Not Me! Monday

MckMama is taking a break from her Not Me! Monday post this week. She is actually at the hospital with MckMuffin right now. He has a bad cold and accelerated heart rate. You can read about it over on her blog. And please pray for that sweet baby!

I'm taking a break from the Not Me's to focus a little on what I did do this week.

I did get my Christmas cards in the mail on Saturday, and even though I thought I had missed the Saturday afternoon pick up, the fact that my mom got hers on Monday makes me think they threw in an extra pick up just for perpetually late people like me. I also managed to lose my precious pink cell phone somewhere in the mad dash to get to the post office.

I did manage to fulfill my dream of not needing to leave my house on Christmas Eve until it was time to go to church. Of course, this was aided by the fact that I was stranded at home with no car, and my father-in-law had to pick me and the kiddos up to take us to church, but even if I had not been stranded, I still would not have had to leave the house. The Princess did spend part of Christmas Eve watching that timeless Christmas classic, Tremors 3: Back to Perfection, staring Michael Gross, aka Alex P. Keaton's dad on Family Ties. All the gifts were purchased, all the gifts were wrapped and placed under the tree. All the candy was made. All was right with the world.

I did survive a very low budget Christmas without feeling that my children were completely disappointed. They had a great time with all their cousins, and got most of what they asked for. Of course, they have spent most of the last few days playing with the $10 Pixos they got from their aunt, and the $2 PlayDoh they got from Santa, which makes me glad I didn't spring for any of the more expensive stuff I would have probably purchased had I actually had any money to spare.

I did get a massive migraine sometime late on Christmas Day. There is something about being in a room with 10 kids all twelve years old or younger, all hopped up on cookies and cake and candy and the excitement of all being together and, you know, PRESENTS! that does not equal calm, peaceful Christmas bliss.

I did get to spend a full day with my bff. We drank coffee, ate pigs in a blanket, and talked all day. It was wonderful, and somehow while at her house, my migraine magically went away.

The Princess did find my precious pink cell phone today. She is now my favorite child!

I do have an amazing family. I have great kids who are happy and healthy and smart and funny and just plain cool. What more could I ask for?

I will post Christmas pictures later when I have a chance to upload them!!

May Your Days Be Merry & Bright

Not Me! Monday

It's Monday! Time for a little therapy by way of brutal honesty.

I did not finally, six days before Christmas, put up the tree in the boy's room. It was not falling apart for no apparent reason. It was perfectly fine when it finished it's tour of duty as the Princess's princess tree last year. Once up and decorated with red lights and his daddy's match box cars from many years ago, it was not adorably cute, although leaning at an odd angle. And I was not awakened the next morning to a screaming baby while wondering what I had been dreaming that involved a loud crash. When I went in his room to retrieve the screaming baby, I did not find the cute little red lighted tree and match box cars lying on the floor in a sad heap. They are NOT still lying there in that same sad heap at this very moment.

I did not rush to the post office on Saturday to make sure I could get my Christmas cards in the mail before the 5:00 pick up only to find that the main part of the post office was already closed, and I would have to fly to Publix to buy stamps before dropping my cards off. I did not have The Princess putting stamps on envelopes as I drove like a mad woman back to the post office, and I most certainly did not realize after all that running that the last pick up on Saturday is 4:30, not 5:00, and my cards would be sitting there until Monday anyway.

I do not still have shopping to do, although I swore I would be finished by this time. I do not still have all of my wrapping to do, although I swore I would not be wrapping gifts on Christmas Eve at midnight ever again. I do not still have Martha Washington balls to make for my Daddy. I do not still need to purchase the ingredients for said candy. And with all that to do, I am most certainly not stranded at home with no car. And I'm not starting to panic in the least about how I'm going to do all I have to do with no time and no money and no car. Nope, not me, I'm cool as a cucumber.

So, how about you, what did you not do this week, what do you still not have left to do? Don't worry, you're not alone. Check out what MckMama, and all of her MckFriends have not done this week.

