Anna's First Haircut

Before..........

We had a bit of a situation happening in our house annnnnnd it needed to be dealt with pronto!!  Anna's hair had grown into a mullet and, while some 1980's attire has become a bit more popular, the mullet has not!  I found out that a new neighbor of ours used to cut hair and had mentioned that she might be interested in cutting hair out of her home.  SIGN US UP!!!!  Andrea was sweet enough to let us invade her home while she went to work on the girls.  She was so quick, patient, and sweet with Anna.  Anna doesn't hold still for long and Andrea clipped a little portion of her mullet every time she held still for just a second.  Andrea was even able to trim her bangs and the sides up a bit.  It's funny how a new haircut can make a tyke look so different!  Her hair naturally stacks in the back so she's now FAB and up with the current trends!  WAHAHAHA!!

How does it look, Ma?

After!!

She looks so different!!

Grace even got a trim before we headed to Indiana!  LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my girls after a "fresh" haircut!
Thank you so much to Andrea!  She was SO patient and did an amazing job with Anna and Grace!!  Whether she likes it or not, I'm sure I'll give her a call in a couple of months when the mullet returns!!

Big sister got a trim too!

Spooky Bath!!

As a newfound single mother, I have been trying to come up with new/different ways to streeeeetch out some of our normal, daily activities so our days don't seem to last FOREVER.  The two hours after supper time can sometimes be the longest so I try to keep ourselves busy so I'm not staring at the clock waiting on that magical hour of 8:00pm.  My girls LOVE baths and would stay in the water all night if I let them.  Hmmmmmm how can I stretch out bath time a bit AND make it somehow related to Halloween??  Answer:  GLOW STICKS and we'll have a glow-in-the-dark bath!!!  FUN!!!  

Lights OUT!!

Grace enjoyed EVERY part of this from "breaking" the glow sticks so they would start glowing, to connecting them to make necklaces, to smelling the tube they came out of b/c she thought it smelled like horse poop (WAHAHAHA!), to turning off the lights and watching them glow in the water!
Anna loved chasing them around in the water and, of course, putting them in her mouth.  :)
The girls LOVED it and had a ball!  This was such a simple idea and left me wondering.......why in the world did I not think of this before now!!!  If there's one thing I've learned over the past month, it's that a little creativity can go a LOOOOOONG way!!!

Apple Picking

The first week in October we went apple picking with Erica, Jackson, and Libby Lou!  We went to the fruit and berry patch and quickly found out that apple picking in Tennessee happens much earlier than in Indiana.  The owner told us that the best time to pick apples is in August.  To which I responded:  "WHAT???  I've never heard of apple picking in August??"  He then asked if I am a yankee!  WAHAHAHA!!!  He directed us to the trees where there were a few left and off we went.  Grace and Jackson had fun doing the actual picking and Anna and Libby enjoyed picking up the old, mushy apples off the ground.....GROSS!

Most of the apples we found had spots on them (or really didn't look too appetizing) so we opted to actually BUY the apples in the shop.

This place is great!  They offer jams/jellies, fruit and vegetables (whatever is in season), apple butter, etc. to buy.  The owner is a sweet, old man who looks like Santa Claus (white beard and all!).  He had some muscadines and I asked what they taste like.  If you're not familiar with muscadines, they look similar to grapes and even have white and purple varieties.  He told me to pop on in my mouth and see for myself.  This is how our conversation proceeded from there:

Me:  I popped one in my mouth just like he suggested.  He grows these things, after all.  I should trust him right??
Owner:  "Well I don't usually eat the outside (again, it's similar maybe a little thicker than the peeling of a grape)."
Me:  Thinking in my mind......."Awesome because it's now in my mouth!"
Me:  Then I chomped down on a hard seed and wondered if I broke my tooth.
Owner:  "Yep, there's a seed in there.  I don't usually eat that either."
Me:  "No kidding!"  Thinking to myself, "Annnnnd you might want to warn someone about that in advance there, buddy!"  WAHAHAHAHA!!


We had a fun day of apple picking (then throwing them out :), muscadine tasting, and capped the morning off with a lunch date at "Old McDonald's!"  Fun, fun day with good friends!!

First Week of the Dreaded Outage

Look what I did, Ma!

The job that Matt is working on started an outage at the end of September.  What is an outage you ask?  Well let me fill you in. Essentially, they have crews working all day every day.  I knew Matt would be working Saturdays (at least until they get ahead of schedule) and getting home EVEN LATER than usual.  As a mother of two little girls, I'll be honest and say that the time he usually gets home is a nice breather because I have a chance to get some things done around the house (by myself!) that otherwise would take MUCH LONGER to do with my two helpers or even just escape to a room (unknown to everyone in the house) and hide for a bit until they come searching!  WAHAHAHA (this usually lasts all of five minutes)!  Oh and as an added bonus, they're now working full days on Sundays as well.  AWESOME.....annnnnd if you detect a note of sarcasm in my voice, you'd be RIGHT!!  So, was I looking forward to him getting home later than usual AND working all weekend.......NO!!

WAHAHAHAHA!!

