Four little girlies, all in a row...

Everyone was over here this evening for the weekly game night. Here are the girls watching A Bug's Life in the playroom. I'm not sure what Kara Mae is showing Charlotte, but I think we all had teeth full of Cheetos and marshmallows. Rachel is Rachel, with her bow askew. And Maddie is gnawing on...something. Aren't they sweet?

Christmas.

We all had a wonderful Christmas, and I promise I'll share pictures soon. Right now, I'm just too full of sugar cookies, fudge, and Razzleberry pie to produce anything terribly coherent. I'll leave you with some Christmas Eve pictures.

We left some cookies for Santa...

...basking in the warm glow of a major award.


Merry Christmas!

Tag

Donavan tagged me, so here goes:

1) Choose the 4th folder where you store your pictures on your computer

2) Select the 4th picture in the folder

3) Explain the picture

4) Tag 4 people to do the same

NO CHEATING! (cropping, editing, etc!)


note: both the 4th and 5th folders only had one picture in them, so I moved to the 6th folder and found a 4th picture. It's probably a sign that I need to consolidate some photos!
Here are the girls last Thanksgiving in Mariposa--they're watching the older twins in the family, Sawyer and Riley, ride their bikes with their brother. We were all dressed for our Christmas photo, which we take on Thanksgiving.


I'm getting several terse "Why haven't you updated your blog????" comments of late. I promise I'll get right on that! In the meantime, you may want to note that we've added a new friend to our list on the sidebar. Go make friends with the Bacas and their new baby Maggie, who is really too cute for words.

Thankfully

We made it through Thanksgiving. We had a wonderful get-together at my mom's house, with all of the trimmings. She forgot to put the deviled eggs out on the table, which I'm sure will have her lying awake all night. Seriously. She'll lie awake all night. Love you , Mom. Here are a few images from the day, as I'm still in a bit of a tryptophan haze.

Dad's Thanksgiving Day refrigerator art.

My mom cures her own olives. You can't have any. They're MINE!

We arrived a little early so that my dad could take our Christmas card photo. I think I may be most thankful for digital cameras. It just ain't gonna happen on the first try. Or the second.




We also made it out to our great grandma Leatha's house for bit. I didn't realize until I got home that Charlotte's eyes were closed. Darnit!

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!

"Sinta Pulls"

We went to see Santa today, and it went very well! Last year, the girls chickened out. I suppose that's the difference between a mere 2 year-old and a worldly 3 year-old. They let him know that they'd like blue fairies for Christmas, and had a little chat about candy canes and dollies. Charlotte can say Santa Claus, but for some reason prefers to call him "Sinta Pulls." Our hair is in a flyaway state, but YOU try keeping up with a preschooler's hair!

Feast!

The girls had their feast at preschool today, so we got to visit. Everyone in class had to bring ingredients for Stone Soup--our contribution was a potato and a cup of dry beans. I must say, it was delicious.

Digging in to their feast. Space was at a premium, so we settled for lap dining.

Behold, the cupcake of DOOM! Seriously, this had to be the most labor-intensive cupcake I've seen in a long time. They promptly ate the frosting turkey off the top, thrust the cupcake part up to us and proclaimed, "Done!"

Walking through the leaves to Grammy's car.

Leaf Fight II: This Time It's Personal

Now that the leaves are starting to fall from Papa's liquid amber tree, it's time for leaf fights! Last year's fights were pretty intense, but now that we're big girls of three and a half, it's ON! Of course, after the fight, Papa comes out with either the leaf blower or vacuum (yes, he has both) and makes his lawn pretty again. As Rachel might say: "Oh brudder!"

Thank You.

In honor of Veterans' Day

CCBR

My dad and I took the girls to the Central California Band Review today. They just love their marching bands, so we had a great time.

I wanted this to be much cooler--you can barely see our reflection, as this kid was on the move. Perhaps next year I'll find an obliging tuba player and make him stand really still while I get my shot!Rachel, enjoying the percussion competition with Papa.

Pittman Percussion. They were awesome.

See Patricia--you could have had someone carry your marimba for you! Those poor guys looked miserable.

Buhach Colony's drum major.

These girls were having fun.

This girl was having fun too.

The hosts of the parade...the always impressive Cardinal Regime. We got to meet Mr. C., their band director and my former band director. The girls thought it was a pretty big deal.

Good times.

Back when he was a good boy with short hair...

After seeing the girls' preschool picture, my mother-in-law sent me a picture of Adrian's preschool graduation.

How the heck...

...did we go from this

to THIS???

