WW - Enjoying Fall

Although winter is officially here (snow this week), we got a chance to enjoy atleast one week of Fall....















For more Wordless Wednesday images, click here and here.

BSM - The Magical Clock

Have I taught Ella how to tell time yet? Not really. We talk about it, but she doesn't get the grasp so much. Its been okay with me though. That way I can put her to bed early if I want and she's none the wiser. Its a win win situation in my eyes. But lately, occurrences are beginning to happen where it appears that her learning to tell time might be a benefit to me instead of a hindrance.

For instance, she has been waking up way to early. I'm talking 530-6am, when Keith gets up for work. Usually, she will crawl into be with me, I will turn on some toons and Keith will get her some dry cereal or something and some juice before he leaves. I can probably manage to stay in bed with her until 730am on a good day at that point until she starts begging for me to get out of bed. Well, when she does it on the weekends too, it just becomes too much.



So this morning, she did her normal routine of rising and shining (while its still dark out) and came into my room. I told her that times were going to change and here were the rules. when she wakes up and it is still dark out, she can either play in her room quietly until it is light outside or she can come and lay in bed with Mommy....quietly....And when the first number on the clock turns to a 7 then we can turn the toons on (and I might get another hour of sleep in bed, heehee).

When she woke up this morning at 615am, 45 minutes was a LONG time for a 4 year old to wait until the first number turned to a seven. But she stared at that clock with fierce intent to make those numbers change. Once the 15 turned to a 16, she patted me on the back and said,

"Mama, that 5 turned into a 6! Did you see that? It was magical!"

It was a long 45 minutes until 7am. Did I get to fall back asleep until then? Nope. But at least we have a base down for our new morning rule.

For more Best Shot Monday images, head over to Tracey's.

TIMBER!

These two trees have been the bain of my husbands existence ever since we built our house almost 8 years ago. When we were clearing the lot, I told them to leave as many trees as possible. Since we live in an older neighborhood, there are many tall and old trees around, which I love. Well, come fall time, these two trees drop not only leaves all over the place, but sticks and full branches that make it a pain in the butt to have to pick up before mowing the lawn. And when a storm comes in, these trees sway all over the place. It wouldn't be far fetched to think that one could fall right onto our garage. It never fails that at least one large branch comes off this tree into our driveway when the winds are just right.

So after years of begging, Keith finally got his way. Not on my giving in though. These trees are like 90 feet tall and cost a pretty penny for someone to take them down. Without going into too many details, we are planning on building an addition on the house in the next year or two and would need for these trees to come down to extend our driveway when the addition goes up. So down they came!





You wouldn't think so, but the way this guy took them down was quite an art in itself. He did not just drop them. They would have fallen into the road and over to the neighbors yards causing lost of damage. Each time he lopped the trunk down, the ground shook. I could feel it in my house. I thought for sure that one time he hit the house, but it was the ground.....On the top of the tree, he wraps the rope around the tree so that it makes a pulley system and his little helper (just a teenage kid, and Keith) would catch the piece and slowly bring it down.




Ella loves the wood pile that has been left over. She wants to climb on it all the time. The other day after painting pumpkins, she told me she wanted to dance and make funny faces. Then she said, "Take pictures of me Mama!" What Mama could resist that? :)

Halloween and BSM

I hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween. I cant wait to go look at every one's posts. We had a great Halloween this year. Hubby took Ella out trick or treating and I stayed home to pass out candy. Hubby even dressed up as Bob the Builder! Unfortunately, they rushed out of the house so quick that I didn't get a shot of him. I contemplated going out with them, but I felt like if everybody took their kid out, who would be home to pass out the candy to the other kids? After talking to a few people, apparently it is doable! I will definitely have to rethink my strategy next year!



Ella was so excited to trick or treat. She practiced for 3 hours before they actually went out.

She would pretend to ring the doorbell, come up to me with her bucket and say "Trick or treat!"

I say, "Oh, what a cute mouse you are!"

She says, "Thank you! Happy Halloween!"

Turns around and walks away. God I just want to gobble her up! ;0)



Candy, candy, candy! She could not wait to come home and show me how much candy she got. I couldnt wait to see what goodies were collected on their travels too! Her favorite is M&M's. I think because we use it as a treat sometimes when she goes to the bathroom by herself, the fact that she could hold a whole bag in her hand and eat it was just way to scrumptous of a reality.


Look at those gooey, chocolatey fingers......





I am calling this last photo my "Best Shot" because the two of them just sat on the floor eating candy for 10-15 minutes while I snapped away. Hopped up on sugar? Can I hear a HELL YA!



To see other BSM's, head over to Tracey's.

Happy Halloween Everyone!

Hope everyone is stocked full of candy and chocolate for all those little monsters and princesses tonight! We finally got around to painting the pumpkins the other day. A few of you mentioned on my Theme Thursday post that Ella's color palette was very good....and that your child would have turned it into an icky color of brown....and believe you me, that's what happened at this house too. I luckily caught her paint plate before everything went bad!

I started to freak out about the paint dripping all over her clothes. But then I thought that it would be my fault for not putting her in clothes that would be appropriate for a 3 year old to paint in....She was just in sweatpants and a sweatshirt. It was one of those moments where I literally decided not to sweat the small stuff. What a refreshing moment. If the paint didn't come out, oh well! Thankfully it did. :)

Growing Up So Fast

Earrings and lip gloss....The begining of my little girls life as a big girl. We clipped these earrings on her and she felt beautiful, she told me. Then she got some lip gloss when hubby bought the movie sleeping beauty. She could spend hours loading and inch thick coat on her lips and still not think it was enough. Then she goes into the bathroll and pulls my hand held mirror out of the drawer and gazes at herself. She is such a girly girl! I have yet to do the makeup thing with her yet so I can take pictures of her....One pretend step at a time, I say, before she grows up too fast!






This means, "Get out of the way Mama before I run you over!"

Best Shot Monday

It was COLD today, but there are still a few things left to pick off the trees. Off to feed the animals again!



Head over to Tracey's to see more BSM.

Cleaning Up the Leaves

Most all of the leaves have fallen off of our trees now, which means its time to play in the leaves....and of course then clean them up. So we let Ella play a few times in the leaves and then she jumped on the tractor to clean them up with Daddy.

We have this little John Deere tractor that we were hoping to use over the summer to cut the grass, but every time we tried to use it, and fix it....it was scalping our yard. Atleast I got my exercise by using the push mower (not sure if a happy face or a sad face should be inserted here...heehee) But Ella loved riding on the tractor and it did have an attachment in the back that rakes up the leaves, so we decided to keep it.

Ella made a pile and started playing the drums. Oh, how I tried getting a good picture of her throwing the leaves in the air....








All these sticks that Ella is picking up belong to two cottonwood trees that have been the bain of my husbands existence for years (more of that to come in a future post). Besides having to pick up dog poop before mowing, picking up all of the branches that fall at this time of the year was a huge pain in the a**, although a great chore for Ella.




Happy Daddy and Ella time. :)