The Desert Property

We recently spent an afternoon at my grandma's desert property. We had found out there was a squatter living on the property, and without getting into long details, I'll say he's gone now and we got a beautiful afternoon at the property out of it. We sat on the porch of the old cinder block cabin and had a picnic, did some bb gun shooting, and I got my knitting out. There was rain in the forecast for later in the day, but it was amazing while we were there.

I'm not sure what will become of that place in the future, but for now it sure is a nice place to enjoy an afternoon.

Being Thankful

I am posting something I am thankful for every day for the month of November on Facebook. Perhaps I will cross post here at the end of the month. But it wanted to share that I have found that it is very difficult to have a bad day while you are intentionally being thankful for the things (and people) around you.

I wanted to pass this excercise on to my kids and so we started a paper chain. I have a stack of paper strips laying out with a pen and the stapler ready for whenanyone thinks of something they are thankful for. They can write it down on a strip and add it to the chain. I am considering saving it in our Thanksgiving box to continue next year. I think it will be a great keepsake and fun decoration to pull out every year.

Why not make a Thankful Chain of your own?

Halloween

We had a really fun Halloween this year. We were invited to a party Saturday night at our dear friends the von der Linden's house. They went all out and made their garage into a mad scientist lab. The kids had so much fun and so did the adults. There was a popcorn machine and tons of hot dogs and chili with all the fixin's. There was a sling shot area for the kids to practice their aim and a pinata. They even had black and white movies playing outside on the wall of the garage when it got dark. It was really a fun night.

Since the party was for adult too, Dan and I had to figure out what to go as. I was having a really hard time deciding until I saw some 80's paraphernalia at the local party store. It was so fun to go back in time.

Dan was thinking about being a mad scientist, but decided on dressing as a tourist. He did a great job, complete with a "First Visit to Disneyland" button. It was also great because he had the camera on him, so we got a few shots of the evening.

We carved three pumpkins Sunday evening, one for each kid. Luke loved having daddy's help making his own pumpkin. Zachary and Emma did a great job too, all by themselves.

Zachary had the great idea of dressing up as a Lego this year. We had a box and decided we would glue tuna cans to it and paint it red. I think it turned out pretty cute.

Miss Emma has been pretending to be a kitty for years, and decided she would finally get to be one. She really acted out the part (just short of spraying our front door as the neighborhood cats all seem to love doing).

As for Luke, Danny and I found an adorable doggy costume on the sale rack at Gymboree. It ended up being $8 and we couldn't leave the store without it. I wasn't sure he would want to wear it for Halloween, but I figured for $8 it would be fun for dress up. Well, I'm happy to report he loved being a puppy. He also played the part barking and lick us...

And the whole puppy and Kitty thing was pretty cute too!

Yes, we did have some fun last weekend. And now it's November.... NOVEMBER!!!! How in the world did that happen??? I am working on continuing to remind myself to slow down and enjoy each day as it comes so as not to miss any of these precious moments with this clan I love.

Birthday Post

I am more than a week overdue, but I wanted to share a little from my birthday. Danny and I left all three kids overnight for the first time and it was GREAT!! My parents love having them overnight, and my mom has been waiting to get Luke overnight since... well, probably the day he was born. The kids love it too! And mommy and daddy really enjoyed it. We got a room at a beautiful hotel in Carlsbad and had dinner at a wonderful steak house. I had a great nights sleep and actually slept deep enough to dream. Ahhh, lovely. Dan took me to the outlet center the next day and we walked around eating Godiva chocolates, yum.

Honestly, I couldn't wait to get back to my babies by then and loved walking in to hugs and kisses from them all. My mom and dad were already hard at work on my birthday dinner. Dad made an amazing crab bisque and giant crab cakes and mom made fresh pasta. In lieu of a traditional birthday cake I chose whoopie pies, which were wonderful.

Feeling blessed and celebrated by family all around!