Girls Just Wanna Have Fun!

2010-08-30T21:49:00.002-04:00

A WORLD AWAY!

Saturday we took Mike to the airport, and said our goodbyes. Little Pearl shed lots of tears, which caused this mommy to start crying. Mike was heading to Africa for the next two weeks. After 28 hours of Travel with a lay over in Amsterdam he finally arrived in Nairobi, Kenya. So far he has had lots of great coffee met with some board members and had pizza at a mall. Sounds rough haha. Tuesday morning (which is actually only in a few hours Kenya time) he will be leaving the Capitol City and jumping on a very tiny plane and flying to Northern Kenya. There he will be experiencing life in a whole new way. I am praying for his experience and interactions during this time are both enlightening and help him to continue to grow a heart for Blood Water Mission's mission! Please say a prayer for him to have a safe flight on the puddle jumpers and to be blessed and be a blessing! Pray for me and the girls as well will probably not hear from him until Friday or Saturday since it may be hard to get internet and Pearl is really missing her daddy. Click on this enlightening video of Larachi, a very rural and poor village sharing the need for water and how it affects so many things. I believe he said this is one of the places they will be visiting.

2010-08-22T22:47:00.002-04:00

First Day of Kindergarten

Rose had a hard time waking up for school. Her school starts at 7:40 which is early for a little girl who usually doesn't wake up before 8:00.

We snapped a quick picture before we rushed into the car to go.

We love her kindergarten teacher Ms. Carter. She has been teaching for 37 years! At "Back to School Night" she told the parents that she wants us to know that she loves our children and had been praying for them to be in her class this year. what a wonderful thing to hear from a public school teacher.

She had a few "new" outfits for school but they were mostly too hot for starting school in early August in TN. So Rose picked this dress out at one of our favorite consignment stores.

She also picked out her own shoes. They are not exactly what I would have picked for her, however she loves her "Twinkle Toes". I can still remembermy favorite shoes in Elementary school. I had Kangaroos that I kept my lunch money in the zipper pouch and then I remember a pair of Nike's where the "swoosh" was rainbow colored but sort of changed colors when you moved. So cool!
Rose does not have a lot of time to each lunch at school so she shared her leftovers with her little sisters. Now when we pick Rose up from school Violet gets excited when she sees Rose's lunch box and says "cracker-cracker" and Rose always finds something to share with her baby sister.

2010-08-03T15:32:00.004-04:00

Violet's 1st Birthday Brunch!

We have been busy and I have not been very good about blogging lately. I am going to try to catch up this week. I'll start with my sweet girl turning one in June!

She enjoyed the singing since we had been singing Happy Birthday to her all week!

Violet's friends-neighbors Silas, Stewart and Anna Rose. (We are blessed to live right next door to great friends.) We ask Violet "Who are your friends?" we say "Silas and..?" she says "Stew-ett".

The birthday girl with Mommy and Daddy!

She loved her party and was in a great mood the whole day!
She is very social and enjoyed all the people.

Her stroller and her babies are her favorite toys.

Originally I wanted to a do a "violet" theme, however she loves ducks so I thought this would be more fun for her. I made the cake just hoping it would look enough like a duck for Violet to recognize it. When she saw it she said "quack-quack"!

I made the "Happy Birthday Violet" banner by just printing out letters in color and gluing them on my scrapbook paper. A good way to use all my cute paper since I have not been scrapbooking in a long time.

The tissue paper ball directions are on Martha Stewart's website. The hardest part is cutting through all of the layers. The delicious blueberry muffins are from my neighbor, Debra. Mike made Lemon Ricotta pancakes with homemade lemon curd. (He used to work for the Sunkist and travel with the "Lemon Lady".) We also had several types of quiche, hashbrown caserole and fresh fruit.

My mom (aka Mim) came to celebrate Violet's special day.

