Happy Thanksgiving!
Actually Christmas came early for me, I got a new camera, lens and some other fancy stuff. I suppose I should be excited about the superior quality of my new camera versus the old one and I am but the thing I am most excited about is that this camera has a remote control! How cool is that?
Now that I have my new camera and I've figured out how to use it I am going to officially begin portfolio building. So get in touch and let me take some pictures of you, really it would be a big favor to me. I'm up for anything from head shots to family groups. Of course, screaming toddlers who run away are my specialty !

Daddy's girl

I wonder if they'll ever realize how much alike they are? I'm glad he has somebody to ride his roller coasters with, I don't know that he'll ever get me on one again. This was at our local little rinky dink amusement park. Lake Winnepasuka or something like that, Lake Winnie to the locals. It was Roper's Corpate picnic which included the plant so I think it was probally more cowded than if it had just been a normal day but that's okay Evie loved it! She rode her very first coaster and played expensive rigged games, Meri mostly just sat back and ate popcorn. I didn't really feel comfortable putting her on a ride alone, those straps are NOT tight enough. We did do the merrry go round and Evie drove the rail car thingy, so Meri got to enjoy those. It was a good day and next year we'll get there earlier so Daddy gets to ride some of the "real" coasters and not jus the baby caterpiller one!

I can't remember if I told anybody about this or not... I walked in to this late in the summer. Meri on the table, Evie sitting down and everyrhing in site covered in superfine hot pink glitter.
My fault, I left the art box down! I was sooo glad it was summer - we just went outside and hopped in the baby pool. Meri had glitter in hair for months - she might still have some in there! That stuff sticks to everything - it's like sparkly sticky dust.

Hi everybody!
I have some very sad news, a virus has chomped on our computer and we can't get it to start. Hopefully Nate can fix it tonight and that's all that is wrong with it.
I knew it had been acting wonky lately, being veeeeeeery sloooooow which was why the blog just had pictures and no posts. Well now I can't access my pictures, can't load any, can't play with any in photoshop, heck I can't even see any! I am in withdrawl! Seriously, I think I had the shakes yesterday. He just did this thingy with something ( soo technical, I know!) so I have internet, if nothing else. Just wanted to let you knowsince I know you must be having girlie withdrawls too! Love to you all!

Curls... I neep some help here. I'm *thinking* of cutting them off. Yes, she likes her "princess" hair but she HATES and mean hates with a passion, having it fixed and even worse is having it washed. So what do you think, would it be any better chin length, would that stop the drama and the tears, the throwing of the body onto the floor, the shreaks of "NO BRUSH, NO BOW" ? Anybody have any ideas? Jesse, are you out there? Did you ever get your curls cut off and not be traumatized? I'm just afraid we'll make that first cut and she'll be heart broken and even worse that it will still be impossible to fix her hair. And will she even look like herself with out all those curls? Sigh, I guess if this is all that is pressing in our life right now then we're good. We should all have our biggest concern be the length of our hair, right?

Happy Halloween! I don't know if we have anything to do tonight but Evie has a party at school this morning. She went dressed as a "princess like Allison" complete with a "beil" and flowers.

We're back. We didn't ruin the wedding and except for maybe providing some unexpected entertainment at the reception the girls were wonderful. They screeched at the rehersal and at various meal and sleep times but that was about the extent of it. I couldn't keep them off the dance floor; Meri was intent on twirling her self sick and Evie had one mad Angelina Ballerina impersonation going on and they were both on a kamakasi mission to take out the cupcake table!
Ali was a beautiful bride and I loved how Wes kept helping her fix her dress during the ceremony, so sweet. We wish them a lifetime of love, congrats you guys!
Thanks for a wonderful weekend everyone!

I thought you might like to see my grand prize. It's the first time I've ever won a grand prize and I'm not really sure what I won it for. Evie awarded it to me last night. Two stinky coolers full of plastics and dirty clothes. Maybe I won it for getting four people ready to go on a trip all by myself, for getting the dog to the vet and Evie picked up from school, for getting the snacks bought ahead of time and the clothes washed up, for cleaning the kitchen and living in a house with out heat for the past 2 weeks. Well some of those things aren't done yet but I've got to get them done before we can leave today. I just thought it was cute. She brought me into the kitchen and with this grand flourish presented me my grandprizes, opening them and revealing the wonders inside. She's just too cute!
Meri and Daddy on our trip to Cloudland Canyon last weekend. Two million stairs later we got to see some really lame waterfalls along with about 4 thousand other people. I would not recomend this park. Really, it was just straight down a flight of stairs and then straight back up then repeat the process. the second fall you couldn't even walk around you were stuck on this wooden platform. Hmmfp. At least we tried and the girls thought they were cool.

