A Merry Little Christmas

We had a great Christmas and I was too busy having fun to take pictures!!

On Sunday, we had a wonderful service. Harper Lee did a short reading. Sorry for the poor video quality. Mom was a little nervous. :)




We had a glorious Christmas Eve. I don't think it is how I would want to spend every Christmas Eve, but for this year it was absolutely perfect. We took the girls to see Enchanted in the afternoon and then we went home and relaxed together. On Christmas, Jeremy and I woke up before the girls and they finally got up at about 7:30. The Wii turned out to be as fun (or even more so) than we thought it would be. (A big shout out to my brother William for helping Santa locate a high-demand toy.) After the present-opening, we went to Waffle House to eat breakfast. Later on in the day, we went to my mom's house for present exchanging there and Christmas dinner. We had an insane amount of food. I should have taken pictures of all the desserts my sister made this year!

Another Christmas season has come to an end, and all we have is the memories, and not nearly enough pictures of the fun. Here are a few that I have, starting with the Leeds Christmas Parade, and going through yesterday.

Here are the girls opening the Wii.

And, finally, a video that gives you an idea of what we did all day Christmas. :)

Happy Birthday to Me! (and Sam Daspit)

Well, about the only wish I didn't get for my birthday this year was for Sabriel to be born today -- actually there are still a few hours left if Virginia will hurry up!! ;)

I had a great day. I should have taken more pictures.

Actually, my birthday started Sunday. My mom had a birthday party for me and fixed my favorite cake, Hummingbird Cake. If you've never had it, think of pumped up banana nut bread with cream cheese icing. mmmmmmm, good! And, I got a great robe from my sister (how did she know my old one was looking so sad?) My family got me so beautiful holiday dishes. I tried to get a good picture of them, but to no avail. I'll have to get the table all set and try again. I love them!!!!

Today, I . . .




. . . got a new 'do! Don't worry, Kari Ann - I had to use my gift certificate to the spa. I am a Kari Ann customer for life :).


I got to shop with my Mom and then she took me, my sister, and Jeremy to lunch. It was delicious and I had a blast hanging out with them. I don't usually get to just sit and chat with them without the girls around (pesky grandchildren get all the attention!!!).

Jeremy and the girls gave me . . .



. . . desperately needed new shoes! Virginia - hope you don't mind me copying your footwear!

Jeremy's family gave me my favorite things, a great CD and a gift card to Lowe's!

We also got to go to Olivia's Christmas program, which of course was wonderful. The kids all did great. Of course, Olivia was the best!
Here is a short clip. The girl with a white bow in her hair almost directly in front of Olivia is Kaela, and the girl with the beautiful blonde hair in front of Kaela is Donna. Olivia, Kaela, and Donna are really good friends. They are the two we hear the most about at home.




And, the biggest surprise of the day would have to be Jeremy's . . .









. . . tattoo!!!! I am still in shock, actually. It was a very, very unexpected surprise. And, a very sweet thing for Jeremy to do. If you can't tell in the picture, the tattoo is on his wrist.

I am so thankful for him today and every day, for the wonderful and kind things he does for me and the girls.

I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine.

(but don't expect to see any tattoos on me any time soon ;)

Random Soileau Girl Cuteness for Grandmothers and Anyone Else Who Cares to Wade Through It

Last Spring we hosted our church's Sunday night meetings in our home.
The kids stayed upstairs while the adults had a Bible study downstairs.
I guess that explains why Olivia told my friend Virginia the other day
that the baby gate was in place upstairs so that the babies would not
bother the humans during church.

When we got the Christmas tree in place in our living room, Olivia
looked at the twinkling lights and said that they were like the stars
the night that Jesus was born. They twinkled because they were so
happy. All together now -- "Awwwww."

Olivia was telling me recently that she had been hit and pushed down on
the playground. (She frequently exaggerates stories of her abuse at the
hands of others at school, so I was not extremely worried.) I asked her
who hit her, she said with a knowing shake of her head, "Jasmine. That
is one evil little girl."

We had two really heartfelt prayers last night. Olivia found an old
sticker from the first of the school year that said "Olivia Walker" on
it. This designated her as a child whose parents walk to pick them up.
We have since changed the girls to riding the bus home for convenience
(They are not too fond of the bus.) When she found the sticker she
prayed, "God, make me Olivia Walker again." Harper Lee prayed that
today would be Friday, so we talked about God not being like a slot
machine that you expect to dispense whatever you want. She sighed, "I
know, but this week feels like a month to me."

And, tonight, Harper Lee lost another tooth. This is the second tooth she actually lost, as in, gone never to be found. I asked her to read her note to the tooth fairy to me since the note will be gone tomorrow morning. :) Please forgive her idiot mother for turning the camera the wrong direction to video her. I couldn't find an easy way to rotate the video.

You Can't Handle the Truth!