Dear Violet,
You are so precious to our whole family. Even with two girls in the house already daddy and I were so glad to have another baby girl. Every morning and after nap when I get you out of the crib I am just as excited to see you as you are to see me. You are a very smiley and happy baby and like to be around people. You are also very independent and already know what you want. You have the worst temper in the family when you don't get your own way! You love to play with your sister and are starting to say "Sissy" when you talk about them. Pearl loves to kiss you and can really get you laughing but when you are done you let her know . Rose loves to talk to you and teach you new signs and words. You are talking more every day and even impressed your pediatrician at your one year check-up when she asked if you are babbling and I told her you can say words like chocolate and cupcake. You giggled when I asked you to say it for her but a few minutes later when you were ready you said "Chocolate". You also say Cracker, duck, quack-quack, Mama, Mommy, Dadda, Violet, Stewart, six (when we ask you how old you are and when you pretend to count objects), baby, cupcake, fish, and sissy. You can sign all done, more, please, outside, swing, tree, bunny, squirrel, and fish. You love to clap and dance to music and now you try to sing along. You have been taking steps for awhile now but did not really "walk" at your first birthday. Just this week you have started to walk most of the time. You have also been finally sleeping through the night so I am not yet taking your pacifier away for fear of you keeping me up a gain. You drink whole milk from a sippy cup and eat all regular food. You are a little pickier then your sisters but you love all fruits, bananas and watermelon are you favorites. You eats lots of yogurt. You weigh 23 pounds and have the yummiest chubby legs still.
We love you to pieces baby girl and are so glad we are blessed to have you in our family.
Hugs and Kisses,
Mama

2010-05-24T14:25:00.003-04:00

My Healthy-Yummy Oatmeal Cookies
(sorry no picture but we ate them all)

In my quest to find healthy but still tasty oatmeal cookies I have combined and tweaked several different recipes and come up with these delicious cookies. We add different add ins each time and often divide the batch in half and make chocolate chip craisen for Pearl and I and raisin coconut for Mike and Rose. This is actually for a double batch and I usually freeze at least half of the dough in small balls on a cookie sheet. Press them flat before freezing so they defrost easier. Once the balls are frozen (about an hour) I toss them in a gallon freezer Ziploc and then can pull them out as I need them. I usually let the frozen cookies set out on cookie sheet about 10 minutes while the oven preheats.

If you don't want to freeze them you can cut the recipe in half.

Cream together
2c. butter softened
1c. brown sugar
1/2c. white sugar
4 eggs
4tsp vanilla

Mix dry ingredients
1 1/2 C, White flour
1 1/2 C, Wheat flour
2 tsp. Baking SODA
1 tsp. salt
2 Tablespoons Flaxseed

Combine wet and dry ingredients well then add
6 Cups of Oatmeal ( or one whole container of small size 18 oz)
(at this point you may want to split the batter in half to make two different types of oatmeal cookies)

Now add any other ingredients such as
Craisins
Raisins
nuts
Coconut
Chocolate chips

Bake at 375 degrees for 10 min.
Makes about 60 cookies. I use my pampered chef scoop to make them nice and round.
My girls love to have these for breakfast. They tell me they are healthy so are good for breakfast. I am sure they are better for them then many sugar flavored- artificially colored cereals.

2010-05-20T12:04:00.004-04:00

Violet is 11 months already!

Violet you are 11 months old and the light of our lives. Your sisters love to play with you and make you laugh and you let them know (especially Pearl) when you have had enough hugs. You love to be kissed and tickled and have the best laugh. You are a happy independent baby and love to crawl around exploring your world. You love to play in water and try to get in the tub each time you are in the bathroom. If we are not looking you will be happy to just splash your hands in the toilet water. Speaking of toilet you are very good at using it for the proper use too. Since you were about 6 months old mama began putting on you on the potty if you had to poop and you quickly became quite good at peeing on the potty also. While you are not potty trained you do pee in the potty several times a day when I put you on it. Now if only you could tell us when you want to sit on the potty. That won't be to far off as you are following in the footsteps of your big sisters and showing signs of being an early talker. You can say baby, Hi Dad, bye, duck, quack, cracker, clap, good job (well sort of), doggie (gigi) and have even said strawberry and Cherrio once. Occasionally you say mama, but you are definitely a daddy's girl. You also use baby signs for several words, more, all done, potty, dog, bird, wind, rain, duck, swing, tree, flower. You love to go in your swing in the backyard, play with your baby dolsl, put the balls in your ball popper and call daddy on my cell phone. Anytime I am on the phone you yell "dada-dada-dada" no matter who I am talking to and try to take the phone away from me. You push things around the house to practice walking including push toys, your doll stroller, stools and even dining room chairs. You are not really interested in walking without holding on yet but have started to stand up without holding onto things until you realize what you are doing. You eat regular food and usually just have what we are having. You do seem to be a bit pickier then your sisters when it comes to eating veggies and prefer to smush your peas rather then eating them. You are almost weaned from nursing and drink whole milk from a sippy cup throughout the day. You weigh 21lbs and are wearing 6-12 months and some 12-18 months. And as sweet as you are you have an awful temper when you don't get your own wa,y but we love you and won't give into your little fits. Some day you will thanks us for that. We are praying that when you grow up you can use your strong will for helping others. We love you and are so glad God blessed our family with you.

