Happy Halloween! What a great day to trick or treat! It was a chilly 64 outside, but no rain this year! We met up with our good friends Caroline and Samantha and trick or treated over in our old neighborhood. We got to see a lot of old friends and visited all of our neighbors from Machado! It was great fun!

Lauren was a rock star and Davis was Jack Sparrow from Pirates of Carribbean.

The second 2 photos are a few of my favorite Halloween decorated homes. I loved the pumpkins and the ghosts!


10/31/06: Today was also the 50th day of school, so the Kindergarten classes has a "50's Sock Hop".. this is davis and his friend Haley and Davis with the boys from his class being goofey!

I managed to "rehang" my photos on this wall and added a shelf. The pictures still "appear" crooked on film, but I think it's because some of them have the stand on the back which pushes them up from the wall. I also need to find my 8X10 of davis under 1 yr so I can change out the red frame to match the black.

I have not figured out what to put on the wall shelf--suggestions anyone?

The continuing Paint Saga...

Here are some new pictures of "before" and "after" of the kitchen...I added the Island Sand from the hall into the kitchen. I think it looks great with the cabinet color and makes the room warm and inviting. I also now LOVE it with the brown paint on the bottom that the previous HO had painted.

Baton Rouge-Wedding

Cousins from Conneticut: Brynn and Christian.


We spent a wonderful 3 day weekend in Baton Rouge, well actually a VERY small town called Springfield. One of my eldest cousins, Dan, got married at a gorgeous plantation. Here are a few picture's I thought I'd share:

The cousin's who had never met all had a blast together! The resort had a heated pool which was most fun!

I absolutely LOVED Dawn's choice of "fall" decorations. She did a fabulous job of incorporating all the elements that we love about fall, from the pumpkins, gourds, to the mums. The coloring was dynamic! Plus, they were married under a huge tree with moss just dripping from each branch! It was so southern!


The cake was delicious..it was a different filling per layer!

Inks Lake Continued

Can you believe we camped with this MANY kids under 13?

Saturday Afternoon I took the kids canoeing and Jason took them paddle boating. I was not the greatest navigator, thank goodness for some of the kids who paddled better then me!

Aren is with David and Ranger--this picture was so cute because Aren's hair is the exact color of Ranger and they are both so adorable!! :)

Inks Lake Camping

We had an extremely busy week as a family, but we managed to get away with our wonderful church "reaLife group" that we meet weekly with for almost 4 yrs. They are a wonderful group of families and Nicole planned a great weekend campout at Inks Lake in Highland Lakes Area.













We arrived about 4:30p to 4 "expert" tent installers who had our tent up in about 10 min! We were amazed and totally excited as neither David or I can pitch a tent! We had smores, a night walk, countless rounds of "spoons", and good laughs! Needless to say--the Shimer's did not get much sleep in a tent, on air mattress' with a DOG and an almost 9 yr old sharing your single mattress!



Isn't this view amazing! Thanks to Jason-who arrived at 12p, he scoped this great site out next to the water with plenty of room for the 17 children to run!



Yep! It's up....Ranger was not sure what to make of it!




Saturday AM, we woke to David, Nicole and Jason preparing our breakfast of scrambled eggs/sausage over a gas stove! How cool-and YUMMY! Then we went for an awesome hike up some big rocks...

Painting again...

Okay---Thanks to a quick stop in New Braunfels on our way to the zoo Monday-I found the color I LOVED for the hall walls, and potentially the family room (shh..don't tell david!) Thanks DAWN!

It's called Island Sand-and it has a rich, almost pumpkin coloring to it, but yet when it dries on your body-it's khaki! Not sure why I hung my pictures crooked, chaulk it up to 6am!

ZOO FUN!

We spent our "no school-Columbus Day" holiday at the San Antonio Zoo. We went with Lauren's good friend, Kristofer and met up with Aunt Erin, Dylan/Wyatt. A good time was had by all....





I think this is our 2nd photo in this exact position with the lions and with Kris..I'll have to look for the other photo and post it just to see the changes in height/teeth!






Just "quackin' around" in the petting zoo! Lauren was into "goofy" faces today!

Petting the goat...it was cool mom! And Wyatt..Boy--he hung like a champion and did not cry or complain once-loved looking at the trees!

SPORTS! SPORTS! SPORTS!

