Tree and tooth

Creative title huh? We finally put up the Christmas tree about a week or so ago. I would have just said forget it (actually I did say forget it, but there were a lot of tears so I used it as leverage to clean house!) I love putting up the tree, but for some reason I just felt like a scrooge this year and didn't feel like putting it up. Although, now that it is up, I love it! I say it, but I really don't mean one tree, I mean 4 trees. Yes, we have four trees in our house, although just three of them made it up this year. We have collected trees through the years by getting them really cheap after Christmas! So each of the two girls rooms has a tree. And we have two trees for the living room....Autumn has one and I have one.
M and S share a room and they have the pink tree in their room. It has white lights and a white feather boa with ballet/dance type ornaments on it. H and A share and they have a white tree with colored lights and bright ornaments...purple, hot pink, turquoise, lime green, etc. This year we let them put up and decorate those trees all by themselves, so they are just "lovely" and perfect!
If I just saw mine and Autumn's trees and was guessing which tree was whose, I would guess wrong, cause it seems opposite of what we normally would like kind of, but kind of not. We found my tree several years ago on sale at Hobby Lobby and i just had to have it. It isn't the kind of tree I went out looking for, but I loved it so. It is tall and skinny, with pine cones and a little frost. It is simple with white lights and we put all of our childhood and sentimental ornaments on it. Autumn's is big and huge and really really full. It is a big huge ordeal to get out and put together and fluff. She waited years and years to get the right tree cause the kind she liked were so expensive, but finally found this one for like 75% off. She loves it. It has white lights and we have ornaments on there that all match and are color coordinated. That is the tree that didn't make it up this year....too much trouble!
Anyway, on the night of putting up the trees, A's long awaited loose tooth was finally pulled! The girl is 7 and this is her first lost tooth. I was getting a little worried that she was going to have her baby teeth forever, but she didn't! And then, as we were putting up the ornaments, Autumn found one of those tooth necklaces that was empty, so we put the tooth in there, taped it, and wrote on it....a Christmas Miracle is what I call it!

Here is her new toothless grin! Actually, it is about grown in now....in just a week! And that sucker had a really really long root on it....it was stuck good!

Our mother made these ornaments....they are very very special to us!

We write on all of the ornaments we get....who we got it from and when. We love pulling them out and sharing the stories again about when we got it or about the person that gave it to us!

We also go and each pick an ornament every year. It is fun to see what they pick each year, and when they grow up and move out, they will have a good start for their own tree....filled with lots of memories! This was Autumn's ornament from two years ago...the little theatre nearby had the play "A Christmas Story"....Autumn got this Christmas Story lunch pail ornament and put the tickets in it and that is how we told the girls we were going. The tickets are still in there....we love going to plays together!

The Christmas miracle tooth necklace/ornament!

One of the girls made this ornament last year.

Love all of our ornaments!!! I love it because they remind us of so many memories and people we love! I am so glad they didn't let me cancel the tree this year!

Haircut???

H's teacher texted me this conversation yesterday:

H: Mrs. Ripley, did you get your hair cut?

Mrs. Ripley: Yes H I did.

H: Oh, I just thought you took a shower today!

Mrs. Ripley: Well H, I try to take a shower every day!


She is SO funny! I love this girl! AND I love Mrs. Ripley. I am just so thankful for H's two teachers. They both have challenged her and really helped her come out of her shell. Well, come to think of it, I really really love ALL of my girls' teachers. They have all helped them develop and blossom. S's teacher pushes her and makes her obey. She loves her and rewards her and does not let her get away with things....LOVE that! A's teacher loves her through good days and bad. She encourages A in her artwork. She lets her be unique and appreciates her differences! M's teacher is structured and creative and has really opened the world of science to her. She is solid and wonderful! I really didn't intend for this to be an ode to the teachers, but it did! Just thinking about their teachers makes me really happy. LOVE them all!!!

One hundred...

Well guess what folks....look to the right of the blog and just look at how many posts there have been.......yep....this is the big 1-0-0!!!!!!! WOW....one hundred posts. I know, if I would have written like I did in June, we would have been at a hundred a long time ago, but you see, I didn't for whatever reasons! So I had been thinking how fun it would be to do a hundred of something for the hundredth post, but then I just couldn't think of the right things. Here are some of my ideas though:

• one hundred people that I love --but there are way more than 100 and I could never choose
• one hundred people that have greatly influenced my life--I would want to explain why on each one and that would take forever
• one hundred of my favorite pictures--again....way too long to upload
• one hundred of the funniest things the girls say

I just couldn't do it. BUT, I will say thank you (a hundred times thank you!) to all of you who have and continue to invest in our family. Really, so many people do so much for us and I am so often overwhelmed by people's generosity and love. I was having a conversation with my friend the other day and I was telling her how grateful I am that so many people love my kids so much that they don't just give them hugs and smiles, but they also give them guidance and correction. For that, I am so so so grateful!

Soooooooo.........maybe I will hit 200 posts soon!

hmmm....maybe yall could leave 100 comments!!!!

STOP!!!

Our girls are good eaters. They usually aren't real picky, although they don't necessarily pick what most kids pick. When we go out to eat, they would usually rather pick something different than what is on the kids' menu. When we go to fast food, they sometimes would rather have a salad rather than fries and burger or chicken. Anyway, we were eating lunch at home the other day. We were having homemade tamales, which they love; hominy and cheese, which is ok for them; rice and green chili, which they like except it was pretty spicy; and edamame, which they love. A ate pretty much everything and was going to town on the edamame when she said (as she was stuffing more in her mouth,) "I love this food, but I gotta quit cause my stop sign is going to come out."
It took me a minute. I guess I wasn't paying much attention until H informed us that A has a stop sign that comes up when she is full! I CRACKED up!!! What a great image though and I wish I could listen to my stop sign better! She is so interesting and has a unique perspective on life! Tonight she informed me that when she eats sweets, her stop sign says "stop" with candy canes. Nice to know!

