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We've been too busy living life to blog about it - so I'll try to catch up a little. Because, afterall, this is what MOST normal people do at 1am on a school night, when there is a big pile of work to be done, right?

Just in case you’ve been sitting home, waiting by your computer, thinking, “I wish I could have seen a REAL LIVE PRINCESS” on Halloween….we don’t want to disappoint. J

Here is our very own Sleeping Beauty. She was the perfect princess….and had SUCH a great time. This was the first year that she “got” Trick or Treating. And at every house, after she got her ‘treat’, she curtsied like a real princess, because that is how a princess says ‘Thank You”. Then she’d run back down the walk yelling “Have a Happy Halloween!!!” She had a blast…and a very heavy bucket when we got home. J Then we had a fun dinner, ate candy, gave treats to all of the “trick or treaters” and watched the Charlie Brown Halloween movie. Fun times!

So….here she is. For the record, she did turn back into a pumpkin this morning (sorry – mixed Princess metaphors) – and a grouchy one at that. J Hope you all had a great day too!

I swear, we couldn’t make this stuff up if we tried. Anna and I went to the Dollar Store today and bought a whole bunch of coloring books for the kids to play with at Schmittoberfest tomorrow. I was tearing out all of the individual pages when I came across this picture. I did a double take and then held it up for other opinions. We all came to the same conclusion independently…it looks like My Little Pony Target Practice! Maybe this is why it make the Dollar Store cut? Hahaha

9 years ago today I married my best friend, the love of my life, the most amazing, wonderful man in the whole wide world. Our wedding favors said this:

Today I married my best friend...
The one I laugh with..
Live for...
Dream with...
Love.

So true. We're pretty darned blessed to have the marriage, and the relationship, that we do. We like each other, love each other, laugh with each other (and sometimes at each other), respect each other, have fun with each other. If I had it to do allllll over again...I wouldn't change a thing.

Ich liebe dich, immer, Sweetie!!!

It's been awhile since I've blogged. The start of pre-school heralded the arrival of the perpetual illness. Anna-cold. Me-cold. Mom-cold. Mom-pneumonia. Me-another cold. Anna-ear infection. Me-bronchitis & walking pneumonia'. Then, just for kicks - Me *AND* Anna - stomach bug everywhere. Ugh! Hopefully we'll be on the mend soon.

I had to note this conversation from last night before I forget though....Anna is SO funny.

So, Anna was playing with some 'sand toys' in the bathtub, and decided she wanted them to sleep with her. No biggie. So, she took the blue dolphin, yellow walrus and the pink sea horse to bed when we were tucking her in. I started to "lecture" her that her sand toys would only be able to stay in bed if they don't keep her awake. If she goes to sleep, they can stay, but if she is playing with them and they keep her awake, then....

At this point she interrupted me and said,

"Actually, Mommy, I think it's your talking that is keeping me awake."

We both had to make a quick exit before she saw us laughing. What a riot.

Almost as much as I love the little girl. It makes me smile to look at it. It is just so 'her'...when she is feeling sweet. She also has "the mischevious", "the attitude", "the silly" and "the frown" down pat these days...but she's always a joy. We are so very, VERY blessed to have this little girl. And I pray every day that we make good choices for her, and that she has as wonderful a childhood as she deserves. And I pray that God will always be a part of her life, and that she finds her own path with Him. What a gift she is.

My family and I just got to do a baby shower for my cousin. It was so fun. It's exciting to have another baby coming into the family! This is Anna's second cousin (Avery was her first) and we are all very excited. So, here are a few pics from the shower...mostly of my latest cake, and our pretty little girl. It was a 22 hour labor (no pun intended) of love. I wasn't thrilled with all of it, but overall, it turned out OK. I think my cousin was happy, and that she felt special and pampered on her day - and THAT is what mattered most to all of us.

This is the final installment of this one for now....we need to move back to BIG projects again!

We did the linen closet in the bathroom last week too. We previously had a linen closet in the hallway. But I thought it would make the hallway seem more open and less cluttered to wall off where the door USED to be, and put the doors in the bathroom instead. After all, it is all bathroom stuff that we access in there anyway.

So, we framed up the wall over the door. Then, Curtis had the great idea to use the prefabbed cabinets in there, since we were going to have to buy the doors from them anyway to make them match our existing vanity. So we worked and scratched our heads and finally figured out a configuration of cabinets that would A) fit the space and B) be in stock, so we didn't have to wait for a special order. We got them all in (after some additional creative framing) and it looks awesome!

Once we get the linen closet stuff put back away, we'll have SO much more space than we did. I can't wait!

The Back Step:

We have had only one entrance to and from our house since we started working on removing the back step. So, Curtis built our new steps leading from the kitchen so we could have our yard back. I LOVE them! We built them from that synthetic decking, Trex. No maintenance, splinters, wear, etc. It looks awesome. And we made them a cool deign, instead of just boring straight steps.

We have been wrapping up a lot of LITTLE projects lately; things that seem to go slow for their relative size and scale, but fortunately make a BIG difference in our ability to LIVE in this mess.

Project #1: The kitchen pantry.
Our one, small, kitchen pantry got deeper in the remodel, to accommodate the hallway wall. But, in the meantime, we had to empty it, which means we haven't seen our kitchen nook for several months now. My mom had the bright idea to go ahead and finish that now, so that we could get our kitchen back - because the rest was pretty much unchanged. BRILLIANT! So, we moved the electrical that ran through it, finished framing, drywalled and taped.

Then Curtis had a business trip for a few days. I told him that I might try to build the shelves for it while he was gone, and he LAUGHED AT ME. (OK, in his defense, the shelves had to be cut from a full sheet of 3/4" plywood, that SHOULD have been done on the table saw, not with the skill saw. He said he was envisioning me trying to maneuver THAT on my own, which, would have been VERY funny.)

Anyway, I DID IT!! I cut all of the shelves myself (relatively straight even). Cut the supports. Mounted them all and covered all of the shelving. Voila! We have our pantry! My mom came over and helped me organize and clean. It was SO good to have a functioning kitchen again! I owe it all to Curtis and my dad anyway for teaching me everything I know about power tools and woodworking. (Which actually isn't THAT much - but enough to get the job done, huh?!)

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