2010-05-13T10:59:00.004-04:00

Cinco de Mayo

2010-04-16T14:18:00.002-04:00

Five and a HALF!!!

This past Sunday Rose celebrated her 1/2 birthday!

She got to spend some special time with mommy.
She loves all things crafty, so I took her to paint pottery.

She had fun painting a crown piggy bank.

She painted it all by herself. I had to get my own project to paint so I wouldn't not tell her what to do. Haha!

The top of her crown bank. Anyone that has painted pottery knows it is not easy to write with the paint pens. I think she did a great job. We also got to go in the back room and see the kilns and the steps in glazing the pottery. She is excitedly waiting to pick up her finished piece this Sunday. The colors will be much bolder and shiny.

This is a picture of Rose outside of the factory in Franklin where the pottery store is located. Isn't she gorgeous and so grown up. We keep asking her were did our baby go and how did she get so tall.

While Rose and I were out Daddy and Pearl baked this 1/2 birthday cake for her!
Tomorrow is Pearl's 1/2 birthday! More surprises coming soon...

2010-03-30T11:41:00.003-04:00

Violet is 9 months old!

Momma is so sad because her baby is growing up too fast!

She has been growing some dark hair!

I hope her eyes stay this violet blue color.
I love the combination of dark hair and blue eyes.

She is crawling and has figured out that she can follow me from room to room.

She is very sweet!

She has learned to pull up on anything and practices "walking" by pushing the girls step stool around on the kitchen floor.

She melts her our hearts with her smile.

Violet is happy most of the time as long as she has her own way.

She puts up with her big sisters lovin on her but lets them know when she has had enough!

Violet loves her dollies so much that she has learned to say "Baba" for baby doll. She also says "baba" for bye bye when she waves. Her other favorite word is Dada. We are also teaching her some sign language her favorite signs are milk, banana and more.

She has learned to clap and loves to clap when she hears music or people clapping on TV.
While we were watching the Olympics Hockey game between the US and Canada she was clapping away when Canada won because she heard all of the people clapping.

Violet has the cutest rolls and weighs 20 lbs now. She is a great eater and is now eating mostly table food. She has 6 teeth three on the bottom and three on the top. Haha.

She loves to have her toes tickled especially by Dada.
We love you very much precious baby girl!

2010-03-17T15:34:00.003-04:00

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

...or not! Violet throws some pretty good tantrums! (ALREADY!)

Trying to get a good picture of three kids is impossible!

Since the baby was the only one looking at the camera I just cropped her sisters out of this one!

For breakfast Mike bought us some Irish soda bread.
It is a little dry, but anything is good with cream cheese and sugar sprinkles on it.

Pearl trying to figure out how to celebrate Easter and St. Patricks's day all at once.

Actually she is trying to be Laura Ingalls Wilder (notice the braids) but this is as close at they can find to a bonnet. The girls (especially Pearl) are OBSESSED with pretending that we are the family in "Little House on the Prarie." Mike and I are Ma and Pa, Rose is Mary, Pearl is Laura, and Violet is baby Carrie. Funny how they won't obey right away when I say Rose go to the bathroom or Pearl time for bed, but if I say "Mary go use the outhouse and Laura go climb in the covered wagon for a rest." they obey so quickly. HAHA!

2010-01-13T11:53:00.002-05:00

JOY
These girls bring us so much JOY! I had the wonderful idea (if I may say so myself) a few months ago that this year for our Christmas card I would get some letters to spell out JOY and have my girls each hold a letter. I bought the letters a few months ago and even spray painted them silver. However between getting our house ready to sell, packing, hosting Thanksgiving, moving, sniffly kids and the fact the we don't even have a new permanent address yet we never got around to taking the pictures or sending out Christmas cards. I also did not really get a any good pictures of the girls over Christmas so on Sunday nearly two weeks after Christmas we took our Christmas pictures. I really wanted to get one of the five of us but we didn't get around to that yet maybe next month. Anyway here are a few of the pictures that you may have seen on your Christmas Card if we had sent one out this year. May your New Year be full of JOY!

2010-01-03T22:18:00.007-05:00

They Froze Charlie Brown

On Christmas Night Mike and the girls went to see ICE at Opryland Hotel. It was 14 degrees in there so Violet and I enjoyed walking around the hotel looking at the decorations.

