reflections

This morning she silently crawled out of our bed and into the living room to find me. As she is rounding the corner I hear these sweet little words slip from her (as her daddy calls them) sugar lips, " hi sunshine!" I wanted to sit down and cry for joy. Instead I scooped her up and kissed her all over and returned her sentiments. I have, ever since she was born, greeted her first of all in the morning with either a, " Good morning, sunshine! " or " Good morning, beautiful!" To have your children reciprocate/communicate the overwhelming love we can't help but have for them, back to us, has got to be one of the top ten best feelings, the whole entire world over.




( In case you are wondering, I did in fact bribe her with chocolate chips to get her to sit still, unfortunately it didn't help my pictures to turn out all that clearly. I have the worst luck with that. )





The other thought I had is actually straight from the line of a familiar Christmas carol ...the dawn, of redeeming grace. " I love that. And can't get it off my mine. That is what Christmastime is all about for me.

{ Project Christmas Money }

Has officially begun.

{ before }

I am elfish-ly working to stock up my Esty shop with Christmas goodies, so I can earn that wished for Ipod to stick in David's stocking.

and

{ after }

{ 21 Months }

" This is my FAVORITE age. " Not that I haven't said that every month since she was born or anything. :)

Little girly-boo has been talking non-stop. Whole sentences. Chattering, as her daddy calls it. Just this morning she was sitting in her little red chair when she looked up at me and said, " I read the books." And after she was done with that she wanted to " write ABC's, Mommy," which entails a enthusiastic attempt to scribble on a piece of paper while reciting out-loud the 4 ABC's she can remember " ...A....B...C...X. "

She is obsessed with pockets right now. Her own, mine, a strangers in the grocery store. Unlike her mother, she is so observant. Walking through Target yesterday afternoon she points up towards the ceiling at a giant over sized stocking hanging above us and shouts," oh wow mommy. big sock! ".

Currently her favorite word is again which she pronounces as "gen."

Oh and get this, she asks to be tickled.

The other day I taught her to say, zip-i-dee-do-dah. And it comes out sounding so funny and cute. Also, she loves to add, too what ever she is saying...." Daddy _____ too?" or " Mommy _____ too?" For example in the car, she asks us to "pat" her leg when she is trying to settle down and go to sleep. So I reach back to pat her baby leg. And always she pipes up with a " Daddy pat...too? "

But as of yesterday my favorite is the dozens of times she asked for me to " sing please mommy... pum-pum. Gen!" She loves the "Little Drummer Boy." And I must have rum-pum-pum-pummed a thousand times yesterday, until I was practically hoarse. But it was so sweet to hear her randomly throw in an occasional mismatched " pum-pum,"and clap her little hands as I was singing to her. The days are going by so quickly. I want to make sure I treasure each and every one of them.

{ watching the cat play out in the front yard }

Remembering Thanksgiving

{ what I wish my table had looked like,

borrowed from Martha Stewart }

Here, in no certain order are the highlights of our Thanksgiving Day:

• Having so much help with getting ready
• Orange red and white tulips that David's Mom brought me
• I was impressed with this thought all day long: just how thankful I am for family who are friends and friends who are family.
• pot upon pot of really good coffee
• Annabelle in her little checked apron, and me in my vintage red and white polka dot one
• of course all day I meant to take pictures, and then of course I never did
• Instead of having turkey again (since it would have been our 3rd turkey dinner of the week) we made Swedish Meatballs, cooked to perfection in the crockpot and served over mashed potatoes.
• Trader Joes Sparkling Blueberry Juice. It was such a hit
• the boys playing football out in the back yard
• when I went out to watch, David raced over, swooped me off the ground and started twirling me around and around. I am seriously in love with that man.
• hearing everyone rave about how great dinner waslaughter, and lots of it, filling every corner of my house
• watching Annabelle being doted on
• playing a impromtu game of musical chairs, there was not a dry eye in the room, we were laughing so hard
• wishing the night didn't have to end
• writing on slips of paper " I am thankful for ________." And reading them outloud in the living room later.
• serving peppermint ice cream, along with blackberry and pecan pies
• hugs and hugs and more hugs goodbye
• a late night game marathon with our best friends
• crawling into bed with that feeling of satisfaction, for the gift of such a beautiful, truly blessing-filled, happy day.

Pictures we are NOT using on our Christmas Card

But it doesn't mean I don't love them.

Small Sidenote: I have always told David that I think Matt Damon looks like him. And then of course I add, " but he doesn't hold a candle to you babe." So I was in the grocery store yesterday when I saw that Matt Damon was named the sexiest man of the year. And I chuckled out loud, which of course earned me looks from the people behind me in line, as thought to myself,

" now isn't that fitting ! " :)

Another small side note: From Somewhere and someone in the last couple days Annabelle has picked up "mmm hmmm." She says it about everything. Really darling. As is everything else she says, with the small exception of, " NO" and " MINE."

