Apparently, Halloween candy makes for a perfectly good breakfast the day after. Especially when shared with your favorite sister, a soft blanket and your pal Dora.

Funny little moment. Today after lunch I told the girls to go brush their teeth. "No thank you", Luci politely declines as she walks into the other room. "No thank you" repeats little sister as she marches behind big sis into the other room. "You don't want to get rotten teeth" I say. "What are rotten teeth?" asks big sis. Well....glad you ask I think to myself as I google it and come up with this blog with nothing but rotten teeth pics.

Today I was in the company of fairies.

What started out to be this kind of day.......you know the one where it's overcast, everything goes your way, the kids get home from school just as you are pulling the pumpkin bread out of the oven. You ice it and make hot cocoa to go with it, turn on the tree lights, cue up the holiday music. Well, today was not that day. That day was called Friday.

Today is the day where I am finally trying to get some blogging done, crafting done...etc. and all I can hear during naptime is MAMA...MAMA.........MAMA! This I am actually used to. Trying to get Lola to nap these days has proven quite tricky. So I let her talk/whine it out for a while and go in to check on her a few times, and then finally commit the mama no-no...I gave her a bottle of milk. (I know, I know all about bottle rot. The 4th child is the only one we have done this with. And we make sure to take it away after she falls asleep and we usually brush her teeth after.) Well, today I went through all the usual steps of getting her to sleep (check on her, check on her, give bottle, wait, take it away, wait) and finally, after a prolonged period of this whining I went in to check on her. By the way, my definition of whining- making any one syllable word into two. With Mo-om being the top contender.

When I walk in, she is standing up saying "I poop"! (I'll spare you the pictorial) Diaper is off and planted dirty side down onto her pillow and it looks as if this pint size Picasso has fingerpainted the crib, bedding, clothes....etc. So I take the soiled clothes off and run her to the tub. I start the bathwater and say "hold on" to the side of the tub while I get the wipes. I am gone only a few seconds and upon my return, I hear a soft little voice say "oh no" as I look down to see her riverdancing in a puddle of urine. I clean her up and the floor up and get her settled in to her bubble bath and against my better judgement utter the words "I'll be right back" as I dash down the hall to her room to grab the soiled items and throw them in the wash. Poke my head in the door to check on Lola again. She smiles and says "hi". I start the laundry then return for operation: clean up baby. As I'm going to pour the shampoo/bodywash into my hand nothing comes out but some water which someone has tried replacing the real deal with. "What happened to the shampoo?" I ask. This cute little munchkin face looks up at me with a great big smile and says as she points "Down there". Lovely.

If rainbow leggings could solve the world's problems it would be a more colorful place. Thankful today that they solve this little girl's. If she is grumpy, fussy or tired, I'll reach in my bag of tricks for this instant pick-me-up. I am rewarded with a great big smile every time.

I love this girly all dolled up. She reminds me of Darla from the Little Rascals in this pic. So, I finished this set over the weekend. I was going to use this fabric but ended up changing it up a little. I used Tanya Wheelan's Darla and Ava Rose lines and brown linen for the ruffle. I used a simplicity pattern for the top/dress and Sandi Henderson's ruffle pant pattern. The brown linen mixes it up nicely.

So I have this baby Lola....she is small and very funny....but sometimes she gets mad. I made Karl grab the cam & start shooting during one of her outbursts at breakfast. I love grouping together a series of shots. And she looks so darn cute when she's mad. These pics have been sitting on my computer for a while, so I decided to make a digital scrapbook page for them.
(The fine print: You like doing things all by yourself. Whenever we try to feed you, you like to grab the spoon out of our hands and try for youself. When we take the spoon away.....you get mad. Very mad. I don't like to see you sad or frustrated, but when you are, you sure are cute!)
I designed the 12x12 paper with lots of hearts in random colors and named it sweetie. If you'd like to download the sweetie paper you can do so here. Try a scrapbook page for yourself or print it out and get creative. Happy Monday!!!!

I've been thinking about the ocean a lot and how I want to go here again. I want to stay at a hotel on the ocean and leave the sliding door open so I can fall asleep to the sound of ocean waves and the smell of the sea. I love the boardwalk; it makes me happy. This summer I'm gonna ride those swings!

When editing the cupcake pics the other day, I had this cute profile one of Luci cooking. I thought it would be cute to turn it into a silhouette. I've been toying with the idea for a while to get a lifestyle silhouette for everyone in the family (all in action) and dedicating a wall to the project. So, here's the first!

We made yummy yummy cupcakes yesterday. Luci helped. She's my little foodie. I loved how she would intermittently sniff the batter and say Mmmmmmm. And of course there was a costume change halfway through.

I made these skirts a few months back but since we've had such a cold and rainy spring, they have not seen the light of day (the skirts that is). So, since we had a warm spot in there last week, we decided to go do a mini photo shoot. We took advantage of the warm sunshine and the boys being in school and took a little drive. We found this cool abandoned gated up property (with a no trespassing sign, of course) that we snuck on to and grabbed a few shots. Wild style. Here's some of my faves. And my biggest fear? No, it was not getting caught (I'm sure the authorities wouldn't mind us taking a few pics right?), but running into a snake.