little red and her wolf.

A little sneak peek of our little loves in their Halloween duds. 

It was a beautiful day for some Halloween festivities.
More pics of the most beautiful Little Red Riding Hood and cutest and sweetest big bad wolf around :) to come.

the day we had three cats.

Lucy had no idea, but for a day she had an adopted brother and sister.

Let's start from the beginning.
One lazy Sunday morning the four of us snuggled on the couch and watched the movie Turbo.  After the movie was over Todd headed outside to do some lawn work.  He came to the door and told me to come and then said "all of you come".  So I immediately thought - oh, he must have found a snail or slug or something.
Well when we got outside we found something much furrier and way cuter.
A little black and brown kitten just laying in the driveway.

So we immediately started asking around the neighbors and the farm behind us, no one had cats or a cat that would have had kittens.
I remembered that we had occasionally seen a cat in our yard bordering the tree line, and lightbulb - "Todd, I think we need to check the rest of the bushes.  This kitten didn't come far on it's own, that cat had kittens and there may be more".

It took about 5 seconds of looking before Todd said "Yup, there's another one!" and saw two tiny blue eyes peeking out from the bush.

We didn't find anymore kittens.  As the day went on, and we were playing outside they become a little more comfortable with us and ate some food too.

About 5 seconds after we found them they were each named.
Columbus and Bella.

After the girls were tucked in their beds that night, I came back outside to check on the kitties.  And very quickly I heard a big meow and saw mama cat.  Yay!  I was so excited she was back with her babies.

We kind of hoped they would stick around or visit occasionally to be little mousers for us, but that night mama cat took them somewhere else.

But it was a fun day with three cats...that Lucy will never really know about. :)

a new trick.

the new disappearing food trick :)



More to come from this girl...
Lots of catching up to do as she now is a day shy of 16 months and I haven't posted much!  Like her first steps!...a month ago. oops.

andie time.

Somebody is getting to be such a big girl!

So this year Quinn is going to Preschool 3 days a week for about 3 hours each day.  That means 3 mornings a week it is just me and this little sweetie.  I am cherishing every moment and always recognizing what a special time this is for the two of us.  Quinn and I had more than 3 years of just us time not running around to places and uninterrupted - just time at home, so I very much cherish this time with Andie and try to make sure we have at least one or two mornings a week that we are just that - at home and just playing.  And I give her as many snuggles, squeezes and smooches as I can. :)

twinsies.

It's Thursday so I guess a throwback is appropriate. :)

just dance.

Dance has started up for this girl again.
It is her 4th session.  It's hard to imagine that she started as a tiny two year old.
We always take the summer off with daddy home so much and it's a nice break.
When we got ready for the fall and looked at activities, Quinn said she wanted to keep dancing - I think she loves the recitals the most!

This time getting her dressed for dance felt so different.  We have a different girl, a different dancer.  She has just grown so much.  She feels so tall now with these long dancing legs.  I can't get over how much she has grown since that very first class when she still had a diaper under that tutu.

We love what dance has taught her - which extends far behind just the motion of dancing.  She has become a confident girl - a girl who is out dancing on the volleyball court during every single timeout when the music plays, a girl excited to tackle new things, be herself in front of others.

So proud of our little dancer.