November Happenings

 Leland came home one afternoon so excited with this "new" game that a friend made for her. She thought it was the coolest thing ever. She was a little shocked when I told her that we used to make them when I was younger too. What do you call it anyway?

 This picture is for my sister, who says that blogs are only for people to brag about the good things, so I decided to take a picture of what my family room often looks like. Toys scattered and a overflowing laundry basket of clothes that need to folded. After I snapped the shot, Leland asks, "Mom, why are you taking a picture of a dirty room? Who wants to see that?"

 We always love when Nana gets to visit. We are so happy she is retired now and we get to see her so much.

We like to play dress up. There is usually only one princess and two super heroes in our house.

 I cooked my very first Thanksgiving dinner and had lots of helpers in the kitchen. My dad, his girlfriend, and my lil sister, Layni came for dinner. I didn't get any good pictures, but the food was delicious and there was enough to probably feed 25 people. Good thing we love leftovers.

 The girls had a dance party after dinner.

September

First day of school was a rainy, dreary, mess. Leland loves her new school and classmates. The bus stop is right next door with about 10-15 kids getting on the bus.

It's obvious that I let my children totally pick out their own clothes. Lucy has a mind of her own. Chuck once said that I should have my girls wear a button that says "I dressed myself." I told him that I think it's pretty obvious.

Messy hair - purple dress - red and black socks - brown shoes - oops! (Name that book)

I love this picture. We were opening up our weekly produce box from Dominion Harvest and I asked the girls what their favorite item was that we received. Charly picked the red peppers and Lucy picked the goat cheese. The way Charly was holding the peppers made me laugh.
"You're the cutest thing I ever did see. I really love your peppers. Want to shake your tree." (Name that song)

Charly (plus my other girls) love to use an umbrella. So much so, that they have broken or bent 3 umbrellas in the last month. Charly was so proud of herself getting the newspaper for daddy with her umbrella.

The love of Spider Man had been passed down. Lucy already grew out of the pjs that she got for Christmas just 9 months ago. Charly was so excited to get to wear the coveted pajamas.

Our Spider-Princess

Lucy turned 4 years old a few weeks ago, but is often mistaken for a 6 year old. She still towers over most friends her age, but fits right in line with Leland. Her obsession with Spider Man continues, so it was fitting to have a Spider Man themed birthday. She also insisted dressing like a princess for 2 days in celebration of her birthday.

This is the first "friend" birthday party I've done. We have always seemed to be with family during birthdays, so we do the family thing. It was great and very simple. She invited the kids from her class at church and their families to meet at a local park for cake and Popsicles.

A little bit about Lucy:

• loves SpiderMan, Wild Kratts, and Princesses
• loves to READ! Yes she just turned 4 and she's been reading for a few months. 
• determined. She wanted to read so badly, and she worked so hard to learn.
• the wavy hair, just throws me for a loop. She reminds me to put spray gel in it so it doesn't get "crazy"
• a collector. She loves to carry things around in her hands. I've tried to get her in the habit of carrying a purse so she's not walking around with her hands full all the time.
• easy going. Definitely our most easy going child. 
• peacemaker, usually
• shy and outgoing at the same time

Mother's Day Notes

Lucy's Mother's Day note from school. (click on picture to enlarge)

I think it was so sweet that she put that my job was taking care of my friends. She brought this home on a day that my friends were really taking care of me, so it was perfect.

Leland's "A Book About My Mom" with commentary by the mom. 

Leland said she drew me wearing "your church jewelry". Sunday is the only day I wear jewelry (and makeup too for that matter)

I thought...she makes me look like a healthy eater...salad, carrot, orange, chicken...

then she breaks out the Cheeburger, Cheeburger.

Pretty accurate picture with the red boxes too.

They also picked me a beautiful bouquet of flowers all from our yard. Sweet girls.

Easter Hunt #1

We went to a community Easter Egg Hunt with the Morris girls. Leland and Lucy knew the drill and were on the run to get as many eggs as possible. Charly just stood there watching the craziness. Even when we showed her candy was inside the eggs, she still was not interested.

The girls showing off their loot (that I would later throw away).

It's funny how the girls are so different in little ways:

Just dump 'em all out

line 'em up one by one

Then the Easter Bunny came for a visit. He was kind of creepy looking if you ask me.

We then checked out the beautiful flowers...

and baby chicks at the local garden store. As much as I hate birds, I really wanted to take some of these home to have chickens and fresh eggs.

Rock Climbing Wall

Last weekend we went to a Summer Adventure Expo by Richmond Family Magazine. It was at an indoor rock climbing center. During the Expo, kids could climb the wall inside for free.

It made Lucy a little nervous. She wanted to come down and as she was being lowered she knocked her forehead on one of the grip/foothold things and ended up with a huge bruise in the center of her forehead. Poor girl.

Leland loved it! She did awesome.

Nutzy the Squirrel from Richmond's AA Baseball team the Flying Squirrels.