:::edited to add that there are supposed to be spaces between paragraphs, and this blogger spacing thing is making me crazy. Anyone else have this problem, or is it just me?

'Tis the Season

First there was Rudolph, complete with red pacifier!

When reindeer attack.

Santa saves the day!

Then apparently, Santa ate Rudolph!

A herd (is two a herd, do deer even run in herds?), and Miss Claus!

Someone drugged the baby deer!

And then everything went to heck in a handbasket.

Christmas Tour of Homes

It's time for BooMama's Christmas Tour of Homes. Am I completely ready? No. Did I want to be ready? Yes. Did I plan to be ready? Yes. Did finding that only two strands of last year's lights still worked delay my decorating? Yes. Did life with a procrastinating 11 year old with a science project comparing the pigments in blackberries, spinach, red onion and paprika to the pigments in water soluble markers have something to do with my not being ready? Yes. Did having to rush the same 11 year old to the ER Wednesday night after she fell in the shower and momentarily dislocated her shoulder add to my inability to finish my Christmas decorating? Most definitely.

All that being said, I did manage to get some stuff done. The rest, quite honestly just might have to wait this year. Something about a 9 month old baby boy, who is all boy, into everything, banging his head and climbing right back up, pulling his sister's apple cider onto the floor twice....something about mixing all that little boy-ness and fragile Christmas decorations just doesn't add up to a calm relaxing Christmas season for the mama.

Without further adieu, welcome to our home:

Our front porch. The girls and I decorated it the other night. It's really pretty when you're not taking a flash picture of it. The flash sort of emphasizes the white wires on the lights. I don't know how we ended up with white wires, but there they are. The lighted garland, by the way, I purchased at Target last January at 90% off. Oh, how I love a clearance rack, and then to make things even better, I forgot all about it until I was unpacking our Christmas boxes last week. It was like I got an early gift.

Close up of our wreath brought to us fresh from North Carolina the Sunday after Thanksgiving. After sitting in the Florida heat for a few weeks already, it's not so much fresh anymore, but it does still smell good, and leaves a nice sprinkling of pine needles in the foyer every time the door opens and closes. It's the gift that keeps on giving.

My Our tree as viewed from the dining room. Yes, I go overboard with the lights. There are right at 2500 lights on this tree. That is not a typo or an exaggeration. I love me some lights on my tree. And the tree has ONLY gold and glass ornaments. Such as the Waterford ornament my sweet mother-in-law gave us as a wedding shower gift. Nothing else is allowed on that tree. Please note that there are no ornaments on the bottom portion of the tree. Remember all the little boy-ness?

How do I manage to have only gold and glass on that tree, you ask. I do have three kids, and while the little one hasn't made any ornaments yet, the other two certainly have. And no, they are not all gold and glass. Actually, none of them are gold or glass. So, I have this other little tree, which truth be told, is actually my very favorite. It has every single ornament my girls have ever made. Plus some special ornaments that were gifts from friends who didn't realize my freaky Chrsitmas OCD would prevent me from putting their gift on the big tree. I love this tree. We may end up with a bigger one once Little Man starts pre-school and starts bringing home his very own ornaments.

Those are our stockings behind the tree. Yes, there are currently only 4 of them for our family of 5. I have another set of 4, but I need one that matches these. I haven't found one yet, so I may have to use one of the 4 we already have, but seriously, remember the OCD? I have issues with matching.

And finally, the tree in the girls' room. I was so excited about this tree, I had it up before they got home from North Carolina after Thanksgiving. This was another of my 90% off purchases last January. I was in Michael's one day just looking through their picked over clearance rack, when I saw this tree. This pre-lit white feather tree for something like $4.95. Ummm, hello, SOLD! I couldn't decide which ornaments to use, but I wanted something to sort of match their room, so I settled on pipe cleaners. I think it's adorable.

