Halloween 2009

I love decorating for Halloween.

This year, Grant was really into it and started asking me mid-September to decorate.

His (and everyone else's) favorite thing this year is the funny skeleton spider. He sits on a spring tied to the chandelier and bounces his days away.

Loose Tooth Drama

This tooth has been loose for two months. Everytime we try to extract it, Ella has a breakdown: It's gonna hurt . . . I might swallow it. . . It will bleed for a long time. I have been begging my dad (who is an expert tooth puller) to yank the dumb thing for weeks. But whenever he tries, she cries and begs to be left alone - and Grandpa gives in naturally. Today I was brushing the tooth and noticed it was barely hanging on. So tonight after dinner I called my dad and told him mercy was not an option - the tooth HAD to come out.

When he got here, she lost it. She hyperventilated. She begged for a little rest between sobs. She pleaded. I rolled my eyes as everyone around her tried to console her. Finally I held her down and ordered my dad to pull the tooth out. She SCREAMED . . . and then, mid-scream, said, "Oh. It's out." That easy.

Ella's Room

When we bought this house last year, Ella's room was the only room I didn't find completely offensive. Oatmeal walls and clouds on the ceiling were much more tolerable than stenciled bears and cabins like the ones lining the den. Ella, however, did not agree. She thought the clouds made it a "boy room." She would complain that she didn't like sleeping "under skies." And since the squeaky wheel (aka Ell) gets the grease, I painted. Eventually I want to replace the carpet and all the woodwork. But until then, I had to be creative with paint alone.

I kept coming back to a specific blue color but since she is my only girl, I told myself I couldn't paint her room blue. Unfortunately, there wasn't another color that I really loved. My solution was to pull out four colors, the blue I loved, a green, a pink and a yellow, and let Ell choose. She choose the blue (like mother, like daughter). So that is what we went with.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

The hardest part was working around all of those large robotic animals that she can't live without (but never plays with). She got Butterscotch the horse for her birthday a couple of years ago. She turned her on twice and that was it. The following Christmas she asked for Biscuit the dog. Santa decided to go with Snowball the cat because she was much, much smaller. On Christmas morning, she ran out to her presents, scanned the room, looked everywhere, and then said, "Santa has made a big mistake. I know he got Biscuit for me because I am really good, but he forgot to leave him." All through the day she would say, "I miss Biscuit." So, look who showed up for her birthday. Cory is a real sucker for that girl.

Happy Birthday Guggs

Happy Birthday Grant. Promise to always give your animals the coolest names, remain curious and continue to sing viva la vida all day long. We love you!

Vacation Day 1 - Wells, Maine and Portsmouth, New Hampshire

We started our trip in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Brett and Adrienne came and met us. It was rainy and cold but that didn't stop us. We saw some houses from the 1600's, ran on the rocks on the beach of a lighthouse and took a path out in the middle of a lake to a small protected island.

Portsmouth in the rain. The steeple in the distance is from a church built in the 1600s.



This is a path we saw while driving back to New Hampshire. We stopped and let the kids run to the small island. I love Olivia's face in the group shot. Every picture we took of her had this expression.


This lighthouse is totally surrounded by water. There is a small basket think that runs along a pulley system to get to the island. It looked terrifying. The waves were really strong and the kids loved to watch the water crash on the rocks. Grant swears he saw a sea lion pop up to watch the kids.

Quote of the Day

Ella worries constantly about her career choices in her future. It seems this decision is constantly weighing on her mind and she is never certain how she is going to choose. Today, the choice was between Rockstar, Clothes Designer and Spa Girl. I finally told her that she didn't need to choose right now; there is still time. She then told me:

"Six is your warning that you are getting old because it is close to 9 or 10. And I am 6 1/2 which means I have double warning so I need to choose now."

Home Sweet Home

We are home at last. We had an amazing vacation in New England. We spent time in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and Massachusetts. We were able to spend time with Brett's family. We ate all forms of lobster: steamed, boiled, lobster pie, lobster rolls and lobster quesadillas. The colors were amazing and sites unbelievable. But it is nice to be home.