Bye Bye Birdie

Check out Levi's hanging flower basket.... Check out what's inside Levi's hanging flower basket...

3 little bird eggs
We felt kind of bad, but we had to take the nest out. They wouldn't have survived anyway with all of Levi's watering and steroid boosts (aka Miracle Grow). Then we had to watch the mama bird come back and find her babies gone :(

Mums the Word

This is for you Erin....

For those of you who didn't grow up in Texas, this is probably a very bizaare tradition, but wanted to educate you on Homecoming--Texas Style. Believe me, it is a very big deal! These very large Chrysanthemum (FYI, a flower) with lots of ribbons and trinkets (mini megaphones, mini cowbells, whistles, etc.) hanging from it, is called a Homecoming Mum. I so wish I would have kept a couple of mine from back in the day, but I unfortunately didn't. I got a new one every Homecoming for as long as I can remember.

How and why do you get these beautiful creations you ask? You get it the day of the Homecoming football game and it ususally gets sent to the office for you to pick up at the end of the day. Who would buy you such a thing?? Well, either your boyfriend and/or parents (yes, you might wear one on each shoulder). And the proper etiquette would be for the girlfriend to get the boyfriend a garter to wear on his arm. Among the thousands of ribbons flowing from the mum is your name in glittery letters, and if your boyfriend gave it to you, his name is on another ribbon. Usually the longer your mum is, the more cool it is (as well as more expensive). Then you pin it to your shirt, so your shirt is constantly being pulled down from the weight of your mum. You then wear this to the football game, which of course is where everyone in the entire town is at, because we're in Texas right?! Love it....

POWER TOOLS....

...what more could a man ask for?? Levi just finished (and passed!!!) his last and final undergrad class, calculus and Bill just got released from being Stake President for the last 9 years (or actually, counting the time he was a councilor before, 14 years) and with no chance for a break (you can maybe blame that on the Nazi pregnant lady), they have started to finish our basement. With Bill's experience building their own house, and Levi eager to learn, it will be quite the project. We are soo excited to get this done. We've been wanting to do it for a while now. But with a baby on the way, we now have a deadline (and the basement is only one of the deadlines!!). The upstairs bedroom, that is currently the guest room, will be made into the nursery, and guest room will move down to the basement along with a nice TV/family room. It will give us more room to entertain and actually be able to fit on the same couch together! We are planning on getting a nice, big sectional as well as hang a flat screen on the wall. So here is a nice "before" shot, and hopefully the "after" shot won't be but a couple months down the road. Stay tuned...