She has hair!

We were getting excited when last fall we realized Jill had enough hair for one little pony on the top of her head...And now look, she has enough hair for TWO pigtails! It's very exciting. She is very proud and often asks me to do her hair.

Unfortunately, she usually just takes them right back out until this week...she left her pigtails in for a few hours and then took them out. This left her with quite the 'do...

Flock of Seagulls or Whoville resident? You decide...

Battle of the Coconut Tree

During Jason's piano lessons, we usually take a walk through the teacher's neighborhood. Last week Beth and Adam prepared for the walk before we left our house, bringing friends of the stuffed kind and weapons of plastic. We turned the corner and they were off...What could possibly make them plan, prepare, and conquer, you ask...Coconut Trees (ok, they're really not coconut trees but that's what they call them and I'm playing along.) After we passed through the battlefield, I asked Beth why they were fighting coconut trees. She proceeds to tell me that they drop coconuts on your head and that really hurts. Ok, fair enough.
I then ask her, "Have they ever dropped a coconut on your head?" I wasn't sure how far this imagination game had gone between her and Adam.
She answered, "No because we usually run through (I am aware that most weeks they run yelling on this part of the walk) but this week we decided to fight!"
I can't say I totally understand their world but I love it, love that I get a glimpse of it daily, and love that next week they want to bring Jason to see the coconut trees.

Tall good, tall bad...

Turns out that Jason, at 55 inches, is too tall to play. This is bad. I confess, I still let him play. Actually, I told Jason that he was not allowed to play but he could supervise his baby sister in the tubes as a favor to me :)However, being 55 inches at Legoland is a very, very good thing. He was able to ride everything and could even ride by himself (very helpful to this mommy that had other children that could not ride by themselves).I'm happy to realize that although children grow fast, chances are they're growing into another fun stage, and I'm going to enjoy every one. Can you hear me trying to accept that I now have an 8 year old that is going to be as tall as me anyday?

Our Ornaments

Looking at our Christmas tree and preparing to pack it up after another wonderful Christmas season, I decided to take a minute and photograph some of my favorite ornaments. We have ornaments we've bought on vacation, ornaments that were gifts, and then the annual ornaments I buy the children.
These are ornaments I've bought for Andrew. Top is the Eagle Scout S'more and below is the Construction S'more bought the year he built the boy's bunkbed.This is my oldest ornament. It's dated '77 on the back. It may be broken but I love this ornament, and it makes me smile every year.Most of Jason's ornaments are trees. We call this one his penguin tree. We were on the hunt for a tree ornament when he found this one and liked it. I decided it qualified as a tree because it's a penguin being a tree.Beth has adopted many of my Disney ornaments as her own. She's always loved the princesses and why not, she is a princess.This is Adam's favorite ornament. Such a favorite that it's been broken...multiple times! You can see the bent ski pole, and if you look closely you'll notice the other pole is missing. There's also an ear missing but he still loves it and talked about finding it as soon as we brought the Christmas boxes out.

I didn't get a great picture of this one but it's our honeymoon bulb, hand painted in Maui.

This ornament was bought for our first Christmas in Georgia, which was also our first Christmas with Jill.

This is our newest ornament won at a Christmas party this year. It looks beautiful on our tree.Every tree needs a little protection from my man Han Solo :)And this is not on our tree but may be my favorite ornament ever!

And yes, there's not really an ornament for Jill. There just isn't one that screams her, yet. I'm sure it will come soon enough...