Kaleb's first Sunday to go to church and to visit Abuelo and Noni!

Sunday was the first time the kids came over since Kaleb was born. He is such a cutie and is filling our and growing so fast! Wyatt is jabbering all over the place and thinks he's big stuff, with a little brother! Life is very busy for us right now, so I will leave you with these pictures!

Halloween

We usually don't go trick or treating, but a group of the young people from the church were going and taking their children to some of the houses in Ochelata, so I got some pictures. Wyatt is the lion and the little "piggy" beside him is Payton Huff, Rob and Robyn's little girl. Dafne dressed like a cat! Wyatt got ready at the hospital so that his mommy could see him. They were all cute and had a lot of fun!

Caleb Evan Pinkston

We were awakened about 4:00 a.m. Saturday morning with a call from Scott wanting us to come and pick up Wyatt! When we got there, Bianca was doing last minute things (such as fixing her hair, ect.) Her contractions had started about 3:00 a.m. and about 7:00 a.m. we got a call from her telling us that little Caleb had arrived! We are so thankful for God's love and answers to prayer! Caleb weighed 8 lbs. 2 oz. and was 20 in. long! Does he look like Wyatt? Everyone is asking. His hair is a little darker; he has a dimple in his cheek as well as his chin; and I'm not sure that he looks just like Wyatt. His mouth certainly does. He has a double chin is already a snuggle bug!

Happy Birthday to my Husband!

I want to wish my husband a very, very happy birthday today! He has been the my strong pillar for over 28 years! Honey, I hope that your day is as special as you are and that you feel loved and appreciated by all of your family! Your kids love you and I do, too! Happy Birthday!

Fall is almost here!

I am so excited for fall! Fall and Winter are my favorite seasons of the year and I wait anxiously all year for them to come around! I usually don't decorate much for fall, but last year I decided to. I bought some things from Hobby Lobby (I'm sure they were half priced, but then I don't shop there unless it is, usually!) and we enjoyed fall decorations. I had just taken them down and we set up our trees and decorated for Christmas just days before our fire. So I lost all of the fall things because I hadn't gotten them stored yet. I didn't replace them at the time, concentrating instead on replacing Christmas decorations, gifts, ect. This year rolled around and I had one fall decoration, a beautiful swag that my sister Becky gave me right after our fire. I am an avid reader of Craigslist and lo and behold I found an ad on there last week from a lady who had gotten married last year in the fall and had decorated for fall at her wedding. She stored her decorations and pulled them out this fall to sell! I was so happy! So for not a lot of money I have fall decorations, and so do Mandie and Bianca! Isn't God good to provide not only needs, but also wishes sometimes? I will try to post some pictures of some of the decorations that Mandie helped me with this weekend. I hope you all are having a wonderful week!

Notice!

For all of you who enjoy new recipes or like to read food blogs, here is a new one for you. You may follow this link to the blog: www.cookingventures.blogspot.com . The editor of the blog is a co-worker with my cousin, Sue Kimmel Werle, and he has some great recipes! His stories are interesting, too. So, just thought I'd share that with you and maybe you will enjoy it! Happy cooking!!!!

Noel's baseball games

Noel had a good baseball season, but we were all glad when it was over and we could move on to other things.

Catching up!

It has been forever since I have posted anything and I have several pictures to prove that I haven't dropped off the face of the earth! I think they are on my laptop, though. I'll see what I have on this computer. Okay, so this little man is all I came up with but of course he's enough!!!! Now, honestly, have you ever seen a cuter baby??? Lol! He's a doll and now is walking, into things (although he is very obedient!) and has a distinctive personality! My son-in-law and I go back and forth when Wyatt's having one of those "silly" moments, about who he's acting like! Of course Scott always says Wyatt is acting like a Hazelwood! Of course, I have my opinions of who he acts like, but we'll leave that for another time, (because Scott is probably right!). We are so excited for camp, although Manuel and I will only be there for the weekends. I have a conference in Denver that I need to attend and it falls right during camp. Manuel is going with me, so we will fly out on Monday and be back on Thursday, just in time for the last weekend! We have worked a lot on our cabin at the camp ground and hopefully it will be more user friendly now. Manuel and Noel spent many hours working on it and then Steve Werle, my cousin, came down and put in almost all new plumbing! I'm so excited! I will try to remember my laptop tomorrow and share some summer pics with you. In the meantime, have a good day!!!

Happy (Late) Fathers' Day!

I thought about putting this post on here Monday, but forgot! Sorry! I just wanted to mention some of the dads in my life and say Happy Fathers' Day!

To my husband of 28 years: Manuel, thank you for being the wonderful father that you are to your children. As I read Mandie's blog entry to you today, I realized for the first time how valuable the lesson that you have taught your children is. I have wondered many times why you didn't just do things for them, and sometimes thought you should have, and no doubt have told you so many times, but I realized today that they have become stronger, more ready to think for themselves and more independent by learning from you. Thank you for that. If it were up to me, our children would probably be hopelessly spoiled. You truly practice "tough love". Many nights, when the children were babies, you would get up in the night and care for them. You laid them against your tummy when they had colic. You never, that I can ever remember, complained that they were crying too much or not letting you sleep. We have recently had our 28th anniversary, and while sometimes we still don't agree (okay, maybe I should say, sometimes we actually do agree!), we have stood together through all these years and that is something to be proud of and thankful for! We have taught our children that you "find a way, when there doesn't seem to be one". God knew what He was doing when He picked you out for me. Thank you for being the best father that my children could ever have!

