When the kids get the camera

You get some memorable photos. Like these:



I'll spare you the blurry close-ups of the inside of noses.

Love these kids!

Here are some more respectable shots:

Hayden really likes reading to Kate. He's making her smart for me. Thanks, H!

Jillian went outside on our snow day (1/2 inch maybe) last week and made this cute little guy. She's the only one who was interested in playing in the snow.

PC or not, Kara's preschool did a little Thanksgiving play and she was an Indian.
As in Native American.

Fashion Friday - a day late

I am determined to keep up my fashionista side, despite the fact that I don't weigh what I'd like to. I am getting stronger and losing weight, but it is also coming off very slowly. So I have decided to embrace my curvaceous self and get on with things! No use fretting over something I can't really change, right? So here are a couple of recent outfits. I've decided I need to get better photos and be more willing to be photographed. I feel very silly getting a photo taken of just me. But I shouldn't, right? I should just be more fun and outgoing. Right! (Do I sound like I'm talking myself into this? Because I am.) I am also going to resist buying new clothes until I lose some more weight. As a result, I will need to experiment with making the best of what I have. We'll see how that goes in the coming weeks.

I loved belting things last fall and winter. It's a bit harder to do when nursing, but I still made it work. I wore this outfit to church one Sunday.

Hey, where'd this come from? Kate in the tub. She is getting so big!

I am enjoying wearing some brighter colors even though it is fall.

A scarf hides a multitude of sins. : )

Love Is Elementary

Today Jillian told me about a problem she's been having. A boy named Finn (short for Finnegan, I'm told) has been following her around and trying to sit by her. If there is ever an empty seat on the bus by her he claims it, even if she tells him she's saving it for her friend. (Then she told me she just gets up and moves when that happens. We had a nice chat about being friendly.) I explained to her that this boy probably likes her and is trying to figure out ways to be around her and talk to her, not bug her. She looked perplexed and I felt so happy in my heart. You see, my little girl DOES NOT LIKE BOYS YET! This is very, very good news. Because she is so pretty. A total boy magnet. (See photos below) I'm always happy when she still acts like boys are nuisance. I breathe a big sigh of relief. I wasn't that way. I liked boys at an early age. In high school I was a flirt. I'm ashamed to admit that now, but it is true. Coincidentally, my sister Lisa ran into the mom of my first grade school "boyfriend" this weekend. His name is Chris. He's married and has three kids now. At the school carnival in 2nd grade he made me a button that said "I love you. Love, Chris" and for Valentine's Day he bought me peanut M&Ms. He was one of the best boyfriends I've ever had.

Hayden informed me that his class has a new rule. No kissing and no boyfriends and girlfriends. He's in 2nd grade. I smiled when I heard that. Jillian said it was disgusting that 2nd graders were trying to date. Then Hayden said he was waiting until high school to have a girlfriend. I am trying to persuade him to wait until college. We'll see how that goes.

As our discussion ended, I repeated the sage advice my mom gave me in 2nd grade, when she was trying to discourage my relationship with Chris. "Amy, it's better to just like everybody the same. Just be friends with everyone." Great advice for elementary love. I could have used a bit more of that advice in high school!

Dreaming Big

Last night I had a very vivid dream. It's amazing I even got to dreamland, considering I was up at least once every hour helping Kate, who has a cold. But dream I did. See what you make of this:

Oprah Winfrey made me a quilt and wanted to give it to me, but it wasn't quite done. I saw some photos of the almost completed quilt. It was done in kind of ugly (think 80's) pastels. It was a lap quilt size and had I {heart} (really a heart) AMY in big letters. The letters were appliqued on with a zig zag stitch. The whole thing looked kind of crappy. The bottom border was just pinned on because she wasn't done stitching it. I was going to her show to have her deliver the quilt to me. The producers were telling me how excited she was to present me with the quilt. I was on the "dream wedding" show, where someone else was getting a special tent to have a reception in. The cost of the tent was $94,000 because it was all in silk. Suddenly my quilt didn't seem so great. Unfortunately I never met Oprah in my dream, and I remember feeling disappointed when I woke up.

Analyze, please.

That's the way we bowl

Oh ho ho, how clever am I? So clever that I just recovered all of our iTunes songs from our old computer's hard drive and put them into our new computer's iTunes without any help from Kyle. I feel quite smart. That's s-m-r-t.

