..

Simone was adamant about a few details while I was dressing her.

Looking at the flowers.

You can see her new scar here. Except is looks so huge...the dark color you see is the glue. It looks better and better everyday. I need to post about the surgery day...but I can't find a USB2 cable at the moment. =)

I think this one will make me cry when my Talia is in Kindergarten.
How much I have enjoyed our "bonus year"!

Just going along. I am busy. Lincoln will be home tomorrow, he left last Thursday. I went shopping a lot while he was gone. (Sorry sweetie) I bought myself some flowers tonight. Ranunculus! I can't wait to photograph them. I missed all three of my ballet classes last week! I get to go tomorrow. Hooray! Woohoo! I love it so much!

Funnies...

I haven't be very good about writing down the funny things my kids say. I used to be much better at that.

Here are a few recent ones....

***


Natalia came into our room. She was playing "family" with Simone.

"I am the Mom, and she is my daughter," she said.

Lincoln asked her who her husband was.

She paced a bit trying to think up a good name for her imaginary husband.

She came back
and said, "His name is Lincoln Wyatt Peanut Butter."

Then she lovingly put her arm around her "daughter" and said proudly, "We're the Peanut butter family."

We laughed so hard, and that delighted her. She was so serious, but loved that we thought it was funny.



***




Somehow the kids talked me into making a chocolate layer cake tonight.

My best chocolate icing yet.

I used my charming new turquoise cake plate with a ruffled edge, and it
wasn't even someone's birthday.

After the forks had be passed around and everyone had been served, it was quiet.

Then Wyatt said, "I wish I could marry this cake!"



***


Simone got hit in the head with a super tall Hello Kitty gumball machine.

It reopened the wound on her forehead that was just stitched up 15 days prior, but not bad enough to go back to the ER.

What a mess.

The gumballs were all over the floor. She began to pick them up by the handful in hopes of keeping them.

I encouraged her to help me put them back.

She was a great little helper.

The last blue gumball was picked and shoved into her mouth before I could do anything about it.


Now she retells the story like this.

Mum. Mum. (gum)
Head. (Points to her head.)
Owie.
Blue.



***



I was brushing Talia's hair with a new brush. She had something sticky in her hair (painful), so we washed her hair. She was amazed how well the new brush worked. It didn't hurt. (Hello...we had just washed your hair sweetie.)

"How did that brush do that so well?"

"It's a magic brush, " I said in a whisper, "Magic brush .....get rid of the tangles."

Then Natalia said, "Magic brush....I want a kitty."

"It doesn't work that way sweetie," I said between laughs.

Natalia's surgery went well. I have pictures...and a few funny stories to share soon.

Goodbye bump

Look at that little thing! I found this old picture (film) and loved seeing it again.

Natalia will have surgery tomorrow to remove a mass/bump from her neck. She was born with it, and it is time to take care of it.

This picture shows it really well.

This picture shows my silly happy girl really well.





She is excited! I caught her singing, "They will take it.......off and then MY....BUMP....WILL.....be GONE!!!" Silly.


I don't feel the same way. I am nervous, and trying so hard not to let her see that.

Thank you so much to my friends that are helping out with my other children. What would I do without you? Seriously. You mean so much to me.

Wish us luck, and say a little prayer for her.

good day...

Here some photos from the most wonderful sunshine filled day.

We had a great time in Annapolis.

Saturday morning Lincoln asked me what I wanted to do.I said, "I want to make a memory."
"You want to make a Bon Jovi?"(There is a song.............anyway.....)


It wasn't funny then, but all through the day Lincoln would say, "Are we making a Bon Jovi yet?" The kids thought we were crazy.
Oh, we are.

When we got to Annapolis there were no parking spots. Except one...it was filled with those cemement parking markers. They must have been piled up with a snowplow or something. Lincoln said," If I move those we can park there." So he did. Everyone that walked by had something funny to say.

"That is one way to get the best parking spot."

I think he moved eight of them.

Lincoln told us all to salute, but Simone hugged me tight instead! I loved it!
She gives the best hugs with those little arms. =)

Ice cream cones by a tug boat. Does it get any better than that? =)

Then we went over to the Naval Academy so Wyatt could continue to salute in every single picture without looking odd.

three circle windows

Ask her how old she is. She says, "two" and it is so cute!


Fun day. Definitely made some good memories!

Hello Spring.....

Bandage? What Bandage?

2 years and 1 day old. =)

Hard worker. See all the pollen on his head?

Crocus

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Happy Birthday Simone

Two.

How can that be?

She was this little.......

Now look at her....







Two years old.


