Bye, Bye, Birdie

Little Pumpkin had her two-year well child appointment today. When we got home she was playing in her room, when I realized it was a little too quiet! I didn't know going to the doctor could take so much out of you:She didn't even get shots either! Just a little special time with her pacifier and blanket and of course a purse! Silly girl.

I was surprised to get a some great shots of her. This is the adorable outfit I was planning for her to wear for her b-day celebrations. That was until the cherry slush incident . . . don't ask!

I LOVE this sweet smile! It is so rare to catch it on camera! But that's it ~ dimples and all!


This is where the title comes in to play! We (again a.k.a. Daddy Lion) converted Little Pumpkin's bed from crib to toddler bed today. She was very interested in what was going on ~ never seemed concerned ~ she even pitched in to help!

Concentrating so hard. She really has no clue what all this means . . .

The face says excitement . . . until she realizes no crib means no pacifier!

We will see how tonight goes! Pray for us if you wake up for some odd reason in the night ~ I have a feeling I might be up. *wink*

BSF, Bugs, Buds &Building

BSF
Today Little Pumpkin had her first day at BSF. She was a little shy going in, but thanks to Ms. Browne, she was quickly engaged. What an awesome program they have! Check it out if you are not familiar, I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that God has used this study to grow me over the years. Is STILL growing me through it. . . Okay, off my soapbox . . . She must have done fine. I did not receive any bad report or any report for that matter, but she was one of the few that were NOT crying when I picked her up. Always a good sign! *smile*

Like any TWO year old, or female, her emotions can change at the drop of a hat or as this case was a car driving by!




BUGS
Ladybugs that is. I've been working on some baby shower invites for my step-sister. Her friend made all the invites ~ these cute little ladybugs. All I had to do was put in the wording, curl antennas, stuff envelopes and label them. I'm glad to be DONE! They go in the mail tomorrow ~ Kudos to Beth, I'm not sure how she made all those bugs without going bonkers!




BUDS
Our friends have moved in! Yes, they bought a house around the corner from us so we get to see lots more of these sweet faces. It's so nice for carpooling and quick babysitting!

Mr. M and Little Lion striking a pose for me! Too funny ~ they are good buds!

Miss. S and Little Pumpkin, well they are two peas in a pod. Communication and age are their only downfall right now! *smile*





BUILDING
The neighbor to the north is building a fence and we (a.k.a. Daddy Lion) said we'd split the cost and labor for the side we share.

Daddy Lion and the neighbor working on the fence! I wanted to do this while Cheetah was here, but lucky for him it never worked out!

They have made great progress.
Last summer our neighbors to the south built a fence. . . so if we wait long enough maybe our back neighbor will start his fence and all we'll have to do is the front! *wink*

Girly girl?!?

Last night Little Pumpkin opened another b-day present we received in the mail. Fortunately, I had my camera ready . . . although I got the pic, I missed the sounds. She was so excited even before she really knew what it was:

Upon opening the treasure box, she found all kinds of pretties!
She was in little girl heaven!!!

Everything came out of the box and out of packages . . .

The crown didn't last long, but it sure is fitting ~ she thinks she rules!

Do you think we could fit some more bling on?!?
Thanks Aunt Bran for all the goodies!

Just thought I'd share a glimpse of our sweet girl. She loves everything girlie (except baby dolls), but keeps up with the boys like one of them. . . She'll be the next Homecoming Queen playing on the football team!

Eating bugs

My good friend, Jaime, often talks about her mom having them give a "yippee" and a "bummer" from the day at prayer time. I've been inconsistent, but tried to incorporate this into our prayer time with Little Lion at night.

Last night, he said the most fun he had was eating "bug" cupcakes at AWANA! He explained that they had learned about "Jesus' friend who ate grasshoppers dipped in honey."

So, as I prayed for him, I prayed he would "grow in wisdom" like Jesus (a verse from Cubbies this year). And continued: "That he may become of friend of Jesus just like John the Baptist, that tells others about God's love . . ."
Before I could finish Little Lion blurts out:
"But doesn't eat bugs!!!"

There's a smile and hopefully a giggle for your Monday morning!

Look who's . . .

TWO!!!
Yes, my Little Pumpkin turned TWO yesterday, I'm still in a bit of shock that it's gone by so fast!
Yesterday is a bit of blur . . . I know this will shock most of you, but I over-scheduled our day more than I'd like to admit. *grin*

We began the day with my friend Josie taking some awesome family pics for us! Check out her blog for some sneak peeks. (You'll have to act surprised if you end up with one for Christmas!) Afterward, we headed out to some special friends house . . .

