Fine Portraiture

Biggest Brother came home from school today and informed me that his "lady friend" would like a picture of him...apparently for her locket.

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Several minutes later, Big Sis came into the living room proudly displaying this...

Big Sis: "Here Mom!

It's a picture of [Biggest Brother] for [Ally]!!"
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It's like a reflection, don'tcha think?!

:)

Wonder

Younger Brother LOVES Christmas-time, decorations especially!

I am spying on him from the next room...

and he's been standing there staring at that giant inflatable snowman for a solid 7 minutes now!

Hence the reason we have a giant inflatable snowman in our formal dining room.

Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is the favorite holiday for J and myself. It's just a good, fun, family day, without the materialistic distraction that gift giving brings. Not to dog Christmas...that's a good one too. Thanksgiving is just, nice.

J is a much better chef than I am. So on a normal day, he does more of the cooking. But as I mentioned, Thanksgiving is his favorite holiday. So on that day, it's all me! I do my best to spoil him. We have the festivities at our house every year. And I cook everything on the menu.

I wrote myself a note to make sure I didn't leave anything out.

And I have to say, it was a reality check about how blessed we are to read over all of the items on the food list.
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But we are even more blessed with eachother!

J got to have the day off work, and Mom and Dad M were able to join us.

(Grandpa G joined us later too.)

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Big Sis and Grandma swapped accessories.
It kind of makes me wish Big Sis wore glasses...she looked awfully cute in them.

After dinner, it was time to put up the Christmas decorations, something else that has become an M family tradition.

The kids like to celebrate the Christmas season as long as humanly possible.
I'm pretty sure they don't share my sentiment about the whole gift giving thing. :)

Aww, a cameo appearance by Biggest Brother!

He doesn't get into as many posts as his siblings since he is at school most of the day.

Guess who else likes Christmas?

Princess A was still under the weather...

...so she and her legs took a nap on Grandma.

And we ended the evening with an impromptu family photo.

Afterall, the most perfect pictures are the ones that aren't.

:)
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

The View From Here

Well, perhaps I spoke too soon.

Princess A was fighting the good fight, going from a fever of 102.5 on Monday to completely fever free yesterday.

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Aaand, then I caught her guzzling Pediasure out of her sick sister's sippy cup.

Be it from direct contamination, or just exposure in general, she is now sporting a fever of 103.

:(

On the upside, I was reminded of how thankful I am to live in a privileged country, where I can walk ten steps to my kitchen and get my baby medicine to make her feel better when she's sick.

The ibuprofen has knocked down her fever for the time being, and she is sleeping comfortably.

And Mommy gets to cash in on some primo snuggle time!

Feelin' Fine

I am happy to report that Princess A, after sporting a temp of 102.5 last night, is back to her smiling self this morning!

Fever free,

pink eye free,

and chipper enough to test the boundaries of our glamorous redneck baby gate/side-lying breakfast bench.
(Actually, I was just improvising since Daddy borrowed the baby gate to set up a safety barrier around the treadmill while he was running.)

You're very sneaky Princess A!

"On the 35th Day of Christmas...

...a client brought to me

...a Beagle reindeer in a waaagon."

***
I thought all of my dog loving family/friends would appreciate this.
This dog was hilarious!
Didn't she smile so pretty?!
:)

Pitiful Pink

I have pink eye.

See?

***

Actually, we've had pink eye, fever, spewdom, and the like in our house this week. As well as extra commitments for work and the passing of J's Uncle A on Thursday. Needless to say, the blog has not been top priority. But I hope to play catch up here as the week moves on.

P.s.

We love you Grandpa M!

I'm sorry we can't be there today!

:(

Puppy Love

Sunday Morning Sunshine

Good morning, Princess A!

You're all dressed up with nowhere to go. Mommy is late, and your molars are hurting, so we let Daddy and your brothers and sisters go on to church without us. But I thought I could at least take your picture because you look so pretty.

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You know, it was around this time last year that I was driving down the road to Brother's school, about to round the corner before the railroad tracks, and all of a sudden God laid your name upon my heart.

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I didn't know who you were to be. But He did.

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Your name means, "I have a light."

And that you do, Princess A.

Something inside you truly shines.

I am blessed to get to spend the morning here with you, and every day!

You are magnificent.

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I love you.
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P.s. And it's a good thing you're so wonderful, or I might not have taken so kindly to that high velocity milk shower you woke me up with at 5am this morning! :)

F is for Field Trip, Fossils, and Forensics???

