KK's wall art

KK is ALL about Valentine's Day.  She has been drawing pictures and hanging them up all over the house.  This particular collection is in the hall near the bathroom.  It features several hearts and her favorite Power Puff Girl.  Do you remember the Power Puff Girls?  Do YOU know which one it is?  Blossom, Buttercup or Bubbles?  

Did you guess Blossom?  

If so, you are CORRECT!

In her own words......

Because Cass and KK share a room, it can be difficult to find privacy when you just want a little alone time.  So we have told Cass that she can write notes and stick them on the bedroom door when she wants a little quiet time.  Today, she wanted some quiet alone time to read "Bunicula" (remember that book?  A vampire bunny who sucks all the juice out of veggies and leaves them white?) .  I went up to get her for dinner and found this taped to her door:

PS:  We had broccoli for dinner.

Disney Princesses on Ice

Oh what a night!  I didn't tell the girls where I was taking them until I had them in the car already and was purchasing "Happy Meals".  The excitement was overwhelming and worth every second of painful secret keeping.  I am usually REALLY bad at keeping secrets like this.  Christmas is torture for this very reason.  Anyway, I had 2 very enchanted girls who had a night to remember.  See the locked eyes?  I have another image of them with their mouths open but it was a bit fuzzy, so it didn't make the blog.  This was a great girls night out.  So fun!

Autumn and Christmas Photos

This SWEET little girl...has given me a week of memories.  Here are just 2 of them:

I sent her to school in a cute pair of pink leggings.  When I picked her up, she had a huge hole ripped in them just above the knee.  When I questioned her about the hole, she indicated that she stuck a pencil through her pants and the hole just grew from there.  After expressing my displeasure at her vandalism I asked her what we were going to do to make sure this doesn't happen again.  She thought about it for a while and finally declared, "You could buy me RUBBER pants!".  Brian found this endlessly entertaining.  Rubber pants indeed!

And here is the 2nd little gem for you:

Brian picked the girls up from school on Wednesday.  The principle walked over to him and slipped him a note saying this, "We just want you to know that we intercepted this letter.  Cass and "E" were caught passing notes and we wanted to make you aware."  She handed him the folded note.  Not knowing what could possibly be cause for concern Brian opened the note and found:  

I have to confess, I LOVE her answer!  I think it's SOOOO cute!  And seriously...."respond"? How cute is that?!  When we talked to her about this later I asked her why she couldn't marry him and she told me "Because my mommy won't let me."  Well, I guess that's good enough.  Sigh.  So proud of my little one.

Snow...and more snow...and....ugh!

So New England is famous for many things: Fall, REAL maple syrup, History...and long, long, cold, snowy winters.  This winter is no exception.  Why is it that when packing up the Christmas tree and decorations my mind automatically jumps into "...and now it's time for spring..." mode?  I mean, I've lived here long enough to know that there are still 3 more long, dark, bitterly cold months ahead.  Followed by MUD SEASON.  Spring is no where near.  To prove it, we present the following evidence:

The photo above is of the 3 kids...in a snow bank...that towers over their heads and could be used as a ski jump.
This is a photo of Cass trudging home...(at least THIS year we can see our porch railing.  2 years ago Cass could stand on the snow bank that hid the railing AND she could touch the roof.)
Kayla....standing in a snow bank. 
And the boy...just being cute and loving the snow.   To a child this is a winter wonderland of fun, snowballs, slipping and sliding, building snowmen, making forts and drinking hot chocolate.  For a mom this means soggy clothes, driving with a white knuckle grip and a constant prayer, washing the hot chocolate mugs.....and...I confess...loving the smiles on those rosey cheeks.  

This girl

is patiently waiting for Daddy and Cass to come home with pizza:

Her brother isn't quite as patient.

Christmas outfits

Mommy and Brogan:

Mommy and Cass and Brogan:

Mommy with KK and B (loving his blanket)

THE KIDS:

I DID IT

This is entertaining.  But you'll have to watch it all the way to the end to fully appreciate it.  It starts with some charming singing "La, la, la, la, la" while he is creating a "great wall of markers".  He's building them with the express purpose of knocking them over.  Which he does and then proceeds to do his "I DID IT" dance.  It's a little long but worth it....

