just a few more of my cuties......

this is why old men shouldn't play sports.......

don decided once again this year to play softball. he plays for a parks and recreation league for our city. the team was comprised of mostly twenty-somethings with a few (ahem) old men scattered in. the season was fraught with injuries. one of the young guys on his team was hit by a line drive in the face which resulted in 3 broken facial bones. there were a few other minor injuries throughout the season....most of them incurred by the older, (ahem) more mature men on the team. then on 7/24/07 in one of his last games, don was out in left field and the ball was hit to him. he misjudged it and ran forward to catch it, realized that it was going to go over his head and planted his right foot to stop. he started to turn to run backwards but his planted right foot stayed planted while the rest of his body made the turn. this resulted in what he described as a sickening popping noise and immense pain. this strong, cancer surviving, macho, he-man, sports hero dropped on the spot. he had to be taken off of the field on a golf cart. unfortunately i wasn't at that game but my co-worker was as her (young) boyfriend plays on an opposing team. she happened to see the commotion on the field don was playing on and went over to check it out. she saw him being loaded onto the golf cart and called me. there was no way don was going to be able to drive the car home so i had to have my neighbor drive me to the ball field to retrieve my car and my injured sports hero. he actually had to be driven from the playing field to the parking lot. heh. the above picture is what a torn groin muscle looks like and was taken three days after the injury. and just in case you had any doubt just how macho he really is, he was in the basement weight-lifting the day this picture was taken. he still has the bruise after two weeks although it is fading some. that's my guy.......

sometimes change sucks....

like when don decided to change internet servers from aol to comcast to accommodate his new laptop and wireless setup. in short..i don't like comcast as my new server. maybe it was too easy to use aol because we had that account for so long. comcast is what we are signed up for as our high speed internet, telephone and cable for the house. apparently, blogger doesn't recognize my new email address and password. and changing it was like running around in circles. like everything else in life lately, the emails to try and change over to the new server were automated. you know, like when you call anywhere for anything and you get routed to india and your customer service representative is "jennifer" or "michael" even though they have curiously very thick indian accents. well that is what it was like for me to try and access my blog in the last few weeks. i know some of you have been waiting for me to post, and i apologize for the delay. i found out that i can't upload pictures to the blog and i'm not sure why. if i can't figure it out, i will either switch from blogger to typepad or open a brand new blog in blogger. i plan on working on this tomorrow. so, my friends and family...be patient for a little longer. oh, and tessa is getting cuter by the day and scarlett is so sweet with her and such a helpful big sister. i promise, i will try to get some pictures uploaded. if i have to start another blog, i will let you know.........

edited...i guess i can upload pictures, just differently and one at a time instead of directly from picasa..ah well...here is nanny with tess and scarlett in the most unusual sleeping position i have ever seen her in....more later

scarlett loves her baby sister...

tessa is lucky...not a bit of jealousy toward her from scarlett. she is very protective of tess and is very good at keeping champ from licking her baby sister's face (which he loves to do and we really have to watch him for).
she is so sweet and will let me take pictures of her and tessa whenever i ask her to.
i am loving this pose...a pose that scarlett just did without any direction from me. well, i did clone her feet out of the background because she was sticking them straight up.
and here is one of nonna with my sweet tess, we love her so much.

just a little slide show from yesterday...

we had a litte photo session today...

i have been waiting for 9 months for this moment...a photo session with my new precious granddaughter (that still feels weird to be considered a grandma...for the second time no less)
tessa was so good and photographs so well. we had a mini session in my bedroom and it was a lovely time. shannon had to stop and feed her in the middle of it so we took advantage of that time to get some of her and tessa.

and scarlett burst into the room at one point so i decided to get her in on the action too. i had to convince her to take her shirt off and she wasn't willing until i promised her a popsicle for her cooperation. ahh, the power of bribery...

and you know i have a thing for baby feet.....

so pink, with the perfect little piggies and the adorable wrinkles on the soles..


well now i have a thing for still attached, dried up old umbilical cords.....that look like reese's peanut butter cups.....:)

it really does..click on the picture to make it larger...

one of my favorite things in life.......

is that he will take a walk with his dad and his dog....
and still hold daddy's hand
even at 10 years old.....

they found this little guy stuck to the side of our shed...

i guess it's some kind of tree frog. allison took these pictures of it and found that it had some pretty remarkable markings.
he got a ride on my sunflower globe and on ali's green shirt.
he tried to escape a few times, this was one of those times but it got her this cool shot of it's colorful butt.
he (she) was very small and for the most part really quite content to just hang around on her hand or austen's. very cool little critters we have around here.

