The weirdest thing!

On Saturday, I thought we were being invaded! Thousands of black birds kept circling and landing, circling and landing in the trees, weeds, and on the barbwire fence of the lot next door. As they flew over our house I was reminded of the picture of the locusts that the pioneers fought until the seagulls came to the rescue!




















It seemed choreographed as they took off in groups, some leading, some following. It was amazing! I wondered if it had something to do with the weather change? I don't know what brought them, but I enjoyed watching them. That is until I thought about our plans for a big garden, fruit trees, and berries!

Thanksgiving traditions

One of the blogs I follow asked for ideas for Thanksgiving traditions. As I responded I realized I haven't recorded here the things have become part of our month of November. We have two traditions that my kids absolutely love! A few years ago we made tukey hats. We put on some music with a good beat and danced. That particular song will forever be the "Turkey Dance Song" at our house and we do the turkey dance every Monday night during November. I had no idea it would become a cherished family tradition, as silly as it is!

Don't pay any attention to the laundry in the background. We put everything on hold to Turkey Dance!

The other tradition is to make a thankful tree. I just got some brown and white craft paper at the craft store, drew and cut our a brown tree and glued it onto the white. Our is about 3'x4'. Then I went and had it laminated. This way I don't have to make a new tree every year. I have also seen a branch stuck in plaster paris used as well. I like to paper one for storage purposes. Then we take leaves (I save time by buying big packs at Oriental Trading because we go through about 150 every year) and throughout the month write things we are grateful for and hang them on the tree. On thanksgiving afternoon or evening, after we are finished with extended family activities, we read all the things we wrote outloud as we take the tree down to get ready for decorating for Christmas.

When all I have are weeds

Unfortunately our house was finished too late in the season to plant any flowers or trees that would expode into fall glory. What we have is a whole lot of dirt and 2 lots worth of weeds next door. So when I wanted something for my front porch, something large, something seasonal, I decided to work with what I've got. I figured if people can put dried cornstalks on their front porches I can put weeds!

I used duct tape (everyone's friend) to tape two #10 cans together, covered them in construction paper to blend better, weighted it with rocks, and added our weeds. The kids had a blast helping me gather them, bringing me new and different weeds to see if they would look good in the arrangement. We talked about texture, color contrast, and fillers. As you can well guess, we needed some pretty heavy gloves for some of them. When we had it "just right" (couldn't fit another weed in the cans) I arranged some of my pumpkins and an artificial mum that were already on the porch to cover the can and add more color. It was a fun project. I like how it turned out, and the best part, when I get tired of it, I can just toss it all back in the field!

On Tuesday, I am sending this to the DIY day over at A Soft Place to Land and Get Your Craft On over at Today's Creative blog. Then on Wednesday, to the Works for Me Wednesday carnival over at We are THAT Family. I have also added to 31 days of Autumn Bliss over at the Inspired Room.  Go check out what other people are doing!

Stop for a good blower

Today, we went on a bike ride around the track behind our house. Even Emma was game with her little training wheeled bike. I pulled Jenna in the wagon.

At one point, as I approached Emma on the track, I saw that she was off her bike hunched down on the ground. My first thought was that she must have crashed and gotten hurt. I called to her, asking if she was hurt. She looked up with a grin and it was then I saw that she was hunched over a perfect specimen of a dandelion gone to seed. It was begging to be blown. With a smile of pure pleasure she took a deep breath and blew. She watched the fluff float away with delight, then mounted her bike and took off shouting a challenge for a race.

I looked around and realized that I hadn't even notice the great blowing opportunities around us. I picked one and handed it to Jenna. I was equally fascinated to watch her tentatively reach out one chubby finger to slowly touch the soft fluff. The look on her face was one of wonder and delight. Her persistence in trying to blow hard enough to make the seeds fly was a lesson in itself.

As we continued around the track I found myself wondering how many "good blowers" I was missing in my daily life. How many times do I stop amidst my daily race around in circles to notice the good things? The things that lighten my heart and make me smile. Taking time to enjoy tickling one of my kids, playing hide and go seek, really listening to made-up songs or looking at "special" rocks. I forget to notice how blue the sky is, or how the breeze carries the smells of fallen leaves and the approach of winter. God has given us so much beauty, laughter, love, and daily miracles. Unfortunately, I spend much of the time staring down at the track as I daily circle around again and again, cleaning, laundry, meal preparations, etc. Only to find myself coming around to the starting point again, ready for a new day to begin, lost in the monotony. Not realizing the beauty, laughter, excitement, and connections I could have enjoyed but have missed.

WWEEE ARRE HHERRE!

One million Brooke points if you can name the juvenile novel my title came from? It's my favorite novel!

Anyway, If you can't tell, we have moved in and have officially been here 2 weeks today! Hooray! We are loving our new home and we are settling in nicely. Now, my first wish would be for someone to magically find a place for all this stuff! After having everything in storage for almost 6 months, I forgot how much crap... junk... stuff... meaningful memorabilia we have collected in almost 13 years of marriage! My second wish would be for a builder fairy (is that an oxymoron or what?!) to come and build me some shelves for my storage room cause stacking open boxes on their sides to display food storage is just not working like I planned. Then I would wish for some lawn to decrease the amounts of mud entering onto my beautiful new tile!

All whining aside, I have to say, this is really a dream come true. It was ALMOST worth giving birth in Puerto Rico! Boy, when I think back on all the things we have done to get us to this point... sacrifice is so worth it! But, I'm rambling again. Suffice it to say that we are loving it here. Our neighbors are great and Jordan has his "very best friend" right next door. (He had a hard time finding friends to play with in the old neighborhood.)

