Can I take your picture?

That's what I heard as I stepped out of the shower the other day. There was my sweet little girl holding the camera she got out of my purse with the biggest smile on her face. She kept asking please and I had to work at convincing her why that would not be such a good idea. I was so glad she couldn't turn the camera on by herself and thankfully there are no embarrassing pictures of me, but here is what I found on the camera later. It looks like Noah was having a fun photo shoot in Zoe's room.

I guess I need to be better about putting my purse where they can't reach it.

Little Girls

Zoe pretending to be a ballerina....

She came up with it all on her own - I guess all you need is a pair of tights. I'm thankful she is getting more independent each day, but sometimes the amount of laundry created by her dress-up play, or her deciding she doesn't like what I picked out for her, is more than any mom could wish for. But I guess they are only young once.

See ya later Alligator

After a very eventful day of shopping we stopped for a bite to eat. We decided it would be fun to introduce the kids to a new type of food so we took them to The Jazz Kitchen a New Orleans style restaurant. The kids got to try alligator, gumbo, creole craw fish, and other southern spices and styles.

They both enjoyed their meals and can't wait to go back. At the end of the day, both kids were outfitted for winter, our pantry was stocked, and we even found Noah a new pair of church shoes. All in all a nice, but expensive, family day.

Pumpkin Fun

We really love Fall around our house and all things pumpkin.

Our family pumpkin patch.....

Pumpkin Brownies......

Pumpkin Pancakes.....

My Big Helper

Noah is trying to be a "Big Helper" when he thinks it will benefit him. However, his idea of help isn't always helpful, but I guess it is all part of the learning process. Here is a good and bad example.

"Good Help": putting a dry diaper on Zoe. We are struggling with the potty training thing - she's a stubborn girl and will only do it on her terms.
granted not on all the way -- he also got her dressed..
"Bad Help": instead of putting the toys away, he piled them on top of his sister.

Water Problem

Since moving to Nevada over two years ago, we have always thought that our water bills were really high. Dan has even called to discuss our bill a time or two, but was informed that we live in the dessert and that the city water department never makes mistakes. Needless to say we had been unsuccessful in solving this problem until now.

We finally got the so called "smoking gun" that we needed to prove our case. Our water bill showed that we didn't use any water last month. This was totally impossible since we were home all month.

So this gave Dan a reason to pull the lid of our water meter.
This is what he found.....Notice how the meter on the left has a lock on it. Our next door neighbor's house is in foreclosure, so their water has been shut off and the meter has been locked.

This is what the locked meter reads (658,xxx) -- which happens to match the total on our bill.
This is what the other meter says (301,xxx).....

Come to find out the reason our bill has been so high, was that it wasn't our bill, it was our neighbors. They had several adults living there throughout the two years, they watered their lawn several time a day if not a week, plus they had a spa that they would refill on a routine basis. There is an obvious twist in the wires, but the city is claiming a typo. They said that every meter has an ID code, kind of like a VIN on a car, and it was entered into their computer wrong. So when this lady gets back from training in another week she will be going through both sets of bills to figure out the difference and give us a credit. We informed her we want a check, not a credit on our account. She said she'll see what she can do.

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For my neighbors who read this you might want to check your meter if you think your bills are too high, especially if you share a box. The city has eluded to there being problems in this neighborhood.

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On a positive, it looks like it will be a nice Christmas after all.

Progress

Noah has been so eager to learn his letters, since starting preschool last month. Before this I couldn't get him interested in it - no matter how hard I tried. He knew the ABC song, but that was about the extent of his knowledge. But, with the start of school came a new thirst for knowledge. He has homework every week that he loves to work on with his Dad (not so much with Mom). He surprised me during our Sunbeam Class on Sunday, when he announced he was done with his project, I told him I'd write his name on it in a second, but then he quickly informed me that he could do it by himself and he actually did.

Is it perfect? No. Would most people know what he was trying to do, or what it said? Probably not. But to me it is major Progress. Three of the letters are recognizable , but not in the right order. However, since I am his parent I get it - if you start with the "N" and go in a counter clockwise circle you will see a very clear "O", a good attempt at an "a", and a clear"H."

I'm so excited that he is finally trying to write and is starting to at least recognize what letters go in his name. He has also started asking what letters words start with. Other often repeated questions in our house are "What day is it?" and "What time is it?"

I am loving this new phase of learning.