Did you know?

Did you know Eva used to be a little baby?

 One of the first pictures of her.

First smile I captured.

With her favorite cousin Lucy.

At 2 years.

In 2 months she is going to be 3!

Not fair.

Halloween Porch Pictures 2011

I love these pictures.  

They are the first of many Halloween Porch Pictures!

I loved squeezing this chunky butterfly!

Eva's triple scoop ice cream cone costume was made by her amazing Auntie Marie.

The night turned out perfect.  It was the last warm night of the year.

Mary Poppins

(photo credit to Disney)

Eva has really gotten into Mary Poppins.  This is the movie she always picks when she wants to watch a movie lately.  She loves it and has started trying to sing some of the songs.
I have always loved Mary Poppins but now I know it very well and have discovered, again, how witty and funny it is.
Here are some quotes:

(this one is my favorite)
Mrs. Banks: [singing] We're clearly soldiers in pettycoats, and dauntless crusaders for women to vote! Though we adore men individually, we agree that as a group they're rather stupid.

(photo credit to Disney)

I love Mrs. Banks and all her lines in the movie.  She balances feminism and being a wife and mother hilariously.  She is ever sweet and patient with her husband when he can be a bit of an ass.  There are a couple scenes where she is constantly complimenting him of everything he does.

"Splendid, George! Inspirational. The Times will be so pleased."

"Oh, George, you're always so forceful."

"How clever of you! I would have muddled the whole thing."

"Oh, George, you didn't jump into the river. How sensible of you!" 

(It's not as funny reading it as hearing it obviously.)

Mrs. Banks: I'm sorry, dear, but when I chose Katie Nana, I thought she would be firm with the children. She looked so solemn and cross. 
George Banks: My dear, never confuse efficiency with a liver complaint. 






George Banks: Kindly do not attempt to cloud the issue with facts. 






George Banks: I suggest you have this piano repaired. When I sit down to an instrument, I like to have it in tune.
Mrs. Banks: But, George, you don't play.
George Banks: Madam, that is entirely beside the point! 






Mrs. Banks: But you're always saying that you wanted a cheerful and pleasant household. 
Mr. Banks: Winifred, I should like to make a slight differentiation between the word cheerful and just plain giddy irresponsibility. 






Mary Poppins: Practically perfect people never permit sentiment to muddle their thinking. 

Up on my soapbox with a suicide roll.

Proceed at your own risk.  I am expressing some of my life opinions.

Remember as a child you are told how pretty, smart and fantastic you are but then when you start to grow up you learn it is not ok to think you are so fabulous so you learn to hate yourself and shame yourself and make fun of yourself only to get into adulthood and learn it is ok to like, daresay, love yourself so then we have to spend the next 10 years of our adult life learning to like who we are and share our real selves with the world?

I have the hope to help my girls through this silly hardship.  I have no idea how I will do it but I want to try.

Right now Eva is in the super cute stage where everything she does is absolutely darling and everyone ooos and ahhs over her.  This super cute stage is partly so super cute because she is innocent to it and doesn't ham it up when people give her compliments.  One day this will be over and it will be sad but for now it is so fun.

We went to a wedding a couple months ago and Eva had to wear her very fancy dress and fancy necklace and we curled her hair.

When people told her how pretty she looked she said,"I know!" but not in a snobby way, but in an "I am having so much fun" way.  I want her to always feel this way.  I want her to know it is OK to think you look good and to like who you are.  Not only is it OK but you will have a healthier happier life if you are able to like and enjoy yourself.  I think the key to this is to be aware that you are no better than anyone else and that you are not, and don't have to be, the best looking, smartest or funniest in the room.  If you are happy and satisfied with who you are than it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks or looks like.

Here's a recent, personal example.  I was working at Nordstrom the other day and they had some hair stylists there so I had one of them do a suicide roll for me.  See pictures below:

 Me twitterpated with my hair.

It is a bit messy since this was the end of the day.

I absolutely loved it and plan on doing it often to my hair.  But one young makeup artist I was working with said, "Oh did you get your hair done? (clearly I had)  You have a poof on the top of your head."  That was it.  In woman code that means,"I don't have anything nice to say about your hair so I will just make a statement about it since I want to let you know that I don't like it and think it looks horrible."  I know what you are thinking, "Well you were at Nordstrom."

I just blew it off and thought,"Well, I love it".

My point?
It's OK to be in love with yourself.  
It's not OK to think you are the only one who exists or who is important.
It's OK to like your like's and stand by your opinions.
It's not OK to think that people are stupid who don't share your like's and opinions.
It's OK to think you are pretty amashzing.
It's not OK to think no one else is amashzing.
It's also not OK to think "You are great but I am better."  

So let's enjoy ourselves as well as enjoying what others have to offer.

OK got it?  Good.

Thanks to Michelle for letting me know about a great tutorial on Youtube about how to do a suicide roll.  Here it is in case you want one too.

And send me a picture if you do it.

Pictures of Miss Eva.

Don't forget! October is Month of Fun!

Month of Fun is here!  What are you doing with yourself?