Stubborn! That's our Evie. Tonight we had some black bean soup for dinner, she hates soup. I keep making it b/c I'm lazy and it's cheap and she just keeps refusing to eat any type of it. So we played Dora at the table. The horses had fallen under a sleeping spell and to save them she had to eat ONE bite, run around the table and kiss the princess. Sounds reasonable, right? We had to force the bite into her. And I mean shove it into her type of force. Grrr, try and have fun and it bites ya in the butt. Mind you, this was after much cajoling and doling out of cookies to everybody else and pretty much everything short of standing on our heads. So we taught her to say "I'm stubborn" and that's that. I don't mind her not eating so much, I'm choosing to subscribe to the toddler weekly average of eating theory (TWAE), meaning it'll even out over the course of the week. The whole no soup thing is just so frustrating though so we keep trying to make her eat it (or at least taste it) in the hopes that she'll get used to it, eventually. So then after our lovely dinner she was supposed to be getting in the bath tub and instead she was inventing a new game. I suppose it's pretty much carpet hopscotch. We have an oriental rug with medalions and she was hopping one footed on just the "big ones". Pretty cute, she does have her redeeming her qualities so I guess we'll keep her. I described her the other day as delightfully difficult. Meaning the majority of the time I'm dicipling her I'm secretly delighted at how wonderful she is. Like the other day when she stuck the popcorn kernal up her nose.... She kept saying her nose hurt and well she had been sniffling so I thought it was just sore. You know how that goes. Well, Mom and Nathan and the girls and I were sitting aound the table in a Panera, she had finished her sandwhich and this enormous sneeze comes out. She looks up and in her little hand is this HUGE popcorn kernal and she shouts "I did it!, I did it!" over and over again. Mom and Nathan are laughing hysterically so I had to sit there and sternly lecture her on not putting things up our noses while tears were streaming down my face and I was shaking trying to keep from laughing. Yep, that's our Evie.
And then there was Meri. You know I never knew Evie was difficult until this one came along. Mom says its bcause the second one is easier but I'm not buying it. Maybe she has to be easy to get by in this house and well I guess if the worst thing her sister teaches her is how to be easy going then I guess she's good but I suppose thats just a pipe dream now that I thik forward about 15 years . She's been coming out with lots of new words and is pretty much devopmentally on track. All six of those new teeth at are still pushing their way through and she's trying so hard to hold her crayon like sister. Her running skills have arrived and are just a delight to watch. She doesn't just run she prances and skips across the floor the tops of her little toes grazing the ground like a dancer. It's kinda like how she never just walked but flounced. Don't get me wrong she definately has her moments. Like the other day at church, we were attending this little bitty service. Like wedding size service. She apparantly doesn't like the homily so I get up and stand in the back with her and while the priest is talking about stewardship she is pulling my hair, grabbing my glasses, clawing my face and trying to stick her hand down my shirt, exposing this that should be covered. I can see him frowning at me so we step out into the vestibule or whatever it's called and she then decides to start screaming at the top of her lungs so we step outside and I put her down to walk and she takes of and runs in front of car . So yes, she has her moments. Which is why I am currently having nightmares about her role as a flower girl this weekend. And I do mean that literally, I woke up twice last night in a cold sweat with visions of her and Evie ruining Ali & Wes' wedding. So say a prayer for me that Evie decides to be just delightful and that Meri doesn't have any of her moments.

I am in LOVE with this shot Of Meri Rose. Look at those lashes, and her coloring. Sigh.... she is such a little beauty. It is so interesting to us to watch the her unfold, in comparison to Evie. How can they look so different and yet both be so beautiful in such diffeent ways(and have come from us?)? Ahh, nothing like Mommy goggles though is there? It stopped pouring long enough yesterday to go outside and play some, well I use play loosley b/c I made them dress alike so I could get some pictures of our trees. I am a little angry with ol' mother nature, the amount of green leaves knocked off by these winds is unbelivable! My poor trees are getting nekked, so I wanted to capture the color while I could since it's supposed to keep on storming all this week. I was cracking up, Evie tried the old throw the leaves up thing (we were out playing in them before the rains) but... she didn't get the whole wet aspect to the leaves. So instead of playing with the fun leaves she kept getting a headful of nasty stuff, hmmm sounds kinda mean now. She only did it once or twice before she caught on though, it's not like I let her just keep doing it. They both loved the mud, or as Evie likes to call it " stinky goo" compliments of Dora of course.
Evie has an evaluation with the school tomorrow, so hopefully that will go well. And Nathan was on the phone with Wes last night, he said "we'll see you next week" And I thought (duh!) Omg! Weston and Allison are getting married next week. I don't know how it managed to sneek up on me so fast, I've only known about it for a year but still, it just seemed like it would never come, but now it's here and promises to be a wonderful time. I hope I can get some pictures but I'm thinking not since I'll be chasing 2 little flower girls around!
Oooh and guess what Evie did yesterday? I was amazed! She covered her eyes, counted to five and said "I find you". I had no idea she knew how to play hide and seek. I guess she's learning something at school after all!

