For Granna Jodi.

Before Christmas, Anna and I went to visit our cousins, Megan and her mom and dad.  I have a couple of good pictures from the visit, but was lazy about posting them.  Megan's mom is MUCH better at staying on top of things like that.  :)  Anna had a blast there and played with Megan the entire time.  Megan has one of the best princess wardrobes that Anna had ever seen and she thought she was in Heaven.  Anna usually picked out one specific dress to wear while we were there.  It was one that was hand made by Megan's Granna Jodi.  It was a long, dark pink dress.  Anna took great care of it while she was there and carried each side of the dress with her fingers as she walked so that it would not drag the ground.  She LOVED it.  Word got back to Granna Jodi about how much Anna loved the dress and she got the things together to make Anna a dress like the one she wore at Megan's house.  Granna Jodi is a miracle worker.  It came just in time for Christmas.  Anna had been asking for a Cinderella dress for Christmas.  That's just about the only thing she wanted, and she made sure everyone else knew that was on her list.  

When Anna opened this dress on Christmas morning, the first thing she said once she put it on was, "Oh, it's beautiful!!  Now I can marry a PRINCE!"  J and I looked at each other with that look that could only follow a comment like that...  We were also amazed that someone not even related to us and someone we had not even MET in person (or at least in a really long time) could have set aside time during Christmas to make such a wonderful gift.  Nana got her some "glass" slippers that match to complete the ensemble.

I have been wanting to take Anna out for a photo shoot with her in her dress so Granna Jodi can see how much Anna likes the dress.  We went out yesterday.  I had to wake Anna up since she'd fallen asleep in the car on the way to my "spot."  Thanks SO much Granna Jodi!  She loves it!  And sorry this has taken so long.

FOR MORE PRINCESS PHOTOS CLICK HERE!!

Anna the photographer.

This was a complete "impulse buy" on my part.  We were at Wal-Mart standing in line and Anna found this little camera in the "impulse buy" section by the register.  She's pretty accustomed to not getting the stuff she asks for and doesn't ask that much anymore.  But this time I actually asked HER if she wanted it before she asked me!  I just stuck it up on the roller belt thing and paid for it.  She has been GLUED to it since then.  She "takes pictures" of everything.  It's SO funny to watch her take these pretend pictures.  She gets up close, tells what ever she's taking a picture of what to do, tilts her camera purposefully, and moves around to get the good shot.  It's great.  I don't have ANY idea where she gets that stuff.  HA!  It sort of makes me laugh at myself a little...ok a lot.  

The night we got the camera, a funny thing happened.  After we got home from the store we needed to get ready for bed.  Grey decided to leave a present in his diaper for Daddy and he was about to change it.  Anna has always been fascinated by poopy diapers...weird, and of course since it's Anna, it's a little sick too.  She jumped up as soon as she realized that there may be a poopy diaper.  She said, "Oh!  I'm gonna come see the poop AND take a picture of it!"

Mama.

This is Mama Baechtel. She was my last (great) grandparent who lived an extraordinary life. She passed away last night at a little after 1am. She was 101 years old. I hope I live life the way she did. She was hilarious, optimistic (most of the time), bold, sarcastic, easy-going, beautiful, and loving woman who always told everyone she had a bad case of "prolonged habitation." Mama, say "Hi" to Papa for us!

Good mornings.

Me: Good Morning Grey! Where's your sister?

Me: Oh! There she is! She was hiding in your bed! I thought I heard her talking to you on the monitor...

Anna: Mommy, take a picture of me upside down!
Grey: Hey can you get me out?

Anna: Mom, did you get it?!
Grey: Will someone please just get me out?

Anna: Mom, lemme give Grey a kiss and you can take a picture.

Grey: Ok, if no one is going to get me out and feed me, then I'll eat this cage.

Me: Ok, give your brother a hug and look at me.
Grey: If I do this, then will you get me out?

Me: ...and again!

Grey: Ok woman, get off me.

Anna the artist.

Here is some of Anna's latest artwork. She's concentrating on mixed media sculpture.

Just for me.

I found the coolest office supply place online called Paper-Source. Some things are pretty ridiculous in price, but everything is to me, so whatever. But they have the cutest stuff. These file folders were definitely made just for me!


And everyone needs an eraser that says "holy crap." They had another one that had a rather explicit word, but I refrained.


And of course, the cat pencil sharpener. You can only imagine where the pencil goes.

DANGER!

SAM'S now has my kettle corn! In BIG bags! Not the kind that you might need a flatbed trailer for, but one that you easily strap in your passenger side seat with the seat belt. They say that it's one of the best "snacks"...whole grain, no trans fat, etc... but not if you eat the entire bag at one time.

All you cyclists out there...

I have a new website for you. It's called Fat Cyclist and even if you don't ride, and especially if you know someone who does, it's pretty fun to read. He gives away cool stuff too. This meal ticket wasn't one of the thing he gave away, I just thought it was cool. I found it on The Pioneer Woman blog.

Silliness while we wait.

We were sitting in the car waiting for Dad to get off work yesterday. We needed to go do a brief photo shoot for a magazine article that he will be featured in. I was playing with my camera and borrowed "glass" to keep busy. Poor Grey is sick again. He's really fine, it's just a very snotty nose that I can't keep up with and a bad croupy cough. I think you can see the shiny snot trail from his nose to his mouth in this picture. At least he's still pretty happy most of the time! :) And Anna was fascinated by the man walking around in front of us while we waited. He was a fertilizer guy that was spraying something on the grass. She said he looked like a cowboy with his green boots and green shiny gloves. I'm not sure what kind of cowboy that is... She waved at him and he didn't see her to wave back. She watched him for 30 minutes (yes, we were in the car that long) and told him she loved him and didn't want him to go. Of course (thankfully) we had the windows up and he didn't hear her. Creepy.

Another nighttime conversation.

Tonight I was laying in bed with Anna chatting about the day. We were talking about faces and why we have two eyes, one nose, and two holes in our noses. The flashlight was the only light that was on in her room and it was stuck between us as we faced each other. So it lit up our faces from underneath. I held my hand up to look at my palm in the light...

Anna: Mom, your hands are sparkly.
Me: Yep, I bet your hands sparkle too.
Anna: (She stuck her hand up the the light). Nope, not like your hands.
Me: Well, maybe that's because I have older hands than you do. Your hands are much smoother.
Anna: I'm old.
Me: But I'm much older than you.
Anna: I'm old for puppies!