Okay, I'm a day late. Sorry about that. Truth be told, when I finished all of the aforementioned duties listed on my last post, I was overcome by the supreme snuggliness of Princess A, who held me in her tractor beam for most of the night. :)

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Back to the canine clue. Did you guess what we did yet? All right, so it wasn't a very comprehensive clue. But I bet you can guess it was something with Grandpa G, seeing as though that's his resident canine and all. Well here you have it. I'm sure the suspense has been unbearable.

Water levels are down around here.

Way down!

So Grandpa suggested that we take a little field trip to the local reservoir to explore all of the area that would normally be underwater.

This was the view from the water's edge, looking back to the tree line where the edge of the water would be typically!

Grandpa suspected that we could find fossils and all kinds of other interesting things.

He was right!

Younger Brother jumped a mile when he peered into a fresh water mussel shell and realized there was something in there!

Penny C looked like a lone wolf wandering in the wilderness. :)

That is, until her BFF showed her how to go for a proper romp in the water!

We found this super cool Gastropod fossil.

And that we weren't the only ones convening on the vast mud flat.

I had to adjust the brightness on this image because it was a bit dark, but I did not enhance the blue at all!

And this one is 100% straight out of my camera.

The sky was gorgeous!

We even discovered the remnants of what used to be a house!
If you look closely you can see the other end of the foundation as well.

And inside it, all kinds of cool stuff.

Sis found the first piece of some sort of old pot.

We found more just like it, as well as some of a different color, old pipe, and the bottom of an iron!

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Our exploration also yielded a somewhat darker discovery.

No, not that raccoons have passed this way...though they have.

But this....

Uhhhhh, Honey??

Um, there is a debris field of sawed off bones over here!!!

They were mostly in this one spot, and the rest were scattered in about a 15ft radius.

We were officially creeped out.

This reservoir has had a history of revealing unsettling things, and the bones had obviously been cut, which made it even creepier.
J got on the phone with his "connections" to run the discovery past someone who could say for sure what they had come from.

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Upon evaluation, the consensus was that they probably belonged to a larger animal of some sort.

Phew!

I was really hoping that our fossil hunting field trip was not going to turn into a lesson in forensics!

Nevertheless, they were sectioning off the area when we left, because (according to J), they have to be sure.

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This whole area was farmland until the last 50 or 60 years when the reservoir was established. So we were probably standing where someones farm used to be.
On a related note, we spotted these on the walk back out.

When the land was cleared, the trees were cut down, but the stumps were never removed.

How'd you like to hit one of those with your boat motor?!

The kids had a great time exploring,

and had the filthy feet to show for it!

And here's the collection of our favorite things that we brought home with us.

-the iron

-the Gastropod fossil

-the light and dark pieces of pots

-a Zebra Mussel shell

-and the shell of an Asiatic Snail

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Thanks, Grandpa G!

They're still talking about their adventure!

Canine Clue

Guess what we did today?

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After Younger Brother and I finish school, I clean the house, make dinner, complete the evening routine with my many small children, get a batch of pictures out to a friend, shower, and get everyone into bed, I'll post pics so you can see!

Princes and Princesses

There is definitely a difference in play between boys and girls, at least between my boys and my girls. I was noticing the other day how very quiet it was in the next room. And it struck me that I was not immediately alarmed the way I might have been in years past. How very odd! Why? Because when the boys were younger (one in particular), silence was a sure giveaway that mischief was afoot. Quiet was (and sometimes still is) a bad sign!

But now with all of these little girls running around, it's strangely different.

I'm not sure I'm quite used to it.

But my house will frequently fall silent for increments of time.

And when it does, I go investigate,

and find this (or something like it)...
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Little Sis (and her sisters) will sit and quietly entertain themselves for extended periods of time, constructively!

These Disney figurines are a household favorite (Little Sis raises her voice nearly an octave to narrate the interaction between them, as if her voice weren't high pitched enough already!) :)

And I have even caught them........looking at books!
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Yes, it is a different world indeed.

(Not that the boys don't also have their own wonderful characteristics to offer!)

*Boys - I love all of the excitement you bring to my life!*

But it is nice to enjoy a moment of quiet...
Yes, enjoy a moment of quiet...

every once in a while,

without the consequent repercussions of finding a flooded bathroom and the dog in handcuffs.
:)

Sleeping Babe

Princess A, you are "fearfully and wonderfully made."

Psalm 139:14

-Love, God

Good night, sleep tight, see you in the morning light.
I love you.
-Love, Mommy