It's complete sillyness around here

Nothing unusual... just happen to capture some of it on camera to share. The girls dressed up and had a "Honk for Peace" rally in the driveway.

Baby Henry has discovered flip flops and is in love.

They are more like skiis than shoes for him.

He shuffles along just like a cross country skier.

Then maybe a little "FE FI FO FUM" playing the giant inside the playhouse.

When one of my textbooks arrived from Amazon. It was fun adventures in packaging. A perfect hat, don't you say?

29 gifts

Want to see how my current challenge of giving away 29 "things" in 29 days is going? MY 29-GIFT BLOG. Want to know more about what the 29 gift challenge is and how it all got started? READ HERE.

November. Seriously? Days are FLYING by this fall.

Ayla's volleyball has wrapped up. She really enjoyed playing, but sad to see the season come and go so quickly. It's nice to sleep in a little later too. These days, we are spending a lot of time and energy on Ayla's big room re-do. Her big gift this birthday is a total room re-do. I was picturing HGTV weekend style. Just cranking it out and be done with it, but its turning into every free moment just here and there try and do something. Not as rewarding, but its just real life with a toddler, and 2 working parents. We have made some serious progress, but have a LONG way to go. Yesterday, we successfully assembled and dressed her new bed. She loves it! Hope it all goes this well.

The style started as a french inspired old Hollywood with black and white everything... it has now morphed into just clean, modern, black and white backdrop (furniture) and greens, aquas, little brown and pink color splashes. So out with the barbies, plastic jewelry, and mish mash furniture.... and in with the bedroom suite fit for a teen. Pictures to come.

Jim and I are FINALLY on the mend with this illness. We have never been sick at the SAME time. It was comical, but hard. I thank my immune system for fighting so hard. I started feeling better Thursday-ish, but Jim finally went and got antibiotics to get over the hump. He's back at work today, hope his energy lasts!

Another project I've been working hard at lately is finances. Isn't just about everyone taking a closer look? I think its a wonderful trend for our country. I cringe at the price this has taken from so many, but I think the opportunity is genuine. As much as I love the gas prices coming down, It is great to see so many investigating and investing in more fuel efficient transportation. Even both of my parents have been driving hybrids. Go team! This past year, I started a little bookkeeping work on the side, yet never got around to sharing this new knowledge with our family finances. So I'm doing the heavy work of getting us up to date. Then we can really see our budget clearly and make sure our $ is where we want it to be.

Baby Henry is amazing. Such a blast... always.

He's MASTERED the stairs. He will FLY down them on his belly (feet first) beating me to the bottom every time.

His new favorite food is the dog and cat food. It's foul and dangerous! Those little crunchy nuggets are HARD and just the right size to choke him. We have moved the pet food more times in the last few weeks, the pets can't seem to find it anymore. He seriously pitches major fits when we try and pry it out of his mouth.

The poor child had a serious run in with a pile of fire ants.
We were at the ranch for brunch while celebrating Jane-Ann's baptism. Henry was playing in the grass, I saw the mound near him, and he proceeds to sit and lay down RIGHT on it. I got to him as FAST as I could, but he was COVERED with them. Aside from a few random bites, only his left arm came out with serious bites. Amazingly, he didn't say a peep. He never cried at all! He was more bothered by me whipping his clothes off and swatting at the ants furiously than anything the ants were doing.

Now that the weather is cooling off... we've been spending a lot more time in the backyard.


We have a LONG road to get it running as we'd like (new fence, new grass, landscaping, deck, tree house, trampoline, fish pond...), so hopefully as we examine our finances we can find some $ to start getting things done. For now, we've been enjoying teaching Henry to kick the soccer ball and playing with some of his birthday gifts. His activity center complete with boats and shovels and shade umbrella is a big hit (thanks Jan and Papa!). We haven't added sand yet.. but a few inches of water is a lot of fun. And recently we hung his new swing (thanks Dody!). He's really enjoying spending time out here and having fun activities right here in our own yard!

so sick.

I'm so so sorry for the lack of posts lately. I KNOW how annoying that is. I'm on the tail end of a bad cold, and last week I was flying solo with 2 exams to cram for... so soon, I promise, more fun, more pictures, more of our family will post soon.

xxoo

Ride the pony

Henry and I have been playing "ride the pony" for awhile now, but Henry never seemed to be up for riding on daddy's back. I'm guessing it was just too high off the ground for him at first. This past weekend, Henry decided he was ready and had a fun time. I loved being able to watch him instead of being the pony.

13!

Happy Birthday sissy!
We love you.

The nail biter games against Richardson

Ayla's volleyball games last night were so exciting.

They played pretty well first game keeping things even at 14 vs 14, then (Ann) Richardson (Middle School) pulled ahead to win it. The second game Richardson pulled way ahead early on, so it was looking like they would win the 2nd and be done with it (best 2 of 3 games). Well, O'Henry came came back from over 10 points down to win the second game with an ear-splitting serving streak by player CC. The crowd was on their feet and the entire gym was filled with cheers and excitement. The 3rd game started and it was neck and neck the whole way. All the way up to 24 vs 24, then 25 vs 25! O'Henry was up to serve and Sarah, who has never played volleyball just moved from Denver, pulled out to 2 perfect serves to win by 2! The girls went CRAZY! It was so great to see. Their last game is next week, 6:30 on 9th if anyone wants to catch the last of the action.

ooops.

This is what happens when you try and homemake tomato paste out of the juice leftover from the fresh tomatoes from the garden, on slow boil all morning ... while studying for 2 exams... while feeding the baby... then forgetting completely about it while you play downstairs with him in his room until your mom comes over and wonders why the entire upstairs is filled with smoke. ooops.

new skills

Henry has officially learned to navigate the stairs. A few weeks ago he managed to spring loose the gate and tumbled down. Scared the BAGEEZ out of me. I think it scared him too, so much that he started trying this backward thing that we kept telling him about.

(and straight to the dog food... as usual.)

Now he's up and down all day. We only use the gate to keep him contained upstairs while I try to get a few things done.

Speaking of skills... Ayla's been honing her volleyball skills.

They won their first game! A good start to a SUPER short season. The season's almost 1/2 over already... seriously! (Second game cancelled due to Hurricane Ike)

So if you are interested in cheering the Mustangs on. Come see a game before they're gone. Thursday evenings. You can find their game schedule at teamtracker.net. If that link doesn't take you directly to the schedule. Type in O_Henry (be sure there's a space between) in the search area; and she's on 7th grade volleyball - B team.

Little ghosty ghost

Henry was gearing up for Halloween as he wandered the house with a blanket over him complete with all kinds of spooky sounds. We were playing peek-a-boo under the blanket. Then, I went into the kitchen to get dinner done and he came wandering by walking full speed and howling. He must have walked into every wall or corner more than once. It was hil-ar-ious. I attempted to adjust things for better vision, but he wouldn't have it. He wanted the full cloak and was prepared for the consequences of head bumps and all. I so wish I had a video... soon I hope we can get a little kodak with videos to post. Our last one has been retired for sometime now.