Oh To Washington We Will Go

In case anyone has wondered....

the kids and I have been in the beautiful state of Washington for the last week visiting my brother (N), his wife (S), and their son (M). We are having a blast and I have MANY MANY MANY awesome picture to share once we get home and can blog more.

for now...

me in front of Mt. Rainier.



When I was younger and we lived here, I could see this mountain from my bedroom window. I didn't realize how much I have missed this place.

Be home on Sunday. Please pray that the weather in Missouri cooperates. =]

L-E-V-I

Well, the biggest news around here is that Levi has finally mastered writing his name all by himself!!! He's VERY proud of himself too, by the way. I wish I had something concrete to save representing the big occasion... but he happened to write it on a MagnaDoodle, so all I could do was take a picture... with my cell phone no less.., my digital camera is on the fritz. Little sister, Audrey, of course, wanted in on the attention that Levi was getting from mom so you want to guess what she did?? She promptly ERASED his name and did her own scribbling. It didn't get her much praise... but she sure got attention!!

Now we need to work on writing it CORRECTLY though... he starts backwards with the "I" and works his way left writing the "L" last. Very odd. is this normal??

Here is a picture of Levi and his name on the magnadoodle:





As a reward, we went and saw the new Veggie Tales movie in theaters, The Pirates Who Don't Do Anythng. I gotta say... it's not my favorite veggie tales, but it's still cute and has a good message.

Go Levi!!!!! Mama is SOOOOO proud of you, big boy!!

A Boy And A Tree (PICTURE HEAVY!!)

FINALLY!!!! I'm going to post a few pictures from Christmas!!

The first installment, I'm calling, "A Boy And A Tree."

The story goes like this...

Paw Paw tells his Levi to go put on his "stompin' boots" because they are going to go cut down a tree behind Paw Paw's shop.

Stompin' Boots are on. Coat is zipped. Hood firmly in place.



Paw's Paw's shop:


The kids load up in my childhood wagon. Audrey says "no papparazi please!" and shields her pretty face from the camera with unsuspecting bunny who had to be brought along.



MWUHAHA!! Got your picture, Audrey!!



Off they go into the woods. Paw Paw in the lead.



Levi and Paw Paw stomp around in the woods looking for the perfect tree. Levi finds one he deems suitable.



Paw Paw gets under it with the saw to cut it down.



Levi gets in to help



Paw Paw loads the tree onto the wagon.



The tree gets pulled back up to the house.



Uh Oh... looks like we needed a little help from Paw Paw



Here's Levi holding up our cute little Charlie Brown Christmas tree...



Mommy gets in some picture time with her cuties while Paw Paw saws off the bottom of the tree in the background, getting it ready for the tree stand.



Aunt Tessie even gets in on the action



Can you see me? (hint: I'm hiding behind the tree!!)



We put the tree in the corner of the "Living Room."



Levi helped Paw Paw adds strings of colored blinking lights to our little tree...







... while miss Blue Eyes sat and watched.



MaMaw and Tessie decorated the tree and added a star to the top.

As Charlie Brown said... "It's not a bad tree, it just needs a little love."



It wasn't your traditional Christmas tree... but it worked for us. We have these pictures to forever help us keep the memory of the day that a boy helped his Paw Paw cut down a tree. It was beautiful!!

1. Make Today's To-Do List

The kids were watching Cat In The Hat yesterday and I was only listening to it in the background, but my ears perked up and I got a good chuckle when they came to the part where Sally (Dakota Fanning's character) starts making a list out loud and it goes something like this:

"Today's to-do list.


Number one:
Make today's to-do list.


Number two:
Practice coloring.


Number three:
Research graduate schools.


Number four:
Be spontaneous.


Number five:
Create lasting
childhood memories.


And number six:
Amend will."

It reminded me of my life lately.

we are FINALLY back home from our two week Christmas vacation. It was SOOO nice to get away and spend awesome time with family. I will most definitely be posting a ton of pictures in the near future.

But now that I'm back I feel like I've hit the floor running. There's a MILLION things to do... starting with the 10+ loads of laundry!!! Ever since we've been back, I've been finding myself making lists (I'm a list maker, by the way). One for things that NEED to get done that day. One for things I'd LIKE to get done that day. One for cards I need to write to people (they're on their way, I swear!!). One for things I need to get at the store... etc. etc.

so, today's list will start like this:

Number one:
make today's to-do list

I hope everyone had a VERY MERRY Christmas and a Happy New Year. I'll be getting back on here hopefully sometime next week to re-cap our holidays.

Until then...
remember number four on the list is be spontaneous!! Do something spontaneous today!!