Happy Halloween

Happy Birthday Rebekah

Rebekah always (other than Arizona) celebrates her birthday with Aunt Jeanie, whose birthday is on the 1st of November. This is the third year in a row that we have had a Halloween cake and so this will probably be our new tradition.

OK Rebekah actually asked for a Lava Lamp. She also asked for a bean bag chair which is on order to be picked up sometime next week.

I couldn't let a birthday pass, at least with her, without getting her some books to read.

This is a picture of the boys reaction when she opened up a Cheatah girls CD.

Rebekah is so funny. As soon as my birthday was over she started seriously talking about 3 things. Her birthday, a slumber party for her birthday, and what she was going to be for Halloween. We hear almost everyday about these things. In years past, she would talk about it much earlier, just not as intense. It really is a joy that she enjoys these things because I'm such a slug about Holidays sometimes. She helps us look forward to it, even if we don't want to.

Last night she said that the only way to make this birthday perfect was to have gotten pistol!! Pappa was so proud.

Monday - Foundation

I am not sure why these went in backwards, but here they are.
Stage 3.

Stage 2.

Stage 1.

Even these went in backwards. This is the final product.

After the kids did their hands, Justin went and collected all the animals (yeah, seriously). This is John helping with Sydney.

Teyla

Justin even went and got the cat, but decided at the last minute not to do her. She walked on the cement anyways and Justin put her name in.

Closing

Well, we closed on our house yesterday. I am sorry to say that I have mixed emotions about it. The thought of spending more time in our current trailer fills me with sadness. But, I am not sure I ever dreamed that I would be living out my days in a double wide either. This double wide will be nice, I know that, but it is amazing how negative people can be about trailers in general. I could get away with it before because it wasn't ever a permanent option. Commonly referred to as my 'single wide'.

All of that said. We lived in a double wide in Arizona. It was very nice. I didn't mind it a bit. Everyone who came in was impressed with its size and space. I think, once we move in, I will feel exactly the same way. Plus . . . we saved over $50,000 for a building almost 600 square feet bigger!!! I can only live in either (site built or double wide trailer) until I die and that is not a long time compared to eternity.

We won't get our keys until December 20th even though it is being delivered sometime next week. WOW is right. They have a lot to do before they will even let us move one stick of furniture in it. Overall we can't wait!!! Poor John will just have to hear how nice it is : (

Rockdale Fair

Hi, don't forget to look in the "More Family Pictures" for more pictures of the fair. So much happened over the weekend and we (Tammy and I) took so many pictures. It was really hard to organize them all.

Rockdale Fair Pt. 1

We had a BIG weekend. When we moved back to Texas the kids on the land started encouraging my kids to 1) go to public school and 2) show something in the Rockdale Fair (ok -so it was only KC on this one as he is the only other kid showing). Mark being KC's best friend really wanted to show something. He chose Dairy goats as he just wanted to have goats on the property again. I caved. So Mark and Rebekah showed their goats this weekend, while KC showed his pig and a bench he made for Ag Mechanics. In the picture above, the kids are all waiting on the judging for KC's bench.

Here is Rebekah with "Blondie" just before her bath. Blondie is 7 months old.

You can tell Mark is nervous. They both were, I just managed to get a half decent smile out of Rebekah. Marks goat is "Brunette" who is 6 months old.

Brunette took forever to recover from her bath. This by far was the grossest thing to do as the pig show was that morning and there was pig pooh everywhere. Lesson number 1) Give the goats their bath the day before and NEVER at the show.

Here they are in the show ring with their only competetor. Nathan, and his alpine. Because they were all in seperate classes they all got 1st place. I guess the Dairy Goat show was a little bit of a joke, but it was a good way for the kids to get their feet wet.

Rockdale Fair - Pt. 2

Here is KC and his pig "Wilma". The swine judging took place before the goats. Wilma took 5th out of 9.

