a little bit loud

Check out this video of Leah getting shushed by her friend Blakely. Leah sure enjoys the plethora of dress up clothes at Blakely's house... and the bouncy bed that Blakely's mommy let's them jump on... but she doesn't like to be shushed!

Oh...and if there is such a thing as toddler track and field, Blakely needs to sign up! She is gonna be a high jumper or hurdler one day.

LC quote of the day

"Mommy, let's turn on my lion king music. I need to feel the love in my heart."


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LC quote of the day

Yesterday at the grocery store...

"What do we need next, my old lady?"


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LC quote of the day

"Mommy, it seems to me that all my milk is gone."


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Dr. Curley

What seems like a veeeeery long time ago I contracted what was perhaps the worst respiratory virus in my whole entire life... And then... on her actual birthday... I gave it to Leah... resulting in the cancellation of all sorts of birthday festivities. (And as it turns out that is a way bigger deal to her mommy than it was to Leah.)

Anyway, it was a good thing Dr. Curley had her new doctor kit, a birthday present from Bibby and Pops. She gave me about 36287 check-ups and there were lots and lots of shots and medicine for both of us.



Before she had this kit we often played doctor, nurse, patient. We would all take turns playing different roles. But now there is only one doctor in the house.



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LC quote of the day

A couple of weeks ago on our way to Pops' birthday dinner...
Leah: Why is it taking so long to get there?
Me: We just missed the turn.
Leah: Why did we miss the turn?
Me: We just did.
Leah: How are we going to get there now?
Me: We are just going to go down here and do a u-turn and then we will be there.
Leah: Why are you going to make ME turn?
:)
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out with the old

This was waaaay back in the summer... I just forgot to push the "post-it" button! Oops.

Goodbye baby nursery...

Hello big girl central!!
I am a compulsive furniture re-arranger, and I always have been. I have moved her room around about 6 or 7 times. I did the same thing with her nursery. If it moves... I move it. I don't know what's wrong with me. I think my feng-shuinometer is broken or something.

dough girls

Judging by the pumpkins in the background in these pictures, this was sometime back in the fall. But this so perfectly illustrates her personality that I had to post.

Leah ALWAYS wants to make things and cook things in the kitchen. (I can NOT make dinner alone anymore... but who would want to with such a sweet little helper.) So we got a great play-dough recipe and went to town.
What color first? PINK! Of course!

By the time pink was cool enough to play with, we had made a batch of blue too!

Play-dough is one of the reasons I wanted to have kids!!!! LOVE IT!

A batch of green and orange too! We used ALOT of salt and flour that day. ;)

Cleaning up has always been one of Leah's favorite activities... playing with water is another favorite pastime, so washing dishes is like heaven for her.

I guess you noticed the costume? This is very normal in our house. In fact, when we get started on our daily chores Leah says "Wait... let me go get my crown!" Rest assured, this mama has never overtly encouraged the princess act... even all the costumes are gifts from others... but apparently, the tiara fits!

Christmas morning 2011

Our crazy little Christmas elf on Christmas morning... HAHAHA!Santa brought her just what she asked for and some stuff she didn't even know she wanted... like new cars and some Lightnin McQueen slippers!

Beans enjoyed her Christmas bone.

Leah has already worn out her dry erase markers in the few short weeks since Christmas.

I just liked this smug look on her face...And this silly face she is making singing "Mary, did you know?" after her bath on Christmas. That is some serious nostril flaring! This year at Christmas I found myself singing that song often. Can you imagine kissing the face of the baby Jesus? Can you imagine being given the responsibility of parenting the only son of God? The notion of that song hit me a little more squarely this year than ever before. One thing I definitely took away from this Christmas season was a deeper understanding of the humanness of Jesus. He was fully divine, equal to God the Father. Yet he was, for a time, as fully human as me. While I don't know how that was accomplished, I feel like I better understand just one of the reasons why.