We started off our month with a trip to Yellowstone!
Yellowstone holds a special place in my heart. I went there annually growing up so I was excited to take the girls.  It is sort of my nature Disneyland and it seems just as expensive.  Everything in the park is way overpriced.  A meal for me and my girls is around $16.  Next time I will bring a cooler of food.  But let's get on to the pictures.

 Scarlett at Yellowstone Lake.

 Eva with her grandparents.

Eva sticking her head out the sun roof.  

On the side roads she did this and had so much fun.

My favorite geyser Young Hopeful.

It just tries so hard.

All the sights and smells of Yellowstone take me back to my childhood and remind me of my grandparents.

My grandparents are photographers and went to Yellowstone at least 10 times a year with their trailer in tow.  There were a couple times they were even attacked my some elk.  

I was there during the Yellowstone fire of '88 and remember the way the sun looked through the smoke.  We happened to be there on 8/8/88.

One of my favorite things has always been the boiling mud pots.  I just think they are so cool.

We went a few times during the winter on snowmobiles until they stopped letting that happen but Yellowstone in the winter might be the best way to see the park.  

On this last trip we went over Bear Tooth Highway.  It was amazing and gorgeous.  It is a wonder how they built it back in the '30's.  

 Here is Bear Tooth Highway.  Apparently you are not a true biker (motorcycle) unless you have driven this.

Here is the credit to the picture and the list of roads you need to ride if you ride motorcycles.  

Bear Tooth is #1.

Here is a picture of the Bear Tooth.  

Credit goes to the name in th corner but I couldn't find anything on that.

My sweet girls.

Have you been up to the mountains to see the fall leaves?

If you don't have mountains sorry about that.  They are gorgeous!

The going gets tougher and my kids are cute.

I have to see a specialist for my eye.  It is not getting better but getting worse.
I can't really function in any sort of light and I can't drive.
You know that saying "When it rains it pours."?
Well, that is my life right now.
I'm wondering when the bend will be.
Where is that darn bend so I can go around it and see the break in the clouds and a rainbow?
I fear it is weeks or even months away.

On a side note:
Eva talks in her sleep.  Last night she said "Cow poop Momma."  And I said back, "Just don't step in it." and she said, "OK".
I love that I can talk to her and she will talk back in her sleep.


Eva uses the word darn and I love it.  She will say, "That darn dog." or "That darn wall." or whatever she is darning.


Eva loves to sing and learn the words to songs.  I will have to try to post some.  It is so great.


Eva yells at the wind and hates her hair to blow.  She will point her finger at the wind and say,"No wind" or "Stop it wind" or of course "That darn wind Momma."


Scarlett is finally getting her bottom teeth but they are coming really slowly.  She is babbling and putting everything in her mouth that she possibly can.  She loves to eat regular food and has weened herself from nursing.  I am very sad about that by the way.  Only 9 months!


Scarlett literally has to be the happiest baby in the world.  The only time she really cries is when she is hungry or  wants to be snuggled.  She has the softest skin and is so squishy so snuggling her is absolutely no problem at all.  Feel free to stop by and snuggle her anytime.  I would love it.

Love to you.

Goodbye to summer.

Summer is over, although we are still having hot days here the nights are cool and require a light jacket.

I love fall but I hate summer to end.

Here are some photos from one of my perfect summer days.

I love these girls.

I love the look on her face in this picture.  Perfect water slide face.  She is so excited for what is about to happen.

Fun days!

My mom took my girls for 2 nights so I took work off today and am off to do things I normally can't do.

Basically movies.

I hope you have a fun day too.

Here is another fun day I had a while ago.

We made pill hats.

This is one of my favorite pictures of Eva.

Enjoy your weekend.

She resembles a girl I know.

 I went outside looking for Eva the other day but I found this little girl instead.

This happened because she was playing in the dirt and kept having to move the hair out of her face.
I am trying not to think of all the chicken poop and cat pee that is likely in the dirt.

I asked her to smile so I could get her picture and she leaned against the tree and posed for me.

"I miss my babies."

3 of my mom's babies and some guy.

This is 1979 and I am the screaming child in the front.  

My baby sister is not born yet.  

My mom taught me a great lesson without even realizing she taught it to me.
All through my life I can remember my mom saying, "I miss my babies!"
She had four kids all each less than two years apart and she would have had more if she could have.

(Here is a picture of me and my siblings.  It's not really of my mom's "babies" but it is the only one I have of just us together at a young age.  I especially wanted to add this because check out my capris with tights and red jelly shoes.  My older sister is sporting that look too and may I say it is quite a look.  I do not remember this at all!  Was this an in thing or was I a trend setter?  Were we in the middle of a Shakespeare play?  I don't know.  But that haircut sure was a good one.  I must really pour everything I can into my Shakespearean roles.  I will have to find a picture where you can really see how good it looks.)

Anyways back to my mom.  I have asked her often if it was hard and why she had us all so close together.  I have never once heard her complain about it.  She always speaks about those times so fondly.  She absolutely loved it.  The way she talks about it it makes me feel a bit guilty we grew up on her.

