Sneak Peek

Before deciding on Afton's costume for Halloween, I should have factored in that Afton hates having anything on her head...

Can you guess what she's going to be?

Annual fall pictures

We took the kids out to a little pumpkin patch to take their annual fall pictures. If you'll remember, last year's shoot didn't go so well.

This year things went slightly better.

(Dan was dressed up because he had to go to a church meeting afterwards.)

But we did get a few good ones before Afton lost her cool. She also got eaten alive by mosquitos the day before - hence the bites all over her face.

 "Get out of my face."

She Walks!

Yesterday, the twenty-first of October, 2011, Afton Marie Durst took her first witnessed steps. Three days shy of her fourteen-month birthday. The witness - her Aunt Gretchen Cheney. Of course, I was out of the room. I came back in the room and Gretchen said, "Afton just took three steps like it was no big deal." I was like, "Say what?!?" So we tried it again and she took four steps over to me no problem. Crazy!

I videotaped her walking, but for some reason the video isn't uploading. Any suggestions? It's been "uploading" for about ten hours...

Dan's Movie Corner

My review of Transformers: Dark of the Moon

Not as bad as X-Men: First Class.

Family pics

We had family pictures taken a few weeks ago. We love them! Most of you have probably seen these on facebook, but I thought I'd post them here for journaling purposes and those of you who aren't on facebook.

Next time I would do my hair differently and have a diaper cover for Afton, although next time we take family pics, hopefully she won't need one anymore.

For those who are curious, Afton's outfit is from Old Navy, Sam's is also from Old Navy, but shoes are from Target and I made his tie. My dress is from Gretchen's closet. Necklace from Charmin' Charlies and shoes from Ross. Dan's is a mix. And I wish you could tell the stripes on his shirt are purple!

And our photographer was Kelsey Call. She was great with the kids and great to work with!

This video brings me joy

I hope it brings you joy, too.

Books

I like to read. The problem is that I usually forget what I've read, though. So to remedy this issue, I decided to start writing down all my books. Here's what I've read so far this year:

For book club:
The Good Earth, Pearl Buck
Left to Tell, Immaculee Ilibagiza
The Book Thief, Markus Zusak
East of Eden, John Steinbeck
Divine Secrets of the Ya-ya Sisterhood, I don't even want to bother looking up who wrote this one
My Name is Asher Lev, Chaim Potok
Still Alice, Lisa Genova
A Town Like Alice, Nevil Schute
Sarah's Key, Tatiana de Rosnay
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, *Currently reading

On my own:
Between a Rock and a Hard Place, Aaron Ralston (that guy who was stuck in the Utah wilderness and sawed off his arm)
Soul Surfer, Bethany something (that surfer who got her arm bit off by a shark)
The Help, Kathryn Stockett
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Agatha Christie
Ten Little Indians, Agatha Christie
The Happiness Project, Gretchen Rubin
The Big Year, Mark Obmascik
The Color of Water, James McBride
Gunn's Golden Rules, Tim Gunn (I've got a soft spot for Tim Gunn)
Masquerade, Nancy Moser
Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen *reread
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, Jamie Ford
Mao's Last Dancer, Li Cunxin
Saving Ceecee Honeycutt, Beth Hoffman
The Underachiever's Manifesto, Ray Bennett (don't know if that's technically a book. It was like 40 pages.)
The Lost City of Z, David Grann
Inconceivable, Carolyn and Sean Savage
A Long Fatal Love Chase, Louisa May Alcott
The Piano Tuner, Daniel Mason
Little Women, Louisa May Alcott

The winner for worst book: Hands down, Ya-ya sisterhood. Terrible. Don't bother, please.

The winner for best book I've read this year: The Big Year. It's a book about birdwatching, which sounds boring, but I really liked it. It kept me interested the whole time and is based on real people. There's also a movie coming out this Friday based on the book and it stars Jack Black, Owen Wilson, and Steve Martin. I'm excited to see it soon!

I also liked Little Women a lot. I feel like maybe I read it a long time ago, but because I didn't write it down, I don't remember. So I read it again recently and loved it.

Any recommendations for me to add to my list?

Dan's Movie Corner

My review of X-Men: First Class

Sometimes you forget how lousy a movie can be.

Projects

A while ago, Candice sent me an email saying that Glidden paint was offering free quarts of a variety of colors. I ordered candy apple red. Not sure what I was going to do with it, but I thought it was a nice color. Fast forward a few months. I decided that a little side table we've had for 5 years or so needed some updating. First I bought a new knob from Hobby Lobby for $3. Then I decided to bite the bullet and try to paint it. If I ever try to do something like this again, someone please talk me out of it.

First I had to sand down everything. Dan helped with a few of the legs. That was nice. After that I spent the majority of the kids' nap times for a week sanding down everything else. It took FOREVER. And that was with an electric sander. Then I painted it. And painted it and painted it! I think the top part has six coats and the legs each have at least three. In the end, I think it's pretty cool. I wish the red were a little bit darker, but I still like it. It might not be to everyone's taste, but it brightens up the room more now.

Before: (But with the new knob. I put the old knob on top, just so you could see what it used to look like.)

After:

The other project was that flowery pillow on the light chair. I was trying to tie in the table a bit more.