A lot of guts...

Last Thursday, on my father's birthday, some jerk decided it would be a good idea to walk in our garage, open our car door, and steal my wallet- right during the time most of my neighbors were getting up and going to work! Thieves nowadays sure have a lot of guts! So I've been busy the last few days with things other than Halloween... calling VISA, closing bank accounts, ordering new cards, notifying my medical insurance in case of fraud, calling the police, writing statements, getting my picture taken. What a perfect time of year to waste money on fees for closing accounts, ordering new checks, etc. Christmas shouldn't be affected too much, but it has certainly changed the mood around here. We're constantly checking to make sure our garage is closed- and we lock our car even though it's parked in our garage [and I don't keep my wallet in the car anymore- although that one is annoying because I've driven off without it a couple times now!] It's sad that I have to adjust my life because one person took it upon themselves to try and ruin it- all for $1 in change, a $25 Sizzler gift card, and a fraudulent $45 gas charge. It's been hard trying to stay cheerful when in fact I'm thinking about all the ways to help the police catch this guy... Hopefully I can eventually forget about it enough to go back to living my life- but remember the lessons I've learned from this horrible experience! So to those of you who are even less careful than we are- beware! The world isn't as safe as you think [not even Utah is exempt from crime].

"Trick or Treat!"

Serra caught on to the idea of Halloween a LOT quicker than I thought she would. By the second door, we would let her ring the doorbell and if they didn't answer within a few seconds she was smacking her hand against the door! When they would lower their bowl of candy for her to choose one, she would take her time and make sure it was one she wanted [Twizzlers and M&Ms were her favorites this year]. And if she thought she could sneak more than one, she would grab a whole handful and give them the cutest grin- knowing full well they couldn't refuse such a cutie! Needless to say, she has more candy than she needs- but she thinks she needs it all the time. Here are some of our favorite pictures of the day.Our little angel grew horns!

Getting dressed for the event!

Posing with Aunt Paige.

Mommy "devil", Daddy "vampire" and Serra "pumpkin"

Serra enjoying her day's spoils.

Remodels

A few changes have occurred in our home [or outside of it]. I tiled a small part of our kitchen wall- a backsplash behind our oven. So far everyone who has seen it agrees that it really added to the kitchen. Also, our back-yard neighbors finally decided to put a fence between our yards [that's nice because now people know that the large patch of weeds is their property and not ours!]

A showing!

I'm trying not to get too excited, but we have a showing set up for this Friday! What a weird day to look at homes... Halloween and all... but I don't care, I'm just excited that someone is looking at our house! Whether they give us an offer or not is a whole different issue, but it's a step in the right direction! That would be such a great gift for the holidays- selling our house and moving, finally! But I won't hold my breath. :) We'll keep you updated.

"You Have To Eat Those First"

Dreaded last words...

We had dinner at my Aunt Kim & Uncle Tom's house down in Orem and Serra was a riot! My favorite part was when Kim was giving her some graham cracker cookie treats and Serra was just smiling and flirting with her to get more. Finally, she started resorting to pointing and grunting to ask for more and Kim said "you have to eat those two first" because she already had 2 on the table in front of her. So... Serra immediately plopped both cookies into her mouth and, while chewing, pointed at the box for more! Another time, Tom said that Serra was lucky because Kim wouldn't give him cookies if he just pointed and grunted. That conjured up one of Serra's best scowls- whether at Tom or Kim, I'm still not sure.

I need to get a picture of her scowl, but I just haven't conquered that feat yet!

We still have humor

Just to show that we still have some humor about the whole house-selling thing....



We've had a lot of neighbors asking what our new sign is... I guess they notice a sign, but don't bother to read it! :)

Wall*E

Ian and I just watched the Disney movie Wall*E and can I just say what a super duper cute movie! How funny the things that Wall*E goes through day to day and then when Eva comes... hilarious! But my favorite part by far was the fact that the movie starts with "Hello Dolly" clips- my favorite movie of all time since I was 4. In fact, Wall*E idolizes "Hello Dolly" and wants to be like Cornelius. Anyway, I just wanted to give a shout-out that if you're looking for a cute family-appropriate movie, Wall*E is a hit! :)