Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Happy Halloween!

Well, we participated in the age-old American tradition of Halloween tonight. Jack was in HEAVEN! All the family got into the action with Peter Pan themed costumes. (Tyler was Captain Hook, I was Wendy, Jack was Peter Pan and Sheridan was Tinkerbelle). We've been planning this since July. Thanks, Mom V. for the Hook costume! The kids were adorable and we all had a great time. We were able to do our ward "Trunk or Treat" and then hit up the old neighborhood for some treats. Sheridan had a fabulous time playing with our neighbor, Avery, who was a cute little ladybug. It was a really warm day and night, so no complaints here!

We also had a leaf-jumping pile raked this afternoon. Could a fall day get any better? Jack loves actively exploring his environment.

I've also included a picture of Jack with his pumpkin (he drew that face on the pumpkin by himself--I daresay a Picasso). He convinced our neighbor to give him a pumpkin and I was so embarrassed.






This last cute picture of Sheridan was from our open House. She was crawling around trying to eat other kids, but we captured this adorable pict. of her in one of her caps from Latvia (thank you, Inara!).

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Our Cute Sheridan!



Yep, this is all about how cute our baby is! These are from her 7.5 month pictures (what, doesn't every good mom get their kid's 7.5 month picts taken?!?) and the photographer took about 30 pictures. Luckily, we didn't have to take out a 2nd mortgage to pay for all the cute pictures!
October is marching along. We had our open house/scavenger hunt for weird stuff in our house last week. If you live near us and didn't get an invite, it's probably in your e-mail junk mail (Tyler sent e-invites to a lot of folks) or we had the wrong address for you and inadvertently snubbed you (you can ask the Smiths for verification on that--we'd never snub our former and favorite neighbors, but they never got their invite!). You can blame Tyler.
Nothing much new here...still trying to settle in. Oh, Voting on the Weird Stuff in our house came out strongly in favor of the Mystery Barrel of Tetanus (at least 69% of the vote, at last check). Yeah, that's got to go! I think I'll leave the poll up for another week since I don't know how to take it down.
Oh, ok, I did do something fun this week. I entered into the e-bay bidding arena for the first time, and won my son a Geotrax birthday present (I really like the old geotrax better!). I entered the war with only 14 minutes to go, and although 3 people tried to out-bid me in the last 45 seconds, my maximum bid kicked their amounts. Take that, other people! I was surprised at the adrenalin rush that came with competing for a 3-year-old's toy. Maybe I'll tackle the after-Thanksgiving shopping crowds next! Or, maybe not.

Saturday, October 6, 2007

Free "Upgrades" in our House...

Well, we haven't shared all of the "upgrades" we received with our house. We didn't even realize that we were going to get so many cool features when we bought the place--who would have even known such features were possible? We'd like to share the coolest ones with you and then, you can vote on the most...interesting one.
1. The hall closet upstairs appears very normal. "Nothing special here, folks!" it proudly proclaims. And yet, on closer inspection, one sees that the door knob's lock bolt is not actually aligned with the latch hole! The door will not actually latch closed, therefore, which means our kids will have a party once they discover that it's always open! We can't figure it out....Did they put the door in upside down? Did they get tired of actually having to turn the knob to access their coats? The world may never know!

2. The kitchen sink has a secret of its own. Again, all appears innocent and swell...until large amounts of water are flushed down the non-disposal side. Then, the waterfall appears from under the cabinets! Why? Oh, because there's a pencil-sized hole in the pipe that the previous homeowners repaired with ELECTRICAL TAPE! That's right, folks, forget a $5 pipe, electrical tape will solve all of your plumbing woes!

3. Now, sinks are pretty special in this house, you can tell. Downstairs, we have a pass-through under the sink. That's right, open up the doors under the sink and you can see through the laundry closet, clear into the wreckroom beyond! "Honey, I need my monkey wrench in here, can you pass it to me?" "No, dear, I don't want to walk around the wall to hand it to you." "That's ok! I'll just punch a hole in the wall and you can hand it to me through the laundry closet and give me a kiss at the same time!" You can't really tell from the picture, but it is a handy time-saving feature!

4. Tyler discovered the latest feature last week. We call it "The Mystery Barrel". It was hidden under some stuff behind the deck stair landing. While cleaning that out, TA DA! There was a metal lid, about 2 feet across, partially under one of the landing support beams. Under the metal lid was a large metal barrel, chock-full of old nail-filled wood scraps! Surprise--it's your brand-new tetanus collection! The barrel side is crumpled where the deck support is sitting over it. Not to worry, they've place a small piece of wood under the concrete support, so it won't crumple. It won't rot away too quickly, I'm sure! We have no idea the purpose of the barrel, as it is 6 inches away from the side of the house. Our friend thinks someone is buried under it. Please let us know your thoughts in the comment section!

5. Yesterday, Jack and I came upstairs mid-morning and discovered a PEACOCK on our back deck! It was just sitting in front of our sliding door until we disturbed it, then it strutted around the yard. Jack was beside himself with joy.


So, now it's your turn to let us know which feature you think is the MOST bizarre. Obviously, the Peacock gives you warm, cozy feelings, but the electrical tape is pretty cool....