It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas!

Thought I'd throw in some photos to reflect our Christmas Spirit. Love this time of year.

Lila Kate was amazed by the prickly greenness of the tree.

Not quite Martha Stewart, but I'm trying.

Gotta decorate some Christmas cookies...

Audrey's decorating energy did not stop at the tree...

Even the baby got tagged with The Spirit of the Season.

First time either of us has made a gingerbread house. An overrated experience in my opinion (Audrey would disagree). Too tedious and complicated for me!

Most of the decorations on our tree are concentrated on the lower section, about 2 feet off the ground. Anyone wonder why??

Workshop project update

A few more pictures of the workshop/storage building progress. It's actually got all the doors and windows, as well as the shingles, on now and is currently storing stuff!! Yay!

The littlest helper observing the action.


Just had to throw in one to show that I'm not afraid of a power tool. :)



We were so fortunate to have a client-friend of Fred's volunteer his time to place some limestone steps leading from the driveway up to the workshop. He is a landscaper who does beautiful work, and his wife runs a therapy riding program for disabled children. Fred has had the awesome privilege of working on some of her horses at the vet school. They are two very special people who are a blessing to know. Check out http://www.story-book-farm.org/ to find out about the "Hope on Horseback" program. You'll be glad you did. If you're ever looking to donate money to a worthwhile program, keep this one in mind. Anyway, we are so grateful for their kindness in helping us with our project.

Still got a ways to go (putting up the trim, staining, painting the door, bringing the siding down closer to the ground, landscaping, etc.), but the hard stuff is pretty much done!

Quote of the Day

"I'm gonna go tee-tee 'cause I've got a bladder in me."

Beauty is within...or whatever

So today I had an opportunity to bestow wisdom upon my elder daughter.

It went...not so well.

At one point during the course of our day, Audrey emerged from her room decked out in her princess dress, "clip-clop" shoes and tiara. She had glittery polished nails and was wearing every piece of play jewelry she owns.

The life lesson attempt played out as follows:

Audrey: Mommy, do I look bee-yewtiful??
Me: Of course you do, honey. You are beautiful even without all that stuff.
Audrey: What you say?
Me: You are beautiful all by yourself. (Audrey looks puzzled)
It's not what people wear or how they look that makes them beautiful; it's how good and kind they are. You are beautiful because you are sweet, caring, and you share a lot.
Audrey: Ha Ha, you are kidding, Mommy!
Me: No, I'm not, honey. (I proceed to repeat something along the same lines about having a good heart and blah blah blah. The topic then drops and Audrey begins to adorn her fingers with rings, piling all of them upon one hand).

A few minutes later she holds her hands out for inspection:

Audrey: Mommy, which hand is prettier?
Me: I think BOTH hands are lovely, with or without rings.
Audrey: Oh, okay
Me: (thinking to myself) Hey, she's sort of getting it!

She walks away, and I hear her mumble quietly to herself...
"it's because BOTH hands are polished."

Oh, never mind.

Construction Zone

After three years in this house, we finally got around to creating a storage building/workshop (a.k.a. Fred's Man Box). It is high time we had a place to store some of the junk that's been accumulating in our attic, under the house, and out in the carport. Yes, I know a wiser move would be to simply cull our belongings, but we really want to get started on creating an insurmountable mass of paraphernalia for our children to have to sort through many years from now when we are gone. (Isn't that what parents are supposed to do?)

After many hours of planning, measuring, figuring and visualizing what he wanted, Fred took last week off work to hit this project hard, and his parents came down to assist. They were a tremendous help, and I can't believe the progress that has been made. Thanks, Mom and Dad Caldwell! Here are some of the pictures of the project thus far.




Beer girl, reporting for duty

Little helper

Raising the back wall

That's me and my parents-in-law nailing studs to the top plate of the front wall

Handyman Freddie

Doo-Rag Darlings

Steeplechase at Callaway Gardens

We went to a Steeplechase a couple of weeks ago and had a good time. In case you're wondering what steeplechasing is, it "includes the thrills and speed of Thoroughbred racing at flat tracks. It mixes in the precision of jumping to create a hybrid—like hurdle events in track and field—where the premium is on speed, but the concern is focused squarely on the jumps." (I took that from the website).

