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.

horses, they're everywhere

She'll turn into a wrangler yet.

Meri's is not a horse swing, it's a neigh. I ride my my neigh? Makes me think of Evie calling them giddies.

I love our garden. Granted, half of the cutting garden didn't come up, but the part that did? Glorious!

Notice a theme?

I live in the land of make believe. Winter hats and back to school outfits in July, princess dresses to sneak Nutella on the porch, kimonos and cat faces for playing with goop ; it's all normal around here. Are other kids like this? Or is because I keep a very stocked dress up box and don't bat an eye at taking princess to the grocery store? Whatever it it, I like it. It's nice to live in fairy tales :)

Back in action!

Let's all give Nathan a big thank you! He hunted down the problem (our intellinpoint mouse!?!) and slayed the dragon, just for me. He's such an enabler :) In breaking news - that's our Evie up there learning to ride a big girl bike, she never did master her tricycle so this is big news!

Clean house!

You would think that, right? From my last post with the creepy Meri picture ? Sadly, the reason for no blogging is that photo shop is crashing on me! I can't bear to post a non edited picture so you'll just have to be patient. In all actuality my house is disastrous because we are painting the kitchen cabinets so all of that stuff is spread all over. Plus, in same said torn apart kitchen, I'm putting up a gazillion tons of squash for the freezer (seriously - I took pictures to prove it!) Then there's a consignment sale next week that I'm getting some clothes (do you know, I've never gotten rid of any of the girls clothes, ANY!) ready for, so I have about 12 garbage bags of clothes in the living room... lovey, eh? Makes you want to come visit, hmmm? I don't know if I going to allow visitors anymore, the last batch included: a book expert, chocolate lovers and light drinkers. So after they left I spent the next two weeks eating 3 packages of Hershey's chocolate bars, reading about 15 books and finishing up leftover drinks. And I wonder how I could have possibly gained 5 pounds and my house ended up mess! But I did enjoy it so thanks!

Little known fact

Did you know that the state of cleanliness in my household is directly related to time spent posting useless things on my blog and playing in photoshop? Amazing discovery, huh?

Bless my grits...

Does anybody else find our dinner tonight amusing?

Fried Green tomatoes (because little munchkins picked them !)
squash casserole
sliced tomatoes
collard greens
and........
barbecued tofu


I know. I know....... continue on with your life. Sorry, I just wasted 30 seconds of it but I get a little tired of making myself laugh :)

Rain, rain. go away!

We don't really want the rain to go away but we are having to amuse ourselves (read : me amuse them) a little bit more than usual.
Beauty shop is always popular, don't you love how Meri's hair can be made to stand straight up?

She's cracking me up in this shot, for some reason they think they have to hold there mouths shut when they have "stick" on.
She posed all by herself on this one........
I think they'll make beautiful punks one day, don't you?
Or actresses!

Bedtime pickles

We don't have bedtime milk and cookies around here. No sirree! We have bedtime pickles. Well if I'm honest, the pickles are actually consumed at all hours of the day. Do you think it has anything to do with the mounds of fried pickles I had while pregnant with Evie? I don't know but I am pretty certain those fried pickles had a thing or two or twenty to do with my weight gain... and probably my blood pressure too.

Popsicles and home improvement.

Who knew they went to gather so well?

100...........

Just in case you didn't notice the momentous occasion, I'll point it out. That last post? It was my 100 th post. That's right, that's over 100 pictures I didn't mail out to the ever patient family I have :)
Here's one from the same "must I Mom?" session.

Anbody else scared?

Now and then upon occasion, I have this heart stopping glimpse into the future. Sometimes it's good, sometimes it downright frightening. This vision? Utterly scary. Can you see it in her eyes? Can you see her humoring me? Like the totally hopeless, idiotic, old, worried, Mother I'm going to be in oh about 11 years? I can just hear it now. Maaaama!