ode to holly...

oh my - hello there!!! it's been so long since we've posted that only our true, loyal fans are checking in to see if there's an update... so, surprise to you!!! :) and this would be a good place to say something like we made a new year's resolution to be better about updating this thing, but that wouldn't be meaningful, or true, so we'll just try hard to do better, but we'll always make it up to you with cute pictures whenever we do update, now matter how frequent or infrequent that may be... blah, blah, anyway, moving on... this is luke by the way, so... christmas was awesome and things are going (mostly) okay so far this january - but more on that to come. first we have to catch up with our special visitor all the way from november!! look at this beautiful face, folks - we love aunt holly!!!

we actually really do love her. especially me. i was smitten with her and also loved getting to see her again (although briefly) in indy at christmas. i look at pictures of her almost every day... :)

too bad i wasn't smiling very big in those pictures above, but just trust me on the loving her part. i even wrote her a little poem, titled "ode to holly." here it goes:

roses are red,

violets are blue,

then why are they called violets?

who knows, but holly, i sure do love you!

i'll probably get that published in a book of poetry pretty soon... and now to finish up the year, we have some pictures of other things ben and i were up to around the house. nothing too exciting, but we wanted to share them anyway...

fun on daddy's mower...

yay for momma's chocolate chip cookies!!!

cute hat...

ben pretending to be a gypsy pirate (i guess)...

my reaction to ben's goofyness...

brotherly love...

awesome tire swing daddy hung in our backyard - we love it!!!

okay, i know that doesn't seem like much, but that's it for now. hopefully that will tide you over and you'll still check back in on us again soon. and hopefully we'll be back again soon, which would mean that we have survived the bermuda triangle of events that have happened to ben this month so far. first he fell a couple weeks ago and knocked his top two front teeth loose and we're still waiting to see if they'll tighten back up on their own (please, please), or if they'll die and have to be pulled out (boooo). then he fell this weekend and luckily momma talked the ER doctor out of stitches and they did the skin glue instead and that seems to be working well so far. but mostly he's distracted by this terrible cough he has, which has left him sounding like a troll with whooping cough. he did also turn four last week, which was a very fun day for all, and we'll update more on that later too. but now i have to get off the computer because mom needs it back in order to search the web for a bubble to put ben in for a few weeks while he gets better, so that nothing else happens to him. we have lots of fun christmas toys to play with though, and we make bread in momma's new bread machine all the time, so we're definitely still having fun and enjoying things. we're just hoping nothing else crazy happens around here for awhile!!!

okay. bye!!!!!!!! :)

october visitors, part two...

okay, we're back for round two of our fall visitors!! next up is SELT - yay! we had a great time during their visit. luke and i really had fun playing with the girls in the back yard. here's lauren pushing me in the swing and taylor walking around with luke - so sweet!

and here are the four of us up in the playhouse...

we also went to visit space center houston, the visitor center for nasa, while they were here. we all really enjoyed our time there and then went to visit kemah afterwards. they have rides and games there, and my very favorite thing was getting to ride a train - yahoo!!! here's me waiting in line with aunt elaina, pointing out the train because i am so excited! you'll notice me in a winter hat (and clothes, for once!) because it was actually quite chilly some of the days they were here - sorry SELT!

we didn't have a lot of pictures from their weekend, but we had so much fun and were really glad they came to visit over their fall break. thank you SELT! can't wait to see you again at Christmas in Indiana along with the rest of the gang. :)

soon after they left, it was halloween! i was excited to be a train conductor, but luke stole the show in a tiger costume aunt elaina made a long time ago, which has been worn by several cousins - cute!! momma wasn't sure if he'd actually wear it, but he did and really seemed to like it - check out that grin!

here's a really bad picture of me and luke in our costumes inside, which i'm only including so you can see the full get-ups (luke did not wear the hat long at all)...

and we're off...

we just went around on a few streets in our neighborhood and managed to rack up some major candy in a short amount of time. this was even my first trick-or-treating experience, and i had a lot of fun and was very polite and grateful. i did not like or understand the scary-looking decorations that some people had up (neither does momma), but we by-passed those houses and had a great time in our dress-up clothes loading up on sugar and chocolate. i'm in favor of halloween and am already talking about what i'd like to be next year. :)

we still have one more round of visitor posts coming up (arguably the most important visitor, some would say)... so check back again soon - bye!!!!!!!!! :)

october visitors, part one...

hello. seven thousand years ago, when it was still october, we had a lot of visitors. three weekends in a row of visitors!! we had a great time with everyone (whether our behavior seemed to indicated that the whole time or not...) and we have been so busy before (cleaning) and after (recovering!) that we're just now getting around to a blog update. here's the first of a few that will come (hopefully) soon.

the first picture above is of me and beamee at a pumpkin patch we visited while she and grampee were here. that place was a lot of fun!

we rode rides and played around on their stuff. this is an awesome swing thing that we really want daddy to build for the backyard. don't you agree? :)

this next picture is a funny one because you can see beamee (fallen over) and mom (bohiny view, sorry mom!) inside a rolling tunnel thing. and then if you look at the end of the tunnel, you will notice me and luke, looking on in amazement and wonder at what on earth those two are doing. they were a big fan of this thing. luke and i, on the other hand, were not. go figure!

luke loved all the animals there, and spent a lot of time watching the goats. aunt mandy would have liked this part!!

and i got to ride a horse (okay, a pony) for the first time ever! this was a really neat experience...

i really enjoyed it but i honestly wondered out loud to mom (during my ride, no less) why there weren't buckles or seat belts for these things. she wondered out loud what kind of kid asks for a seat belt on a horse! safety first, mom!

after the ride, i wanted to look at my horse for a long time. look at those eyelashes!

cute picture of luke and daddy watching me ride...

there were ducks and geese in a pond and we had a lot of fun watching and playing with them. they even honked at us!

we had a great visit with them and then just a couple days ago this funny thing happened. momma was playing Mount Vernon Bells at the piano, and there was a picture of George Washington (partially covered by a sticker from when she took lessons 90 million years ago).

luke was listening and looking at her music book. he climbed up the piano bench and then up onto the piano (that silly boy!) and pointed right at George's face and excitedly said, "Grampee!" isn't that the funniest thing ever?!? of course he says it more like "bempee" but momma knew exactly what he was saying and almost fell on the floor laughing. so, we miss you grampee and beamee. can't wait to see you again soon. :)

okay, stay tuned next time for pictures from our other visitor visits, and other happenings around here. bye! :)