O little town

How still you lie indeed... when put to bed by a sweet little mama. Leah has really been into the mommy thing lately. She feeds her babies and animals and sometimes she puts the whole Christmas Nativity down for night night. Even gives a good night kiss.

And just in case Baby Jesus isn't warm enough...

"Here you go baby Jesus, cover up."

And here is a still shot if you didn't catch that.Back story... Over 5 years ago before we were going on vacation, Kevin bought himself some flip flops made out of beer cozies. The salesman said "You will never find a more comfortable flip flop." And he was right. Kevin has worn the heck out of those flip flops. And for years we've looked for replacements exhausting our options to no avail. All the while, Kevin continues to wear the old ones. While we were in Mexico this summer we noticed that when wet, they now exude a funky brown foamy substance.... So my mission since then has been to find some new ones as quickly as possible. To my surprise a local mall opened a flip flop shop this fall and when I walked in and told the guy what I was looking for he knew exactly what I was talking about. He took me straight to the back corner where they were sold out of ALL BUT ONE... a single pair of size 13 beer cozy flip flops for my fabulous, funky foaming, flip flop wearing hubby. He was so happy. He said it was his favorite Christmas gift of the year! This was the sticker that came off the new ones and who knows where she found it? She came around the corner of the living room holding the sticker saying "Baby Jesus cover up!" It was like the moment she saw this sticker she had its purpose in mind. Leah has been obsessed with covers lately.

President O-Drama

I feel like if you capture an expression like this, you have to post it for all the world to see. And she was just practicing! There was nothing to get excited about. It sort of looks like, what we now call in our house, a "possum face." Remember the one you have when you see a possum on your fence? Now you know I'm not exaggerating when I say drama queen. And I don't know where she gets it! This one might have been a beaver face.
I wanted to note that Garfield was the door stop for my own bedroom door from about age 6 until I moved out of my parents' house. A couple of years ago, he moved back in with me and assumed his post once again. I only note his place at the door because it just occurred to me Leah doesn't even know who that fat orange cat is! The pink box she is sitting on was a Christmas gift from her Giggle and Granstan. And its full of what every little Curley needs.... costumes! All kinds of costumes and accessories.

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Leah comes from a long line of costume wearers. I enjoy a good costume now and then (if I can find some suitable pictures I'll be sure and post them) and her daddy has been known to don women's clothing if it means getting a really good laugh. My parents make a mean Fred and Wilma Flintstone in their home spun costumes. Her Giggle even has a spare Santa suit and a clown suit (and stories to go with them) in her costume trunk full of goodies. But her Aunt Leslie.... she has an entire costume closet! The year she sponsored the 12th grade girls at church camp, she outfitted every one of them for their group's talent show act. She's big time.
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So its only natural that Leah would already love to dress up. I'll have to get some pictures of her in her costumes posted soon. So many Christmas memories need posting!
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I don't like how grown up she looks... (And I swore I'd never say something like that... don't ever swear.)

Happy New Yeo!

Leah is wishing everyone in sight a "Happy New Yeo!" From her family, to the checker at the grocery store to Beans and Baby Jesus. We are having a wonderful year so far. Lots to do though... including get caught up on a few blog posts I've been meaning to write.
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Let's kick it off with a bang... from a deer rifle.
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I love that Kevin is a hunter. I think camouflage is cool, it makes me feel safe that He is really good with big guns, and Leah and I get to have lots of fun girls weekends together but we are so happy when daddy returns. He also saves me money on toys for Leah (a few weekends back he brought home a fresh fox tail for her... yay) and He brings home "free" meat for me to fill up my freezer. (Free... or for the mere price of one deer lease for a year, ammo, gas money, food and beverages while he is there etc... Still, when I need to rustle up some grub, I don't have to run to the store and buy any meat!)
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I love seeing pictures of all the animals he sees... especially when he doesn't kill them. Because however much I enjoy eating animals, I do not enjoy the thought of their death. Early on in this season he sent me this picture... taken with his phone, through the scope on his gun. HOW COOL?!? I think his exact words were "It needs another year or so." Although if a less scrupulous hunter gets his sights on it it may not be there for the taking.
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This is the cull buck he ended up with this year. I think it is a cull because it has an uneven number (9) of tines or tips or points or something? Is that even right? I'll double check.... Don't mind the tongue hanging out of the poor animal's mouth... Why can't they put that back in at least for the picture?
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The head of this animal is currently in our big freezer. Kevin is going to attempt a homemade European mount of this deer. This is where only the skull and antlers remain. There are a couple of ways of doing this that I know of. One is to boil it so all the flesh comes off and I think there is some acid involved in the process as well. The other way involves flesh eating beetles, which would be pretty awesome to see except that apparently they cost a couple hundred dollars and then you have to feed them constantly... flesh! So, since I don't want to host or feed flesh eating beetles in my home for a prolonged period of time, we'll probably choose door #1... boil the poor thing. I won't be as sad once it no longer has a face.
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The Concho County bucks that made it through this season are safe until next fall... however the lady deer... well they still have a few weeks to try and dodge the bullet.
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Happy 2011!!!

