Henry

Two years ago today we held and kissed our little Henry for the last time while on this mortal earth. We miss this little boy more than words can say. I just wanted to share an essay Cailin recently wrote in school about her little brother.

The Best Day of My Life

Have you ever dreamt of the best thing you want? For instance, a trip to Hawaii, or even going to Disneyland. Well, not me. My image for the best day of my life is when I'm with my family members. Even the ones who have passed away. Like my Great Grandma, and my sweet little brother, Henry. The best day of my life, is when I go back in time, to see them again. To experience what my grandma's warm hugs feel like. And to experience what it felt like when I came home from school, and Henry came running to the door, and saying: "Sissy home, sissy home!" The best day of my life is when I'll get to experience all that again. That's my idea of a perfect day.

Me too, babe. Me too.

Happy Thanksgiving

This being our first Thanksgiving back in the U.S, we have much to be grateful for. I'm grateful I was able to buy a delicious turkey for $7. I'm grateful we were able to eat our Thanksgiving dinner with my grandma's goblets gracing her well-used table. I'm grateful my brother and sister-in-law were able to drive a couple hours and spend the day with us. I'm grateful my gravy wasn't lumpy... after I pureed it in the blender because it was sooo lumpy. But the blender fixed it. And it was good. I am grateful for The Pioneer Woman's mashed potatoes and pecan pie. Because they were dang good. I am grateful that I don't have to cook meals like that all the time.

Marti, my beautiful and blossoming (due any day with #1 son) sister-in-law shared a family tradition with us as we began our Thanksgiving meal. It was simple, and so fun. Everyone was poured a goblet full of sparkling cider or grape juice, then we went around and had each person say one thing he or she was thankful for. After each comment we toasted with a little clink of our cups and took a sip of sparkle. It made for a happy start to the meal.

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving as well.

The Day After

The day after our snowfall, I had to chuckle as I drove past the elementary school and saw hordes of snowsuited little people rolling giant balls of snow all around their field.

The paths the snow balls left were interesting to look at.

This snowball picked up lots of wood shavings.

This is one of the snow forts made for the big snowball fight. All the perpetrators had to spend the rest of the recess at "the wall" as punishment. Cailin informed me of the biggest rule during the snow season: "You can chuck snowballs at trees, but not at each other."

Congratulations, Coucilwoman

Madelyn was all aflutter when she came home from school today. Her class voted for her to be one of their class representatives, and she is 100% ecstatic!

Snow Me, Snow My

It's snowing pretty good out there today. The first thing Cailin wanted to do when she got home was to shovel the driveay. She got about 1/8 of it done. Not bad.

Emma's priority was to make a snow princess. She can't quite get the tiara to stay on. They wish dad was home from work to help them make a masterpiece.

Vote 4 MJ

Madelyn is running for office. In the student council. It comes in handy to have a graphic design guru for a father. We made posters and stickers for her with this image.

Cailin also rolled up her artist sleeves and drew some posters for her sister to hang up at school tomorrow. Root for Russell!

I miss you, Fall!

Hope spends a lot of time at this window; barking at dogs, barking at squirrels, barking at the weather. It's really more of a growl than a bark. But I will call it a bark because she learned it from an unruly golden retriever that barks at us while being walked down our street. We have had snow on the ground for the past couple days. Emma and Jon have been the only ice casualties so far. Both of them wiped out on our driveway. Emma was on foot and Jon crashed his bike. The only thing really hurt was their sense of dignity.

It's Cold Out, But We're Still Shootin'

I was able to photograph another fun family today. It was pretty chilly outside, so we ran to their yard and shot as many photos as we could before the kids got too shivery.

There were group hugs.

And sweet boy kisses.

And then some barefoot time back in the house. You guys are great!

If You Give a Baby A Sucker...

Patches

I can barely keep up with all the holey knees my girls get in their jeans. I'm hoping these patches will hold for a while!

Fall Bliss

It's been a little wet outside, but the girls were thrilled to have the sun come out this afternoon so they could throw around Jon's nice leaf pile in the backyard.

Poor Hope is not the happiest camper in this photo. There are several good reasons for this:

1. She got her 1-year old immunizations a couple days ago and still is a little cranky about them.
2. She has a nasty runny nose and I wipe her boogs constantly.
3. Her molars are coming in.
4. She had gotten her flu shot just an hour before this photo was taken.
5. Last, and so not least, I clunked her in the head with my camera as I was setting her down.

Sorry babe! :(

Hey Pumpkin!

I am back in the girls' good graces. We once again got the paints out - this time for some Hello Kitty Pilgrim goodness.

Here we are in the basement tracing our pattern onto some paper that we will tape to the outside of our window.

And the final product from outside looking in. Cailin did a great job freehanding the backwards lettering!

Give Thanks WIndow

I painted our front window yesterday. The girls are mad at me for doing it while they were at school. I promised them they can still do their Thanksgiving Hello Kitty on our dining room window. We have plenty of time, since they are out of school for the next 3 days due to parent teacher conferences.

Yard Envy

Someone needs to do a little raking...

Hope's Layout

I was inspired to do a scrapbook layout today, since I got a coupon for a free 8x10 print here. You can click on the image to see it up close.

Hope is 1

What a day! Hope turned 1.

She ate some leaves.

She ate some cake. By the fistful.

She was really cute all day long.

Photo Shoot

Yesterday was a beautiful day. Temps in the upper 60's. I called my friend and asked if they'd like to have a family photo shoot while the weather is so nice. She and her husband got their eight gorgeous children ready and to the park just in time.

Dusk was approaching, but we got some great photos. I enjoyed getting a little practice with family portraits. Something I'd like to play around with more in the future!

Thanks to this sweet family for being such wonderful subjects. I hope they enjoy their photos!

Art Walk

Today we went to an "Art in the Park" festival. The weather is holding out for us. It is cool, but still so nice to be outside. The golden leaves and blue sky add to our enjoyment of these lovely fall days.

There were many interesting colors, patterns and textures for us to observe as took a short nature hike.

The girls carried notebooks with them and sketched their favorite trees. This inspires to me to go out again with colored pencils and crayons and make some more art. I wish we could bottle up some of this beauty to open up and bask in later when the frost and ice take over.