I didn't think anyone would believe me if I told them how messy our house is right now so I decided to prove it. Jeremy is in the middle of re-doing our stairs and it has turned into quite a project. He has been working on it since Saturday evening (almost immediately after walking in the door from an 8 hour trip from Louisiana) and he spent all day Monday and Tuesday on it. To make matters worse, when the girls get home from school, they feel free to frolic around the house and make as big a mess as possible while Jeremy is quite understandably distracted with the stair project.

I am not even close to having the house ready for decorating for Christmas, and this coming weekend will be just as busy as last weekend. I feel like it's all I can do to try to make sure everyone has clean clothes to wear each day. I am so jealous reading everyone's Christmas-y posts. I just have to keep reminding myself that this is temporary, and when it is done I will have wonderful new stairs that hopefully will not scare our guests when they try to walk down them :). And really, please don't misunderstand me. I am not complaining AT ALL about Jeremy doing this project. I have been wanting to get it done forever and we finally collected enough gift cards to Lowe's to get started :). I am so thankful to have 1) a super-handyman husband and 2) a husband who gets to household projects as quickly as humanly possible. What a guy! My whining just has to do with wanting my house to be clean and life being too busy to do anything about it.

I will post pictures of the stairs when Jeremy is done with them. And, Kim's post reminded me, at least going to church on Sunday will help me start celebrating the Advent season even if my house is not decorated yet.

Thanksgiving

Jeremy told me that Olivia started asking him how to spell different words tonight and he realized after a few minutes that she was making a list of things she was thankful for. I had to share her list because I thought it was so sweet that this was what she thought to do with her free time, and a good reminder to me that I have SO much to be thankful for.



In case you need a translation, her paper reads:
Olivia Soileau
I am thankful for
bananas
turkey
corn
bread
pie
cake
parents
dog
sister
world

In the "not as spiritual" department, here is a good pic of Harper Lee with bottle caps for eyes. Hey - we can't all be theologians!

My Bilingual Child

I have told most of you this story already, because it cracked me up, but for those of you I haven't seen this week:

Sunday night on the way to eat at Panera Bread:
Harper Lee: What do they have at Panera?
Me: Sandwiches and salads.
HL: Can I try a sandwich?
Me: No, I am bringing a Lunchable for you because you don't even like the sandwiches at Subway, and Panera is more expensive than Subway. I don't want to waste money on a sandwich that you don't like.
HL: Is Panera Spanish for Subway?
Me: speechless

Too Much Halloween Candy?

I haven't posted pictures of Halloween yet, because I didn't get any really great shots. I do have this short video of Olivia after we got home. Nothing fancy, nothing I am sure that your kids haven't done from time to time, but the pumpkin on her head just makes for good entertainment.

My Boys

It's been a while since I posted about my third child and only boy. Here he is snuggling with Jeremy on the recliner Sunday afternoon.

(News flash: pigs are flying and hell has frozen over or I would not be talking about a dog in this way!)

Don't You Just Love Mornings?

I thought I would give you a taste of our normal morning routine. I thought about filming Harper Lee crying as she thudded down the stairs this morning, but I opted for a picture instead.

Here you see a fairly typical breakfast table. Harper Lee and Olivia both put their blankets over their heads some mornings so as to avoid talking to us, or anyone. Olivia is the only one who went for the blanket option this morning. (She is actually much more of a morning person than Harper Lee, but it still takes her a while to wake up for school.) Harper Lee is pictured here with her normal morning smile.

I Guess This Really Is the Great Pumpkin

What you are looking at here, folks, is not just any decorated pumpkin, this is the pumpkin that won the Mrs. Darabaris' 2nd Grade Class Pumpkin Decorating Contest!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Way to go, Harper Lee! Yesterday, at about 7:50 (yes that's 10 minutes before school starts), Harper Lee reminded me that she needed to bring "stuff" to school with which to decorate her pumpkin (which was taken to school on Tuesday). I quickly dug up some things, almost none of which made it on to her pumpkin.

(One of these days I am going to post a blog about a week in the life of Harper Lee's wardrobe. You would not believe the outfits that she comes up with. And, she is very serious about it, too!)

Olivia Funny for the Day

The conversation at dinner tonight:

Liv: Why is Dad sharing his onion rings with you and not with me?
Mom: Because you don't eat the onion, you only eat the breading and leave the onion on your plate.
Liv: (incredulously) Mom, do you realize what onions taste like?!??

To put away, or wait for one more warm snap, that is the question

Has everyone else already put away the summer clothes? (assuming you, like me, don't have room to put all of your children's clothes in their dressers at the same time)
Well? Have you?????

hmmmm. . .
no immediate responses . . . .

I think I'm going for it.

The Great Pumpkins

Yesterday we created this year's batch of jack-o-lanterns at my mom's house. We have a tradition of doing this every year with my little brother. For the past five or six years now, we also have roasted the pumpkin seeds. This year, Olivia really got into it. She loved the whole process. Actually, she and Harper Lee both were real troopers when it came to cleaning out their pumpkins. They both worked really hard on that. HL picked out a really intricate pattern, but William came to her rescue and so in the end, both jack-o-lanterns turned out really cute.

