We celebrated Chloe’s 3rd birthday! She is such a great addition to our family. As much as I love to see our kids grow up, those feelings are coupled with a profound sense of sadness and loss. I have known no greater joy than parenthood and I will always be “Dad” but my children will not always be my “babies.” Happy Birthday!

Furniture shopping usually makes me feel sick. I strongly dislike walking around looking at things that might go well with other things. “Hey, this buffalo hide might draw colors from the stainless steel cactus and the human bone table to make them work together.” We have done more shopping in the last month than I can recall doing the previous year. Do you like this chair with circles? Fancy. Table? Rug? Ugh (we did not buy that chair).

Once in awhile I must appease the gods of parenthood and interact with my children. What better place to do this than Nickel City? (yeah… maybe Disneyland). The children quickly became smitten by the ticket bug and exchanged many nickles for the chance to take on fate. Happily I was able to persuade them to play a few “real” games with me.

If you haven’t been to The Museum of Natural Curiosity yet (at Thanksgiving Point) you’re missing out!

The kids always have a blast at Cornbelly’s. Fran and I met up for dinner, but I wasn’t feeling well enough to hit the main events this year.

We finally got to the keys to our new place! We had a few cabinet related issues that necessitated work even after it was “done.”  This is what our house looked like a couple days after closing. No sweat.

Moving in! The guys at 7 Brothers Moving were excellent to work with. And after nearly a decade of love, feeding and education one of our kids can do useful things!

We wasted no time in starting the landscaping (no time). A bit of dirt here, some curbing there, a few sprinklers, some fence posts, more dirt, a trampoline pit and maybe some grass if we hurry. Winter Shminter.

Halloween 2014! Fran and the more agreeable kids dressed up like the characters from Guardians of the Galaxy. The older ones were committed to doing their own thing. Admittedly Claire made a cute vampire. I have no idea what Michael was- some kind of shadow guy in gym clothes (“I’m a morph, I told you!” “Okay, sure.”)

Eating some Halloween breakfast (wearing costumes to school is a thing now- I don’t remember doing it when I was a kid). And then the long awaited Sabin Halloween Party! Each year the decorations get more elaborate, the costumes get weirder and the fun gets pushed past the maximum allowable limit.

Here’s a couple of October parting shots. Mike got his Arrow of Light award!  Claire was asked to go to a recording studio to sing a French song for a Christmas album. Gabe has become an excellent RC car racer- he’s now working on becoming an excellent RC car mechanic. Chloe and I went shopping and she insisted on carrying the basket until it was literally too heavy for her to lift (cute, but inefficient). Awesome kids? Check.