Close up of the pipe cleaner "ornaments" (and FEATHERS).

Tree topper! Looks straight out of Whoville, doesn't it?

What's missing? Our beautiful nativity set, another wedding gift (see a December wedding wasn't such a bad idea) which isn't set up yet, and I would have done it just so I could take a picture, but it's tradition that the girls do it, so I just couldn't.

Oh, and Little Man's tree, which isn't up yet, but will be tomorrow. It will have his daddy's matchbox cars from when he was a little boy as it's ornaments.

I guess I'll just have to post those later.

Hope you enjoyed this little mini tour. When you have an hour or 12, pour yourself an eggnog, grab a batch of Christmas cookies, and head over to BooMama and check out her house and all the other beautiful homes on her tour.

Not Me Monday

It has been a long week, and I feel I need a reminder that I don't have to be Super Mom, and that it's perfectly ok when I'm not, so this Not Me Monday will be very cathartic!

I did not worry that Sweetpea would get to her 6th grade dance, see what the other girls were wearing and think that she looked too much like a little girl still. Of course, I did not think she looked just beautiful, nor did I think the little girls in skin tight dresses and three inch heels looked absolutely ridiculous. Nor did the thought, "What was her mother thinking?!?" ever cross my mind.

I was not thrilled that all the kids seemed to have a great time, nor did I feel a sense of pride when the principal commented that in his 7 years at the school, this was the best behaved group of kids and the best planned dance. I guess all those weeks of planning paid off.

I did not leave the dance completely exhausted only to have to face grocery shopping with the whole family. I did not come home, still exhausted, and instead of going straight up to bed when the kids did, I most definitely did not spend hours obsessing over our family Christmas card. This, of course, was after not even dreaming of taking my kids out in the cold twice in an attempt to get the perfect picture. This:

is not a picture of The Princess and the Little Man eyeballing the Moosehaven security guard who came on his golf carat to point out the fact that we were on private property. It's Mooshaven for Pete's sake. Old retired moose love cute little kids. Of course, I did not park my car on the grass, which is certainly not what drew his attention in the first place.

I did not look at this picture:

And think that maybe the gorgeousness of the sun setting in the background would distract anyone from the out of focus children in the front, the little person chewing on his sleeve or the little girl in mid word. Most likely not telling her mother that she couldn't pay attention and smile all the time because her little brother's hand, before going into his mouth, most definitely had not been pulling her hair. NO, he's a perfect angel of a baby. He would never do such a thing. He does not pull hair, pinch cheeks, try to steal your lips and eyelashes, put anything and everything into his mouth, try to suck on his 5 month old cousin's hands and feet or try to lick his Nana's dog.


After not obsessing about our Christmas card until way too late on Friday night, I was not pulled from my OCD-ness by Sweetpea telling me to come quickly because the Princess just threw up. She, of course, did not throw up in her bed and then just lie there in it, letting it soak through her sheets and mattress pad and onto her mattress. Therefore, I did not have to Lysol her bed and leave it dry, leaving her no place to sleep other than my own bed. I did not resign myself to sleeping on the couch, only to be awakened at 3:00 am by the Little Man. And of course I didn't sleep the rest of the night on the couch while holding him. NOPE, that would be silly and would probably cause me to be completely exhausted when I had to be back at the girls' school Saturday morning to set up for Breakfast with Santa. It also would certainly not cause my neck to be stiff and my head to ache.


And finally, once Breakfast with Santa was over, thus ending my responsibilities outside the house for a few days, when my sweet friend told me there was an open house at the salon where she works...an open house including free chair massages, I did NOT leave the sick kids home with their daddy, take Sweetpea with me, and jump at the chance for a free massage, knowing full well that I did not intend to buy a single thing while I was there.


So, that's my week. A week of being completely imperfect and living to tell the tale. Super Mom, I am not. Check out MckMama's blog to find out what more Super Mom want to be's managed to live through this week.

