Gratitudes...November 20th

As Thanksgiving is less than a week (gasp!) away...I thought I would write out some gratitudes.

This morning I am thankful for friends who encourage me to workout!

Thankful to be in a healthy body that can...

Thankful that Marg is here and we get to go on a 24 hour date this weekend! Yahoo!

Thankful for the community of women that I've met out here on YPG.

Thankful for the little boys who create life and chaos and love and havoc in our house...particularly this morning.

Aiden got up and is in a grumpy little mood. Frankly he is being quite nasty! I had to send him back to his room... told him to come back out when he has a new attitude!! :)

Up very early this morning...woke at like 5:15 and couldn't go back to sleep. Thinking about lots of stuff... so... of course I got up and hopped on the internet! Looking at my scrap sites I like to visit and this one is giving away really cute stuff.... http://donnadowney.typepad.com/... trying to increase my odds of winning!

Layout for Finn...

I've never taken pictures of any of my scrap stuff so I wasn't sure how this would come out. You can get a decent look at this layout that I did for Finn's second year. It ended up looking a little busier than I had wanted but I knew I wanted alot of photos on here.

All Hallow's Eve

The night before Halloween we ventured down to the YPG Haunted House... the first hour is the "not-so-scary" version for the younger kids. Here we are waiting to go in...

Finn with his always present hand toy... tonight it was the little Chinook helicopter.

Aiden... on the edge of his seat!

Collin, Finn and Jim...

Halloween night we began at the Mikkelsen's who welcomed us for a scary dinner. Then we all headed up to our house for some trick or treating. Aiden got a big splinter in his finger that had to be removed and he about fell apart with that (no nap) but then he pulled himself together to be the Dark Ninja that he wanted to be alongside the Brave and Heroic Batman!

...and after all the tricks were had... a few more pictures of all the treaters! Emily was Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz and Adam was...His Dad! Complete with homemade Freefall Jump costume! Hilarious! They all had a blast walking around w/ the Collin and Reed who pulled the wagon that eventually got all filled up w/candy! Seriously.

They have a Fall Festival here every year down on the ball field. Collin was away but we still went...there was a jumpy house...how could we not go? And of course, the obligatory bag of Halloween candy! My companions were Spiderman and Batman.

Collin is away this week... we are on day 3 here. Not that I'm counting or anything...seriously. The boys have been pretty good, with the exception of the bickering, fighting and ridiculous nitcshzing they do. (yeah, I just made that word up).

Finn's Preschool Class

A couple of Mom's and I have been doing two mornings of preschool a week. We switch off every week so it gives us each a chance to teach plus have a few hours of quiet. Here's a few pics of the boys... the last two pictures show them watching the eggs being dyed when we were working on the letter 'E'. As you can see they were quite entranced (or really tired!!) with the process.

Cool photo + a temporary visitor at our house

This is Pooty. He was a temporary family member for about 3 days. He showed up in our garage one day... all alone. S0, of course, we invited him in! He ended up with an older couple down the way at a snowbird enclave. He was a real sweet little pup... we enjoyed him while he was with us. Our kitties...not so much.

I thought this was a cool picture... my water cup w/ ice cubes on the desk.

Grandpop's Visit

Bud came for a week to visit us. The weather was still quite warm but I think he had a good time with us anyway!

Waiting for a table at Olive Garden...

the dead camel spider we found in a bucket in our garage! that's Aiden's finger their for size...

Bud decided to let Collin cut his hair!

While I was away...

And while I was away... this was going on!

Collin and Dave B. took the kids out to the desert for some BB gun (!$@#!) fun!

I know they were very safe, and also very professional with their practice. Looks like they all had a grand time!

North Carolina Builder/Lot Hunting Trip

Mom and Bapa at breakfast... it must have been pretty funny but I can't remember what they were laughing about!

Me, Dorothy Belle and Mom

Me and Bapa

My trip to North Carolina was successful if not kind of rushed. The 5 days went by quickly...Mom picked me up from the airport the night I got in and we headed to Bapa and Dottie's place. The next day we got right into it- meeting with a builder and his realtor. Looked at several lots and homes that they built or that were under construction. Then later in the afternoon we met with one more builder who has ended up being our guy.

By the end of the 5 days we had a lot chosen and had seen several homes our builder has done as well as a home that I LOVE and would like our house to be kind of modeled after. Photos included here are of the lot + that lovely house that is in the neighborhood.

I didn't get the whole house but you can get the idea...I really just love the look of this house.

Facing the entrance to the lot- front of house

Mom walking up where the driveway will be...