The thing I have taken from this is to enjoy my time with my little kids.  When both my kids are screaming and crying I always think to myself, "One day I will miss this.  One day I will wish I had screaming kids in my house rather than none."  And I usually smile and the screaming isn't so bad.

I have found that motherhood is a series of goodbyes.  Every new stage Eva or Scarlett enter I have to say goodbye to the person they were before and I miss them terribly.  I miss them as new born babies, I miss Eva crawling up to my legs and pulling on my pants (so excited for Scarlett to do this!), I miss when Eva learned to walk and didn't want any help.  I hate that they grow so fast yet so subtly that I don't realize they have grown until I turn around and Eva is saying full sentences and Scarlett is holding her own bottle and putting it in and out of her mouth.

The only thing I hate about motherhood is that it has to end.
I know that it doesn't "technically" end but it does sort of end and your kids have to leave you and like people better then you and think your are uncool and embarrassing.

Right now Eva will snuggle me and say, "I love you so much." and my heart melts and I blink away tears and try to memorize the sound of her voice.

These are my girls today.  I am trying to remember these sweet little girls just as they are now because they will be gone soon.

This is what I saw first thing this morning.  

I made her stay right there so I could get her picture.  I love those brown eyes. 

This is Scarlett in the sling ready to go water plants with me.  

I was surprised and happy how well this picture turned out.

I am grateful for my normal.

I posted a link to this blog the other day.  If you checked it out you may have found out that sweet little baby Ruby passed away.  If anyone who reads this lives near Rancho Santa Margarita or Lake Forest, CA you are invited to show your support for Ruby's family.
Ruby was born a few weeks after Scarlett in December.
A post that Ruby's mom wrote about just wanting a normal day really helped me.
The past two days I have just stayed at home with my girls and cleaned and watched movies and watered my plants.  Her post made me realize how wonderful normal days are.  Often times we are counting the days until some day in the future and we forget to enjoy each day that we have and each moment in each day.  I think something I will work on my whole life is to be present in every moment I live and be grateful for it.
These last couple days have been really nice.
Scarlett has been working on crawling and she is so close.  I think by next week she will have it down.
Eva loves to sing and can almost sing the whole Ariel song.  I will have to post it.

Apparently I have no pictures of my girls together because these were all I could find.  I will have to remedy that.

Hard lesson day.

A few weeks ago my mom was cleaning out her storage room and gave me a box full of treasures she thought I would like.  Some of the things were old clothes from when I was little, a brick from the theater where the premiere for Gone With the Wind was held (it burned down), a pin cushion that her mom made with pins in it that have been untouched since she died, flour sack towels embroidered by my grandma or great grandma etc, etc.

Some of the things that Eva loved were a Scarlett O'Hara Madame Alexander doll, a porcelain Snow White, a porcelain little girl with a pretty dress on, and a very old porcelain Mickey Mouse.

Today I finally unpacked the box.  I decided that I wasn't going to just let these things sit in a box and that I would use the dresses and towels and enjoy them.  I threw the towels and clothes into the wash and proceeded to find a place to display the special treasures.

Eva saw these things again and got very excited and wanted to play with them.  I explained how they were glass and very special and that she must be very gentle with them.
I watched her with them and she was so cute and very careful and gently put them all on her froggy book and talked to them and told the girls how pretty they were.

Here is the pretty little girl.  You lift her up and you can store little treasures beneath her.

She was my grammy's.

A little while later I asked Eva if she wanted to water the flowers with me.  She said yes and we went outside.  As I started to water she informed me she would be right back.  It was a gorgeous day and Scarlett and I were enjoying the sunshine and then I heard Eva crying from the side of the house.  I walked around to find her and this is what I found...

...and Eva had huge tears running down her cheeks.  She kept wailing,"Fix her dress, Momma, fix her dress."

Poor little Snow White.  I gave Eva a hug and explained that I couldn't fix it, that Snow White was glass and that she was broken.  This is when I realized that though I explained that Snow White was glass Eva didn't know what that meant.  Well, now she does.  I was very relieved it wasn't the pretty little girl because it is more precious.

I consoled Eva for a little bit and we went inside to lay down and watch a movie.  She wanted to hold Pretty Little Girl.  I explained again that she needed to be very careful.  She sat for a while watching the movie so I quickly went outside to pick some lettuce.  All of a sudden I heard Eva crying again.  I sprinted toward her thinking,"Crap, Pretty Little Girl is broken".  Eva was walking all over looking for me holding Pretty Little Girl with one hand.  At any moment the base could just slip and she would be broken too.  I got to her just in time.  Obviously, Eva did not learn but seriously neither did I.  What was I thinking??  It would have been my fault if Pretty Little Girl had been broken.

So all calms down and I go to look in the wash and I have dyed all my precious embroidered, flour sack towels pink.  

These boots were made for walking...

...in poo.

Every girl needs some poo boots.

Even if they are all dressed up with the name Hunter name on them they are still good ol' poo boots.