the title I forgot

I had something truly fascinating to discuss in my next blog post, but its been so long, I forgot what it was.

Things are rolling along in our household, I'm trying to figure out how I can still be just as busy as I was when I was working three days a week. When did I do all this other stuff?? I finally have it figured out that the difference is - there is a whirlwind of activity in my house all day when I am home, her name is Annique, and she makes a mess. When I was working, she was at daycare. We won't get into the discussion about how the daycare provider could have Annique and at least a dozen other kids in her house all day, and it was always cleaner than mine when I came to pick her up.

Today was the annual Christmas Card Photo Shoot - a.k.a. 'hell' - finally the older girls are used to mom and her camera and they sit still and smile pretty. They're easy. But enter the whirlwind, and its suddenly impossible to get anything at all. I have a bunch of pictures of different parts of her as she tries to escape, and many blurred action shots that were supposed to be portraits. I tried candy, I tried putting her on a rocking horse - I bribed her with toys, I made a fool of myself. It was no use. We might try again tomorrow, if I manage to get any sleep tonight. I wonder if tying her up with Christmas lights would be festive, yet effective?

On the bright side, I did get some pictures of the Cutest Niece Ever. I only have one niece so I can get away with that.

Tricks and treats

We had the best weather ever for Halloween - just a beautiful autumn day without even a chill in the air. I remember going through huge snowbanks on more than one occasion on Halloween - so it was nice for once to just put a sweater on under the kids' costumes and they could actually wear them without a winter jacket and be comfortable. Its not often you get to SEE the kids' costumes on Halloween! We weren't sure about Annique trick-or-treating but she got the general idea when all the kids were coming to our door for candy, as you can see here, she's pretty wired and she's not even in her costume yet:




So, when it was time to take the girls out she was happy to get into her costume and come too. She insisted on carrying her own bag, even when it got really full and hard to carry - heaven help you if you tried to lighten her load. She knew EXACTLY what to do and often led the way for her older sisters. She's not shy at all when there's candy at stake.



If you feel like throwing rotten tomatoes at me, I don't care, but I'd like to announce that I am FINISHED MY CHRISTMAS SHOPPING as of last weekend. I had a little bit of help with shopping as you can see in this video:



It was so great to be able to just walk out of our hotel and into the mall like that - we're just passing the waterpark in that video, where the kids spent a lot of time. When we were young my parents would take us to a hotel with a waterslide for the weekend while the grown-ups did all their Christmas shopping - so the family tradition continues!