Celebrating Lucy

Since Lucy's birthday is after her school ends for the summer, her teacher asked if we could celebrate her birthday in her class back in February. We took in heart shaped cookies and jell-o to share with her friends.  They still sang Happy Birthday and had her blow out candles. She was so excited about her "pretend" birthday party.

Chuck came in to her class too. That's a huge benefit of "living where you work" and her preschool is 2 mins from Chuck's office. He can come do fun things in the middle of the day with the girls. He read the kids 2 of Lucy's favorite books - Spiderman and Here Comes the Shapes.

Lucy's preschool also recently had an Art Show. She was so excited to show all of us some of the fun things she made at school.

She is still growing like a weed and catching up quick with Leland. Any day now, she will be taller than Leland. People are always amazed to find out she is only 3 years old. She still loves all things Spiderman, but wants to only wear skirts or dresses. Lucy loves to collect rocks, and will say "this is for my collection" any time she wants to bring a new rock home. She is learning to read and is doing really well. She loves looking at/reading books. All day long she asks to play games on my phone or play games on the computer. Lucy has such a cute sense of humor and keeps us laughing all day.

Lately

Lately I feel like not much has been going on in our lives, yet every day seems to be busy, busy. Between running the girls places, work, my church calling in Young Women, volunteering at Leland's school and training for a 10K. I feel like some days I don't have time to sit down at the computer for blogging.

Chuck and I recently both got Droid phones which I love, totally love. Leland and Lucy love them too and ask to play games on them all day long. Lucy is improving so much in regards to her speech. She also loves wearing band-aids for every little thing. Leland recently decided to stop sucking her thumb, which went really well this week. She made the goal she set and got her reward of going to the local indoor inflatable bounce house place. I realized that I really just needed to wait till she was ready and actually wanting to stop, and she did it. Do know you remember that little joke "Hi. My name is Chubba. My daddy's Chubba and my momma's Chubba....One day my daddy took my on a motorcycle ride and I said "faster daddy faster.." Charly loves that joke and wants to do it all day long. She's hilarious.

One morning while getting ready (waiting for Daddy to be ready) for school, the girls were watching the squirrels in the backyard. They are such cute sisters. Lucy was actually yelling "Die squirrel, die!" Not sure where that came from.

I spent this last Saturday visiting a farm for work. It was so much fun. I was bummed that it was muddy and rainy, so we didn't stray very far from the house, but it was fun planning the items that they will be planting for Dominion Harvest this year. Farmers are just awesome down to earth people. Most of them just love what they do and are trying their best to grow good food. The best line of the afternoon was "We just do the best we can, and we take what the Lord blesses us with."

Update

I recently looked at my blog and realized that I only posted 2 times in November. I have a lot to catch up on. I started working for a company called Dominion Harvest back in the fall and I love it. It has kept me very busy but, we are in the off season right now, so hopefully I can catch up. I like to date my blog posts according to when they happened, so they may be a little out of order.

A note from Leland with instructions on how to get to her hideout.

Chuck has sleep apnea and he finally got a c-pap machine. He no longer snores like a freight train, which means I don't have to elbow him in the side or kick him in the middle of the night to roll over, so we all sleep so much better. The first night he slept with the machine I seriously thought he was dead in the middle of the night. He usually is such a loud and fitful sleeper and he was so still and silent while he slept. It was a little creepy.

Lucy is in such a fun stage. She is adamant about dressing herself most days, which leads to great ensembles. She still loves everything about Spiderman and hyperventilates at the sight of anything remotely resembling Spiderman.

We recently switched the big girls from toddler beds to twin beds. Poor Lucy was complaining about her "small" bed and we would hear her banging against the frame at night. The picture on the bottom right is how we found her the first night in the twin bed. That bigger bed and she still was hanging off the edge. I think she will soon be taller than Leland.

Charly has a ridiculous smile when the camera comes out. She really is a cute girl, but I may not have many pictures to prove it.

Charly has recently discovered climbing. These two pictures were taken literally minutes from each other. I think she will be my first child to break a bone or get stitches.

This is us

School pictures

Since I have no professional pictures to share of Charly, I'll share a video of her most recent accomplishment. Don't you just the love the tongue poking out just like her Daddy does when he concentrates?

Chuck and I loved watching the Country Music Awards last night. I love all the performnaces, but this Brad Paisley one is the best. Chuck loved the "Wanna get scrappy?" bit between Jeff Gordon and Brad Paisley.

Spiderman's wife

A conversation between the girls after Lucy finished saying our family prayer tonight...

Lucy:   "Mom, when you and Daddy die, I want to go live with Spiderman."
Leland:   "You can't. I think he already has a wife."

Just Pictures

Leland wearing Chuck's Hawaiian shirt for picture day. This is the same shirt that Chuck wore for his kindergarten picture day. Her favorite past time - dressing up for performances.

I love that top right picture of Lucy. She looks like a model. These pictures are from a local art festival we went to a while back.

Charly just cracks us up every day. She loves raspberries and loves making a big mess while she eats. She still can't walk that well but she loves to climb!