Beah-n-Leah

Cute - 12/2009

Double Cute - 12/2010
Look at that grey beard!
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Leah usually helps me feed Beans and give her her medicine too. Beans has a weak urinary sphincter and takes medicine for it twice a day to keep from dribbling on our carpet. More than you wanted to know? Well she also takes an Omega-3 daily for her allergies and ear health. Beans takes more medicine than anyone else in our family. (I didn't mention the regular heart worm, flea, tick, mosquito preventatives.) I guffawed at the idea of pet insurance when Beans was a baby. I actually poked fun at people who would do such a thing. Now I don't even want to think about how much money we would have saved over the last 5 years if we'd just done it. A small fortune in doggie medication alone!

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Lately, Leah has taken to holding the dog's tail while she eats. Not sure why she does it, but I am amused.

Bright Copper Kettles

a few of Leah Curley's current favorites...


So you think Leah can dance:
I have music in my vessels so part of me wished for a mildly-musically-oriented child. So far I don't think she can carry a tune in a bucket, but the girl has rhythm! She loves to sing, but she REALLY loves to dance. She LOVES to spin and twirl. She especially seems to love Tejano music, and her fancy footwork looks a little salsa and cha-cha to me. She is always moving to the beat when she is watching TV or listening to music on the radio. She did not get a love of dance from her father or myself, but I'm now finding myself inquiring about starting her in ballet or tap or whatever the heck you do with an almost-2-year-old.... WHAT IS HAPPENING TO ME???????
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Let's Pretend:
Cooking and eating top her list of favorite things to pretend. She "eats" alot of things and when it's time for a real meal to be over and she gets down to "play," she usually "eats" some more. We were so proud when she was "eating" only the animals from the Nativity scene. We thought we had just been training her well and she'd learned that its ok to eat certain animals, like turkeys and chickens etc... Even though it was a donkey and a camel, we were impressed. Then the other day I saw her munching away on the Angel of the Lord... When she's not pretending to cook or eat, she feeds her Penguin (Percy) or her baby doll (Baby) or she pretends to put on "mack up." She's also been known to pretend to "fix a boo boo" if she finds anything resembling medical supplies. (Since Christmas, her cooking and eating obsession has gone to a whole new level due to her new KITCHEN! But that's a whole other post!)
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Reading list:
Her current favorites are the "Beast" book (Beauty and the...) and Fancy Nancy - Splendiferous Christmas and "Baby Jesus book" (Christmas in the Manger). I love how she says "fan see nan see." And I love how she puts on her Baby Jesus finger puppet to read the Manger book and points to each page with Him. (Finger Puppet Baby Jesus has temporarily gone missing, should be interesting to see where He turns up.) There are other books she will let me read to her throughout the day, but when its Leah's turn to choose... you know what to expect. The girl is consistent.

Can I just say a quick and sarcastic THANK YOU VERY MUCH to my friend Teriann who gave Leah the Beauty and the Beast book.... which has about 8000 words per page and about 600 pages! Not that I don't love reading to her, I do! But come on! Thankfully this is usually a Daddy/daughter tradition before bedtime. She would listen to him read the phonebook I think. He doesn't even have to do cool voices to keep her interested! Its like magic! (For Christmas she received a plethora of new books so we'll see what the new favs are.... so far 47 Beavers on the Big Blue Sea is my new favorite.)
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Mommy please, eat first:

She says this about 47.5 times a day. The girl loves to eat (except for when she doesn't) and when she is in the mood, she can eat more food than me. A FEW of her current favorites are waffles, pancakes, bread (any and all types), chicken ("daddy's chicken" to be exact... cooked on the grill and really "(s)picy"), turkey (which, in her language, sounds a whole lot like tee-tee but whatever), peanut butter crackers, "basketballs" (breakfast bars... extremely hard to say) apples, grapes, and anything she sees you eating or drinking... Oh, also "candy, candy canes, candy corn and syrup." (The 4 food groups according to ELF and Leah C.) Careful cause she'll snatch a candy cane right off your Christmas tree and have it opened and half eaten before you even know what hit you! She'll eat some veggies too... peas and broccoli without even being threatened!