Rose loved it and didn't notice the cold to much.

Pearl was freezing to death and couldn't wait to go so she could warm up.

Both girls were very excited to tell me that they met the real Charlie Brown. They also enjoyed going down the ice slide, however we have video not photos of that.

2009-12-27T23:06:00.004-05:00

Gingerbread House Fun!

This is a tradition we started when Rose was two and the girls love to create and then nibble on their houses.

Violet didn't participate in making Gingerbread houses but we dressed her like a little Gingerbread baby and she is sweet enough to just gobble right up!

2009-12-25T01:08:00.002-05:00

Merry Christmas from the Lendas!

2009-12-02T21:01:00.002-05:00

NO News is GOOD News!

Five years ago this month we moved away from Nashville, TN. Rose was just 2 months old.
We left behind many great friends not to mention yummy restaurants and beautiful scenery. As we drove away I cried for the many friends I would miss.

Three years ago this month we moved away from Hollywood, FL. Pearl was just 2 months old, Rose was 2 years old. We left behind great friends, yummy Cuban food, sunshine and sand. As we flew over "our beach" I cried knowing I would miss living so close to the beach.

I told Mike that if we ever had another baby I just wanted to have lots of time to hold and rock my baby and not have to pack and unpack.

He kept his promise for the first four months of Violet's life. I had the luxury of holding my baby and not having to worry about packing.

Until now...
Once again we find ourselves with a new baby and moving during her first Christmas. The good news is that we are moving back to Nashville where we have lots of wonderful friends, the winter is a little milder and going out to eat includes at least a half a dozen different Mexican restaurant options. Mike has a wonderful job opportunity partnering with a Christian organization called Blood:Water Mission, working to relieve the HIV/Aids and water crisis in Africa.

We would appreciate your prayers for us during this transition time. This week my mom and I are packing like crazy, while caring for my crazy girls. Mike will be flying home tomorrow to help finish up the packing. He will drive the girls and I to TN this weekend. Please pray that our house sells quickly.

2009-11-09T16:05:00.004-05:00

Please join me in praying for sweet, one year old, Stellan. He is having major heart surgery right now. You can read updates on MckMama's Blog and her twitter page.

2009-11-08T22:29:00.002-05:00

Birthday Party!

I made this big Hello Kitty to play pin the nose on Hello Kitty. It was so cute I decided to make several more to hang up for decorations.

My FIVE year old.

We sang Happy Birthday separately for each girl.
(I got the idea from John and Kate plus Eight. At least something good came out of that show.)

What a sweet three year old!

Sisters, Best friends forever!

Violet hanging our with our neighbor Cara.

The kids made a Hello Kitty craft. I had the materials cut out ahead of time.

The girls enjoyed having their friends over.

Rose's birthday is a few days before Pearl's birthday and she got a card in the mail with Five dollars. Rose was so excited that she had money to buy a present for her sister. Here she is giving Pearl the present she picked out for her.

2009-10-31T22:48:00.002-04:00

Happy Halloween

Pearl was not supposed to be a scary pumpkin but the combination of a wiggly three year old and a daddy who is (thankfully) not an expert at applying make-up and this is what we ended up with.

All of their costumes show a little of their personalities. Rose, always the princess, Pearl my little joker, and Violet our snuggle bunny.

Rose and Pearl with the neighbor girls.

Checking out the loot. I got my cute Pearl back!

2009-10-31T14:28:00.004-04:00

Pumpkin Carving Party

Last Saturday we were invited to a pumpkin carving party. The evening was complete with Chili, mac-n-cheese, plenty of pumpkin desserts and prizes. It was so fun Mike and I decided it was something we would like to steal the idea, until we remembered that we already have two October Birthdays. Perhaps we can find a way to combine the parties.

Hope you have fun this evening welcoming in the fall season.

2009-10-29T21:39:00.002-04:00

Pumpkin Carving Prayers and Stories

Just wanted to share these fun ideas to bring make your Pumpkin carving an object lesson. I wish I had found these before we carved our pumpkin this year but will use them next year.

Lord, Open my mind so I can learn about You;
(Cut the top of the pumpkin)

Take away all my sin and forgive me for the wrong things I do.
(Clean out the inside)

Open my eyes so Your love I will see;
(Cut the eyes out in heart shapes)

I'm so sorry for turning up my nose to all you've given me.
(Cut a nose in the shape of a cross)

Open my ears so your word I will hear.
(Cut the ears shaped like the Bible)

Open my mouth so I can tell others You're near
(cut the mouth in the shape of a fish)

Let Your light shine in all I say and do! Amen.
(Place a candle inside and light it)

THE PETER PUMPKIN STORY

Theme:
When the light of Jesus, shining through us flickers and goes out because of sin in our life, Jesus’ death can restore that light.

