Gotta post these before Thanksgiving

We went to the pumpkin patch.
It was fun.
I have more to say about this.
I'll do that later.

Talia was sick of being Dorothy, and was seriously jealous of my red glitter make-up that I wore the night before. Here she is in her cousin's red dress as a little devil.
The bee and the ninja posed too.

She looks good in red.


(I couldn't really think of anything sweet to say about my six year old in make-up and devil horns.)

Sneaky Ninja

The bee was naughty, so I'll set up a fake Halloween session and get her again.




There now I can stop worrying about not blogging Halloween.
ps. before the end of 2010 I am going to blog about.....

Easter
The amazing Easter eggs I made with Rileigh
THE CHERRY BLOSSOM PICTURES!
(I took hundreds and had time to edit THREE!!!)
Pictures from the Utah trip.
a bunch of other little posts that I never had time for.

AND...

I won't feel sad if I actually never have time to do it.

I'll want to remember.....

Simone loves the alphabet. I am sure it is because Talia is always carrying around a notebook and a pen and asking me how to spell different words. She wants to be big like Natalia.

Simone sings this.....

A B C D E F H I J lmo P Q R S T U V bubbleyou X Y a Z now you sing with ME!

bubbleyou! I love it so much.



Talia has a wiggly tooth. It's getting really wiggly. Lincoln and I were inspecting it when I felt the tears coming. Why does a wiggly tooth always make me cry? I headed to the kitchen to hide, and I ducked behind the spot where the fridge jots out like 2.5 inches. (Ya, no place to hide in my kitchen.) Lincoln told Natalia to go hug me. I picked her up....and do you know what she did.....she wrapped her little legs around my ribs and her arms around my neck. She has done this since she was a little baby. Every time I picked her up from the changing table that is what she would do. Then I cried more, and she kissed me on the cheek.









I found this heart during a photo session. I love that the leaves are little hearts too. I find hearts every where----no really they find me, because I don't look for them. Natalia has started noticing them too. I take it as a reminder...

Here is another one.

I want to eat that.

Wow, this was random post. I guess I am in a good mood. I got a ton of stuff marked off my to do list. It is still giant, and I am afraid I will have to ignore my kids for the majority of tomorrow so I can work. (Lincoln will be gone.) That kind of makes me want to cry too. I think that is because that is what I had to do all day today too. I'll be done with busy season soon, and then do you know what I am going to do......get ready for Christmas! I can't wait. =)

Renaissauce Festival

No that wasn't a typo...that is what Talia calls it.

This year was PERFECT! The weather was gorgeous. We had the best time together.


Here are some of the fun things we did.......




We watched a man swallow swords. Personally I liked watching my little girl and the sunshine on her.

They were fighting and pushing right before I took this! LOVE THEM!

Played at the Pirate ship playground.

Pony rides for the girls.

Having fun at the wooden sword shop. Wyatt picked out a spear.

All Talia wanted to do is have her hair braided. Isn't this the coolest braid you have ever seen? I love it! I got my hair braided too. Talia's was cooler. =)



This is Adam! (my Bro. in law) He is the coolest. He is staying with us for a little while...and soon his family will join him in Maryland----and then the real party will begin! WOOHOO!

Turkey legs
Pork chop on a stick
Ribbon Fries
Sorbet in an orange
Waffle cone with Strawberry ice cream
Scotch Eggs
Macaroni and Cheese on a stick
Chocolate dipped Frozen Bananas
Strawberry Dipped Frozen Bananas
Apple Dumpling
Jalapeno poppers
Humongous Pickles
Pretzels
Crab pretzel

We tried it all!

Lincoln bought Talia and I each a rose.

That's it.

My point and shoot battery charger is lost. I took all these with my phone. I am glad I had something to capture our day.

OH. One thing I forgot! We rode on an elephant! Natalia, Wyatt, Lincoln and I rode it while Adam stayed with sleeping Simone. He took a picture on his phone. I'll have to post that! Fun stuff!

Time for that holiday

Not a fan of Halloween.

Why is that? The scary gross stuff. I hate that part.

I don't decorate. I am TRYING to this year. Lincoln bought a black angry kitty (a sparkly one) and some skeleton hand goblets. We have one baby sized pumpkin.

My sweet friend had a Halloween party last Friday. As we were rushing to get ready I decided to dress up too. (Which ended up making us late. =) Dorothy, the Bumble Bee, Pirate Mom, and Wyatt went to the party. He didn't want to dress up, but we were glad he came because he broke open the pinata! (He is the pinata master!)

This week I need to
*find a ninja costume for Wyatt (One that has REAL pants, not cheapo see-through material.)
*Buy more pumpkins
*carve those
*buy the finishing touches for my costume, and Lincoln's too.
*WORK!
*Clean the attic...toy room and office
*Laundry
*Laundry
*Go to the dermatologist....my poison ivy is getting worse. I can't remember what I was wearing when I got it. I may keep putting it on?

magic

We went to one of our favorite spots.

