one mother of a post

Here are the last few months of our lives.

Warning: I'm in maybe 3 pictures. Which is just rude. Ben never whips out the camera.

One of our first days of frequenting splash pads (from like May).

 Father's Day. That's right. Father's Day. We were in Texas for Ben's Grandad's memorial service.

 Still in Texas. This kid is constantly singing and/or dancing.

 Running in NanaMoo's backyard with Auntie Jenna.

 With Auntie Caitie and Uncle Nathan after the memorial service.

 Watching a group sing... not sure if she was appalled or trying to contain her pleasure.

Fourth of July

Woke up and had a festive pop tart. Which she ate one bite and threw the rest away.
I didn't blame her.

 Helping make cupcakes.

 We had over 30 friends come over for a BBQ and to watch fireworks that our village parks and rec dept shot off that you could watch from our front yard.

Library time.

 We used to go almost every week, but haven't been too consistent lately. The staff does a great job of getting the kids involved with singing and dancing. 

 They always end with a craft. She adores crafts and coloring so I usually have to pry her away once she's the only little kid sitting in the room diligently working.

 Ben loves doughnuts. So he'll look into THE places to get doughnuts. Which usually includes standing in a line at 7 am for an hour.

 Then we headed downtown to watch the AVP Pro Volleyball tourney.

Okay. Random. I know.

But remember when she got her tonsils out a few months ago?

These were the babies before being removed.

 Biked to the farmer's market one Saturday morning.

 Went to the fire department for playgroup and she hated it. No desire to look at hoses or large men in masks and huge clothes. She whined and whimpered the entire time. 

 A lovely lady in our church has a few apple trees in her backyard and gave me 7 of these buckets to do whatever I wished.

 So I invited 2 friends over to divvy up the apples and we made applesauce, cider, dehydrated apples, apple pie filling, and apple butter.

 Which coincided with the week I potty trained Charlotte. Hence, her being in underwear.

Lindsey and Lindsy

 One Friday night I babysat Theron and Ben was of course at work so I got them ready together. After their pjs were on and teeth brushed they ran to the rug for family prayers. 

 Went up to Wisconsin to tour the Jelly Belly factory.

 And ended the day with her first and only happy meal. She was confused. She took out the chicken nuggets and was happy with just that. Every time I brought something out she was thrilled. Her toy was a little pad of paper and pencil which she died over. She loves to doodle so she was in heaven. 

 Practicing writing the alphabet.

 Ben is never home. Ever. This second year of residency is rough. I see him around 10 or 11 at night, and briefly before he leaves for work at 6:30 am. I've been having to wake up at 5:45 to go for a run before he leaves. Yikes...

Charlotte hardly sees him. Maybe twice a week...?

 This day I kept her up until 9 or so and Ben was able to come home a little early so they snuggled and read.

 But she was so dang tired.

What usually happens when he gets home. He'll sit and check his email and pass out. This guy could sleep anywhere and in any position.

Doesn't he look dead?

Making trees with paint, her hands, and qtips.

 Her first day of preschool!

I felt bad I didn't blog it back in September when it really was her first day, but whatever.

 There are 6 kids, Charlotte is the only girl, and she pretty much loves it.

She's quite a bit younger than the other kids, but I think she's doing great.

It's a group of girls from our church that take turns every week (Mon/Wed - 9:30-11:30) teaching.

This may have been one of the best days of this girl's life.

Charlotte and I went on a little date to see DISNEY ON ICE.

She was in heaven. Heck, I was in heaven.

 She insisted on wearing her Cinderella shirt, bringing her Cinderella baby doll, and wearing her Mickey ears from DLand.

 I thought the production was really good. They did Alice in Wonderland, Ariel, Beauty and the Beast, the Incredibles, Peter Pan (with a huge pirate ship battle), Tangled, and that's all I can remember...

 The show went for 45 minutes, gave you a 15 minute potty break, and then went on for another 45 minutes. Totally worth the $20 tickets.

 Waving goodbye to the characters. Kept yelling out their names. 

I got teary eyed.

 Blue slushy in a Cinderella cup.

She was in heaven.

At a bounce house at a local pumpkin patch.

Went out to dinner with some friends a few weeks ago and she ignored all food and attacked the corn.

If she could wear a leotard and tutu every minute of every day she would be complete.

Carving, painting, and decorating pumpkins.

An October must.

Last weekend we drove with some friends to Notre Dame for the football game against BYU.

Such a frustrating game. We were in total control and didn't deliver on 2 plays and ended up losing by 3 blasted points. Ugh.

 We got there a few hours early to walk around their gorgeous campus (the basilica is below) and go to BYU's tailgate party.

 In front of "Touchdown Jesus" (see mural on the building behind us).

Alright, so that pretty much catches us up. My camera died sometime during the summer and I couldn't find the charger so we missed out on capturing much of what we were up to. 

My parents came for a week the beginning of this month and I know I have pictures somewhere, so those will have to be posted later.

Tonight we're headed to our church's Halloween party. Charlotte is a "scary" witch (she popped around from wanting to be a witch, bat, ladybug girl, ballerina, and the HOUSE FROM UP... I kid you not...). I'm going to be a black cat. Ben actually has the day off! But we have no idea what he'll be. The easiest solution is for him to grab some scrubs and throw on his white coat and stethoscope and be a doctor. But that's lame. So we'll see.