Gecko?

We saw this lizard thing scaling our wall a few weeks ago. It was so tiny we had to take a picture before we let it free in the back yard.

Halloween Cookies

 
 
 
 


Marcie made sugar cookies with the boys a few days before Halloween. The boys love to decorate cookies with their Mom.

Pumpkins

We had a lot of fun carving and painting pumpkins.

Chocolate Covered Stawberries

Tonight the boys and I made chocolate covered strawberries tonight. They loved to make them. Blake loved to lick the container when we were done.

Birthday Cupcake

Blake loves sweets. Here is a little video of him devouring his chocolate cupcake at his party.

Blake's 4th Birthday

We had Blake's 4th Birthday Party on Saturday. We had his party at Peter Piper pizza. All his friends from church were able to join him. He had a lot of fun playing games, eating pizza, getting prizes and eating huge Costco cupcakes. He loves opening his presents. With each present he opened he said - "Yeah! Just what I have always wanted!"

Marcie's Birthday

For Marcie's birthday, she wanted a bike and a trailer so that we can be a more active family. The boys love to be carted around.

Butterflies

For as long as he's been aware of them, Landon has had a love affair with butterflies. He absolutely adores them. He especially loves hunting them! Regardless of how many butterflies have died in the capitivity of our make-shift butterfly habitats, Landon continues to press on...

I think I may have made some headway this week, however, by suggesting that he catch them, then let them go. Catch and Release Butterfly hunting, if you will.

Here he is, enlisting the help of his brother and cohort in crime. Our new backyard seems to be an advantageous place to hunt, due to the abundance of flowering plants. On any given afternoon, you can find several butterflies fluttering among our little garden, completely oblivious to the danger lurking nearby. Hehehe!

Pumpkin Patch

Last Friday, while Landon was at school, Blake and I went to a pumpkin patch with some of our friends from the ward. Thanks Stephanie for inviting us! It was a lot of fun. Blake was not at all afraid of the farm animals, he loved the sheep especially.

Here are some pictures from our little outing.

Bean and Corn Salsa

One more shout out to Marji. Thank you for giving me the recipe for this salsa. Jeff and I love it so much. It is so yummy!

Also, if you have a Pampered Chef batter bowl, it is the perfect bowl to mix this in, (see picture).

Here's the recipe for those who don't have it:

1 can black beans (drained and rinsed)

1 can corn (drained)

2 large tomatoes, peeled and diced or 1 can Ro-tel Original

1 bunch green onions, chopped

3 avocadoes

Dressing:

2 tsp olive oil

1-2 limes, squeezed

2 tsp red wine vinegar

1 tsp cumin

salt and pepper to taste

Drain and rinse beans and corn. In a medium-sized bowl, mix corn, beans, tomatoes, onion, and avocadoes. Stir together the dressing ingredients in another bowl. Add the dressing to the veggies, and stir. Refridgerate until ready to serve.

Sophie Kinsella Books

Okay. So I have to give a shout out to Marji and Trish for recommending the Sophie Kinsella books to me. I have read every one of the books, and they are so much fun. My favorites are Can You Keep a Secret? and, of course, the Shopaholic books. They are so great. Trish and Marji were right, I did laugh out loud, ALOT, when I was reading them.

Anyway, thanks to my cousins for recommending them. And for anyone who's looking for something light to read, I recommend any of Sophie Kinsella's books.

I also tried a couple of her books under her real name, Madeline Wickham, (I guess Sophie Kinsella is her pen name). I didn't think the Madeline Wickham books were nearly as enjoyable.

Missionary Dinner

We had the missionaries over for dinner a couple of weeks ago. Before they had to leave, they wanted to leave us with a message. The missionary was trying extra hard to gear his message toward the boys level. Blake was laying on the ottoman attempting to listen. A couple of minutes into the lesson, Blake starts to bounce laying down and shouts out to them..."Look...I am a Dolphin..." The missionaries tried...

Best Dinner Ever

Blake had the best dinner his mommy had ever made. He told his mom, "Mmm...this is the best dinner ever...yummy...we will HAVE to go to the store and get some more." He was having spagettios.

Famous Landon

I had been meaing to post this for a while...

Here is our Landon in the city of McKinney's parks and rec summer guide. This is from when he did swimming the first summer we were here in 2007. (If you haven't guessed - he is the little guy in the middle with the bright orange goggles on - so he doesn't get water in his eyes.)

S'mores

The boys love to make S'mores and roast marshmellows - especially Landon. He roasted a lot of marshmellows. Blake would just eat a couple of bites of one and them expect someone else to eat the rest.

Merry Go Round

After we saw the Star Wars guys, the mall had a merry go round. The boys wanted to ride on it and had a lot of fun.

Meeting Star Wars Characters

Our local Pottery Barn Kids had an event where some of the Star Wars characters came and you could meet them and get your picture taken with them. The boys were very excited to go. We had to wait in line for a little bit. We didn't know who was going to be there. The boys found out that Darth Vader and the Storm Trooper were going to be there - they were even more excited. Two of their favorite Star Wars people. And Princess Leia was there too. Or as Blake calls her - "Missy Miss". Blake really wanted to stand next to the Storm Trooper and Landon wanted to stand next to Darth Vader.

Class of 1982

I stumbled upon this site from someone else's blog.











Here is what I might have looked like if I graduated in the class of 1982.







http://www.yearbookyourself.com/








Or 1976...



































Or 1962...

Whataburger

One of the yummy things we love about Texas...

Blake's First Day of Preschool

Blake started his first day of preschool on Tuesday. He was VERY excited when he woke up in the morning to go to school and start learning. He was running laps around the couch - he was that excited. He went right in his classroom and waved goodbye. He goes every Tuesday/Thursday for 3 hours. Blake said that he had a lot of fun on his first day and he wanted to go every day. He also didn't think he was there long enough. (He like to tell us if we take too long to pick him up from somewhere like the gym playground. He has his own timer in his head as to how long we should be gone.)