"Good night. Don't step on your brother."

This is where we find him every night. He begins in his bed. But he doesn't stay there long. Every night, I go up and there he is, sometimes naked, sometimes with a new outfit on, sometimes with a book on his lap, sometimes toys set up in interesting ways around him. The girls go up first, and he is usually still awake. He protests to them closing their door, which they have to or he will be in there goofing around. I think that's why he wants to be in the hallway; to be close to the girls room. Several times I find him sleeping with his hand up against their door. It's kind of sad.

"Don't skwish my monkey." He tells Courtney about his pillow pet which he has placed on their threshold.

I put him back into his bed several times a night. I'm not sure how long he stays there because the next time I wake up, there he is, back on the floor. I guess I should just leave him there.

I wish I lived here

It really is this beautiful. Courtney's interest has spurred me on, and we have spent more time with our horse this summer/fall than I have in many years.

Smile nice for me!

15

I don't have many photos of her. She will allow me to if I ask, but certainly not willingly. But, because it's her birthday, and I've never had a fifteen year old before, she humored me with a mini photo shoot.

How did I ever get blessed with such beautiful children?

We got it

I thought we could avoid it. Everyone around us has had something; bronchitis, colds, stomach bug, hand foot & mouth, I've heard all these things mentioned here and there and I was feeling a bit proud of ourselves, being so healthy and immune.

Courtney spent a few days couch bound, then one night I came downstairs and saw that Grace had joined her in misery.
 I spent a bit of "sicky" time with her. We turn on the TV and watch stupid shows, snuggle and talk. For the girls, we watch Say Yes to the Dress or Hoarders or something that normally doesn't make it to our family TV hour. You know, something real enriching and educational. But for Grace there was not a thing on for a four year old girl. So we ended up watching Spongebob (but it's a secret so don't tell anyone.) And for as sick as she was, that girl can talk. We discussed Christmas and puppies and why Spongebob is a really stupid show. All kinds of important things.

"But don't grab my neck. that berry hurts. You have to be careful with me."
"But mommy, sick people stay out of bed." That's right. Sick people get to do a lot of things that they don't do when they're well. Like sleep on the couch. Or the floor. Where ever is comfortable.

Pumpkins

We've had so much rain, so much cold, I'm itching to get outside. But that's fall for ya, isn't it? We had a break in the precipitation, so I loaded the kids up and headed to the pumpkin patch. It was very muddy, but I'm not afraid of mud. It was chilly, but we bundled up. The only thing that spoiled our outing was that everything was so expensive there. They had a bouncy thing; looked like fun. But it was $4 a person. Yeah, I don't think so. And the pumpkins were $5 and up and half of them were rotten. So we found a bin full of gourds for 50 cents a piece and I told them they could pick any one they wanted! And when they couldn't decide I let them buy two! "Really? We can have two!?" I'm such a generous mom.
FYI- Gourds are hard to carve.