Liana is growing up and becoming even more funny.

For the past couple weeks she’s been bugging me to take her fishing. This brings tears to my eyes. I can’t wait to do this.

So I now get to buy new fishing equipment and Anna can’t tell me no. LOL!!!

Last night Grandgrad (that’s how Liana says it) came by for dinner. While he was here Liana told him that she knew he like fishing and wants to go. At one point grandgrad asked Liana, “What will you do when you catch a fish?”

Her reply….. “Kill it”

Man, I’ve lagged on doing this. But life’s been crazy.

We’re trying to sell our house and doing a ton of upgrades. Like below we did the front yard and now are doing mostly interior. We’re getting new laminate floors and I’m putting in new tile in the bathroom.

But in doing the tile, I found that part of the toilet broke. So I had to replace the ring that attaches the toilet to the floor and that was a manjor project. It took me about 4 hours to get the old one off, the pipe cut correctly and new concrete poured. Now I’m waiting for the concrete to set ao I can attach the new ring. In the meantime I will be laying the tile. So this will be fun.

Well, we’re back from Cali after having a GREAT thanksgiving with the family. We will pst pictures very soon.

As we are trying to prep the house to sell it next year, we have come up with a list of things to do to it. New front yard, new floor, repair stucco and more.

The first thing we did was re-do the front yard. So I dug up most of the grass and xeriscaped the area. This was a lot of work. That’s 6 yards of brown rock and 2 yards of the cobblestone or babyheads (as mountain bikers call them).

And here is the finished product. Nevermind the Texas Longhorn design that the gardner made.

Yesterday was a momentous day, as we sold our Maxima. We are a little sad to get rid of it, however one less car payment is a wonderful thing.

We sold it to our neighbors and yes I know the ‘old rule” about that. However, this car is in great shape and I’m certain that it will continue to stay that way. They really loved it and are excited to have a newer big car.

Now we are back to only two cars, which is all we need. See, my company gave me a car and pays for gas. So there was no need for the Maxima. This is going to be helpful in searching for a new home and building up our savings.

We got Liana a bike for her birthday in April. She’s been doing pretty good in riding it around the backyard. Especially considering how heavy it is. It almost weighs as much as my Kona Coiler.

Well, we were in the front yard, letting her ride in the street and she was doing really good. She was practicing stopping and turning. At one point she turned a lttle too sharp, as all children are prone to do when learning.

It has started, we signed Liana up for soccer! Ok we did that a few months ago, but now it’s about to start.

So we went to a local soccer store to get her her gear and boy has it changed. When I played, over 30 years ago, we had nice jersey’s but shoes were black. We had black shoes with a white logo of whatever brand you were wearing. I usually had adidas. Now there are SO MANY brands and styles. Do you want a cartoon character on your shoes or an animal or just a cute design? Well they exist in these ways and many more. There are some pretty expensive shoes for a 4 year old, too.

This store was pretty cool, because they have package deals. So we got Liana a ball, shoes, socks and shin guards for only $35.

Liana now has pink shoes with butterflies, matching shin guards AND BALL. Again, her daddy had black Adidas. However I was assured by the salesperson that old school shoes were coming back in style. Gee thanks.

We had a great 4th or July, last night. We had a few friends over for a BBQ and fireworks. As I’ve always said… What a great way to celebrate independance. You eat food, drink and THEN set off fireworks.

Last Titus was really afraid of the fireworks. He cried the whole time and would not let Anna put him down. However, last night he put his chair right up to the front and the closest we’d allow him to be to the fireworks. After each firework he would stand up and cheer clapping his hands and then turn to me and say, “Mo daddy, mo.” while signing the word more. He was so excited for each and every firework. He was simply beside himself with happiness. He has the greatest little laugh and makes the cutest face when he is excited, like he was.

We did have one little mishap. The children were doing sparklers and somehow an ember dropped and got into Liana’s shoe. She was wearing crocs and it somehow got under her foot and gave her quite the little burn. It was a pretty bad burn, because those shoes are plastice (per se) and melted a little bit. The size of the burn is no more than 1/8th of an inch in diameter, but it really hurt her.

She is much better today and is begging to do more fireworks.

Oh and on an oddly related note. For some reason Titus slept through the night. I guess I need to do fireworks every night! YEA TODD!

But Todd, how could that be? You love Christmas. You love the decorations, the lights, the weather, the tree and all of that. This is not to exclude my love for the Lord and celebrating His birth.

No, what I am not looking forward to is presents.

Liana has now noticed commercials. She has taken to watching them, intently, and memorizing every little nuance of the toy displayed. So far, Saturday mornings have become “Oh, I want that, you can put the Barbie on the handlebars.” OH, I want that, it looks reawy reawy (L’s are still a little difficult for her) fun.”

I now understand how crazy it drove my parents. I remember that, as a small child, before Christmas they would set my down, in front of a TV with a pad and pencil and make me write out what I wanted for Christmas. I would sit there for hours, waiting for commercials. I now see through their wicked ways!

Now there is one benefit from this and that is, she has realized things that the Atomikblonde and I “need”. So I have ended up with some pretty sweet Hotwheels cars. Now if she’ll see the new Speedracer set and convince mommy to buy them for me.

What’s that? Well, it’s my new bike! I will be taking possesion of it later this week. I am very excited. It’s in good shape and am getting it for a steal.

I also got my temporary moto endorsement today. The test was pretty easy but I’ll admit I was nervous taking it. Now I just need to go in for the riding test and show them I can turn circles and stop. All without falling over.

Let the accessorising begin! Now, where is that neon light?