Deck the Halls....

I'm on a song kick - what can I say? Falala la la laaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
We put up two trees this year (note to self - do not be so ambitious next year) Evie loves that she has her tree and I have my tree. The reasoning was that we wanted to cut down a fresh tree with them but we didn't want it in the living room since it would be, ohhh about two feet away from the raging inferno of our wood stove. I didn't feel like a Christmas blaze this year so we put the fake up by the fire. Too bad that my nice holiday memory of tree cutting with Daddy was a bust. There were two dogs at the tree farm, do I really need to tell what was more interesting?
This is how our visit went
ME: " Let's pick out a tree - ooooh look at that one it's pretty"
THEM: "DOGS, dogs, dogs DOOOOOOOOOGs! "
ME: Don't you want a tree for the toy room? Let's pick out a tree..."
THEM: "I want to pet the DOOOOOGS! I want to pick the GRASS. I DON"T WANT A TREE!!!!"

Good times. And, they've already managed to break two of the unshatterable ornaments I bought especially from old Martha. Plus three of my precious ones but we won't get into that. I figure that any Mother who decides to buy exclusively blown glass ornaments for HER tree deserves what she gets. We did have a blast decorating it, although the beads and tinsel might have been a bad idea. Oh, and the angel lost her wings - do you suppose there is some meaning behind that?

Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat.....

I finally feel a little less hum buggy. We've got both trees up, we decorated the gingerbread barn and I have a Miss Piggy song stuck in my head. Do you know the one? Take the title and add "please to put a penny in an old man's hat. If you haven't got a penny then a half penny will do...." The part that is so, so wrong is that I can't find our CD with it on there so I just have my awful version running through my head - not the fun Muppets one. Otherwise I wouldn't mind too much - John Denver and the Muppets pretty much make any thing okay.
Anyway - here is what consumed our entire day yesterday. It was supposed to be a simple fun thing to do with the girls and somehow it morphed into this. I can not lie - it's actually cardboard and we glued most of the stuff on but we did use icing for the decorations! The girls were in heaven - candy for Meri and horses for Evie.

More tea part and some randomness

My future lactivist is a little confused - the baby horse was drinking Daddy's milk

Dishwashing gone awry.


Leaves, leaves and more LEAVES!


Boy, Daddy really needs to rake!
Such a serious girl! That was my great grandmothers teapot - how cool is that? Not that it's fine china or anything but still it makes me happy. Every time I brew a pot of tea I think about her and am transported back to her house. Under the buffet, at the table with cookies or out on the sunporch - child hood nirvana! Don't get me started on Grandma Jeans basment or Grandma Francis' kitchen! That makes it sound like my grandfathers weren't important which is NOT true- it's funny how the house takes on the female name isn't it? I do that with all my friend's houses too...

She has become so aware of herself lately. We have soo many people stop us and tell us how pretty she(they) is(are). It's starting to be irritating! The other day I was trying to get her speech therapist to understand why we think she needs more help and she actually said "but she's so pretty and smart". Nice. So she's going to think her worth is in her looks and not be able to do anything with her intelligence because she can't communicate! ? Seriously!
This is such a real shot. T0unge out, slouchy and completely oblivious to me!

Rock On!

This was what Meri wore the other day - it was supposed to have a dress on over it. She thought she was a rock star.

Speaking of big girls

E has started stealing my headbands - can you believe she's big enough to borrow my accessories?

Who is this CHILD and where did my baby go?

Goodbye color

We had a tea party yesterday so I could try and capture the last of the leaves. I am very sad that dreary, boring winter is on it's way!

See it's sad because it really means that I don't have babies anymore.
And since we're comparing E&M here is the same spot, same time. I gotta say I'm not seeing the resemblance? Maybe it's the eyes? M has recently been getting some thick lashes which is making her eyes look bigger.
Also I'll be posting my client photography blog stuff over here now

http://raedyer.blogspot.com/

Sad and happy too!

It's official - I no longer have a baby in diapers. :(
*disclaimer- I have no idea why she was jumping with a sucker in her mouth. I promise that's not normal!

Sunstar and the RAWR!

For those of you who've never experienced the little gem known as "Princess Starla and the jewel riders" or for you Europeans out there "Princess Gwenevere and the jewel riders" Click Here to experience this fabulous ( read HORRIBLE) cartoon series that Evie loves. Mom picked it up one day and has mourned that moment ever since but Evie is enchanted so what can you do? Looking for the link I figured out part of the reason it's so bad is that we must have one of the dubbed French versions.
They were both set to be dinosaurs, blue and yellow dinosaurs until Mimi brought home this unicorn costume. Princess Starla has a flying unicorn named sunstar and I tried my best to interpret. We made her a mane and wrapped ribbons around it and I swear I tried my best to make that star look neat - who makes those face pants anyway? She thought she fantastic though!

Meredith was either a dragon or a dinosaur, loosely translated rawr can mean either. I kept asking her to show me her tail and she would bend over and look at it between her legs! She was very excited about the candy - she's my little sugar fiend. She says " I get hany in my han and put it in my hummy" Awww! I've got to get that on tape before she learns her "d's and t's" Funnily enough once we got to the festival she would neither put her costume nor trick or treat! Finally at the end after all the candy people were gone she decided it was okay, she was doing her little swagger down the street - holding on to that pumpkin for dear life.

pumpkin time

We had the hardest time getting them to pick out pumpkins! They only wanted the baby ones and would not listen to our explanation of carving etc.. Then when it came time to actually buy the things they didn't want the baby ones! Argh!

Help

I want to pick 6 of these for our hall. They'll be BIG like 20x20. Any advice?

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