Eight is GREAT!!!

Happy Birthday Poodle!!!!!  I know we mostly call you Bear at home, but you were our Precious Poodle when you were a baby, and that's about the time that this blog got started.  Then, later, your Aunt Sessie started calling you a certain nickname which eventually got shortened to Bear.  (I still won't use y'all's names on the blog, although there are days I wish I could!)  So, you're our Bear, who lives in our Zoo, who acts like a monkey along with your monkey siblings.  And your Daddy and I could NOT be happier with the multitude of blessings that are YOU and Toot and Lollypop!

You were THE girl.  You made us parents.  You made 4 people grandparents.  You made a number of people aunts and uncles.  That's a whole lot of making for a little girl.  And what an outstanding girl you have always been!

Still to this day....  you can't put your shoes away and you have no interest in keeping your room tidy and if you're not interested in something, then you don't really care about doing it "right".  :-D (handwriting anyone?  heehee!)

But - you know what???  You have a heart the size of Texas.  You cry when someone else is hurting and you love with a passion that is felt down into your bones.  That passion is something that you have for LIFE...  you may not care a whit about putting your clothes away, but you rarely go to a playdate without making eleventy pictures for your friend.  And you take care of little kids in the waiting area at TaeKwonDo because that's who you are.  And Lollypop runs to you when she needs to feel better (when Mommy can't do it for her).  You CARE.  You care about people and you care about your family and you care about your friends.  You're smart and you KNOW people.

It's your heart that makes you who you are, and I hope that you will grow up to embrace that part of yourself and be who you ARE.  Who the Lord made you to be.  Because this world needs a lot more people just like you.  The world needs a lot more people with your incredible sense of humor and passion for people.

I'm not gonna lie.  You are bossy, girl.  Whooo chile!  :-)  But I pray that all that creativity and passion and internal strength is used by God to do big things.  You say right now that when you grow up you are going to be a homeschooling mommy and a ballet teacher.  :-)  Well, you know what, I think you will be GREAT at those things.  Or ANY thing else you decide to pursue.  When you love something, you work hard at it.  And that passion that you have inside of you flows over into everything else that you love.

Oh, babygirl, we love you.  We know it's really hard being the girl who has to teach her parents everything.  But, you know what, there's nobody better for the job.  You love us even though we mess up with you ALL the time.  But, God is merciful, and He gave us a little girl who is understanding and compassionate and full of laughter.

We praise HIM for you, dear little girl.  Eight years ago, we became parents.  Because of YOU.  And you will never be able to give us a better gift than that.  You make us so proud.  And so happy.  And so very grateful that God blessed us in spite of ourselves.  Sweet girl - we love you with all our hearts!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO OUR PRECIOUS, FUNNY, LOVING POODLE!!!!!

Session for TWO

I took Poodle and Lollypop out to MooMoo and GaGa's "Back Forty" for their 8 and 2 year old portrait sessions.  Poodle's are still in editing phase since it's not quiiite her birthday yet.  But, here are the Baby's!

I should have seen it from minute one that she wasn't trusting NObody but GaGa that afternoon.  Do you see the look she's giving me?  Let me translate:  I know you have the camera.  I understand what you want to do.  I do not agree with your thoughts.  You must quit thinking them.  sigh...   GaGa is the only one who gets me.  sigh...

Okay, I will run and skip through the grass that we interrupted GaGa from cutting.    I will make you sing the Little House on the Prairie theme song in your mind.  But, I'm only running back to GaGa, you see.

My daddy wants this tractor.  GaGa won't let him have it.  Poor Daddy.....

Mommy loves me and my cuteness!

Two, two, wonderful two!  Do you love me?,  'cause I love YOU!

Hmmm.  I haven't seen GaGa for about 2 1/2 minutes.  I'm thinking I need to know what he's doing.

<3 <3 <3

I see GaGa!  Please give me back GaGa.  GaGa, please come get me away from crazy camera lady.

She. Told. Me. No.   I am full of sadness now.

But I have looked at the camera and been cute for you.  Why must I still sit here?