The girls had their first day of preschool today. Excuse me while I go cry...

Save Pushing Daisies!

I love this wonderfully original show. It's such a breath of fresh air from the usual fare. It fell victim to the writer's strike last season, and now it's in danger of being canceled. If you love me and want me to be happily entertained, go here to sign the petition!

A witch and a bat!

We had a busy Halloween, but it was a fun one. Grammy spent the morning shuttling the girls here and there in their costumes. They got to trick or treat at Grammy's salon, as well as our workplaces. They were a hit! After some good naptime, it was time to dress up again and make the rounds to friends and family. We topped it off with some light trick or treating in Grammy and Papa's neighborhood, then settled in to celebrate Papa's birthday. Pizza, cake, candy, and Wii Fit (Papa's new gift)! Fun.

Being "scary."

Getting treats at Aunt Vera and Unlce Mo's.


We had a special treat--we finally got to meet our cute cousins, Mallary and Avery (the newest set of twins!). This is Mallary--no it's Avery--or is it Mallary? This is one of the twins and her grandpa. Man, I'm starting to see what all the fuss is about, trying to tell other folks' twins apart is rough! They were flying monkeys. Hehe.

Taking a moment to play with Charlie and Terri's well-behaved dog. Very well-behaved.

Heavy duty candle-blowing.

Rachel helping Papa sort through his gifts.

Ever the lady, Charlotte devours her cake.



I love Halloween. Now will someone please come and pull my head out of the leftover candy bowl? Please?

Tag!

Time to play tag again. Amy tagged me, so look out! I've already done the 100 things, so I'm going to try not to repeat.

1. Link to the person or persons who tagged you. 2. Post the rules on your blog. 3. Write six random things about yourself. 4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them. 5. Let each person know they’ve been tagged and leave a comment on their blog 6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

Six (6) Random Things about me in no particular order:

1. I hate tomatoes.

2. Jon Stewart is my boyfriend. Okay, he's not...but he is.

3. I never used to cry at movies such as Steel Magnolias, Beaches, etc... Until I had kids. Now even certain commercials make me well up.

4. I am usually attempting to read 4 to 5 books at one time. My nightstand is a mess of books.

5. Green note: I have become very lax in using my re-usable grocery sacks. I'm going to go ahead and blame it on the fact that one of them broke on me and I became discouraged. Time to whip myself back into shape! I have been using my Klean Kanteen, and I'm loving it.

6. I'm trying to re-learn how to eat when I'm hungry, vs. when I'm just bored. I'm tired of dieting. I want to eat what I want!


Okay, time to tag my six: Donavan, Sabrina, Megan, Patricia, Jen, and Kelli. GO!

Pumpkin Patch II--now with more pumpkins and more peril!

We headed up to Sacramento today to help celebrate the birthday of this sweet girl. We couldn't have had more fun if we'd tried!

We got to meet Becca's BFF, Tawny.

What goes up, must come down. You can't argue with physics. Believe me, I've tried.

Oh, for crying out loud--I can't get anything near a decent picture of these two together anymore. I give up.

Adrian was very excited about the funky gourds, so he took a picture while we were on the train ride.

It's true--you really can't make this stuff up.

Rachel (after a long bout with a runny nose): "Mommy, my nose-sucking feels better today!"

Charlotte (getting out of the van at Grammy's this morning): "I'm ready for the presentation!"

The Pumpkin Patch...of PERIL!

A tad dramatic? I think not. Our trip to the pumpkin patch was fraught with danger!

First of all, we had to work our way through a corn maze that stretched clear to the foothills. We weren't sure we were going to make it, but figured we could live on corn until someone came to find us.

Smack in the middle of the maze, we found a corn cob that had fallen on the ground, so we had to stop for an impromptu lesson: "Where Corn Comes From--As Told By Daddy." That's right, we had to learn something...on a SUNDAY!


Two days later (at least it seemed like two days), we emerged, crying and sweaty, from the maze. Okay, maybe that was just me crying and sweating.

But wait! It was also really, really bright! Any fellow fair, blue-eyed folks will back me up--trying to keep your eyes open for outdoor pictures in the midafternoon is TORTURE!

And witness how my poor child was nearly overtaken by a passel of pumpkins! Okay, maybe she was just picking one out--I'm just trying to stick with a theme here.

Whew! We made it out alive and here you see we're ready to take our newly-aquired pumpkins home.
Gah! We had to stop for one last photo. Rachel was having none of it. Even after Dad tried making Donald Duck noises in her ear. And you thought the pumpkin patch was fun.