first time they had ever opened it up to the public before, and the received 300 calls the first day! It was crowded there, but not too much. The wait wasn't too bad and once you were making your ornaments it seemed to go really fast. It was really a great experience and we've already decided we want to go back next year and do it again!

Before and the beautiful after

Well the living room is finally officially done! And it looks amazing! Still have some decorating to do, but the final piece - the new couch was put in place last night. So in honor of the beautiful new room here are some before, during, and after pictures to document a job well done!

The before - with the ugly carpet & dirty fireplace

The boring stark white walls, lack of proper lighting and popcorn ceilings. Ugh.

Freshly scraped ceiling, new lighting installed and nicely primed walls

Oooohhh beautiful paint!

The floors are going in. I am so in love with my new floors!

Our beautiful and VERY BRIGHT new entry way chandelier, & the newly tiled railing

The finished hallway. Just need doorknobs & paint on the air return vent

The fireplace ready for Christmas. Just need to hang the stockings!

The finished room, complete with Christmas tree, couch & sleepy boy!

The view from the hallway - with a very cute Muscles I might add!

More house progress

Well we have made some great progress with the upstairs living room & dining room recently. Here are some pictures of the progress we have made. The finished results will be fabulous, and just having the paint on the walls has been an amazing transformation! Can't wait to get the new flooring laid!

 

Living Room before pictures

   

Living room during - Popcorn scraped off the ceiling and new lighting has been installed, and Bryan built a little wall by the entry to help straighten the wall by the stairs.

 

Look how the fireplace pops with the color on the wall! 

Dining Room before

Dining room during - Popcorn scraped off the ceiling, and the random niches filled in

  

Dining room with paint! Looks fabulous!

Finally! Furniture downstairs!

Well we finally got the furniture moved downstairs into the family room. It now looks like an actual room. And it's a very cozy place to watch TV too. The surround sound is very cool and even the cats like hanging out downstairs!

So now the work begins on the upstairs rooms. We will be starting with the living room & dining room. Can't wait to see those completed as well. It's the perfect time to start working inside again. Weather is starting to change and we have plenty of indoor projects to do! Hopefully the living room won't take long. Just a matter of scraping popcorn off the ceiling, adding can lights & a ceiling fan in the living room and filling in the weird niches in the dining room. Then painting and finally putting in the flooring, along with new light fixtures. Can't wait! Should keep my husband busy while I'm in California at least! I'll post progress pictures the end of next week.

1st place!

Nick got first place racing on Sunday! It was great! Of course the picture I took of him WITH his trophy is stuck on my phone, so here's a picture of the trophy. He's been working very hard on his racing, and it finally paid off. He was able to beat one of his biggest competitors (who happens to be a girl - #1 in the district) and got a first place. He now has a total of 6 Intermediate wins - 19 more to go until he turns expert. We were so proud of him! 

Her first locker!

One of the things Gabi was looking forward to most about middle school was getting a locker. I remember those days! Here she is in front of her cool locker. She has to share it with another girl, but it's still so neat and clean. She's so organized I'm sure it'll stay like this all year too!

Nick's New Quad

Just realized I never posted pictures of Nick with his new quad! We ended up selling the baby quads a few months ago and got Nick his dream quad. We took it out Labor Day weekend and had a blast. He is just as amazing on this quad as he was on his little quad. Now the plan is to get another one for Gabi as well. We upgraded her this summer to an older quad we have had for a while. She's pretty good on that one as well, and happy it has reverse, but she has now decided she's willing to give up reverse to have a quad like Nick's. So hopefully next year she can get a new one as well. Now the plan is to be able to go riding more often. It sure was nice to have both kids on bigger quads so we ca go faster and not have to worry about them getting stuck on steep hills. They can go anywhere they want to now!

  

And I couldn't resist posting pictures of how much my baby has grown! Here's a picture of his very first ride out on the quads. He was such a little cutie! I think he's 6 here. And there he is on his new quad. He's 11 in that picture. Sure has some a long way!

Here's a close up of his special bars - Tag Hart & Huntington bars. They are awesome bars and one of a kind. Not even available on the market yet!

Coffee Anyone?

I really love my new coffee maker! Since I am the only one in the house who ever drinks coffee or even tea, it makes no sense for me to brew a pot of coffee. I drink 1 cup and that's it. Just not work the effort a whole pot takes. So I got a new single cup coffee maker this weekend. It is perfect! It uses the K-Cup style inserts that brew a single cup of coffee, or tea, or hot chocolate! No mess, no fuss, just nice hot coffee in under a minute from start to finish! It even came with a special adapter so you can use your own ground coffee, or loose leaf tea.

So now I am actually drinking coffee again, and drinking tea more at home because it brews so quickly and easily. I made a cup of tea using the special adapter and it made a really good cup of tea. I wasn't sure it would because of the speed it brews at, but it tasted just the same! Nick likes an occasional cup of tea as well, so I'm a little more inclined to make him some tea when it's so easy.

I figured when the weather turns colder too Bryan and kids might actually like Hot Chocolate more often too.  I figure brewing coffee or tea at home and taking it to work is WAY cheaper than wanting to stop for coffee on the way to work, and the stuff at work just isn't that good either. There are so many different variety of coffees and teas that I should be good to go. Not to worry though, I still have my bigger coffee maker for when real coffee drinkers come to visit. Now I might actually have good coffee to go along with it!

Almost 3 party

HAPPY ALMOST BIRTHDAY!!!

We had a party for Lilian while she was here visiting. She turns 3 next month but will be in Mississippi so we had a very small get together while they were here.

Lilian loved her Cookie Monster stamp we got her. She wanted to stamp it everywhere!

She is really into Elmo and loved getting an Elmo of her very own!

Reading stories to Mom

Playing with her new Bike mom got her. Now she can be like Uncle Nick!

Hurry up with my Moticycle mom!

The flame is gone!

Loving her Ice Cream cake.

Pretty sure she thinks Grandpa is nuts!

The zoo!

Sorry it has been so long since I have posted anything. Life has been pretty crazy around the Geddis house. Rashelle & Lilian are here now for a super short visit. They came out for Justin & Brandy's wedding. Lilian was one of the flower girls. We were lucky enough to spend a day at the zoo when they were here since that was one of the things Rashelle really wanted to do. Here are the pictures of all our fun!

Lilian eating her salad at Olive Garden. 

Lilian decided to drop her pedals AFTER the ceremony instead of before. 

Playing dress-up with the bridesmaids.

Playing with Aunt Gabi & Uncle Nick at the wedding.

Rashelle & Lilian checking out the animals at the zoo

Grandpa showing Lilian the apes

The new lion exhibit is VERY cool!

Lilian & Gabi having fun together

Gabi and the Zebras