Mini Post Monday

I never grew up celebrating Halloween, nor do I promote it with my own children.  However, each year at this time of year, my church puts together a huge event for families in the community to provide a safe, fun place fore kids to come all dressed up.  This year, they really outdid themselves.  There were hayrides, bounce houses, horse rides, a petting zoo, dozens of game booths for the kids to visit, live music, puppet shows, smores, hot dogs, funnel cakes...oh, and tons of candy. Since my kids cannot eat the candy due to their allergies, they even had a bag with little toy prizes at each game for my kids!  Wasn't that an incredible thing for them to do?  Needless to say, the kids had a blast.

Andrew as a frog.  He loves frogs and makes the cutest little "ribbit" noises!

I really wanted to capture a picture of Ethan, but he was in camo, so I'm not sure you'll be able to spot him...  :)

I didn't get a picture of Aaron in his costume (bad mommy), but he decided out of the 5 costumes he has, he would wear the exact same one he wore last year.  So if you're dying to see him, do a search for last year at this time, and mentally age progress the pirate you find by one year.

While his brothers ran around totally thrilled, Andrew was a bit overwhelmed by the thousands of people and tons of noise.

Both Aaron and Ethan were able to throw the football right into the opening twice in a row!

Believe it or not, that went in! We really have to work with this kid on stepping with the proper foot when throwing a ball...

This is my all time favorite game!  The kids have to stick their hands up a giant nose to grab a piece of candy.  The lucky kids also get some snot (aka water squirts or green silly string)!  How awesome is that? (Yeah, it's obvious why God gave me 3 boys...)

Jerry has been working overtime in the bathroom.  He is trying to get it to at least have a functional toilet and sink when his parents come to visit in 1 1/2 weeks! This weekend, he got the rest of the wainscot and moulding up, tiled and grouted the floor, and hung the mirror.  I cannot wait to show you how this looks with the vanity and sink in also!  It is going to be amazing.  Now I have to choose a paint color for the wall between the wainscot and ceiling.  I think first I need to find some sort of accent tile for the shower, then pick a wall color from that.  I've learned it is much easier to pick paint that matches an item, then to look for an item to match paint!

Amazing tiled floor.   The shower tile is this same travertine only in 8" tiles rather than 12".

The mirror I found last week.  I took one for the team and went shopping to do my share of work here in the bathroom! :)

 Did any of you happen to notice when my adoption ticker turned the two year mark last week?  Originally we thought we'd be going to China to get our little girl around the 28 month mark.  Now it is at least 48.  Sigh. So we still pray for her birth mom, that she'd be found by the officials soon after her abandonment, and that she'd stay healthy and be loved in the orphanage. And I still have a Hannah sized hole in my heart as I wait for her.

Now I'm going to make a shameless plug for my business!  I am currently running a contest! If you would like a chance to earn some free jewelry by simply showing a Premier Designs catalog to your friends, family, co-workers...and making sales, let me know!  You earn 20% of all your sales in free jewelry and have chances to win 1/2 price jewelry, a Petite Swaravski Tennis Bracelet, and an aditional free item (up to $40 value) of free jewelry! Plus, the person participating who gets the highest retail in sales gets a bonus $50 in free jewelry! I have 3 participants so far, so the contest is on!!  To join in the fun, just leave a comment with your e-mail address, or contact me via the info in the pic below to get started!

Okay.  That's the end of my shameless business promotion.  You may now go back to your general bloggy fun.

Thursday's...No Computer Day

Okay, I have a computer, but not my computer. It's throwing off my entire routine and I'm in a funk. I have nothing to share and not really any pictures either. So I will just share this painting that Ella did recently. I'm going to frame it and hang it up.

Mini Post Monday

• You know you're a home schooling family when it is time for dinner, and your husband says, "I'll just try to make some room here to eat amidst the math and art supplies..."

It's not that bad, right?
• We were driving to one of my friend's houses, who happens to live very close to a Subway.  As we drove past the Subway, Ethan said, "She lives so close to a Subway!  I bet *she's* had a $5 footlong!"
• Andrew has decided that shirts are for the birds.  He cries when I make him wear one.  Since I already make him cry for important stuff like not running out in the street and saying "Please" before getting something, I have decided to let the shirt thing go. He'd be really happy if I also let him take off his shorts and diaper, but hey, I have to draw the line somewhere!

