Shhhhh!

Don't tell the kids, but I have an amazing surprise for them for Christmas!

It's an Airedale Terrier and he'll be ready the week of Christmas!

November in Review

Every once in a while, I get carried away and straighten her hair...

She just doesn't even look the same!

Hailee as a clone trooper:

Eli's friend had a birthday party we all crashed...

Bryson is playing on a Y team with some kids from school...

So far they haven't won a single game, (not even close...) but they keep super good attitudes and have fun!

I saw this displayed in the hallway at school...

"I want to accomPlish goals this year.  Hear are 2 classroom goals.  I don't want to get a minor infractions.  And Learn Multiplication.  My to home goals.  Do Jobs without bieng asked.  And no fighting with brother or siter!  I hope I will accomplish these goals!"

Way to set your sights high buddy!

Finishing Up!

Wow, it's all happening very fast now, it's incredibly exhausting!

My parents are just amazing.  Seriously.  Since once upon a time they owned and operated a professional painting business, they did the bulk of paining inside and out...

First, priming of course...

The boys were very excited to get to help paint their clothes and shoes.  I figured the laundry room would be a perfect place for them to "learn" *wink*

And then trim work and cabinets and granite!

We'll be in soon!!

Change

Apparently being Captain America for Halloween fulfilled her.  Because almost immediately after Halloween it was Goodbye Captain America, Hello Cowboy!  She makes sure to clarify that she is a cow BOY, not a cow girl... *wigh*  She now can frequently be seen sporting her cow print belt, cowboy hat and my boots- she rocks it!

Halloween Festivities!

I r.e.a.l.l.y didn't take the time that I usually put into Halloween this year... too much other real life stuff that was demanding my attention.  Sadly enough, I'm pretty sure the kids didn't notice, at least I hope *wince*

I managed to pull off some amazing mummy dogs HA!

We carved pumpkins... (Bryson was the photographer...)

And the kids recycled costumes from years past... Bryson was a Clone Trooper, Dallin was Ironman, Eli was a soccer player, Hailee was Captain America (her dream come true) and Jace was a two year old refusing to be a cowboy ;)

Nathan was working at the house, so I braved the trunk or treat with the kids by myself- fortunately, Hailee was super content to sit in the back of the car with me and hand out candy.  She may have eaten a little a lot in the process.

Nevermind all the construction paraphernalia in the back of my car =)

Random October

Picking out tile and counters and flooring is seriously overwhelming.  I am not good at envisioning how it's all going to come together.  I *think* this is going to be in my bathroom.  I really can't remember for sure though.

My parents got a bunch of apples that we dried and canned.  We threw the cores and peels out in the yard for the deer- they came in droves!  I think at one point we counted 10 deer in their yard, my kids loved to sit and watch them...

Freeman had a 'hoe down' that we went to- Hailee was all too excited to don her cowboy hat and vest *grin*

Apparently, I didn't pour enough trix to Jaces liking... so he took matters into his own hands:

Well Well Well...

As it got closer to winter, my dad figured that we needed to get his trailer off our property because he didn't want to deal with snow or ice- on my driveway or his!  I talked to the schools superintendent and he said it would be fine to no longer "live" on the property half time as we would be in permanently very soon.  Despite the unseasonably warm weather we've been having, the day we decided to do it was cold and rainy.  Which shouldn't have been a problem... except that it was.  Our builder has been describing the top layer of our dirt as 'greasy' and I had no idea what he was talking about, until today.  Greasy describes it perfectly when it's wet- slick slick slick.

So even though my dad swung his truck and trailer very wide to miss our {very expensive} well, the trailer just kept sliding on the 'greasy' wet dirt as he drove ahead, closer and closer to the well head.

Fortunately, my dad is super aware of everything and knew what was happening... so at this point, we scraped the top layer of dirt away from the tire path in an effort to get rid of the 'greasy' layer.  My dad also had Nathan attach his truck to the hitch of the trailer to try to keep it from sliding back and/or down as my dad continued forward...

They narrowly missed the well head...

Very narrowly.

Because we needed more stress at this point =/