Trick or Treat

Here is just a little glimpse of Meg's Halloween Festivities. She was a pretty cute little Tiger/Kitty....depending on which time you asked her. The next few are of the cute Pumpkin kits that Chad's Mom sent her. She had so much fun decorating and redecorating and mixing around these silly pumpkin faces.
Much more enjoyable for a 2 year old then carving a pumpkin, I think.

I quickly nixed the bow tie. It looked a little to Chippendale(ish) to me. Although, Meg kept asking, "where's my hair bow on my neck?", after I took it off.

We got to Trick or Treat with my nephews, Bronson and Austin again this year. It is really sweet how excited they get to go with Meg. I am not sure why she wouldn't sit any closer to them, but we were lucky just to get her seated for a second.

I think they were both a little tired of pictures here.

I had to get an actual Trick or Treat picture, even though Meg was content to ride in the stroller and eat her candy by this point. Her cousins were so sweet to get her a piece when she didn't come to the door.

Old McDonald

VACATION

I am a bad blogger. I go weeks without posting and then have too much to post about. I will try to keep it short.

We have had a wonderful couple of weeks. The thursday before last my whole family spent the night at Great Wolf Lodge for my Dad's 60th birthday. The second time we have been able to do that together. The kids LOVE it. We all do! I took my camera....unfortunately I was having too much fun to stop and take pictures. I was also busy making sure my dare devil 2 year old didn't drown. We did have some pictures taken of the kids in Grapevine though. You can see those at Kristin Cook's blog.....www.kristincookphotography.blogspot.com



Then Chad and Meg and I headed to Florida for 6 days. If you haven't been to the Beaches of South Walton area on Highway 30A....you need to go. We stayed in a condo, since it was just the three of us. I LOVED the whole area. Watercolor, Seaside, Rosemary Beach, Alys Beach. They are all little towns with tons of beach houses shops and fun restaurants. It is very movie like. Lots of locals and beach houses owners. It is a total change of pace from Destin which is just 30 min away. I am going to get a Beach House there, when I grow up!

I don't want to mess with uploading all the pics through blogger, so here is a smilebox slideshow if you care to watch. Meg had so much fun. No child has ever loved the beach more. She would wake up in the morning and say, "please go to the sandbox, please." She also loved riding in Chad's Kayak. I almost didn't let him bring it, for packing reasons....but it was a hit. I made sure he stayed VERY close to shore when Meg was in tow, though. We rode bikes up and down 30A one day, played on the beach a couple of days and drove into Destin to see the boats and have lunch another.

Warning....it's kind of long. I didn't even use nearly all the pictures we took.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

School Days and Such......

Meg started Mother's Day Out this week. She is at a different place then she went to last year, because I wanted to put her somewhere closer to where we live.....of course we don't live there anymore....but, oh well. She LOVES it. If she weren't so happy to see me at the end of the day, my feelings would be hurt at how carelessly and anxiously she runs into her classroom. She will hardly look up from her toys/books to tell me goodbye. Separation anxiety has never been a problem for her. It helps that she loves everyone and has never met a stranger. The first day she (literally) pushed past a girl who was standing timidly in the door way not wanting to go in. On Thursday she completely ignored the only other two kids who were there when we got there, who were both screaming their heads off for their moms not to leave. She just looks at them like, "I don't know what your problem is, but I have things to do and you are just wasting time."

Of course, getting her to stand on the front porch and take a "1st day of school" picture with her backpack was not an option for Meg. We just took some pictures of her roaming the yard and street....they just happened to be on the first day of school. I will keep trying to get one of her with her backpack on. It is really cute. Here you go.

This morning we woke up to Meg yelling, "I am ready to get out please!" from her bed. We watched Little Mermaid and ate cereal and then we all loaded up and went to a park that is close to the house. I had a lot of fun getting action shots....which is all I can get with Meg. Chad and I were talking about how Meg kind of demands the attention of everyone around her. She is the loudest and friendliest kid at the park. I am always hearing other parents laugh out loud at her. It is so funny to me, because I am happy to get lost in the crowd. She will be a leader for sure. She says hi to everyone she sees when we are out and about. I love it when people are in a hurry or concentrating on something or just lost in their own world and they can't help but smile when Meg yells, "Hi guys!" or just "HI!".
Here are some of what I captured at the park

Happy Labor Day Weekend!

Home Again....kind of

I am afraid all of you are going to think we are crazy....we moved again. #9. I almost don't even want to mention it.....but I will need to look back at this years down to road in order to remember when and where all we lived at this time in our lives. Explination: We must have done a REALLY good job staging our last house, because it got 4 offers in a week and sold immediately. We literally only lived there for 4 weeks, before the sale closed. I am sure people are starting to wonder if we are gluttons for punishment. We really do have it down to an art. The day of moving has always been the part I dread. I don't mind the packing and I like the decorating part. This was by far our easiest move. Part of the reason for that is that we have temporarily moved back to the house we lived in just over a year ago (3 houses ago). We lived there for two years.....our longest ever. That is why I named this post Home Again. "Home" has become a very loose term for us, but this house feels more like home then any that we have lived in. We lived here when we decided to have a baby and moved out a week before her first birthday. We have more happy memories here then anywhere else. It also feels like home because it was one that we planned, designed and built. I forgot how many special features we put into this house until moving back after living in three older houses. I could go on and on, but I won't. I will just say that these are all just houses, not homes and I am thankful that we are able to be faithful with our gifts and talents in a resourceful way at this time in our lives. God has been so faithful to us. We will one day build a house for us and stay for a while, but for now.....here we are....and there and here and there. Oh, and the reason we aren't staying is that it is already under contract to be sold when the buyer sells her house. I have told a few people that as Chad was somewhat stressing about moving 4 weeks after moving in, he said, "It is kind of an adventure though, isn't it?" I told him that being married to him is always an adventure! It is an advendture I have been on for 7 years that I don't see ending anytime soon. I know you just came to get Meg updates, so here you go.

