Christmas Time

You know you live in a warm state when your neighbor brings you FIVE chrysalis' to "babysit" while he is gone. Yep he brought them over yesterday, 3 were still caterpillars, and two were bright green chrysalis'. Then we left it unwatched for about 20 minutes and came back and two more had changed into those little green cocoons. Then this evening the fifth decided it was time to go into his little shimmery green house. I will try to capture some pictures of them.

At least Marin and Owen have some snow in their room!

Mornings

Owen likes to eat cereal for breakfast.

The Green Jammies

Some days its just nice to stay in your P.J.'s. Owen likes to stay in his until after preschool drop off some days.

Some Christmas Things

Hey what's under that tree?

Going for a carriage ride to see downtown decorated

Bundle up its chilly...

Preparing the manger for the arrival of Jesus! Each day we add a little straw when we do our advent readings.

Waiting for Daddy to come home, and wishing his vacation started sooner.

Fun Things

I have been sewing again. I made a few things for the kids this weekend...
Owen's monster shirt and Marin some corduroy pants.

And a penguin with a Christmas hat on...

And a rainbow, and they are both tired of me taking pictures

Our little monster giving us his cranky monster face!

Halloween and other events

Marin has read through Pippi Longstockings twice now (well we read it to her, first with me and second with Todd) and has been set on being her for Halloween. She mainly wanted to be her because she's naughty, and gets away with all sorts of things.

Owen was just a chocolate face

Although the day after Halloween he wore his Christmas jammies with fairy wings. So maybe that was his costume? He never can decide, but he does love accessories (wait until you see his monster hat! He of course loves it)

We made a trip to the coast last weekend, it was cold and windy, and they both had runny noses, but we were on a mission to see some old friends.

And you all know I just can never get enough pictures of the kids on boardwalks on their way to the sand.

And this is the monster hat. He loves it, and so do we.

Sing A Song

A good friend of ours gave us this wonderful little toy (which I say with my teeth clinched) its called a "MagicMic". Mic is short for microphone! Yes that pink mic Marin is holding is a MagicMic. Its got a spring in it that makes your voice REALLY LOUD!

The kids sing to each other for HOURS!

Owen sometimes sings alone... If your family does not have one of these you just let me know and I'll make sure you get one. Its a wonderful toy to have... (if you want to loose your mind, and laugh your head off at the same time)

Kids Songs You Will Love

One of my friends posted on her Facebook page that she was looking for new kids music. And I told her what we like. But then I went to YouTube to see if there were any samples of it and guess what, there were... because there always is stuff like that on YouTube. So I wanted to put some of them here for you. Enjoy!






Tricycle by Frances England



also by F.E. Daddy-O one of our very favorites!



Lisa Lob and Elizabeth Mitchell (also check out Little Liza Jane by E.M totally wonderful song)



Katie Herzig sings Forevermore!



Feist sings on Sesame Street!

Of course our daughters current favorite is Wilco's Misunderstood! She sings the "nothin' at all" part at the top of her lungs, and can never get enough of it. The other day she announced she wanted to mail the band a letter to let them know how much she loved the song. I might make her type it on her typewriter if she's serious.

New Walls

Sorry I haven't posted anything in a while. Owning a house that is getting "some" work done is actually a lot of work. So this is what we have: an enclosed garage that was not enclosed properly... seriously Marin could have kicked it down, and the rain tried a few times and got close. So we ripped it out and put in a proper one... well we didn't Rob did, the contractor.

And a new window! Its such a great window. And a great wall. And kids couldn't kick it down, or neighbors I suppose.


This is almost done. You have to wait to see what it looks like with added insulation and blue-board and spackling and paint.

In the meantime Owen got eaten by an alligator,

And he is learning how to eat his own yogurt... he doesn't want any help, none at all!

More to come on the wall and stories from preschool adventures.

A Wagon, a Window, and a Wall

The life and times of Owen, or just one hour of time...

