New rug

For those of you who really understand our despise for our dog these days, let me start off by saying, this is NOT Izzy.

One could only hope. Kidding!!! (Or am I?) Hmmmm... Movin' on....

I've always wanted a conversation piece like this....and we decided upon a nice coyote fur rug.




Combos as a nice warm scarf.




Or a hand puppet...




All kidding aside, this coyote entered my home tonight while having our small group from church over. I was in such shock of its uniqueness I had to share.

This belongs to our friend, Mr. Rob (as Allie calls him). Mr Rob shot a coyote while hunting recently and had him....what do you call it, skinned??? Gives me the willies.

So long naps

Say it isn't so!!!!!

Allie has been on the verge of giving up her naps for a few months now. But, I would ignore her "I'm not tired" pleads and force her to lay down and try to sleep.

Lately she has been eating everything in sight and wants to sleep until 9:00 a.m. (I know, dont hate me....do keep in mind I still have to wake up with my early riser 18 month old). I understand this is a growth spurt, but she is 4. And, does just fine without naps.

I only want her to continue naps for selfish reasons....ME time!

So, this is our first week of no naps. We have been successful with "quiet time" in her room or either watching a movie in the play room. She understands she is not allowed to come out of her room until I come in and get her....or until the movie is over.

She is being completely cooperative and obediant with her new found freedom; which I am thankful for.

BUT, I am saddened to say, So long naps. You will be missed!

Bad day

I love this little girl.

But, we had a bad day last week. It seemed everything we did, we butted heads.




This particular bad day, Allie decided to "pass her nap". (There's my red flag.)

Instead of a nap, we agreed upon one hour of quiet time in her room.

But, I quickly realized Allie and I had different definitions of "quiet". It sounded like a herd of elephants up in her room....banging, jumping, dropping, crashing.




Later on in the day she ended up shutting herself in our downstairs toy closet. I tried to talk to her, but she wanted nothing to do with me.

So she shut the door again, only to emerge an hour and a half later after taking a power nap.




We have since had much better days! Today was one of them.

Allie had school this morning, "passed her nap" this afternoon, and had Miss Katelyn come over to play for a bit.

I love you Allie. And even though we may have bad days from time to time....I will always love you and I am so thankful for you.

Prayer for Dot

Please keep my grandmother in your prayers.

She tripped in the middle of the night on her way to get a sip of water and fell face first into the floor.

She broke her nose and had to get 16 stitches in her tongue.

I talked to her this afternoon and she is doing fine and thankful she only broke her nose! She told me she looks like a panda with black large circles surrounding her eyes. Bless her heart.

Please keep her in your prayers as she recovers from her fall.

Find the light

In my short journey with photography, I've quickly learned that light is the key to a good photo. DUH, right?

Pick a window, any window and get the subject to face it. I'm sure there is a way to shoot a backlit subject....but I'd rather work with the light than against it.

This particular picture, Gabe was hanging on my leg wanting me to pick him up. I see a lot of this now-a-days. He chases me around the house, "momma, momma, momma". I remember Allie doing this when she was his age. I remember being pretty good at ignoring her...




...But Gabe is different.



I just want to scoop him up and eat his jaws.




There is just something about little boys! I love every inch of him.

And to think I was favoring wanting another girl when we found out we were expecting again.

The old barn

Another Beeeeaaaauuuuutiful day.

After naps we headed out to this old barn that is a couple miles down the road from us. I'm getting pretty good now at this trespassing thing.

I could say that Allie was blowing her dear little brother a kiss in this photo. But really, she was taking dead leaves and putting peices into her hand and blowing them off into her brother's face.




Allie's eyes are slightly out of focus, but this is still my favorite shot of the day.




This is what an 18th month old little boy looks like when let loose in an old barn....snotty nose + dirt = muddy face. Notice his hands? All mud. I caught him eating it too.




Allie shut the barn doors a little too hard....and we interrupted some sleeping animals in the loft. I grabbed the kids and we were out of there pronto!

Out and about

Whew...Allie is well!

It only took her 6 days to get over whatever she had (except for the horrible hacking cough...but she'll probably have that until next month). I say it was the flu....doc says a "flu like virus". What's the difference?

Regardless, we were cooped up in the house for the week trying to keep Allie away from others. Gabe and I both had flu shots....Allie did not. Just sayin'....




Everyone knows how cold it is has been here in the warm south. Our little sandbox had filled with water and the cold temps froze it solid. The kids had a time "ice skating". Don't worry about Allie not having on a jacket. It was actually 60 degrees out this day.

So glad your feeling better sweetie!