Quote of the Day

"Look, I can floss my teeth with my hair." ~ Emma

Lulu Kitty

Meet Lulu. She's a freak. Emma got this cute little kitty for Christmas. She simulates a real cat. She has sensors on her head, cheek, back, and tummy. And, a light sensor on the front of her face. The sensors set off all kinds of actions. Meows, lifts paw, shakes her head, and rolls on her back. Since opening the package, she hasn't stopped. Actually, even when she was wrapped up we could hear her. She was starting to become the subject of much kidding around, because.....she would be sitting all by herself with no one around and start meowing or moving her paw up and down. We actually started talking to her like she was real. It was getting a little creepy. Thomas said, "Oh, she can detect things we can't see." Great.

Two nights ago, she was sitting in that same spot on the couch when I started up the stairs to go to bed. She was about 15 feet from me. I turned and said something to the effect of not wanting to hear any crap from her the rest of the night. She lifted her head and meowed. Freak. She's been banned to the basement play area.

Funny face

Taking picures in front of the tree and got this. Looks just like her. LOL

Night spirit

Emma informed us that there was a lady in her closet the other night. A lady dressed all in brown with dark hair that talked to her in her head. She is very sure that she was awake and not dreaming. I asked if she talked back to the lady. No, because she was scared. "What did you do?" "I just looked at her." Very brave if you ask me. I would've been hiding under the covers! She told us that it wasn't a spirit, because it wasn't invisible. Guess someone forgot to tell the lady in brown that. If she comes to my room, I'm getting under the covers.

Quote of the day

"God must have put us together with staples." ~Emma

I have no idea where that came from.

Snowman?

The snowman that Emma built yesterday. With a shovel. At the bottom of the steps. The smaller one on the right is actually a snow mouse. I know. As soon as you saw the picture you thought, "oh, look at the cute snowmouse!" Me too. She insisted they needed a carrot nose. (Of which might disappear tomorrow as we are having roast w/potato and carrots for dinner. They are being well preserved, so ok as long as the sqirrel doesn't nibble on them.) Am thinking we need to have a family outing for snowman building lessons.

Snow Leaves

Emma was admiring the scenery while we were in the truck the other day. Everything was white. She said the trees were beautiful, and wanted to know how they grow snow leaves.

Quote of the Day

"WOW! Look Mama, heaven decorations!" ~Emma
Someone on our road has their front yard nativity set up a little early. :-)

First Snow

From the back porch....I love snow covered trees.... and snow angels. :-)

Emma's Wrath

This is what happens when Emma gets mad. She probably did it with one hand. Matthew's bed is SUPPOSED to be against the wall directly to the left as you walk in the door. If you look closely....just in front of the blue/red blob in the bottom left...you will see a shadowy spot on the floor. That shadowy spot is where she peed, and the blue/red blob is the towel I used to clean it up after she did her part to clean it. Yes, she intentionally peed.....because she was mad. (I'll show you, mom.) Sometimes I wonder how I'm still sane.

Creatures and Pets

I've been meaning to post about this for a while....since June! Emma's despair over the small yard was quickly dispelled when they discovered what lay beneath the dirt. I have never in my life seen anyone so excited over worms and slugs. I'm not really sure if Matthew's slugs are really slugs, or if they are snails. Is a slug just a snail without a shell? I really must google this, so I can tell him correctly. These he is finding LOOK like snails, and nothing like what I picture a slug to look like. (At least not the ones that used to crawl into T.J's food dish.) What I call a slug is a big fat round blob. These are cute little guys with antennas. See....isn't it cute? Reminds me of Gary on Spongebob. Even though Gary has a shell. Matthew is totally enraptured with them. He calls them his pets.

Emma's *pets* are worms. Although she calls them creatures. (All animals are creatures to her...after hearing them referred to as God's creatures.) They are the biggest, fattest worms I've ever seen. Would love to use them on the end of a pole to entice a catfish or two. (don't tell Emma) This one is little, but it's the one she had at the time. She would tell you it's a baby.

Here's a bigger one.

