Happy Halloween from the Mackeys!

Halloween is such a big deal for the kids.  They just love it.  With all of the renovations we have been doing on the house, I tried to get by without putting up Halloween decorations.  That didn't fly with the boys.  Evan was pulling out decorations last night to appease them.  We also carved pumpkins last night.  Nothing like waiting until the last minute...

Pumpkin carving guts:

Carter in a scary mask that was intended for part of Ryan's costume:

Ryan and I snuggled up watching Survivor after pumpkin carving:

I was fortunate enough to volunteer at both of their school parties today.  Ryan's was in the morning and Carter's in the afternoon.  Ryan was watching the costume parade outside his classroom:

Carter's teacher, Ms. Hallstrom:

Carter in the Halloween parade:

Ryan's class party:

Carter making a Halloween cake spider:

Stained glass leaf art:

Carter, Evan and Ryan getting ready to go out trick-or-treating:

My boys:

Carter ready to attack Ryan:

Ryan retaliates:

Carter and his pumpkin:

Ryan and his pumpkin:

Look who showed up on our doorstep at 9:00...  It's Willie from Duck Dynasty! :)

Painting | Carpeting

After the garage makeover, we I decided we should recarpet the top 2 levels of our house, and as long as we're at it, why don't we paint them as well?  That went over like a lead balloon with Evan.  He was not excited about my idea whatsoever.  It was 2 weeks of utter craziness in our house, but now that it's done, I love it!  I took some progress photos to show you some of the chaos that overtook our house...

Carter playing with his toys in the midst of ladders on both sides:

Day 1 painting - all furniture has been moved away from the walls and we are getting ready to start painting:

Cutting in above the fireplace, you can see the paint is a little darker than the original color:

The main wall is done, which is the hardest to do, with 14' ceiling height at the peak:

Finishing up day one painting, we did this wall, around the corner, above the foyer closet, and to the stairs:

Starting on day two:

Evan painting on the stairs:

View from the stairs, looking down into the living room:

Day two complete, we painted the stairs and the last wall in the living room.  We made it to the dining room, which is all of the carpeted areas, meeting our goal prior to carpet installation.

Stairs painted:

Starting to move the furniture into the dining room to get ready for carpet installation:

We moved some of the living room furniture into the basement, because it wouldn't all fit in the dining room:

Parts of the entertainment center:

The empty living room, ready for new carpet (it felt HUGE):

Evan told me before we went to bed that he was worried about the floor being able to hold the weight of all of the furniture we piled in there.  Of course I couldn't sleep, worrying about the floor until we could move it all out again...

Kyle's room was packed, even had the organ in his doorway!

Carter's room had part of our bedroom furniture in it:

And Ryan's room had the rest of it:

I felt like a college student, sleeping on a mattress on the floor:

Day two of carpet installation, we moved everything back into the master bedroom, and everything out of all 3 of the boys' bedrooms:

I didn't get a finished picture of the living room, but you can see the new carpet here:

I had no idea how much work it would be to empty every bedroom and closet to prepare for the carpet installation:

Kyle's room is ready for install:

Ryan's room is ready, just needed to move the mattress out when he gets up in the morning:

The boys slept together while we moved furniture, but then when we went to bed, we put them in our own beds - looks like poor Carter ended up on the floor sharing a bed with Ryan!

Carpet is finished and all of the rooms were back in order by midnight...Whew!!!!

Soooo glad to be done!!!! :)