We had some company the other weekend and made a little fire to cook some smores. Do you know anybody that doesn't like smores? Or doesn't like roasted marshmallows? Well, you do now, Evie doesn't and with all the passion a three year old can have I might add. She thought we were nuts! We were ruining the marshamllows by putting them in that fire and ruining the chocolate by putting the marshmallow on it. It was pretty funny. She did have a really good time helping to build the fire but didn't like it so much once it got going. We also went to the Battlefield that same weekend, where the other pictures are from. The girls liked climbing on stuff but thats about all that interested them. They didn't so much get the historical implications and all that. hmmm, wonder why?
It has been raining and raining and raining here! The yard is practically flooded and we have been stuck inside! I really need to get the girls some rain jackets and boots so we could at least go splash in the puddles. As it is we are getting a little stir crazy.....

We got to go visit Uncle Josh (or "my dosh" in Evie speak) this weekend. We had sooo much fun getting to play outside with him, even if he was feeling a little sick. Evie showed off her bat skills but we had to inform Uncle Josh that there is only one true sport in the Dyer household. Of course we didn't bring a soccer ball but she kicked her little foam princess ball around and we were all impressed at her accuracy with it. Or as Nathan says she "has a good foot" or something like that
Awwww! She is such a love bug! She loves to snuggle, actually I'm getting kissed as I try and type this.
This is about all she wants to do now, get into everything. She was paticularly fond of carrying the wickets around and pulling the stakes out of the tomato plants. She tried to use the mallet but it's a little hard when it's taller than you are!
Look at that concentration! They had to too, Uncle Josh's pitching was not exactly the best! She actually has not too bad form for a 3 year old, she sticks that bottom out and twists her little foot. Her Auntie should be proud!
Evie doing some attacking, usually it's the other way around!

I just love it that my girls can dance to music that isn't there. Sure beats having to sing the Sleeping Beauty theme song for billionth time. Anybody recognize these dance costumes? Mimi saves everything! What's really funny is she has a pagent dress from when I was oh 13 or 14 and Evie seems to think that I should be able to fit into it. Now that would be some funny pictures!

Do you ever just know it's going to be one of those days? Meri up before dawn screaming, Evie rolling out of bed with "movie" on her lips and outside is nasty rainy weather! We have our share of them that's for sure.
Last night Nathan had to get measured for a tux so we took the opportunity to pop into the Disney store. You would have thought we were at the theme park itself! All these frenzied kids running around boggle eyed while harried parent frantically shoved things back on the shelves. It was fun! We told Evie she could pick out one toy and we walked out of there with a rather cheap little stuffed bambi. I was shocked, what no princess? But then I got to thinking about it and you know what? She has about a gazillion princesses but not a single bambi related item. I guess she's pretty smart, huh! She definately has a better memory than I giver her credit for.

Who needs Halloween?

It's that time of year again. Yep, it's time to prove your worth as parent by showing just how creative you are or just how much money you can spend. All in order to dress your child up for one night so they can get candy that you normally wouldn't touch and from strangers at that! Halloween definately brings out the weird in people. I'm wracking my brains this year for something the girls can wear that will match but still have Meri be cute. Everything I come up with poor Meri is the sidekick! A princess and a dragon, a mermaid and an octopus, a cowgirl and a horse well you get the idea. It doesn't help matters that Evie has to wear hers to school or that we'll actually miss trick or treating being in Charlotte for a wedding so I can't really justify spending money when they won't really be wearing it for the actual purpose. Any ideas anyone? Anyway it just occured to me the other day, we don't need halloween around here. Not a day goes by that doesn't involve dressing up, I'm wondering if it would even be special to Evie? I let her go out in her princess crowns, dressesand assorted get up all the time, the only thing I say no about in regards to dress up clothes is that she has to have her normal shoes on when we go out. We do get some strange looks so maybe that would be a good thing to Halloween, she might look normal for once! Meris not quite as bad yet since she can't dress herself but she's starting to get the idea!

