From the mouths of babes...

Interview with Belle, 3.5 years old
These are direct quotes.

1. What is something mom always says to you?
Saying princesses things

2. What makes mom happy?
With a smile

3. What makes mom sad?
mean makes you sad

4. How does your mom make you laugh?
he he he, like that

5. What was your mom like as a child?
Ice cream

6. How old is your mom?
I don’t know, can you tell me

7. How tall is your mom?
this huge

8. What is her favorite thing to do?
doing golf balls and going to picnic and going to a birthday party and going toChristmas and going to grandma’s house and another one grandma’s house

9. What does your mom do when you're not here?
cry

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
when she was big she was famous

11. What is your mom really good at?
doing princesses

12. What is your mom not very good at?
not doing hitting

13. What does your mom do for a job?
sitting down

14. What is your mom's favorite food?
pizza

15. What makes you proud of your mom?
that you play with people

16. If your mom were a TV character, who would she be?
the girls with the beautiful dresses (Project Runway)

17. What do you and your mom do together?
sitting

18. How are you and your mom the same?
you are a baby and I was a baby

19. How are you and your mom different?
different of dressing up

20. How do you know your mom loves you?
loving to hug and kissing also

21. What does your mom like most about your dad?
hugging daddy

22. Where is your mom's favorite place to go?
Serena’s house

First Day of School

Just put the kids on the bus for their first day of school. I had to hold the Belle back by her collar to keep her from getting on the bus too. She just keeps repeating "It's not fair!" about not going to school and not getting to ride a bus. These next two years are going to be long ones. I hope that someone directs the kids to where they need to be once they get to school. We've never been there. I think I could get there if I tried, but we literally have NEVER been there. Maybe driven past it once. I guess we'll find out around 12:45 (they didn't really give us an afternoon bus time) how it went when they get home.

Rex is starting 2nd grade. According to a friend's daughter, his teacher is a very strict old woman. That could be a very good thing for our limit pushing 7-year-old. He met a little friend at the bus stop who is starting Kindergarten. They were both being shy and ended up having fun together. Interesting

Leia is starting Kindergarten. She is in the afternoon class, but for the first two days of school (Thursday and Friday half days- weird) she is going in the morning and returning with her brother. Good intro to the riding a bus world. I don't think she had time to be nervous since the bus came and we basically had to run across the street to get them on in time. Anticlimactic if you ask me. She's already been to school so it is no big deal. She did tell me that she didn't know her teacher and wanted to know if she(or he) was nice. I'm sure she will flare her big blue eyes and remain speechless for a while this morning.

Now I have to go pull Belle's fingers out of the fan she is playing with and clean up the cereal she spilled on the floor. This one kid at home may turn out to be harder than expected.

*I can't find my camera cord, so no pictures for now, but rest assured: I have plenty*

Deep Thoughts

We don't like dying. It might kill you. -Rex over breakfast

Argh!

Last week we went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner. During the course of dinner Leia poked Rex in the eye with a fork. Seriously. His eye ball is very red and looks irritated, but he seems to be fine.

Just tonight, Rex was going to get his jammies and Leia kicked him in the eye. It is red and puffy now and will surely turn into a great shiner just in time for the first day of school.

What will she come up with next to try and relieve him of his vision in that right eye?

On a positive note, on the way into the hotel room this evening, Rex displayed his Braille reading skills by reading our room number with his eyes closed.

Overheard Lately

Leia- "Let's play skunks!"

Belle- "I'm going to be a kitty."

Rex- "No, you have to be a princess so we can stink you!"

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Belle- "When we are grownups we can see Jesus."

Heather- "No, we can just see really far."

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Belle- "Cheater, cheater, princess fire!"

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Belle- "Boys are mean and girls are happy."

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Leia- "I wanna live in the middle of nowhere so I can have space for camping."

Save money at pinchingyourpennies.com.

Happy Birthday Dancing Princess Leah!!!

So, today is my little girl's birthday.

She is five years old.

But we didn't tell her it was her birthday.

I am the worst mom. EVER!!!

There were houses to look at and bummies to smack and we had to move hotels and who wants to tell their little precious-precious that they were doing stuff that she hates (she cried when we said we were looking at houses AGAIN) on her Birthday?

So we're going to celebrate on Wednesday with some friends.

AND that gives me two more days to craft the post about how wonderful she is and how much we love her and tell the complete story of her uneventful (compared to her siblings) birth.

Happy birthday sweet girl.

Countdown complete, welcome to limbo land

It feels like forever since I gifted you with my ramblings, which is has. My sweetie looked at my countdown clock and said it was time to move on. The clock is just too sad without moving numbers. The sad part is that there is no there to move on to. We are looking for a house, but are daunted at every turn. I know, it has only been two days, but aren't we a microwave society? I just don't want to stand out.