poor tessa...

when she was born, the doctor thought that he heard a "pop" and suspected a clavicle fracture. they checked her out and felt that because she had good range of motion and wasn't crying in pain, that she was okay and deferred the xray. shannon however, suspected that something wasn't right and took tess to the doctor yesterday. they sent her for an xray and sure enough, the clavicle was a complete fracture. shannon called me at work sobbing, and told me what happened. she felt so bad that maybe she had aggravated the injury by dressing and holding her wrong, albeit carefully. doctors said to keep the arm immobilized by pinning a long sleeved t-shirt to her shirt at the chest. with the warm july weather she had to become a little more creative so this is the result.
tess is still very content and does not seem to be in any pain.
shannon took the girls to kelly's for a play date and kelly took these pictures. i am having major withdrawls because i have not seen tessa (or scarlett) in 2 days. she still looks like her daddy, especially in this picture. what a doll.

she has changed so much...

in just a short 24 hour period. her face seems to have filled out and her cheeks are fuller. she is so cute and so good. with her little milk mouth and black curls, she is so sweet.
if you look closely in this picture she has a little baby mohawk compliments of daddy. now if i could only think of a way to make it pink...
she is so good, hardly a peep. she is feeding good and sleeping good. shannon feels great, so much better than last time {so she tells me}.
we are in love with her but austen is besotted with her. he wanted to hold her the whole time we were there today and talked to her and kissed her. he is totally in love with her and he and scarlett clamor to be the one to hold her when they are together. he is going to have so much fun when shannon starts babysitting for him after the two week gm shutdown and don is back to work.

this is scarlett when she was born and she is looking more and more like her every day. it should be interesting to see how much they look alike {or different}. time will tell.....

here she is.....

tessa christine...
21 inches long....and wrapped around my finger.....
adored by her new big sister....
and the cutest little thing who looks just like her daddy... and her grandma christine (jason's mom). shannon did very well, once things got started. went from 6 cm. to birthing her in 40 minutes. too bad it took almost 24 hours to get to that point. she went in wednesday night and tessa was born on friday at 12:06 pm. two pushes and she was out. with a fuzzy head of black curls. and is just adorable. congratulations shannon, jason and scarlett and thank you for another adorable granddaughter.

this is it.....

she is going to have a baby tomorrow......
they are going to be a family of four.....
and she can't wait to be the big sister.....

who knew that she was such a tomboy...

such a pretty little thing. you really can dress her up... i had the china tea set before she was even born.
but she will grab her best froggin' friend and...
finds her frog in the pond which she happily showed off to me. we always thought that scarlett would be a princess. tea parties, frou-frou dresses and baby dolls. but not her, no sir...she likes frogs, bugs, snakes, dirt, jeans and ratty t-shirts. you can fix up her hair but soon after she is wiping her falling down hairstyle out of her sweaty face with her dirty, pudgy hands.
does the reverse work??? if she kisses this frog will it turn her into a princess? i don't think so. i guess we'll have to work on her baby sister.

...and even more of my two beauties...

could you just eat them up??

just a few from last night.....

we went over to shannon's for father's day dinner and afterward we did a photo shoot for her. l love the way these pictures turned out. i love the evening light...it makes everything glow.


gotta run to austen's baseball game now....i'll post some more later.

bay sail 2007......

i never had a field trip as good as these kids have them these days. 3 days ago, i went on a field trip with austen's class to bay city to sail in this schooner. i don't think we could have had a more perfect day weather wise. about 83 degrees and not a cloud in the sky.

the kids had so much fun and so did i. we sailed up and back the saginaw river which was not very attractive on the shores. lots and lots of factories and mills that were spewing smoke, steam and god knows what else. but once we got into the bay, it was beautiful. the kids got to raise the sail with the crew once we were in the bay. it was really hard work, but they got to say "heave-ho", in it's correct context, just like pirates. the ride lasted for 2 1/2 hours and for the afternoon we went to a beautiful park in bay city with large shade trees and a playscape for the kids to hang out on.
two drawbridges opened for us and stopped traffic on the bridge. it was a pretty cool trip and i even volunteered my services for next year's 4th grade trip there.
we all got to go to mcdonald's for lunch after the boat trip. you should have seen the faces of the people behind the counter when we strolled in with 27 4th graders and 8 chaperones. eyes as wide as saucers.....like a deer in the headlights. each kid got to order whatever they wanted. imagine 13 orders of chicken selects, 10 orders of chicken mcnugges, chicken wraps, kids meals, salads, 27 orders of fries and on and on. austen's teacher approached the counter to order everything and the kid behind the register looked to be about 16 years old. she asked if there was someone more experienced there but the staff assured her that this kid could handle it.....and he did. the food was done fast and we were out of there in about 45 minutes...great trip and great fun.

