Not a whole lot going on right now...so not a lot of pictures to post. We did go to the circus on Sunday when David surprised us with tickets. But I haven't had time to post those pictures yet.

In the meantime, I've started my new position and I'm training my replacement. I anticipate being much busier at work now. I'm definitely busier now that I'm training someone and learning a new job at the same time. We'll see how it goes...

So for now, I'll leave you with a layout about two Easters ago. This was Lydia's first time decorating Easter eggs. Just look how amazed she is when David pulls the eggs out of the dye! So cute!

Spa night

So on Friday night, I treated the girls to a spa night.

They each picked our a nail color for their toenails and one for their fingernails. Then they picked out a lipgloss and some lotion.

We got started by putting lotion on their faces. Then we did fingernails and then toenails. Then a little lotion on their toes.

We topped it off with a little lipgloss and some eye glitter.

They were so cute! Then we snuggled up and watched Shrek the Third.

Who knew twirling could be an effective way to take out your sister?

So Lydia offered to take my plate to the sink Tuesday night.

How sweet. I think, as I hand her my plate.

Only, this is Lydia and she can't just walk to the sink. She has to dance her way to the sink.

So as she does a fantastic twirl---plate in hand---Rebekah moves right into her dance line...

BAM! Lydia smashes her right between the eyes!

Of course, Rebekah screams and we rushed to her.

She didn't break the plate, but she broke the skin! And now there's a nasty bruise. But Bekah feels fine now!

Just a little bit of what's happening here...

It started snowing tonight...probably not enough to cancel school or anything...but enough for Lydia to insist that she should be wearing her clothes inside out and backwards.

.

(Apparently this is supposed to make it snow...)

So on Monday night, about an hour after we put the girls to bed, we hear Lydia get up. David calls to her in the hall, “Lydia, what do you need?”

(This is a common occurrence in our house. Lydia is our night owl and generally lies awake in bed (or gets out of bed for any number of reasons).

Lydia said, “I need to ask Mommy a question.”

David said, “What is it?”

She said, “I need to ask Mommy a question.”

He said, “What is it? Tell me Lydia.”

She just stood their quiet for a moment. “I really need to ask Mommy a question.”

So finally David said, “Then go ahead.”

Lydia said, “Mommy, why does people have skin?”

(Seriously…like this question couldn’t be answered in the morning!!!)

A good find

Over the Christmas break I was putting pictures in albums for my mom and came across this old tintype. I went to the local Wolf Camera to see if they could reproduce a photograph from it. They said that they would scan it. Well, I thought: That’s silly! I can scan it! Why would I want to pay them to do it?

So I scanned it and enlarged it a little (and brightened it some) and I think it turned out okay.

The girl sitting in the front row on the left is my great-great-grandmother Dora Napier Bess…so my grandmother’s grandmother. It’s just something neat to have.

I *heart* Ms. Gildemeister!

Last night, Rebekah came to me about a serious matter (in her six-year-old world).

Yesterday at school, the class was lined up and walking down the hall. Rebekah was assigned to be line leader this week, so she ran to catch up with the class so that she could be line leader. Just a few moments later, Ms. Gildemeister told the class that because they were doing such a good job of walking quietly through the halls they would all get a yellow ticket. (Yellow tickets are for good behavior and can earn you a prize from the treat box. A few tickets are drawn from the box each morning, so the more yellow tickets you have, the greater your chances of winning a prize.)

Only, Rebekah wasn’t walking. She was running. But Ms. Gildemeister didn’t know that and still gave her a yellow ticket. Rebekah knew that she didn’t deserve the yellow ticket and it was just weighing on her mind.

I suggested that she tell Ms. Gildemeister, since it was bothering her so much. She was afraid of upsetting her teacher. I encouraged her that her teacher would probably understand and appreciate her honesty. We talked about how she should explain what happened to Ms. Gildemeister. Rebekah was afraid that she would forget what she wanted to say, so she wrote a letter to her teacher. It was really sweet.

So this afternoon, I emailed Ms. Gildemeister, asking her if she had had a chance to talk to Rebekah yet about the ticket, and this is the email that she wrote back to me.

Yes! I just finished writing you a note about it. I cannot believe how honest she was about that whole situation! It really floored me! You must be so proud of her and her honesty! That must have been really eating at her all night last night!

We took out the old ticket and replaced it with a ticket about being honest.

See? Isn’t that so great. What a wonderful way of encouraging Rebekah to be honest in the future! I’m so please with how the whole situation was handled. I’m proud of Rebekah being so honest (and wanting to be honest) and I’m very pleased with how Ms. Gildemeister handled it in the classroom!

Thank GOD for wonderful teachers!

More layouts

Here are a couple more layouts.

Dreams and Willy Wonka

On Sunday, Lydia bought some 3-D Dora stickers that were on clearance at Michael’s. She instantly went home and put ALL of the stickers on a card. She announced Monday morning that the card was for Mrs. Laura Lee and she wanted to take it to school to give it to her.

Knowing Lydia, I knew that the card would probably not make it to Laura Lee. Lydia loves to give things away…so I didn’t think she could wait that long.

So Monday afternoon, when I pick them up from school, Lydia announces that she gave the card to Aubrey. Then Aubrey gave the card to Jonathan (I think), who, in turn, gave the card to Alena. This was completely fine with Lydia because Alena is her “best friend.”

Well, this morning, Lydia wakes up and says, “Mommy! I know where my card is. I left it on the kitchen table.” She goes and searches for it. When she couldn’t find it, I reminded her that Alena has the card now. She insisted that it was somewhere on the kitchen table. When I suggested that maybe she had just dreamed that it was on the table, she look at me and said,

Mom! Sometimes dreams really do come true!” (Almost quoting directly from Sleeping Beauty/Cinderella.)

I told her she was right…but she went on.

“Except for Willy Wonka.” (She’s had nightmares since she saw that movie – I didn’t know it would be so scary to her.)

She said, “Except for Willy Wonka. That dream will not come true. Because Willy Wonka is NOT real. Chocolate IS real, but Willy Wonka is NOT real!”

She was so zealous in the way she said it. It was adorable.

Nothing much really going on....

So I thought I'd post some layouts.

I'm just now trying to work on my scrapbooks again (now that I'm out of school...).

Turn that frown upside down!

Rebekah just got this little dog from Aunt Judi for Christmas.

She brought it to me tonight and said, "Mommy! He's frowning at me!"

So I fixed it. Now he's smiling (and so is Rebekah). *grin*