As we enter into Fall, the kids decided they wanted to play YMCA sports again. Davis is playing soccer and on his first game, he scored a WHOPPING 6 goals! 14 kids running up and down in herds and he managed 6 goals! This is our second time to play soccer through the Y and so far it's been a great experience with 2 great coaches!



















Lauren is learning to play volleyball and had a great day yesterday as well. She served several points and even managed to hit the ball back over the net!

We have had a whirlwind of a September and it's hard to believe that today is OCTOBER 1st! Crazy!

I tabled the painting, much to david's disappointment. I've not even covered up my "mess" of a sample that I did on 9/8. Spent most of the month going between the 3 jobs of working paid childcare at church, substituting at the kid's school, and sub-aiding at Davis' old preschool! Ontop of volunteering as room mom; coming into my last months of Parties Co-chair of A Christmas Affair, and taking a PE weekly for teacher certification...SAD...It's busy!

One of the joy's of private Christian school is learning all about God in their daily work. Kindergartner's had a "Creation Celebration Play" on Friday, 9/29. Davis was "Night"..they went through the 6 days of creation and each child from the 3 kinder rooms was one of the "Days" God created. Decked in black pants, black sweatshirt, and black face paint, Davis was a great "night".

Painting again...

Well---give me freedom from teaching pre-k or subbing elementary/middle school and what do I want to do? PAINT! The walls in this house are ALL Kahki and frankly...I'm "burned out" on Kahki..plus--5 yrs of someone else's kids hand prints EVERYWHERE is driving me insane...

What do you think? This is what I want for my kitchen...It's called Bellflower blue-Ralph Lauren paint. I'm going to match it with a golden yelllow-Chamois is the name and I've yet to get the sample out of the bag yet..but I'll post it.

My kitchen plans----Black table...bead board-wanes coating(white) under the wall trim in dinette area where the brown paint is now...and to hang a black cabinet up on the blue with the potential to get a buffet for the kitchen in black.

Lauren's Room: 2 Walls are blue and 2 are green --per directions of daughter! (LOL!)...














Okay---the master bedroom is painted the Olive color I had in the Machado home. I LOVED the soothing color it made the room and since I had just painted it in December '05, no reason not to use it again here--in Aug. '06. I am working on finishing the master bath in what paint I had left-it's about 95% done and looks great with the ceramic tile in there!


Here is the kids bathroom: As you can see-I am really digging this "green" color this year! I think it has to do with liking to mow the lawn so much? Just a wild guess...This shower curtain is what I bought when we had to re-paint the Machado Master Bath to put the home on the market. And since I had bought it in the later part of April, I wanted to use it again! It so happens to have the "right" color green in the stripe to match with the extra paint I had left over in Lauren's room!

I've done some "redecorating" the past month:

Lauren's room was a "cowboy" theme--so I repainted the red/khaki to candy apple green and sky blue. I also had extra green paint, so I added that color to the kids bathroom!

HAPPY LABOR DAY!!!

We had a great 3 day weekend! We drove early Saturday to Houston to spend the weekend with my parents and my brother. Rob and Erin brought the boys, and we all had a blast!

Here is baby Wyatt (3 months) and Dylan (2 yrs) and my kids...

School Year...2006-2007

Today, August 21st, was the first day of third grade for Lauren and kindergarten for Davis. After much anticipation, both finally fell asleep about 10:15p last night and woke like a rabbit jumping up at 6:45a! We had a great first day and both were very pleased with their classes and the new friends they met!



















Davis' teacher is Mrs. Felty and she is super sweet and I had the pleasure of meeting her last year! She is a perfect match for davis in personality and I think he will excel well! David has already helped him learn his first memory verse of the week! Romans 3:23. OH! Another thing, he was so excited to be "handsome" that he picked his outfit out all by himself. If you will notice, he is wearing a "rainbow" belt, blue and yellow stripped shirt (in 101 deg temps!) and a blue and yellow tie! He insisted on the long sleeved oxford and the tie. Mrs. Felty said by 9:30a, both the tie/ belt were gone and his sleeves were rolled "high"....


Lauren's teacher is Mrs. Bartold and we spent the entire summer being tutored by her so I was elated that she already knew Lauren and we have established a bond with her! Lauren's classmates are great and she even had her friend from last year, Daniel, ask to sit by her!