Where's Jack?

There he is!!

When there's a will, there's a way

Jack!

Halloween

Our nice neighbors invited us over for a little cul-de-sac mingle and then we headed home for the trick o treaters. Jack and Sadie went up and down our sreet and we got to know our other neighbors a little better.



When we got home we examined the damage and had a candy feast! Jack got his first taste of candy and was so excited he started dancing all over the place. It was hilarious to see him so high on sugar. They both crashed 20 minutes later. Happy Halloween!!

Pumpkins

Not the best activity for the kiddos seeing they can't hold knives but it's fun anyway. We ended up carving Halloween day.
Sadie was totally grossed out.

Bubbles

WEEEEEEE!!

On the way home from the lake, we stopped at the Halloween party at the club house. Jack was asleep in the car so Sadie must have gone down that slide 20 times. We even got her to go down by herself which made her feel like a superstar. After the magic show and small attempt to enter the haunted house we were pooped out and went to bed EARLY knowing we were going to be sore the next day....a good sore:-)

We LOVE Texas!!

When the Winegars told us they bought a boat, we were giddy with joy!! Boating was our courtship! We went waterskiing at least three times a week when we got home from our internships in Washington D.C. When I see Chase out on the water I remember why I fell so hard for him 10 years ago. This guy can waterski!!
Texas might have snakes, spiders, and fire ants, but they also have lakes and 87 degree weather in November!! The greatest part is that Texans are total wimps with the cold and I guess 87 degrees merits hibernation so we had the lake all to ourselves. If it hadn't been for a little wind, we would have had some serious glass!
Katherine said that the day before they were the only boat on the lake with glass surrounding them. It's like a secret Lake Powell that hasn't been discovered yet! Can you tell how excited we were to be waterskiing after a very long dry spell?
Sadie had a blast hanging out with Savannah and Jack just chilled. The kids did remarkably well for being on the boat 4 hours. As long as the boat was moving they just sat and enjoyed the breeze.

Thanks again Winegars for the great day and fantastic company. I think we're going to like it here:-)

Trunk or Treat

It wouldn't be Halloween with out Chase and Abby whipping out their Billy Bobs. SO we're new in the ward, we felt it was important to make a good first impression. Jack was terrified of me and wouldn't let me hold him (only Chase...as if he looks any better:-). We figured that because we're so new, no one would recognize us anyway. Good thing the kids gave us away although they don't look too pleased to be attached to such weirdos.

Baby Bear

Sleeping Beauty

Henry the elf

He's sees everything! Sadie checks him periodically to see if she's on the naughty or nice list. I finally had to hide him because I couldn't record the message fast enough (with out her seeing me) after a naughty event occurred.

It's hot here!!

Hot enough that we can wash the cars outside and run through the sprinklers too!

Here's what I think so far....

Texas is quirky. While driving down the road I see billboards with a sad unfortunate man behind bars that reads "Get out of Jail? Call 777-7777." It's super clever but not as clever as the names of restaurants. I've seen a Cheddars (wow, give me some of them dimples right over here), Chuy's (nastified thought comes to mind of a dog chewing on a bone), Pluckers (I don't even have to explain how grotesque this sounds if you're ordering chicken), Tenderloin Tavern (Can we stop naming our restaurants after body parts of the animals we already feel bad slaughtering), and the police officers have the word "Constable" on their cars. It totally cracks me up. Chase and I always salute to them in our thickest accent impersonation..."Howdy do Canstble Jones." Sadie has caught onto the whole "make fun of the accent" thing and contorts her little face while she sings "Deep in the heart of Texas." We're trying to teach her to say Texas like George W and it's taken some time, but she's almost up there with the Will Ferrel impersonation.

Now, lets talk about the bugs, snakes, and ROUS (rodents of unusual size). Our first week here Jack got bitten by a few fire ants. Of course I wasn't there (it wouldn't have happened on my watch), and discovered a few pussy white zit like bumps on his hands and knuckles. I am a picker, popper person and when I see a zit, ingrown hair, or anything related I want to see the magic happen. Chase used to get mad at me for picking Sadie's cradle cap when she was a baby. I was a picker then and I am probably more fanatic today. It took every ounce of self control to not want to pop those fire ants bites.

I eventually couldn't stop myself and popped the little buggers and was disappointed to find that they didn't release any puss at all but just left a little crater in his hand. The kids are monitored from now on when they play outside. I HATE FIRE ANTS!! Poor little Jack. Sadie and the rest of us have still been spared of their cruel lashes. We have also been spared of the so called Chiggers that are like microscopic ticks. Oh goody!!


We went to visit some friends in the ward who live just down the street from us. Their home backs up to the green belt and they have a beautiful view of the green rolling hills. But with that view comes some disadvantages. When we arrived at their home they had just discovered a baby rattlesnake on their front doorstep. Her husband was in the process of decapitating the poor thing with two shovels and rain boots. Emilee later told me that she caught her 4 year old twins racing up the street chasing a tarantula. Holy crap!! If I saw one of those things in the wild or with in ten feet of my house I wouldn't be sleeping for weeks!! Emilee also said that after doing some dishes, she found some scorpions at the bottom of her sink. I have since decided that a view of the greenbelt is highly overrated. I'll take my backyard with it's little fire ants.


Chase was getting to the bottom of a nearby barking dog and while jumping our backyard fence was surprised to see what looked like an over sized rat scaling the fence as well. It was a possum. They have a cute name and it's cute that Mom always asked if we were "playing possum" while pretending to be asleep, but there is nothing cute about these nasty over sized rodents.

I hope I haven't scared any of you out of a visit to the wild, wild west. We haven't seen one scorpion, spider, or snake near our home so come on down for a visit. When you're all freezing your buns off in your own state, think of us roasting in Texas with the fire ants.