I guess probably the whole country knows that California is on fire right now. The air is so smoky, I've totally locked the boys indoors. It's really awful watching the news. This reminds me so much of the fires in 2003. At that time we had just moved in to our first house, and one of the fires burned up over 300 homes in the neighborhood. It was an incredibly scary feeling seeing the sky turn black & knowing the fire was roaring through the neighborhood. I remember huge pieces of ash and wood and people's lives raining down from the sky, and seeing the fire itself between the homes across the street. Trying to pack up pictures, artwork and the cats in case we had to get out of dodge. This time we're incredibly fortunate that none of the fires are burning directly near us, but it's still frightening seeing those images on the tube, and not knowing when it will end. Michael's all tripped out because he does a lot of work up in Arrowhead (he's an appraiser for B of A), so he's really familiar with those neighborhoods that are burning. Man, I hope the next few days bring a little relief to things.
We got a couple of new pieces of art, A handmade uke by Kevin Titzer,
and "Four Ghosts" by Jim Houser
And I just sent off "Sausage Queen" to be in the "Picks of the Harvest: Chicago Invasion" show at DvA Gallery.
Things are good on the home front. Bodie had colic for the first few months of his life, and it would get really frustrating after a day of screaming. There were a few days that I was in tears, wondering if it would ever get better. He totally turned the corner last week. There are some fussy times still, but nothing like those really bad days. He also started sleeping from 10 pm to 6 am. Man, Dylan didn't sleep through the night until I was pregnant with Bodie, so that's HUGE! Dylan just gets more & more fun. The older he gets, the more he understands. Plus he's talking a lot now, he's really a funny little kid. Here' s some pics of him helping bake a "Daddy Cake".
mmmm.....chocolate, now there's a man after my own heart :)
This past Sunday we went to the pumpkin patch with the Soto's. Here in Yuciapa we have this super cool family owned pumpkin patch/christmas tree farm. When we moved here I'd had visions of this being a family tradition, but we heard this is the last year for the patch... they apparently sold out to Target. I'm usually a fan of Target, but I'm pretty pissed off about this...
Anyway, Mike's parents took Bodie for the morning, so we could have some one on one with Dylly that day. Jeff & Jennifer brought Shannon's wagon for the kids to ride in.
This place is a kids paradise, complete with monkeys dressed in cowboy garb.
Dylan shaking hands with the monkey.
Shannon and Dylan dancing to some good ol' hoedown music...
pony rides...
jumpers...
family pic (sorry Bodie) amongst the pumpkins...
The next morning we carved...
our pumpkins. I stole the Jack Skellington idea from the pumpkin patch. I'll use it as a vase to hold flowers.
And lastly, here' s Bodie and his crazy hair.
This afternoon we went over to my brother's house for Jacob's first birthday. Since Jacob's birthday is so close to Halloween, Lorena (my sister-in-law) turned it into a really cool Halloween birthday party. We dressed Dyl up as a pirate, and really, does it get any better than being a pirate? He totally got into character, and became a very contemplative pirate...
perhaps wondering why Mommy hadn't ironed his hat...
Here's my brother Josh and his son Jacob...
the man of the hour...
Hub and Bodie...
Had such a great time, can't wait to dress Dyl up again to go trick or treating. Oh, one side note... Dylan was so proud of his carved pumpkin from the previous post that we set them out front so everyone in the neighborhood could enjoy them. That night a little animal came and ate the face off of his pumpkin. Dyl was devistated... lots of tears shed in honor of his pumpkin.
