Bessie

I've been sewing nativity costumes with fabric that belonged to Aunt Bessie. It has made me think of all the Christmases we spent with her.

On Christmas Eve we kids excitedly waited for her to come to stay. It seemed like she would never come. When she did, Christmas officially began. She often slept in my room which really felt like an honor. Socks, Santa, gifts all waited until Bessie had her morning shower. (She didn't always run on kid time which just intensified the anticipation.) She would join us in her shower cap and give us all kinds of love and attention with each present we opened. She brought ties for the boys, perfume gift packs for Mom and I, and Brut for Dad. Every year. Remember that? 

She made my childhood Christmas. Later came Uncle George and Grandma Rimington who made it even better.

I miss them.

Merry Christmas.

Laundry and Pie

We hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving. We sure did. We had some friends over. And, of course, we stuffed ourselves. We cooked a local, free-range, Kentucky Tom turkey. And boy was he delicious!

The pies were delicious too. Ethan made the pumpkins all on his own. (He's been practicing for weeks now. We've been eating a lot of pumpkin pie lately.)

Addie helped with the apple. She did a great job! It is fun to have help in the kitchen.

And Owen tried to get in on the action, or at least get some scraps thrown his way. 

Some of you have been asking for picture of our new house. And I would be happy to oblige if I felt we were settled in. But with boxes still in our bedroom and the card table set up in the dining room, it really isn't worth taking pictures yet. 

We've been working hard to get shelving in all the closets. We opted to do this ourselves because we knew we could do it better, and for much less than the contractor would charge. It is taking more time than we had hoped.

But the laundry room is done. And I love it.

It was empty of cupboards and shelves when we moved in, except for this sink which was a lot less dirty at the time. The sink has been moved into Randal's work area in the basement. And as you can see by its filthiness, he has been busy!

To keep cost down, we used the unfinished cabinets from Lowe's and painted them gray. The only thing missing on them is some crown moulding. Randal and I are in a great debate over that. I think it would be a nice touch. Randal says only if it's free, because it's a laundry room for heaven's sake. 

I'm biding my time until I can wear him down or the mouldings do, in fact, get marked down to nothing. 

Randal built this unit. We so indelicately call these "crap baskets". They are used for things like keys, hats, gloves, stuff like that. They are working out well. 

Except they were meant to eliminate the need for this embarrassing display in our kitchen. But the only time this counter has been 100% clear was Thanksgiving Day. And that is because we threw it all into a box and stuffed it aways in the office until our guests left. I'm working on it, but trust me when I say, IT. IS. A. DAILY. STRUGGLE.

Enough about laundry and junk, just look at our adorable, chubby princess. We are trying to get things done around here, but this little guy and his two siblings are making it difficult. We'd much rather be spending the time with them.

Fun to be One

These are a little past-due, but should not be forgotten. Owen is such a lovable one-year-old. He has taken his first few steps and will likely be walking by Christmas. Speaking of Christmas, I hear him terrorizing the tree. Just a minute...

Where was I?...

Owen loves to haul around socks (usually in his mouth like a baby kitten). He finds socks anywhere. We've had to retrain everyone to not leave dirty ones lying around because he will find them. And put them in his mouth. You're disgusted, I know. I was too until I found him eating a lady bug.  

Owen likes to be silly. When he's trying to be funny he laughs like George Bush. And when he "talks" we see he is trying to tell us the most interesting stories. It comes out as gibberish, but we know his little mind has tales to tell. 

I think it may be time to cut the curls. He is mistaken for a girl more often now. I don't really want to cut them. I know he will look less like a baby when we do. Plus, I like them. But I may not have a choice, I don't think I will be able to distract Randal from finding the hair-cutting scissors much longer. 

And this is the final photo of Owen's big year.

If he could talk, the picture makes me think he would say, "Peace, out!"

Halloween

We kicked off Halloween a little early this year with Ethan's Entrepreneur Fair at school. He worked hard with his friend to promote his booth and earn business. It was a fun family activity to attend and a great learning experience for the 5th graders. It has, however, fueled his dream of starting a business. He has been passing out flyers down the street for his new leaf raking business. (I hope someone hires him. It would make his year.)

Ethan trick-or-treated with a friend. It felt strange not having him around that evening. But boy did he clean up without us slow-pokes dragging him down--loads of candy, full-size candy bars, and even cold, hard cash. He was in heaven. And I am in h-e-double-hockey-sticks because now it is all here staring me in the face, and I want to eat it. 

Trick-or-treating was actually postponed by the city until the following day because of bad weather. it felt weird because I've always considered trick-or-treating a spontaneous activity and not one that is "organized". But it was great because the weather on November 1 was beautiful. Addie was thrilled she didn't even have to wear a coat over her Jesse costume.

