Toothless wonder to the extreme

Another night, another tooth. That makes 3 in less than a week, if you are keeping track. She has another that's a little loose, but we should be a few weeks off. How she'll eat, I don't know.

Unfortunately, she pulled this one over the sink. Not such a bad idea for messiness, but the tooth went down the drain. Dad is working on it now.

I added a picture to the blog. This is the book we are reading now. Look similar?

Soaked to the bone

I decided to walk to pick up the kids from school today. I saw some grey clouds overhead, but they didn't look too ominous, so I continued. About a third of the way there, huge raindrops sprinkled down. Oh well, a little light rain. So, I continued.

Then it really started raining. Again, I figured, how bad could it get, and stayed under the trees. Now I was late and wet, but I tried to convince myself that it was a nice summer rain and that we'd have fun walking home together.

When I got to the school, the kids were gone. As I started up the hill, it was pouring. I continued home (what else could I do), soaked to the bone and blinded by the rain in my eyes. Finally, a good samaritan mom picked me up. Turns out her daughter is in Sam's class. So nice. I rejected her offer initially because I was dripping wet, but she said, "no problem! I have leather seats!" I explained I was worried about my kids and sure enough, we found them huddled together, walking home.

We picked them up too and made it here safely. We had to strip off the soaked clothes-- my running shoes may never be the same-- and take warm showers.

Kate just sat down next to me and said, "Sam told me we'd survive, and we did. He was right, God did have a plan for us to get out just in time!"

So cute. God does have a plan. (I think it includes no soccer this season for Kate, unfortunately. Haven't had practice in 3 weeks due to rain. In the desert of all places!)

Our Vegas Anniversary

I really wanted to write something pensive, profound even, about our first year in Vegas. Unfortunately, there is just no time. Suffice it to say, we've made it. And now Henderson is truly our home.

I think the picture attached says all we need to say. Look at those happy faces! (Well, except for Sam who was pouting because Kate won more tickets than him.)

Leprechaun Trap

Sam came home the other day saying he wanted to make a leprechaun trap. When I asked for an explanation, he said he thought we could build a home that a leprechaun would want to live in, and then the leprechaun would make it his home. Think Gingerbread Baby.

I agreed to the plan, quite honestly thinking that it was some book or school craft activity he'd done and that it would likely never come up again.

This afternoon, he was true to his word, and recruited his sister and her friend to help build the home/trap. They worked hard for a long time, and designed the home below. I love a good holiday craft that requires absolutely no involvement from me.

Christmas Eve

Had another great Christmas Eve with the Whortons and Wilkersons. They did all the work this year and we just showed up and mooched off of them. It was so nice to just sit and be with them. Luke and Lindsay were both in town and they watched Elf with Sam and Kate. I'm not sure they are really equipped for wrestling with the kids all night, despite their big city lifestyles and fancy degrees, but we had a great time watching. Lindsay and her bossy friend Kate organized a rousing game of Celebrities, during which we learned about obscure public figures and watched our budding actor and actress at work.

And Christmas Eve isn't the same without a birthday cake (ice cream). Kate blew out the candles early, so we had to go through a couple of rounds to get everyone together. Happy birthday Jesus!

I wish this were a better picture, but the faces were too cute to leave out!

Bingo!

We went all the way home to Independence for Labor Day. To see friends and family, of course, but also to help out at JSL's first participation in Santa-Cali-Gon in more than a decade: bingo. Seeing as I was to be blamed for this if it were a complete flop, and one of my good friends Jolie Austin was the de facto bingo chair, I decided to head back.

(We also went to Kate's first "big girl" concert: Selena Gomez at Starlight Theater. Wow, the parents, the kids, the lateness of the night, the price of the t-shirt. She loved it. It was well worth it!)

Working bingo was SO much fun! I worked two shifts on Sunday afternoon and really enjoyed the time with my friends. The good news is that I think they cleared around $5000 from that event, and many of the costs were first-time expenses that they wouldn't have moving forward. The girls did a great job, and I hope I get to help again. I really miss my JSL friends!

Someone caught a picture of Kate in the bingo tent, see below. Eileen labeled it: "Future JSL member learns bingo operations."

Friends

I had this cute picture of Kate and Chloe from a trip to WOF with the Sims. We didn't make it to WOF/OOF nearly as much as in past years, but we tried. The Sims were our regular playmates.

Cute, IF

Amy and I took our kids to Fazoli's one night over the summer. Sam wasn't there-- I'm not sure where he was at-- so it was just Evan and Kate. When we sat down, Evan says to me, "You know, she [looking at Kate] would be pretty cute IF she wore some makeup." He seemed to warm to her as the night went on and they ended up chasing each other up and down the sidewalk in front of Marshalls (anything for a few minutes of adult conversation, right?)

As you can see, they hit it off marvelously, and we had to break up a little proclaimed kissing threat by Evan later in the evening. Hilarious. (Oh, this picture was taken shortly after Evan broke his arm at school-- pushed off a swingset of some kind by a "Friend")