I'd rather it be free... but $6 is good!

Best yard sale find of the day.

Brand new, in the sealed bag, 'How to Train Your Dragon' costumes.

$6 for both.

They are ready for some good 'ole pretend play and Halloween!! 

5

My goodness! I can't believe this little chickie is 5 years old today! Time flies when you're having fun! :) GG, you are a joy to our lives. You add much sparkle to our days! It is such a blessing to spend my days with you. I love how you love to learn. I love how out of nowhere you'll say, "Mommy, I love the Lord.". I love how you love your family. You are a sweet, smart, beautiful girl. Beautiful inside and out. You are a wonderful daughter and a perfect little sister and a perfect big sister! 

We love you! 

Mommy, Daddy, Sophie and Shep

Our very own mermaid

GG is now almost 5 years old. I can't believe it! 

 This summer she has just taken to the water like, well... like a mermaid.

 She still LOVES mermaids. One day she was swimming with her swim vest and the next day she wasn't. That quick.

 She is my very independent, very strong willed, funny (actually quite hilarious) little girl.

 Somedays I just don't know what to do with this child.

But I really don't know what I'd do without her. 

the dress and GG

This is the most perfect princess dress GG could ever hope for. Sophie wore this dress in my brother Andy's wedding. I kept it (like i did most all of her clothing) for years. Thank goodness I remembered it in time for GG to enjoy. It fits her perfectly. 

And no matter how sweet she looks in the above pictures, below proves she still our same funny GG. That girl makes me laugh every single day.

cutie

G.G. stands for....

Goofy Goober

what am I going to do with this child? :)

enjoy every moment with her

she sure can brighten a day

Gettin the hang of it...

The Princess and The Bruiser

Friday was spent playing dress up with our very own princess. Josh was home from work. We planned to have a lazy day at home. 

You know what happens to plans , right? Kids don't care. Friday morning was spent at the DR office with Shep who, we thought, had a broken thumb. Turns out it was just smooshed pretty good. 

Got the kids bathed and ready for bed. And then our little Sheppie falls face first into the fireplace hearth and requires a trip to the ER.

5 stitches for our little bruiser. 

And he's wilder than ever. 

My September Girls

I forgot. I forgot to do a post celebrating my most favorite girls on their birthdays. 

I didn't forget their birthdays though. We had a wonderful get together with some family and a few of Sophie's friends over. It was a nice day.

My sweet Sophie turned 14. Can't believe she's 14! She has such a sweet spirit. She's a good mix of sporty and girly. She's always been like that. She has a "boy"friend now. It's a new experience for all of us. She's handling things in a good way though. She has a heart for the Lord and I am so proud of that. I'm just proud of her. She will always be our Sophie Sunshine. 

And our little G-nut Peanut turned 4. She thinks it feels GREAT to be 4! She is my girly girl through and through. She loves her Barbies and she loves fairies and she loves to dress up. She wants to be a rainbow dolphin trainer when she grows up. She is very aware if you are laughing at her right now and sometimes she says the cutest things and we laugh and she thinks we're laughing at her and she gets upset. She wants to be taken seriously. She can be very high maintenance sometimes and, in all honesty, I'm still learning a lot about her. How I handle certain situations with her or discipline her changes a lot. I'm learning what works best. She loves her sister and brother and mommy and daddy. My favorite thing right now is how she looks at herself in the full length mirror while reciting Barbie movie lines or singing songs. Maybe Broadway is in her future :).

So Happy Birthday to my girls. Life is so good because of you two. 

And I love you both like a rock!

Every little sister needs a Sophie...

Over the past week or so Sophie has given approximately 376 makeovers and 298 costume changes to her little sister GG. Making masks so she can be a muskateer, painting nails, applying eye shadow and countless other girlie things.

I hope that GG will one day realize how blessed she is to have Sophie.

Even with their age difference, I hope that one day they will be the best of friends. 

I don't think that's too much for a momma to hope for. 

Turtles and Treats

Yesterday was a trip to Landmark Park to feed the turtles.

Shep named the turtle above "big guy". Pretty appropriate, I say. 

I've never seen a spider this big. She was just about as big as my hand!

GG was very happy about this swing. She can't hold on to a regular swing because of her cast so this was perfect. She had to borrow my sunglasses because, "THE SUN! IS SHINING! IN MY EYES! IN THIS SWING!". 

We left because Shep apparently doesn't do well in the heat. He wanted to be carried everywhere which made GG want to be carried because God forbid that one gets more attention from mommy than the other and then GG decided that her shoes hurt and then Shep sat down in the grass and cried and wouldn't move anywhere. I was never more happy than to finally get to my van and crank the a/c and the radio up and drown out all the whine. 

When we arrived home GG had treats from Grammy in the mailbox. 

They had discussed candy necklaces when we were visiting last. I don't think GG knew what they were.

So Grammy sent a little "happy". 

Perfect timing, because we all needed a little happy at that moment.

And she shared with her brother. Amazing. 

It was a fun, hot and happy day.

Emphasis on the hot.

And the happy. 

one little monkey jumping on the ...

couch.

she fell off and broke her

ARM! 

ouch! 

Thursday, GG was climbing and jumping all over the couch. I'm bad about letting them do that. This time wasn't so much fun. She fell off the back of the couch and broke her little arm. It was sad. It didn't look broken, but when she wouldn't stop crying after about 30 minutes I decided to take a trip to the ER. I'm glad we did. It's broken in two places. They put a temporary cast on and today we went to the orthopedic doc and she got a cool pink one. 

She'll recover nicely. And hopefully we've all learned a lesson about jumping on the furniture :).

these two...

really do love each other.

reality

Just from looking at these pictures, you may think we had a fun, care free day at the park. 

In reality, all of these were taken within 5 minutes of being there and then Shep ran away twice and then got a spanking and then we left. Reality of an outing (not all outings but, lately, most) with 2 under 3. 

Shep is entering the terrible twos and, I hate to say it, but I think his may really be terrible.

They really wanted this snack before we played and promptly spilled those horrendous drinks. Not a good choice on my part for little ones.

GG had fun and she was really sweet. She loves to play at the park and she obeys and understands the rules.

Shep, on the other hand, is my wild man. He played on the playground area for about 2 1/2 minutes and then decided to bolt. First towards the parking lot and then far away from me down the walking track. 

He's taking a time out right now. 

Then after the walking track incident which required me to leave GG on the playground while I ran after him, we left. GG was so sad but I promised her I would play on our backyard playground with her and she was ok then.

I don't think I ever thought it would be this hard. Sometimes, I'm so tempted to just not go anywhere because it is hard. There is usually crying, tantrums, running away... but then I straighten myself up and remember I'm the mom, but this is how he'll learn. Hopefully.

backyard playground

we finally broke down and bought a swing set. we had a perfectly good swing set that sophie got for her (i think) 5th birthday. but our house in helena had no backyard so we ended up giving it away. we had no idea, at that time, that we would be moving again. now we have a huge yard and we need some outside toys for these kiddos. this one was on sale at toys r us. and they are having so much fun.

in the middle

and so loved.

little Miss GG

3 1/2

A cup of tea

or hot chocolate. 

Today GG and I decided to have a nice, warm cup of hot chocolate.

Perfect for a chilly morning.

I served it to her in my mothers wedding china. 

She said " Oh no Mommy. That's not for me. It's breakable."

I told her she was old enough now to drink out of these big girl , breakable cups. 

It was a sweet moment sharing a cup of hot chocolate with her. Enjoying our morning.

a conversation between sisters