KC also built this bench for the fair. He won 2nd place and Reserve Grand Champion for the Senior Division of Ag Mechanics. That is the belt buckle he is so proudly holding up (and you can see his 5th place ribbon next to his 2nd place ribbon on his belt). There was some stiff competition for this one!!

Mark and Rebekah also got Outstanding Exhibitor award for the Goat Division. I think they called it the Goat Herdsman award. They are pictured with their sponsor. They were happy with the $25 they got to split.

The pig scramble was a lot of fun to watch. 5 or 6 kids trying to catch three little piglets - who didn't want to be caught. You can see Mark here in his white t-shirt.

Rebekah is also in a white t-shirt, but she is the one behind the little girl dragging the pig. KC also participated, none of them got a pig this year :(

Drivers Permit

Well, it has finally happened. Justin has his permit. I felt like I had to drag him tooth and nail to get it, which seems kind of opposite of how it usually is. I let him drive from Taylor to Rockdale. About 2 minutes down the freeway he says, "OK, I'm bored. This is nothing like Mario Kart!" This is why I will be completely gray before my next birthday.

Last week: Cheatah Girls and the Circus

We got free tickets to see the Cheetah Girls One World Concert last Wednesday. Thank you Uncle Sam. If you can't tell poor Livvie was sick. Priceless moment: Haley's face as she watched the first opening band, 535. They were horrible and if my batteries had not been dieing I would have taken her picture because she was absolutely unimpressed - as were we all. The second band, The Clique Girls, were much much better.

And here they are!!!! Not that you can tell in either of these photos, but . . . Cool thing is we were watching the Disney channel on Sunday night and they had clips from the concert. They said that Austin was their first stop, so even though that was on Wednesday - we are sure they filmed the commercial in Austin and not in another city : )

Not much better I'm afraid.

Then on Friday we took the kids to the Karem Shriners Circus. Yeah, it was not Ringling Brothers, but we got discount tickets too. I was able to get more pictures but they were still pretty blurry. I took this one because Rebekah had waited in the line to ride the elephant (a very long line). Then found out it was $7 per 30 second ride. We had told the kids that they would have to use their own money for things because we had the Rockdale Fair this weekend. She wouldn't do it. So this is her consolation prize. A picture with the elephant, sort of.

The older boys enjoyed the show also. You'll notice the scantly clathed beauty on the elephant. All of the performers were dress as such. The boys could not understand why they did not have any circus animals, no elephants or dogs (which was all they had, but that is beside the point).

What have we been up to?

I saw this idea in a Better Homes and Gardens, only they used real pumpkins. It is to hot here in Texas to use real pumpkins, they rot. So I came up with the idea of plastic pumpkins, I thought it looked cute.

This is my entire front porch.

For Justin's communication Merit Badge he had to conduct a Court of Honor. This was held in the middle of September. I really wanted to get his merit badges on his sash (which I've had for several years now). You'll notice Alex does not have his sash, that is because it took FOREVER to do Justins. I swore that I would never do another one - I've calmed down since then :)

Alex got his Life Scout Rank, along with a pile of merit badges. He had 3 campouts and 2 merit badge fairs that he was receiving badges for. And yes, Alex did finally get a hair cut.

Mark got his Scout and his Tenderfoot Rank along with his first merit badge, fingerprinting.

You might be a redneck if . . .

Brigade Ball

Friday, John had a Brigade Ball. I found out last Friday that we were going. Everyone has pointed out the fact that they don't understand why we thought we could get away with not going considering he is the First Sgt. At any rate I had a week to prepare. Trying to find a modest dress, is a trick in and of itself. Thanks to Katie who loaned me her dress for the evening it was a much easier task. (Never mind that I spent two hours in JcPenney's). I did feel a little under dressed, but I think that it is mostly the fact that I was dressed compared to some of the women there. Oh well!!! We enjoyed ourselves in spite of the fact. John of course, looks dashing in uniform.

I like Johns smile in the second photo better, but I look like I'm in pain - no idea why. Maybe it is because I'm in front of the camera instead of behind : )