photo shoot

My friend Chesley recently offered to "practice" her photography on my girls. It was the best Christmas present ever! She took the stress off of me having to take a picture for our Christmas card. I think we picked the only cold day that week, but fortunately my girls will play outside no matter how cold it gets, so we went ahead and tried for outdoor pictures. I loved them--she took a ton, and I probably posted way too many, but I couldn't make up my mind, and wanted my mom and dad to see them. I think she did an incredible job and was able to get pictures of Mamie a) smiling and b) facing the camera, which are both close to impossible.

Lilly loves to strike a pose.

Future competitive tricycle rider. It is serious business. She would sleep with it in her bed if I let her.

Thank you Chesley!

leeeeeeaves!

This year our girls are all about wanting to play in leaves. We just have mainly dogwoods in our yard, so we haven't had any of our own leaves to play in. We found some great ones at the zoo, and our sweet neighbors across the street knocked on the door the other day and asked if the girls wanted to jump in their big pile of leaves with their grandson.

Hollis and Kim went with us to the zoo. I think they all had more fun playing in the leaves than they did looking at the animals.

christmas dilemma

The girls and Scole posing for a Christmas picture last year

Ok, I have a serious question for the three people that might still be out there in blogland...

I have always tried to stress the importance of being thankful and sharing what we have and make it a point to involve the girls in buying gifts for the children we choose from the angel tree (or church, or whatever). Lilly has been asking so many questions that I can't answer this year.

Like these...

"Mommy, why do you say that these might be the only presents they get for Christmas? Were they bad this year so Santa won't bring them anything?"

"If people don't have money for presents, it doesn't matter mom! Santa will still bring them lots of toys for Christmas!! Isn't that so cool?"

"How can there be boys and girls in the world that don't have any toys to play with or clothes or shoes? Why doesn't Santa just bring them those things for Christmas?"

How do you explain that to a four year old without destroying their faith in Santa? Tell them that Santa doesn't deliver to Honduras so we have to pack a magi box? Seriously--I would love your opinions on this one. I do not know what to tell her. I have just been telling her that Santa still comes to see them, but sometimes people "help the parents" buy some presents to give to their children because they don't have any money. I have told her Santa needs people who have enough to share with others who don't--like the Bible says. She still has unwaivering faith that Santa will bring coats and new warm clothes to ALL those who need them, toys to everyone, and fulfill everyone's wishes (if they are good :).

Anyone have a better suggestion? I'd love a good one :)

a long (but fun) halloween week...

We had a crazy week! Halloween parties, birthday parties, trunk or treat, trick or treating, and Lilly's first play.

Here's the HUGE pumpkin Jon brought home from the store.

Trunk or Treat

Peter Pan strolling around checking out the loot

sweet little Layla with Lilly



The highlight of Trunk or Treat for Lilly was when Brown arrived. I think she asked me 10 times if he would be there.

The girls favorite place to play lately is our closet. I find strange things hidden in my shoes, and my underwear wrapped around all sorts of things. This is how I found them the other day.

The girls and I had a marathon baking day last week. We made daddy a birthday cake, and sugar cookies for school parties. We had some leftover orange icing from the pumpkins, so we made daddy's cake ugly for him :)

Lilly's class all dressed up and ready to trick or treat

Ms. Gloria

Ellie and Lilly

Halloween Night

Lilly was Tinkerbell, Mamie was Peter Pan, and Scole was the crocodile from Peter Pan (tick tock...)

Trick or treating at Aunt Kristin and Uncle Branson's house was fun! The girls got an insane amount of candy. Thanks guys, we'll be sending the bill for the fillings :)

Then we knocked on Sassy's door. She had great treats too :)

Sunday morning after Halloween--I still had my camera in the car and thought I'd try to get a picture.



Then, as if we hadn't had enough to do, we were offered 4 tickets to Little House on the Prarie. I was SO excited (I think I spent about 4 years of my childhood pretending to be Laura Ingalls Wilder). Lilly had never been to anything at TPAC before, but there was no pressure since we got the tickets free. I figured if she couldn't sit still or be quiet, or if she just didn't like it, we could always leave. We took Ellie and Tressa with us, and the girls LOVED it. They were mesmerized by the singing and dancing and had an incredible time. It was so good--and it had Melissa Gilbert (Laura from the TV show) as Ma! Thank you Jackie for the tickets!

Sporting the most Little House on the Prarie outfit we had...there were so many little girls in full costume dressed just like Laura. So cute!

we couldn't leave the little siblings out

All the "big" kids had gotten to go to Walden Farm on field trips, but the little brothers and sisters got left out, so we planned a day to take them all. I barely have any pictures of the little ones--they were running around having a ball the whole time. I think Mamie did the hay maze about 8 times. I couldn't get her to stand still for a picture.

The "big" kids :)

Lilly, Cal, Livi, Ellie

Mamie in the hay maze. not sure what's going on with that hair.

Lilly posing as the scarecrow. There is nothing I could have bribed Mamie with to put her face in one of those holes for a picture.

Looking at the piglets

hungry (greedy) goats

Lilly and Livi

Lowrie picked a couple of nice pumpkins...

random october...

First off, Mamie has never been a fan of costumes. She does not play dress up or put on any of the princess dresses or play clothes that we have. She is strictly a jewelry and high heels girl. Last Halloween it was a nightmare trying to get her to put on (and keep on) her lion costume. This year, Lilly and Mamie decided they wanted to be Peter Pan and Tinkerbell (Peter Pan is their favorite movie right now). Lilly was very sweet and let Mamie decide which one she wanted to be first. Mamie chose Peter Pan. I kept asking Mamie if she was SURE she would wear the Peter Pan costume if I made it and she kept saying, "I will" (which sounds like "I wheel" and is one of her most common phrases). So, one day last week while the girls were home sick (with H1N1 we think), I made the Peter Pan costume. She was no more cooperative than last year. I had to wrestle it onto her and only succeeded because I eventually bribed her with candy. Here are a few pictures I took at my mom and dad's house. I managed to get her to try it on to show CJ and Pop what it looked like. She doesn't have the shoes on and the feather wasn't sewn in yet and looks crazy in a few pictures, but oh well. They might be all we get :)

acting scary with her sword

some technical difficulties with the feather...

Saturday morning the girls and I went to Amy Grant's yard sale at Lipscomb. Mamie picked out a VHS of how different baby animals grow. She was so excited she wanted her daddy to watch it with her the minute we got home. The only VCR still surviving in our house is built into our bedroom TV, so that's where they all were for about an hour after we got home. It was not the most exciting movie...

Here's our Dora pumpkin. I had great plans for this little white pumpkin...maybe a monogram, a cute design, or just a cute little "boo!" but Jon found the website with all the Nickelodeon character templates, so I had to give in. I realize Dora is much more fun for a 2 and 4 year old than a tastefully monogrammed pumpkin. It's really cute lit up--I need to take a picture of it glowing. We still have a HUGE orange pumpkin left to carve...

and does anyone have any suggestions for this mess? I hate these things. IS there any way to clean grass off of these furry crocs? I have put them in the washing machine and it does nothing. I'm afraid the only solution is to sit for hours picking off every piece of grass.
Surely someone out there knows the secret...