on a cloudy monday afternoon

I've typed and re-typed the beginning of this post a number of times.

My heat hurts, throat's chapped and the incessant barking of the pit bull 3 doors down is breaking my concentration. I hope I can make a cohesive post out of this, but I cannot promise you anything.

Last Wednesday, my mom and I attempted to get a good picture of Mr. Man for our Christmas cards. I'll be the first to admit that there are 10 "misfires" for every good, useable photo.
<--- you see?


And then we headed over to the Kickerillo model in my mom's neighborhood to just look and I must admit...
I was horribly disappointed:

For as expensive as these houses are, can you believe that they actually had put fake stone in the kitchen? Gah. And the finishes just weren't what you'd expect from a multi-million dollar home. But, we've always heard that you're paying more for the name than for the quality. Whatevs, do what you want with your money. Just sayin' what I'm sayin'. 

After we got home from the models, Liam took a quick nap on my mom's bed, and then was ready to go outside and play... except that it was raining. Well, he was insistent, and so instead of getting *everyone* wet, we let him run around in my mom's backyard while we sat on the patio. When we finally came in, we had to put him in warm clothes (he had an accident in his jeans), so we brought out a pair of my dad's socks... 

Thanks for the loaner, dad. Liam appreciated having warm & toasty legs. He wore them until bed time, quite happily. 

Saturday we headed into Houston bright(ish) and early for the Nutcracker Market.

I'd never been before (um, hi, OVERWHELMING). I can't say that I'm itching to head back tomorrow, but once a year surely isn't so bad. My MIL, mom and I made quite the day of it.

Liam, on the other hand, stayed home with his Uncle Brad and Grandpa Roger (and Daddy, after he got off work). He was more than happy to spend the day playing.

After we got home, my FIL and I headed to Hobby Lobby to pick up ribbons for our Christmas tree... I am so ready for Thanksgiving weekend so it's not ridiculous to have the tree put up. We got chartreuse, antique gold and burgundy ribbons and ornaments and I am so excited to see it all put up together.  We even got coordinating wrapping paper and ribbons for packages. 

Liam found the perfect place for his water cup.

Today on Zach's lunch break, Liam was pretty punky. He's got a runny nose and cough, so he's a little put out and we just try to keep him as happy as possible and today, that meant pushing him around the house in the empty laundry basket, chasing Jethro. Jethro got worked up and started howling and Liam just loved it.

I think that's all for today, dearies. Thanks so much for your awesome responses to my last post. I'm glad everyone else got a kick out of the rockin' comment I received. You are all such supportive, wonderful friends and I thank you for that.

Hope your Monday has been a good one and it's started your week off right!