<3 <3 <3

I can't find GaGa!  Mommy is making him hide from me!  I am full of misery and sadness!

I see him!  Come get me GaGa!  Save me!!

::exhale::  The only one who loves me.  GaGa.

Y'all, I kid you not about the GaGa thing.  MooMoo wasn't going to brave the slightly slippery trek to the "Back Forty" because of her recent knee surgery, so it was just GaGa back there.  And Lollypop was having no one but him.  It was crazy!

And now a few after I changed her clothes:

And that was our Lollypop's session!  She is our lovely, precious Little Squirt of a girl.  We love you sweetheart!

Go Sharks!!!

Awwww......  I'm sorry, but Tooter was So. Stinkin'. Cute. tonite at his very first ever soccer practice.  Ever.  :-)

I was so excited to get this post up to share with the grandparents that I didn't even edit the pictures.  (gasp!)  So, you all get to enjoy the overexposed, hazy, uncropped cuteness because those little under 6 kids are adorable!

They are going to be called the Sharks.  Heehee!  The Sharks.  They picked their own name.  Adorable, again.  There are 6 boys and 2 girls on the team.  Half of them have played before, and half them (like Tooter) have never been on a team.  They all did great!

We were very proud of Tooter's willingness to listen and run fast and try hard and be positive.  AND, I think I might even get in the back yard and help him with drills!  heehee!

They will play 8 games, and then that will be it for their "season".  I'm sure we'll all go out for pizza afterwards and they will all think that soccer is "the coolest thing EVER" when it's all over.  :-)  They're so cute.

Did I mention they were cute?

GaGa, who at one time helped coach his own boys on soccer teams of this sort (one of them went to a state championship!  Go Express!  ha!), came out with MooMoo-the-intrepid-total-knee-replacement lady to see his first practice.  It was GaGa's birthday today too (Happy Day You!!!), and I think he really wanted to mostly watch Tooter, but Lollypop kept him occupied a great portion of the time, because she lurves her GaGa.  And she stole his hat.  Cause that's what she does, too.

Yay for Soccer!  (And, psssstttt....  Poodle auditions for the Nutcracker this weekend.  First time for that also.  I'm not a little giddy about that at all.  Not at all.  No really.  :-D )

Go Sharks!  :-)

Happy Birthday Lollypop!!!

The baby is TWO!  Wonderful, two.  Happy Day You!!!  Happy Day YOU!!!

This little puddin' pop:

Who turned a year old just days ago, it seems, is TWO today!

And what a big two she is!  She's walking and talking and dancing and drawing and loving and hugging and into ALL kinds of things.  She cries and throws tantrums, she loves and kisses booboos.  She doesn't say Happy Birthday; she says Happy Day You!

She's still a wee thing, at least for a Zoo Baby.  And she loves, loves, loves her big sister and brother.  She's so jealous of Mommy's attention and is pretty clear to say "No! MY mommy!" whenever anyone else "dares" climb up in my lap.  But she's never quite the same when the big kids aren't in the house.

Sweet girl of ours, we love you so much, and we are so very much looking forward to seeing what you will be.  But we know one thing for sure, you will NOT be a wallflower.  Or a pushover.  Or without an opinion.  :-)  You will certainly be a lovebug and kind person, and possibly the family comedienne.

Everyone still calls you "the baby", and your Toot and your Poodle think you are quite the best baby ever.  I'm really glad that y'all get along with each other so well, because we'd be in a mess if you didn't! And, yes, there are arguments.  Oh, but there are arguments.  But when it comes down to snugglin', you want your brother and sister every time.

You love the Wild Kratts and olives and going outside and your grandparents and toast with cream cheese for breakfast.  (But you mostly lick off the cream cheese and only halfway eat the toast!)  You like Leapfrog videos and hopping like a kangaroo and playing on Mommy's phone and getting tickled by Daddy.  You are a textbook baby when it comes to eating and talking and walking and all those things.  You say "I don't!" when there is anything to be done that you don't want to do and "I sorry" when you're trying to get out of trouble.  :-D  You are completely aware when someone is upset and you love for everyone to be happy.

