happy halloween

we hope you have a spooky night & may the force be with you on your journey for tricks-n-treats! beware of the dark side as it will be filled with ghouls & goblins tonight, it will!

we're nerds & we're pretty proud of it

choose to be drug free

at school they have designated theme days on fridays during the month of october in honor of  drug abuse prevention month & today was the last friday! today is "red ribbon rally day" so we all wear red to school in honor of red ribbon week. i put together my outfit last week because i really wanted to look special because today is important! we even had a school-wide assembly this morning to end our red ribbon week activities, it was my very first one! there was a tiger there but don't worry it wasn't a real one it was a mascot. there was also real live cheerleaders, they cheered for us & they even made a pyramid...that was my favorite part. the most important thing is don't do drugs because you can ruin your life or die & that's not good...together, we can make a difference!!!

the kiss



hard at work

for my tia liz's birthday she asked me to paint her a picture months ago, so of course i painted her favorite piece of art...klimt's "the kiss". i spent days drawing it over & over trying to get all the details down before i painted it. once i started painting i added even more details, it took me about 10 hrs of painting time...i had no idea what i was getting into! mommy & daddy helped me the whole way through, i learned all these different techniques through out the process & we used all sort of things from around the house to help us with designs. we sponge painted, made dots with the other end of the paint brushes, used the paint lids to add textures & shapes and any thing else we could find. livi was so inspired she painted a beautiful picture too, she was so cute with all of her paint brushes everywhere. even though it was more than i expected i learned a whole bunch, after i finished i looked at mommy & told her i couldn't wait to start another painting. the best part was when tia liz opened it, she couldn't believe her eyes & she looooooves it so much!!! 

sponge painting





livi painting









more tiny details







done & i'm so proud of it

tia liz... a special message just for you

happy birthday to you cha cha cha, happy birthday to you cha cha cha, happy birthday dear tia liz, happy birthday to you cha cha cha. have grrrreat day!!! we love you so, so much.

choose to be drug free

at school they have designated theme days on fridays during the month of october in honor of  drug abuse prevention month . today is "tie down drugs day!" so we get to wear a tie from home to symbolize our commitment to stay drug free! daddy let me go through all of his old ties & pick out my favorite one to wear, this one reminds me of a monet painting...i really like it.

this is what happens when daddy babysits...

last night mommy had a ladies night out so daddy babysat us & we decided it was time for a rock-n-roll party!!! there was a lot of chocolate ice cream which i think fueled all of the singing, dancing, i even bust out a rap (who knew i had it in me), celebratory screaming & lots of laughter!!! we had soooo much fun we can't wait for daddy to babysit us again & we were even in bed by 8:00, well that's what mommy thinks...hee hee.



"word"



a fall day inside



supervising daddy




lets get this cleaned out



today we brought fall inside to us it started with daddy & i bringing mommy home a punkin spice latte then we decided it was the perfect time to carve punkins & see what else we could come up with. we made caramel apples, we roasted punkin seeds, had fresh pecan tartlets, daddy made us delish fajitas for dinner then we all snuggled down on the sofa together & had a movie night to end it... if you haven't seen "how to train you dragon" you should, it's my new favorite movie!!! livi & i have realized carving punkins is really gross, they're super stinky & slimy. this year we weren't to into helping getting the guts out, we just made lots of faces & really worked the whole "ewe yuck" factor. livi was so stinkin' funny she was really into it going around & around saying ewe & flapping her arms in front of her nose, she looked like a chicken! this year it took daddy almost 4 hours to carve our punkin, but we looooove it & think it looks wicked (word of the day) great, it's really spooky or as livi says "ohhh pooky"! i think both livi &i's favorite part of the day was when mommy let us make caramel apples (mommy still doesn't know what she was thinking, but we went with it...hee hee) & this was the BIGGEST mess we have made to date, it was awesome!!! we had carmel from our heads to our toes (literally, livi had to have her hair washed twice), sprinkles were all over the kitchen it was so bad mommy made us strip in the kitchen then she carried us to the bath tub, i don't know who had it worse with clean-up duty mommy or daddy... mommy had us & daddy took the kitchen. now that we are totally in the spooky spirit we all just have to agree on a family halloween costume, but we'll save that for another day. all in all it was the bestest fall day & we didn't want it to end, we had soooo much fun!

