Monday, December 16, 2013

Ho Ho Ho?

I've never really cared about Santa.

Several reasons:
- I'm not cool with outright lying to my children.
- I put great thought into what I give them.
- The idea of a fat man keeping an eye on them all year is creepy.
- Being "good" just for presents isn't what I teach.
- Christmas is about GIVING, not omgwhatdidsantabringme!?
- etc.

When Sophie was turning 4, she learned about Santa from friends.
Eh, ok. I didn't feel the need to spoil her fun.
We went to see Santa at the mall. We wrote him a letter. We made cookies and left them out with a glass of milk. The whole shebang.

Sophie is a curious and very bright kid..
Every once and a while she would ask, "is Santa real?"
To which I would always respond, "what do you think?"
Her answer ranged from "I don't know," to "I think so."

Then there was today.  We were singing Jingle Bells while doing school. Everyone was giggling and happy. I informed Sophie that Christmas is next week.

"We need to make cookies for our friends."
"And Santa," she added. 
She leaned in close and smiled from ear to ear.
 Then she whispered, "I know he's not real." 
"Oh?"
"Ya. I found presents in a blue bucket last year," she started giggling.

Rather than lie and try to form some sort of elaborate Santa story, I just smiled.
" It's fun to pretend though, huh?"
"Ya!"

And we went right on laughing and singing.

She is still just as happy about Christmas. She is still just as excited about wrapping the gift she got her sister. She was even excited about getting a picture with the Santa at our church party.



1 parenting hurdle down, 1,000,000,000 to go!


Saturday, November 9, 2013

Adventure Time

Our super sweet costumes.

BMO
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Princess Bubblegum
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Marceline the Vampire Queen
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Lumpy Space Princess
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Cinnamon Bun
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And the super cute cousins we went Trick or Treating with:

A jack-o-lantern
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A spider
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And a vampire
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We had lots of fun and got tons of candy!
I freaking love Halloween.

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Monday, November 4, 2013

School Pictures


We homeschool.
Most of you already know this.

Since we homeschool, we don't get "school pictures."
You know, those absurdly expensive packets of nonsense?

PFFT

I decided to take my own, because I'm awesome like that.
Plus, my pictures are much cuter.


Sophie was first.

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Then Katie.

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And Melody.

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Where was Mya and Allie?
Doing this:

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I bribed Allie to stand still with goldfish.

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Didn't work so well with Mya.
She wandered off to mope.
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Sophie went to comfort her.

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Tasha was more than happy to hold Finn, while I chased down the children.

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Then all the girls ran off to play.

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Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Frogs, Snails, & Puppy Dog Tails

I never had any desire to have a boy.
Ever.

The male species has often played the villainous role in my life.
Abusive.
Manipulative.
Selfish.
Controlling.
Just plain evil.

 As a result of my life experiences, I generally don't trust anything with a penis.
Emotionally healthy?
Probably not, but it's how I do.



Anywho.
Sophie announced that she was going to have a baby brother about 2 years ago.
I dismissed it as a cute thought.

A year later we had a surprise pregnancy.
A few months after that, we found out it was a boy.

Everyone was over the moon.
(by "everyone" I mean my mother)
"Are you excited?"
"How fun!"
"Are you happy?"

Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
Sure?



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Then I gave birth to my beautiful boy.
I am so completely in love.

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I get to teach him how to be a gentleman.
He will learn to be compassionate and respectful.
He is beautiful and innocent.
I get to teach him.

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Thursday, October 10, 2013

The Ranch

My brother, Jared, used to work for a lovely lady.
This lovely lady owns a ranch in the middle of nowhere.
We were invited to a party at said ranch.



I officially want to own a ranch.

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So many trees, fresh air, chickens, horses, and TREES!
(I love trees.)


Despite the insane humidity, and being drenched with sweat, everyone loved it.
Well, everyone except Denny.
He hates sunshine and fresh air.
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We were there for several hours, but I only had a small window to take pictures.
Finn was tired and rather unhappy about the heat.
So I got what I could, and just tried to enjoy myself the rest of the time.


The big red swing was a hit.

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The main attraction was definitely the horse riding.

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ALL the kids loved riding.

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ENJOY THE PICTURES!

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