FALL!

I feel like I can officially say fall is here! When the girls no longer strip naked to play outside you know it's cooled off. We're trying to decide if Lella has reached her full growth or not. She's still a sweety, if a bit wild due to lack of of training. She's the perfect playmate, much better than the rabbit the girls are currently asking for.

Just Meri

You've got to love different personalities. These are the result of me saying, "candy?" - and bam she poses her little self so fast. On the other hand, there is nothing on earth that could be used to bribe Evelyn to do anything she didn't want to do. Strong will is an understatement!

Apple Picking

We went and visited an apple orchard and festival last weekend. It was fun but crowded, hot and expensive! Next year I think we'll just do pick our own and skip the festival. I think we ended up bringing home 3 bushels of apple for us and some friends, that's a lot of apple! We had an apple crisp last night wit some of them and it was yummy!

Zzzzzzzzzzzzz!

Te child will fall asleep anywhere. The other day I was using the shop vac to clean the grooves in our funky floor, I turned around and she was out on the coach. I can't tell you how many times I've gone into check on them watching a movie and she's asleep on a pile of toys in the middle of the floor! And in case you can't tell, in this picture she is on the top part of the futon in the toy room!

A little mud pie, anyone?

Now that you've seen how cute this is, I've got a a question for ya. Nathan says this is where our water comes out from the dishwasher and such. Graywater, maybe? He doesn't want her playing in it. True or not? It's not that I don't trust him but somebody please tell me I don't have to try and keep them out that inviting playspace, please? Somebody?

Loving the hammock chair!

feeling a little grungy

Go see Mimi hoooouuuuuse? We're a little depressed around here since Mimi's been gone for several weeks. We did get to see Papa this weekend when we went fishing!

Not my children.

Check out this finished album.

"Working" girl

Yep, it's a waffle iron. Don't tell Evie though - she says it's her computer.

"D" - it stand's for "don't ask"

sneak peek

just like big sister

Meredith trying to copy how Evie had her head laying down in the pictures of her in the pink dress. Isn't she cute!

HRH Evelyn

She thinks she's a princess in this dress - she really does. See her loyal subject? See how elegantly she twirls?
She's grace personified. Just look at that face, no really let's look closer.
That's my princess all right. Chewing on grass.

Meri and her bugs.

Three guesses as to what Meri is doing.


No, it's not aerobics.







Nope, she's not practising her skiing form.







And it's not the Chicken dance either. (all these spaces are for your protection... I wouldn't want the next picture to pop out at me!)







It's her preying mantis impersonation.
This little guy was walking up and down some moulding Nathan was painting in the backyard.
The girls were sooo excited and came running inside the house to pull me out and look at him. Personally they give me the creeps, they're so alien looking. I can just imagine giant 12 foot ones taking over the planet. I'm sure that's just from some really bad scifi movie though. But anyway, Meri loved the way his creepy little self bounced up and down - so she spent the rest of the day doing it herself. She'd say "doooown ..............uuuuuuuuuup" . So much cuter than the original creepy little thing.

growing up

Do you realize that she'll be 5 in less than 6 months? Or that she'll be in kindergarten next year?

new kitchen stuff!

I know, I know - I promised girlie pictures. But honestly, they're not making me too happy today. So I'm going to show off the kitchen instead. Hmph, teach them, won't I? We ripped down the wallpaper and painted the cabinets. And I made that valence - I even followed a pattern! Then we put some stuff in the glass so you can't see my mess. It's soo much brighter in there. Too bad it's still so small that you can't open the oven and the dishwasher at the same time, heck you can't even stand side by side in there!
Is anybody sufficiently impressed enough to condone me buying me this horrifically expensive pot? I want a pretty soup pot since we eat soup in the winter a lot and I hate having my ugly one on the table. Actually on sale it's not too bad. But still if I'm going to buy an expensive soup pot I'm going to get the real deal and not a Martha Stewart one but I saw it in a magazine and had to track it down because I have no life. I don't really think I could commit to that expensive of a colored pot though, I'd have to go with white. I really do like her line of stuff though - check out the iron stone serving pieces!

scarce

My dear blog readers, I have been scarce this week. The reason? I set myself the task of paring down images from the past year so they could either be printed or backed up. It was not an easy task. It is done and I am pleased to say that I found some real gems! Like this one. In my learning I'm often trying to capture a specific thing or practising some technique and I tend to over look the ones that don't fit what I'm doing at the time. This perfect picture of Meri is "soft", it's not really in focus. But I look at it now and looove it! Where did that baby go? That was just this winter. I'm soo glad I'm not super organized and just now deleted images - who knows what I might have lost. See - procrastination has it's good points.

I will now allow myself to load the pictures off my camera so you can see what we've been up to lately. I promise funny outfits and bugs.

Hello again.

Whew, it's been awhile. Unfortunately this is what our life has felt like lately. Too much travel and too many unwanted emotions.

So speaking of emotions, here is a nice little compilation of the many faces of Meri. It's tough being two, just look.

One more....

I keep coming back to this one. Yes, I know her eyes are closed but can't you just feel her joy? Doesn't it make you want to be four again and out playing in the water with your best doggie at the height of summer?

Slip and slide

We bought the girls a slip and slide. Very cool.... the shark mouth opens and closes. dnuh dnuh dnuh.............(that's my jaws music) Evie really wasn't too interested in the spraying part. At least the horses got to enjoy the boat at the end of the slide.However, Lella LOVED it. I was a little concerned she was going to break something but she was fine. She slid down, ran back up and tried to eat the spray.

Were was Meri? In her neigh of course!
This is it for awhile. The girls and I are headed up to IL for a quick trip.

Flowers!

Camping

We took the girls camping this weekend. After talking about it countless times and never having it happen, we just did it spur of the moment. We mainly went to see Uncle Wes and Aunt Ali but regardless of the reason we're sooo glad we went. They had a blast and it was so nice to get away and just relax and enjoy them. The favorite part of the trip? Flashlights of course! But all the leaves and rocks made for good toys too, Evie made "cookies" and Meri "washed" the rocks. Good times!

Singing in the rain

Meredith's turn

Remember this? (click on it)
What can I say? There is obviously something about feet in this family.

For Uncle Wes

Okay, so it's just old school pacman but it's a start right? It's official, the corruption has started. This is Evie's first time to play a video game, I'm guessing leapster is not far behind.