Arp's visit

  This summer Al has been in heaven.  The Rozeski's moved here and Al has been playing with his cousins at least once a week, which is awesome!  But, sadly, school started two weeks ago and Alex has been in low spirits ever since.  He likes to play with Elijah, but always asks where Jaxen and Madeline are.  So, my sister and her two kids decided to visit from Maryland (I'm sure it was all for Alex :)

  We had to make our trip to Casa Bonita, and although I didn't go, Dave said it was a blast!  Here are a couple pictures he managed to take, Casa Bonita is hard to keep track of your kids...so there aren't many times you can just sit and relax.  The first picture is of Alex and Sonya outside next to the water fountain, and the picture below is during dinner when they have little skits next to the waterfall.  (from left to right) Grandma, Jaxen, Superman (Elijah), Madeline, Alex, Sonya, and Papa.  They don't ever eat much at Casa Bonita, which is probably just fine since the food is the worst part about the whole restaurant :)
  Besides this fun we've done a few things here and there.  Nikki is so fun and relaxing to be around and I miss her more when she visits.  We'll be sad to see her go, but we had a blast while she was here!

Messy

  For some reason I've never been into putting a bib on Lydia...Alex wore one constantly, but Lydia never kept them on and now I haven't put one on for months...can't even find them.  But, now of course she's starting to use a spoon and we like snack packs at our house...so this is the result...

  not too bad right?  For dinner before we had pasta, so this is on top of pasta sauce in her ears and hair.  Her favorite thing to do is grab a glop of pudding and rub it on her tummy, we didn't manage to get a picture of that though :)

recall, fall, prime & whine

  First, let me update you on my neighbor.  The biggest shocker...he was actually only about 5 years older than Dave & I...around 32.  Which is just crazy because he honestly looked over forty.  We're all assuming that he committed suicide, because there hasn't been anything in the news yet.  But no one has come over to his house (siblings, family, friends) so we're still not sure what will happen with the home.

  Second, our crib was recalled!  I feel it was a little late, since Alex used this one too, and we got it when he was around 1 year...so that 2 1/2 years later.   But, we got a brand new free crib :)  It's pretty, and it converts into a big kid bed, so we're excited for that.  Now we have an extra crib with no screws (you have to send those back to receive a voucher).  Does anyone know a good woodworking project that's not that hard...maybe a bench?

Third, our fence blew down.  I'm guessing it's about 25 years old because the posts were completely rotted through, and our neighbor didn't even think they were cemented in.  So Dave and our nice nice nice nice nice neighbor worked on it and fixed it in a weekend.  It's strong and hopefully will last another 25 years because we like having our junky side yard hidden :0
  I've finally finished my painting project.  It was the living room up the stairs to the hallway (because it's all one wall) and it took me, oh..., maybe 5 months :)  I have a friend that would always make fun of me when she came over, so it was her inspiration.  The picture isn't all that excited, but I had to have something to document my success right?
 And last, my parents are in Hawaii for about a month and I'm watching their dog (he's not pictured here).  But, another family I usually dog-sit for is gone for 2 weeks so I have a veritable dog watching business on my hands!  I can finally put in our monthly budget that my income is more than just the pennies and quarters I find on the sidewalks (because those absolutely count!)
OH, here's a post script...you gotta have one picture of a kid :)