Soccer Season!

Jeff is playing soccer again.  He is on the same team as Nathan and Tiffany and I go watch every Friday night.  It is fun to go cheer them on!  We make pretty great cheerleaders.  There have been several different people (players, other teams even) that mention what a great job we do cheering our team on!  They are on FC Bullocks ;).  Jeff does a great job.  He holds the defensive line really well and is a great support to the goalie! 

Yay Bullocks! 

Here are just a few action shots.  He's #7!

Silly Goose!

The geese are here!  There are so many!  It's been fun to see them take over.  Since they came and visited our yard they have continued to come back to nibble the grass.  I got a little nervous and looked up geese eating the grass and problems, and I think we are good. 

Anyway, the geese are fun, but so is my family!

Jeff!  I just couldn't help taking his picture in silhouette .... with his hat sitting so high on his head.  Just made me laugh :)

The other fun story....  Talmage came up to me and asked if he could go "pretend fish."  I was so shocked I laughed, and laughed, and laughed.  I guess I had actually called it pretend fishing before because the kids never catch anything and we really don't know anything about fishing.  I guess Talmage was listening and remembered "pretend fishing." 
He didn't catch anything.... as usual.

We decided to go out and try to feed the geese.  The geese like getting fed!
Mhari and Lorna

Clark ... right out of his hand!  I got them to eat out of my hand too.  I'm guessing they are pretty used to people feeding them by now.

Talmage tried and tried to get the geese to eat from his hand, but they wouldn't go for it. 

 He tried so hard too.  Poor guy.

More pretend fishing :) ... such silly geese I have!

Oh what do we do at the Zoo?

We have Dallas Zoo passes so we are tying to get into the habit of visiting the zoo again.  I saw a post from a friend about how her kids did a nature exchange at the zoo.  I looked into it and  I knew the kids would love it.  It also keeps us more motivated to go to the zoo. 

Before the exchange we walked around a bit and enjoyed some of the animals.  The cousins went too so that makes the trip even more fun!

When we went to the nature exchange the kids took turns turning in a piece of nature (rock, acorn, etc.) and sharing facts that they had researched about it.  They get more points for more facts as well as bringing in writing about it (like keeping a science journal).  All of the kids got points that they then can trade to get something else in the shop.  It was really cool to see the things that were available!  They are already preparing for the next zoo trip!

Koala cuteness

Tiffany and I in our matching Walking Dead shirts :)

Punkin, Bug, and Dog hanging out on the butterfly chair.

The Nature Exchange!

It was so great to see them learning so much from the naturalist! 

4H Fun!

4H is going again in full swing!  I am leading 2 cooking groups out of my home and it has been fun ... and crazy!

Here is one of their creations from the healthy snack category. 

This is the junior group and they named it the beached up boat.

Intermediates and they named it Mount Fruity

We are also in full swing for the fashion project.  That includes lots of meetings, presentations and service projects.  The competition got moved to the spring, but since we had all of the meetings scheduled we just got them done. Here are just a few pictures. 

Talmage

Mhari

Grant

Sandra

Helping make Linus blankets!

It is always a busy fall with 4-H, but good too! 

Pool boy!

This is our first time owning a pool.  It would be fun to have a pool boy to manage all of the pool needs, however, that's money we don't want to spend right now.  So instead of a pool boy, we all get to learn now to manage the pool ourselves.  It hasn't been easy either.  When we first moved in the pool was green because the owners had not had their pool boy coming.  That got sorted out, but it wasn't the end.  We have had problems keeping the pool blue and  bought and used lots of pool shock.  Then we killed the motor while we were out of town.  It was under warranty so that eventually got sorted out.  We also learned how to clean our filter and one of the screens had a hole in it which made the pool really have no chance to stay clean. 

We have a friend in the new ward that knows pool maintenance and has come to our rescue!  He was able to get the part we needed for a better price so that was awesome too!  Seriously we would not have a clue without Corey Buer helping us so much! 

Here is a before and after of the pool filter. It was our first time to see how nasty they are inside.  I guess this is normal, but still totally gross!

Dinner Guests

While we were enjoying dinner there was a group of geese that came to join us... in the yard :). 

It was pretty cool to see them eating our grass.  Talmage helped coerce them into the yard with some bread, but they stayed for a while nibbling on the grass.  He even decided to get some pictures of the geese while he was out there.  Silly boy!

Just one of the fun perks of our new location! 

Built In ... Before

One of my awesome projects that I did was to redo the built in bookcases on the side of the fireplace. 

Originally they were a brown and didn't really stand out.  I'm not a fan of all of the brown and wanted to paint them white to  help them stand out.  I painted the back panel a light grey to add some more interest as well.  I think it turned out really well!

If the shoe fits!

Our little Chica is not so little anymore.  Her last pair of tennis shoes were from the boys section so when it was time to go find new church shoes I didn't have a clue what size her feet were now.  Looks like we have graduated into the women's section ... 7 and a 1/2! 

I remember when I had the same size feet as my mom... (I was about 13).  I guess we will see how long it takes her to pass me up!

Investigating ... Armadillo?!

We have been planning on remodeling our kitchen, but we weren't sure what is happening at the corner.  The time had come to rip a hole in the sheet rock to investigate! 

Time for the pry bar and hammer!

We were glad to get to figure out some answers, but weren't happy with the results.  It turns out the beam doesn't go all of the way to the corner so we need a new beam.  It also turns out that the other wall is load bearing even though the house was built with trusses, they filled in that truss space with a spacer. 

When Jeff was bringing home Talmage from Seminary there was an armadillo in our yard.  He finally crossed the road in front of the car on his way to the neighbors house. 

Kind of a cool surprise at 7 am.  We have seen a lot of wildlife around our house!

Happy Labor Day!

We have been getting together with the Hughlett Family over the summer during holidays.  This time I actually remembered to take pictures!!  We love getting to share our pool and food!  Then we try to sneak in a movie night of Fast and the Furious while the kids watch a kids movie upstairs.  We sure enjoy keeping some friends from Mansfield :)

Grant and Talmage

Lacey