she holds my heart in her tiny hands

and she doesn't even know it.

Happy Valentine's Day!

smooch <3

I just adore her jawline. Flawless.

hide & seek

Her new favorite game is hide and seek. She's really getting clever at it, too. Today she hid under her bed, much to the delight of Little Man who before today had never thought of wriggling his way into such a tight spot. He crawled in and out from under the bed for about 30 minutes afterwards. He's easily entertained.

She also hid in between the couch and the wall, which is no small feat considering the couch is against the wall and there is only a 4 inch or so space there normally. She did end up getting stuck and needed help out, but I suppose it was worth it to her to have me waive the white flag.

"Come out Come out, Wherever you are!"

Project of the day...

Here is a simple project the kids and I did today. I took some heart shaped doilies that I found in the Target dollar bin, had the kids paint them and sprinkled on some glitter and sequins here and there. I lay them out to dry on some white papers, making sure to pick them up and turn them every once in a while so that the paint didn't get stuck to the paper underneath. When all of the doily hearts were dry, I threaded some twine through the holes and hung it up in the archway to the front room.

G painted all the hearts half pink and half purple, except that one that she did pink and red in the center with purple to the edges. Little man was more of a minimalist... interesting course of action with an art project for a 2 year old.

I blame Alton Brown.

That's right, Alton. It was you. Allll you. You had to make a show that was interesting enough for my engigeek of a husband to watch. You had to focus on food that is manly, inspiring him to try to perfect each of your recipes, one by one. You had to make pretzels that looked so tasty he decided right then and there to make me some. (he had absolutely no encouragement from me with this endeavor...none at all. really.) You had to specifically NOT include a recipe for Whole Wheat pretzels, leaving us to fend for ourselves with the conversions. We are on the healthy eating campaign, after all, mister. You should be, too. Don't you watch Oprah? So, Alton Brown, if that is your real name, it is YOUR FAULT that the crowning jewel of my kitchen, the creme de la creme of kitchen gadgets, burnt her little motor out on some thick, heavy, pretzel dough.

Rest assured, Mister Brown. You will pay.

Announcement for Ryan

Rockin the Suburbs

So today we were over at Lynn's house when I decided to "do" Little guy's hair. I broke out the AquaNet and gave him a really Maddox-esque do. I told him to go find Lynn and show her his new hairstyle. He went into the dining room to look for her and caught sight of his reflection in the mirror in the back of the china cabinet. He froze, dropped his hands to his sides and SCREAMED bloody murder. He was TERRIFIED, poor guy. I haven't laughed so hard in years.

Endless...

Dirty dishes. As soon as the sink is empty, it starts to collect the dirty dishes once more. Every day it ends up like this. Baffling, really. There are only two adults and two small children about, so how in the world can we generate this many dirty dishes? It's not that I don't try to keep up... I do. I have no problem rinsing them off and loading the dishwasher. The kids even help me now, they love to push the buttons to start the washing cycle. The problem is, I really hate the putting away of the clean dishes. The stacking and the reaching. Hitting my head on the corner of the open cabinet doors...every...single...time. The clinking and the clanking and the, oh no, these cups need to sit out for a while on the counter to air dry since the dishwasher didn't quite get all the nooks and crannies and if I put them away wet I am afraid some kind of funkiness will happen inside.

I think I've found a solution, though. Dipsopsable dishware. Fill the landfills! Save the water!

{V} is for VOTE!!

Today is Super Tuesday here in Georgia and it is time for us all once again to make our voices heard. I was making G's lunch when I got the text message reminder from my dear husband to make sure to get to the polls today. Thank goodness he knows me so well, because I actually had forgotten today was the big day and had I not been reminded, I would've been violently cursing the extraordinary traffic which I encountered on the way to drop G off at school.. only 3 minutes late, as always.

After depositing my oldest with her teachers for the morning, little guy and I proceeded to the polling place. It is confusing to vote here in my little town, as there is one particular street that is home to roughly 47 churches and one school, each of which serves a polling place. To make matters worse, they change the location of "your" polling place every few years so you are never sure which "vote here" sign to follow....was it the Baptist Church last time? The Lutheran? the second reform order of the democratic independent? Fiddlesticks.

Little guy and I decided to try the school first this time, and then make our rounds to the rest of the polling places, in case I was mistaken the first time...kind of like Trick Or Voting... Little guy was dressed for the occasion, in his Winnie the Pooh footed sleeper, his football hoodie and his sister's patent leather mary janes. He had originally donned her pink cowboy boots, but apparently they weren't sophisticated enough for the occasion.

Happily, the school was the correct polling place for us this time, and the line was short. Little guy even did the voting for me, the newfangled touch screen technology making it so easy to vote, even a toddler can do it. As we said our good byes to the polling enforcers, the man at the door gave us our very peachy "I'm a Georgia Voter" stickers so we could show the world what dutiful citizens we really are. Little man ate his before we got to the car.


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Before and After