The entry where I brag a little

So I recently had a wonderful Aunt of mine complain that I don't brag enough on my blog. She didn't know that I am currently over half-way through my Master's at Gonzaga University and when my mother told her this news she wondered why I didn't post THAT on my blog!

Who else would ask for bragging but family :) So this feels a bit like a bragging entry, but you can choose to read it (or not) by clicking here: http://www.thefigtree.org/

Pumpkins Death

So last night we ran out and bought some pumpkins, invited Bryce's sister Bekah over and broke out our brand new pumpkin carving kit that my mom gave us. We have some artistic people around this house so I knew they would be awesome pumpkins. Here are Bryce, Kendal (Paul's Girlfriend) and Paul sitting around the table waiting for inspiration:



Paul trying to draw his creation before putting it on his pumpkin.
Paul drawing on his pumpkin.
Can you guess what this is going to be?
And here they are in all their beautiful glory. They look amazing lit up, but I'm not talented enough to take those pictures apparently...from left to right we have Bryce, Keely, Bekah, Kendal, and Paul.
Here is Bryce's amazing WSU creation:
Mine is a pretty lady...
Bekah did the bat signal
Kendal did an amazing scary tree scene
And Paul did is infamous nautical star
Although we live in a great neighborhood, I decided it was best to leave the pumpkins on the deck rather than the front porch. I would be devastated if some hooligans smashed our beautiful artwork. Unfortunately, I never considered the damage a dog might do...




Yes, three of the four pumpkins were sent to an early grave when Thisbe decided they would make a good snack. Our masterpieces did not even last 24 hours, let alone last until Halloween. Fun was had by all last night, but today we are mourning the loss of our pumpkins...

Thisbe will be mourning the loss of her bed tonight as pumpkins are a great laxative, she will be spending the night in her kennel.

The Chimney and Outlets

It was another productive weekend around our house! On Saturday morning we got right in and started working on projects. First, we convinced Paul to climb up on our roof and clean the chimney. He doesn't really like two story houses because you can not jump off the roof semi-safely if there is a bees nest in the chimney. Fortunately, our chimney was bee free! Unfortunately, there appear to be some soft spots on that roof that will need attention when re-roofing takes place. But, on the plus side we did find some of those super cool, heavy-duty, fun to play with magnets in the gutter.

I put up Halloween lights last week and since there are no outlets outside on the front of the house there has been an extension cord running out the front door. I found that if you do something that annoys Bryce, he will quickly find a solution! So he put in an outlet on the front porch for my Halloween lights and Christmas lights!


Then came the really tough project, and apparently during this project I was too distracted to take any pictures. While SIL Sarah's house was being built they had the option to put an outlet in the eaves to plug in Christmas lights. Bryce thought this was a great idea, keeps the extension cords out of the way and such, and since I am a HUGE fan of Christmas lights, he decided we should have one of these outlets as well.

Unfortunately it was a little more difficult than anticipated because the roof lines in our house come down making it impossible for Bryce to get from the back of the house, where the attic access is, to the front of the house, where we wanted the outlet. But after a couple of extra runs to the hardware store and some help from Paul, they were able to feed the wire across the attic without climbing in there, and we now have a working outlet in the eaves. I am starting to get excited about our first Christmas in our house!

Oh baby baby!

We got to see our little one for the first time on Wednesday. The Dr. wanted to check on my due date, but either way it's still the first week in April.


Ohhhh, scary skeleton looking picture!

Look at those little tiny legs! They are so cute!

The little one was moving around like crazy, flipping over and then looking at us and then moving around, and waving those little arms. It was so amazing! Only 5.5 months until we meet the little one in person!

Why homeowners rarely go on vacation...

So we spent the last week driving all over Washington, Oregon and California. It was an amazing trip, with two national parks and lots of great camping. My little brother who is living with us, was of course put in charge of the house while we were gone. He called while we drove home to tell us that a massive wind storm had come through and our fence had fallen down:




Fortunately, Bryce was able to pick it up and prop it up with more t-posts. Hopefully next year we can afford to start replacing the fence, and maybe avoid the constant falling and leaning of this 20 year old maintained-very-poorly fence.