We stopped at a BBQ stand for lunch and discovered this sight...an old Pinto resurrected as a grill. Ha! Made some yummy food, though.

Audrey enjoyed a pony ride. It was one of those where the poor ponies look bored to death and walk in painfully s-l-o-w circles for what seems like hours. Audrey, however, must have thought it was quite exhilarating. As her little pony circled round to us at 1/2 mph for the 453rd time, she exclaimed with a huge grin on her face, "I'm going WILD!!!"

Also entertaining were the Jack Russell Terrier races. Those little guys don't mess around!

Lots of fun. Hope to catch it again next year.

Comments

A few of you have mentioned not being able to leave comments without being a registered user, so I changed my settings and anyone should be able to leave comments now. As long as inappropriate messages from random, anonymous people don't start popping up, I'll leave it that way. And thanks for taking the time to leave little notes. I really like reading them!
I'm trying to organize some pictures from the last couple of weeks, so keep checking in. I'll update soon.

Trick or Treat

For some reason unbeknownst to us, our town decided to make the day before Halloween the "official" day for trick or treating this year. Audrey decided she wanted to be a cat... or a princess...or a cat...or a princess...or... Finally she settled on cat, which was great - I already had the necessary articles on hand since she did the feline thing three Halloweens ago. (Actually, the cat ears were part of a costume that I wore several years ago. The rest of that costume, however, was not appropriate for a child of three to wear, so this time we had to make do with a black turtleneck and pants. :P )
Lila, of course, had no say in what she would be stuffed into for the occasion. On Halloween, babies everywhere are forced to don ridiculous costumes for no other reason than to amuse their parents and, as such, we thought we'd get a kick out of turning her into a chili pepper. As you can see, she was a very large, very tightly encased chili pepper. I bought the costume before she was born, and unfortunately (for her) I couldn't predict at that time that she would become the world's longest infant. Thus, she had prematurely outgrown this particular get-up well before the big event. But that did not stop one determined mom from bending, folding, shoving, cramming and tucking appendages and precious rolls of baby fat inside the garment until all buttons could be fastened. Yes, there were tears in the beginning, but once her lungs became sufficiently compressed from the pressure of the suit, the crying ceased and we were able to snap a few pictures. The length of time it took to take those photos is exactly how long Lila's first Halloween lasted. As soon as she was extricated from the offending pepper and circulation had returned to her fingers and toes, she hit the sack.

That left Audrey and me to hop on the neighborhood hay wagon for some hard-core T or T'ing while Fred stayed behind to dole out candy to the other trick-or-treaters. Audrey scored some serious junk that night, and to ensure her good health and the integrity of her teeth, Fred and I have been eating much of the chocolate and chewy stuff for her. Parenting is very tough but you do what you gotta do for the well-being of your children, right?

So that night, after washing cat whiskers off and pulling on pajamas, we told Audrey she could have one piece of candy before going to bed. Inside her loaded down plastic pumpkin bucket were Reese's peanut butter cups, full-size Baby Ruth candy bars, Snickers, M&Ms, bubblegum, Blow-Pops, and the like. With all that "good stuff" to choose from, my sweet little girl dug and dug until she pulled out a tiny, pinky-sized Tootsie Roll and said quietly, "I would like to eat this, I think."

Jack 'o Lantern

Well, here is my attempt at a free-hand pumpkin carving. Not bad, eh? Audrey supervised the process (meaning, she refused to pull up her sleeves and help dig out the pumpkin guts). Will have more pics after trick-or-treating.

The Butterflies Emerge

Two out of five of our butterflies have exited their chrysalides, and it looks like another one is on his way out. They will just hang out for a couple of hours, pumping their wings until they get blood circulating in them. Then they'll probably be ready to eat. We'll mix up some sugar water and soak some tissues in it. They will then extract the nectar from the tissues. This has been a really cool thing to see. Nature is fascinating.