The first week I wanted to keep ourselves busy because that will ease the pain of my newfound status of a single mother, right???  We got out our fall/Halloween decorations (which in our house lasts a good two days!) and the girls were SO excited.  Grace couldn't wait to try on some old costumes that we found, but poor Cinderella couldn't quite fit herself into the size 12-18mo zebra!!  WAHAHA!!  She didn't seem to mind though and wore it for a good portion on the morning.  Anna, on the other hand, was much less thrilled with me as I put her in a spider suit and tried to take a million pictures!  I tried to tell her that in this house, we LOVE this time of the year and that includes dressing up in costumes so Mommy can laugh hysterically and maybe even do a mini photo shoot.  If you don't like it, we just might trade you in!  HAHA!  The good news is she's warming up to this whole Halloween thing and now runs up to any pumpkin, witch, ghost, etc. and growls at it with vigor!!

We also got in LOTS of outside playing time.  Strategy - Wear them out so bedtime is much easier on Mommy!!  :)

We ended the week with a movie night in our very own "drive-in theatre!"  Why do we even attempt to buy kids toys when all they want to play with is a box.  Then dress it up a bit with wheels and headlights and they'll think they've died and gone to heaven!  You would've thought I bought Grace a horse and/or took her to Disney World when I showed it to her!  WAHAHA!!  Gotta' love her zest for life!!  I got this idea on Pinterest, my new love and obsession!  It's a website full of ideas for everything you can imagine:  crafts, activities for kids, recipes, photography, etc!!  If you haven't yet, check it out!!

Movie Night!

Neighborhood Stalkers??

Ever since Grace was teeny-tiny, she has LOVED to watch our neighbor, Blake, mow his lawn.  Sounds crazy I know, but every week without fail she is at the window, on the deck, on our porch, etc. as soon as he fires up his mower!  The weeks that we catch him while we're on our deck is always a special bonus because Grace sits on the the top step of the deck and waves at him with EVERY pass he makes!  And love his heart, Blake looks up and waves every time!  WAHAHAHA!!!!
Anna has recently started doing the same thing so now Blake has his own personal fan club!!!  I crack up every time I look at this picture because it is EXACTLY what happens EVERY week!!!!

"All About Me"

Grace brought home this little booklet after the first week of school and I wanted to share it with you all (all 5 of my readers, that is!).  I found it hysterical on SO many levels.  Take a look at the second picture.  As I was reading Grace's answers, I got a kick out of what she answered as her favorite food.  Applesauce??  WHAT??  Don't get me wrong.  She likes it and all buuuut it's DEFINITELY not her favorite food!  I would venture to say it's not even on her top 20!  I usually give her two options to choose from for her fruit at lunch and dinner and she almost always chooses the OTHER option if applesauce is one of the choices!  Hmmmmm, I wonder if one of her friends answered applesauce or something.  Now if she would've answered mac and cheese (or any kind of cheese), "chips" (or baked cheese puffs), cinnamon rolls, chocolate, or fishies (goldfish), I would've nodded in agreement.  Still can't figure that one out!  WAHAHAHA!!!  You have to wonder what's going on in  that little mind sometimes!!  Now playing with toys and reading Pinkalicious is spot on!  We were reading that book almost every night in early September.

It seems she still has a bit of practicing to do on what her family looks like!  WAHAHAHA!!  Orrrrr maybe that's a hint to tell me she thinks it's constant CHAOS!!!!  :)

I can't wait to see what her answers are for her spring booklet!!  Hopefully we at least develop heads or at least a line for a body in her family picture!!

Happy 1st Birthday, Charlie Rose!

Daily trip to get ice cream at Dairy Queen!

 The girls and I headed to Indiana over Labor Day weekend to celebrate Charlie's first birthday.  We headed to the Mohr's house on Saturday for the big party.  Charlie was too cute when it was the much anticipated cake diving moment!  She kept looking at the cake and then all of us as if she was thinking, I really can?!?!?  Maggie put some icing on her finger and gave her a little taste.  She put her hand and accidentally got a leg in the cake, but was otherwise very ladylike about the whole situation!  HAHA!  It's hard to believe that Charlie and Anna are already past their first year!  Seems like we were just celebrating their births.......well I guess we were!!  WAHAHA!!  Maybe I should stop trying to play catch up and just go. to. bed!!  Buuuut when everyone in my house has been asleep for almost two hours, I usually just blog and talk to myself.  Works every time!  WAHAHA!!!!  

Birthday party!

Well at least we remembered her hat!  :)

Birthday girl!!

Presents!!

More presents!

Charlie and Papa

Getting ready to dig in!

Hmmmm, that's not so bad!

Going for it!

Let.  Me.  At.  That.  Cake!!

Bath time!

We drove back to Bloomfield on Sunday (I think) to spend a couple nights with Grandma.  Check out the picture of Jack!  WAHAHAHAHA!  We were headed out to see the progress on their new house and this was the best picture (and for some reason, the only picture) we got!  I was excited that the girls got to see ALL of their cousins in one weekend!  We're all so spread out and it doesn't happen that often anymore.  Yay for playing hard all day and EARLY bedtimes for all!!  WAHAHA!!

Popsicles!!

Cousins!

How we all feel about the Colts season this year!

Cousins!!

And now I'll apologize for this horribly, boring post!!  For some reason, I can't remember much about Labor Day weekend other than Charlie (almost) diving into her cake and that the picture of AK, Jack, and Grace was taken on our way to see the new house!  WEIRD!!  I even started this post earlier today and thought I'd come back to it with my mind refreshed of the little details that happened.......WRONG!  So to sum up this post, you'll need to know this:  1.  Charlie turned one on September 2nd.  2.  We ate ice cream at Dairy Queen at some point......surprise!  3.  We spent a couple nights in Bloomfield with Grandma.  4.  We saw the Townsend's new house at some point.  5.  This post is so boring that even I want to delete it!  Good night!!