Papa is Here-Finally!

My dad finally moved here from Colorado on November 4th. We've been waiting for almost 5 years for him to be able to move. On Tuesday November 11th we went out to breakfast for Veteran's Day. The kids and I painted a big poster for my dad and put it on the garage door so he would see it when he pulled up. He loved it. We had a great time at breakfast at my dad's favorite restaurant-IHOP!

Lite the Nite

Every year our church puts on a Halloween altertnative called Lite the Nite with games, food and lots of candy. That way the kids don't feel short changed on the candy thing. Although my kids are probably never short changed in the candy department. They got dressed up and Marcus was a Civil War Soldier, Justin was a Clone Trooper and Breanna was Little Red Riding Hood. Breanna's best friend surprised us and dressed up as Granny so she and Breanna looked even cuter together. The boys got to bring a friend this year so they were extra excited to go. Here are the pictures of them in their costumes. Bryan dresses up every year too and he was Doctor Horrible. If you don't know who that is just look it up on Hulu.com.

Marcus is a 49er!

Marcus is on a flag football team! His video is above...this is a run at the end of the game. The players grabbed at his flag so he thought he was down so he would stop and then start again. In his first game Marcus had an interception, a run for positive yardage and a caught a pass that almost scored an extra point. His 49ers beat the Broncos 31-6!!

Marcus' nick name was "The Secret Weapon" according him. The 49ers were 0-2 before Marcus showed up at their practice. Marcus and Brady (the coach's son and QB) are the tallest on the team. Marcus also tracked down a Bronco running back that was going to score a touchdown on the first play of the game. He was on the opposite side of the play and ran all way across the field to grab the RB's flag! I'm sure with some more practice at catching and more experience on the field that he'll be a great player.

If you want to come see him play sometime...he plays at Woodside Elementary in Concord at 4pm for the next 4-5 weeks...Woodside is off of Treat Blvd and San Simeon Drive. Go 49ers!

Marcus loves to draw and we got some new markers yesterday so he had to try them out. These aren't just your regular Crayola markers these are prismacolor markers and they aren't cheap. We go through markers around here like some people go through toilet paper. I'm not kidding. All three kids could spend hours and do spend hours drawing and coloring so we needed markers that didn't dry out so quickly. So here is Marcus with his latest drawing of all our pets-Gabby, Cocoa, Patches, Martha, Abigail, Eleanor, Mary, Nancy and Bubbles. He also drew a picture of The Alamo, his newest fascination. Here it is.

Our trip to Shaver Lake last weekend was lovely. We stayed in a beautiful 6 bedroom, 4 bathroom, 3 story house in the beautiful mountains of Shaver Lake. The kids had their own living room so we rarely saw or heard from them except for the occasional plea for food. Our bedroom was incredible and now I know what kind of house I would build if I could. All 18 of us gathered to scatter Uncle Bryan's ashes and it was extra special since Aunt Joann is scattered there too. After a very adventurous ride in the funmobile down the road to the lake (I use the term road very loosely here), Alyssa and Marcus read some scriptures and those who wanted to could scatter the ashes into the lake. Afterward we sang Amazing Grace. It was a very touching simple ceremony that we were able to share together. Feeding 18 people at once is another story.

Breanna's Ballet Class Video

I took Breanna to Ballet Class today and they did tap today. I shot some video using my new Blackberry Curve. The video is a little fuzzy, especially through the view window. They open the window only once a month for the parents to watch. I've been lucky enough to be there twice when the blinds have been openned. The teacher does not like the children to be distracted by the parents. All the little girls are very cute and of course Breanna is the cutest!

-Breanna's Daddy

Meet Bubbles the Gecko. Bubbles is Justin's leopard gecko that he saved up for and got for his birthday. Bubbles is a very nice gecko and doesn't bother anyone except the crickets that we put in his cage every day for his breakfast. Justin still hasn't gotten over reaching in the cricket keeper to get the crickets so I help him out every day. He has to put the calcium powder on the crickets in the bag and give it a good shake. I guess geckos kept in captivity tend to have a calcium deficiency and if they don't get enough they will develop growths on their toes and they have to be amputated. They've found by putting calcium powder on the crickets this doesn't happen. Bubbles has been a wonderful pet so far. He's not loud, he doesn't stink, he doesn't bark, he doesn't chew up toys, he doesn't escape and go to the neighbors (not yet anyway) and he doesn't need a bath. Like I said, a great pet.

Breanna started ballet a few weeks ago and she absolutely loves it. She gets so excited when I tell her she has ballet the next day and of course she loves wearing the leotard and having her hair done like a real ballerina. The ballet class she takes does ballet, tap and gymnastics. Her teacher is a little intense but as long as Breanna enjoys it she'll keep going.

Boys in the kitchen? Yep! These boys really enjoy helping in the kitchen and since Papa Bill taught Marcus how to make cottage fries he whipped us up a batch for dinner. Not to be outdone, Justin BBQ'd our meat for dinner too. It was a delicicous meal and even better since I didn't make it.

Meet the lucky 5! Mary, Eleanor, Martha, Abigail and Nancy, our 5 remaining chickens, are growing so fast and it won't be too much longer before we get some eggs. Chickens need to be about 5 months old before they lay eggs so we're hoping by December that they are a'layin. They usually lay one egg a day if they are happy chickens. I guess stressed out chickens don't lay eggs very well. We're not sure what breed of chicken Mary and Eleanor are but we'll find out and let you know. They were cute, black, fuzzy chicks so we had to buy them. Martha, Abigail and Nancy are Americana chickens and they should lay blue eggs. Mary and Eleanor are very skittish but Martha, Abigail and Nancy will come right up to you and eat chicken feed right out of your hand. We love our chickens!

Our bunnies are doing fine. Patches and Cocoa never cease to amaze us with how much grass they can eat in one day. We finally got a dog run that we can move around so our grass doesn't get destroyed. They still manage to do some damage but they're worth it.

UPDATE: Craigslist brought Bryan in contact with Mrs. Cole, who owns a ranch in Livermore. Abe (aka Betsy) will now share his roost with 40 hens! I'm sure he'll be very happy!

HOME SCHOOL ROOSTER!!! Oops, in our (my) excitement to build up our fake farm we (I) bought 6 chickens to replace our other chickens who were murdered by racoons on Mother's Day of this year. Well, one of them is a rooster or at least thinks she's a rooster. It doesn't matter if she is or not because she is so loud and my neighbors have heard her. It's a little tricky getting rid of a rooster but I took a picture of her/him and made a flyer to take to the feed store where we bought her/him. They won't take her/him back but you can post a flyer to see if anyone is interested. I've got to do something quick before animal control is called on us. Her name is Betsy after Betsy Ross but Justin now wants to call her/him Abe Lincoln. The funny thing is that she's the smallest of the chickens but she thinks she's hot stuff. She's not mean but she sure is fiesty. I wish we could keep her but I do NOT want to bother my neighbors and I'm sure it's illegal to have a rooster.

Re-Launch of Sarah's Family Newsletter

We seemed to have lost track of our old family blog but we're going to try this again.

Sarah and Bryan will be updating this blog with information on the kids (mostly) and both of us.

I'm sure we'll be posting info on the Mero Faux Farm, our Indiana (India) trip and so much more.

Let the blogging begin!