We hadn't been there in a while.

It is a magic place...even more magic this time.....

look what we found.

We stopped in this little garden.
The light was heavenly, and the weather was so warm.
I watched my girls pretend that they had stumbled upon Wonderland.

Then I grabbed some portraits in one of my favorite spots. The light is always so great here.

Wyatt you remind me that it is best to make time for the things we love, not just the things we need to do.

Natalia you teach me that every little detail counts, and that a surprise is best if eyes are closed first.

Simone you laugh at everything. You remind me that we can find happiness everywhere.

We went home and our Daddy had made us dinner while we were away.
A perfect end to a magic little day.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Natalia wanted to have a Wizard of Oz party this year. It all started when her cousins showed her a picture of the REAL ruby slippers they took at the Smithsonian. She fell in love with those shoes, and WANTED THEM. I mean, really wanted those exact shoes. I told her NO ONE gets those shoes, they are in a museum. She decided a glittery pair from target would do, and she loves those shoes.


I am posting every detail of the party for Rileigh. I really really missed her while I was pulling this together, but she still gave me some good ideas by phone. =)

The invitations.

Follow the yellow brick road to The Emerald City.......err, um...........door. =)

The first thing we did was make some mini apple pies. Yum!

Then came the party games. Lincoln made this fantastic Tin Man! We used heart shaped sticky foamies and wrote the their names on them. (See that adorable girl in the gray sweater? I hired her to help with the party and that was the best thing ever. She is amazing! I had so much help during this party. I have the best husband, friends, and babysitter!)

The girls loved this game.

Wizard of Oz was playing during the whole party. Right when we began the Beauty Parlor, that is the scene that was showing on the TV. It was perfect! Most of the girls hadn't seen the movie before, and they understood why they got a makeover. It was Talia's favorite part of the party!






I told the girls that we had invited the Scarecrow, Cowardly Lion, Tin Man, Dorothy, The Wizard of OZ, and even the Wicked Witch of the West but they couldn't make it. They called me and asked if they could bring by some food for the party since they couldn't come. I said, "Sure!"

MENU:

The Witch brought Flying Monkey Goop. (Some girls would not taste this because of the name!) =) It was pistachio salad.

Dorothy brought delicious Ruby Red Strawberries.

The Scarecrow brought some corn from his field.

The Wizard brought his OZ-um Punch.
It was OZ-um!

The Lion brought Cowardly Lions in a blanket. (TOTALLY Wyatt's idea!)


The Tin Man brought yummy Chocolate Cupcakes with a touch of tin.

They ate lunch on the Yellow Brick Road, and watched the last bit of the movie. This "road" ran from the drive way all the way through the house. It was wonderful--and cheap. $15 for 100 feet. Call me if you need some yellow table covering. =)

Each girl took home her homemade apple pie, one red apple, and a few little oz inspired goodies. (The pencil in red glitter.)



Lincoln- "Make a wish!"

Talia- "I LOVE KITTENS!"

(No joke! That is a quote!)

Which fairy are you?

We have two books of these beautiful flower fairies. The girls and I love them. There is one fairy that I think looks exactly like my Natalia! I want to frame it for her.

We were looking at the books, and I was trying to find Natalia's fairy.

Natalia started flipping pages and said, "I know where it is.....(flip)....(flip)......it's the one with the scissors."

"What?" I asked puzzled, "There isn't a fairy with scissors in this book!"

"Yes there is, she looks like me."

Yes, I was wrong. There is- and she does look like her.

TROUBLE.

This is the one I was talking about.
Isn't she lovely?

Proof....

Yesterday was a day of bliss.






I have proof.......

SEE?

I love when the fall foliage is bright and beaming. I have to admit...I don't love autumn. I know...I am the only crazy one. Days like yesterday make me rethink that a bit. It was heaven.


Last week was a hard one. Time for a list.....

Three sessions.
(Two here, and one in VA.)

A big itchy dose of POISON IVY for me!
(None of my clients got into it...just me. The pictures? SO WORTH IT!)

A huge Wizard of Oz birthday party for Natalia.
(A big post about that coming soon.)

My Brother-in-law moved in with us.
(Makes me really wish I had a guestroom for him. He'll be with us a few months.)

My computer and many external hard drives were FULL! Time for a computer overhaul. Enter Lincoln and two new terabyte external hard drives and I was back in business. Wait....where's photoshop now, sweetie?



Did I mention the poison ivy?
I want to scratch my skin off! I have been so good not to. Then today..............I went nuts scratching my arms. IT FELT SO GOOD. Now....I am really paying for it. I have been taking medicine to help...but that makes me so sleepy....then I don't get any work done....then I fall more behind. In order to catch up I have to be itchy, I guess. I hope it goes away soon.
Okay- enough whining.

I can focus on happier things.
That is one of my best qualities.
I am really good at ignoring the bad stuff. =)