Fence and Videos of Angela

The only big news around here: we just signed a contract to have a fence built. We are very suddenly not feeling rich anymore :)

We're excited, though. After researching online, we thought that we could only afford a split-rail or agricultural fence- 4 ft tall with wire mesh to contain the kids and dog. We got some quotes from local contractors and found that a 6ft wooden privacy fence would actually be cheaper than we had expected. When you're spending $8000, why not go all the way and make it $11000 and get a good, quality product? It should help the property value, last longer and help us maintain healthy distance from our single, male neighbors on either side. It will be safer for the kids- they won't be able to climb it as easily and creepers from the street won't see them out playing in the yard. It should be up before Christmas!

I haven't taken a lot of pictures lately, but Natalie took this one of me before I left for the gym this morning.

Here are a few videos illustrating Angela's development:

Kind of late sharing this one, but the week of Halloween, Micah taught Angela to do an evil laugh

She's learning all of her body parts. Just can't figure out where mom is!

She's been using a lot more words, especially the important ones like "cookie", "juice"

And this was hilarious. Micah and I were talking about Angela's cute little curls, and a minute later we looked over in the family room to find Natalie trying to curl her hair with her toy tongs. Bwahaha.

Treat Yo Self

Rushed and a bit unorganized photos from my camera:

Micah's bonuses and stipend/travel reimbursements have all come through now and we are feeling silly rich. We plan to hang on to some for savings, but we're also just enjoying spending money on quality things that we will get good use out of. It's nice to let loose after so many years of being a tightwad!

I set a $2000 budget for Micah to get a riding lawn mower. So, here he is on his $2800 mower.

He also spent several hundred on other tools. We now have stuff to take care of our yard.

Last weekend, Natalie had her first primary program. She said her part in the microphone very loud, kept dancing to the songs and giving me two thumbs up in the audience.
Also, Angela is in nursery now. They love her because she is a sweet doll.

Our stake also had an amazing family fun festival last weekend. I didn't get many good pictures because it was raining half the time, but we had a great time. Natalie rode a horse and did bouncy houses and we rode a little train around the parking lot.

Micah was gone last weekend in Atlanta defending his thesis. He passed. It is over. Hallelujah. He celebrated his return by destressing with a good friend and some nice, mindless dominance over nature.

Micah's buddy Alex visited to help Micah get the yard under control. Here is a portion of the brush they cut from the back of our property. Some had already been hauled away by waste management and some is still out in the back yard and needs to be hauled out to the curb. It's hard to get perspective- this pile is about as tall as me. It was a massive amount of growth they cleared. 

 We tried hard to stay out of the way. We went to the zoo- here's Natalie being a sea turtle.

We also played water table a couple of times

We had an issue with the a/c- it took 2 days to get it fixed and our home warranty only saved us a little bit of money. The problem was a coolant leak, guy put a sealant through the system and filled the freon. We're still hoping it will die completely so that we can get the unit replaced under warranty. It's like 20 years old!

We love watching our neighbor's chickens. The girls always want to go out and feed them bread, they're so entertaining. Excitedly looking forward to getting our own once we've got a handle on a few other things.

Tidbits... with Photos!

We closed on the house Friday at 4pm, went straight to the ward Halloween party, spent Saturday running errands, Micah cleaned the church, Natalie had a birthday party, we got an estimate on a fence and we moved some of our stuff out of the apartment to the house, then went trick or treating. Sunday was cleaning and getting the last things out of the apartment, then Monday, the movers arrived. I've been rushing to get this place in decent order so that I can host preschool tomorrow and Micah is leaving to drive to Atlanta after work tomorrow so he can defend his thesis and he is still working on his presentation. To say the least, we have been busy. So, here are a few pictures...

This is a little kid mannequin. I found him/her in JC Penny at the mall. He/She had stripped naked and was hiding in the women's clothing section. Ah, kids.

Natalie asking the ocean to carry her away

Which Jack-o-lantern is better?! And for the record, we carved on Monday and they were moldy by Friday. This heat and humidity!

Here's our family room, off the back of the house. It used to be a screened porch, the previous owners finished it and put it under air. It has the square footage of our previous living room, dining room and kitchen combined, so it's a nice little space.

Paper pit for the kids to play in. Bought these couches and pictures from the house sellers, btw.

The living areas downstairs are all in decent shape- still have plenty of boxes in the garage to unpack slowly, but all the essentials are in place for us to live comfortably. Our bedrooms, especially mine and Micah's, are still disasters. Here is one small example of why I can't get anything done up there (that's Micah's shirt I had just put away)

Aaaaaaand, finally, here are the dining room set and hutch we bought from the sellers. With leaves, we can comfortably seat 10 in here :)