love letters

a set of pink nail polished four year old hands proudly handed this to me...

{"l-o-e" spells "love"}

after sensing my overflowing joy, 13 minutes later i was presented with a stack of these.

all filled with "l-o-e" letters.

{but quite literally filled with l.o.v.e}

if your toddler doesn't sleep...

chances are, you aren't sleeping either.

it could be that she is waking up with nightmares. {awww :(   }

so you let her sleep at the foot of her sister's bed, like a little pup.

giggling. then crossed boundaries. then screaming. next...

so you put their beds together.

giggling. then crossed boundaries. then screaming. then playing. then grumpiness from lack of z's. next...

so you move their beds apart again. and start from scratch.
new routine. move the ridiculously bright nightlight next to her bed. and leave the door "cracked" four feet for the demanding toddler.

sleep? getting there.

but then your 4 year old outgrows her naps.
and the 2 year old has never slept apart from her.

uh-oh.

so you trick her.

this form...                                                                     ...is really hiding this form. big dog.

.shhhhh.

the farm=dreamy

miniature pony (mr. attitude) rides.

motorcycle rides.

football for the boys.

beautiful barn.

freedom for the kids.

sun setting over the fall trees.

crisp air.

good friends.

hot doggies.

bon fire.

s'mores.

what could be better??

our spook-tacular night

the way we do it...

• why settle for one snow white when you can have double the cuteness??
  
• trick-or-treat with a 10 to 3 adult to child ratio
• use the little pumpkin as a ticket to pick out your candy of choice, despite the sneers of others. then pass him on to the next sweet-toothed adult.
• let daddy lead the way. he knows best.
• go madeline style. get pushed in a stroller and let mommy can do the work of treating from door to door for you so you can sit back and savor each candy, one by one.
• prepare to use a little more brain power to come up with a costume for mommy & daddy next year, before its too late.

swine flu pumpkin and family

{madeline's baby pumpkin, hannah's monkey pumpkin, daddy's swine flu pumpkin, mommy's scaredy (or shocked-at-what-swine-flu-pumpkin-just-did) pumpkin}

dear flu,

boo! now stay away.

mommy was hit last tuesday through monday. madeline thursday through wednesday. and hannah hit 2 days ago with a viral infection and added bonus of a severe ear infection that burst. ouch.

won't stop us from treating, no sir-eee.

happy happy halloweeny!

a yearning

after having it on my list of things "to do" for over a year now...shame, shame, callie... i finally am pulling out my miscellaneous scraps to put together a simple chore chart for the girls. in doing so, hannah felt inspired and was begging me to let her sew something, anything.

this piece of green burlap, a blunt needle, and embroidery thread have entertained her for the past 2 days!

randomly, throughout each day, hannah would stop whatever she was doing and shout, "oh! my project! i better get back to work on my project!" and then she'd scurry back to her project. and get back to "work".

what greater joy than to see one of my own little creations creating something of her own and finding so much confidence and fulfillment in it?!

"The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul." 

~Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf

evidence and lyrics

9:42pm

steve's at school till late.

these two?

not sleeping.

and this?

unmotivated.

instead?

spend 2 hours browsing music.

make a new killer playlist.

in the hopes that i'll listen to it while cleaning.

listen to "corner" by allie moss on repeat.

aaaahhhhhh.