HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Just wanted to say HAPPY HALLOWEEN! It looks to be a perfectly spooky day here in the high desert. The sky is overcast, so the day has a gloomy feel to it. Perfect! Hannah was up at the crack of dawn (way before the alarm clock said "it's time to get up"...Darn!) dressed and ready to go to school. This year the kids were allowed to wear their Halloween costumes to school. I remember doing this when I was in grade school, and how exciting it was. This is the kids first experience with costumes at school, Their previous school in Texas did not allow costumes. So the kids were very excited. I sent a bouncing bat and dragon off to school this morning. I have the treat buckets all washed and ready, the worm and eyeball dinner is in the crock pot stewing, so we are ready for Halloween to begin! We will post costume pictures later. Until then, have a spooky time!

A builder not an Architect

This video is really dark, but the commentary is great. So sit back, listen and enjoy!

Introducing our pumpkins

Carving Pumpkins

Silly Hannah!

Look at our fabulous pumpkins!

Can you guess who's is who's?

Go Cora!

Gross, its pumpkin guts!

Last night we carved our pumpkins. We have desperately been trying to keep our pumpkins alive. It has been so hot here, and we got them so long ago...we were very worried they would be mush before we got to carve them. Thankfully that didn't happen, and we were able to have wonderful Pumpkins. Cora carved her very own pumpkin this year, she wanted a happy face. Anya wanted a spooky face, and attempted to carve spooky hair on her pumpkin. Hannah wanted a vampire bat pumpkin, because that is what she wants to be for Halloween.

The Spooky Ghost Town

In honor of Halloween, we decided to take the kids to a Ghost Town. We went to Calico Ghost Town, which is about 20 min. from where we live. Hannah freaked out on us, apparently she was thinking that we were going to a town where ghosts actually live. Meeting a real live ghost isn't on the top of Hannah's "things to do" list it seems. Once we got that dilema solved off we went. Being a ghost town, naturally they decked out in grand Halloween style. There is an old silver mine, that they created a haunted mine shaft out of. Matt screened it, then deciding it was kid friendly enough, we all went in together. Hannah was appalled!! The whole time we could here our little drama queen screaming " Am I dead yet?!". Hilarious! Since really the only scary thing about the mine was that it was dark, and there were people dressed up who followed you silently. No blood, gore, creepy guy with chain saw chasing you...the haunted mine was completely void of all the traditional haunts. Completely kid friendly, unless you ask Hannah..who is still very much alive! Below are some pics from our day!

Little Cori lost in Mainstreet Calico

We got our faces painted, except for Hannah, who was scared of the paint spray?!

First to jail....

then the coffin...!!!

That's all folks!

Where Did my Baby Go?

So the other day I was watching my Corinne Cate and it hit me that she is not my baby anymore! Of course I realized logically that she wasn't a baby anymore, but emotionally I still felt like she was our "baby Cora". It has just hit me that she is growing so fast, I wonder...where did her babyhood go. It was over in a blink of an eye, or so it felt. Now she is no longer a baby cora, but my little girl Cori.

My Herb Garden

I love to Garden, and had a nice little garden started in Texas. Out here it has been a challenge to get my garden going. The nice thing is, about half our backyard is a rock garden area. So putting in a raised garden bed was fairly easy. We just had to rake aside some of the gravel, and build our bed. Matt was wonderful in helping me with this (since I hurt my back, which is almost good as new now). The kids had a blast with this too...any excuse to get dirty, right? Cora got out her watering can, and helped me to water my plants. So now I have a little garden going, and it looks so happy. We planted some Rosemary, Chives, Thyme, Basil, Parsley, and Strawberries (this was for Cora, she loves, loves, loves strawberries!). We have also planted some other plants around the yard. I have a pergola type structure that is built over our patio, so I planted some Honeysuckle on the ends in hopes they will grow well and twine up throughout the pergola. On the ends of our grass I put in some Cannas (?), which grow so effortlessly and multiply like crazy. I also put in a corner flower bed by our patio with some fountain grass, primrose and mexican heather. We should be out here for 3 or 4 years, so I should be able to see my gardens blossom and mature. I love large, rambling gardens...we will see how this desert climate is on my plants. I tried to steer towards drought resistant plants, and have been observant of plants that seem to do well here in other's gardens. We are slowly adding more green and color to our desert oasis. We plan to put in a much larger vegitable garden next. We are all very excited for that!

I stand corrected

It was brought to my attention that I had misspelled desert. I know how to spell desert, it is a very easy word to spell. However when you put another word spelled correctly in place of desert, like dessert, my good friend Mr. Spellchecker fails me and the mistake gets passed over. I am attributing this mistake to all the muscle relaxers I am taking for my injured back. It appears that back muscles aren't the only ones that get relaxed!

It does Rain!

So below I have added a couple of cute video's that I took during our big rainstorm. One sunny afternoon, the sky darkened and then the clouds opened up and dumped buckets down upon us! This rainstorm rivaled rainstorms we had had in Texas. It was very reassuring for me to know that, while it may not happen often, it does rain here in the dessert.

More Raindrops falling on our Heads

It Does Rain in The Dessert!!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

GIRLS!!

WE LOVE OUR DADDY!

Sleepover fun!

One of my dear friends in Texas does this super fun thing with her kids every weekend. They Have a sleep over in their living room. She drags out her air mattresses, blows them up, and they all watch movies and "sleep over" in the living room. I loved this idea, I thought it sounded like so much fun! We have always had "Family Movie Night Fridays", but now we have added another element to it. We pull out the couch bed and the kids cozy up on it. Matt and I sit in our reclining loveseat and we watch our movie...then have our own "sleep over" party. So thanks H. for a great idea and new family tradition!

Our Arrival to the Universe!

So, after taking all the advice, pleadings and urgings from family and friends, I have taken the plunge! I have joined the blogging Universe. Like my dearest cousing once said, the jump is pretty scary, but worth it. (so I am told!) So I plan on visiting this little happy place often, and I hope you will join me too!