Little Pumpkin and Miss. AJ share a b-day (four hours apart almost to the minute), so Tia S threw a party for the two of them! We had a blast ~ Thanks again for all the work you put into it Tia S.The girls and their cakes . . . YES, they each had their own cake and candles to blow out! I'll spare you the video of my trying to sing and video. Although, I'm thinking about sending it in to AFV. . . Little Pumpkin decided to put out the candle with her finger so I kind of forgot about the camera rolling . . . well, you see where this is going!

The girls were so good about opening their presents together! No fighting over gifts! Again Tia S did a great job of making things fair and even! I don't know if they would have noticed if it hadn't been though!

Miss. AJ and Little Pumpkin both got princess dress up clothes. Snow White and Cinderella respectively . . . can you guess why?!? *wink*

The only time they fought was over picking up the trash! Too funny, at least they are showing some responsible character traits! I also love the huge smile on Daddy Lion's face in the back ground . . . one proud Daddy!

CANDY!!!! Little Pumpkin is all about the candy! She was more concerned about the candy she received than the gifts! That's my girl ~ little sweet tooth. Honestly anything edible will do for her! *wink* We headed home for a nap. She did actually take one even after all that!

I tried to snap a few shots of her to post for her b-day pic. But I think by this time she was all pictured out! Above: I told her to go stand by the flowers; she is pointing to the flowers as if asking"These flowers?"
She's not smiling, but this is a true Little Pumpkin face! Still cute! We had a small family party at our house in the evening with pizza and cupcakes. You know keeping it simple and all! *grin*

Here is a little bit of that birth order showing through . . . baby of the family . . . clowning around. These are the glasses from her Mrs. Potato Head she opened before she was suppose to! Another "baby" characteristic I believe! SNEAKY

Another candle, check out her hands! She was practically sitting on them, I don't think she'll ever try to touch a candle again! It only takes once!


You guessed right, licks the icing leaves the cake! You know we all really want to do that! *wink*

Little Pumpkin and Lolly with her pink shake and go crash up car! Which was a hit with all the kids!

Showing off some dress up shoes she got ~ sure to break an ankle in them! *wink* She actually did pretty well in them. Here she is stomping her feet in them!

Of course, what's a girl without her phone?!? Chia Lu did a great job with this gift ~ it's even Cinderella just like her dress!

Our Little Princess! (excuse the wardrobe malfunction!)
All things considered, she's a great 2 year old! Happy Birthday Sweet Little Pumpkin!
WE LOVE YOU!

Columbus Day PlayDate

Our sweet bud, Alligator, started kindergarten this year. So our playtime with her has been sparse. Since Monday was Columbus Day, she was out and we had them over for a play date! Little Lion and Alligator played so well together. Even our sweet Little Lamb and Little Pumpkin played well. However, Little Pumpkin was quite mesmerized by the G-man.

She did a great job helping feed him! We even had to tell her all done, I think she would have sat there forever. Cute, but not enough to make me want another one!

After lunch we headed outside to enjoy the awesome low 80's we were having! I was not thrilled about this see-saw when Papaw purchased it for Little Lion, but it has been SO much fun now that he and his friends can do it by themselves! Thank you Papaw!!! Do you remember see-sawing? Trying your hardest to bump the other person!?! Check out this video!

Little Pumpkin is proving over and over again to be my daredevil! She has figured out that it's quite a rush to lay back in the swing while you are going! SCARES me to death!

Okay, if you know Little Lamb, she is the HARDEST to get a picture of! Much less one of her smiling. So, I know there is a rope in front of her face, but check out that smile~ it's pure joy!


I just loved that the little girls were entertaining themselves with the swings! I guess that's one definition of swing yourself! *wink*

Thanks again friends for coming to play! We had a great day just hanging at home with you guys. That just doesn't happen enough.

Ready to GO!

On Friday night the kids went to Lolly and Pop's house for a sleep over! Thanks again for a night to ourselves! Little Pumpkin was determined to wear the backpack even though it was over half her size! I think she's ready for school! Sure wish I would have gotten some video of her walking with it on . . . you would have thought she was scaling a mountain! Hope this brings a smile to you.

How many hops could a hopper hop if a hopper . . .

Saturday was Mommy Lion's MOPs picnic. Her leaders did a great job of organizing and things went off perfectly.