Craft Night

Tired of constant fighting between our two sweet girls, and tired of hearing ourselves yell at them for yelling at each other, Jeremy and I tried a new discipline system for the past couple of weeks. We had a jar on the table in which they received a styrofoam peanut for any good behavior that was worthy of recognition and a peanut was taken out of the jar for rule-breaking. The girls knew that when they got to 20 peanuts, they would get to do a craft, which is a big deal to them.

We experienced a lot of ups and downs with this system, but overall it helped. Today the girls met their goal so I let them paint some Halloween signs I bought last year (Hobby Lobby. 90% off clearance. It's a good thing.)

Anyway, they had a really good time, and I think they were encouraged enough by meeting their goal to try again.

Hamster Ashes

Olivia wants to be Lucy Pevensie (from the Chronicles of Narnia) for Halloween, and so as part of her costume I found a small, pretty container at the thrift store to hold the healing cordial that Lucy carries with her. I asked Jeremy what he thought the container was originally meant to hold. He said . . . .

. . . an urn to hold hamster ashes.

Sorry to bore everyone with that. I just found it hilarious and I have been laughing at it all night.

By Popular Demand

Okay, maybe not popular demand exactly, but I told Michelle about this video and she wanted to see it. That should be good enough for the rest of you losers!! :)

From the Children's Museum . . .

Our Trip

Last Thursday we went to New Orleans to see our friends Doug and Crystal Daspit. The main purpose of the trip was for Jeremy and Doug to go to the LSU / Auburn game on Saturday. But, the girls were out of school Friday through today so we thought we would make a fun weekend of it. We stayed with Doug's mom Thursday and Friday night, who lives less than a mile from Doug and Crystal and graciously offered us her two extra rooms (although the girls ended up on the floor in the same room with us :)).

On Friday, we had a real treat, because Doug took off work and we all got to hang out together. We visited the Louisiana Children's Museum. It was the girls' second trip, but with it being a weekday, there was hardly anyone there. They loved getting a chance at all the exhibits, without having to wait for a turn. I have to admit I loved the "uncrowdedness" myself!

On Saturday, I took the girls to Henderson to see Jeremy's family. We had a wonderful visit. The weather was gorgeous and we sat outside and chatted and sat some more. It was great, and so, so relaxing. Too relaxing, in fact. I don't have a single picture of the girls playing with their cousins, which is terrible. They all get along so well. I cannot get over how little arguing and bickering there is when they all get together. I have to get some good pictures of them all playing together at Thanksgiving to make up for my lack of pics this weekend. I just couldn't make myself get up out of that chair . . .

We were all worn out Sunday (after a very stressful LSU game Saturday night), so I planned on letting the girls sleep in and making a leisurely trip back to New Orleans (with a stop at a neat looking outlet mall on the way). However, Jeremy called me at 9:30 and said that he and I could go to the Saints game FOR FREE if I could get back to New Orleans in time. The game started at 12:00, which did not leave much time, but as a lifelong Saints fan I was not about to let this opportunity pass me by. I almost literally threw the girls in the car with some breakfast and I hopped on the road. I met Jeremy at Doug and Crystal's and we got to the game as quickly as we could. We only missed half of the first quarter and it was SO MUCH FUN! It felt unreal, and now I still can't believe that I was there. The seats were amazing.


It was a huge surprise and a really fun way to end the weekend!

This might be the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen

Here I am. I started this post to keep everyone updated on the girls and this is my second post about this stupid dog. Am I really becoming a dog person?

Sirius follows Jeremy everywhere. He cries when Jeremy goes outside without him. Here he is looking out the window at Jeremy. (He wasn't allowed out on the porch today while it was being painted.)

I don't know which is more ridiculous: this dog or me taking the time to blog about this dog!!!

Daddy's Little Girl

We had a wonderful trip to Louisiana this weekend. We ate so much good food and had really good visits with friends and family. More about that later.

Today, though, I took off work so that Jeremy and I could get the front porch painted. Jeremy and I work really well together around the house. That is due to his being a good and tremendously patient teacher, and does not have anything to do with my handywoman skills. :)

He agreed to let Harper Lee help today and they were so sweet together I just had to snap a few pictures.

Another man in the house . . . finally

Our biggest news lately is that Jeremy finally got another boy in the house. One week ago today Jeremy went to the Humane Society and adopted Sirius Albert Black. He is an extremely sweet dog. The first day he was home alone, however, he tore the plastic around the girls' window a/c and sat on the roof for a bit. Our neighbors, who did not even know we had gotten a dog, were quite confused. They said a few cars even stopped to look at the dog on the roof. I wish I had a picture of it, but I'll just settle for these right now.

Trying to get this blog thing figured out . . .

Just trying to keep everyone updated on our crazy girls!
This is an old video of Liv, but I figured, let's start this thing off right! I figured you can't miss with this hit. Here is the now-famous (in our circle anyway) video of Olivia dancing at the folk music festival we attended in May.