Goin' to Carolina in my mind...

Hey Ya'll. So a few weeks ago we took a fabulous (though entirely too short) trip to NC, and here's a musical version of what happened. Enjoy.
Miss Susy had a baby. She named her baby Claire.


Butterfly in the sky. I can fly twice as high... (at the NC Museum of Life and Science!)




Everybody do the dinosaur.






Ridin' that train. High on... life and science!






I scream, you scream, we all scream for Sunni Sky's ice cream!






Lying in the (grass) you found me, you found me...






We are family!








The End. (applause.)

Holly enters a Yevgeny Plushenko look-a-like contest

Ok, she didn't really. But she could. She would totally win. She cut her hair and now looks unfortunately like a certain spoiled Russian male figure skater. I am devistated. I let Holly have some safety scissors to cut up a piece of paper and I stupidly went upstairs to fold clothes. When I came downstairs I found this.
If you hadn't noticed her hair use to be cut into an ADORABLE bob cut. Now....well, it's not. See for yourself.

So, I accidentally stole a dog...

We live out in the country and as we were driving home from dropping Sophia off at preschool, Holly and I noticed a dog running around all over the place. He was running across a field, then down a side road, and finally through someones yard. I decided to stop because I always feel bad for strays and this one was obviously someones pet at one point. I pulled over, got out, and called to the dog. He ran back across the yard to me and jumped up all excited. The little guy had a collar but no tag and was pretty dirty. So we decided to take him with us, clean him up, and give him some food. I went to the store and bought some dog food and dog shampoo. Brought him in and gave him a bath, then made him a doggie bed in the garage with some fuzzy blankets. We took some pictures and made up a flier that we planned to post around in the countryside near where we found him. He was a really sweet dog and Holly was having a BLAST taking care of him, even though she's allergic. I just kept making her come inside and wash her hands and that seemed to help her not get a rash. Eventually we went and picked up Sophia from preschool who was equally excited about taking care of her new dog, Gabriella (no amount of saying, "but this is a boy, not a girl" could change her mind on the name). Then that evening after dinner we drove down the road and decided to stop at the houses near where we found him to ask if anyone recognized him. Our first stop was the house that was in the yard that we picked him up from. Yeah, he was theirs and, no, I didn't tell the people that we "saved" him from their front yard. Shhh... it'll be our secret! :)

Also, here's the picture we took of the girls with Santa. We're pretty sure Lucy's freakin out about the guys eyebrows. Enjoy!

New pictures, New paint, and Pneumonia

Ok, so it's been forever since I've blog. Thus, I have about a zillion things I need to put up here. We'll start with the girls new photos. We had these taken in September and just got them. I LOVE them!!! Here there are.






There are a few others, but I couldn't get them in here right side up instead of sideways. Not sure what that's about. Anyways, yes we LOVE them!!!
That same week we got to see my little brother, John, and his wife, Amanda, and their daughter, Abby, while they were on their move from Idaho to North Carolina. We had a great visit and are so glad to have them back east of the Mississippi!


A few weeks later I got to go down to NC with the girls to visit our family and friends there. We had a great time! We got to visit some old friends at a baby shower, attend the Relief Society General Broadcast with my mom, my 2 sisters, and one of my sister in laws, watch all the sessions of General Conference, and visit with other good friends during that week. In case you didn't know, my sister Heather is a fabulous seamstress and whipped up these cute little bags for Sophia and Holly while we were there. She sells lots of her bags and things on Etsy and I follow her blog, too. Super cute! All in all it was a much needed southern soaking.



One of the perks, however, of living above the Mason-Dixon line are the beautiful colors you see on the trees everywhere you go. These are the trees in our front yard. Beautiful! I love it!!



So, it was Halloween this past week! We had several days of celebration with preschool party's, church trunk or treating, trick or treating in town, and a MOPS playgroup party. Here are a few pictures of the girls eating the banana "ghosts" we made for the playgroup party (allergy free! just bananas, raisins, and popsicle sticks!), and dressed up for trick or treating as Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, and a baby fairy. And just in case you ever wonder what Halloween is like for a kid with food allergies, I took a picture of all of Holly's Halloween loot and then another one with it divided into "allergic" and "not allergic" piles. :( You'll notice most of the really yummy stuff is on the left/allergic side. (Also, remember that she's not allergic to dairy anymore or the pile would be even smaller and contain no chocolate.) :(





And lastly, I am currently recoving from a fabulous case of pneumonia, which is pretty much just as awesome as it sounds. I'd never had pneumonia before. It was freaky. It felt like a carnival worker was sitting on my chest and everyday he got fatter and fatter and I could breath less and less. It sucks. Literally. One of the reasons I think I kept getting worse instead of better for so long is that I didn't know what was wrong with me and decided just to keep going like nothing was wrong. So I painted our front door red. It didn't help the pneumonia, but I think it definately helped our homes aesthetic. Here are before and after photos. Likey or no likey? Should I paint the 2 side thingys, too? Let me know what you think.

Big day of firsts

A few weeks ago as I was filling out the necessary forms for Sophia to start preschool I got really teary-eyed. I can't believe she's going to school. Not that she isn't ready (She's more then ready.) I can't believe she's gotten so big. I know she's as tall as a 6 year old, but she's still only 4 1/2! But now a days (I say that like I'm 100) all the kids start sooner than that. There's a little girl just her age in her class who's been there for 2 years already.
We're only sending her for 3 hours on 3 days a week and I still feel weird about having her gone from me for such a long time during the day. Crazy. But the ladies at her school are vigilant about keeping the kids safe and know that only Travis or I are allowed to pick her up. So that makes me feel better.
Well, she loved every minute of it and can't wait to go back.

Here she is posing before we left this morning. (she picked the clothes out herself the night before.)

Walking hand in hand with Daddy up to school.

Hanging up her school bag on the hook for the first time.

Her smile just before she walks into her classroom.

Holly's face when she realizes (even though we explained it many times!) that only Sophia was going to school and she couldn't stay too.

Holly, later on, before going to her first tumbling class.

So we had a busy day! A big day of firsts. And ready to do it all over again tomorrow. :)