He was no stranger to living around sin and corruption. He endured temptations just as each of us do. And he made choice after perfect choice that aligned with the will of God the Father. Denying his flesh. Fulfilling his purpose. Building his kingdom. And all the time he was doing it so that he could identify with us! So that we might believe him when he says to us "I know what you are going through...you can do this!" Its so sweet. Its so compassionate. Its so simple.

a little caroling

Last year I wrote about Caroline... Leah's middlenamesake. This year at our annual Christmas Eve breakfast I captured a little video of the two girls doing some Christmas caroling. There is NO MISTAKING which child mine is... and you will notice my pleas to "sssshhhh" and "don't yell" go completely unnoticed. But I am trying my darndest to educate her. We talk daily... hourly even... about when we use quite inside voices and when its ok to use louder voices... but I myself only just learned how to whisper a few months ago... so what can I say?

I call it "Caroling by Caroline Leigh and Leah Caroline."

You may want to turn your volume down...

All Caroline wanted for Christmas this year was her 2 front teeth!

All the kiddos

And Aunt Leslie

Slow it down

Time, please slow down. Just for the next few weeks. 2 years old has been so fun! I mean sooooo fun! And 3... is like almost 5. And then she might as well be going off to college. So just make the next month seem like 6 so I can have a little bit longer with my sweet 2 year old....


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a little nest

I have tried to describe to some people the ratted mess we find in Leah's hair each morning. But they say a picture is worth a thousand words. So now no one will ever think I am exaggerating when I talk about it!At night we wash her hair, spray detangler in it, brush it out and go to bed... and she wakes up looking like this!

And we have tried doing none of those things before bed... and she still wakes up looking like this!

The first time I told her a rat made a nest in her hair she thought I said raccoon, so now when I am brushing the tangles out she says "Get out of there, raccoons! Don't make your nest in my hair anymore!"

3 of a kind

I know its hard to even tell who is who... but that's Leah, GranStan and Mr. Potato head.

LC quote of the day

How can we catch a tiger by his toe, Mommy? We have to use a fishin' pole or somethin'?


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you thought a quivering duck butt was weird?

Remember 3 years ago (I know you don't...its ok) when I posted about a back-ordered-red-neck Christmas present for Kevin? If you would like to refresh your memory click here. Well, I eventually cancelled the quiver duck butt order because it was taking so long. This worked out well because we found one on BIG TIME sale after the season ended. That was the strangest Christmas present I had ever (almost)purchased... until this year.

My sister, the shepherd, asked for a bat house for Christmas... and I obliged. Go ahead and let that marinate for a minute.... A bat house.... is a place where bats sleep... She wants bats to come and sleep at her barn... So much that she is going to put a little house up for them so they will feel welcome.

Turns out she is not 100% nuts... there is actually no better mosquito control in all the world than a bunch of bats. Apparently bats eat like zillions of mosquitoes at every meal. And you know how if you have a dog, you get it a dog house. If you like birds you put up a bird house in your yard. And if you enjoy creepy little blood-sucking Halloween mascots... you install a bat house in your barn! If you build it, they will come. We did it pre-fab style!

Leslie was thrilled to receive this gift. So we decided on a time to meet and get the thing installed so the winged creatures in town could start spreading the word about the new bat digs that were now available.

Now... our dad is the kind of sweet, wonderful, chivalrous (sexist) guy who thinks its a man's job to climb on ladders, drill holes and install things. So when he heard this was what we planned to do he headed out to head us off. Sometimes this annoys me... I am a doer. I love projects. I love power tools. I laugh in the face of danger. But today, it was really cold. And I was really glad he was up on the ladder getting it done quickly while we supervised.

Good job Pops!

Leah also supervised the sheep. And fed them a few snacks while we were there.
Aunt Leslie was so happy about her new mosquito control system!

I wish you could see this next picture up closer. Leah looks SO MUCH like her Aunt in this picture!!

If this works... we may build a bat sanctuary in our backyard next summer!