Those of Meri are from yesterday, you can see she still looks a little sick but we had so much fun while big sister was at Mimi's! Don't you just love the drawing of me? I guess Evie sees me as a big blob with wild hair, flops and lipstick! I drew parts of them, she really can't make a triangle yet or the hands and feet but still, she's good isn't she? They both love to draw, Evie likes anything crafty and it looks like Meri is going to follow suit. Which is good for me, what on earth would I do if they tok after their Daddy and wanted to know how things worked?Although I do have to add that he is actually a better artist than me, it's just not something he really does anything with.

A day in the life of Jaq. Isn't he a cutie? It's really like not having a dog, unless Evie is playing with himor he's on my lap, he's just off sleeping somewhere. He doesn't bark or whine, just wants some loving and cookie now and then. Poor thing, how could somebody have kicked him out? And really he just wags his tail and stays put while she does all this to him, he doesn't even have a suffering look on his face. That one down in the bottom corner, in the bowler? Yeah... that's my black cashmer sweater draped over him and later the same day he got treated to some of my fancy face powder. He just better not touch my stick (Evie speak for lipgloss)!
We've had a sick baby girl. Meri, still on antibiotics for her sinus infection, caught Evie's pink eye/croupy thing. That pretty much killed our weekend but we had a good time just hanging out alhough I was very sad to miss my shower in Birmingham. She's sooo much better now, thank goodness! Now if they would just stay well!
I have to admit I never really thought anybody would read this so I'm a little weirded out writing it, before it was like just writing to myself, just reacting to my pictures and what was going on. So combine that with the fact that its almost 2:00 am and well, I don't really have anything to say! Please excuse the horrible montage job of Jaq's pictures, I was being super lazy and didn't want to load all those up, plus I was trying a new scrapbook technique and I didn't really know what I was doing.

Guess what I have on my lap? Nope, not a baby but a little furball named Jaq! This scruffy little white, dashund type dog showed up at Mom's the other day, he was filthy and starving, poor thing. He's a little old man with a bum knee but he is super sweet and just needs some love. We had planned on getting a puppy but well things just happen don't they? He is fabulous with the kids! Just sits and lets them love on him, when Evie watches t.v he sits in the crook of her arm, he's been brushed with sponges and a paint brushe, worn a crown, had a dishtowel cape and even gone for a ride in the doll buggy! Mom had originally named him Max but Evie had other ideas, all you Disney fans should remember Jaq-Jaq, the little mouse from Cinderella, I'm guess ing this is where it came from. Evie told us "no Max, Jaq" and to be honest he is a little rodenty looking, but in a cute way, I guess it's his long little nose, who knows what goes on in that pretty little head of hers.
Oh and I just wanted to add that I feel slightly guilty for bashing Dora the other day, she is one the only female lead cartoon characters so I do have to give her that. I think my anti-Doraism just comes from watching this child with a severe speech delay say "arriba" and count in spanish when I can't get her to do those things in English. Maybe if they would clearly state that it's spanish and not just say "we need to go fast, say arriba" I wouldn't feel so irritated. I'm sure for kids that don't have a speech problem, Dora is a wonderful learning tool. There, now I feel better and less guilty although why I should feel guilty about hurting a cartoon character is beyond me. I guess she can't help it if her head is so big, can she? And yes for the record I tried just banishing her from the house, but if you've opposed the will of a 3 year old or had those big brown eyes turn on you and won well then you're a better parent than I am. I'm picking my battles and in the very long scheme of things, I'm hoping this will all work out. We just found out insurance won't cover her speech therapy, if she'd had an accident and needed to relearn language skills they would cover it, but they don't just cover learning lnguage. Go figure. In NC she would have been in a program through the school system but here they're telling us she doesn't get that until she's actually in school. Now keep in mind there is an early intervention program until the age of 3, so do they just abandon the kids until school? Seems fishy to me so I've got some more calling to do.