Materials:
One pumpkin, ready to carve, sharp knife, candle for inside of pumpkin, matches

Procedure:
Have children offer their suggestions on how to carve a face in the pumpkin. Proceed to carve a mouth, nose, and two eyes. Insert the candle and light.

Story:
"Now let’s pretend that this pumpkin is one of our friends. Let’s name him Peter Pumpkin. Pete Pumpkin is in (pick a grade or class that matches your group) like us."

Peter woke up one morning bright and happy and ready for the day. His light was shining and he felt good. Let’s see what happens Peter’s day.

"Oh, Peter!" cried his mother, "Did you remember to brush your teeth this morning?" "Yes, Mother," Peter lied. He really hadn’t brushed his teeth, but if he stopped
to do it now, he’d be late for school! So Peter lied. Peter’s mouth wasn’t shining quite so brightly any more. (Put the mouth piece from the pumpkin back in the mouth hole)

So Peter went on his way to school. He felt kind of bad lying to his mother, but he wasn’t going to let it spoil his day. When he got to school, some of his friends were
playing with the toys already. Peter went over, too, but they had already started using the ones he wanted. (you can adapt this to be art supplies or whatever matches
your group) Peter wanted the toys too. When one of the boys left, to go talk to his teacher, Peter took the toy. Oops, there goes part of Peter’s happy face. (insert eye piece)

Continue with similar stories for the remaining parts of the pumpkin face, each time, inserting another piece until the whole face is back in place. Watch what happens to
the light.

"Peter’s light has gone out. His face is all dark and sad now."
(Relate this to sin in our lives.)

"There is a way for Peter’s face to get bright and happy again. It’s the same way that our sin can get taken care of. Do you know who helps our sin?"

With the answer of "Jesus" --carve a cross into the other side of the pumpkin. Pop out the face pieces again, and light the candle.

"With Jesus in your life, your light will never go out. The Bible tells us that Jesus is our light and that when He shines through us, our sins are forgiven and His love shines through instead!"

Relate how we may still sin (at this point put the pieces back into the face, except the cross) but with Jesus, the light will not go out--He is with us always!

Use your "Christian Jack-O-Lantern" at home and shine the cross out the window on October 31st. A witness for all the passers-by!

(originally from *Karen Schuster, Redeemer Lutheran--Flint, MI)

Jack O’ Lantern Poem

I am a Jack O’ Lantern
My lights will shine so bright
For I’m a Christian pumpkin
My symbols tell what’s right

My nose is like the cross
On which our Savior died
To set us free from sin
We need no longer hide

My mouth is like a fish
The whole wide world to show
That Christians live in this house
And love their Savior so!

The story starts at Christmas
My eyes are like the star
That shone on Baby Jesus
And wise men saw from far

My color, it is orange
Just like the big bright sun
That rose on Easter Day
Along with God’s own Son

And so on Halloween
Let’s set our pumpkins out
And tell the trick or treaters
What God’s love is all about!

2009-10-21T16:47:00.002-04:00

Violet is Four Months

I love this dress my friend Suzie gave me for Pearl. We love getting lots of use out of all our cute baby girl clothes! If you gave us an outfit for Rose or Pearl, we are still enjoying it now!

This little Chunka weighed in at 16 lbs 14oz and is 25 1/2 inches. She has officially doubled her birth weight of 8 lbs 4 oz.

Baby Doll!

These girls were both awake and in a good mood so I started to take their picture, after this one photo Violet spit up all over the place.

Wish I could keep her this size forever.

Violet hates tummy time. You can see the little strawberry birthmark on her lip.

This sweet monogrammed diaper cover was a gift from my friend Debra.
Look at those yummy rolls.