They LOVE having them crawl all over them and think it's the greastest thing ever. Although, Emma stears clear of the snails (since Matthew calls them "nails" I will too until I google.) She doesn't like the slime. They have an understanding...Matthew cares for snails and Emma cares for worms. Neither is above babysitting, and Matthew doesn't mind the worms, but no slime for Emma. Not only does Matthew not mind the slime, but he wallows in it. He thinks it's cool. Cool enough that his hands are always covered. "Look Mama, my pets like me. *insert giggle* He's tickling my hand." It's sticky ya know. The slime. Ya, it is. The dirt from digging for them? It sticks to the slime that is sticking to the hand. Did you know that snail slime does not wash off? Nope, not even with soap. You have to SCRUB it off. I know. I had to do it more than once almost every day the entire summer. The snails and worms never went away. It was crazy. Every day there were more. (Worms are still showing up, but the snails must have already gone south for the winter.) No, they weren't the same ones each day. I knew, even if they didn't, because many had visible handicaps after being handled so much.

They came up with a pretty good system. Each had a bucket to house their pets/creatures. It was a big deal to prepare this bucket for creature living. Dirt, water, grass, twigs...you name it. All the pets went into their respective buckets at the end of the day. Snails in one, worms in the other. Depending on how well the bucket was prepared, some actually survived on to the next day. To be rewarded with more friends, or mommies, daddies, brothers, sisters, added to the bucket. Poor Matthew, the snails usually crawled out. But he eventually agreed that it was best they went back to their mommy and daddy. The big fat worms usually didn't mind the bucket of mud and would stick around for a while.
I have to admit. It was fun watching Emma pull worms out of the ground! I never knew a worm could be so fast. LOL

Found this about snails/slugs. What I figured, but read the first couple paragraphs. Did you know they can glide across a razor blade without being cut??? You might have to copy and paste to your browser. I can't figure out how to get the link to work. There is an underscore mark after the word slugs and before the word snails. www.daviswiki.org/slugs_&_snails

Emma's Bday

Monday was Emma's 5th Birthday. Really? Five years? So much has happened. We moved 3 times...AK to TX and back to AK. Actually, it was four times counting the move from Falcon St. to Matador when we found out Matthew was coming. It was in the first 2, that we went from a family of three to five. Both of her great-grandpa's gone to heaven. Had to let go of one dog and tried to keep another. So many friendships formed and left behind in TX, most connected in some way with Emma and Matthew. It's where they both were born (same operating and hospital rooms.) Oops, I could easily turn this into a *I miss TX* blog...moving along.....

When I made a comment about not believing it's been five years, Thomas said, "It seems like it's been 100." HA HA I guess sibling rivalry does that. It's not too bad really, but she does like to sneak into his room, take items she feels she really is old enough to have therefore justified in taking, and hides them in her room. Mp3 player, watch, books, etc. The really funny part is her reaction when you ask her about a missing item. She taps her cheek, looks up sideways, and says, "Hmmm, let me think." When she does that, you KNOW she is guilty! We are trying to figure out a way to lock his door.

So back to bday events. I was quite pleased to forego a party this year. Her and I went to the mall Saturday for pedicures and Build a Bear. We had lunch in the food court afterwards before heading home for cake and presents. She LOVED it. I called the nail place the day before to make reservations. I explained that she was only 5 and doing this for her bday. The guy remembered! Heck, on the phone, I wasn't even sure he understood me...I did not understand him! They treated her like the princess she and her daddy say she is....he's got her head so full. She didn't quite know how to respond to her 'nail lady' when she kept hugging and kissing her face. I don't blame her....was kinda weird. I grabbed her hand and said, I'm hungry let's go! As Emma was wiping at her cheeks.

She was grinning the whole time, and actually stayed still long enough to get her toes and fingers painted. All she had done was soaking, lotion, and polish. No tools or cutting.
"Baby" Bear She spent about 15 minutes going back and forth picking out an outfit of shirt, skirt, and shoes. Then we turn around and there is an entire display of baby items. So much for the girly clothes and shoes. She is all about a baby.
My friend Hallie sells these birthday crowns that she hand makes. It seemed fitting.