Things Simone loves at two....

She loves to say "no".
She loves Mommy and Daddy.
She loves to climb on things.
She loves to hug her big brother.
She loves to hold hands with her big sister.
She loves fruit
and "nandy".
She loves to fold her arms and say prayers.
She loves when I sing Wheels on the Bus
Itsy Bitsy Spider
and Birds in the Tree
She loves to play my iphone.
She loves to watch Dora.
She loves spotting squirrels outside, or hearing the birds chirp.
She loves pretty things.
She loves to wrap her babydolls in blankets, and push them in her stroller.
She loves to blow kisses, and does this for
"thank you", "good bye", and "i love you".
She loves to help, and unloading the dishwasher is her favorite job.
She loves to cuddle.


Simone, I hope you had a Happy Birthday!
We love you so much.
Please stop falling...I don't want anymore ER visits.

(She fell on Monday and had to get five stitches in her forehead. It was terrible.)

Reminds me of Jeri

I heard this song on the radio today and it reminded me of Jeri. Made me "Smile". Love ya babe.

~Lincoln


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=776TdGu0bNo

Too funny.....

or sad...not to document.


The girls woke up in the middle of the night. One coughing, one thirsty and MAD! Lincoln was out seeing a movie with friends, so I put the girls in bed with me. Lincoln came home, and saw there was no room for him so he took the sleeping beauties back to their beds.

He put Simone in her crib. There was NO MATTRESS in her crib, because she's been sleeping in her big girl bed. There was a dust ruffle over the wire grid that supports the crib mattress--- and he put her on that! She slept there for at least an hour. We don't know really how long. He was so sleepy when he put her in there.

Poor thing! Ouch.

LOVE 28

The last of the loves for February.

I have spent the last four days without Lincoln. He went to California to say goodbye to his Grandpa Tidwell who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer just a few short weeks ago. I am so glad Lincoln was able to make the trip, even though Grandpa wasn't able to speak he would squeeze Lincoln's hand while he talked to him. It was a special visit, but a hard one as well. We will miss you Grandpa.

We have been so very blessed by the wonderful people in our lives. We have made good memories together. I prefer to remember the happy and silly memories. Fortunately, we have lots of those.

Like the time we stayed at Grandpa and Grandma Tidwell's house in 2000. Grandpa has a bunch of big motion sensor animals, and he would hide a 1.5 foot brontosaurs in various places around the house. We would walk in and set off the dinosaur and it would let out a big "ROARRRRRRR."
This became a fantastic game.
We would hide that brontosaurs and try to get them back. Lincoln hid it by their toilet and it surprised Grandpa in the middle of the night! We heard it go off and laughed ourselves silly in our guest room.
Then one day we saw him casually leaving the room we were staying in. We totally caught him, and he tried to play cool!
Funny! Sure enough he had left it in there.
Then as we were driving away from their house Lincoln started laughing and said, " I put the brontosaurs in their bed." We laughed so hard and couldn't wait until the next day to hear the story of how they found it.




So what is the last love post.




FAMILY.





I so love our families. There are so many of us. It is hard to be far away from so many of them, but I want them to know that I love them.

LOVE 27

I didn't have access to these files for a long time. They were on a computer and external hard drive that we put into storage last year.

I LOVE looking through them. I need to get all these in a book ASAP.

3

1
and bald.

LOVE 26

I was listening to the song Mushaboom. (I love that song.) The first verse talks about lilacs and buttercups, and I thought "Oh, I miss lilacs."

Then my thoughts went back to when I was 8 years old.

I loved lilacs as a little girl. We had several bushes around our backyard, and we use to pick them and cover our trampoline with the blossoms. We would jump, land on our backs and laugh as the blossoms flew into the air.

That same back yard had sweet peas climbing and entire length of one side of the yard. I would pick handfuls for my dolls. Their smell is one of the sweetest scents. I want to smell it again...I wonder if sweet peas will do well here. Time to google.

Then I started to think of favorite flowers through out my life.

Peach Roses.
My sister loved the color peach and I adore her, and my first "boy friend" gave me a dozen peach roses on Valentine's day. I was only in 6th grade----he had a paper route. =)

Fuschia.
My Dad bought my Mom a hanging fuschia plant every mother's day. I loved that. What a happy memory. They are amazing..and I now I need to get my hands on one so I can photograph it with my macro!

African Violets.
My Mom had many many African Violets. This memory makes me teary. I can picture her changing the water and snipping off old leaves and blooms. She had so many, and loved taking care of them. She bought me one in Oregon. I didn't get to bring it with me here to Maryland. I also left behind my herb garden, and that still makes me sad.