Curious

(Posted by a visiting author, a/k/a Little Man)

There is this box that I am dying to get my hands on. I get close, and Mommy or Daddy pull me away. I have even made it all the way to the box, but I can't seem to get the top off. WAIT...Mommy left me alone for a minute to....well, if this were Monday, she would tell you she was NOT checking her email/Facebook/CafeMom. I did it!! I got the top off the box!

Wow, I think these are all books and papers from two years ago that my big sister won't let Mommy throw away. And, oh, look, a candy wrapper too!

I better look into this a little more closely. I'm sure there is something in there I need to get my hands on.

NO, wait, I gotta put the box down. If I hold it up like that, I don't have a throwing arm, and without a throwing arm, how on earth am I going to empty all the contents of this box onto the floor?

BUSTED! Better give Mommy the "I'm-so-cute-couldn't-you-just-eat-me-up" grin.

Ok, I think it worked. Now what's this I have in my hand?

Hmmmm.....Curious? But my name is not George.

That's ok, I'll just eat it anyway!

BooMama's Christmas Tour of Homes

So, BooMama is having a Christmas tour of homes on December 15.

See her cute little button on my sidebar?

I have decided to participate in the tour, and I thought it would be fun if those very few folks who read my blog did the same. As most of us are online friends, who have never seen each other's houses, I thought it would be interesting to share a little about our Christmas traditions and how we decorate for the season.

Plus, knowing I have a deadline might just give me the kick start I need to actually start doing a little decorating. Because right now, my motivation? It is running low to say the least.

To read BooMama's rules (a whole whopping two of them) and maybe get a cute little button of your own, go to her blog and check it out!

Not Me Monday

It's Monday again already? Time to fess up, I guess.

I did not miss my girls at all while they were on their week long Thanksgiving trip with their Nana, and I did not feel a twinge of guilt when I realized that the main thing I missed was the way they help out with their little brother.

I did not spend a large portion of the week cleaning their room from top to bottom, and I most definitely did not find Valentine candy under the bed. I could not have found that because, well....eewwww.

My heart did not melt when they got home, and the Princess ran in announcing that she got to hold her brother first only to burst into tears when she realized he was already in bed for the night.

I am not completely proud of my oldest child for deciding the red dress hanging in her closet will be perfect for her school dance instead of insisting that we go shopping for a new one.

I am not finding it more and more difficult to get anything done due to the sudden mobility of my son. He is not pulling anything and everything he can reach onto the floor. He is not finding anything on the floor to put in his mouth. Nope, he couldn't possibly. My floor is spotless. I did not, while still pregnant with the Little Man, warn is daddy that he would most likely be a bundle of energy and into everything based on how active he was at the time. The nurses who saw him while he was on the bilirubin lights in the nursery did not ask me how I managed to carry him without having a puncture wound in a vital organ because he was never still.

I did not procrastinate writing this Not Me Monday post until Monday is almost over. Lots of other people really did not procrastinate like I did. Go check out their posts over at MckMama.

Oh, and by the way, I'm still not frustrated with my bloggy spacing issues.

Tall & Thin

As promised in my post from earlier today, I'm updating after Little Man's check up. This was really a dual visit. We had already scheduled his well baby visit for today, and he also needed to have a re-check to make sure his ear infection cleared up. As it turns out, his right ear is still infected. He is such a layed back, easy going, happy baby, that we didn't even know he was still having a problem. Other than the infection, everything else is great. He weighs 18 pounds, 10 ounces, and is 29 1/4 inches tall. That puts him in the 25th percentile for his weight and the 89th percentile for height. That is about where he has been charting all along, so it looks like we have a tall, thin boy on our hands.

As expected, McCutie was quite impressed with all of Little Man's accomplishments over the last few days. He seems to think there is a good chance we'll have a little toddler by Christmas. I did not bring up the Renesmee reference to McCutie. I decided I don't want him to know what a complete and total dork I really am.

