Random Shots

running full speed towards Dad who will likely be tickling him :-)
Aunt Bryce's bunnies love Chloe

Taking a break from jumping wildly on the downstairs couches
and building forts with the cushions

glowing girl

giggling guy

checking herself out in the mirror

reading the Bible
(with her favorite fuzzy blanket and movie cars close by)

a castle from Granny... for the kitties of course

A First

"Mom, take my picture with Dad."

A request for a picture?? Unheard of! So I took a lot. These are the best ones :-)

Sing Along

sing along from Bree Monde on Vimeo.

The Mary Poppins soundtrack was quite the hit in our house tonight. The kids especially love this part of "Jolly Holiday" :-)

Going.... Going.... Gone

After dinner tonight we indulged in homemade pumpkin pie in a homemade ginger snap crust with yummy homemade whipped cream. (all organic ingredients except for the heavy cream)

The countdown to pie had wild children swirling around the kitchen for twenty minutes, waiting f-o-r-e-v-e-r to eat it.... "Mom, how many minutes has it been?" ... "Two."

So they were super excited to dig in!!!!

Chloe had some problems (um, always).
Evan was ecstatic.
Worth the wait for sure!
...and Todd was hungry for seconds.

Posted by Bree

Emerging

We found the "World of Cars" book at the library a few weeks ago, and I love finding Evan reading Chloe stories from it. He does the goofy voices and everything to make Chloe laugh. He does a pretty accurate Mater voice and also Luigi the Italian car.... gotta get that stuff on video...Anyway, it was last year at this time, that I first found Evan sitting on the couch with a "Billy and Blaze" story reading to himself. He had memorized the story from being read aloud over and over and somehow figured out on his own how each word matched up with the typed print on the pages. A.maz.ing. One year ago.
Now I'm seeing those hints of interest in Chloe as she starts announcing things like how the first letter of a word is a letter she knows. "That's G for Gordon! That's P for Percy!" Or how she proudly showed off her writing recently where I found a lowercase 'e' precisely formed and a 'T' and an 'O.' She makes squiggly lines as she is "writing" her name. She is emerging as a reader and it is so much fun to watch.

Posted by Bree

Tradition

Every morning we wait at the window together and wave goodbye to Todd. The kids blow him kisses wildly and wave till their arms are a blur of motion. They yell in their loudest voices "Bye!!! Have a good day! Hurry home! Drive safely! (that one's Chloe) Love youuuuuu!!!!" And he drives away. We always wave. If you come to visit us, you should know that when it is time for you to leave, we will wave goodbye to you the same way. It's tradition.

Cuddling

She usually wants Dad at night.

Correction, since she was able to speak, she has always wanted Dad at night. I never feel slighted by this because I know she loves me, she just wants to soak up every minute she has with him. Understandable.

But I yearn for those nursing days sometimes when she would just fall asleep on me or snuggle just long enough to get really tired... I haven't had those sweet sleepy moments with her since she was just a bitty baby.

But tonight, she wanted me, and I soaked. it. up.

I sang the Mermaid song twenty times, scratched her back for fifteen minutes, eskimo-kissed her nose repeatedly, caressed her baby-soft skin, played with her hair ... all the while she was draped over me, squeezing me around the neck, singing along, whispering sweet silly things... and finally forty minutes later, "Mama, I'm tired."

This is one of those moments I know I'll always remember years from now. I have a few others stashed away just for me -- the moments there are no photos for. They exist only as precious memories...

... and I'm so glad for this one.

Haircuts

I gave

Captain Rat Nest and

Princess Wiggles

hair cuts today.

Just a trim on Chloe, it was pretty crooked from our last failed attempt months ago. It still looks the same, just straighter across now... well I hope so anyway.

There was a monstrous pile of hair on the floor following the rat nest chop job. Evan was really upset with me the whole time, saying over and over, "I really want my hair as long as Chloe's" (to which I did not respond).

It's way shorter now. I hope I didn't make a mistake.

What do you think??

Storytelling

Chloe is a story teller. Her mouth is always moving anyway, so when you put a book in her hands the words flow like rivers. She usually just makes it up as she goes along (even if it is a book she's heard a hundred times.) Here she is in action:

Storytelling from Bree Monde on Vimeo.

Tire Swing

Over the weekend Chloe was able to climb up on the tire swing by herself for the first time.


She started with her usual, "Mom I need your help" whining, but Evan swooped in.


"Here Chloe let me show you how."Um.... that's a bit intimidating to a little three year old girl.



"How about you hold it like this Evan?"
And up she went.


Evan was so proud of her that when she asked him to push he gladly agreed ;-)

Leaf Dust

Chloe cleaned up the driveway

The boys did the gutters

Eyelashes

The long eyelashes are everywhere in our family, both sides.

So the kids got them too :-)
Posted by Bree

These Two....

Click the photo to zoom in.... hahahahaha

Happy

Birthday morning for Dad.
He opened his gifts at breakfast at their request.

Chloe had a meltdown over her cereal.

Evan made fart noises the whole time.....
happy birthday.

Worms

They must have found twenty worms.
And played with them for about an hour.

Posted by Bree

The Hair

I told him it's time once again for a hair trim.It's starting to look almost a bit girl-ish, I said.

But Mom, he answered, everyone will know
when they look at my clothes that I'm not a girl, so....

you don't need to cut my hair :-)

That's great news.