Picture Ready but not Picture Perfect

We got a new camera....we haven't figured out how to use it yet.  The majority of the pictures look awful.  We surely aren't quick studies and I have my doubts that we will ever get the hang of it.

 

Bring it ON

It's cheer time!!  This little lady had her first cheer competition a couple of week ends ago.  The girls did a great job and really brought it.

 

All My Children is in Production again

So she is a giver, but what do you do, when the giver is also a charmer, playing on every emotion.....

We have been having a little bit of trouble with The Red Head going to sleep.  She goes to bed at her normal time without a problem, it is what happens once she is in the bed, that is the problem.  She has to go to the bathroom, she needs a drink, her nose is running, her socks are bothering her.  We have begun a check list to take care of all these things before she gets in the bed.  However, she has now started singing and kicking the walls and various other noise making tactics.  This wouldn't be a problem, but she shares a room with Hadley aka The Drama Queen.  I'm honestly not sure which is worse, trying to whip Ellison in to submission or quiet Hadley's histrionics about how tired she is and can't sleep because Ellison is D.I.S.T.U.R.B.I.N.G. her...it is total Susan Lucci...All My Children Daytime Emmy award winning year material here folks.  It is enough to make me want to curl up in the fetal position, cry uncle and declare how wrong I was to ever think I could be a parent.  This cartoon totally captures my feelings  on our nightly routine.  

Wayne typically is bad cop, because I just don't have the patience or the will power to go in there 2 or 7 times. I tend to pretend the house is quiet and I don't hear A.N.Y.T.H.I.N.G.....then I kind of blow and it isn't pretty, but any who...Wayne wasn't home Sunday night he went to watch the Superbowl, which meant I had to put on some kind of cop hat and make the madness stop. When I went in the first time, I went in packing heat, we are going to nip this thing by golly...."If you don't lay down and go to sleep, you are going to get a switch, do you understand me??? Not another word....." Ellison through tears , wailing, sniffling and fake coughing "B.U.T I'M Y.O.U.R B.A.B.Y............." Yes, yes you are and I'm going to go back to the couch now and pretend I don't hear a word. Carry on, master manipulator, carry on!!!!

Blown Away

On the way home from work the other day, my telephone rang.  It was my Sunday School teacher asking if I had the clothes with me I had agreed to donate.  I did and we made arrangements for me to drop them off.  As I hung up the phone, I was hit with the normal questions from The Red Head...who was that?  why didn't she get to talk?  where are we going?  what did they want?  I began explaining to her that it was Mr. Steve and we were going to meet him to give him some of her old clothes.  There was a family that had been visiting our Church that had a daughter a little younger than her and they could use them.  At first she was very concerned because she didn't realize they were clothes she had outgrown.  Once she understood that they were something she couldn't wear anymore she calmed down and got quiet...what happened next blew me away.  From the back seat I hear, "Mommy we can take her my Bumble Bee pajamas, she would like those".  You see her Bumble Bee pajamas are her absolute favorite and not something she has outgrown.  They are something she would wear every night if we would let her.  Her three year old little heart is bigger than her years, she saw a need and it didn't matter that it was something that she loved so much, she was willing to give.  I am in awe of this little lady and her giving spirit...I can not wait to see the impact she has, as she grows into a wonderful young woman.  She teaches me so much. 

And she doesn't take herself seriously so, you kind of have to laugh at her too!

Perdy Nerdy

These are from the other night at Awana's, it was nerd night.  Some of the cutest little nerds I have ever seen.  The second one is my absolute favorite.