Maternity Photos!

 Now that everyone has hopefully gotten their Christmas letter and baby "announcement" card, here are some more awesome photos from our maternity shoot! BIG THANKS TO NATALIE!!!!

 Double Heart: Jared's idea!

 This is my favorite of the boys!

 They were running around like crazy and playing in the fountain...

 All of us doing PK's signature "cheese" face.

 A man with parrot walks by, and of coarse, Natalie asks if he can take his picture, he promptly replies "no but you can take a picture with the parrot" He was like 32 years old!! (the parrot)

 Jared wanted pics of him "dropping" me into the fountain.

 Look closely:

 Hanging from the sign there is a praying mantis! He is large, so naturally Jared decides to pick him up...

 PK doesn't like this idea, especially when the mantis starts heading toward his feet. Then...

  Mommy to the rescue! "Oh this isn't so bad, it's even cool!"

 I call this one: "Husband Chases Wife with Praying Mantis"

What a brat! Seriously, who chases their pregnant wife with insects!? But sweet PK says, as he runs after us: "Hey! Stop doing that to my mommy!" Gotta love my boys! Merry almost Christmas everyone! 

Love, 

The House on Hampshire

Enter to Win for a mama you know :) hint hint wink wink ;)
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Halloween!

This just in: Halloween in the South is different from Halloween in AZ! (Okay, that's not really news, since we saw in GA Halloween is considered to be Pagan by lots "religious folk" but I promise our hearts were in it for the candy, not Satan worship)

You know how it seems like if people don't decorate for a holiday in AZ they still tend to participate in some way, well it's not like that here... lots of people didn't hand out candy in our neighborhood, however, we still had a great time hanging out with some family friends! And Peter was the cutest Captain America Ever! But let's back up to a few days before Halloween!

We went to a pumpkin patch with some friends! There were lots of pumpkins, I promise. 

Then a few days later, PK and I actually CARVED pumpkins!In this picture Peter is decorating his with glitter glue :)

 Finished Products!

What could possibly be next you ask!? Captain America accompanies Spiderman and a Purple Butterfly Princess to a Halloween Party on Post:

 Our friends Spiderman (Liam) and Butterfly Princess (Addison)

Yes there is more! We basically had an awesome Halloween. The left is PK in front of the Shaw's home (a few streets down from us) after he had already gone trick or treating at the downtown shops! The right picture is PK getting fueled prior to the downtown trick or treating.

 Our other good friends Jayden and his mommy were with us too, so there may be more Halloween pictures in the near future! But just so you don't feel deprived and if you arn't on facebook here is me at 30 weeks!

Love,
The House on Hampshire

DIY: Sand Box

This is a great idea for a big and cheap sandbox if you DO NOT live where it rains all the time or if you HAVE a covered porch! (We have neither so this ended up failing miserably but still, I thought I should share this idea and how we ended up doing a sandbox!

 Step 1: Buy a big (or small if you want) plastic pool from the Family Dollar or Walmart at the end of summer when they go on sale *wink*
 Step 2: Go to Lowes or Home Depot and pick up stakes that will go level with the ground, small bungies (4), "play sand" and a tarp that will be bigger than your pool size.  We got a large pool so put in 10 bags of the play sand. (we could have done a few less if we wanted to save a few bucks)
 Step 3: Drill holes into the bottom of your pool. We did 5 holes but you could probably do more. (This is for water to drain out should you wish to make sand castles or forget to put the tarp back on when there is a storm).
 Step 4: Choose your sand box spot! And choose wisely! Once the sand is in, definitely too heavy to move again! Consider your bug population, where you have a covered, shady place, and can you see your kiddo from the window if you are inside? 
   For example: our big mistake was placing the sand box by heavy foliage (which made it a shady place), but thats where all the mosquitos hung out during the summer so PK couldn't even use it because he would come back inside with so many bites.
 Step 5: Pour your sand. 
 Step 6: Place your tarp over the sandbox so that it is equally spaced around the edge. Drive the stakes into the ground about half a foot to a foot from the corner of the tarp so that when you attach the bungies it pulls the tarp tight over the "box". This will keep out small amounts of rain and kitty poop. :)

 As you can see, the first day was a success! And so were a few other times...

Total Cost $64

Way cheaper than the bigger wooden ones you can buy online for hundreds of dollars and definitely comparable to what you would end up spending on the lobster/turtle shaped sandboxes that come with a top and are very small. 

but then...

rain, ants, and mosquito infested area-this is how that sandbox looks now:

 we had given up until... a craigslist find!

It was big enough for Peter but had a top to go with it.

We also put it on the porch instead, closer to me when I'm in the kitchen and away from the grass/foliage where lots of the bugs live in our yard.

Advice: Definitely keep an eye open for a sandbox that comes with a top for re-sale. If you have ants, sprinkle cinnamon in your sandbox (that really worked for us). I really suggest doing the big pool if you have a covered space you can put it under! Because it was so much fun to have such a big sandbox to play in! But not worth the trouble having to dump the tarp every time there was a heavy rain.

Needless to say any sandbox will be a fun sandbox! I hope this was a little helpful/inspirational for those of you with kiddos/grand-kiddos!

Love,
The House on Hampshire