Same disclaimers as my September 2014 post apply.
After Friday night I have to say I am so disappointed that I would rather be accused of being a mommy-blogger than relive that football nightmare so go ahead, bring on the heckling.
As for our family, we are doing well. Katie and I started hanging pictures and decorations this weekend, so the house is starting to look a little more put together, that is except for our bedroom. Our bedroom is a lawsuit waiting to happen which is why nobody outside the family is allowed. There is also the utter shame it would cause Katie and I to have anyone that doesn't live with us see that pig sty. There are tripping hazards all over the place. Sometimes I think the kids go in there and purposely put things in my path so that at 5:30 in the pitch black I will trip over a baby bath at the head of my bed.
Ok enough of that, on to the photos.
Ok enough of that, on to the photos.
For homeschool Katie and the kids are studying astronomy. We got to put together a model of our solar system, which Alyssa is modeling, along with a lovely nightgown, work it Alyssa!
Brianna's best Galileo impersonation. I'm pretty sure his first telescope was a cardboard tube with Hello Kitty duct tape on the ends. We were going for historical accuracy here.
I have been wanting to re-stain our floors, but I have no experience whatsoever with staining. Katie has convinced me to start small and see what I think. One of the recent projects was to take this plain chest of drawers from Ikea and stain it. The big ugly wood knobs aren't my favorite, but since it is in the closet I didn't think it was worth buying new ones.
Here is the after on the staining. I used General Finishes gel stain. There a bazillion blog posts out there about this stain, most of which use their Java color which is really dark. I went with the Antique Walnut and liked how it came out. Katie still isn't convinced that I can/should re-stain our floors, which is probably a good thing.
Brianna was really proud of her Castle that she made.
I pulled into the garage one day and found this guy waiting for me. There was this skeleton there pounding on my window to get in. I screamed bloody murder and refused to get out of my car for a couple of minutes before Caden took the mask off and I saw that it was him. He thought it was the funniest thing in the world that he had scared me so bad.
You can't see it very well but Brianna has two black eyes in this photo. It looks like shadows, but they are actually black in the corners. This is a warning to all of you, don't touch my potato chips! I warned her and she wouldn't listen. I probably shouldn't put this on here because then someone will call CPS, again. I'm just kidding guys, I don't hit my kids and then post photos of the results to the internet. I'm not that stupid. Those kids would find a way to get the last laugh anyway. Actually we were cleaning the church building and Brianna fell down and smacked her head on the hard kitchen floor. It left a 2-inch diameter bruise in the center of her forehead. Luckily for Brianna the Bishop was also there cleaning, so she got some candy out of the deal. He even told her to come back and see him the following day (Sunday) and if she still had a mark on her forehead he would give her another candy. At night Katie wanted to put something on the bruise to ease the pain and Brianna was insistent that Katie not put anything on there that would make the bruise fade. She wanted her candy, and she got it. Eventually it drained into her eyes and hence the black eyes.
We came home the other night and as we were pausing to open the gate we noticed two deer just chilln' in our front yard. By the time we got in they were around the back and out of camera shot, but we all got a kick out of it. Yet another reason why we love living here.
This guy is an orb-spider of some kind and I about caught all of this in the face the other night. Total length of the spider from the tip of the back legs to the tip of the front legs as shown here was probably 1.5 to 2 inches, so needless to say Katie was pretty grossed out. I'm not a spider fan either, but I took a few photos and a really close-up video a couple of nights later watching it rebuild it's web. Pretty cool stuff, even if it is nasty to catch a spiderweb in the face once and a while.
Caden is potty training and pretty much potty trained. As you can see, he likes to "use his phone" while sitting on the toilet. More than any of our other kids, Caden wants to be just like mom and dad, and apparently this is no different. Yeah, I just implied that. Gross, huh? You probably don't want to borrow either of our phones, and I will keep my hands off of yours just in case.
Brianna turned the big 5 in September. On her actual birthday she got pizza and cinnamon sticks. Since there wasn't cake she blew out the candles on a cinnamon stick. I would feel like she was deprived without cake and ice-cream, but this was only the first of 3 birthday celebrations so I don't feel too bad for her.
For the second of the birthday celebrations Brianna wanted to have a party with her friends from our old ward at a blow-up bouncing play place. Our family policy is they get a "friend" party every 5 years, so this was the first one for her. Fortunately she wanted to do it outside our house, and with only 2 friends, so we got off easy. We all had a lot of fun and Brianna had a great time with her friends.
The girls again right before presents.
Here is one of those photos for Grandma. Dianna loves going up and down the stairs, standing on the stairs and poking her face between the bars, and generally climbing on things where she could fall and die. Fortunately she is pretty good at not dying, at least so far.
Let's mow Dad!
Our new neighborhood is on the crystal clear, beautiful blue waters of Lake Houston. The water has excellent visibility for snorkeling, at least 1/4 inch. Our house isn't anywhere near the water (about 2 miles) but we do have a private neighborhood beach. We finally got a key to get in this week and spent Tuesday evening out on the beach. It was pretty secluded feeling and a lot of fun. I made the kids pose by this tree in the water and after about 10 shots got one where all of their faces were visible.
Selfie with dad, YAY!
Sandy-hands.
Look at those beautiful babes on the beach! Ow Ow!
This one is pretty funny. If you look at Dianna's right foot, she is trying to climb into the Barbie car. Pretty hilarious to watch for 15 minutes. I know, we are bad parents, but if you can't laugh at your kids you might go insane. On top of it Dianna is pretty persistent and intense. Whenever she gets frustrated she balls her hands into fists and starts to shake and grunt.
Ahhh success, finally! Yes, one leg in, now for the rest.
This was the only way I could keep her from yelling at me while I put together this train-table. As soon as I took the tool she would look at me and yell. Not crying but just a "DAAAAD! I WAS USING THAT! GIVE IT BACK!" sort of yell.
Well that is it for photos. Until next time.
