Some pictures...finally!

When I decided (or rather, was pulled...kicking and screaming) to take some time off of blogging, I had no idea how much I would miss my bloggity friends! But I had gotten to a point where I really needed to take some time off and focus on some things a little closer to home.

But now, as promised and long-overdue, I wanted to share some pictures with you all of our trip down to my parent's house in Tennessee right after Christmas:

This is Bonnie, one of their Morabs. She was so gentle with all the kids. Ben took a little time to get to know her before taking a ride in the barn. Lily took the next turn, with her Pop staying close beside her just in case:



Then came Kate's turn. We were all a little worried that she would be scared, but it turned out we had the opposite problem. We couldn't get her off. She would have ridden all day if we would have let her:

For those of you familiar with Kate's "outfits," you might notice she has on a dress over jeans...that's my girl. I'm not sure who was having more fun, Kate or Pop...

When Kate finally got distracted by the barn cats, Ben and Lily got the chance to get one more ride in before heading back to Nana's house:

(Mommy managed to sneak in a quick ride too, but it was feeding time, and Bonnie let me know in no uncertain terms that she was more interested in the food than hauling me around!)

I think she just called me old!

This is such the season to be busy! I really wanted to share some recent pictures, but because of a shortage of time (and brain power) I will send another kid funny your way.

Yesterday, Kate crawled in bed with us earlier than usual. I decided to go cuddle up on the couch with her so that we could watch cartoons together until everyone else woke up. We both pulled a white blanket up to our chins, and she turned around and laughed and said, "Mommy! You look like Abraham!"

And it's a good possibility that I'll be as old as Abraham before everything is ready for Christmas here. We've had our tree up for several days, but we still haven't decorated it. I'm not finished Christmas shopping yet, although I did get quite a bit of it finished yesterday. I've got to get on the ball!

Back In the Saddle Again

The past month has been an absolute whirlwind here! I thought I'd ease back into the blogosphere with a kid funny for you.

Just before Thanksgiving, we traveled to Indianapolis to visit with Jonathan's family. Ben and Lily were killing time in the backseat and decided to entertain themselves with a game of rock, paper, scissors. Things went well for a while until they both chose scissors. Lily stared down at their hands for a second, looked up at Ben and said, "Well....mine are sharper."

Sibling rivalry at its finest.

Before and After Pictures

Before wrestling with Ben:



After wrestling with Ben:

Lily finally lost her first tooth! It had been loose for weeks, and the new tooth had come in behind it. We visited the dentist to get things checked out, and he told us not to worry, that the baby tooth would fall out very soon. Looks like he was right!

Our sidewalk

It was a perfect fall day yesterday, so the kids decided to do a little outdoor decorating to welcome our friends John and Kim, who were coming down for the weekend. Lily first wrote "welcome" at the end of the sidewalk, and then added their names. She and Kate quickly decided that wasn't enough, so they started adding everyone else's names too.

Ben was much less thrilled with the artistic process.

I'm glad I got pictures of it all, because the rain has now washed it away! I suppose that just means a fresh canvas for the next time.