ayreslife.com

Best Shot From The Parade

nathan@ayreslife.com (Nathan) — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 20:47:00 +0000

St. Pat's is definitely special in this town.

2010 St. Pat's Parade

nathan@ayreslife.com (Nathan) — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 19:49:00 +0000

We had a blast this last weekend here in Rolla. At Missouri S&T, they've been celebrating the 102nd Best Ever St. Patrick's Day on campus and the parade was Saturday. Here at church we collected and gave away 800 hotdogs, coffee, and hot chocolate before the parade. When we got done there we walked a few blocks to enjoy the parade ourselves. After about an hour and a half of the parade, Carissa was getting tired of it. But she walked away with some fun beads.

Vineyard Leaders Retreat

nathan@ayreslife.com (Nathan) — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 20:18:00 +0000

We had our annual Vineyard Leaders Retreat this past weekend. We've had it at Camp Mihaska the past several years and it was beautiful this year. The sun was out and the spring was amazing.

She's Ready For Summer

nathan@ayreslife.com (Nathan) — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 23:12:00 +0000

We've got the capri pants and sandals busted out and we are ready for summer. We had a beautiful day today. We even ate lunch on our deck and Carissa got to run around in the yard. She loves being outside.

Fun at the Playground

nathan@ayreslife.com (Nathan) — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 21:40:00 +0000

The weather was fantastic this past weekend. We got spend some time at a local park and Carissa is getting big enough to really enjoy the play gym.

Hanging Around The House

nathan@ayreslife.com (Nathan) — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:01:00 +0000

This is probably Carissa's favorite way to be dressed around the house. Mom's shoes and no pants. And of course watching Barney 6 inches from the screen. We honestly try to keep her from doing that.

First Cardinals Spring Game

nathan@ayreslife.com (Nathan) — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 15:35:00 +0000

Today the St. Louis Cardinals will play their first spring game. They may be in Florida buy I'm supporting them here.

Shades

nathan@ayreslife.com (Nathan) — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 22:00:00 +0000

Carissa loves my sunglasses. Too bad they're a bit too big for her.

Sunday Dress

nathan@ayreslife.com (Nathan) — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:12:00 +0000

The weather is slowly getting warmer here and Carissa just can't be outside enough. She was all dressed up for church and wanted to get out.

Sleepy Time

nathan@ayreslife.com (Nathan) — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 15:56:00 +0000

Carissa loves her new play room. I let her watch a movie the other day and she didn't even last 10 minutes.

We've Been A Little Busy

nathan@ayreslife.com (Nathan) — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 17:43:00 +0000

We've been so busy this past week trying to the the house in Rolla cleaned up and ready for us to move this past Saturday. Now all we do is work on getting our stuff put away and settling in to our new house.

So, I haven't had much time to take many pictures. But here is a picture of Carissa and my dad from a few weeks ago when we had some snow.

The Bathrooms

nathan@ayreslife.com (Nathan) — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 00:33:00 +0000

We started by ripping everything out of the bathrooms (cabinets, toilet, and existing vinyl). Below are pictures of our master bathroom.

With just backerboard:

Midway through tile installation:

With tile installed:

We should have the toilet, cabinets, and trim back in in the next day or so after we paint.

New Carpet!

nathan@ayreslife.com (Nathan) — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 00:33:00 +0000

We got the carpet installed on the first floor today. It is a very exciting day for us. No more OSB floors to walk on. The basement carpet gets put in tomorrow. We've got a look of work done on the house this past week, including getting two of our bathrooms tiled (with the excellent help of a friend). I'll post pics of that soon.

Snow Day

nathan@ayreslife.com (Nathan) — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 15:36:00 +0000

We were out playing in the snow on Saturday and Carissa was having a blast throwing snow balls. Here hands got cold and she's learned to stick them in her pockets.

Little Helper

nathan@ayreslife.com (Nathan) — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 16:03:00 +0000

Carissa wanted to help us so bad last night. So, we let her have a go at it.

