photo update from last weeks musings

it's been a while

since i last wrote here. lots of things have happened. good, bad, ugly, and lovely, too.
i had a concert series with phoenix symphony chorus,
dealt with an unfortunate neighbor feud,
waited to hear about our new home loan (which, after the above, seems even more urgent),
painted and picked up a big pumpkin at as you wish,
went to see a fertility doctor (!)
cleaned out and donated some clothes from all our closets,
had to add more paperwork to the bank for our loan,
went to our family vacation home in prescott for four days (!-thanks matt and jo, for letting me "ditch" sunday),
talked matthew into keeping the beard he started on our trip,
waited to hear about our loan,
went shopping and out to eat too much,
went to a pumpkin festival,
made a new friend,
waited to hear about our loan............

are you noticing a theme to the month of october so far?
apparently, banks are a little wary of handing out money right now. and people have to jump through about 1000 hoops to buy a home. and since we own 3 businesses, they have deemed us lucky enough to jump through 2000 hoops! lucky us! pray we hear soon, i'm getting itchy to move and get settled before all the holiday stuff starts sneaking up on me.

i may post pictures of some of the above mentioned events. probably not, but maybe. the pumpkin is awfully cute, if i say so myself. and so is toby at the cabin, and matthew's new facial hair foray. i'll try to take some soon and post them eventually.

preschool classics

in the last week, toby and i did a couple fun activities that are pretty standard, preschool-y types of things. first, we did shaving cream painting. i put down some press-n-seal wrap on the counter, to make clean up easier, squirted out some good old white shaving cream, then added a couple drops of food coloring for him to mix in. and mix it he did......

notice the green belly- i'm glad i made him take off his shirt to do this.

then, early this week, we had our neighbor, jaelyn, over to play. we decided to make playdough. in keeping with the time of year, we made it orange, and i added in pumpkin pie spice and extra cinnamon to make it yummy smelling!

they played with the playdough for a long time that day, and almost everyday since!

baby cousin emily

we wanted to get toby ready for a visit from uncle mark, aunt leanne, and 6 month old cousin emily. so we looked at lots of pictures online, saying all of thier names over and over again. the name we used with emily was "baby cousin emily". well, now, and probably forever more, she must be called by all three names. if we say cousin emily, or baby emily, or baby cousin, we are quickly corrected by sir toby. no, baby cousin emily.

we were thrilled to have the "other" coates family from mobile, alabama come for a visit. here are lots of pictures to prove it.................

we accosted them straight off the airplane.

then later had a family game night. we sure are a fun family...

sweet hugssilly sunglasses

jacobus n me

i just love this pic!!!

we miss you already! we love the mobile coates!

don't be fooled by plastic "toy" tools!

yesterday, my husband comes into the bathroom after my shower, and says "toby made a new gate". i think he may have finally broken through the wood fence panel between us and the neighbor. he says no, just go look. i walk out to this................

i realize the damage is minimal, and he seems so proud, what could i do? run and get the camera, of course. now i understand the danger of blogging- to document the misbehavior seems counterproductive.


mommy brain wants to get across: don't do this anymore, tools don't touch the hoouse, lets clean up.

toddler brain thinks: "how could something she laughs and takes pictures of be bad?" this is best personified by these pictures............









here's the "damage" and the pleased smile of my four year old thinking he's a "worker man".

aaaaaacccccckkkkkk!

120 days! that's only four months til toby's 5th birthday...................

kid birthday parties are fun for parents, sometimes....

so, there were two birthday parties back to back this weekend. both from toby's class at bethany learning center. saturday was kennedy's birthday party. super fun for the kids- splashing in a water feature at the park, and of course, the arizona kid birthday party staple-the bouncy.
toby enjoyed himself very much, save a slightly fat lip injury on one of the water tube thingies.
daddy, however, was tired and hot after an open house in a bank owned home (read: no a/c!). and we had a new house on our search to check out, so we left the party after about an hour and a half. happy birthday kennedy!
then on sunday afternoon, it was time for finn's birthday party at bounce u. we'd never been. i had checked it out online, and it said parents are encouraged to play. i plotted on how to get matthew in the bouncy features......
but it was me who joined in the fun. i didn't bring socks, so i had to buy some there. a paltry 3.50 for some super fun! i loved it. and the kids thought it was such a hoot to have a mom on the giant slide. they kept wanting to slide down with me. pizza (for i think the third time this week) and cake and presents finished up a fun sunday afternoon.
i've gotta get all my posts caught up. there's some pics and stories from mark, leanne and emmi's visit, and t-ball to discuss. i'll try to get those loaded soon.