Thanksgiving 2012

We had a wonderful thanksgiving week with G family members visiting. Below are some pics of the cousins together. We have much to be thankful for - time with family, good times, good food!

Helen, watching and waiting at the window for our first guest's arrival.

Hanging out at the homestead (very fun full house)

 Savannah and Helen, waiting for our carriage ride through the winter wonderland

 Winter wonderland lights

 Helen silly goose

 G cousins before butterfly house tour

Savannah and Helen at Butterfly house (try not to note roaches in background - they were actually pretty cool, but still pretty gross). Will not post any pics of butterflies - they are all blurry

 Helen and Sebastian at the park outside the butterfly house

 Kids table, turkey day

 Paging Dr. Savannah to the Magic House vet clinic, paging Dr. Savannah

 Sebastian working the car drill at the Magic House

A trip to costco thrown in there - did you know you could email pictures of what you want to Santa? No? Well, I think this one may have accidentally been deleted by mom and it never made it to Santa. #badmomoftheyearbutIdon'tlikethisstuff

 2 little monkeys jumping on the bed

Savannah and family pulling out of the driveway, on their way back home (sniff, sniff)

We had such a great time and will miss everyone so much

Catch Up #4 (I'm caught up!)

A few more pictures from our impromptu mid/late May trip to MI - we discovered the joys of squirt bottles in the hot sun. Squirt bottles - not just for cat adjustment anymore.

 Belated birthday celebration for Judy. She was kind enough to let H pick out the cake.

Evie and Aline's 2012 reunion tour. Concert complete with renditions of Puff the Magic Dragon and Molly Malone (Helen's fave). Thanks, Cath, for the pic off facebook.

The following weekend (memorial day) consisted of hot hot hot weather and a quick venture to a Irish festival near the MO river - St. Charles is a really cute town nearby!

H with M. She has such fun with our neighbors. M's big brother I. (who is a first grade graduate), provided prizes (candy, and even more cool, erasers and nifty pencils!) for tricycle races down the alley way recently, and now he is her hero and can't see enough of them. They are so sweet. :-)

 Picture of H in the gorgeous dress my mom got her during her recent travels in France. Such a fun, twirly dress!

 Another impromptu visit to MI last weekend (it's summer!! 8 hour drive without the possibility of snow isn't so bad!), complete with spray water bottle wars that quickly evolved into hose wars. Nobody made it out of this one without being dripping wet.

 H went on a photo shoot with my iphone and took about 15 pictures of this flower pot on G&G's front stoop. After examining these photos - mom, dad - you need to plant more flowers! :-)

 Helen shot of petrified wood near house.

Helen self portrait.

Catch Up #3

 H and L. Cutie patooties

 H on Earth Day. Polka dots and stripes - love it.

Earth day cupcake

 View before bed with Ipod. Amazing how well she knows her way around that thing.

 Frosting homemade chocolate chip cookies - ew! We didn't eat them, but they were fun to frost.

 Big lipped H. Hee hee.

 Hail! Big storm! So cool.

 Chester enjoying some time with Helen's poofy costume dress.

 Art fair in May!

 Michigan visit in May!

Compare to this picture on the step almost 3 years ago!

Catch Up #2

Today I was doing some laundry downstairs while (I thought) Helen was settled in with some Cailou, and she comes running to the top of the stairs and yells "WHATEVER!!!!" at me very vehemently. I can't remember what had incensed her, but obviously something I said or did irked her royaly. I really am looking forward to the teenage years.

She also said "damnit" today because I let it slip a few times when Chester got out the door - he keeps lunging to go outside and succeeds half the time (he got a taste of green grass, and pines for it). Luckily he doesn't get too far (overgrown grass near the door) before I mutter a quick damnit and scoop him up and bring him inside, covering whatever I'm wearing in a fine layer of hair. I love that cat though. He's my little puppy dog who is always in whatever room I'm in, without being too intrusive in my personal space.

Anyway.... here is update #2!

 

Spring sprung and we enjoyed it a lot.

 

Grandma and Grandpa visit in early April. Took a trip to the gorgeous botanical gardens when the azaleas were at their peak.  I can't post any pics of my dad because D is in them (curmudgeon). Oops - did I just say that out loud?

Isn't this an awesome pic of my mom??

 :-)

We took an Easter Mississippi River boat cruise. Great views of the Arch from the river; plus great views of various industries, docks, the really bad part of town, and a future bridge.

Helen's funny face for the camera at the library. I wish D would let me post pictures of him - he has an awesome version of this funny face too.

Photo-documentation of our before bed v-reader phase this spring. We then went through another iPod before bed phase and I'm happy to report we're back to a phase that involves real books (pokey little puppy; the elves and the shoemaker). Also photo documentation that I had someone cut a ton of her hair off this weekend. It's about half that long now - yow!

 This is one of my all time favorite photos ever. It makes me feel warm and fuzzy whenever I look at it.

 View outside my office cube window... because I can take pictures with my iphone and I thought, why not

 View of H on a Starbucks late day cappucino/kids hot chocolate run after school.

Now that I've posted all these pics, and Helen is always wearing this dress, I now know why the lacey part fell apart not that long ago. This is a little flower pot with sunflower seedlings.

Catch Up #1

The addition of an iphone to my life superimposed disastrously with the fact that Helen just isn't changing that quickly anymore. Which, as I just wrote that last sentence, I realize is insanely not true. She is changing amazingly, but not so much physically. I like taking pictures on my iphone (and never use the regular camera anymore), but I am not the best at downloading them and figuring out where the heck they go when I sync my phone to the regular computer. Why does apple have to make it so HARD on us PC users - I am not amused or impressed. And am highly annoyed that I spend precious free time figuring out from trouble-shooting websites how to get my damned photos from my phone. We'll see if I get another iphone in a few years once the one I have dies; they have greatly annoyed me. I digress, and negatively. Sorry. Now for more positive things!

So, here is my first post to catch up on the past several months since Christmas. Here, Helen is enjoying the box from our new microwave bought with fresh tax return money. If our fridge can't be stainless steel, darn it, our microwave and new coffee maker will be!! (I won't bore you with photos of either - come see for yourself our new and updated appliances!) :-)

 Dr. Suess Day at the Magic House! A make-it-yourself Dr. Suess hat.

 

H wearing her winter coat backwards this winter. Now that it's spring/summer, she also enjoys routinely wearing mis-matching flip-flops (and she has plenty to choose from due to her extreme love of the shoe type)

 I didn't take enough pictures of our visit to the Houston gang in March. Here, Helen and Evie are jumping happily in the most awesome indoor trampoline ever! A hugely belated thank you to C&B for hosting that!!

First real bike! Trying it out at home.

 As long as she squats to look at things closely, I will take a picture. I love this pose.

 St. Patrick's Day at the botanical gardens. They colored the water green!!