Our Week So Far

We've had a pretty busy week so far.

To start with, as some of you know, last Friday night we gave our dog, Spanky Windell Brown, to Lane's sister and her husband, Torri and Roger. It's not that we don't love her, but we finally realized that we are just not dog people. We like dogs, but we don't love dogs, and you really need to love dogs to have a dog. Torri lost her boxer, Sadie, this summer, and it just worked out that she was looking for a brindle boxer, and we just happened to have one. So, we are excited about Spanky's (now named Winn Dixie) new home and life with a die-hard dog lover.

One of the negative effects that we experienced with Winn Dixie was that she really just destroyed our backyard. Our first year here in Kilgore, we really loved spending time in the backyard with Lane's koi fish pond, and I loved working in the flowerbeds. Well, needless to say, we haven't done much of that this past year, and in fact, all of the nice, full St. Augustine grass that we had last year is now just dirt. That's what makes me the saddest. So, we have been working everyday this week to start to put it all back together. We are praying that the grass will come back on its own, but we'll just have to wait and see. If not, we'll either sod or reseed in the spring. So, that's been lots of fun this week, since the weather is so nice right now.

Saturday night, the kids and I went to Mama and Daddy's house to see Robyn, Shad and their kids, and then we spent the night and went to church with Mama Sunday morning since Daddy had to work. As usual, we had wild times watching Dane, Mary Nan, Laura and J.J. play together. They have all developed a love for the game Twister. Mary Nan and Laura really got the jist of the game, but the boys didn't quite get it. Dane's big hang-up was the fact that he hasn't mastered the concept of left/right just yet. So, we spent a lot of time correcting him. J.J. just refused to accept any instruction to touch any color other than blue, so that made the game even more interesting. He also wanted Mama to incorporate the Mother May I game during his turn. And, as you will notice in the picture, he had to have his milk cup with him the whole time, too. So funny!

That night, after the Finchers went home and Dane was ready for bed, he dragged the game out again and enjoyed another game by himself. I was extremely impressed by his flexibility, as you will see in these pictures.

Here's Sydni napping Monday, while wearing the tu-tu outfit that her fairy godparents, Brent and Jill, got for her. Total girl!

Then, earlier today, I just had to get some pictures of my sweet Sydni girl. She just smiles so much! I asked Dane to kiss her so that I could take a picture, and then he requested that I take a picture of his bottom. Weird request, but I obliged. He thought it was funny! Weird boy!