Tuesday, October 13, 2009

playing catch up with the blog...

I've posted several of these things on Facebook, but have neglected putting them on the blog so now I'm playing catch up.

Hannah went to Artist Series with Brent October 2. My sister, Sheri, had given us a dress Claire never wore which was a perfect artist series formal for a 7 year old. Brent had never seen the dress, and Hannah had a great time playing it up to him about how beautiful she was going to look in it, and how surprised he was going to be by it. I must admit I had a few pangs as she built it up to him, and then as I helped her dress and fix her hair. I thought about her wedding that seems so far off...I know the time will fly by and I wondered if I would remember getting her ready for her date with daddy when she was 7 as I help her get ready for her big walk with daddy down the aisle...sappy, I know, but a bit of a pang in my momma's heart none the less!

Here are some of my favorite pictures of the evening.

Brent refused to make a silly face knowing it would end up here on the blog...this is as silly as he would get!

Love those eyes! They were blue until she was about 18 months old...I was sure she was going to keep her blue eyes and dark hair, but they changed to a beautiful shade of green which is still quite stunning in my humble opinion! :-)
Can you believe the eyelashes on this girl?!? I'm so thankful that both my girls have very long eyelashes. Brent has really long lashes, too, but Hannah reminds me of my sister in these pictures, especially pictures of Sheri about this same age. I've always been envious of my sister's lashes...at least my girls got that Kelley gene since I couldn't have it show through on my eyes!
She loved getting all dolled up and was quite patient as I put ringlets in her hair. She was THRILLED when I put a bit of lip gloss on her, too...real make-up!!! A 7 year olds fairy tale dream come true

SNOW!!!

Yep...it snowed all day yesterday! Big white pretty flakes...all day long. The ground was warm enough that it pretty much melted as soon as it hit the ground, but about 3:30 yesterday afternoon, it started to accumulate, and then it froze. I was trying to figure out why this first snow looked so different than other snowfalls we've had the last 5 winters here in the Northwoods. I realized it's the first time I've seen snow on leaves! We've never had an accumulating snow before the leaves have fallen off the trees before. Most of the time I look at snow as it sticks to bare branches, but most of our trees still have leaves on them, so the trees are really pretty with the beautiful yellows and reds showing through the white snow. We've never had snow this early here before...I hope it's not a foreshadowing of the rest of our autumn!
The kids had to wait for Brent to open the car door since they were frozen shut. Hannah got a kick out of wearing her snowflake dress from last winter.
There's been heavy frosts several times already, but this is the first true ice and snow accumulation Brent's had to scrape off.
It was beautiful when it started yesterday about 10:00...but it was also sad...so very sad to think that we're already facing the snow. Winters are very, very long here...but add another month to it by starting so early is really, really sad...:-)

Some really helpful thoughts

I follow the blog of a friend from college who is quite a remarkable mom. They homeschool 9 children and she seems to do with grace! Some of my favorite posts of hers are called "Not Me Mondays." Each Monday she recaps events from the past week that are somewhat surprising, and she words them like, "I did not let my son eat earthworms" or "We would never allow..." It's really entertaining and encouraging to see someone being so transparent and admitting to things that others would never admit to. Here's a part of her post this morning that was a really good reminder to me and gave me some things to meditate on:
  • If I believed, really believed, that God is in control then I wouldn’t worry about tomorrow, I would be content to wait on His timing.
  • If I really believed that He loved me, I would not ask “why me?”.
  • If I believed that He rewards obedience and punishes disobedience, I wouldn’t be tempted to take things into my own hands, I would be content to be obedient and faithful and allow Him to deal with others as He sees fit.
  • If I believed that he was all powerful, I wouldn’t be tempted to fight for His honor and glory through means that He has not ordained.
  • If I believed that He was all that I needed, I wouldn’t ask for more.
I'm especially convicted by the first one and the last one!

(Marsel...you would love her blog...it's full of great ideas for homeschoolers and unique ways to implement schooling into every day life!)

Tuesday, October 06, 2009

She loves to help me cook!


Sarah has taken to "helping" me when it's time to cook...anything...or she thinks I'm getting ready to cook...anything...somehow she manages to squeeze in between me and Hannah and get her chubby little hands into whatever it is I'm making...every time I'm in the kitchen...any time...it's not because she loves to cook. No, she has no interest in actually making the things to eat. She simply wants to get first dibs on the spatulas or beaters that I hand out for licking! I made peanut butter pie for Brent's birthday Sunday and she managed to snatch the whip cream spatula before I realized it. She also managed to get it all over her face. The picture's not the greatest, but it sure captures that mischievous glint we're seeing way too much of recently in her eye!

A Great Sense of Fashion


Sarah came to me the other day wanting to go on a trip. She was all ready for the adventure. She had her favorite things all ready to go: her bug boots (hand-me-downs all the way back from Daniel at this age but are still a couple sizes too big), her Dora back pack full of match box cars (her latest infatuation to keep in her back pack) and her baby doll on her back in it's special back-pack style carrier. She was quite the sight!