We had a wonderful party for you on Saturday with all of your immediate in town family.  Because of your older sister's penchant for Cupcake Wars on tv, you had chocolate cupcakes with a chocolate chip whipped cream filling and whipped dark chocolate ganache for icing.  The lollypops on top were made of white chocolate.  Toot and Poodle helped with them from start to finish, just like they did with your cupcakes for your first birthday party.  We had so much fun getting ready for your party!!

Widdle person, we love you ever so much, and we wish for you all the joy and love in the world.  We look forward to the day when you begin to ask about Jesus and begin to understand the concept of Who God is.  And we all love you so very, very much - Happy Birthday sweet, precious, prayed-for Lollypop!!

Tooter Conquers the Dentist

It took him to get allll the way to 5 1/2, but Tooter was finally ready to sit in the dentist's chair and get his teeth cleaned for the first time!  (This all actually happened back in July, but we're close enough to it for guv'mint work).

Little man has been somewhat afeerd of our friendly, family dentist.  Dr. N would "count" his teeth each time we went in, but Toot was never ready to actually submit to the cleaning.  Until now.  And he was such a good boy!  Dr. N was always pretty confident that forcing him to get his teeth cleaned when he wasn't ready was not a great idea.  And, he was right.  :-)

Toot waited patiently in the waiting room, and didn't seem nervous at all.  (I think the fact that we were leaving the next day for an overnight trip to Memphis to see the Zoo was a very good distraction for him!)

And he was a champ in the chair.  :-)

He wasn't any worse for not having been before now, thank goodness.   No cavities - which is great!  Especially considering his mother had a LOT of cavities growing up.  And while he may need some palatal expansion work done in a year or so (we won't go see an orthodontist about that until his 6 year molars come in completely, so we don't know if that will be necessary or not), he's doing just fine otherwise!

Proud of you, big guy.  You did great!

Words for the G-mamas

To SueSue - Happy Day You!  I'll see you tonite!

To MooMoo - Go MM Go!  Make those arrangements!  Decorate those columns!  Five more days and you'll be alllll done!

(No, seriously, it's what Lollypop would say if she knew how.  Actually, she probably WILL say "happy day you" to SueSue tonite, because that's how she says Happy Birthday.  But all that stuff to MM is real.  Truly.  ;-)



P.S.  I shall watermark images from now on.  Even though this blog isn't searchable from either Blogger or from a search engine, it's not entirely private either.  And, you would be really surprised how often images get lifted and used illegally.  Granted, it happens way more often to professional photographers, which makes it worse.  But I still feel like our kids' images should be protected.  If you EVER see a picture that you'd like a real copy of, I can absolutely email it to you!  Just give me a holler!

Wim in the Poo!

Come on everyone!  Let's go wim in the poo!

Oh, it would make total sense if you heard Lollypop say it.  It's way cuter that way.

We have an above ground Intex pool, that we take down during the winter months that has been GREAT.  We splurged on it last summer, getting a salt water generator for it, and it's about as hassle-free as a pool can be.  You can find these at Walmart, Kmart, ToysRUs, all kinds of places!  The kids have learned more about swimming by just playing in this than they did in the much more expensive swimming lessons that they took.  (Not including the lessons they took at the Y.  Those weren't too bad, cost-wise, but having the pool in the backyard has been a better teacher).

Although, I will admit that watching Poodle during her pricey lessons (she took these a few years ago) gave me tips and hints on how to help Lollypop learn what she needs to know.  The wee one is now very comfortable in the water, and can "monkey walk" on the side of the pool around to get to the ladder.  Which is good!  Although, she is NOT swimming, so she has to be held and helped the whole time.  She CAN, however, climb up and down the ladder and get herself in and out of the pool on her own.  So we have to be very careful to remove the ladder every time the pool isn't in use.

Poodle and Toot are little fishies now.  They will sometimes use masks, sometimes not.  The pool isn't actually large enough, diameter-wise, for them to really learn strokes of any sort, but as far as swimming under water and that sort of thing, it has been great!  They dolphin dive, and do handstands, and cannonballs, and play all sorts of goof-ball games.

