Alex's Birthday and more...

So Alex turned 4 on November 8!! I can't believe it!!!! he has been home for 3 years! So this was a picture of his birthday lunch! Some of his favorites: salad, broccoli, purple mashed potatoes, and veggie choplets!

For Dinner that night we went to grandma & grandpa's (jerry's parents) and had dinner, "Dirt" Cake and opened presents! Alex kept asking for a "Baja" Cake like last year... but we improvised a little with the "dirt" but putting little off-road jeeps on top! he was happy!

Grandpa and Grandma both helped him read his cards!


We gave him a new brown puffy coat and a hat to match... the hat has a quad on it.
Anthony had to try it out too...

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On November 15 at our church we put on a Holiday Workshop! I am on the Women's Ministries team and we had planned lunch and several classes for women to take that might help them prepare for the holidays. It was so much fun and A LOT of work! Each member decorated a table for the lunch. Bonnie and i shopped and planned together... i was so excited how hers came out i had to take a picture! The cool big ornament place-mats we found at Dollar tree dollar store! We thought they were awesome. She put some gold glitter on themto add something! and we added ribbon. But otherwise it was a bunch of cute ornaments that she and i had and some crystal and it was fabulous!!!! I loved it!


This was my Christmas table i put together for the lunch. This is pretty much my normal Christmas table at home so i didn't have to come up with too much extra for it!

I had so many amazing looking gourds that i just HAD to do a Thanksgiving table! I just love all the gourds, squash, and apples. Do you see the cute little pumpkins!? They are my favorite!!

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Ok. Gross!!!! But one night when i was ready to go to bed i hear one of the cats growling... they are more like dogs around here... size and growling. I looked out and this guy was on the deck... so i opened the door and tried to shoo him away... Lucy was out there and wanted to come in, she was trying to get past him... but apparently came to close because all of a sudden they were tangling a little! Scared me... i grabbled Lucy and threw her in the house... the crazy little opossum just put his head down toward the deck and started curling over until he fell over with a thump!!! I knoow they play dead but i had never seen one actually do it and this one was so small! I thought it was so funny... i just had to take a picture! I went to bed and a little while later i heard the cat growling again and knew the opossum must have made its escape!

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Then there's this little munchkin! We decided to go for an off-roading drive one weekend... It was a nice cool day just warm enough for no jacket. After we drove for a while down the bumpy trails we found a spot we hadn't been to in years! So we took a little walk. There is a stream there next to a lake so we explored a little.

Took some pictures of our beautiful kids...


oh! and threw rocks into the lake! You would think with all the little boys in the world all the lakes would eventually fill up with rocks!

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One day Jerry decided that HE wanted to try to make bread at home... he was actually going for rolls i guess. He had 2 little helpers... What a mess!!! I was making soup and they were making bread... What a fun night!! They forgot to read all the way through the instructions. They started to stick the rolls right into the oven instead of letting the rise... it was funny, and in the end the rolls tasted really good!

I have been into making soup a lot lately... I made several kinds in just a few days... we ate one meal or so of each kind and then i froze the rest. You see it is a very big pot! This soup was a Corn/ Spinach soup.


Showing off my two biggest sweet potatoes! yummy!


Having a little photo-shoot one afternoon... I switched lenses and i can tell... the colors aren't as great. I will stick with my fixed 85 lens for photo-shoots!



Oh my! These boys... they like to play "fight" and stuff, like karate and wrestling... its so funny... as long as Anthony knows they are "playing, he is fine... but as soon as he think Alex is actually trying to hurt him... watch out... cover your ears! He screams like crazy!

So Alex chokes him...

Then Anthony pokes out his eye!!!

I always love this angle... This is what i see a lot of... someday he will be looking at me from my eye level! Yikes!

Alex Loves to runa nd show me how fast he can run! He is pretty fast... but i can still out run him... even in sandals.

Anthony is much slower but is getting alot faster and easier in his run...

After playing hard for a while we all snuggled down in mommy and dadda's big fluffy bed for a nap... They are so cute when they sleep!

Nervous...

Why is it when you think you have done everything right that you are still nervous when it comes to an IRS audit!!!? Good Grief! I guess its like when OSHA comes to the job-site!!! I mean we have a killer safety plan... over 1100 pages, all kinds of certifications, safety talks... haven't had an incident in 11 years, but... they make you nervous... and they usually find "something" to write you up for! I imagine the irs audit will be similar... i hope i am wrong. Our construction company is being audited starting tomorrow and i am nervous!!! They are reviewing the year 2007. The one really great year (business-wise)we have had in... well a long time!!! Besides the audit they also want a "tour" of our Facilities! So i feel the need to clean like a crazy person! Why do they care if you could eat off the floor in the office or the shop for that matter? They probably don't!! goodness! oh well... its going to be anyways!! Actually things have been pretty clean around here lately, but sometimes areas in the office get a little crazy... Like a 6 inch pile of weird papers on the corner of my desk... It drives me nuts, but I don't seem to take the time to find files for them all... We have been working on ebay-ing some things around here so i had some boxes in there... since i photograph on the drawing table and then list at one of the computers. At least we have an awesome filing system and every year is designated a clear plastic box when that year is over... sometimes a year has two boxes if it was a big year! Our filing cabinet is color coded, so that each department has a color... and you don't use that color in any other area. For example... insurances are yellow, tax returns - dark blue, employee files are orange and so on... it is really easy to remember where stuff goes. We also have what is called a tickler system. we have files labeled for each month of the year, one says next year, one says "i don't know" and then we have one for each week, 1st thru 4th. So when ever mail comes in we file it in the file when we want to do it. It works really good! We have been using it for years!! We also scan almost every thing in, that lets us throw out a lot more stuff! So we have only spent a day or so (altogether) getting together all the stuff they need for the audit. But it was a lot of stuff!! my goodness! I think we are as ready as we will ever be for an audit! I hope we don't have to do this very often!!!

Here Comes Fall!

We went to a huge play structure one day... Anthony is kind of small for a bunch of the things, but he tried! He does enjoy the swing though! Alex never liked to swing.


Alex likes to SLIDE though!

We went to a fall party at the Lanphears. They had a bunch of pumpkins sitting there on their beach and the sun was setting... i just had to photograph them!



We are not sure what this is, but Alex came home from the party with blue hands! I think it was from the handles in the little paddle boat the kids were taking out around the pond... not sure!

Anthony bounced in the bounce house they had there for the kids... he's not very steady though.

Alex bounced too, although he had to bounce the the "big" kids!


The day before Alex's Birthday was such a nice day that we had to rake the leaves into a pile for the kids to play in! It was so much fun! Little Anthony was trying to run and copy his brother by falling into the pile... can you see him!!



Jerry was throwing leaves at them!





Then they had races... Alex won! Alex is a very fast runner! And he loves to run! He always wants to play "chase" he like Jerry to run after him and try to catch him. Anthony of course also enjoys it very much and laughs all the way!!!!

Then we tried to take a family picture... seriously... you can't trust that it will be focused if you have one of these boys do it. The pictures that Alex pushed the button for... well he moved the camera and so we were getting further and further off the picture! Alex and I were half cut off in the last one! hahaha!

then they decided to rake the tree itself. Since it is an Oak tree the leaves don't fall off until Spring... actually since we had a big wind storm here a couple weeks before, there were a lot more leaves on the ground than normal!

Anthony had to try the raking thing too.