Pumpkin Bottom

When Lucy was six months old we painted her bottom and cousin Haddie's bottom up like a pumpkin and took pictures. It was the funniest thing! I believe my mother-in-law had sent us an email forward with pictures of other little babies painted pumpkin bottoms and asked us if we wanted to do this. I'm pretty sure she was joking, but Jennifer and I thought it would be so funny, so we did it and are so glad we did! I love to proudly display this picture each fall! Haddie is on the left and Lucy is on the right.

Fast forward two years and I have another little baby bottom to paint as a pumpkin! I couldn't resist and had to paint Molly's bottom, too. She was such a trooper and didn't seem to mind at all. I'm soo glad I did this with both of them!

My 37th Birthday

My birthday was a few weeks ago, November 7, and it was a really nice time. Ross took off the Wednesday-Friday before my birthday and we got lots of little things done around the house. The day before my birthday, Mom took both our kids for the day so we could go shopping and then go out to dinner with friends, sans kids. Two out of the four couples I invited to dinner have kids. I was proud of myself for inviting them saying "we'd love you to join us if you can find a babysitter." I didn't want to be rude in saying this, but knew it would be SO much more fun without kids around! And they were more than happy to oblige. It was a fun time without kids and at one point during the evening we talked about how nice it was. It when someone asked when the last time was that we had all gotten together without our kids, no one said anything. We sat there for a while trying to figure it out but couldn't!

On my birthday Ross continued the Ward family tradition of breakfast in bed! The first few years we were married I always worried that he wouldn't bring me breakfast in bed, so was sure to remind him. Now I've learned that I don't have to remind him, he knows to do it!

After breakfast we went to my parent's house for the day and my sister and her family came up, too. It was nice hanging out and relaxing. It was a beautiful day outside and we took some pictures on their deck. We had a bonfire that night and then presents and cake and ice cream. It was a great birthday!

Dinner at the Olive Garden with NO kids!!

Some of my best friends..Pam, Sarah, and Stacey on the top, Natalie on the bottom.

Breakfast in bed!!

This is what 37 looks like. :)

Molly had pooped in her diaper. What you don't see is that she sat down on the bathroom floor before Ross could get her cleaned up to go in the bath. It was quite funny!

The Highs And Lows Of Cleaning

Last Friday I had a "free day" where my Mom had Lucy and Molly for the day so I was able to do whatever I wanted. I chose to clean my house. Like really clean my house. For the most part my house is clean. I try to go to bed at night with everything in it's place, the kitchen clean, and toys picked up. Each Saturday I do the wash, clean our bathroom, change the sheets, and clean up the kitchen a little more than I do during the week.

I don't dust or vacuum near as much as I should. The fact is, I really don't care about dust on the furniture and I really need to be in the mood to do cleaning like that. Friday I was in the mood to do so, so decided to go with it.

I started in our master bathroom and cleaned the shower, the floor, the tub, the ledge of the tub, the TV, the counter....about the only thing I didn't clean was the fan. Our bathroom gets cleaned each week, but it hadn't been this clean since my Mom did it 9 months ago when Molly was born.

I then moved on to clean all parts of the girls' bathroom. I even took all the bath toys downstairs to the kitchen sink and washed them. I dusted the furniture upstairs, vacuumed the upstairs, vacuumed the steps, and them moved on to the downstairs. I didn't need to dust since I had just done that last week when taking down my fall decorations. I cleaned all the floors, including mopping the kitchen floor. Sadly, this does not get done near enough as it should, especially with a crawling baby around our house.

I literally worked from 1pm-5pm when I finally sat down. I was so tired but I felt sooooooooo good! My house was so clean and I loved it! It was nice to enjoy for a few minutes before we went out to dinner with some friends. It was nice coming home to a clean house and even nicer that my parents brought Lucy and Molly back to us. They are so good to help us like this.

The next morning I woke up to a clean house and it was wonderful, until we started messing it up. I got ready in the bathroom which resulted in my hair all over the floor and counter. We fed Molly breakfast which resulted in food crumbs all over the floor. Lucy and Molly played in the living room/play room which resulted in toys strung out all over. We fed Lucy and Molly lunch which resulted in food on the table and floor. We made dinner which resulted in dirty dishes and junk on the stove to clean up. We walked outside which resulted in tracking in some leaves and dirty on our shoes.

I know everything that's clean is just going to get dirty again, but man it's so depressing as to how fast this happens! I think it happens much quicker having littles running around, and I know there's no way to avoid it, but it's just disheartening. I liken it to Thanksgiving dinner. Think about all the time and preparation that goes into Thanksgiving dinner, just to be eaten in 30 minutes and then on to cleaning it all up.

I'm sure you could use this story as a devotion or metaphor for God somehow. Maybe I'll think on that some and continue this post later. For now, I'm going to try and forget how quickly things get dirty and remember how nice and fresh everything was once cleaned.

My Family Of Four

We had family pictures taken last month and I've shared them below. I must thank Ross for being such a good sport and going along with all the pictures I like to have done. He said he is happy to do so because he likes having them, too. I married such a good man!

Lucy's Bandaids

One day last month we met some friends at the zoo. We had a fun time until the end when Lucy was running and fell. She scraped up her knees and they weren't too bad, but she decided she needed some bandaids after her bath that night. Aside from wearing bandaids for her immunization shots, Lucy hasn't worn bandaids before. She really hasn't needed to. She was a little unsure of the bandaids, yet excited about them at the same time. They were Hello Kitty bandaids, so that helped a lot!

Apparently, the bandaids made her walk funny and we got it on video. It is the funniest thing! You can watch a video of her walking around in her bandaids here. What a fun little girl we have!

The Adventures of Jessie and Woody

Lucy has loved Toy Story for almost a year now. She had a Toy Story second birthday party, has a Jessie, Woody, Buzz, and Bullseye doll, and even has a Toy Story shirt with her name on it. We watch Toy Story 1, 2, or 3 at least once a week.

She sleeps with her Toy Story dolls in her bed and refers to them as her friends. :) One day after her nap I walked in to her room to find Jessie and Woody on top of her crib. This gave me a great laugh!

But nothing gave me as good of a laugh as the picture below! I found Jessie and Woody in Lucy's shirt like this one night when I checked on her before going to bed. I have no idea why she did this, but she did it all on her own!

Sometime during the night Jessie was evicted, but Woody was still cozied up next to her when she woke up the next morning!

The next night Jessie and Woody weren't as lucky as the night before. Instead of sleeping in Lucy's shirt, they got to sleep on top of the crib again. What a fun little girl we have in Lucy!