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Drink and Be Merry:

Apple juice and milk are the usual; hot tea at Bibby's house in her very own cup, iced tea from daddy's cup whenever he has some, and most recently Orange juice... followed by lots and lots of mmMMMmMMMmmm's. She wouldn't even try it for the longest time! Oh, and chocolate milk... obviously.

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Loud and Long and Clear:

Laughing, yes laughing is a favorite pastime. She has several varieties: a fake laugh, a funny-down-to-your-guts belly laugh, a silly giggle, and a silent-so-the-only-way-you-know-she's-laughing-is-to-look-at-her-bouncing laugh that she gets when she's hysterical. I've actually been worried about her oxygen level a time or two. She will go a LONG time without breathing and turn funny colors for a good laugh. Sounds familiar. She giggles at most things I do, almost all of what Kevin does and practically everything she herself does is amusing as well. She is beginning to take great pride in getting us to crack up.

Just recently I confirmed something regarding her giggle-obsession which has been happening for months now. It is both precious and maddening to me that Leah knows the difference between obedience and DISobedience. When asked "What should you do when mommy tells you to do something?" she almost always self-corrects quickly and says "obey obey OBEY!" But occasionally she does something like this... The other day after committing a "no-no" she was getting a firm talking to when she just started spewing all the funny things that usually make us crack up... if I had it on film no one would believe that this 22 month old girl was SO STINKING MANIPULATIVE! Just one thing after another waiting for me to crack. It's C-r-a-z-y! (I didn't crack that time... I'm wise to her game and my constitution strengthens with each incident.)

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Espanol:

Leah is obsessed with Caillou (is that spelled right?) which is easily the most annoying show on PBS. But it is pretty cute to hear her sing (and I mean she belts it at the top of her little lungs) the theme song to this show. It has also opened the door to teaching her a little Spanish since my parents bought her a Spanish Caillou book. (I have tried once or twice before to teach her some of what I know, but since I barely know how to teach a toddler my own language, she has just looked at me crazy or ignored me... so we just move on... back to learning English.) But she IS learning it! She knows the Spanish word for bed, although she usually says mama instead of cama unless we remind her, and she knows the Spanish word for pajamas which is of course... pijamas... but it just sounds cute when she says it. (Pee Yamas) Gracias Caillou!

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Christmas past

Merry Christmas to All!

Just a quick look back at a couple of our favorite Christmas times...

Sweet Pea - 2008

Sweet Cheeks - 2009

Sweet Little Lady - 2010

The joy I have at Christmas comes not just from the miraculous and unique birth of a baby born in a stable, though a more blessed story has never been told... but it comes from a more sobering moment in the life of that baby, when, as a grown man, and though He was GOD in flesh, he voluntarily took MY punishment and was put to death on a cross.

His was a sacrificial life and death that were planned from the very beginning.

Jesus was born to die.

He died to pay for my sin.

And then He conquered death once and for all.

I am more grateful than ever this Christmas for all that truly matters.

His love for you and me. And His sovereignty.

"You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in You."

Isaiah 26:3

Put a Santa hat on it...

The other day Leah "decorated" some cookies with a few little girl friends.

My sweet friend that hosted is very Martha Stewart and she made homemade icing in a myriad of colors so that we could pipe it onto our cookies.

I am NOT very Martha Stewart. I had a slight fiasco with my cookie cutting... I let the dough get a little too warm for the last batches, and some of my candy canes turned a bit "Loch Ness Monster" according to some people. Aside from that I'd like to just show off a little and brag on my freehand snowflake cookie pictured below. I was really proud. This may be the most artistic thing I've ever done! ;)




And here is my candy cane.... turned Loch Ness Santa Monster.

Leah would rather eat icing than decorate with it... I had just enough time to take that picture above before ALL the green icing on the cookie was GONE!

