Like I have time for this...

I will post the Santa photos in the next day or two (or so- by New Years for sure) and photos from last nights crazy Pajama Party but in the meantime- despite the fact I have presents to wrap, work to do and a house to put back together following the aforementioned pajama party- I did this instead

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Happy First Birthday K

On November 22, K turned one. It is hard to believe that she is one already. She has grown so much since she came home- she has gained about 4.5 pounds and 3 sizes of clothing. She has enough hair to put into 4 "poofs" and she can sit up alone, roll from her back to her front (which makes diaper changes much more interesting) and crawl (although I use the word loosely) backward. She is starting to be able to go from sitting to on her belly- but she hates that cause then she is stuck. She has no idea how to reverse the process. Now I know many of these things are things younger babies can do- but they represent how much she really is growing. Of course, what you really want to see is photos so....





This is MY paper! (someone should really tell her that the wrapping paper is NOT the best part of the present. Of course, her defending her paper stash made it much easier for D to get away with taking the actual present to play with)



I know something good is about to happen....




Oh pretty flame- let me touch it. And what are you all singing about???



Well- maybe this will be fun...







It's all fun and games till somebody gets cake in their mouth
(have we mentioned that we are working on some huge feeding issues....)

The Halloween photos (I actually got them posted before Thanksgiving even)

The kids worked hard to get the "guts" out of the pumpkins so we can carve them- but I am not sure they look like they are having much fun.









It's not every year our pumpkins make a political statement- but B was pretty proud of his Obama pumpkin


How cute are these little trick or treaters. We tried to get A to be a zoo keeper or vet since we had a mouse, cat and monkey- but Stars Wars won out and he was Anakin Skywalker.









D really loved the "gimme candy" aspect of trick or treating but really didn't like the "older kids in scary masks whose parents didn't teach them that it isn't okay to scare toddlers" aspect of the evening. At one point they were across the street when an older kid came by in one of those "scream" masks that bleeds and he scared her (he also had just tried to scare X on purpose so he was kind of lucky he wasn't bleeding for real) You could hear her screams of terror across the street. But the desire for candy won out over abject terror and back off they went.

Finally they returned to spend the rest of the evening trick or treating out of our own candy buckets

My first attempt to "do hair"

How do people do these fancy styles on these little tiny heads. Heads that, I might add, don't stop moving the whole time you are trying to work. Add to that the screaming as if I am tearing her hair out and I think I have a lot to learn. But between the screaming and wiggling and my total cluelessness- I think it turned out kind of cute







Coming soon (maybe tomorrow???) Photos from Halloween.
Yeah Yeah- better late than never

A Witness to History

We have witnessed the election of the first African American president. And while two of my kids can't (at least now) become president, they can see that a person who is brown like they are can be President of the United States. That positions of power are no longer held exclusively by White men. It gives me hope that eventually all people will be judged, in the words of Martin Luther King Jr, not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. What an amazing day yesterday was. We rejoiced at every state that "turned blue" and watched as the American people chose a leader, not based on the color of his skin, but on the content of his character. People from all walks of life came together to change the course of our nation, Time will tell what that course will be, but I am optimistic that this is the beginning of something remarkable and that Barack Obama will be the one leading our country back to becoming the amazing country we can (and should) be.

In the words of an anonymous man who was a preacher and a slave

"Lord, we ain’t what we want to be; we ain’t what we ought to be; we ain’t what we gonna be; but thank God we ain’t what we was.”

Today we are one step closer to being what we ought to be and today I am truly proud to be an American

Apples and Pumpkins

It is apple picking time around here so we took the kids to the local orchard. They had a blast snacking in the orchard. We aren't sure that K really appreciated it, but next year we figure she'll be munching away with the other kids. The weather was perfect- cool and sunny. I am not sure why X wanted to wear the mittens for apple picking though







The kids then went pumpkin hunting in the field.





The three little kids also got to attend two field trips with my preschool class so they got another visit to the orchard and a different pumpkin patch- we had much cooler weather though so it was time to break out the winter coats. But how cute is K in her coat?? It is too big right now for her (it used to be A's back in the day). K spent the trip riding in the backpack carrier. The week before she discovered that a fun game to play while in the backpack carrier is "pull Mommy's hair" In the winter coat though she couldn't get her fingers out of the mittens on the sleeves so we had a pain free field trip.

Gratuitous Cute Kid Picture

I finally picked up the photos- I think they are well worth the wait