Halloween Fun

We had a fun Halloween with friends. The fun began on Friday with a costume parade at school. Audrey was a cheerleader, and Jackson was the transformer, Optimus Prime.

Then each class had a party. I'm the room mom for both classes, which meant I was responsible for organizing the parties. Fortunately, we have a great group of parents to help out since I can't be in two places at once! I stayed in Jackson's class for this celebration and helped the kids make slime and play halloween bingo. They loved it!

After the parties ended, the Monster Mash fall festival began. There were game booths, dancing, face painting, raffles, and food.

On Halloween, Saturday, we joined our life group friends at one of their houses for a fun party and some great trick-or-treating. I didn't get any pics since it gets dark so early, but their costumes were the same. There are a few more pictures from Friday in the album.

Backyard...Done!

The latest kid news is at the end...

After over a month of working on the weekends, our backyard is done! At least mostly...we have one more plant to get, but they didn't have any of it this weekend. I know I posted some pics from last weekend, but I thought I'd put the before and after shots here. Every time we complete a project like this our house feels more like OUR home. It's a wonderful feeling of accomplishment. As I said last week, we moved 7 yards of dirt to create these flower beds, which required renting a sod cutter to remove the grass before that. We planted a grand total of 162 plants over the last two weekends alone! It's been a lot of long hours in the HOT sun to get it done, but I love the finished product. I imagine it will look wonderful once everything begins to fill in...assuming we can keep it alive! Of course, I'm not sure we would have been able to get it done so quickly had we not had help with the kiddos from my mom and dad. Thanks to you both!

From the patio...

Before...

In work...

The finished product...

From the side of the yard...

Before...

In work...

The finished product...

There are more close up pictures that show the plants better in the album. If you don't care about plants, you can just skip to the next paragraph. The back fence is lined with hibiscus, varigated ginger, and pitosporum with a row of ixora and plumbego in front of them. Then there is a border of caladiums and lantana along the edge. The side beds have indian hawthorne and agapanthus, and under the loquat tree there is another ixora and hibiscus along with a few bottlebrush. The bed by the house has bottlebrush and pentas with a huge iris that's in bloom. The plant we're currently missing there is the scavola, which will go around the iris. Under the orange tree we have some dwarf philodendron and green ginger.

The next project will be putting together Jackson's swing set. Hopefully, we can get that done soon and enjoy our new backyard! I only got one kiddo picture this weekend, which was of Audrey and Pop becuase their outfits coordinated so well. :-)

In addition to the yard work this weekend we also got to have a little fun. We spent some time with our friends. We had a nice dinner out with the Fullilove family Friday night, and got together with several of the families in our life group to hang out and do some grilling tonight. My dad also stayed with the kiddos Saturday night so Ross and I could go on a "date". We went to get ice cream and then went to the grocery store...does that count? Whether it does or not, we had a good time...we're exhausted, but pretty content.

Jackson and Audrey have both had pretty eventful weeks. In the last post, I mentioned that Audrey had rolled from back to front once. Well, now she's a pro. She flips over all the time now. She also likes to rock onto her knees and scoot backwards already. I have a feeling she's going to be an early crawler...not sure if I'm ready for that!

Jackson finished his swim lessons this week, and I was a super proud mom when he climed out on the side of the pool all by himself the last day! A new sudden interest of Jackson's has become the movie Cars. He's addicted to the movie, it's case, any related toys, and anything with a picture of the cars in the movie. I can't decide whether to encourage this or let it pass...only time will tell.

Dream Boys

It's been a great weekend. I took off of work on Friday and left Jackson at day care so I could get some work done on the house. What I thought was going to take me all weekend, I managed to almost finish on Friday! I sanded and painted our bathroom cabinets, added knobs and pulls to the drawers and doors (with Ross' help), and finished planting new flowers in the yard. I was in such a good mood by the end of the day because I felt like I'd finally made some progress. I've been wanting to paint the bathroom cabinets for a couple of years now. I don't know what took me so long! When I finally stopped for a few minutes and checked my work email, I got some great news that a coworker got certified...this was an even bigger deal than normal because there was a painful process to go along with it.

Then a toy we'd ordered for Jackson arrived, and he absolutely loves it! It's a play n' ride train. Jackson started walking (cruising really) a couple of weeks ago, so we decided to find a toy he could push around to help him out. He's got all of the levers and buttons figured out, and he has a great time pushing it around. When he sits on it, his feet don't quite reach the ground yet, so we push him. If we stop, he rocks back and forth urging us to keep going!

We had our life group Friday night too, which was a blast. Ross and I decided we were being called to step down from leadership for a while a couple of months ago, and a new couple that recently moved to Texas decided to step up. I think it's going to be great!

Yesterday Jackson and I spent some time hanging out in the yard with Bailey while Ross gathered supplies to put new siding on our garage and rebuild our patio cover next weekend. It was such a beautiful day, and I couldn't resist taking some pics of Jackson playing with the grass and flowers. There are several more in the album.

Yesterday evening we made our way to Kingwood to catch up with a couple of my sorority sisters, their husbands, and their kiddos. I love these girls! We only see each other once or twice a year, but they will always hold a special place in my heart! Tammy and Kammy were both ahead of me at LA Tech, but I often felt closer to them than some of my pledge sisters. Their husbands and kiddos are great too! Here's a picture of the girls and the future Kay-Dee dream boys, Bryan, Jackson, and Mason.

Life Group Christmas Party 2007

The Fullilove's hosted a wonderful Christmas party for our life group last night. There was a ton of delicious food and lots of fun for all. While the girls sat around talking about typical girl things, the guys started a fire (in a fire pit) outside...doing the manly thing. The kids ran around, played with dolls, and made cotton ball snowmen...doesn't get much better than that. The adults had their fun too. We did crackers, which are one of Emma's family traditions...they are British. If you've never done them before, they are rolled up packages that you "crack" open (really more like popping). Inside you find a paper crown, a toy, and a joke...explains the crowns you'll see if you check out the album. Here's a picture of all of the girls from later in the night.

Life Group Bowling

Friday night was life group night but E and I have missed the last two so we were having trouble even remembering where we were in the study. So, we decided to go bowling and start fresh next time. E took some pictures but said she didn't really like any of them enough to put them on the website. She also took a video of me bowling and I thought it was funny so it is below. Of course, it was a strike! Also, notice the Tigeresque fist pump. And everyone knows Tiger is the greatest bowler alive! :-)