She LOVED it!

Paint Day Recap

nathan@ayreslife.com (Nathan) — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 15:52:00 +0000

We started off Saturday with almost the whole upstairs primed and ready for a topcoat.

Our paint color is Valspar's Mesa Tumbleweed. We had some great help getting it on the walls. Thanks to our friends and family that could come and help.

We have carpet coming in the next couple of weeks so we still have a lot yet to paint and a few bathrooms to tile. It's hard work but a lot of fun.

For fun, here is Carissa, who has started telling me that the flash is "bright" and covers her face.

Painting

nathan@ayreslife.com (Nathan) — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 03:06:00 +0000

That's all we've been doing this week. Carissa has steered clear until now because she doesn't like to get dirty. Tonight was a different story though. She was quite pleased that she had painted her hands, but she wanted them cleaned off immeadiately.

Missing My Baby

nathan@ayreslife.com (Nathan) — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 01:57:00 +0000

This was sent to me from Bekah who is watching Carissa today. She apparently can take pictures of herself with other peoples cell phones. Too smart for me.

Kind Coffee

nathan@ayreslife.com (Nathan) — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 22:35:00 +0000

Even bears like it.

I'm at the Vineyard National Worship Leaders Retreat in Estes Park, CO this week. I am badly missing my wife and baby girl though. I'm here until Friday and then I'll get to see them again.

We're hanging out at Kind Coffee in downtown Estes Park this afternoon during our free time today. The retreat has been great so far. We've had some awesome times of worship and some good small group times.

Boots

nathan@ayreslife.com (Nathan) — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 00:06:00 +0000

We were at out on the deck at our new house today and Carissa was really enjoying the sound her boots made on the wood. She would march and stomp around trying to be as loud as possible.

About Our New Home

nathan@ayreslife.com (Nathan) — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 20:00:00 +0000

Some of you know this already, but the previous owners of the house were the Wilson family.

Wade was the senior pastor at Vineyard in Rolla until 2007 when his family, along with a few other people, left for La Crosse, WI to plant a church.

Wade and Lynne had the house built back in 1998. God blessed them so much with this house by loving on people using their house. I got to pray with them yesterday before they went back to Wisconsin and we prayed that God would continue to bless this house and that we would be able to love people with the house just the same.

The coolest thing about the house is in the basement. In the closet under the stairs, the Wilson's recorded the heights of their four children as they grew up on the door jam. It is going to be awesome to add Carissa's height along side theirs.

We're Moving

nathan@ayreslife.com (Nathan) — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 02:34:00 +0000

That's right, we have bought a house in Rolla. We have been really blessed over the past four years in our current house but it was time to move our family to Rolla. God was definitely watching out for us with this one. We got an amazing deal and at just the right time for us.

It's a five bedroom/three bath ranch home with a full finished basement. Here's a photo from the realtor:

Feel free to email me at nathan.ayres(at)gmail.com for our new address.

We have a little bit of work we want to do before we move in, like painting and getting the carpet replaced. This house has some pretty awesome history. I'll blog about that at some point in the future.

I'll be updating our progress here along the way.

Barney :(

nathan@ayreslife.com (Nathan) — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 02:05:00 +0000

We're 10 minutes in and she hasn't budged. I hate Barney. Does any adult really like Barney? I don't see how they could.

Eating Snow

nathan@ayreslife.com (Nathan) — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 23:53:00 +0000

Last week, after the snow had first fallen, I brought some inside for Carissa to see. She decided to eat it. She found a utensil all on her own. By the way, it was NOT yellow. I checked.

Apple Butter

nathan@ayreslife.com (Nathan) — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 00:43:00 +0000

You might think this photo doesn't have a lot to do with apple butter but that's because most of it had been washed off already. We had some biscuits and Carissa discovered the jar. She had it all over her face and clothes. She loved it so much, she's still smiling :)