Anyway, yesterday Aubrina took my phone so that she could take
pictures of her beautiful mani/pedi. It's pink and purple at the same
time. Who wouldn't want to remember this?!?

(download)

Click here to download:

Girliness.zip (4.3 MB)

The kids are making new friends every day. The funny thing is that
this is our next door neighbor's yard, and none of these kids live at
this house! The neighbors weren't even home when this impromptu play
date happened, but everyone is welcome. We love it here!

One thing I was NOT prepared for living on the East Coast: the bugs.
Stink bugs, wood bees, caterpillar-spiders (or was it a
grasshopper-spider?), sweat bees (I'm looking forward to meeting
those..ha!), gnats, beetles, things with a million all different sized
legs...

So why was I surprised when walking downstairs after putting the kids
to bed I heard a big buzzzzz near the light? Looking at it through the
lantern I thought it was just a bee and that the size was magnified
because of the light. The though of a bee in my house freaked me out.
But this was not a bee.

Once he got free from the lantern I could see that this "tiny" little
bugger was actually a three inch long wasp. The size was MINIMIZED by
the light. F. On the night that Mark works late!!

Luckily some neighbors (who I had not yet met) were walking their dogs
at 9:30pm.

This little bugger did not survive. I am not sad about that.

Aubrina drew a picture of herself (on the left, with a smile) and
Robby (on the right). This was the first time she drew the complete
person, including legs, eyes, nose, and mouth. Since it was on a
magnetic draining board I had to take a picture to document it!

Four deer were hanging out in our backyard today. NBD.

Robby kept calling them "Rudolph."

Our new plug-in, all the way from California!

Today the shuttle flew over the DC area. We weren't sure if we were
going to be able to see it but t circled our house several times. This
picture makes it look further away than it really was - they were
flying so low! One time it was so low it seemed like you could touch
the plane. The kids kept saying "Is that the spaceship?" Such a cool
thing to experience!

We finally found a house to rent! It's a cute, old house in a perfect
neighborhood in McLean. The neighbors here are amazing - the next door
neighbor mowed our lawn yesterday just before we got here, because the
grass was getting long after being vacant for awhile. There are tons
of kids in the neighborhood, and it's the kind of quiet street where
they play basketball and ride bikes in the street.

The house looks tiny on the outside, but there are three floors and
lots more space than we had before. I'll post more pictures soon. Now
we're using a little elbow grease before the movers get here this
week. We're so excited to have make some awesome memories here!