But, back to the title of this post. Two weeks ago Kyle got the smashingly fabulous news that his dissertation is going to be published in everyone's favorite accounting journal, the name of which escapes me. But I'm sure you subscribe to it. Anyhow, since publishing is the key to Kyle keeping his job and getting tenure, we are very happy about this news. We decided to celebrate by going bowling and out to dinner. I haven't been bowling in years. And let me tell you, real bowling is not quite like the Wii. We had a great time, despite my doing poorly and Hayden crying. A lot. Kara enjoyed it and wanted to throw the ball all by herself. But when she did, it didn't really make it to the end of the lane. Luckily she was also willing to have help. Here are a few snaps from our outing. I think we'll go bowling again soon. It was great!

Nice shoes! They even had some for Kara. She wanted to take them home.

Always willing to pose.

Hayden waits for his score.

Kate slept through most of it. But she was there!

My New Favorite Artist

I love portraits. When I go to art museums, I spend the most time looking at the portraits, reading about the people, and imagining their lives. I recently had my portrait done. In crayon. Here is the result.




I liked it so much that I asked the artist to do one of Kate and Hayden. Here's what she came up with. Notice Hayden's ears. So lifelike.




I've heard she works on commission at a reasonable price. Let me know if you're interested. The artist's name is Kara.

Skullet

Our children have unfortunate heads in babyhood. I'm sure it's not from my side of the family, though. (wink). Jillian flattened the right side of her head before I even knew it was possible for babies to flatten their heads. I was super careful with Hayden, seeing as he most likely (fingers crossed!) won't have long hair to hide any unevenness. But you could describe his head as "an orange on a toothpick" when you take into consideration his skinny neck, and the fact that I haven't cut his hair in three months. Kara's head was hairless and bulbous for the first two years of her life. It's still not on the small side. And then we come to Kate. She was born with a cute little head, and it doesn't seem too big yet, but she has managed to wear off a lovely stripe in the back. My friend called this a "skullet." So Kyle and I attempted to tame the skullet last weekend. Imagine baby Kate face down on the granite counter while I try to thin out her thick hair and trim it shorter. Kyle had to hold her head still. Needless to say, it was a short haircut. I'm not sure it looks any better, but I like to think it does. You be the judge. She's still a cutie, and I'm sure she'll have lovely baby locks before long.

Before

After

Front view

See how much hair she's lost!

PS to my family: Can you see a bit of Marisa in Kate? I can!

Baby Kate

In case you are having a bad day, here are some snaps of my cute baby. Feel free to come snuggle her. A baby snuggle always cheers me up.

After her first haircut. (Post forthcoming)

So styling in her Baby Guess velour outfit. (Best snuggling outfit ever.)

She loves to "talk" to people now. I love to listen.

Showing of her new Kate quilt that arrived in the mail today. Thanks, Jan and Anna. You are so talented. She and I will cherish it.

The Obligatory Halloween Post

Hey, I love seeing everyone's kids all dressed up for Halloween (and adults too), so I hope you are anticipating my photos as well. I have promised the kids I will dress up next year. This year I just wasn't feeling it. Maybe because getting dressed every day is a struggle. But I'm going to plan ahead, make a theme, and wow everyone with our family's costumes next year. Just you wait.

I didn't mind having a low key Halloween this year. We still had plenty of fun and the kids got plenty of candy. Now we can move on to Thanksgiving and Christmas. Hurray!

Kyle's costume looks lame here, but he was Wesley from The Princess Bride, AKA The Dread Pirate Roberts. I was a festive Halloween cat?? Anyway, Kyle will not like that I posted this photo, but trust me, he looked better in real life.

Jillian was totally into being a scary vampire. I hope she doesn't want to read Twilight any time soon. I won't let her!

Kara was a cheerleader. So cute. She loved getting makeup on. Luckily this outfit is much more modest than the one the Oregon cheerleaders actually wear.

Hayden was a ninja. And a very good one. He was inspired by the new Karate Kid movie.

And Kate was a cheerleader too. That's all I could come up with. Can you believe I didn't have any baby costumes around? I looked at two consignment stores and didn't find anything, so I just bought this. It was cute to have someone matching.

Jillian painted this little gourd to look like a ghost. It has made me happy all October. I took down all the Halloween decorations today, but I don't want to get rid of this little one.