Some Halloween decor...

Doing a dry noodle + glue craft...

The boys and I made it through the week whilst Collin was away. We had a fine week except the Mom unit was pretty smoked by the end of each day! The boys did well except for, as I said, all the kibitzing and bits of fighting they got into. Boy...it is enough to make me tear my hair out sometimes! I am posting some photos here...miscellaneous activities we were up to. Sunday morning we went walking to Cox Field- Aiden rode his bike and Sally came too. The boys had fun climbing the tree and doing the stuff that little boys do!

Manic Monday...

No, it's not really manic but I may feel that way if I don't get working soon. Wanted to jot down a few things here before I start my workweek. First things first...

It is FALL here in Yuma, Arizona!!! YES!! Fall I tell you! Do you know how I know this? No, sadly it s not b/c the leaves are turning glorious colors of red, orange and yellow. It's b/c I can see it on my temperature gauge on my kitchen windowsill! Ha! And I can feel it on my skin and in the air when I step outside! We've had 5-6 positively GLORIOUS days here. I cannot begin to tell you how fabulous it is after the very LONG dog days of summmer! To go outside this morning and have to bring a long sleeve shirt in case it's chilly? Helloo? Wonderful! It's been a huge boost to us around these parts and even though we really miss the traditional changes that Fall in a non-desert environment brings, well, we'll take what we can get!

An adorable little puppy found his way into our garage on Thursday. We ended up calling him Pooty... at first I said how about "Petey"? and Finn said "Pooty"? so , of course the name stuck. If you have ever read The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood than you will be familiar with the name... Pooty...PootyPooty Pootwell! It makes me laugh when I say the name out loud! He was a sweet little fellow and we couldn't figure out where he came from...he was thin and dirty and it seems he would've been coyote snack if he'd been left out wandering these streets here for very long. The mystery was never solved. We had him here for 3 days and Sunday morning Collin and the boys took him over to Hidden Shores which is a snow bird community around the bend from YPG. He had a new home and owners within a half hour. Yeay! I was very relieved. I so didn't want to take him to the pound. He was a cute little guy.

Took Finn to the ENT last Mon for a check-up on his tubes. Both are still in and clogged and Dr. said it was time for them to come out. He also deemed his adenoids "huge" and also needing to come out. Hmmmmm. Tonsils are also huge but will probably be grown into. I can see the tubes but after some research on the internet, Collin and I aren't sold on the adenoids coming out. No solid proof that he's not going to need them for some reason down the road. More research to do on this front though before the surgery. He is scheduled for the 19th- my birthday! More updates on that later.

The big news for me this week? I am going on a (kind of) mini-vacation!!! Ahem! I mean, umm, a fact finding trip really. Heading out to NC on Wednesday to check out the area of Whispering Pines that we are interested in. Meeting with a realtor and a couple of builders. It looks like we will be building a house. :0 YIKES and double and triple YIKES! the idea just really freaks me out! I'm sure it will be fine but for a person who is indecisive, like me, this can be a scary idea! We'll see. I could just hate the development and say Poo-poo to the whole idea. But I don't think I will. More on this later. I'll be bringing home LOTS and LOTs of pictures for Collin to see. I will be staying with Bapa and Dottie and Mom is picking my up at the airport and staying there too. Yeay! I am really looking forward to seeing her and them. And, the biggest part of all this for me?? I am going to be traveling all by MYSELF!!!!!! Let me say it again...in a different way.... ALONE...SOLO!!! I can't really believe it and am sure it is going to feel really weird to not have little Finn or Aiden with me. I'm not going to know what to do with myself! Well, not really! Haha! I will add more on all this later. Now off to pack and make arrangements for the kids.

From the last week or so...

This was our Saturday morning fun...a good solid hour of drawing and cutting and pasting was had. All in the name of fun here! Gearing up for Halloween!

Ball Photos! All the ladies...

Our informal photo shoot

Funnin' around before the ball...

Handsome fella!

Military Freefall Ball 2009

Some images from this week...

Collin with his NEW glasses!!! Can we get a round of applause for him here!! Yeay!! He has worn the SAME specs since I have known him! We finally got him a new pair that are NOT Army issue! I think he looks pretty handsome!

Getting ready for bed...

How I found him Friday morning... he took his pull-up and bottoms off at some point in the night!

The yummy lemon tea cakes I made for MOPS on Friday. They were SO good!

This boy is really loving writing right now. He writes random letters on the paper and asks us to read what he has written. It's pretty cute and he looks really proud of himself after we read it!

Lots of concentration...