Backyard Balloons

OK, so more about the new place.....
Our house is at the end of a huge cul-d-sac. Beyond the cul-de-sac (so to the left of our house if you are facing the front door) is basically a big desert lot that is zoned for commercial use. Nobody knows what is going to go there so for now it is just piles of dirt. Our house backs up to a road called Westwing Pkwy and across that street is just desert. In fact, I've been spending all my nights out on the back patio painting the kids new bunk beds and I have heard coyotes literally right across the street. Anyway, this afternoon Rand was out putting together garage shelves and came running inside to grab the camera and me to check out what was happening outside. Right across the street AND in the desert lot at the end of the cul-de-sac (how do you spell "cul-de-sac" anyway??) were hot air balloons getting ready to launch. We watched them one by one fill with air, take off with a basket full of people, go straight up into the sky and then dip behind the mountain. I always wondered how the hot air balloons managed to land in the same place they take off. As it turns out....they don't. They disappeared and we didn't see them again. But we sure had fun watching them blow up and take off right in our back yard! (Be sure to click on the pictures to see them a little bit bigger....the pictures hardly do it justice. It really was cool!)

Home Sweet Home!

Like I said in the previous post....WE'VE MOVED! I think it has been 2 weekends ago now. It has been quite the chore....and we aren't quite done, but it is getting close. We can comfortably live now! "AAAAHHHHHH", is about all I can say. It is soooo great having our own space. I can't emphasize this enough. Our new house is soo great. We decided to rent for a year instead of buy...just because we don't know for sure what we will be doing in a year....and as we all know, the housing market is not so great if you need to move on short notice. Most likely our church is going to need to move buildings in about a year, so we want to be able to stay close to "work" if we need to. So for now we are renting, and I'm perfectly happy with that. Our house is in a great area, a little bit on the outskirts, which I like and more than enough room for the 4 of us...plus Sammy (little doggie). Anyhoo, it's not put together enough to post any pictures yet, but we did get a new couch. We left our old one, because, one, it was too big to take, two, we didn't like it that much, and three, it was originally my parents anyway. So, we haven't had anything to sit on except my one favorite piece of furniture (my PotteryBarn rocking chair) and our dining room chairs. Anyway, we got a new couch which has really made the house feel homey and I am just loving being here and putting it all together. I have a great, big kitchen, 4 bedrooms (boys room, play-room, guest room/office, and our room) and a fabulous back patio with a built-in fire pit. I love it. We all thank God for it every single day. Thank you God for our new house! The house is at the end of a HUGE culdesac and the boys ride their bikes around and around with no fear of any traffic. (I'm afraid of coyotes, javelinas and rattlesnakes, but they aren't!)
I will post some pictures soon. Like I said, it's getting close to put together. For now though, here are some pictures of the new couch.

My Super Heros!

I know it's a little late getting out the Halloween pictures, but we've been busy....MOVING!!! (More about that later).
Ok, so I was warned ahead of time that it is still hot here for Halloween, so big, fluffy, animal costumes (like the one we have that Wyatt should have worn) were probably not going to work out.....unless you want a fainting tiger on your doorstep. So I found these cute super hero costumes at Potterybarn Kids and the boys loved them. They've actually been running around the house in them since the beginning of October....maybe the end of September...I can't remember when I got them.
So Wednesday the boys went to their friend's house for the morning while Rand and I went to our appointment. That night we went to our church where we had a Halloween alternantive called Trunk-or-Treat. It was super fun! Out in the parking lot we had a big bouncy thingy, cars lined up with their trunks full of candy, and a petting zoo complete with donkies, sheep, little pigs and goats. Inside we had games, hot dogs, cotton candy, popcorn, a movie playing, and face painting. The kids were totally crazy, pumped full of sugar, way overstimulated and completely tired! It was awesome!