Please Excuse the Stream of Consiousness

Here's just a few more pictures from our weekend (yes, a week and a half ago) at my parents' house, and some other things we have been doing.

We made feeble attempts in the waterlogged backyard at some cousin pictures, with minimal success at best.

Dane liked posing with his MoMo

Aidan liked posing in a blue hard hat

And Zane wasn't quite sure what exactly was going on

I have been working extra hours (hello, expensive adoption whose endless paperwork I have been procrastinating) at a hospital far far away from my house, and the blog may start feeling a bit neglected over the next few weeks. I have tons of pictures of my family to weed through, and lots to write, but my "unscheduled" moments are feeling few and far between of late, and I have had minimal motivation to write on ye old blog.

Our home study has been accepted by our adoption agency (despite Aidan's best efforts during the interview. Another story for another time, because his antics are not "funny to me" yet), so the proverbial ball is officially in our court. The agency is waiting on us to complete the Endless Paperwork and Forms to submit to China, before our "wait time" actually begins. Hello, Endless Paperwork and Forms, this is the Queen of Procrastination speaking. Have we met? No? Oh, I must be putting that off in favor of watching reruns of the Duggar family visiting various themed amusement parks. I'm bound and determined to work diligently on the EPaF this weekend, in the 4 hour block of previously unscheduled time that will occur Saturday afternoon. So if you happen to see me on Facebook Saturday afternoon, please kindly chat to me to GET OFF FACEBOOK, ALREADY.

Ahem.

Remember the photo shoot I mentioned when the kids and I were up at my parents' house last July? Well, the lovely and talented Lorraine had some pictures ready for me on this past visit up. Some really cool, creative pictures. Here are a couple of my favorites:

I think it's safe to say that this will be hanging in the boys' room for a long, long time. And if by some weird twist of events, my boys grow up to have arm tattoos and play in a rock band, this picture will be to blame.

Speaking of this picture, I have been wanting to go with a "Star Wars" theme for this kids' costumes this year, ever since I saw this Princess Leia costume and its side hair buns for Harper. I had high hopes for Luke Skywalker and perhaps Yoda or Darth Vader accompanying her on her first trick-or-treat. Classic, recognizable Star Wars characters of my childhood. Instead, Captain Rex and Commander Cody Star Wars Storm Troopers will push precious Princess Leia in her stroller on Halloween night. Argh. At least I get the side buns.

And speaking of pictures, Aidan had school pictures last week. Traditionally, we have completely forgotten about school pictures every year. Every year. Not wanting to break tradition, I remembered about pictures (BEFORE school this time) the morning of, and had to get Aidan changed out of his Texas Tech football jersey and into a "church shirt" (i.e., a shirt with buttons) right before leaving for school for his fall-themed school pictures.

Fall themed.

And the shirt with buttons he picked out for the fall-themed preschool picture?

Lovely. Happy fall, y'all from the glorious state of Hawaii. And don't even get me started on the shorts. That's my Aidan.

Last Saturday our little family was invited to be a part of a birthday celebration of sorts. One of our seniors, Justine, was turning 18, and is a bit of an Amazing Race fan. Her parents put together an Amazing-Race type of scavenger hunt type thing for her and her friends, and Brandon, myself and the kiddos were a "stop" along the way. We hung out at a local pumpkin patch and waited for the birthday girl with her "clue" for the next location. The boys played on the slides and posed for pictures, then enjoyed a hayride through the Christmas trees.

I cannot explain this picture. Giant hay-bale spider. Kung fu fighting boys in sweatshirts and shorts (yes, I know, Dane needs a new hoodie that fits). Weird dracula cut-out holding a tombstone. Pumpkins and Christmas trees in the background. I'm a bit baffled just looking at it.

The birthday girl and her friends showed up after an afternoon of clue-hunting at the local mall and around town (cool birthday idea, much?) and had to find a "familiar face" among the autumn harvest.

Harper didn't relinquish the clue easily, though. The birthday girl had to sing for her supper at the pumpkin patch that day.

One last thing--Brandon has preached a couple of Sundays over the past 3 weeks, and he's bringin' it. He did a great job last week, but Ephesians 2 was my favorite so far. So proud of my hard working husband.

Sorry this post is so sporadic and random. I'm practicing "efficient blogging" with my limited time these days. Have a great week!