So, we go back on December 8th to check on the ears again, and then we don't have another check up until Little Man's first birthday. I can't believe we are that close to his birthday already.

Thank You, Pajama Mama!

As I reported yesterday, when I went to check on a fussy Little Man who was refusing to nap, I found him standing in his crib. Unfortunately, my fuzzy brain didn't remember that I had left my memory card in the card reader attached to my computer, so I was certain that I had missed the picture of this first. Pajama Mama suggested I check my camera to see if it had stored the picture because her camera does have space to store a few pictures without the memory card. I spent a few hours thinking that my camera didn't have that capability. Then I remembered......WE HAVE THE SAME CAMERA! Duh! So, I plugged my camera in this morning, and there he was. Standing in his crib like it was no big thing.

And now I'm off to get ready to take him in for his 9 month well baby visit. I'm sure Dr. McCutie will be just as amazed with his growth this past week as I have been. I mean the past week has been rather Renesmee-esque. (Twilight reference for those who haven't read those books.....and you should!) I'll report back later with his stats.

Not Me Monday

So, right off the bat, I did not promise myself that I would keep a running tally of things I did not do all week, and then I most certainly did follow through with that promise, which of course means that I am not sitting here on a Monday morning trying to recall all the things I did not do this week.

One I vividly remember is that I did not lay in bed on the one morning my Dh was actually home and actually wanted to let me sleep in, worrying about what my Princess might end up wearing to school. I did not eventually get up and find her in brown corduroy carpi's, a grey t-shirt, beige knee socks and pink sparkly mary jane type tennis shoes. I did not gasp when I saw her, and did not laugh when her daddy said, "She's a Christmas elf." I did not hand the Little Man over to his daddy while I helped the elf find a more appropriate outfit for a very cold morning. Her daddy did not say she still looked elfish in the green skirt, off-white leggings, purple, green and off-white striped shirt and black knee boots I put her in, but at least she matched.

Oh, and I did not force her to let me brush her hair before letting her go out the door.

I did not ask my little brother to come to my house and be my Mr. FixIt in lieu of him buying me a Christmas present this year. I did not thoroughly enjoy having my brother and his two boys here for the weekend. I also most definitely did not laugh when while fixing the light in my closet, the chair on which he was standing broke, and to prevent serious injury, my baby brother grabbed onto the bar from which Dh's clothes were hanging thereby almost doubling his to-do list.

I did not go check on my baby boy after putting him down for a nap only to find him STANDING in his crib. I did not tell him to stay right there while I ran to get my camera. I did not tell him to just stop with the new stuff already and try to be my baby just a little while longer. I did not then take him out of his crib and lower his mattress again. And most of all, after taking the picture of him standing like a big boy in his crib for the very first time, I did not come downstairs only to find my memory card stuck in the card reader on my computer, and I did not almost cry when I realized I took the picture with no memory card!!!

And finally, I did not have any difficulty writing this post. I did not have to go back and re-read several times adding and removing "nots" and hoping this makes sense to anyone but me. I do not often think that by having kids and being a stay at home mom, my brain cells are slowing dying, and I do not worry that by the time my son starts Kindergarten I may have to re-learn everything right along with him.

Now, go over to MckMama's blog and read a more articulate version of Not Me Monday!

P.S. I am not totally frustrated with blogger and the fact that my spacing is never the way I intended it to be. It looks great until I hit "Publish Post", then it goes all screwy.

More Firsts

My Little Man's firsts are a little bittersweet for me. I am so excited to see him growing and learning and doing new things, but I know they are my last firsts, so it makes me a little sad. His first step will be the last first step I get to see a child of mine take. I just sometimes wish he could stay my little baby a little longer.