I hope that next week can prove to be miraculous and that we can get the shaft of light from heaven and follow it to our perfect home.

*warning*warning*warning* feeling a pity party coming on

I am a social person and I miss my friends and familiarity.

AND I HAVEN'T EVEN BEEN TO WAL-MART, JoANNS or MICHAEL'S YET!!! (but the trip to Target was a refreshing breath of fresh air)

I miss being able to randomly cold-call friends and chat it up or run out to do some random shopping together.

I know it will all come with time, but just as with everything else in life, it is more intense when you are in the middle of nothing.

Later.

Already?

My not-even-five-year-old was in her room "putting on her jammies" for a long time tonight. I went to go check on her and saw that she was drawing and coloring instead of getting ready for bed.

I was getting ready to yell at her when I saw what she had been coloring. She had her name and the name of a boy in her class with hearts all around it. His name is Vinicio and each I had a heart above it.

I was totally boy crazy, but am pretty sure that it didn't start this early.

And she is so much prettier (and petite) than I was.

And she loves to dance and swing her hips.

WHAT AM I TO DO?!?

Sassy Sisters

These girls are WAAAAYYY in to modeling these days.

Here they are with the hand on hip pose. Leia's favorite.

Here is a scary Leia. She should have tried this one on Jabba.

Here is Belle's hands on hips with belly button shirt shot.


They reclining hand on hip pose is also quite common.
Notice Indiana is interested.

Here is the abstract in the fireplace shot.


In this one she is a little focused on the camera not so much on the position of the baby.

Here is my sweet smiley girl.


A flower in the hair can add to any photo shoot.

And then there is the hair. Usually not done in the elevator on the way to the bus or not long enough to get a picture.

Belle found a bunch of new pretties and decided to use them ALL!

I thought it looked pretty cute myself.

I'm a little sloshy in the brain right now so this is all you get. A commentary on random pictures that the girls took of eachother and a couple more by me that seem cute. I may get over it in about three weeks, but don't hold me to it.

Oh, and I found an "old" film camera today with 12 shots left. I gave it to Leia and she asked where the picture was. It was so cute watching her figure out how to close one eye to look through the view finder at the same time as pressing the button. I can't wait to see how old the first 12 pictures are, if they come out at all. Any guesses?!?

OOOHHHH!!! Contest! I need predictions of year and subject and whoever is closest gets a special prize customized to your personality.

Tchau-tchau!

This is Dancing Princess Leia. She and her sister are currently into a modeling phase. Here she is in her authentic Guatemalan dress before church.

Here she is, striking her favorite hand on hip pose.

And here are her beautiful locks.

Here is her hair again after a long day and much screaming about not wanting to brush even the little bit that I put in a braid.




And here she holding that braid that I had just cut off.

See, it has been about three and a half years since her first haircut. The ends of her hair were deliciously curly, but were fine baby hair. And no, I hadn't cut it since. Leia loved the idea of mommy cutting her hair while sitting on the kitchen counter.

So we went down the hill to the salon to finish off the job. She has been asking for a haircut since her friend got hers all cut off in December. Mommy finally got the guts to do it. We walked into the supermarket and up to the salon and then she started pulling back on my hand. She picked a barbie car chair and I lifted her in.

This is the most expression she had on her face the entire time. She said not a word, just staring at herself in the mirror and the stranger who was brushing (*oh, the agony!!*) and cutting her hair.

Remnants of her hair on the floor. The stylist asked if I wanted to keep it before throwing it on the floor. I said no because I already had some.

Leia does this thing where she stays perfectly still and looks at nothing and basically pretends to be invisible when she is around strangers or in an awkward situation. This is what she did the entire time she was in the chair. She didn't even talk to me, but being the good mommy that I am, I kept telling her how brave she was and what a great job she was doing. It probably didn't help that there was a 9-month old screaming his head off in a neighboring chair.

She really did seem to like the blow dry and brush part. She was smiling a bit and maybe even made eye contact with the stylist. As you can see, I wasn't brave enough to make it short, but it is a lot shortER. She says she likes it.

As we were walking down to the parking garage, I didn't even recognize her from behind. It must have been the new shoes that threw me off.



She got a sucker for her bravery and struck a pose while waiting for the elevator. Notice the favorite hand on hip action again.

I tried really hard to get this shot of her face and back of head at the same time in the elevator. Not exactly what I wanted, but close enough.



I told her to smile normal and I got squinty eyes and a tight mouth. When I told her to open her eyes I got bug eyes and constipated mouth. This was the best of the results.

I think she looks totally cute, but in a new and different way.