A Night in Bethlehem...

We got to dress-up  like characters from Bethlehem for the ward Christmas party.  Check out the kids:

Gingerbread Houses

The building process.....

The finished product:

Robot number two...

We went to dinner with friends the other night.  They have a beautiful baby girl who loves her "bumpo".  Turns out Brogan loves it too...in a different way:

Thanks for the picture, good food and memories.

Robot Number One

Brogan has a current fascination with robots.  He calls himself "Robot number one" and does a rather charming robot dance.  Today, while I was out collecting the girls from school, he and Brian were busy making a robot costume.  We came home and found this:

The result of an artistic and creatively inclined daddy who adores his boy and will do anything to entertain him (especially when it allows him the opportunity to relive his own childhood).

I can't think of a cuter advertisement for Goldfish crackers.

BLACK FRIDAY

We had a  remarkable Black Friday experience.  We went to Wal-mart....with our 3 kids....at 9:00am.  This is a special Wal-mart though.  It was built in a small little town in upstate New York.  When they were building it, they took into consideration the population of the area.  Which seems like a reasonable way to determine how large the facility should be.  Well, this Wal-mart is HUGE but, here is the kicker, included in the population of the area is 2 rather large prisons (one of them is a maximum security prison).  Needless to say, although the inhabitants of these buildings count toward the population of the area, the residents don't get out much....especially for shopping expeditions.  So, the store was peaceful but stocked!  Some of the "big ticket" items were already gone by the time we got there (4 hours after the sales started) but we still scored a new Blue Ray player for $70!  Seriously!  We were so excited.  On the way home, we stopped at a New England classic: Dunkin Donuts.  This is a shot of the back of our car....notice the Boy's face?  He loves donuts!

Here is a close up...so you can fully appreciate his love for this sweet frosted treat:

So, even with 3 kids in tow our Black Friday shopping experience was pretty wonderful.  Who would have thought?

Hope you all enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving.  We have much to be Thankful for this year.  Friends and Family just happen to top the list.

My monkeys were busy today.  We went to another story time at Borders.  Today it was "The Polar Express" and the kids went in their pajamas.  We had a wonderful bit of fun.  Then it was home for a play date with 3 giggling little girls and 1 very sleepy 2 year old boy.  The afternoon was a flurry of dress-up and activities.  They played games, baked and decorated cookies, and made cute little apple turkeys and charming fairy posters.  It was a day of smiles and cheers.  It concluded with a OH SO YUMMY smoked salmon dinner graciously made for us by our friends.  What a wonderful day.

Thanksgiving Hair Cuts....

Sweet Cassidy
Little Missy KK
And the Big Boy.....

A SPLENDIFEROUS Saturday

I took the girls to Borders Bookstore today for the Fancy Nancy Splendiferous Party.  It was a collection of giggly, sparkly, and oh so posh girls....and THESE little ladies were right in the middle of it all:

Happy Birthday BOY!!!!

2 years ago this cute baby boy was born:

Today he is still a cute little boy:

We celebrated his big day with THIS cake (made by mom. You can't tell in this picture, but it is a 3-D cake.   The car is actually sitting on top of the checkered flag):
He got a TRAIN TABLE, with lots of tracks and trains.....And took the CARS theme to a whole new level....THIS is one HAPPY BOY! Notice the cute pit crew jammies?  His Grandma Harmon made those for him.  They have little Lightning McQueen cars all over them.  SOOOO cute!

We want to say THANK YOU to the wonderful friends who came to celebrate this day with us.

We appreciate you.

Thank you for your company, friendship, and...presents.  :)

Brogan, WE LOVE YOU!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

A visit from Grandma

My mom was here this past week.  We had so much fun together.  The girls all enjoyed spending time with her.  She even went to Kayla's class at school and read a story.  She did a lot of sewing while she was here.  She worked on some cute tu-tus for the girls and some very fun PJs for Brogan.  We are all so glad she was able to come.  We miss her already!

Images from the photo shoot Tracey did for us...yeah, we have cute kids.