35 looks good on you

Last week we celebrated Michael's 35th birthday. We got to spend the day at the Washington D.C. LDS temple with some dear friends, Ed and Judy Young, which was wonderful.

 Michael requested cinnamon rolls for his morning breakfast, served on the requisite red plate.

That night we came home and had chilapos (his family's name for sort-of taco salad), opened presents, and had brownies and mint chocolate chip ice cream. I love it when the requested dessert also happens to be one of my favorites, too.

We were all happy on the inside. (Even Robbie, who was cranky so we put him down early.)

Happy birthday to my own personal stud-muffin.

Fall gifts

For our orthodontic practice, October and November have become the "new" December in terms of busyness. Every year, Michael and I (but mostly Michael) prepare a gift for the many referring dentists in the area. We are very grateful for their referrals, and this is a small way to thank them. This year, we are giving gifts to 72 dentists. Their gift is based on the amount of referrals they give us. Last year's was a cooking theme. This year's is a movie/entertainment theme.

 Preparations in the basement. Can you tell my husband is a little bit OCD?

 The finished product (movie tickets, etc., if applicable, are inside the card). The wooden popcorn bowls are personalized for those dentists.

 I am thinking there might be an extra or two we will get to enjoy. Hopefully.

One set ready for delivery--Michael hand-delivers each one, driving to West Virginia and around in a wide radius to the dentists in the Valley.

By the time this is posted, all the deliveries will be done. It's a lot of work, but at least it isn't one more thing at the Christmas season.

Leaves

With the beautiful deciduous trees of Shenandoah Valley comes the inevitable fallen leaves.

 Worth the raking, though, and the very satisfying crunch they make under feet both big and small.

Who needs a turkey?

Robbie. It's what's for dinner.

I thought he was busy before.

Boy, was I wrong! This boy is in to EVERY thing. Climbing is truly an art that he is perfecting . . . and I know he is just getting started.

 His absolutely favorite thing continues to be getting into the car when it's parked in the garage. It's especially a good day if he can find a piece of gum in the side compartment.

 Hi Dad! I was just picking out a tie for you.

Wanna goldfish? How about eighty?

It's a good thing this kid's so darn cute and fun.

Outside re-do

Lest you thought that I was done with boring you with my chronicle of our house-building experience, I had to record the adventure we've had with the exterior.

When the house was built, we asked the excavators to bring in topsoil and put down grass seed.

After putting down the "topsoil" (which was really just clay fill dirt) and the expensive grass seed, it became clear that our money was wasted as weeds quickly overran the tender grass. ("Yeah, nice orange topsoil," one of the landscaping guys joked to me later.)

Then, we found out we had a leak in our outside water line (not inside the house, down by the street) because the excavators sliced the water line during the grading and then spliced it together with a coupling, which they later discovered was faulty.

So, we made them come back out and replace the entire water line. I really regret not taking a picture of the six-foot tall pile of red clay in our front yard. Fortunately, the excavating company agreed to pay for most of the $300+ water bill we had that month.

 Our builder is a great house-builder, but the exterior is not his forte. We had another company come out and put in French drains behind the retaining wall because the water was taking a couple of days to drain out after a big rain.


 We also had a tree company come out and remove some trees (which ironically we had wanted to save in the first place but later learned they weren't good varieties to keep). See the guy up in the cherry picker?

What little boy (or grown-up) doesn't love watching big trucks at work?

Unfortunately, the heavy tree-removal trucks compressed our drainage pipes as they went over the ground, so we had to get a new pipe put in later. And yes, that is the "orange topsoil," aka red clay.


 And we had a landscaping company come out and put in bushes and trees. I've learned a lot about bushes and trees in that process as we chose which ones we wanted to have in our yard.

The original design the landscape guy gave us had a lot of funky, unusual plants in it. My friend, Susan, (who has helped me with the interior) was super helpful with the exterior as well, teaching me that the landscaping should support the house and its style and not distract or detract from it. You also want to think about what colors you'll be seeing through the windows as you look outside so the outside complements the inside of the house. 

I was so happy I went with more traditional preferences: boxwood, laurel bushes, crepe myrtles, hydrangeas, roses, etc. I still need to learn about when I cut what back, though.

Here are the stepping stones Michael laid out after the new plants and mulch were put in but before the new topsoil and grass seed were put down over the hard clay and weeds.

Then the other landscaping company brought in eight loads of real topsoil, re-graded, and then put down more grass seed.


There's nothing like the sinking feeling of accidentally forgetting to turn as you back your husband's car out of the garage and disturbing precious newly grown grass.

We--and by we I mean mostly Michael--spent hours and hours watering the lawn every day, starting the water at 5:30 in the morning and then me finishing it off after he went to work. Moving those sprinklers is a pain in the heiny.

But in the end it has paid off pretty nicely. Although we are still watering, of course. But now it's just once a week instead of every day.

The grass growing in around the stepping stones is really fun.

Fresh after the first mow (taken several weeks ago--now the leaves have mostly all changed and dropped). And now the real work starts. But that's okay--it's worth it having Robbie push his little car over the grass and looking out to see a sea of green, finally.

Halloween Fun

Clara really wanted me to sew her a lion or a tiger costume for Halloween this year. I really didn't want to, and I searched and searched for a store-bought one for her. In the meantime, I found a great used one for Robbie. Then one day I persuaded her to be a bat for Halloween instead, feeling confident that I could more easily make a bat costume. Clara acquiesced to my request and was a super cute bat. She asked me for weeks before Halloween if I had made her costume yet, and fortunately the pattern we used was easy enough that she was able to help me sew it. She did well and it was a nice mommy-daughter experience.

 Clara's mask design is copied from this one (Michael drew it and I sewed it with Clara's help). Unfortunately, on Halloween night (this is the previous weekend) I could not find her mask, so I drew one on with eyeliner.

 Robbie is crazy good at looking at the camera. It's so nice.

 Bat girl says "AAAAAHHHHH!!"

 The bat is angry with me for making her continue to take pictures.

 She is threatened with not going to the church trunk-or-treat activity unless she lets me take pictures. She reluctantly consents.

And this cubby is just ready to go eat some candy off the floor and run around like a crazy lion with rabies.

Good times.