The One With A LOT of Pictures ...

...and not a whole lot of words.

Sunday was officially family picture day here in B Manor. So, we set out to the park with our sweet friend Erica and let her work her magic with the camera.

Here are some of the treasures that she captured for us:

Some of the whole family (minus the boys ... we wish they could've been here!)



Some of our sweet Hattie girl





And some of our Sophie love






Some of both of them


And some just for fun


And finally, my second favorite of them all ...


... We're using my VERY favorite for Christmas cards, so you'll have to wait to see that one!!

Thank you sweet Erica for capturing these loves of mine so very well!!!

Project 365 - Week 46

Another week down, another week closer to Christmas.

Am I the only one who is FREAKING OUT over that little fact?

OK, moving on ... here is our week!


Sunday - I had made a comment on Facebook that we, er... I mean the girls, had not gotten one single grape tootsie roll pop and how sad that made me. And then some sweet church friends saved the day by sharing theirs ... THIS is what Halloween is all about!!


Monday - I was cleaning out Sophie's car seat and put her in it to be sure I got the straps back in correctly. She thought that being in her car seat in the kitchen was SO funny! I just love that sweet funny face!


Tuesday - It was a super cold morning as Hubbs was leaving for work. I took this of him scraping the windows. It turned out darker than I wanted but I love the effect of the sun through the water vapor from the muffler.


Wednesday - It was another cold morning and I hadn't planned on taking another picture ... til this happened :)


Thursday - I was trying to take a self portrait of my new short hair and for new profile pics. This is what happens when you let me loose on picnik.com with the editing tools! This was the original.


This is after I played a bit ... I like the bright effect but no one else was too sure about it...


So we went to this effect ... Which one do YOU like?!


Friday - Hubs and I had a date night and went to the movies ... where I (shhhhh, don't tell) broke out the cell phone for a pic of the day.


Saturday ... Yeah, it's another cell phone pic. But, how cute ore those two sweet tushies?!?!?!

Hop on over to Sara's place if you would like to join us!!

And, how was YOUR week?

Gotta Love Christmas!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

And, because I couldn't choose, you get a second!!!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Project 365 - Week 45

Once again I am behind in this project ...

Because once again I lost a whole slew of pictures.

Yeah ... it stinks ...

BUT, I think I have figured out the problem (some of the settings on my laptop were skewed and I hadn't realized it) and fixed it, so HOPEFULLY, it will not happen again.

In the mean time, here is what I have managed to save - and I THINK they are in order ... who knows.

Anyway, here is our life ...


Day 213 - Fall color ... one of the best things about living here in the frozen tundra!!

Day 214 - (This is a total cheat because I did NOT take this picture, but how cute is my girl?) Cassie's birthday party!

Day 215 - The Harvest Festival at church ... Sophie was a victim of the hay dump!
(I just realized I have a whole file of this day and I have not shared them with the blogosphere ... I will hopefully get to that this week!)

Day 216 - This is a picture of how far my girl has come in just the short time since she has been in school this year. She is doing a connect the dots picture ... BY HERSELF!

Praise YOU Lord for YOU are faithful!

Day 217 - Yes, my Lord is also an artist ... what a sunset. I LOVE the sun spike coming up in the middle of the picture.

Just like HIM coming up in the middle of my life to lend His beauty!

Day 218 - This is what I found when I went to get her up in the morning.

Did I mention that hers is the coldest room in the house?

Day 219 - More fall color ... right outside my bedroom window.

I am Blessed!

Day 220 - This is a terrible shot (camera refused to focus!!) but Sophie was showin off at Hattie's school by naming all of the numbers and letters.

Yeah, that's right, she just turned two!

Day 221 - There is a squirrel who has, one by one, slowly disintegrated every last pumpkin we bought for fall decor.

Day 222 - Halloween ... this picture depicts her sweet spirit so very well.

Day 223 - The girls have become lovers of story time lately. These are there favorite books - all of which Hattie can recite from memory. I LOVE that they are developing a love of literature!

Day 224 - This is just a random picture taken as I was trying to figure out what the bloomin heck is wrong with the camera NOW .. but, again, I ask - how stinkin cute is this kid?!