the luv machine

An ode to the luv, I guess it's on mind because I'm waiting for the towtruck to come and pick it up since it's been sitting in the driveway for a week out of commision. It's one of Nathan's new toys for our so called "farm", after much searching for a small, non 4x4 diesel(for the biodiesel you know) farm truck, this is what we ended up with. An itty bitty baby pickup that looks as if it was attacked by smurfs. It's so very Nathan though, especially with the recycling always in the back! Apparantly the gas mileage is fantastic when it's working which is important for his 20 minute commute (you do get the sarcasm in that, don't you?). I'm not complaining mind you, he likes it, the girls love it (at least at this age) and it's paid for, sometimes I just wonder what the neighbors think! Oh, and the color is actually a very pretty light blue, not the funky color in these pictures, I was just playing around in photoshop with some new actions I got, fun stuff!
I guess I never read the terms of service for this place but apparantly Evie has and they include breakfast in bed. Yep, that's right it's 9:20 and she is still under the covers and calling for crackers! The only thing I can think of is that I told her MiMi would be here when she got up and she took me literally. I guess she's not geting out of that bed until MiMi is here! What I can't understand is why she wants crackers, if I'm going to protest for breakfast in bed then I'm going to make it something yummy, not crackers. I don't know if we even have crakers! She's so goofy but then I guess she can't really help it, can she?
Meri did the cutest thing yesterday! Evie is forever telling her to "STOP" and putting out he hand like a crossing guard, I guess she picked it up form me but really I'm not quite so ugly when I do it. Well, Evie was being her usual mean big sister self while we were outside and did her stop thing in Meri's face and Meri did it right back with this little twinkle in her eye. That little hand went out and she said "Sa"! I thought Evie was gonna fall over, she just doesn't know what's coming does she? I guess it's one of those things you'd have to see in person to realize how funny it was. It's just nice to see her giving it back to Evie in her mischevious little elfin way!

Everybody keeps asking about the house, wanting pictures. Well houses aren't nearly as fun as kids butI did get some shots this weekend - it was crazy windy, notice the sideways directions of the ferns. Here's the front but it's kinda hard to see because of the big trees, maybe this will give you and idea though. We loooove the porch, very inviting and of course there is the hot pink door :) That was an accident by the way, we had communication problems (isn't that always the case?) it's really supposed to be red, maybe one of these days we'll get around to it. That's the cleanest it's been since we bought it - just for y'all!

Ahhh, sisters. I was so excited when I found out we were having another girl. Not having a sister m self I imagined all the fun things they would do growing up, how close they would be. Well the reality is somewhat different, I hope it gets better as they get older! Maybe I should have listened to my two very close in age sister friends, Ash &Emily, they did warn me...
The girls do love on each other and they act like it at least a fourth of the time. My favorite moment is when they very fist wake up and Evie goes "oh baby, you up!" and pats her head. It's so sweet, then they hug, I think it lasts oh about 5 minutes before they wake up fully and then they're off. Currently they are sharing an obsession for all things Dora. Evie walks around imitating her "hi, I'm Dora" and Meri carries around this small Dora doll and this little musical lego that plays all the pertinant Dora sounds(thanks Auntie Karen). Evie watches the show while Meri points at the screen and goes "Do, Do, Do," over and over and over and over again. Well, you get the idea. Did I mention I can't stand the show? I don't get why they need to learn spanish right this moment, Evie has a hard enough time with English! And why is Dora's head so big anyway, the rest of her family all have normal size appendages. Okay sorry, this is a little off topic! I'm done with my Dora rant... have a nice day!

Meri chugging her way across the back yard. Don't worry, we bought a tractor to deal with that grass! Do you suppose she'll flounce her way through life like that?





We had so much fun with the hose this summer, the girls were so good about sharing! Do notice our little tomboy with her scrapes and black eye!. I'm glad fall is knocking but I'm still sad to see summer go. Next time we pull the hose out I'll be hearing two voices asking for turns instead of Meri's little baby grunts!

Oh Miss E, you are so three! From "No!" to "It's MINE!" to "Ebie do!" your passion for being independent never fails to bring about surprise, annoyance and pride. You definately have your own path and are intent on sticking to it! What will I do when everything isn't a struggle?

Ha! So much for daily, maybe, let's say bi-annually?
Things are going... slow, very slow. I am so very not organized and this little house needs some super anal organization to get it going. It's been 2 months and I still have boxes siting around, meanwhile the dust is accumulation under the furniture because I can't find the vacuum cleaner bags. The good news? Well, I just found a solution to our shelving challanged living, a cube room divider for behind the couch. Now to purchase and (gasp!) get stuff put away in it. Still waffling between the elcheapo ikea version and this more solid one I found at a store called West Elm.
Oooh, in other breaking news we got a tractor(I can't decide if I think it's sexy or not) and I put the order in for our trees. Anybody want to come help dig 20 holes? Let's see. E started preschool and dropped out of gymnastics already. I hate my living room floor, love the stars and need to rake the yard. Maybe I'll get some pictures up one of these days.