2009-10-20T15:58:00.002-04:00

Birthday Week!

f
Happy Birthday to both to both of my big girls! Rose turned Five last Sunday, and the cousins were here to celebrate. Pearl turned three on Saturday and we had a birthday party for both girls. I have tons of pictures to post and want to write about each of the girls at this age but have been too busy to get to it. Hopefully in the next few days I can get to that. Tomorrow I will be posting some sweet pictures of Violet who turned four months old last week. She goes to doctor tomorrow and we can't wait to see how big our chunky monkey is getting. I am guessing close to 16 pounds.
PS the cute Hello Kitty Cake was made by Mike. I love to make the girls cakes each year, but he decided he wanted to get in on the fun and I reluctantly handed over the task to him. Hopefully I get to make Violet's first birthday cake. (Don't tell her big sisters that Violet does not have to share her birthday, for now they have not figured it out and since there birthdays are only 6 days apart well they just have to share a party and cake for now, although we do sing to each one and let them blow out their own candles and then relight them for the other sister.)

2009-10-08T14:42:00.006-04:00

THE APPLE BUTTER FROLIC

This weekend we attended the Apple Butter Frolic. It is an old fashioned "fair" of sorts sponsored by the Mennonite Churches in the area. I attended this several times as a child and was excited to take Mike and the girls to it. My mom is also visiting so she enjoyed the beautiful (warm) fall day with us.

Rose playing in the corn bin.

The girl's loved watching the man make apple cider with an old fashioned press.

Violet all tuckered out!

Pearl and Rose got to "help" make the cider.

Violet hanging out with Mimere!

Mike and Pearl on the Hayride. The farmer, Mr. Mack, giving hayrides happened to be an old friend of ours when my family lived in Pennsylvania. We hadn't seen him in twenty years.

Rachel, Rose and Violet on the hayride. I often tell Rose stories of when I was a little girl and would help collect eggs at Mr. Mack's farm. After the hayride Mr. Mack invited us up to his farm and we are looking forward to going on Sunday, Rose's birthday, while my brother is in town.

The girls practicing their handwriting in an old fashioned school. Pearl is getting pretty good at writing the letter "P".

Isn't this quilt beautiful. I wish I could quilt like that.

Making corn husk dolls.

The hay maze, was one of my favorite childhood memories of the Apple Butter Frolic.

Another failed attempt to get a good picture of my three cuties together.

The food was delicious, well most of it. On the left is Scrapple (think scraps/sausage). It was served wet (not fried up) on bread over apple butter with horseradish on top. Mike said it was an interesting array of flavors but did not eat to much. I stuck with the yummy pork sandwich. I wish I had taken a picture of the desserts, Shoe-fly Pie, Gooseberry Pie, Pitted Cherry pie, Rhubarb Pie, Appledumplings and homemade blackberry ice cream.

2009-10-08T14:11:00.003-04:00

Here are just a few things that I remember coming out of Pearl's mouth this morning, I wish I could keep track of all of the funny things she says each day.

"Mom, I like tights and Cottage Cheese, now!"

After our trip to the Fire station this morning I asked her what she learned. "STOP and PLOP" (her version of stop, Drop and Roll)

"Rose, you pretend you are God and give me a message."

"God forgives everyone" I asked her what does he forgive us for? She replied "our yuckies!"

2009-09-24T23:12:00.006-04:00

"The Girls"
I am not referring to my three little ones pictured below...

My mom is here for a visit and the girls are enjoying spending time with their Mimere. She is also enjoying them. In typical Pearl fashion she has been cracking her up. The other day Pearl was in my room as I was changing my shirt, after being covered in baby spit-up. Pearl looks at me and says "Mim has flat boobs and you have up boobs!"
The next day as she is playing with her princess Barbie doll she whispers "Princess have boobs."
PS Thanks to my nursing babe for the up boobs;)

Rose heard me retelling the "flat and up boob story" to my brother on the phone. Rose who is much more modest and reserved, tells me that I can only tell that story to family and I better not tell my friends about that. When I was very pregnant with Violet and at the beach I wanted to get a little sun on my tummy and lifted my tankini to expose my baby belly. Rose was appalled that I would do such a thing and kept pulling my top back down.

It is funny how opposite Rose and Pearl are. I can't wait to see what Violet's personality will be like. Maybe you get a little glimpse of her developing personality in these pictures.

I call Violet Rose's little twin.

Have you ever seen a ballerina with legs like this?

Jeepers creepers where did she get those peepers?
Not from me. I am the oldest of four and we all have brown eyes, my mom is the oldest of 11 and they all have brown. I never thought I wold have a child with blue eyes and now I may have two blue eyed babies. (Violet's eyes are pretty blue still and seem to be getting lighter, time will tell.)

Don't you just want to kiss her?

2009-09-21T20:08:00.003-04:00

If only Violet could talk..

What do you think she would be saying? Help me come up with a caption for this photo.