Stay tuned. Christmas Cards are in the works. :)

On The Giving of Thanks...

"Nothing taken for granted;

everything received with gratitude;

everything passed on with grace."

G. K. Chesterton

{ I just love you }

{ Little Balls of Christmas Joy }

Inspired by this inspiring ladie's latest blog I set out to come up with my own version of these Pottery Barn Ribbon Ornaments. So I am totally in a Christmas-ish mood. Which is wierd because normally I'm the one who has to lock myself in my bedroom the night before Christmas Eve, to wrap stuff. Obviously this year is going to be different and that's fine with me.

And after seeing this sweet pile of gifts. I have officailly decided to dub this my Christmas Inspiration Picture of the year. These are my colors. And I am going to try and see if I can come close to mirroring this look under my Christmas tree.

Here's a look at last evenings project:

Tickled with the results.

{ Window Shopping }

Yesterday we felt enough like our back to normal, healthy selves, to go out. And we haven't been out of the house for fun in over a week and a half, so you can imagine how truly refreshing it was to meet friends at the mall. We wandered from store to store. Being in this mall is like what I call walking through catalog land. Because you get to see in real life all the pretty things you admire while sitting at your kitchen table pouring over the catalog that just came in the mail. We Sipped on these:

And I did my imaginary Christmas picture wardrobe shopping. Consisiting of this little sweater dress, from the GAP for Babykins.

This outfit for David. Who I am currently on a campaign to convince him to switch careers and take up modeling. Seriously. I think de'd be the perfect Eddie Bauer Model.

And this sweet pea green pea coat for me, from J. C. Crew. So deliciously green!

Then there was this pair of sheets that we ran into at Pottery Barn that I just totally fell for.

We took a stroll through Tiffany's to admire all the sparklies.

The ring below is my favorite Tiffany piece. The picture below the ring I like even better.

We had to stop in and smell at Illuminations and of course oooo and awww over these lovely bird I was going to say cages, but they are really more like cathedrals.

And by far the most fun we had was upon entering the Pottery Barn Kids Store, where Annabelle played with this

and this and all the other mini sized satisfied cutsomers running around the store.

We even had a little tea party.

The best part by far was the sharing of excellent company , converstations, and laughter. Who says you have to spend money to have fun?

{ Melt away the gloom }

The sickies have visited our house. Going on four days now. But I am begining to see through the coughing and aches and feverish foreheads that healthy days are soon to be again . The upside is that my normally unsnuggley girl has been doing a lot of snuggling in the last few days. Or in her own words, " snuggy, Mommy snuggy!" It's sad and pitiful and sweet! And right now she is somewhere inbetween feeling to weak to move from my lap and feeling well enough to run circles around the house, which means she is being a crab. Which makes me want to cry. Until this knock comes to my front door. It's the postman with a package. A unexpected package from this dear lady. She always seems to know when pick-me-up is needed. Bless your heart then, for blessing mine so much today. And and all those other days.

{ We opened the box to have these pretty contents spill out }

{ You should have heard me squeal because the wrapping was so pretty I could hardly bring myself to open them up. That lasted like 35 seconds. }

{ And look what was inside, stacks and stacks of the most marvelous spools of ribbon}

{ A pair of earrings I absolutely adore }

{ And all these other fabulous goodies, including the most darling little vintage tableclothe I have ever laid eyes on}

And yes, incase you are wondering, I most certainly do consider myself spoiled.

{ Weekend Review }

I've got to hurry up an post this before the it becomes { Last Weekend Review }.

We spent last weekend enjoying the company of "Auntie" Deb and our twin nephew and neice, Jesse and Mari. They are exactly three months older than Annabelle so you can only imagine the ammounts of fun that we have when our "three twinies" as we call them, are together. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. How about _ pictures? We had the best time together, playing, singing, reading, running, eating, chasing the cat, dancing, baking pies, playing at the park, dinner with dear family, getting to feed Lucy, and Dottie and Ethel, the sheep apples, and with only the very occasional "mine" thrown in every now and then .

And Deb and I were even able to sneak away for a few hours to Target, where we just had so much fun sipping our Starbucks and browsing down aisles, that didn't include diapers. Because David so sweetely offered to stay at home to watch all three babies. And yes, he is that awesome. And we felt that spoiled. So without further commentary, I will add pictures.

{ communal brushing of the teeth }

{ All boy! }

{ running in the back yard, probably chasing the cat, poor George }

{ reading Karen Katz books, thank you Fairlight!}

{ Dancing in the kitchen, a favorite pastime of ours }

{ helping to feed Aunt Lynne's sheep }

{ Mari was brave enough to do it all on her own }

{ cousin-ly affection }

{ our beautiful Auntie Deb }

{ three twins }