You could practically jump off our roof into the neighborhood pool. (I wouldn't recommend it, since it is only 4.5 feet deep) I used to feel like it was our pool (that I didn't have to clean or care for), because it is a small gated community where we are 30 years younger then any of the other residents. There isn't a lot of action at the pool! Meg and I have been outside daily since we moved on Friday. She loves it!

Since we know that we aren't staying long and it is already "sold", we aren't decorating or unpacking anything that isn't an essential for life. I feel like I am on vacation, since I have always lived in houses that show regularly and needed to be ready to show soon after moving in. We didn't even move our kitchen table in. Just the barstools....so Meg has enjoyed having her own table in the dining room.

Another favorite pastime is getting inside the empty kitchen cabinets and closing the doors. She yells, "where's Meg?"....which pretty much gives away her location.

Her other favorite activity is taking toys up to the landing at the top of the stairs and playing; as though it is her secret and secluded spot.

The rest of the pictures are pre-move, but I didn't get a chance to post them sooner.
I think it might be time to get the poor girl some dress up clothes. She makes do, though.

Somehow Daddy's t-shirts and socks have become her favorite dress up clothes. I thought it was weird until I realized that Daddy often leaves things where she can get to it....mommy's clothes are closed up in the drawers or the laundry hamper (if you know what I mean). Here is daddy's shirt, that made it's way down to skirt level.

I also had to throw this one in. Meg has asthma and has had to do breathing treatments periodically since getting RSV when she was 8 months. The first time we gave her one, she screamed BLOODY MURDER (if you know her, you know what I mean) and faught with all of her little strength the entire 10 minutes. She has come a long way since then. Now she is so used to it that we just turn it on, turn on a video and hand it to her to give to herself. It is kind of sad, but also kind of cute. Here she is after coming inside from a swim. Coloring with one hand and taking the treatment with her other hand.

Anniversary Pics and Girlfriends

The first two pictures are random, but this is Meg's new favorite thing to do. Our DVD player on the big TV in the living room died....So Meg loves to go in Mom and Dad's room and push all the pillows off of the bed, cozy up under the covers and watch Videos on our little TV. She looks like the Princess and the Pea in the big bed by herself. I always ask her sarcastically if she would like me to peel her a grape..... to which she says, "No thank you."

I already mentioned that we got to go see Legally Blonde the Musical for our Anniversary. It was so fun. I actually remembered to take my camera with us to drop Meg off at my Brother's house, so that they could take our picture. I was just thinking the other day that the last non-professional picture of just me and Chad was taken on the cruise we took right before finding out I was pregnant with Meg. That was almost three years ago. So here you go!

Meg's best little girlfriend Merrick got to come spend the day with us Thursday. Merrick is the only one of Meg's friends who talks as much as she does. Her conversations with most of her friends is one sided (which she doesn't seem to mind) but she really loves being around Merrick. They play really well together. Their conversations are really hilarious. Next time, I will get the video camera out.

They had so much fun doing all the things girlfriends like to do:

Destroying and jumping on my bed.

Watching Disney Movies

(these are my old VHS movies, so they still work in the living room)

Talking on the phone
Sharing accessories

Having tea parties

Reading ALL of the books

Eating cerial snacks

What a full and fun day!

Move #8, Anniversary #7....and counting

Tomorrow is our 7th wedding anniversary. Last night Chad's mom came to keep Meg and we were able to eat at Reata, our favorite and see a movie. We tried to go to Four Day Weekend, the Improv Comedy Group in FW, but the 7:30 was sold out and we don't do anything that STARTS at 10:00pm, so the second show was out of the question. Thursday my parents are coming from OKC to keep Meg, and treating us to Legally Blond the Musical at Bass Hall. I can't wait. We watched clips from Fireproof this morning in church, which was a good reminder of how God has blessed and protected our marriage these 7 years. I am thankful! Chad told me when we were dating that he would never expect me to fulfill him, but that he would look to God for that. I am the love of his life here on earth, but God is his first love. Phew!!

Last weekend, we completed our 8th move in those 7 years of marriage. The first 6 years of marriage we lived in houses that Chad built and moved as they sold. With the housing market the way it is, we are not currently building Spec Houses, so we are "staging" houses for other builders/home owners/investors to help them sell. Buying or renting would have been too easy for Chad. (I am "blessed" with a husband with a creative and resourceful mind. I am kidding with the parenthesis, by the way. It really is a blessing.) Statistically, a lived in or furnished house sells faster and for more money then a vacant house. We have the experience and the freedom, so why not? I explained some of this when we moved the 7th time, but I didn't really even fully understand what we were doing at that time. Now, I get it. So here are some pics of our current "home". I have a feeling we won't be here long. We moved in last Friday, the 24th and it has already shown like 7 times. It is a little old house, but I kind of like it. Some day we will live in a house without a For Sale sign in the yard, but for now.....we are still on the move. Meg doesn't even seem to notice most of the time. Although I told her to go get something out of her toy box the other day and she did a 360 turn like, "where is that again?".

I don't have a lot of pictures of Meg since the last post. Partly because we moved and my camera was packed, partly because she is never still enough to capture and partly because I just can't keep up with everything. I did take these the other day when Chad called and said he was on his way home and wanted to take Meg on a bike ride. I got her helmet out and she wanted to put it on immediately. She wore it for 45 min until they actually left on the bike ride.