Photo of the Week Contest

I entered my daughter's photo in a People Magazine's Photo Of The Week contest and I was just notified that she is in the finals!  Could you please go vote for her?

http://photos.parents.com/category/vote/id/4/w/27/y/2010?page=279&esrc=nwphotofaves3

On a side note, two men in forum I belong to told me that they could not vote in this contest because it is degrading and objectifying my daughter...and one suggested it was human trafficking!

What do you think?  Is it degrading to vote for photos of children in contests?  Is it human trafficking?

I Want To Be A Jungle Explorer

One of E's favorite shows is "Imagination Movers" on the Disney Channel.  If you haven't heard of it, it is the American version of The Wiggles--four guys who sing and dance, and in this case, solve problems for their customers who visit their warehouse.  The Princess often envisions herself marrying one of The Movers.  She gets all dressed up in her angel costume and tells me "I'm getting married to Mover Scott...no wait Mover Dave...no I think it's Mover Rich."  I think she needs to wait until she is really sure! LOL  But I digress.....

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A Little Help Please

E was supposed to be getting ready for bed.  Suddenly, I hear a voice behind me saying "Mom, a little help please."  Turned around to see this:

Darn kid is cute even with clothes stuck on top of her head! :o)

Of Trees and Friends and Giggles

There is a tree near our house that grows somewhat parallel to the ground before reach upward.  Kids have been using it as a climbing tree for years.  Our friend, who has lived in the neighborhood for 20+ years, said her kids climbed on it when they were little, and now her granddaughter climbs on it.  E has been asking to go climb on it for a long time, so today we took her there.  She took one look at it and decided she wasn't interested in climbing.  This is the same child, who when she was two, climbed the climbing wall at the local park w/o looking back.  This tree, however, which was just a few feet off the ground and it was too scary for her.  Go figure.

We talked her into trying, and after a few minutes, and some help from mommy and daddy, she relaxed a bit and had some fun. Someone had hung a swing from the tree, so E climbed up for a quick swing but I don't think she liked that the swing was so high up off the ground.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After we were done playing at the tree, we decided to continue our walk and ran into our friend and her granddaughter who were playing at a little pond.

It was time for lunch so we all started walking home.  B wanted to hold E's hand.  It was so cute.

Slow down E, I can't walk that fast!

Hey, now you're walking to slow!

Ahhhh.  Just right.

Giggly Girls

This Week In Pictures

Nothing terribly exciting happening this week.  Here's a couple of photos of The Princess from the last few days.

NO MORE PICTURES MOM!

No more pictures?? Than I'll just wait until you are asleep!

E & Daddy playing Uno

The little card shark up close

 

 E thought she'd try out her roller skates again. I'm not sure where her other knee pad went.

 

Here's a little video of E rollerskating

♫ Hot town, summer in the city ♫

It's another unseasonably warm day here. It was 91° for a high yesterday and it is 85° right now. It still feels like summer. No, you didn't accidentally click on weather.com but it is really hot here...still. The Princess and her daddy braved the heat, though, and had some fun outside.

"A Day In Our Life With The Princess"

**captions mine, except for the first picture**

"Mom, I'm NEVER going to be able to do this"

"Hmmm...maybe Dad will play with me.  Tag, you're it Dad!"

"You can't catch me Dad!"

"I need a break"

"How much do I love you?  This much!!"

Later.....we find Dr. Emma attending to a patient.

"Awwww...it will be ok baby."

"Dr. Emma saves the day!"

"Phewww...I'm exhausted.  All this helping people wears me out.  I think I'll watch some tv."

Family Picture

This is the one and only picture of our entire family, courtesy of Free Flash Toys.  We're so lucky they captured us perfectly, well except for my husband has less hair, and um, I'm a bit heavier, and J parts his hair on the other side, and Jake and Luke are labs, so quite a bit bigger.  Otherwise, perfect!

Happy Happy, Joy Joy

The power company came to replace a pole by our house this afternoon and had to shut off the power to some of the houses on our block, including ours, so we headed outside to play for a bit. N got to come too since he works at home and with the power off, he couldn't use his computer. Any extra playtime with E is a bonus!

Happy Happy Joy Joy

I'm so excited, I could hug a tree!

I'm happy Mom.  Just put that camera away, please!

Really, Mom.  I AM happy to be outside.

Ok.  Believe me now?

But, all good things must come to an end.  Power came back on and it was time to go inside and have dinner and for E to get ready for bed and N to go back to work.  We are enjoying this cooler and less humid weather!

Sunday Morning Praise & Worship...........

in E's room today.  She loves Jesus and loves to sing songs to Him.  She is singing away to some of her VeggieTales CD's.

 Singing "This Is The Day The Lord Has Made" along with Bob and Larry and the rest oft he VT gang:

Singing part of "Here I Am To Worship" with Natalie Grant:

It's so awesome to see my daughter worship God! It is my fervent prayer that she would love Jesus as much when she is 12 and when she is 20 and when she is 80 as she does today!

Swiffer Saturday and Other Stuff

When I was growing up, Saturday mornings were reserved for "The Big Clean."  My mom did all the housework (except dishes) during the week, but on Saturdays, it fell on us slaves dutiful daughters to do "The Big Clean."  I have three sisters (and a brother who is the youngest and didn't have to partake in the Saturday cleaning ritual) and each Saturday my mom assigned us a room in the house.  Floors were washed, furniture moved and vacuumed behind, windows washed, toilets scrubbed (still not my favorite cleaning task), and stairs were swept. 

Unlike my mom, I don't have four slaves dutiful daughters to help.   Since it is just E and I on the weekends, and she is only four, the majority of the house work obviously falls on me.  But there are some things she loves to do:  folding towels and sweeping the floors with the Swiffer.  Oh how that child LOVES to Swiffer.  Give her the Swiffer and a cloth and you don't hear from her for an hour.

After Swiffering, and folding the bath hand towels and wash cloths for me, it was time for some fun.  The other day I gave E an easy Word Search to do and she was hooked.  We have a coloring book from Animal Planet that has all kinds of, well, animals (pretty smart, aren't I?) in it, but also Word Search puzzles in it.  So E and I spent some time doing two Word Search puzzles. 

All that hard work tired her out, so it was time to watch a little tv.

We just finished making these oh-so-delicious egg-free Oatmeal Cookies.  Yummmmmy!    We will make sure to eat all of them  save some for N when he gets home from work.

That's what we've been up to today.

Lazy Day

Just a quiet Sunday for us.  Dogs are sleeping on the floor, E and I spent a good 90 minutes in the pool this afternoon and are now just hanging out.  E alternates between playing mommy to her dolly (who is suffering from a bleeding canker sore...the dolly, not E...who has quite the imagination) and reading books.  Gotta love Lazy Days.

Preschool Pictures

Here are a few pictures from this week.

All ready for preschool!


E LOVES coloring


Another favorite thing to do...PUZZLES!


E working on an ABC Airplane. First, practice writing the alphabet. Then, color in the airplane. Preschool is more fun when Clarice the Reindeer attends!


Next, cut out the airplane, the alphabet banner, tape it together and hang it up!