Christmas Ornaments

This year we started a new tradition with the cousins doing an ornament exchange that they each make. This year Liam and Lindie made hand reindeer ornaments with their photo on the back. I enjoyed making their ornaments with them. It was a bit of a challenge to get a 2 year old and a 1 year olds hand print to turn out well enough, but we managed. We also managed not to get everything else painted brown along the way. Liam does not like having his hands messy, so I had to convince him that it was ok for mommy to paint his hand brown. Lindie loves being messy, so I had to keep her from painting the rest of her body brown.

Here are the ornaments we made. We also made 2 for our own Christmas tree.

Thanksgiving!

We celebrated Thanksgiving on Saturday and had a wonderful day. We didn't celebrate on Thursday because Brian's parents arrived on Wednesday evening!!!! {Yeah} so it would have been too rushing to get everything ready and Thursday is just another day here in South Africa so our friends wouldn't have been able to join us.

We had a beautiful day, its summer ya know, so we are having warm, sunny temperatures while our family is embracing winter. We had a full menu including turkey, stuffing, jello salad, homemade bread rolls, carrots, pumpkin casserole, and pumpkin fritters and more. We finished off with pumpkin and rhubarb pie-It was so yummy!

After our friends left, the O'Tools stayed around for a few more hours. Grandpa Bob gave the kids rides on the four wheeler around our yard and they loved it. Surprisingly enough, Lindie loved it the most I think. Anytime Grandpa Bob tried to get away without her, she'd start running towards the four wheeler with her arms up. She gonna be a little girl with her daddy's adventurous spirit. And that is okay!

Lindie Fun!

I just can't believe that Lindie is already 15 months old. She is growing up so fast and really starting to take on her own personality. She is just so cute. She already has 10 teeth and loves to show them off. She often gives us this cheezy smile.

Lindie started taking steps on her own in September and slowly put more and more steps together. Early this month she just started taking off. She walks everywhere now and very fast. More impressively she can walk very good with shoes on already. So life in our house is no longer the same. Lindie can now effectively follow, chase, take toys, and pick on her big brother. There is no hiding from her anymore.

Cowboy and Bubble Bee

Liam's preschool teacher was very intrigued with the idea of halloween and dressing up, so this year at school she had a halloween party. To help celebrate, I made jack-o-latern cupcakes for Liam to take to school and he dressed up as a cowboy.

The O'Tools and us also had our own little halloween party for our kids. We really aren't into halloween that much, but to help provide a little bit of fun for the kids we decided to dress them up. Since there is no trick or treating here, we hid candy outside for them to find, pretty much it was an Easter egg hunt for Halloween. At least they had a little fun, ate candy, cake and it gave us something to do.

Lindie was not impressed with her bubble bee outfit, so it didn't stay on very long. She also would not sit still for any pictures.

Update on Our House at The Village

Its been a while since I'v posted pictures on the progress being made on our house at The Village.

This week Brian installed the windows, so that really made the house look real. They also started to layout out where the walls are suppose to go and fastening the footplates to the concrete floor. The bathtub and shower are sitting in the house now and the interior of the house has been plastered. Brian started doing this and quickly discovered he needed to hire this part of the house out. He's never plastered before and it was taking him too long.

Pictures are always better-so here ya go.

{back of our house before windows}

{bathtub and shower}

{a local company sent a backhoe and driver to help us on a Saturday.

The were able to backfill the sewer trench, dig a new trench for electrical service and

backfill that trench in one morning}

{Lindie enjoying some raisins off the dirty floor}

{There is always a little bit of time for fun with daddy}

{front of the house with windows in}

Liam on the Roof!

The other night Brian was outside playing with Liam and his bouncy ball. Liam LOVES playing with any kind of ball, but bouncy balls are very fun. Of course Brian had to see how high he could make it bounce, which lead to it getting stuck on the roof of the house. So next came getting out a ladder and climbing on the roof to find it. While Brian was on the roof looking for the ball and I was in the house getting supper ready, Liam decided to climb up the ladder by himself.

Now Liam is very use to climbing ladders and he started rather young. He successfully learned to climb up and down a ladder by himself at 15 months.

The next thing Brian sees is Liam on the roof. Thankfully Brian wasn't too far away and quickly helped him down, after I got his picture.

As a mother, did this phase me? Not really. Liam pretty much climbs anything and hangs from high places. He's been on the roofs at the property with Brian and Uncle Louie, he has hung from the rafters and continues to go back for more. Its to be expected when raising a boy!

{Brian lifting Liam off the roof to me.

I accidentally took a picture as I was reaching for him}

{Liam on the wall of the children's house at The Village.

Yes, that's right-He is about 11ft up in the air & enjoying it}

Where did October Go?

I can't believe how busy we have been. I actually have a few funny things and lots of other general happenings to blog about, but haven't had the time.

Last week we moved into another house because the house we were renting was sold and we had to move. I have to admit that moving isn't my favorite thing to do, but we've done a lot of it in the past year. We are praying that we are only in this house for 2 maybe 3 months. Brian and crew are working hard on our house at The Village, in hopes of us moving in by the end of December. That would be fantastic! Needless to say, I am not unpacking everything and not decorating the house. A few pictures on the wall, mainly so they aren't laying around to get broken. We will put up the Christmas tree and decorations when the time comes.

During the move, Liam came down with a nasty stomach bug that seems to be going around Welkom. He was sick for about a day, but managed to make a LOT of laundry for me to do. Liam threw up on Brian 3 times and got him good every time. It was nasty.

The move hasn't been as easy on the kids as we thought it would be. Liam was a bit off for a few days, really naughty and potty training went backwards. Thankfully, Liam is now becoming more comfortable with the house and is getting back to normal. Lindie is now running a fever throughout the day, but I discovered she has 2 big molars coming in. So ouch! Poor little girl.

While I unpacked the kitchen dishes, Liam and Lindie played with play dough. Lindie has started to climb, a lot. She thinks its so much fun to stand on the chair-which I always tell her to sit down. She's learning, I hope.

But when I'm not watching, I also often find her sitting or standing on the table. {Naughty little girl}