punkin guts...ewe yuck

our nummy apples

our nummy fall treats



our spooky punkin



old macdonald's farm

today we set out to find the great pumpkin at old macdonald's farm which is a new pumpkin patch for us this year. they had a really cool petting zoo with lots of animals- they had cows, pigs, deer, rabbits, a donkey, chickens, horses, goats & the most beautiful blue peacocks. i think on the way to the farm daddy lost some of his marbles, for some reason daddy kept calling the peacocks- pigeons & he wanted mommy to take a pony ride but he kept calling the ponys -donkeys, i think it all started because on the way to the farm mommy was craving chicken nuggets (we've never even seen her eat one, we had no idea she liked them) so daddy pulled over immediately & bought a box of 50 nuggets thinking mommy would eat 20... she ate 5, so we'll blame his goofiness on her. the farm also had 4 different play areas with fun slides & TONS of sand, we had a blast playing & talk about a mess! after we got done playing on slides & with the animals it was time to head over to the pumpkins. all the kids got to take a smaller pumpkin home for free (livi & i spent a lot, i mean A LOT of time finding the right one just for us) & then we got a bigger pumpkin to carve that was only $5, talk about a steal of a deal! by the time we got home tonight we were WORN out, so we're going to carve the pumpkin tomorrow, but that gives me time to dream about an awesome design to help daddy carve out... i wonder what i'll come up with, you'll just have to wait & see!!



family fun




we love pumpkins








which one should livi choose




feeding the bunnies








"weeeee"



that was one super fast slide



me & mommy



beautiful blue pigeons...hee hee

daddy found the GREAT pumpkin





happy harvest







all the guatemala pictures

ok everybody if you want to see all the pictures from daddy's trip to guatemala, here's the link to go to. daddy & his new friend david were the photographers of the trip & these are a combo of all of their pictures & they are AMAZING...enjoy!!!

http://lwiguatemala2010bridgefellowship.shutterfly.com/

choose to be drug free

at school they have designated theme days on fridays during the month of october in honor of  drug abuse prevention month . today is "pajama day", so we get to wear sleepwear to remind us to "wake up to drug abuse!" i have to say i had so much fun getting ready for school this morning, putting on my favorite cozy jammies & i had mommy put piggies (pig tails) in my hair...it was grrreat. livi is so silly as soon as she saw my piggies she had to have some to & when it came to taking pictures she was right next to me posing along...ha ha ha!!

the well

the last day at the village the team assembled the pump for the well. the village will be celebrating their new well for weeks to come & they started the huge celebration right after the pump was installed for all the team's hard work. the people of the village were so thankful that they planned a wonderful celebration with music, gifts & families from the village made speech's about how wonderful the team was & everything they accomplished for their people. the village built a palm alter around the well before the team got their that morning to surprise them & thank goodness they didn't have to tear it down to build the pump because as you can see it is beautiful. all the children were trying to peek through the palms as the team was finishing the well to see what it looked like, everyone was very excited. after the ribbon cutting one of the older women of the village couldn't wait to be the first to taste the clean water. what an amazing experience to be a part of, something that i know daddy will never forget & he's so thankful that he got to be a part of it!!!

final & hardest step of building the pump for the well

finishing the pump/well

the AMAZING team

the palm alter that was built around the well by the people of the village

trying to sneek a peak at the well

the ribbon cutting ceramony

young pumping water for the elder

the first taste of clean water

a lil boy getting his first taste of clean water & look he's wearing one of the bracelets we made



drilling a well for water

the type of well they built in guatemala was an unconsolidated or sand wells they are drilled into a formation consisting of soil, sand, gravel or clay material that collapses upon itself. a well is composed of many components; the following is a list of the most important materials used:

casing is used to maintain an open access in the earth while not allowing any entrance or leakage into the well from the surrounding formations. The most popular materials used for casing are black steel, galvanized steel, PVC pipe and concrete pipe.

screen keeps sand and gravel out of the well while allowing groundwater and water from formations to enter into the well. Screen is available in many materials, the most popular being stainless steel and slotted PVC pipe. Screen is used when wells are drilled into unconsolidated materials.

gravel pack is placed around the outside of the screen to prevent sand from entering the well or clogging the screen and to stabilize the well assembly.

here's some pictures of the drilling process through 4 days, we have over 1,500 pictures...we thought that might be to many to look at so here's a few. if you want to see all of the pics, please let mommy know & she'll tell you how. again if you'd like to help with the water crisis please visit http://www.water.cc/

learning how to work the drill



preparing mud pits



making mud



daddy working the drill...look out



now that's a wrench

adding steel pipe as we dig deeper and deeper

lowering the PVC pipe into hole, that's not an easy task

as you add more pipe, the task gets even harder

now that we reach the bottom, we must saw the remaining pipe

emptying the mud pits

standing in the mud pits

WE HAVE WATER!!!

ahhh...refreshing clean water



jaime & manolo (team leaders) proud of the work that was accomplished



here is the well topped off. they drilled 145 feet deep. they're getting ready to pour the cement base.



finishing base

testing the water



water specimens



all the different layers of the earth they went through in 5 ft increments per bag