And here are a couple more pictures. One of the kids playing "poker" in a made-up candy exchange game:

And one of our Chunky Monkey:

Now that Halloween is over we can now enjoy the pleasure of listening to Christmas music wherever we go. Let the games begin!

What? Thanksgiving?

Never heard of it.

Be Not Moved

In YW we recently tried to recreate the poster of the 2013 youth theme: Stand Ye in Holy Places. 

After the girls posed for individual pictures, they had fun making other silhouettes. Here are a few of my favorites:

It turned out to be a very successful activity. 

One Wonderful Year

Owen turned one yesterday! One whole year. One. It flew by. 

I couldn't get really great pictures. The sun was glaring through our blind-less windows. (I really need to make a decision and do something about that. Our neighbors are probably getting tired of the peep show.) Not to mention this kid DOES NOT COOPERATE for the camera. All four of us are practically standing on our heads to get this mild expression. He really is quite a smiley boy normally. 

The kids chose what his cake would be. They helped in the decorating too. He loves the book A Very Hungry Caterpillar so they thought it fitting.

Ethan and Addie made cards. This is Addie reading her card to him. It was so sweet.  

Her card said: Dear Owen, Happy first birthday to you! I know it's exciting to have your first birthday today on the eighth of October. I just want to tell you something that I love you very much and that everyday I love you more and more. I just want you to grow up...I want to see how cute you'll be...Love, Adelaide

Ethan's was a poem: 

To my favorite bubby

who is also kinda chubby

His birthday is October 8

So that means it will be GREAT

Can you guess who's grandpa's name is Ken?

Why of course, it's OWEN!

And then there was cake. The bib he is wearing is also a birthday gift. Addie spent her own money on it. She skipped by the toys and chose it because he would not be able to pull it off like he does his others. (Smile)

One year. I wanted to cry the entire day. I didn't. But if I had, they would have been happy tears, not sad. We just love him so much and are so glad he is a part of our family. 

September

September came and went. I keep vowing to post more frequently, then break my promise. So to my very few, yet very important viewers, I apologize. 

Our baby was eleven months in September. He became more and more of a lovable little pill with every single day. 

Owen and I took an impromptu trip to New York to join Randal on a business trip. We met up with a number of good friends, drove by our old house, shopped at our favorite grocery store (Wegmans) and embarrassed Randal by bringing a case of spaghetti sauce home on the company plane, in front of his boss. We had a great time. 

We picked apples and pears. Tons actually.

I'm not exaggerating. The kids are picking machines. We did pick tons. I had to bottle them all week last week as a result. We're set for a while. Trust me. 

And how this kids managed to be covered in glitter at an apple orchard I'll never know. The nut.

The Lake and BBQ

Labor Day weekend we did some camping. In a tent. Of which was off limits while Owen napped. So Ethan improvised:

It was blasted hot. And humid. So the lake was a welcome relief. 

And we proved once again we have a baby prodigy...one who can swim.

Just kidding.

No one around us started fires. It was that hot. But we would have starved without one. (We are not as equipped as the RV-ing crowd.) The smores more than made up for the extra degrees. 

Look at what the humidity does to Owen's hair. So cute. He did awesome camping. He ate more sticks and grass than I cared for him to eat, but after a while I gave up. If it was organic material I stopped fighting it. 

This weekend we decided to brave the heat again and hit up the BBQ festival.

Delicious.

And we met a bona fide Pitmaster champion: Melissa Cookston. 

After plunking down a significant bit of change on BBQ, we let the kids empty our pockets on an activity of their choice. Addie chose some crafting. 

Ethan chose some jumping.

And then he tried to talk me into bringing a puppy home from the Humane Society booth. Randal even did a little nudging... 

...I mean look at them...

...how cold does one have to be to deny a boy of a dog?... 

...But I resisted...

Bet you thought for a second there the two of them talked me into it.

Nope. I'm a jerk. 

August End

School Started.

A couple of weeks ago, actually.

The kids are off to a great start. Ethan is a fifth grader. Addie is in second. Even still, Addie carefully sets out her school clothes the night before, right down to the underwear. Ethan, I keep reminding that the pants with the holes in the knee are no longer for school. Boys and girls are so different that way.

And Owen is 10 months. I'm late posting because I'm too busy chasing this little guy around. He is crawling now. And he's already into a ton of trouble. (I think Randal and I are in for it.)

Coaxing him to "pose" is next to impossible. Trying to get a decent picture mostly looked like this:

And a little like this:

So this was the best I could do:

 

It's just Owen and I most of the day now. He misses the kids. But he busies himself opening drawers and putting anything in his mouth he can manage. He claps a lot, and waves occasionally. Baths are still his favorite time of day. And, of course, the kid can eat. He eats just about everything we put in front of him which is so unlike our other two. We're so amazed we keep sticking strange things on his plate just to see what he'll do. And mostly he eats it all up.   

I sure love these kids!