Happy Halloween

The girls dressed as Strawberry Shortcake and Lemon Meringue this year. Matt suggested the other night that this wasn't the right year to make their costumes. He of course is right, but I'd say they are pretty darn cute!

My little Lemon...

And lastly, trick or treating at our neighbor Leigh's home.  After her house, we went to a friend's party and then came back for about 6 houses worth of trick-or-treating. 

Our girls with a friend at the Halloween party that we went to briefly.

Pumpkins

We came home today to carve our pumpkins.  It was a gorgeous day to do it outside even.  Here we are getting started.  I should mention that once the seeds were exposed, ML was done.

My what a difference a few years makes.  AG was totally willing to get messy and kept telling ML - you can wash your hands.  She cleaned both pumpkins today.

ML was busy in the chalk, it is by far the best $1 toy on the market!

And lastly our finished products.  Happy Halloween y'all!

Cowgirl day

I was a little thrown off this week being gone on Monday.  Matt left Tuesday morning and I think the exhuastion had set in.  So Wednesday when AG got up and said she was supposed to wear cowboy boots, I didn't even question.  I dressed her like a cowgirl and when we pulled up to school, I discovered that it was the wrong day.  There was a little bit of drama as she got out of the car. 

So onto day 2 of wearing your boots...the right day this time...I convinced her to wear jeans.  It has been two and a half years since we have owned a pair of jeans that she would wear.  She looked adorable, yee-haw! 

Kitchen - week 6

The girls are loving playing in the new space.  Now that the plastic is down it is easy to go back into the space again.  Nonna said they love how it echoes!

Over the weekend they did a ton of electrical work.  The can lights were installed and they replaced our entire electrical panel.  This picture shows the new crown molding that was installed on Monday and painted today. 

Little by little, we are getting there.  In the original schedule, we should be done. 

Nonna and V

It's a lot to ask someone to take care of your kids for 6 days.  To ask your parents to come and do it with the kitchen completely torn up seems completely unreasonable.  The girls love having them here though.  :)  Here's V reading lots and lots of stories. 

This was the night of the TCU homecoming parade.  I loved getting the texts with what they were doing.  They were busy all week!  Thanks for the time away Nonna and V.  We love you. 

Napa/California trip

We had a wedding in California and decided to take a side trip for a few days to Napa.  Judy, Tom and Betsy decided to join us there.  We started at Rombauer and had a tasting and walked in their gardens. 

This was at Del Dotto in the afternoon.  It was a tour and tasting in the caves.  Matt has happily gone on wine tastings with me for years.  It is not his favorite drink, but he never complains.  Well, he found one he liked at Del Dotto.  Yippee!  It was a wonderful Cab, he has good taste :)

Friday we took a detour through San Francisco and snapped a few pictures before heading to the wedding festivities.  It was a quick couple of days and Matt has already promised a return trip.  I can hardly wait!

At the gorgeous wedding venue in Monterey!

On the 17 mile drive through Pebble Beach

Kitchen - Week 5

The cabinets were undercoated on Thurs. and the granite installed on Friday. 

The plumber was here first thing Saturday and the kitchen has looked like this ever since. 

I think these pictures look so funny because of the half wet texture that was on the wall.

We are on our way out of town and the color is just starting to go on.  I was so glad to get to see a part of it before we left!

Grandpa Tom

The girls often stay with Gigi and Grandpa Tom so that we can head to aggie football games.  We have commented on how much she has changed in the past few weeks of the fall.  I love that they get to see so much of them in such a short span of time.  Here she is posing on our way to church. 

Good behavior

Anna Grace asked about a week ago if she could have a special treat for a full six weeks of good behavior marks.  When asked what she had in mind, she quickly responded ice cream.  Done!  It was our after school treat today.  I had a short visit with her teacher today in carpool line.  He really is amazing!  He stopped to tell me what a pleasure she is to have in class and went on to say that she has learned all of her math skills.  He was very impressed!  Way to go Peanut!

Babies!

Morgan Leigh and I have been walking the babies up and down the street.  Over and over and over....

Kitchen - week 4

This week started pretty slow.  The guys were taping and floating all the walls.  So they would put on a layer and then they'd wait for it to dry.  :)


It rained all weekend and that delayed some of our stuff, but on Tuesday there was major visual progress!  The first being the removal of the dumpster.  ML was enthralled with the big truck.  The first truck couldn't lift the load, likely because of all the rain...

The cabinets were also installed that day.  I bet I sat in there for over an hour after they were done.  :)

Here is the new banquette and desk area. 

And the floors came in today!  It should continue to move quickly from here on out.

  

Pumpkin patch

I met my friend Jen today for a tour of the arboretum today.  There are so many pumpkins, I was totally amazed!  Here is AG with Jackson.

She quickly spotted the face painting and ML was quick to jump in too. 

We found some peanut pumpkins.

There were 7 princess castles to tour.

And lots of places to take photos.

Thanks for spending your day off with us Jen!  We had a blast.

Nonna and V

ML was so excited to get her jammies on really early this evening.  We had to snap a pic for our friends that gave them to us.  We have spent a lot of time on the porch the last few weeks.  It is away from the dust and the noise, and it has been the perfect weather.

Nonna and V came up to break up one of Matt's travel weeks.  It has been hard with him not here, and I welcome the help.  That and we were able to marathon shop in Dallas on Thurs.  I didn't snap many photos because we were so on the go.  :)

Thanks for the quick trip!  It made a world of difference to me, and the girls are already on the countdown for the next visit (9 days away!)

One more, just for fun...



Kitchen, week 3

The electrician worked most of the day Saturday and most of the day Sunday.  He RAN out of the 250' of wire that we originally bought and we had to buy more.  I was shocked by that.  That is a whole lot of new lighting!!  We had a few changes for where to locate a few of the items, but all were quickly remedied Monday morning.  (There were 5 switches by the back door instead of 4, a new light that we didn't want, and moving the phone jack)

And then up came the floors, it was sooo loud here on Monday.  ML slept through the afternoon noise though.  For me, this was the last potential money pit that we needed to know.  3 layers and finally the subfloor was showing.  I snapped this to show Matt (who of course is traveling this week!) how there were different widths.  It's always fun to guess how things were originally!

And the dumpster now.  ML always says, "Tell JR to move the dumpster!"  It is too funny, and I agree.  I think we are done with it!

And the first day of sheetrock.  It makes a huge difference!  And now we have insulation in our walls (novel concept!)  I am super excited to see the walls with color and cabinets!



Canton

We took advantage of the gorgeous weather this weekend and headed to Canton.  I was on a mission for some things for the kitchen and it was First Monday.  The girls are always so big on days like this.  ML was happiest when she was pulling the wagon. 

And nothing rounds out a day of shopping like a trip to our favorite farm.  We rode down to see the cows and as soon as Matt shut off the engine, ML said, "That was so fun!"  I had to laugh because seconds later as the farm kitty crawled near us she screamed bloody murder.  And we ended with dinner with our friends.  Only an aggie win could have made the day any better!