Soon I will make myself get up.  Then, I will wash bottles.  I will go to bed….I will try not to think about all the little things in life that need to be done.  I have so many coupons to clip, so many clothes to fold, so many things to clean.  So many photos to organize.  Soon…Soon…Soon.  Tonight, all feels calm and right.  Thank you, Jesus, for sending this peace into my life.

It’s been really busy the past couple of weeks here.  I officially have a pre-k graduate.

He is very excited and nervous at the idea that he’s going to kindergarten this fall.  Although, actually, Kevin and I have opted for a less traditional route of education and are sending him to a university-model school this fall.  He’ll go to class three half-days a week and then I’ll be responsible for the remainder of his education.  The teacher will have homework and lesson plans for me to follow to meet his classroom requirements…At the very least, it’s going to be interesting.  Kevin thinks we should homeschool.  I think this is a good blend between the two worlds of school and homeschool.

My very sweet little girl had her ballet recital last weekend:

In other words, things are really good here with all three of my sweet little ones

The baby, of course, mostly just laid around looking cute.

Emalee was in the worst mood though.  She cried so hard about Bennett beating her to the yard at Nana’s house to hunt eggs that she made herself throw up.  life with her is always so wonderful   An observant person might also notice that Bennett is wearing a bike helmet on his back in the picture below.  He was pretending to be an Easter turtle and that was his turtle shell.  Half my pictures of him from yesterday have his turtle shell in them.

The other big news from easter weekend from the kids is that they both got new bunnies from my parents.  They named their bunnies “Max” and “Ruby”.  Then, they sat in front of the tv with them, making the bunnies watch the show “Max and Ruby” .

Here’s our first family portrait from a holiday with all five of us

This year I sat out the easter baskets on their art trays in the middle of the living room.  Emalee got up first, and was complaining about being up…she passed by the trays, turned around and went “What?”.  I said, “It’s your Easter present, Silly.”  She got so excited.

They are rather enthusiastic candle blowers, and Bennett even ended up spitting all over the cake trying to get the candles out.  Yuck!!

We also had milk and cookies with Santa today at Bennett’s school.  Bennett talked to Santa for the longest time.  His list was filled with things that either related to Mario or that glowed in the dark.  Funny boy and a funny age.

I also thought that it was really cute that I got to see his class do their nativity play-acting today.  Bennett got his turn to be Joseph (probably because I was there ) and he was awfully cute.

All in all, it was a pretty good day!!

See?  A tiny baby stocking

I also wanted to write that, suddenly, Emalee has become obsessed with tea parties.  She’s constantly setting them out and getting them ready to go.  She puts her dolls in chairs and serves them tea.  She sets the table and spreads it out for tea all the time.  But, best of all, sometimes she can find a willing victim to actually play pretend with her.  Here she is with her “MeMe” (also known as my Dad’s best friend, Sammy) playing this morning.  They are sitting on my office floor.  That’s the reason why they’re surrounded by file cabinets.

I’ve also got a cute new craft that I’ve been working on today.  I’ve got far too much to do before Christmas if I’m going to make all my plans ring true!  This is a little felt and burlap snowman wrap that will go around a quart jar to be able to gift a cookie mix.  (I’m thinking “snowball” cookies!)  The nose needs a little work.  I’ve got it more rounded like a penguin than triangled like a snowman, but the next one will be better.

Doctor’s office called.  I think I’m going to have to take the fasting gestational diabetes test.  I’ve never had to do that before, so it’s very discouraging.  I’m going to call the doctor’s office tomorrow and see what’s what.  They never call after I’ve been in though unless I need more testing or something and the last time I was in I took the 1 hour glucose screen…grr…

Things are not good at work.  I don’t know what’s going to happen in the future, but surviving the present is beginning to not be easy.  <sigh>  I worry.  God promises to take care of us, but that doesn’t mean that we still have jobs and companies at the end of the day.  I guess what I’m trying to say is that faith in God is no protection against bad things happening.  I still pray for the best.

The best news of the day so far is that we’re getting a puppy.  A friend of mine (who somehow didn’t know her dog was pregnant) ended up having a litter of puppies last night.  They’re Australian Shepard mixed with Chocolate Lab.  Interesting mix

This is a picture of the litter:

There are 8 puppies there if you’re interested.  Bennett wants one of the black and white (gray) ones.  He wants a girl dog he can call Penny.  I thought that was cute.  When I showed him the picture of the dogs, he asked if we can buy the dog a collar for Christmas.  I thought that was sweet.

This is a picture where you might can see that the hotel was decorated for Christmas.  Flowers and lights everywhere.  I just like them sitting and relaxing at the end of the vacation as we got ready to check out.

My very favorite moment of vacation was when we got there and Emalee noticed that we had a desk.  She immediately wanted to “play work”.  I think it’s from seeing me write and answer the phone all day.  Isn’t she cute?

The other thing I wanted to mention is that I’ve been really into my cross-stitching lately.  I finished an ornament for Cocoa Daisy’s ornament swap yesterday, and I just wanted to brag a little.

I’ve been scrapbooking tonight with the October “Cocoa Daisy” kit.  It’s quite lovely, but it’s titled fashion week, and I have been amazed by the fact that three of the five layouts that I’ve made with the kit so far have been fashion related.  The most recent one, “Detail Man” is about how sweet Bennett’s love of accessories and the details in an outfit is.  He knows that no outfit is complete without certain details, including his Peter Pan costume.

Kevin’s been putting together a swing set for the kids.  He’s got enough of it together for them to play, and they’re really enjoying the parts that he has together.  It’s been totally awesome for them that they’re getting to enjoy this unexpected gift from Kevin’s uncle.

We had a library morning this morning.  Everyone chose some books to check out and enjoy.  Bennett picked one of his books just because it had the word “Bennett” in the title.  He picked out about 8 picture books.  Emalee would only pick out one book and it’s one that we’ve checked out over and over again.  “Pat Pat the Bunny.”  It’s meant for tiny babies, but she’s just never outgrown it, I guess.  I didn’t really look at it, but she kept carrying it around the library saying, “That’s my favorite book.”  I didn’t even realize that she’d picked up that particular book until we got home today.  Silly girl!!

Kevin and I were very cute pirates, if I do say so myself:

We originally started with a Peter Pan theme, suggested by Bennett, but it all fell apart when Bennett decided to be “Super Bennett” instead:

Then, Emalee decided to be a witch, so the idea of Peter Pan was over:

Still, we had a great time, and we watched a couple of new to the kids movies–”The Nightmare Before Christmas” and “The Wizard of Oz”.   Also, we watched “House of Mouse:  House of Villians” for about the third time in a week.  They just love the Mickey Mouse cartoons right now!

Today, I’ve put away their Halloween t-shirts for next year (in the hopes that they’ll fit), and I’ve started thinking about taking down Halloween decorations to make way for Thanksgiving.  Yum!!….I feel the baby kick and move inside and know that the 15 weeks to go until delivery are going to pass very rapidly as these holidays pass too.  Happy belated Halloween everyone!

I think it’s the start of a fall album.  I’m also painting with toilet paper rolls this morning.  It’s been a while since I did that.  This picture is just at the begining, so I’ll post an update later

I have no clue what this is even going to be yet!!!