I like looking out the window, standing on books, in a wagon... sometime I wave at the people walking by.


hmmm now I like to turn on the dishwasher... and lug around an empty box with a rope handle

this is a fun game I like to call, find the hidden chalk and draw on the walls...


See here people I am a really good artist... I call this one, "Multi-colored sticks"

then I take a few books out of the wagon and spend some time blowing on a kazoo looking out the window... I'm also keeping an eye on the neighborhood.

Want to know what really upsets Owen?

Owen is wanting more chocolate chips...I would imagine this is how Todd behaved as a baby when he wanted more chocolate chips.

Summer Sleep Over

What is that sticking out from that "tent", are those little toes?

What is that sticking out the top of the "tent"? Is that a hand and red hair?

Oh Marin is having a sleep over, a camping night in her room. Ahhh Summer reading in a tent until you fall asleep. Could there be anything sweeter than reading your self to sleep?

Well he can't read, but he sure is sweet. Little sleepy boy. He decided to stay in his bed he wasn't into sleeping in the tent.

Its always nice to take your blankie where ever you go in case you need to make a tent and take a nap. Owen is in love with his blankie and it does go everywhere with him.

We're Back Part 2

Upon arriving home from our vacation we hit the ground running. There was a lot to do...

First on the list: Finalize all parts for buying the home we have been renting for the past two years. Yes I said we are buying our house. We are now home owners! Whoo! It has been a long journey, and a lot of work for Todd (who did all the paperwork).

Second: we found a swing set. It had been loved by another family here in town and they were moving and it needed a new home. Some of our friends with a trailer showed up and took it apart,

and brought it over to our house and set it up!
It was quite possibly one of the most humid day of the month. It had just rained and our back yard-o-mulch holds in the moisture. Seriously the humidity was so thick you could feel it in your lungs when you were breathing. But...
They continued on...
And finished every last detail! And we now have the most wonderful back yard we could have ever imagined.
Thanks guys! We love it, and use it every day, many times a day. In fact we had lunch in the tower yesterday. We also must thank all our grandparents and great grandparents for all the gift money for the kids (Christmas, birthdays...) we have been saving and finally spent on this wonderful swing set. Thank you! Did I say that we love it?

After we finished our paperwork for buying the house and moved and installed the swing set, Vacation Bible School started up at our church. What? Yes it was next, and in the middle of VBS we closed on our house... and yeah it worked.

Thanks everyone for your prayers, advice, and input.

And We're Back part 1

...and we're back! Whew we might be finally catching our breath, maybe. Let us catch you up.
We went back to the Midwest to visit Grandma and Grandpa. They took us to creeks...
Taught us how to catch crawdads, float down the stream, and swing off a rope.
We had snacks on the banks and threw rocks into the water.
We got to visit some best buddies. Owen and J are only a few weeks apart. Its so fun to have little friends to play with on vacation.
Marin and JB loved seeing each other again and played all afternoon.
We spent the Fourth there celebrating with Grandpa Tim who shot off lots of good fireworks and let Marin pick out every one that was next. And Marin got to do sparklers for the first time!
Yeah for the 4th of July! Yeah for Grandma and Grandpa! We miss you so much and can't wait to see you in October!


We also visited Joplin, where the Tornado hit a few months back. It was sad, shocking, and indescribable - the damage that a single tornado can make. It looks like everything was thrown into a blender, or that there was a war there.
The building you see in the background on the left is the hospital that was destroyed. Normally from this neighborhood you would not be able to see the hospital because of the houses and trees. But because most everything was leveled you can now see right through the neighborhoods all the way to the hospital.

We heard so many stories of how people in the surrounding areas jumped in and cared for their neighbors in Joplin, how the farmers brought in their trucks and tractors and cleaned up the streets before FEMA even got there. How neighbors would dig their way out of the rubble and not run for safety but run to the house next door and start digging out their neighbor. The courage and bravery, the tears for all the loss is almost too much to understand.