AND, I can just let them outside any time during the day, without having to load up everything and everyone and go to the neighborhood pool.  They get a lot more pool time this way!

It DOES kill a big ole circle in the grass.  Not gonna lie to you about that.  And, just about the time that the grass grew back at the beginning of the summer, it was time to put the pool back up.  Soooo, I wouldn't recommend this for anyone planning to put their house on the market.

It's been great, and I've been meaning to share this with everyone, so here ya go!  Happy last month of summer!  (I know most everyone heads back to school this month, but I grew up in the 70's and 80's and we didn't go back to school until after Labor Day.  In MY world, it's still summer.  Can I get an amen?!?)  :-)

Singing School videos!

YAY!!!  I know you have been checking this blog every 30 minutes or so for the past two weeks anxiously waiting for these!  :-)  I'm so glad that I could finally put an end to your suffering.

Ha!

This is from Day Two of the week.  This was the first day that the little kids' group performed.  And, as it turned out, it was the 2nd day that Poodle's class performed.  However, I didn't realize that her class performed on Monday.  So, not only did I not video it, I didn't even see it.  :-(  But as she assured me, "it was only one song, so you didn't miss anything".  sigh...  I didn't try to explain that THAT wasn't the POINT.  If all you had done was blow your nose, I'd have wanted to see it.  Cause that's how crazy mamas are.  Instead, I just said "oh, okay, then.  Good."  :-)

Here is Toot's first performance.  He is in the second row, far right, green shirt.

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And here is Poodle's performance that day.  First row, 2nd from the left, lavender t-shirt.

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Next two days to come later!

The kids are both in the Enth Grade! Woohoo!

"What grade are you in?"

That tends to be a tough question for a homeschooled kid to answer.  Especially if that kid has always been homeschooled.  They aren't accustomed to the year by year specific grade labels that most of their parents (ahem) are mentally attached to.

For example:  I guess you could say Poodle is going into third grade.  But if she were in the public school system, she'd be going into the second grade.  Her birthday is a few weeks after the cut-off date for the public school system, so if she were in the school system, she'd be one of the oldest kids in her grade level. So, in some ways, she's second grade, in some ways, she's third grade.  I have no idea at what grade level she's reading.  Ditto her math.  Ditto all of it.  I simply know where we are, and I'm focused on improvement.  That is all.

This Article explains it all SO WELL!  So well, in fact, that I had to share it.  And, also, to explain why sometimes my kids get a little glassy-eyed when you ask them what grade they're in.  :-D


7/3/11 PS to the Post!
The link that I shared is NOT meant to be derogatory towards a traditional school system AT ALL.  Seriously.  I shared this on another forum and truly offended someone and had to go back and read the article again to see what it said that I missed!  The primary point of this article, in my personal viewpoint, was to explain the difficulty that sometimes arises when a homeschooled kid is asked what grade they're in.  In fact, that difficulty tends to also affect the parents, because they often have their children working on a variety of levels with all of their subjects.  So, please understand that I mean NO OFFENSE at all.  Truly.  And if I get the impression that I need to take this down too, I sure will.  Because I don't intend to be negative about my educational choices or anyone elses!
I know the schools around my area would never behave as did the one in the article, and I actually have a hard time believing any of them actually DO behave that way.  I can only assume that some do, because I'd hate to think the author was just flat out lying.  But, in my experience, most teachers would be thrilled to see a child excelling in a classroom.  So, throw out the bones, and keep the chicken of the article regarding how "grade levels" are hard for us to label sometimes.  That's all.

Laura is SEW talented!

So, I took some pictures of a friend's sweetheart little boy last September and our deal was that if I would photograph, she would smock something for the Lollypop girl.  Awesome deal!  I lurve a good barter.  Especially because I don't photograph for money.  It's not my business.  It's a hobby that I enjoy and at which I just want to get better!

J - post session.  How smoochable are those little 3 year old lips?