And to my Daddy and my Suegro: I miss you both so much! Losing you both was so painful, the hub in the middle of the wheels of both families is missing! We know that you are both waiting in Heaven for us and that makes it worth while! I hope you are spending time together up there and just relaxing! You both worked so hard down here and it's time to rest! Daddy, thank you for always being able to fix anything that was broken, for praying for all of us, for not being afraid to tell us when you thought we needed to do something different, for cooking for us, for spoiling me, for always making sure we had the "right" vehicle, (although I still remember being a little upset about you selling my car without my permission--although you turned right around and put that money into a brand new (wrecked and rebuilt) car for me and made several additional payments for it), for preaching the truth, for showing us that the path well traveled is not always God's will for us and for teaching us to have courage to be what we are! I love you, Daddy! Thank you so much for everything! I'll see you "in the morning"! Suegro, the pain of your going is still fresh to us, and I can't stand the thoughts of passing your house in Mexico and not seeing you on the front porch! I will never forget the first time I saw you, you laughed and said something that I couldn't understand. I will always wonder what you said! After we moved back to the US, when we would pull up in your driveway, I remember you looking out at the truck, seeing the recognition dawning on your face when you recognized Manuel's truck, and then your smile when you saw that your daughter-in-law was with him! You would say, "Mira quien viene!" Thank you for teaching your son tough love. And, to you, I will say, "Hasta la manana!"

Sorry, I got my post a little backwards. The narrative is at the bottom and the pics at the top! Oh, well! What can I say???

My weekend

Dafne and some of her friends saying good-bye as we get ready to head back to Oklahoma.
Debbie Madigan and her girls, Caitlin, Lauren and Erin.

Me with my friends.

The three girls in my hotel room.

Miss Caitlin, the oldest! Isn't she cute? Actually all of them are!

Thanks, Deb, for the fun day and for lunch and dinner! Next time it's on me!!! :-)

I had a really great weekend and I hope that you did, too! I had the privilege of taking 2 of the 3 girls who sing in the IBS ladies' trio to Troy Camp to represent the school. I also had the privilege of spending time with a dear, dear friend of mine on Saturday. I hadn't seen her for probably 15 years?? and had never met her precious girls, ages 12, 11, and 9. We had a wonderful day. She and her girls went to camp with me for the 6 o'clock service and stayed to hear the girls sing in the 7:30 service. I'll include some pictures that I took of Debbie and her girls.

Finally, pictures of part of our new house!

Dresser in the master bedroom. Master bedroom.

Some of my nurse figurine collection didn't survive the fire, but these are a few of my favorite ones, All God's Children, as well as the little "Florence Nightengale" lamp that was given to my mother when she graduated from nursing school.

We got this electric fireplace at an auction and we really like it.

Our room.

This candle holder is interesting to me. I bought the wooden part from someone on Craig's List and was told that it was originally a Piloncillo mold. Piloncillos are cone shaped hard pieces of something like brown sugar that is widely used in traditional deserts in Mexico. I added a few other things to it and have an interesting centerpiece for the dining room table. My mom made each of her girls a cross stitch before she died and we all treasure them. Mine says something like Happiness is in doing what you enjoy doing best and doing it with joy in your heart or words to that effect. It was severely damaged in the fire, but I was able to salvage it and reframe and mat it. It's "battle scars" just make it more precious to me.

This is a Southern Living at Home item that I bought from my niece, Robyn's yard sale. Binky had the inspiration to put candles and fruit in it, and I have it on my food bar.

Just another shot into the entry way. Sorry, there are a lot of pics. Hope you aren't bored!

Our piano made it through the fire with little damage, but it wasn't a sentimental piece for me, so when I saw this piano on Craigslist, I fell in love with it. It's history is that it is approximately 150 years old and was brought over on a ship from England. The old radio on the left of the piano was purchased from an auction and the clock and harp were also.

A beautiful piece of furniture that we purchased at an auction. It has lots of storage! Standing in the dining room and shooting toward the front door, into the living room.

Living room.

Our front door. We hope it is welcoming and inviting to our guests.

More pics

Table in the entry way. I took this shot to show you the basket under the table. Maybe everyone does this, but I never had before. My kids wear flip flops a lot and they end up all around the front door. I put this basket here for the flip flops and occassional pair of tennies that get left at the front door and it makes for a much neater entryway!Hooks and a welcome sign behind the front door.

As you know, the name of my blog is "Mi Casa is Su Casa". Mandie bought me the taller figurine who's inscription is "Mi Casa". Of course it landed in my entry way. Then after I got home from her wedding, I found the small one holding a sign that says, "Miss you!" What a sweet girl I have~~~really three sweet girls!

So this is the whole shot of the entry way table.

This is standing in the family room looking into the kitchen. As you can see the walls are not finished. Eventually they will have the Tuscan texture and glaze like the dining room and breakfast nook. Our son-in-law, Scott, does a wonderful job with textures and he is in the process of finishing this project.