my mosaic

I thought this was a neat idea that I stole from http://howardbannister.com/?p=149. (I wish I could figure out how to embed that in text, but I'm too stoopid).
There are some pretty frickin' amazing photos on flickr. I think I need to join.

Pigtails!

 

Oh my goodness sakes alive! I might just die from the adorableness!
Today, Marissa let me put some pigtails in her hair. She actually really enjoyed watching what I was doing to her (I did it in front of the mirror). After I finished, she clearly liked what she saw. Too cute!
I'm so grateful for all these fun moments I get to enjoy with my kids!

Sugar and Spice . . . Did I Mention Spice?

 

Marissa is spicy. I get lots and lots of beautiful, smiling pictures out of her all the time, but I also get one or two of her pulling faces like this . . . "What?? Can't you leave me alone already?!"
I love, love, LOVE that you always know EXACTLY how Marissa is feeling. She already tells it like it is through her very expressive face. She doesn't put up with anyone else's crap, and I just adore that about her.
I'm so grateful to be her mommy.

My Little Boy

I think fall is now officially over (see what I was talking about with the quick transition periods?). It's been cold and rainy for about a week now, and all the trees are bare. I always struggle a bit when there hasn't been sunshine for a few days (photosensitivity?), but then Mason does something super awesome, and all is well again.
In an effort to find a dress to wear to Landon's office party, I braved the cold and the rain with my kids in tow. When we pulled into the parking lot, there were lots of puddles. Mason was well-equipped to handle the puddles with his rain boots and rain coat, and he was very eager to give it a go. I told him he could jump AFTER we went into the store if he was a nice boy. He was a nice boy, and so when it was time to go, I released him into the puddles.

 

There was an extra big puddle there. Mason told me that there might be fish in that one. "We can't jump in that puddle, Mom. It's bery, bery deep. There might be fish in there!" Oh, he cracks me up.
I am so grateful of the gentle reminders I get from my children about appreciating all the little things, like jumping in puddles after the rain. I'm so lucky to be that little dude's mom.

My Beautiful Family

As the primary photographer in our family, I don't get to be in a lot of photographs. This is generally okay by me, but I know that one day my kids will want to have pictures of me too. So, when the opportunity presents itself, I try to have fun and look okay. And every once in a while, we manage to get a gem like this one.

 

Thank you, Caitlin, for this beautiful picture of my beautiful family!

The Best Christmas Tree . . . EVER!

Yesterday, despite forecasts of rain, we woke up to one of the first clear, blue skies in weeks. Landon had planned on working all day (on Saturday), and I was going to hang out with the kids inside since they're sick and I'm trying my darndest to not also get sick. But, the sky was just so crisp and clear, we decided to go get a Christmas tree instead. Landon called our friend, Stacey, to see if we were still invited to her family's annual Christmas tree cutting extravaganza. Upon confirmation that we could make it in time to go with Stacey's family, we hurriedly got the kids and ourselves ready to go.
After some searching on pretty gnarly terrain carrying my 20+ pound baby in my arms, we found a tree we liked. Landon climbed up the trunk of the original tree our tree was growing out of and cut our tree down. (I enjoy watching my husband do stuff like that. It's sexy.)


Anyhow, we trudged back down to the "office", got the tree wrapped and tied onto our roof, paid for it and left. Despite the obvious fatigue setting in for our kids, we stopped at a little restaurant I used to go to in high school and had a nice meal. Then we headed home, kids conked out in the back.
Landon and I managed to get the tree up and situated where we wanted while the kids finished napping once we got home. We also managed to track down our Christmas decorations and got them out and ready to decorate once the kids woke up.


Mason was SO excited to decorate the tree. And he kept declaring, over and over, "This is going to be the best Christmas tree EVER!" which melted my heart and made me so happy.


So today, I am grateful for the best Christmas tree EVER!

Capital One is Awesome

Seriously. Awesome.
I have had a Capital One credit card for years now and I have always been very happy with them. They have handled more than one dispute without me having to do hardly anything. They give me lots of rewards for the money I spend, and today they handled a change in my travel plans beautifully. The people were great. They were easy to understand and genuinely seemed concerned about the problem I was having (which was the airline's fault, not Capital One's).
Landon and I have had credit cards from all the major issuers (Chase, Citibank, American Express, etc), and while some of them are better than others, and some of them downright suck, Capital One is the by far the best.
I was seriously so happy about the service I just received that I had to share it with you. It was that good.

Experience

Today, both of my kids have colds. Nothing too serious, but they are stuffed up and have little cough-ers. Also, they are grouchy and whiny. I think that is to be expected, though.
Tonight, I took Marissa through her bedtime routine. Bath. Book. Nursing. She tried really hard to fall asleep, but she just couldn't breathe. I wiped her nose. She still couldn't breathe. She fussed and cried and generally got mad about being so darn tired but unable to sleep. So, I did something that I never (successfully) did when Mason was a baby. I got the aspirator and I sucked the snot out of her nose. She didn't like it. It made her super mad. But, I got enough out so she could breathe and suck her paci and fall asleep in my arms.
It made me think about the one time I tried to aspirate Mason's nose. He was probably about the same age as Marissa, maybe a little younger. I got one nostril and then he flipped out. I made him cry, which made me cry. I couldn't bring myself to aspirate the other nostril. It just felt wrong to do something that would make my little baby cry. I don't know for sure, but I have a feeling there wasn't much sleeping that night, probably because I never managed to get his little nose aspirated well enough to breathe.
After Marissa fell asleep and I put her in her crib, I thought about how being a mom the second time around is easier in a lot of ways. I understand now that I am necessarily going to have to do things that my kids won't like, and it doesn't make me a bad mom. In fact, it might make me a good mom that I am able to stick to my guns and do what I know will be best for my kids, even if, at the time, it makes them cry. Like tonight, when I asked Mason what he wanted for dinner, he said ice cream. I think it's pretty easy for most moms to say, "um. Nope. Ice cream is not a dinner option." He wanted ice cream, and actually did whine a little when I told him no, but he didn't have ice cream for dinner. That's just not okay.
Down the road, I'm sure I'll have to face down much tougher opponents than aspirators or ice cream for dinner, but these experiences are preparing me for the tougher battles that lay ahead. For that experience, I am truly grateful.

more fall fun

Since it's been feeling like fall lately, I've been itching to get some pictures of my kids in the fall leaves. So, this weekend, I forced my kids to get into their cutesy Christmas clothes and have their pictures taken. I got lots of beautiful pictures of my little girl and some pretty good ones of her older, less cooperative brother. I have been admiring the pictures since I took them on Saturday, and finally decided I can't wait any longer to put some up. So here they are...