We are so grateful to all the people who came to help us move. Some even came twice! I hope your backs have sufficiently recovered. We are touched by the welcome we have received into the ward and neighborhood. And we so appreciate all the help and support we were blessed with during the building process. We are especially grateful to my parents for putting up with us crashing around in their basement for 5 months (minus 1 week). We miss you already.

If I could just finish ONE thing

I am finding that lately, I tend to move from one project to another without completing any of them. This morning, I was walking through the house, looking at piles and boxes, and mumbling "Brooke" ('cause I talk to myself a lot lately), I said, "Brooke, you've just got to pick SOMETHING you can FINISH today!" Then I spotted my Jenna sitting diaper clad on top of the coffee table and with a smile (she's so dang cute) sheepishly admitted that to finish getting her dressed would be a good place to start!

Too Many stories, too little time...

There is a contest with lots of great prizes over at We are THAT Family. The contest is perfect for us. Entrants must attempt to prove that they are THAT family, you know the ones... So in a monumental effort to put off packing until the verrry last minute, I decided that I just must enter this contest. Although I have many new and inspiring stories yet to blog about, the ones that make you think, "I hope I never have to deal with THAT!!" I have yet to write the babysitter story, which is going to prove to be a masterpiece tribute to being THAT family, it will have to wait until post moving chaos. As for my submission and the wry amusement of many members of my family, I humbly offer the following past entries:

Our Royal Family (according to Emma)
Our Little Schemer
How we got a Cherry 7-up stained ceiling
NO idle curiosity here
A Jordan story
A Jenna Day
The Christmas Story
Paralyzing Glare
What are they Thinking?!!

The sad... proud... embarassing... (don't know how to feel about it) part is, that these are just a small sampling. Keep browsing under kid's stories, parenting and each child, you will find oh so many more!

Don't forget to check out the side bar featuring some of the things our children have said!

If we do not qualify to be THAT family, I don't know who does!

WE HAVE A HOUSE!!!

We signed the closing papers yesterday and got KEYS! There are still a few paint touch ups and cleaning to be done by the builder along with some deliveries we are getting tomorrow: fridge, washer, dryer, water softener and kitchen table, but it's all ours! Obviously I am excited and rambling! If only I were so excited about packing! My computer is serving as a procrastination vehicle right now. Hmm.... what sort of chocolate reward can I use to motivate myself....

BTW, any of you out there who are looking for extra blessings, muffins, juice and a sandwich. All these things can be found at our moving party on Saturday at 9am!

My baby turned two yesterday!

I can't believe Jenna is two already. In the past I have not been a particularly sentimental person when it come to my children, but there really is something about your last. Jenna is our sunshine. As you can see by her pictures, she is almost always happy and smiling. She is also our little monkey and climbs on everything. She has already had stitches once and has had many other close calls. She is very sensitive to others' feelings and is quick to try to comfort them. Jenna is so much a part of our family dynamics and her personality has blessed us all. We love her very much! Happy Birthday baby!

We had a fun little party. Of course, Jenna chose "chocolack" cake! She such an addict already. She was so excited to open her presents. She loved the fun toys, rocking chair, quilt form Grandma and Grandpa B, and "If you Take a Mouse to the Movies" complete with large stuffed mouse from Grandma and Grandpa Huntington. What a fun evening focused on our little one.

DIY project - Jenna's chair

Over at A Soft Place to Land, Kimba is having a great giveaway so I decided to enter with the project I am trying to finish up for Jenna's b-day. I bought an unfinished chair at Michaels with my 50% off coupon (gotta love those). Sorry, didn't take a before picture. I sanded, and sanded, and sanded! They say they are pre-sanded but don't believe them. They have not been sanded nearly enough. I painted 2 coats of white and then began painting the back slats and seat slats with pink. This is what it looks like so far:

The blue tape is still on because I had plans to paint the arm rests and the rest of the seat slats yellow (the girls' room is yellow) and then mod podge some butterflies and or flowers on the back and maybe the seat. Now that I look at it, I wonder if I should forgo the yellow and just put on the pictures. What do you think? Would the yellow be too much?

Update: Here is the final look. I printed the butterflies on vellum to give them a little depth. I think it turned out cute even if the yellow is a little brighter than I wanted.

I am looking forward to seeing all the great things everyone else is doing over at the DIY party. I love to see the new things Kimba is doing and my "wanna do" craft link list is full of her ideas! Check it out!

Update 2: She loves the chair!

Black Island Farms

We took Cami's advice and went to Black Island Farms. What a fun place!! It is a little pricey but we found coupons online. The kids had a blast!





They all had a lot of fun on the animal train and rode it as many times as we would let them!












The slides were really fun! This is just one of them. The boys did some pretty amazing stunts going down this one! I can't believe I didn't get a picture of the biggest tube slide. It was Jenna's favorite! It took her forever to climb the stairs!













The girls especially loved the jack o' lantern bounce toy!













Despite her face in this picture, Jenna loved feeding the llamas! The only way to get her away from them was to tell her we were going back to the slide.

It was a great family activity and we have decided we would like to make it a yearly family tradition.

Updated pictures of our house

I am just so excited to see each stage finished!

I decided that we would not be afraid to put color into this new house and so we painted the family room a beautiful brick red. It seemed a little strong until the rock went on the fireplace but now we really like how warm and bold it is. Although it is hard to see in this picture, the color is perfect for the rock! You can see they are laying the pad for the carpet.

Here is the kitchen minus appliances and a pantry door. I love the granite countertops and the varied height of the cabinets!

The only thing missing on the exterior is the shutters on the front window and they will paint the window box dark brown.

We are loving how the house is shaping up! We have painted the girls' room a sunshine yellow and we want to paint the master bathroom a warm chocolate brown. I am so excited to get moved in and stretch out. Almost every day I find there is something I wish I had from the storage unit! We are 3 weeks away now and counting the days!