Halloween 2008

the witch

the princess kitty

. . . and tigger

bad mommy

Breakfast on Halloween morning . . .

I never would have allowed Delaney or Jillian to have a tootsie pop for breakfast, not even on Halloween! He appeared, sucker in hand asking "mommy open please?" with that sweet face -- how could I resist?

Daddy Time

While I was away for a girls' weekend in Chicago, Ryan spent some quality time with the kids. I was impressed when I saw these photos of their golf outing. He's a wonderful father who puts his kids first. Thanks honey for building this family with me and making me proud to be your wife!

Hot "B"

This summer, Elliott's blanket (or "B" as he calls it) was often left in the car as we went about whatever it was we were doing. Back in the car and buckled in, Elliott would hold out his blanket to me and yell "mama, hot B!" So I'd take it from him and hold it in front of the vent to cool off in the air conditioning. After I tossed it back to my little guy, he'd snuggle it, smile and mummur "cold B. . . "

Imagine my surprise when he brought be his blanket this morning, still in jammies and watching cartoons at home. "Hot B mama." What to do? The air blowing out of the vents is a steady 68 degrees. Solution - tuck it in the freezer for 30 seconds and return it to one happy boy - "ahhh, cold B."

seven

Happy Birthday to our little peanut! Can you believe she is seven??? Mommy brought back this American Girl Doll from Chicago - and Mia was quickly introduced to Julie - BFF's FOREVER! Delaney celebrated her birthday all day long - it was announced over the loudspeaker in the morning at school, her class sang Happy Birthday to her during morning meeting, mom and Jillian delivered cupcakes and juice boxes to the 1st graders after lunch, Delaney was spun in circles at Cheerleading and shared cookies and cream sandwiches with her class, and finally we took her out to Applebee's for a birthday dinner complete with the staff singing to her and of course, an ice cream sundae! Whew! The only reason she survived that craziness was that she was on a sugar high for the entire day. Happy Birthday sweetheart - you are truly beautiful inside and out!

Everybody study

Miss Delaney brings a homework packet home every Monday, and insists on completing it all at once -- "it's fun!" Not to be left out, Jillian works on her Faithweaver Friends lesson for church and Elliott just does his own thing!

Elliott

Today Elliott had his usual breakfast -- yogurt with Fruit Loops. Auntie Ria showed him how yummy it was to put his "loop loops" into his yogurt and he's eaten them that way ever since. There was even more to the method today. I dropped a couple of colorful o's into his yogurt only to be immediately reprimanded from my almost 2 year old. "No mommy! No yellow, no red - GREEN!" He plucked those maverick o's out and replaced them with green ones. Yes, my little boy needed to eat his fruit loops by color - green first, followed by blue, then red, then orange and finally yellow. Hoping this is just a phase . . . although I think daddy was a little proud at hearing this as it reflected a bit of himself in his little boy.

Their Words!

I've been unable to post for some time due to computer issues! While my old harddrive remains in limbo, I've gotten a new computer and am in the process of getting it up and running. So just a quick catch up today on life from the girls' point of view.

Last Wednesday:

Delaney came home from school and informed me that she had made a new friend. I asked if this friend was in her class or someone she met on the playground.

"He's in my class mom. He said I was pretty."

"Aw, honey, you are pretty!"

To which Delaney simply replied, "I know!"

Sunday morning:

While getting ready for church, the girls were at the sink brushing their teeth and I was working around them, combing their hair, washing their faces, etc. Well, I must have been concentrating because Jillian pointed to my forhead and said something about all my lines! She's been fascinated with them for some time, jealous of them because she can't make them on her little forhead. I've always told her that she's too young, too fresh to have lines.

She leaned in closely to the mirror and raised her eyebrows as high as she could (I was afraid her eyeballs were actually going to pop right out from all the effort). And very, very faintly the slightest hint of a line appeared across the top of her forhead, to which Jillian joyfully exclaimed "Hey mom, I'm not fresh anymore!"