Day 225 - In one of the bags that the girls got from one of the fall carnivals they went to, there was this little pop-up monkey. You push him down and a suction cup holds him down until the spring eventually breaks the suction and he flies into the air. Sophie usually waits very patiently for him to fly ... this time she could just not resist one little touch.

Day 226 - Hubbs went to the grocery store and came home with these grapes ... I am fairly certain these are the same grapes that Joshua found in the promised land ...

HUGEMONGOUS!!!

Day 227 - I was called to pick Hattie up early from school. She had a fever of 101 that went up after she came home. Eventually we got it down, after which she promptly put herself to bed ... you can tell by the light in the room that it was still the middle of the day. Poor thing.

Day 228 - This is where I lost all senses and became a bread makin maniac. And, yes, they were yummy, if I do say so myself!

Day 229 - Hattie is still running a fever, but it was so beautiful outside we could not resist some fresh air. Here is daddy givin our girl a ride in the wheel barrow.

She LOVED it!!!

And, I think daddy did too!



If you would like to see more, please hop on over and visit Sara!! That girl can take some good pics!

So, how was YOUR week?!?!

Conversations

Last week I told you about the "fo shizzle" conversation with Sophie - lol, it still makes me giggle!

Today I would like to tell you about a couple more fun things they say ...

Yesterday Soph was not feeling very well and, well, she was a bit gassy. I kept thinking she had a dirty diaper only to check and find nothing. At one point I made the mistake of using the word "fart". She thought it was HILARIOUS and decided it should be the word of the day and proceeded to say it over and over and over.

There was just one problem with this little development ... coming from HER little mouth ... well ... let's just say, it somehow rhymed with duck.

Yeah ... not good.

We shall henceforth, be using the word "toot" when discussing flatulence.

I'm sure you understand.



Then today the girls and I were watching The Little Mermaid.

Can I just tell you that I LOVE the music in that one.

I am talking puffy pink hearts!

So, of COURSE I was singing along.

Until Hattie scooted over to my side, sweetly cuddled up next to me, put one gentle hand on my cheek and plopped the other one over my mouth. She looked me dead in the eyes and said "No Mommy. Stop ... that's not pretty".

And to think ... I have spent the last 3 and a half years praying for this child to find her voice.

Five Years Of You

Five years ago today a car pulled into our driveway and a lady that we would never see again stepped out and brought a gift to our door.

A gift that would change our lives forever.

That would make our dreams come true and fulfill a promise from long ago.

A promise made by God, Himself.

And because every good and perfect thing comes from Him, we knew that she had to have come straight from Heaven.

And since that very first moment, every single moment to follow has been an adventure that we would not trade for anything on this earth.

Happy Hattie Day sweet girl.

You are so very, very loved!

They Came, They Saw, They Collected Some Candy

We had big plans for Halloween ... plans that included a LOT of relaxing and taking it very easy. However, starting with the tub that would not hold water AT ALL and then moving on to the leak under the kitchen sink ... let's just say the house had other plans!

By the time we were done with all of that (or, should I say, HUBBY was done with all of that), our time was seriously limited!

We had planned to go to my in-law's house for trick or treating (our street is NOT very conducive to such things) and a pizza party. But first we had pumpkins to carve!

Now, my man is a jack-o-lantern GENIUS! He can carve a seriously good pumpkin. We actually have a BOOK of stencils ... a book that could NOT be found this year.

So I did what any good wife would do.

I googled it!

Sadly, short of giving out info I was not willing to part with or money I was even LESS willing to part with, the choices were severely limited!!!

We did find this guy though ...

And, ya know, it's the GREAT PUMPKIN!!!

Which is good since it's the ONLY one we had time to carve!

And that is OK, because we had more important things to think about ...

We had one very sweet puppy to groom

And one ultra cute mouse to primp

And even though they REFUSED to pose politely ...

... and the camera refused to cooperate so that I could get something - ANYTHING - better to show you, we still had a blast.

They loved trick or treating.

They LOVED getting loved on by grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins.

They loved the good food at Grandma's house.

And they LOVED being the belles of the ball.

So, all in all, it was a very good Halloween ...

...even though we did not get even one single grape tootsie roll pop.

And that my friends, is just stinkin wrong!