Old St. Nick...and I mean old

After a pep talk, she happily sat on his lap and even gave a few big smiles (which I did not catch due to camera delay) but as soon as the jolly old man began to talk to her, she wasn't having it anymore. Her worried look and tears were genuine, and she was DONE!

I had not ever considered this before, but all the other Santa's around that she identifies with are decorative and of course do not talk to you... I imagine this was disturbing to our over-analyzing little thinker. Still... we did better than last year!



This also helps to explain why the giant, creepy, yellow plastic cat at the mall doesn't bother her at all. She even gave him her balloon.

I'll go ahead and give away my Santa secret... we discovered the FREE Santa at Nordstrom Galleria last year... with NO LINE.... and its FREE I TELL YOU! However he's only there a few days and during certain hours, and you have to take your own photo. But he is the real Santa, just look at him! Thank you, Nordstrom, for allowing me to keep $20 in my pocket and for bringing in the REAL (and I think best dressed) Santa once again.

Our Kisses Tree

"Merry Kisses!" and "Happy Day Jesus!" are frequently heard phrases around our house these days.

This was such a sweet moment to me. Leah hung up the first ornament that she has ever made in Sunday School! She put Nativity stickers on a yellow star. After she hung it on the tree she told me about the "mommy, daddy and Baby Jeeesus" pictured on the star.

A dozen times a day she can be found creeping around to the back of the tree to play with her favorite ornament, a gold piano. (Maybe its really her favorite or maybe it's because its all the way at the back... who knows.)

iiiiii want caaandy

The Imaginarium of Leah Curley

Leah has 2 imaginary friends that we know of.

Baba is someone that Kevin and Leah talk to on the phone in the evenings. Actually Kevin started this one back when Leah was tiny and all she said was "BA BA." She was probably 8 or 9 months old. Kevin would pick up a cell phone and talk to Baba in crazy voices and Leah would laugh hysterically. Technically I guess you could say Baba is Kevin's imaginary friend who just wants to speak with Leah on occasion.

Her other friend is Dobby Dobby. He lives in her belly button and is apparently just as hilarious as Baba. She's always giggling when she talks about him. If you ask her what's in her belly button, she'll consistently tell you "Dobby Dobby's in there." If you ask her where Dobby Dobby is, she tell you "in there" lifting up her shirt and pointing to her belly button. Sometimes she just calls him by his first name. "Dobby's in there." The day we went to the doctor someone else was in there too...

Makes you want to get inside her little brain doesn't it! :) I laugh at her all day long. Speaking of laughter... my wheezy smoker laugh is more annoying all the time!! I guess its my attempt at quieting my usual cackle for the sake of the video camera, but I think the wheeze is worse!

(This day these videos were taken, we'd spent the morning playing with friends, gone to visit daddy at work, and taken him to lunch. In the car on the way to lunch she told me "Mommy, ear hurts mommy." I took her to the doc that afternoon and sure enough, she was beginning to get an ear infection. By that time she looked like she felt bad. Doesn't her little swollen face make her look pitiful? Poor.Baby.Girl.)

hanky panky

We were in a department store the other day and I stopped to ask a lady (who was fixing a holiday display in the ladies unmentionables department) where the elevator was. I had just come up the elevator and now gotten myself all turned around. It had been a long day and Leah and I were both really tired and getting a little loopy...

Leah was in the stroller and when I look down at her a few seconds later I see that she has grabbed one of the "holiday specials" that the lady had been situating so nicely in the table... opened the sparkly red container, and put all three LACE THONGS around her neck like necklaces. Pink, Blue and Orange. I think she took her bow out because "too many accessories spoil an outfit." I didn't get a great picture because I was half-way between grossed out, hysterical with laughter and trying to act casual while I got out my camera before anyone else noticed.

I am so glad I have an "undergarments" label or else I might not have thought to post this at all! This is a good example of why you should carry your camera at all times.

Happy holiday shopping to all!

He knows

So many precious friends of mine have experienced a great loss in some way. If you have too, please read this. It is most precious...
http://stuffchristianslike.net/2010/12/the-soft-x/comment-page-6/#comment-152736

closer look

Yard work...

Leah the leaf-crusher is for hire...

Visiting Daddy's work...

where she decides to do a little work of her own...

gathering (and organizing) some sticks...

It's the most wonderful time of the year

Peppermint Dots Christmas Card

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