A perfect day for . . .

Sidewalk Chalk!! 

You can't read this one very well, but it says we <3 our Daddy.

Chalk boodie

Isn't he just the cutest?!

I also made Sadie a new doggie bed today. I was pretty proud since I'm really no seamstress. It turned out pretty good! Although, I folded one edge of the patterned fabric over so that it could fit around the bed and hold it closed, but it wasn't folded over quite enough :) It works though. You can't really tell. I put her old doggie bed (which was chewed up a bit) inside to hold in all the stuffing.

Back to Blogging

We got internet installed on Tuesday! Yay! For those of you who hadn't heard yet, we were just mooching off our neighbor's great strong signal until it vanished a couple weeks ago. It's just gone. Not password protected. Just gone. It came back up for a couple hours the first two nights but we finally had to embrace the fact that it was time to make room in the budget for internet. And now it's here and I'm SO happy!! Preston of course got to use the internet at school all day, but I tell ya, it is tough living in the house with no internet. How did people do it back in the day?? People still do it now, and I have a new respect for them. But, I am used to being able to walk by and see if I have any new e-mails, or look up "how-to's" when I have a question during the day, and go blog hopping when I have time to sit and relax. So, I feel relieved to have my freedom to roam the internet whenever I wish. Yay.

Garden, Brayden, Halloween Birthday Party & More

So, as the title suggests, this is about a few things.

THE GARDEN:
As previously mentioned, the garden had been dug up before. Sadly, the lettuce was gone. I never found any of them. So, I FINALLY fixed it and planted some broccoli to replace the lettuce. It looked awesome and I was going to get a picture, but waiting a day meant it was already dug and trodden on again. So, the pictures aren't great. I was very upset and obviously wasn't getting through to my very loved Sadie, so I stuck her in our compost box (which doesn't have much more than some grass clippings in it) and closed the door. I told her she was in her "bad box" and left her there while I fixed the garden. I was very upset and that was the first solution that came to mind. Sad.

On a happier note, I also got some hibiscus, aloe plants and snap dragons for our front yard.

BRAYDEN:
Mostly there are just some cute random pictures of him. As always.

HALLOWEEN BIRTHDAY PARTY:
We got to go to Brinley's 1st birthday party and it was costumes because she was born on Halloween. Brayden has an adorable little lion costume, so we came up with matching costumes for Preston & I. After several options and much though, we decided I would be a witch and Preston would be a wardrobe. It was pretty cool. We made Preston's costume that day and I think it turned out quite nice. I have some pictures of B and Brin playing at her party too. HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRIN!!

MORE:
Yesterday we finally put together our haunted gingerbread house and it's pretty good!

We went on our first date night without Brayden since moving! The Fun Station has a special Thursday night family deal where the large cheese pizza is $3.99 and if you buy the pizza you can get 2 rounds of mini golf free. Duh. Of course we went for that!!  Oh, and it just happens to be right next to the discount movie theatre, so we stopped there after :) We saw Nanny McPhee, which was about as expected. Kind of hokey, but I thought it was pretty cute and it was entertaining. I don't need to see it again though. That kind of movie.

So, that's the update. Here's the pics:

The before and after (but still trodden on and dug again. . . so really, they're both kinda before pictures)

The digging culprit. . . she may look innocent, but don't be deceived!

Tomatoes! We have TONS! growing, but this is the first one turning red.

Our banana tree. . . if you look closely, you can see two little banana buds (coming off of the stem)

Brayden when we got home. He was pooped.

Brayden being busy while we made the house.

wanting to get out of his pack n play. . .

. . . just to decide it was more fun in there.

Have you ever been locked out of your house?

I have. Today, most recently. So, we go on a walk every day using a garage door buzzer in the stroller. Always worked before. Not today. Not the first time I pushed it. Not the second. Or third. And also not after I took the battery out and put it back in. No no, it was determined not to open the door. The light was even turning green when I would push it!

The solution: walk through our neighbor's side yard to get behind our fence, use the stroller and a step and jump into the garden box to go through the back door, which luckily wasn't locked.

Note to self: put the spare key outside instead of inside!

I do have to admit that I TRIED to hide the key outside, but as part of looking for the perfect spot, I opened up the outdoor outlet box and a hornet nest fell out!!! I literally SCREAMED, opened the door, turned around for Brayden (who I dragged inside holding him by the arm) and continued screaming for about 30 seconds when I was safe inside and somehow not stung. Bees are my weakness. Hate them. Hate everything about them!!!! But, unlike Max Hall, I wouldn't go so far as to say I hate they're fans. Mostly because I don't think hornets have fans. And that, folks, is the story of why the spare key got left inside.

Prayer Hands

Today Brayden did his "prayer hands" all by himself! Twice! Once at breakfast and once at lunch. They didn't last through our little prayer, but still. I was excited.  I just asked him if he could do prayer hands and he did! With a big grin on his face! What a smart boy.

Videos

Here's a couple more videos of Brayden. The first one is him crawling on his hands and knees over to his toy car and then making his "car sound" which I love. The other one is yet another "so big" video with his little talking dog. So precious. Love him.

Halloween

We decorated on Saturday. Just in time :)

There's more to come. We did the inside and put some lights above the garage too.