another comparison of baby pictures:

And here are 2 more pics of Kate about Gracie's age:

santa baby:

painting Christmas ornaments....

while Gracie cleans out her ears with a paint brush and paint water:

baby pics....

Kate:

Ella:

Gracie:

Very similar, huh? I can see a mix of Kate and Ella in Gracie.

Thank you Janice and Leslie....

The box just made our day. It was unexpected, and just perfect timing. We are watching Elf, as we get out all of our Christmas decorations. **Thank you, thank you.** (The girls couldn't even hold it all, Gracie loves her little book too.)



I wore this to the swim meet last night---so very me. Love it.

swim video:

I had Gracie in the ergo for this little 'Turkey Meet'--just a fun little meet our team does together the day after Thanksgiving. Gracie was pretty squirmy, but she actually stayed in the ergo a full 3 hours, bless her heart! So, this video isn't super, but I'm LOVING the HD video option on my new camera-a huge improvement!! And GREAT JOB, KATE!!! She's a younger one in the 9 & 10 year old age division, so it's hard to get a ribbon...we had to have a long talk about that tonight. She was so disappointed.

swim pics...

I have more pics to upload, but I'm so freaking tired at the moment. I'm crashing. Kate and Ella are sleeping in the living room tonight....let's hope they get some sleep so we all aren't grumpy tomorrow.

pics:

I was curious how this was going to work out-
Kate's hair turned out fabulous. The doll's hair....not so much.

Ella helped me out in the kitchen today-

'Geez mom, the camera again...really mom?'


And I love these pics of Jessica and Gracie-






Mackenzie, Ella and Gracie-

Happy Thanksgiving....

My friend, Charlene had this on her fb status today, I love it:

A poem called, Family Tree:

How often my mother has said to me,
“Where are you planting your family tree?

Uprooting the children and moving each tour,
how can they possibly feel secure?”

But how can I explain about children’s hearts?
When love is present, fear departs.

For we love a man who flies o’er the earth,
who visits Manila, Hong Kong and Perth.

Some day I hope to make Mother see.
We live by a star, not by a tree! - Unknown



I love Thanksgiving. We are so very blessed, and thankful for our wonderful friends who made sure we were taken care of today. I'm also thankful for my family, my husband serving our country overseas this Thanksgiving (hopefully this will be the last Thanksgiving we have to spend apart!), and our 3 beautiful girls that light up our whole world. :)

another snow day--

So this is the second day of the kids missing school. I kind-of thought that might happen. Yesterday the roads were not that bad in the middle of the day, so I made a much needed trip to Costco. The roads did freeze up again, and today it's just COLD. I think it's 12 degrees outside at the moment. Here are a couple of pics from yesterday when a few of the neighborhood boys came over to play. Kate spent the entire day doing homework, and missed out.

SNOW DAY---YAY!!!!

I loved getting that automated call from the school district at 6:10 a.m. to let me know that there was no school today. I'm glad that I was actually able to fall back asleep. Now it's 9 a.m., and we just had bacon and eggs for breakfast, and we are gearing up to build some snowmen today. Poor Kate, she must finish her homework first! (homework that was assigned almost a week ago!) I'm trying so hard to be very 'love and logic' with her, it's hard on a snow day to say, 'Sorry Kate, we'll be happy for you to join us when you finish your work.'

cute moments

I had been upstairs, and found this when I got back downstairs. I snapped a quick picture before I explained to Gracie that we don't climb up on the island. It just cracked me up, I guess she suckered Ella into opening a granola bar, and she was just chillin', watching Ella update her wish list on Amazon.

And then a little while later, I asked Kate what this was in her room:

She said, "It's Gracie's fort, see?"

school and snow pics:

I did a fun little art project in Ella's class today. I had so much fun doing that....the kids were a little hyped up about all the snow, but the were very good. I just love Ella's teacher. She wants this to be a regular thing, so I'm thinking about once a month would be good. I took Gracie with me, and she did great!

Gracie, aka: marker monster:

LET IT SNOW!!

Gracie does not like to wear gloves.

more pics...

Oh, I LOVE Gracie's super dark brown eyes...



I actually found an artwork that Jessica did in the 8th grade, when she was in my art class 10 years ago. She did this 'Kate Emiko' in 3 point perspective as a baby gift...when I was pregnant with Kate. She never finished it. I'm so glad I saved it, she got the biggest kick out of it. And doesn't Miss Jessica look fabulous??? She has lost a lot of weight!! 33 lbs. so far! I'm so proud of her!!