Hyacinths.
One of my favorites still. The smell is intoxicating...and the thought is really making me miss spring right now.


Massive amount of Tulips and Roses.
The Tulip Festival and the Rose Garden in Oregon are two of my favorite places on this earth.

Camellia and crocus.
Another Oregon memory. Our Camellia bush was giant! The blooms were are big as the palm your hand. One year I took a photograph of the purple crocus blooming under that bush on my birthday. Feb. 11th and there were flowers blooming. Crazy.


Cherry Blossoms.
Anyone who knows me knows that I am a little cherry blossom crazy. I adore them.

Purple Roses.
I carried these on my wedding day. A beautiful bouquet with stephanotis with pearls in their centers. Lincoln bought me some purple roses the other day. Looking at them sparks the most wonderful memories.



Ah.....Flowers. Now listen to this, another of my favorites right now.

Go away snow.

(This thought process helped me get through folding 6 loads of laundry.)

(I you made it through all of that...I'd love to hear your favorites.)

LOVE 25

I love this spot.

We went to the Science Center today. It was dreamy. The girls were so good. It was not too busy. We had to sneak into the pitch-black planetarium a few minutes late, and then I had a moment of bliss that lasted the entire show. Natalia loved the show, and her comments where so delightful that I didn't shush her.

" Now we're in Hawaii, Beautiful."

"Which one is your favorite Mom?"
(Looking at a bunch of swirly galaxies. I picked the one that looked like a shrimp. She thought that was funny.)

"Oh, so beautiful. This is amazing."

"So many stars!"

"Cassiopeia........A QUEEN!"

"Look...A SCORPION!"

"I LOVE THIS!"

It was non-stop.

Simone sat quietly on my lap for half of the show. Then she turned and smothered me with hugs, kisses, and Eskimo kisses. I couldn't have stopped her if I had tried.

HEAVEN.

(I looked over and Rileigh was experiencing the exact same heaven with her girls.)

We made a pit stop and photographed a few things around Baltimore that I have had my eye on since Jan. 1st.

I was smiling ear to ear!

LOVE 24

I love that I can pray anytime, anywhere.

We are experiencing monster winds in Maryland right now.

I just felt my chair shake from my house actually moving. (I am up in the attic.)



I have prayed a lot today.

My children have prayed a lot today.

I am sure Lincoln has prayed a lot today.

We are going through a part of life that isn't easy.

Oh how it hurts.

How do people do this without the gospel of Jesus Christ? (A little more)

I have so much to be thankful for.

LOVE 23

I love that Rileigh took photos of her yummy cupcakes.

Ours were eaten much to quickly.

Read about it here.

Today was a good day.


I made shepherd's pie for dinner. I have to say...it was so good.


I love a dinner that ends in spotless plates.

Here's what I did.

4 carrots
2-3 parsnips (Lincoln's favorite)
1 onion
1-2 cloves of garlic
4 mushrooms (chopped until unrecognizable)

Chop the veggies, and add to a hot skillet with olive oil.

Add 1 lb. hamburger.
brown.

salt
pepper
a little Worcestershire
a few drops of liquid smoke

(You should have peeled and boiled potatoes before this.)

Make yummy mashed potatoes.
BUTTER.
milk.

Put the meat mixture in a pan.
Spread mashed potatoes over the top.
Sprinkle grated cheddar cheese over 2/3 of pan.
(Two kids eat it better with out the cheese.)
I would bake it- but we were all hungry...so I broiled it until the cheese was perfection.

Serve with a salad.

Eat (embarrassing amounts) more than your husband.

LOVE 22

I love these shoes.

I won't wear them if it's wet out.

I don't want them to get ruined.

I wore them on Saturday....for the best day ever.

Rileigh and I went to a deluxe spa in D.C. for facials.

Exchanged the most perfect gifts.....both wrapped in Christmas-ish paper.

Then we walked amongst the ritzy shops.

Stayed in Anthropologie for more than TWO hours.

Cheesecake factory for a delicious dinner, and little cheesecake.

All while my adorable shoes were ripping the skin off my heels in multiple places.

I still love them.

I wore them to church the next day.

the end.

LOVE 21

I don't love to eat these. They are fun to photograph though.

LOVE 20

My girls are both taking a nap, and I have time to post these pictures.

I love that.

Now you see him. Now you don't.

Sunny, snowy day.

This lasted 3.2 seconds. Then she was crying. She wouldn't keep her mittens on.

Hiding a big smile. Snow was blowing inside on me. He thought it was great! =)

LOVE 19

love

LOVE.