Halloween Costumes

I have so many pictures from October that I need to sort through, but for now, here are some pictures of the kids in their Halloween costumes this year....more pictures to come later!

Bumblebee Megan:

Fireman Blake:

Mario Kyle and Luigi Grant:

Blake Speaking "Spanish"

Blake's preschool class is part of a dual language elementary school. One day after school, Blake came up to me, looked me in the eyes, and started jabbering. He repeated himself several times. I told him that he was talking "baby talk" and that I couldn't understand him. Blake told me, "No, I'm not talking like a baby- I'm talking like Mrs. Garcia!" Mrs. Garcia is the teacher's aide who speaks Spanish to them a lot!

He has continued to speak "Spanish" to us almost everyday. He's really convinced that he can speak it. Another day when I picked him up from school, we overheard a mom talking to her child in Spanish. Blake said, "She's talking Spanish. I can talk Spanish, too!"

Here's a cute little video of Blake's "Spanish" :

Cookie Dog

It's been a long, sad day in our house today. The past couple of days Brandi took a turn for the worse, so we took her to the vet today and had her put to sleep. She was 13 1/2 years old and her body was simply failing from old age.
Brandi was our first "baby." As soon as Aaron and I got back from our honeymoon, we headed to the animal shelter and adopted Brandi. (OK, we also adopted psycho-cat Hailey, but that's another story!) Brandi was always an odd little dog. At the animal shelter, she kept walking sideways. The workers at the shelter told us there was nothing physically wrong with her, she just walked like that! As a puppy, Brandi would sleep behind the toilet. She would often wake up soaking wet, so for a while we thought the toilet was leaking. We finally realized she was just peeing in her sleep! Brandi had knee surgery when she was one year old. As a result, she was never an active dog. We're not convinced she would have been active even with good knees, though! She was just an "old soul." Brandi smiled! She would lift up her lips, show us her teeth, and smile! We would often find her plastered against the wall, tail thumping, with a "smile" on her face! (I'll have to look for a photo to post.) A definite weakness for Brandi was guarding things. Every time we traveled, we had to put our luggage (especialy her dog bag) up high so she wouldn't "guard" it. Brandi's favorite thing in the entire world was being outdoors. She would have stayed outside all day, every day, if we let her. We would have let her, had she not had a thing for barking at people walking by or leaves falling to the ground! She also loved to swim. We couldn't visit Aaron's parents' house without her swimming (she loved to fetch sticks in the water). Summer or winter, it didn't matter, she went swimming!
Brandi was such a unique dog. She helped us welcome home all four of our kids and we're so glad she was part of our family! We miss her.

Who put butter on Kirby?

I'll give you 3 guesses....and the first 2 don't count.

Chalk It Up

Kyle and Grant are enrolled in a wonderful art class and this weekend was the class "field trip." The field trips are usually local art events- this time it was an event downtown called "Chalk It Up." Local artists, as well as youth organizations (including Kyle and Grant's art class), are given a space to create a chalk creation. Since we were there in the morning, many of the creations were not finished yet, but it was really neat to see some of the drawings! It also ended up being pretty cold that morning (by Texas standards), so we didn't stay too long.

Aaron and the kiddos:

Watching Megan's dress blow up:

Buying Italian Ice (Aaron surprised me with a picture-lovely!):

This was the space for Kyle and Grant's art class:

Grant:

Kyle:

Some other neat chalk creations:

Blake:

Megan:

Megan's First Haircut

About a month ago, I took Megan to get a haircut. I guess it was really just a trim-we needed to clean up her stringy ends. I could have trimmed her hair myself, but instead I took her to an overpriced kids salon so she could sit in a cool car, watch a movie, and I could take pictures for her nonexistent scrapbook! :)Before:

After (I know, look at that dramatic change!):And just a funny picture of Megan trying to look through a toy magnifying glass:

Blake