Halloween (yes, even though it is December)

Since it is December, I thought I should finally post some Halloween pictures. I also noticed that I have written stories and such and haven't posted pictures in a long time, so here you go. We grew up having a lot of fun on Halloween. We never dressed in scary costumes, but we had fun with the whole day, so we are passing that tradition along. For a couple of years, we have had a Halloween party with just the six of us and made some fun/creepy foods. We have a lot of fun and the girls love to cook. Sometimes we look up recipes and try festive things, but most of the time, we think of what foods we want to eat and how we can make it fit the Halloween theme!

"ghosts"--Potatoes and sweet potatoes sliced thin, baked with olive oil and cheese, put sour cream and chives.
"eyeballs"--deviled eggs with olives.

Autumn came up with the idea of "witches cauldrons". We got those tortilla chip scoop bowl things and let the girls make their own personal 7-layer dips...They put beans, tomatoes, cheese, sour cream, and whatever else in there.

"bones or fingers or something"--little smokies baked with bacon

yum...."creepy punch or something"

All dressed up and ready to go trick-or-treating.

Miss USA--Isn't she lovely?

Lolly the Clown--she was the cutest thing. The costume was passed down from a friend and is just so cute. She loved it because it at night, it glowed in the dark!

She called herself princess Rosabelle or something like that....she was so pretty!

Here is Cinderella. She has been Cinderella, in this same costume for at least two years. We keep trying to get her to be something else, but she loves Cinderella. The dress is about too short though. I'm pretty sure she will be forced to be something else next year!

Morning drive to school

So I just want to give you a glimpse into our morning drive to school. I also want to remember this time in life so that when morning drives to wherever are quiet and peaceful, I will remember these mornings I am having now. Let me just take you from the moment I walk out the door til the moment I drop the kids off at school. We take one vehicle to school...saves money and Autumn doesn't need a car since she works for the school. Anyway, we send the girls to the car about 3-4 minutes before we go out. I step out of the house and listen...I would say 2-3 days out of 5 I hear crying of some sorts, but the days I don't are lovely. We switch around seating arrangements based on days--odd days are certain people in front (middle seat) and so on...but they get a little confused sometimes on what the date is, so we have to clear up the date, get people in the right place. Usually all the girls have to apologize to each other because one looked at the other wrong or whatever. And the days that no one is crying, we celebrate with victorious wahoos and screams!
Then we start off to school. Out come the spelling lists (from 3 of the girls) and we start reviewing spelling words. I don't know if I can describe this in the right way so you can get the full effect, but if you would be in our van during this time, you would CRACK up. Usually, S is singing or talking to herself, M or H has their list out and is reviewing with Autumn, I am driving, M or H (whichever is not working with Autumn) has their list and reviewing to themselves, and A, who is supposed to have her list out, is sitting there saying random things as the others spell their words. For example:
Autumn: December (or whatever the word is)
H: Capital D-e-c-.....
A: December remember delember, ashember, lenember,
H: e-m-...
A: m-a-p
H: b-e
A: Hey, b-e...bees make honey
H: r
Autumn: good....S, don't sing so loud I can't hear H,...A, get your words out
A: what words?
Autumn: spelling
A: What's spelling?
Autumn: H, next word
And so it continues....spelling lists flying around the van, random things being said, songs being sung...............I am going to miss this someday!

Tastes like playdough

People used to comment ALL the time on how sweet S's smile is. Well, she still smiles the same amount, and people still notice her smile, but now, instead of saying how sweet it is, they say how ornery her smile is. Yes, there is a lot of mischief behind that big grin, and we just know that if we haven't heard or seen S in a few minutes, go looking and expect to find some sort of mess or mischief. The mess is usually much greater if S and A are together. We have found clumps of hair on the ground, leading us to search heads and find where the hair should belong (luckily it wasn't a lot and wasn't obvious) and the scissors near by; we have found sharpie all over the couch cushions, which came out when Autumn scrubbed it with shout or something and then let it sit in the sun a while; we have found marker on furniture, papers cut, candy wrappers under mattresses. If they are quiet, there is usually some sort of mess to be found. I really thought they would have grown out of this stage by ages 5 and 7, but I have to rethink that one cause I was wrong!
The other day, I was doing something (cooking or cleaning I think) and I was just thinking that S was quiet and I should go look for her. She came out of her room wanting something to drink, but she was crying about it and whining, which automatically makes me say no. I don't even really listen to the request if I hear whining and crying, I just say no. She stopped crying enough to tell me the problem. Here is was our conversation:
S: It tastes like play dough in my mouth so I want some water.
Me: Why does it taste like play dough in your mouth?
She then gives the look. The pouty look that is a total confession in itself to whatever you are asking/accusing her of.
Me: Okay, come on, why does your mouth taste like play dough? S, did you EAT play dough?
S pouts a little more and nods her head ever so slightly.
Me: Well, thanks for telling the truth. Let me see.
She opened her mouth and yep, there is green play dough stuck in her teeth.
Me: Well S, why in the world would you eat play dough? I thought you knew not to eat play dough! What did you think that was?

I knew she wouldn't eat play dough. I finally figured it out...she thought it was fondant. I have been decorating cakes lately (I will show you pictures later) and she liked the fondant, and she thought that play dough was fondant. I cracked up! I figured the nasty taste of play dough was punishment enough for trying to sneak my fondant. I love it when they get their own natural consequences and I don't even have to do a thing!!!