The Smirk

My constipated Claire finally went #2 on the toilet without me even asking

or reminding her too.

 Then she took a lovely nap and hugged me all throughout dinner while telling me 

that I was the 'best mom ever.' 

It's days like this that being a mother is brilliant!

Christian took us to Barnes and Noble after dinner for some

 Godiva hot chocolate with delicious whipped cream.

 Seeing my two girls sitting on their knees on the bar chairs

in the café blowing bubbles into their hot chocolate was precious.

Afterward, I followed Claire as she wandered around the whole children's

book section, telling me she wanted everything for Christmas.

Santa better have a lot of money and a big sack for all this loot.

As we started driving off out of the parking lot, I looked back

to see my children settling into their car seats.

Claire's face was hiding behind a book.

 An unfamiliar book.

 I turned on the light in the car and noticed that this

 unfamiliar book was, in fact, very UNFAMILIAR…and maybe even stolen?

I lowered the book in front of Claire's face,

  and she looked at me with a suspicious smirk.

Her facial expressions showed a mix of 

I got away with taking this book from Barnes and Noble, 

and with my adorable face, 

I didn't get caught—not even by my own folks.

And, 

I know taking the book is wrong, but I really want it.

As Christian took the book back into the store, 

Claire, in all her dramatics, yelled:

"Santa Claus will give it to me; you'll see!!"

He's mean! Kind of.

Last Spring, Christian went on a business trip to Atlanta 

and I was alone with the kids. 

I was nervous to be alone especially since we were having such

 terrible rainy and gloomy weather.

I don’t sleep well without Christian, and its never fun to be alone

 during such horror movie weather conditions. 

At one point the wind blew so hard it sounded like

creepy man ghosts right outside my door...really!

Before Christian left, we got our dog, Jimmy, a nice little cushion

to put in our room so I wouldn't be alone on those terrifying, lonely nights.

It was nice, and I did sleep much better knowing 

my gigantic, mean, ferocious dog was on high alert in our

 room ready to pounce on anything or anyone if duty calls.

In reality, our slightly overweight lazy Jimmy dog took to the cushion and became

even more lazy and unaware of anything or anyone unless it was a wrapper crinkle

or the sound of the refrigerator door opening.

Meet the newest member of the family!

Today we got ourselves a new (old) car.

Almost our entire five years of marriage we have (for the most part),

 been a one-car family. 

  Christian has been taking our car to work each morning.  

And it's been working fine.

I don't really need the car since we go on lots of walks

 and there are parks nearby.

But this winter might be a different story- especially since we've 

added a new child to our family.

 Before we committed to buying another car, we weighed 

and experimented with our options,

I could take Christian to work at 7:00 every morning—hauling the kids as well.

We tried that for a few mornings and that was

NOT fun (especially on those super cold winter mornings). 

So we researched and found this lil beauty in Pennsylvania.

 We are excited about the dual moon roofs, leather seats,

 and space for more kids! 

 (That’s not an announcement!)

The Cement Goose

Our neighbor, Stanley (with the cement goose on his porch) 

looked a little confused this morning as the girls and I 

watched him undress her from her Halloween witch

 costume and into a Thanksgiving pilgrim costume. 

He placed a hat on top of gooses' head and stood back and examined. 

Something didn’t look right.

He placed his hand to his chin and circled goose. 

Then he snapped his fingers and called for his wife, Adele.

Adele came out on the porch and with one look you could tell she was not happy.

She threw her arms up in the air, undressed goose,

 and went back inside with Stanley following close behind.

The girls and I looked at each other.

Now what?

I went into the kitchen to clean up breakfast when Jane yelled my name.

I ran back into the living room and watched as Adele came outside with 

a different Thanksgiving costume for goose. 

Stanley assisted Adele with this momentous occasion.

Minutes later they both stepped back reveling

a darling Pocahontas with feathers and braids.

The girls and I clapped (Ollie did too, except he didn't know why).

I then realized that goose has multiple costumes for each month;

pumpkin AND witch for Halloween.

Uncle Sam AND Lady Liberty for the 4th of July.

Santa Claus AND Angel for Christmas, and now Pocahontas

AND pilgrim for Thanksgiving.

It is so fun watching her change each month and 

even more, fun sneaking over to the neighbor's house to take photos.

Halloween aftermath.

When Halloween was all said and done

 and the night came to a close we examined the damage. 

 Two colossal size bags full of treats, and a rather large bowl of leftover candy 

that we had passed out to trick-or-treaters sat on our kitchen table. 

It was so much junk I was so unsure what do with it all

so I did what any normal mother would do;

 I ate a few crunch bars (and 3 Snickers) and dumped the rest.

The night was a hit, and the girls loved wearing their butterfly 

costumes running from house to house collecting their loot!

It was the cutest thing I ever did see.

Oliver who was dressed up like a mushroom roughly made it to three houses 

before his night came to a haunting halt.

 He was out like a zombie.

It was WAY past his bedtime.

Each house we came to Claire would say to us:

“Mom and Dad we can do this, we don’t need you following us.”

Claire (of course) did all the talking on the front steps 

and people thought my kids were so dang cute which then

prompted them to become even more generous with the candy.

Pretty soon just after a few houses, the sacks were too full to carry on.

I'm glad Christian was with us.