However, Little Man sees things a little differently. He seems to be on a mission to grow up the last few days. He has been sitting up when we put him in that position, and then Sunday night, he was rolling around and suddenly sat up all by himself. He has been rolling and scooting everywhere for a while. He has also been pulling things off the coffee table. If there is a piece of paper hanging over the edge, it will end up on the floor. Then he started trying to pull himself up. If we sit him in front of something, he will grab it and pull with all his might trying to get into a standing position. We finally gave in and just stood him up. We don't leave him alone, but he can stand for quite some time. Now he can pull himself up onto his knees. I think it's only a matter of days before he'll be pulling up to a standing position.

Then on Monday, he decided to crawl. He has only done it twice, and both times were only for me. I've tried to get him to crawl when someone else is in the room, but he won't do it. He also wouldn't do it when I had my camera.

Monday night's bath was a first too. It was his first bath in the big tub without his baby tub. I know he should have been out of that thing a long time ago, but honestly, he just loved it so much, I hated to take him out of it. But he had started trying to pull himself out, so I knew it was time. One more baby thing gone! He loves the big boy bath just as much as the baby tub.

We have also started giving him some more food choices. Actually, we have been working on this for a while. He just did not like anything with any texture, and he wouldn't feed himself anything. I could put food on his tray, and he would play with it, but wouldn't try to put anything in his mouth. Now, if he had found it on the floor, that would have been another story. He has finally started to experiment a little more, and tonight I gave him some green beans after he finished off his sweet potatoes. I managed to capture the whole thing. I think it was a success.

And finally, he has developed a new grin that is just to die for. He started doing it anytime I would smile at him, and when he did it for the camera, it just cracked me up. I know the picture is blurry, but I had to snap it quickly, and then my battery died before I could try again.

Not Me Monday!

I did not turn on the wrong burner on my stove thereby melting a plastic Cracker Barrel take out container and filling my house with a rather toxic smell. No way would I ever do such a thing, I always pay close attention to what I am doing. And I most certainly did not turn on the same wrong burner the very next night and almost re-boil already steeped and ready to mix tea. What sort of inattentive, distracted mom would do that?

I did not find eight new Facebook friends I haven't seen or heard from in ages. They are not all my husband's fraternity brothers, nor are they mostly from the pledge class for which I was sweetheart. I did not spend hours I do not have sitting at my computer looking at pictures of their families and catching up with their lives. I did not call my husband in from the other room on several occasions saying, "Guess who that is!" A grown woman with a pile of laundry and a floor that needs mopping would never waste precious time on something like Facebook for crying out loud.


I did not try to open my Kodak Easyshare software only to find that it would not open. I did not immediately feel nauseated nor did I panic because many, many of my photos had not been saved anywhere else. I did not spend the next half hour chatting with Peter, the tech support dude at Kodak. I did not panic once again when Peter told to remove the software from my computer and then reinstall it from the Kodak site. Never once did I doubt Peter when he said I would not lose any of my pictures by following his advice. I did not sigh a huge sigh of relief when I realized he was in fact correct, and I did not spend the rest of the weekend making sure ALL of my pictures were saved on Kodak Gallery so that I would never face that nauseating panic again!

I did not wake up this morning and immediately wish that the kids did not have school so that I could spend the entire day in my house in my fuzzy robe and slippers, and I am not in any way looking forward to Thanksgiving break so that I will have at least a day or two to do just that!

And now, please go over and read what MckMama did not do this week. I did not laugh out loud as I was reading her post.

Slight Resemblance!

The Princess:

The Little Man:

Not Me Monday

I have not been reading MckMama's blog for months and saying I should do a Not Me Monday post each and every Monday. I have not been procrastinating about actually posting a Not Me Monday post.

I did not have a tooth pulled last Monday. I did not cry when the sadistic oral surgeon gave me shots of Novocaine. What sort of baby would do that? I am in no way anxious for the bone grafting to heal and the implant to be in place, nope, not me. I rather enjoy being able to remove my front tooth at will.

