Happy Halloween

Mario Evan and Toad Owen

Thanks to Grammi, for once again making out-of-this-world costumes for Halloween.

The twins are obsessed with Super Mario Brothers, so they chose Mario and Toad this year.

Best of Friends

Evan, Ella, Owen

Only seven months apart, Ella and the twins are inseparable, although it's abundantly clear Ella is the boss.

We snapped this pic at Lealls after Church.

First Day of Kindergarten

Evan and Owen at their first day at kindergarten at Carver.

 

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They're so young, but they were ready... So, at the advice of Carver Elementary, we sent Evan and Owen to kindergarten. Looking forward to an amazing year. This year, they'll learn to read! Hard to believe... They'll also learn math and continue with art and music classes. I'm particularly excited to see if they get some good fundamentals down in piano.

They wanted to be in separate classrooms, so Evan is in Mrs. Smith's room, with his best friend, Shaddon, and Owen is in Mrs. Bergeron's class, with great buddy Grayson from soccer.

Carver Circus

I was two hours late to work this morning, and for very good reason.

Evan and Owen were performing in the Carver PreK Circus, a "delight for the ears and eyes," as the ringleader exclaimed.

The program included acrobats, twirlers, magicians, monkeys, seals and much more, including jugglers:



and clowns!

Visit from Grandpa

Short but sweet!

We got to hang with Grandpa during a very quick visit to Amarillo. Wish he could stay longer, but it's hard for him to be gone long, with all of his animals missing him in Kansas City.

A funny (probably had to be there) moment:

"Goodnight, kids," said Grandpa.

"Are you going to say goodbye to us in the morning before you leave?" Evan asked.

"Of course!" reassured Grandpa.

"Be sure and bring us that candy we found in your bag," Owen said.

"Yeah, Grandpa, don't forget the candy," added Evan.

Twin Talk

I think I'm the last person in the world to stumble upon this, but it sure brought back great memories.


And I loved the ABC commentary about the fascinating way identical twins communicate in this clip.

Momma's Boys

"We don't want to look like twins," one of them said.

"Why not?" I asked.

"Because," the other replied, "We don't want people saying, 'oh, you guys are sooooo cute!' "

Home, Sweet Home

It wasn't an easy process, but after a long wait and a little struggle, we closed on the house of our dreams in mid-December. We had the perfect buyers and some pretty awesome sellers, but we had a corrupt mortgage company in the middle messing it all up. Our good friends at Amarillo National Bank, where we've held both our mortgages and banked for years, couldn't have been more wonderful.

Long story short, we were supposed to close two weeks earlier and had all our belongings, except a TV, a couple mattresses and most of our clothes, locked away in a uHaul outside our old house, where we had to continue living until our buyers' mortgage papers went through. We sacrificed a lot those two weeks, and we often told each other, "we'll laugh about this someday." But it was a difficult time, and we wouldn't want to do it again. But on the bright side, we found some fun ways to entertain ourselves and the kids and managed to grow closer as a family amid the stressful situation.

We are thankful everyday for our new home, which has truly felt like "home" since the moment I stepped inside with my fabulous real estate agent and good friend, Marcia Parr. Call it instinctual, but I knew it was where we were meant to be. And, luckily, Nate trusted me.