So many of you pledged for Little Lion and Little Pumpkin to hop, those who bet on Little Pumpkin to hop were the big winners!! We'd like to see your videos of getting a one year old to hop for 30 seconds!

Little Lion hit 109, stopped a couple of times, but made it through the whole thing. We didn't get a picture of them together, but below are the day's highlights:

Field Trip!

Little Lion had his first field trip of this year yesterday. We headed to another small town 45 minutes away to a church "pumpkin patch." Now, after being in the the Northwest for 7 years, I know what a pumpkin patch looks like. Sadly, the rows of nicely placed pumpkins in the front lawn just don't cut it! *smile* Nonetheless, it was a fun little jaunt with lots of photo ops!

This is Little Lion with most of his class. Uh, can you tell who the oldest is?!? He towers over them all! And the little boy who is closest in height is actually the furthest from him in age!

Little Lion is so good about sitting still and listening during story time!
He loves to read books ~ still! I pray that continues throughout his life!

Picking out his pumpkin . . . come on . . . it's a box of pumpkins from Wally world!!!! I don't know if that's true, but we will be visiting the real pumpkin patch! Still won't be the same since we'll be going in shorts and t-shirts as opposed to our friends elsewhere! *wink*

Here's the whole class with sweet Mrs. Judy! I'm so surprised they are all at least looking at the camera , well, in that general direction! Little Lion can never remember names of the kids when we ask him who he played with. However, he told us every single kid's name in this picture! One track mind ~ must be a guy thing! JK!!! (My husband rocks! *smile*)

Miss S. with Little Lion in the pumpkins. They did this all by themselves, I just happened upon them! She loves my Little Lion . . . gonna have to keep an eye on these two!

Miss. S with Little Pumpkin, not so easy to get either of them to smile!

LOVE this one! My sweet little ones!

Trying to get a pic with my Little Pumpkin and the pumpkin; she is NOT the poser!
Pray for our photo shoot next Saturday!

Finally playing with the buds on the playground! Mr. O and Little Lion seemed to be inseparable buds. I'm so glad we were able to join in on this trip. It was fun to see him interacting with his friends and enjoy a day out!

More convention pics

Just wanted to send you to Josie's blog for more convention pics. She got some great ones of some of the awesome performances! We had such a great worship experience, I think I might start saving for Nashville next year! It's not THAT far to drive, is it?!? *wink*

my husband rocks

It's really small in the picture, but that's what our shirts say! And I have no doubt that my husband rocks! Because of his wonderful encouragement and extreme help, I was able to go to the MOPS convention this past weekend. Above is 5 of the 7 that were able to attend.

This fountain was so cool, it would get as high as the 9th floor! Also in the atrium was the bell tower bellow. The screen reads "The Gaylord Texan Welcomes MOPS"

I could write for days on all we took in, but I won't! God stretched me so much ~ I've got a lot of growing to do in the next year! Thanks to all who made it possible. Especially my husband!

Postscript: Check out That's the way we roll for more pics!

Nine Pounds

Western Days was today. For a small town, there sure are a lot of folks that turn out. We were there early enough to get our usual place and save some room for our friends.

Now this is where the blog splits into good news and bad news. The bad news is that NONE of our friends showed up. I haven't counted all the possibilities, and maybe they were there but just in a different spot, but we ended up being alone in our spot.

The good news is that we bagged all the candy thrown our way. I had to force Little Lion to pick up candy. It was everywhere, every kind, all over! Little Lion got his bag, Little Pumpkin got one sucker and you'd have thought she was set for life. I started stuffing candy into her bag. People stopped throwing candy because there was so much on the ground, I couldn't keep up. The people next to us started stuffing candy in Little Lion's bag too (she actually kept all the Hershey's Bars!) Little pumpkin just sat in her chair, oblivious, gnawing on her sucker.

When we got home I weighed the days take. Nine pounds. Hope your evening is as great as ours is going to be!

Practicing for the Circus

We had a free afternoon Saturday and the weather has cooled down some, so we all made our way outside. We had great fun with the sidewalk chalk! Little Lion decided to ride his motorized tractor, which is not out of the ordinary. (We need to start shopping for a two seater!) I happened to see him out of the corner of my eye and knew I must catch this on film:

It's hard to tell, but he is standing with his right foot on the gas and his left foot hiked up on the back of the seat! He rode all the way around the house and then some ~ giggling and screaming the whole way. So I guess he was serious about this circus thing! *wink*