So, excitedly, I look through patterns, I try to make decisions about what Lollypop needs, etc.  And this that and the other gets in the way, and I forget.  And then I put it off.  And then I forget again.  And on and on, until Laura finally realizes that she can't pin me down to anything.  (Which is a real shame on my part, because you should see the smocking that she creates.  It is beautiful!)  So, realizing the levels of my inability to make a choice, she takes matters into her own hands, gets BOTH my girls' sizes and whips them up two of THE cutest dresses!  I am so grateful!

How stinkin' cute is this dress?  Love me some orange on little ones.

I love these dresses!  Poodle's is exactly like Lollypop's, but I haven't had a chance to get them both in them AND get the pictures.  That requires more coordination on my part than I have been able to summon up these days.

There are so many things to *LIKE* about these dresses.  First, the colors are so fun.  And so pretty on little girls, right?  So fun and happy for summertime!  (Although how cute will these be with a turtleneck underneath, during the cooler months.  Breath of fresh air clothing!)  And the little pocket in front is just precious.  It's unexpected, but just the right touch!

Sweet, sweet A-line type of dress, but with a simple, lovely collar.  And then there's the little flair'y ruffle at the bottom.  It's not too busy, not too fussy.  It just makes it girly and sweet!

Oh no!  She's sitting on the ground!  No worries.  The fabric can take it.

Now.  Here are the things that mean a LOT to moms like me.  The fabric, while adorable and precious to look at, is DURABLE.  It's a precious fabric that can withstand toddlers and dancing 7 year olds alike, whether they're sitting on the front walk or tousling with the Yellow Lab.  It washes and dries beautifully.  It's lined with a nice soft fabric.  There is an obvious quality that just quietly says "I'll be around for a long time.  No worries Mommy!"

One perfectly positioned snap!

Here's another thing I love.  There is one, simple, cute, perfectly-sized snap on the back.  Not a series of teeny tiny buttons that make getting a squirmy toddler ready on Sunday morning an exercise in parental gymnastics.  Not that I don't appreciate the work that goes into lovely buttons and buttonholes.  I do, truly.  But they are something of a headache when your fingers are feeling clumsy!

And the placket (is that the right term?), or the fabric that is on the "inside of the snap area" (I obviously know zip about sewing.  Please forgive me.), is a different fabric that coordinates beautifully with the main dress fabric.  I didn't get a good picture of it, but it's the same sweet blue, but with tiny white polka dots.  If you look closely, that same bit of fabric is repeated at the top of the pocket.  It's little details like this that make a dress special!

So excited about her dress!

Oh, thank you so much Laura!!!  Your things are adorable and of true quality!  You SO should sell your wares.  I know, I know...  You're like me and you have zero free time for this kind of thing.  But if someone adds a few extra hours to the day, I know how you should fill them.  AND, I'm ready to take more pictures of your cute kids if you're up for it!  :-D

Singing School 2011!

I promise to get the videos up, especially for GrandCandy who loves them so much!  I took the first one yesterday, and it is still hanging out on the camera waiting to find its home on the computer.  HowEVER, we have a little sneak peak from bathtime last night.  And, while you sort of need to have seen the movie "The Water Boy" to really appreciate what had Jason and me swallowing our laughter as he sang, it's still cute even if you haven't seen the Adam Sandler masterpiece. ;-)  Turn your speaker volume UP!

Bobby Boucher's mama would be proud!!!

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Happy Birthday Aunt Sessie!

I have gotten out of the habit of wishing happy birthdays on the blog, because I quite frankly can't get to everyone's birthdays, and I don't like the thought of leaving someone out.  BUT, the big sister is celebrating the anniversary of her world premiere, and the kids and I tried to call her this morning.  But, SOMEone doesn't have voicemail on her phone.  ::ahem::

So, here's a video of Tooter doing a math problem this morning.  Why?  Well, because, Sessie is a math teacher, and I thought she might think this was cool.  :-)  We love you Sessie!!  Happy birthday!!
(Oh, and the video fades too quickly at the end - he does get the answer correct!  Mom would d-i-e if I posted a video where he didn't get the answer correct.  ha!)

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