I am already having visions of this kid as a teen, sitting on the couch in nothing but his boxers, half the refrigerator at his side, watching sports.  Joy.
• I joined a Bunco group.  Does that make me old?  I really love my Bunco nights.  Does *that* make me old?
• The bathroom progress continues.  We now have some of the wainscot up, the crown moulding up, the texture on the walls and ceiling, and paint on the ceiling.  I don't know if that storage unit will fit in the end product, but it matches the piece we bought to put the sink on.  It's not here yet, though...

Jerry has to completely refigure the plumbing for our new sink...This is the start.

The unpainted part is where the shower tile is going to go. In this picture, you can also see the crown moulding and ceiling paint. Just try to ignore the wainscot in the tub...

This picture shows the wainscot with top moulding and a storage piece.  The table for the sink is that same dark brown with rattan drawer fronts, echoing the rattan baskets in this one.

Christmas Spirit?

I am a Christmas purist.  I think the focus should be more on the birth of Jesus and less on presents.  I think decorations should go up after Thanksgiving and stay up until Epiphany.  I know not everyone agrees with me on these things, but even if you don't agree with those things, can you agree that these trees we saw last weekend are just wrong in every way possible?

These ones aren't quite as bad - at least they are a natural color of green.  But still... 

If you live somewhere that these trees grow naturally, maybe they are more appealing.  Jo, care to weigh in on that one?

Somehow I just don't think that people who live among real, beautiful evergreens like these ones wouldn't even think of putting one of those other monstrosities in their homes!

On a completely unrelated note, isn't the new blog design great?  Thanks, Joanna, for keeping our blog pretty!

Thursday's...um...stuff.

We finally got a family portrait (of sorts) accomplished on Sunday. We're a Broncos family, in case you can't tell.  Sarah and Anna are incredibly photogenic. They can't take a bad photo.

 Anna was scared of a moth.

Look at Isaac smiling! He is really living up to his name, smiling and laughing all the time. He's the most laid back baby we've had yet! Anyone for #7?

I'm just kidding, calm down everyone.

Thursday's...Thoughts?

Howdy. It's another Thursday. Can you believe I've done this four Thursdays in a row. Amazing!

This is a picture of a sunset I took on Saturday. Lovely, eh?

 SQUIRREL!!! They are a nusiance in the garden, but I have to admit, they are cute.

My poor Rachel. Amblyopia, broken foot, horrible sore on ankle AND she is a fire ant's favorite snack. This girl can find a fire ant mound in the middle of the ocean. All the girls and my mom were on my grandma's lawn petting the neighbors' dogs when suddenly Rachel started screaming. Turns out she found the fire ants. When she gets bit by fire ants, it's not just one or two at a time, it's many, many, many at a time and this has happened to her so often that she is now developing an allergy to the bites. Her foot swelled up even bigger than you see here and the bites (or stings, really) puffed up with water like blisters. Poor girl.

 Look at my little man. Check out his double chin. Is it not the cutest double chin you've ever seen?!

 Florida wildlife: gators. Oh so friendly. I like all the signs in the ponds/lakes: DANGER: ALLIGATORS. NO SWIMMING OR FISHING. And yet people still get killed/maimed swimming in bodies of water here.

 My OB group gives these shirts out after the babies are born. The little one was for Lily, the other pink for Anna and obviously the blue for Isaac. Very cool keepsake!

 On Saturday we took the kids orienteering at Moss Park in Orlando. It didn't turn out so hot. Rachel hurt her broken foot a bit, Lily and Anna couldn't hack the walking and Isaac thinks if I'm holding him he should be eating (I was using a mei tai I made). So Del kept the older two and finished the course while Mom and I took the kids to a park. I sat in the car with sleeping Isaac while my mom braved the park and then got some water from this fountain.

It was fun to get out in the woods again. I'll be happy when all the kids are old enough to go for a hike in the woods without crying and whining and complaining the whole time. Being in the woods sure does make me miss the mountains in Colorado.

That's all I have for now. Wasn't it riveting?

Thursday's...Nothing to Say

I have absolutely nothing interesting to say. I have such a boring life, right? Actually it's not boring I'm just a poor chronicler...if that's a word. So Del bought me some flowers and here's some pictures I took of them.

 Isaac is starting to smile a lot lately. He even almost giggled today. It's the cutest thing ever, but incredibly difficult to capture on film.

 We lose a lot of pencils during school. Do you? It's really bothering me that we lose so many pencils.

 It's nearly 10 at night and my older girls and I are watching Pride and Prejudice. It's a real joy to have daughters.

 I'm ready for a trip...somewhere. I'd like to go to Texas.