Reese's Letter to Santa. . .

. . . as dictated to Ryan

Dear Santa,

I would like a candy cane and chocolate,

some princess dress-ups,

some dolls,

and some flowers (so I can get married).

Thank you for the presents and

Merry Christmas!!!

-Reese

Heaven help me, it happened again. . .

To those of you who were here for the Poopy Picasso chronicle you can breath a sigh of relief. Fortunately, today's headliner has nothing to do with poop or art. Phew. (Lol- The things you find yourself saying as a parent!) But I will tell you it's not the first time the following scenario has transpired--

While shopping in the produce aisle at our local grocery store, a sweet old woman squeezed passed us to scoop up a handful of green beans and plop them into her plastic sack. She was a little hunched, her features defined and pointed from age, and there may or may not have been a large mole dangling from her chin. I won't comment on the likelyhood of hairs sprouting from the alleged mole, but sufficeth to say I can understand where Reese was coming from when she screamed, in a voice of sheer delight the whole world could hear,

"Mommy, it's a WITCH!"

What to do, what to do.

How was I going to explain to this poor woman that in Reese-speak this was the ultimate compliment?! We watch Sleeping Beauty and the Frog Princess not for pretty girls and dresses, but the dragon and a freaky voodoo man! Despite my repeated attempts to change her mind, Disney villains remain the folks she loves and looks up to the very most; they laugh so much and seem to be having such a great time, how could anyone not want to hang with them? They're the real popular crowd, though momentarily misunderstood. I think she's decided that what they really need is a good friend. I know, I know. Very foreboding for the teenage years.

Anyway, maybe it's because this has happened before and I try to learn from my mistakes, but I could see just how badly this explanation could go and decided it was far better to back away from the spinach and make a run for it. Even if the poor woman did buy it, managing to not take offense at being mistaken for an evil hag, I didn't want to be that mom, the one who fed her child a steady diet of cackles and deception. So I ran away- I'm not really the confrontational type.

Besides, I'd rather eat frozen peas for dinner anyway.

A Blessing

Sammy was blessed by his daddy on November 21st,
the day after one of the men he was named for,
his Great Grandpa Badger
passed away.
It was a beautiful blessing, and a very special day.

Thank you again to all of the family that was able to join us,
and also to Grandma Badger for letting us have it in her home in the midst of having lost Grandpa.

I hope you like pictures, because I'm just going to let them tell the story.

So Happy Together!

Reese loves Sam. . .

Sam loves Reese. . .

Sounds like the beginning of a primary song, right? Well, it's true. On the days that we're not

chasing a giggling, naked three-year-old through the house,

saving Sam from being smothered with love,

searching for earplugs to drown out the 69th encore performance of Hairspray that morning

or

giving up and deciding that Reese actually will end up the only teen wearing pull-ups at the prom. . .

We are, indeed, a happy fam-i-ly!

And here's the proof:

Though Sam looks a little stunned in this pic, he is seriously in love with Reese. As soon as he hears her voice he grins.

You know what they say, the family that naps together, er. . . stays together.

Shoot.

Yep. We like sleep around here.

Hangin' out on the 'green bed' as Reese has affectionately dubbed it. Are we all seeing just how chunky Sam has gotten?! 14 lb 5 oz at his 2 month appointment, people.

How could I not include this shot- it's just so Reese!

And finally, here we are at what is possibly my FAVORITE shot of the two of them. Sam's face just totally cracks me up- if he were older, and knew how, I'd say he was mocking Reese's forced 'picture smiles'.

Oh how I love these two little munchkins- even though I feel like pulling my hair out or leaving the country at the moment. We're making our way through that charming time inevitably following a family visit when life gets back to normal and the kids realize the scads of people waiting in line to cuddle them and tell them they're cute every minute of every day are gone. Chez nous, we call it De-tox Week.

I love my children, I love my children, I love my children. . . ;)

Thanksgiving Snippets

We spent Thanksgiving in Pocatello this year with Grandma Badger and all of Ryan's family. It was an interesting week with Sam's blessing, Grandpa Badger's funeral, and Thanksgiving all rolled into one, but we had a great time with family and it was so fun to have everyone all together!

I know I already posted on Sam's blessing, but I just found this pic, and had thought we didn't have any with Grandma Badger in them. Fun four generation!

These two were completely inseparable- that is, when Reese didn't do something to Meleka that required a time out. But even when that happened, 'Meka' was there waiting when the timer sounded and Reese could resume their games.

Such cuties!

Giggles, princess movies, and snacks- a good time had by all!

I don't know if Sam ever actually woke up the whole trip- he was SO happy to be passed from person to person and just be cuddled.

Meleka was SO excited about Sam. She really liked holding him, and asked to do it pretty much every chance she got. :)

And, er, unfortunately, I have no real pics of Thanksgiving dinner, the turkey, or any of the rest of the festivities, but rest assured that the food was amazing (loved Erin's southern sweetpotatoes!), and a good time was had by all!

Miss Toddler Hairspray!!!

Hairspray has become THE favorite movie for our little three-year-old; singing and dancing with reckless abandon-- what's not to like?

We thought it was adorable to watch her dance right along with Tracy, Seaweed and the others until we found ourselves in Old Navy a few weeks ago. Before we knew it she ran to a stack of green tank tops, pulled them off the shelf, and started swinging them around like a feather boa- belting at the top of her lungs,

"Hey Mama, welcome to the Sixties!!! Oh, oh, oh, oh, ohhhh-oh!"

Tank tops flew, Reese busted a move, and we ran to pick up the mess, weeping tears of laughter.

Here she is (much more shy than normal, being in front of the camera) performing

'Good Morning Baltimore'. . .

*Excuse the nakedness- the only time we could get her to do it was straight out of the bathtub. :)

Oh so Reese!

It seems like everyday for the last few weeks Reese has done something hilarious or way cute that we've promised to ourselves to document. Here goes--

She's all about the getting married lately, and came into our room last week in this getup. She informed us that the striped shirt was her bouquet of flowers.

While out on a Daddy/Daughter date last week she told Ryan all about her wedding:

Booo-tiful flowers, a long veil, Prince Charming, the works. Then she said, "Daddy, can I pleeeeease get married in the temple?"

Oh, alright.

Rolling out molasses cookies with Mommy

It's a serious business.

Reese has become quite the Bugs Bunny fan- something we're a little unsure of since the characters tend to smack each other around, and we now have a defenseless newborn baby to think of.

Anyway, this was the treat she picked out for being good at the grocery store the other day, and ate the whole thing!

What's up Doc?

While I was getting ready the other morning, Reese came running into the bathroom like this,

"I'm just like Mommy!" she cried, and modeled her fat little belly from side to side.

I laughed SO hard!

A day or two before this Reese came in, again while I was getting ready, and said,

"Oh Mommy, you're so boo-ti-ful. Just like Reesey!"