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.