I did not enjoy my night away with my hubby while my kiddos stayed with their cousin Jess. Nope, I missed them like crazy and wished that I was the one cleaning baby poop from the Little Man, his clothes, his big sister's clothes and the kitchen floor.

And I most certainly did not spend the entire time I was away from them showing off pictures of them and talking about how super adorably cute they are. Nope, not me. I am most certainly not THAT mom!

I think I'm in trouble

If this is what he's like at 8 months old and barely mobile, what are toddler years going to be like?

Yes, that is the cabinet where the cleaning supplies are kept. Yes, he got over there all by himself.

And of course, it's followed by the sweet innocent "who me?" look that I'm sure will save him many, many times. (And of course, he has a cold, making him look even more pitiful.)

In Memory of Maddie

Ten years ago today, a little 8 year old girl named Madelyn Rae Clifton went missing from her front yard. After being kissed by her mother, Maddie had gone out to play as her 11 year old sister was inside practicing piano.

My firstborn was 15 months old at the time. I held her close as I watched the news coverage every day hoping and praying that Maddie would be found alive. Maybe she was hurt and just couldn't make it back home. Maybe someone had her, but would let her go.

I took fliers with her picture and put them up around the condos where we lived at the time. I looked at every child I saw, hoping to see Maddie and help get her home.

And I prayed. The whole town prayed. The whole town searched.

Maddie's family was on tv begging for her return.

One week after Maddie vanished from her yard, her body was found stuffed under her 14 year old neighbor's water bed. His own mother found her there and had to turn her son in to the police. He was later tried as an adult and is serving a life sentence.

And the whole town moured. We mourned the loss of this precious little girl. We mourned the loss of innocence. We mourned for the two mothers who's lives were devastated that day.

I went to visit Maddie's grave after the funeral was over and her family had left. I signed the guest book. I don't know exactly why I needed to do that, but I felt it was something I just had to do. I held my own daughter, and I felt the loss and grief that Maddie's mother must have been feeling. Must still feel ten years later.

I am an extremely overprotective mother. I worry sometimes that maybe I am too protective. Maybe I need to start letting go a little. Then I remember Maddie, and I just can't.

I look at my daughters, almost the exact ages of Maddie and her big sister on the day Maddie vanished, and I cannot imagine my life without them. Just as I can't imagine their lives without each other.

And so, I hold on too tight, and I pray for the wisdom to know when to let go.

Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.

Deuteronomy 31:6

Trick Or Treat

It was the Little Man's first Halloween. Isn't he the cutest little horse you ever saw? I thought it was only fitting that he be a horse since he has a cowboy bedroom. We thought he was absolutely adorable.

Sweetpea's joke: What did Little Man say when he fell down? I've fallen, and I can't giddy-up.

The Princess has outgrown her princess ways. For a few years, the only question about her Halloween costume was which Disney Princess she would choose. Then two years ago, she decided to be a witch. An adorable little witch carrying a cinnamon scented broom. Last year, she was a perfectly cute little cheetah. This year, she was a Pop Star Witch.

Sweetpea couldn't really decide at first if she wanted a real costume. She thinks she's getting a little old for trick or treating. That makes me sad! In the end, she saw this red devil costume, and decided to give it a go. She was beyond cute, and I had the most fun teasing and spraying her hair. She said it looked like a horror movie when she took a shower that night. I said, "Like Psycho". She said, "Huh? What's that?"

We had beautiful weather to start our evening. Not too hot, not too cold.

Beautiful sunset.

By the time we were half way around the circle, it was starting to rain. Our Little Pony was snugly warm and sleeping in his costume, plus his cowboy blankie his Aunt Jeannie gave him.

The Princess got to trick or treat with her very best friend in the whole wide world. These two have spent every one of their seven Halloweens together. I hope they have many, many more.

The girls both got way too much candy.

And then we went home to put our tired Little Pony to bed.

And after he spit up on himself, Sweetpea said, "He has a little cud on his shoulder."

Oh, that girl!