baby love.....

i love me some brand new baby skin...so wrinkly and soft. just like a shar-pei puppy.
this is london grace at 9 days old...so sweet and this one looks just like her mamma...who is my friend tina...and she is just too sweet for words. she is a good baby who for the first week home slept 6 hours at night. you can't get much better than that.
she was very cooperative for the photo shoot. awake for most of it and then fell asleep at the end of the shoot. it's nice to have a new neighbor...especially when it is a beautiful little baby girl.



it makes me so anxious for shannon's baby to be born. i went to the doctor's with shannon yesterday. her doctor wanted her to have another ultrasound because her belly is so big. at 37 weeks, the baby is measuring at around 8.5 lbs already and she still has 3 weeks to go. babies generally gain about 1/2 lb per week at this stage so shannon is concerned about another big baby. scarlett was 9 lbs 10 oz and shannon does not want to go throught that again but the nurse practitioner told shannon that they will check her again in 2 weeks. which brings her to 39 weeks. they will not let her go over this time like she did with scarlett. so if she does not go into labor sooner, she will have the baby on or near her due date. she is soooooo ready. hang, in there kiddo.

i guess don is not the only michigan fan in the house....

i came into the kitchen the other morning and saw that champers had absconded with austen's u of m football into his cage....
...hugging it like it was his security blanket...
and not willing to give it up easily...i don't know if i can stand another michigan football fan in the house. don is bad enough and if you are my family or close friends reading this, you know what i mean.

it isn't all fun and games.....

when you are up against the first place team and you let a grounder go through your legs. oooh...he was not happy with himself. austen tends to be pretty intense when he plays and is really very hard on himself when he doesn't play well.. the thing is, he does play well and we have to remind him that every ball isn't a home run or even a hit and every ball fielded isn't a double play or even an out.
he shook it off pretty good and got back into the game.....
but as little league goes, it always keeps you hoppin'.
in a funny side note, the team was asked to vote for two boys on the team to send to an all star team in july. the boys would vote and then the coaches would take that into account and then pick two boys based on the votes and their own recommendations. i asked austen who he voted for...he told me "i voted for myself". geez...did i raise an egotist?? so i went to my neighbor's house (her son nick is on austen's team) and asked nick who he voted for and he said "i voted for myself". i don't feel so bad anymore.....

this was creepy....

on saturday night the neighborhood kids put together a bonfire in our fire pit. they arranged the whole thing and had tables and chairs set up with s'mores and pop and hotdogs. they were so cute.

but the weather turned pretty ugly at the end and this was what we saw above us. it turned out to be pretty tame though, no big thunderboomers and just a tiny bit of lightening

he got the game ball with this hit.....

after each game, the coach awards the game ball to the player who did an outstanding job during that particular game. this one was a triple and austen runs so fast that when he slid into 3rd base he overslid and had to double back...
he made it, though and was safe... and just so pleased with himself. he was named in our local paper for this game and got a big kick out of that. we have had lots and lots of baseball around here. austen has games every wednesday night and saturday. don is playing softball on tuesday nights and so our weeknights are pretty full. we enjoy it though and austen's friend nick is on his team so that makes it doubly fun. austen has a great field trip coming up next week that i am going on with him. we go to bay city and sail on a huge boat. they call it "the bay sail" and i can't wait. i will be sure to post pictures about that trip. last week we went on another field trip to the flint county courthouse and jail. his class got to sit in the juror's box and watch actual court cases. prisoners being brought into court in orange jumpsuits and chains. policemen being cross examined in the witness chair. a young man being sentenced to 2 years in the county jail for drug possession and use. lawyers...judges....defendants...the whole shebang. we then took the bus to the county jail and got a tour of that facility. lots and lots of cold, hard surfaces...hard chairs, metal doors, clanking and echoing noises all of the time. tiny cots with thin mattresses. the kids didn't seem too fazed by this until i mentioned to them as we watched the security monitors that looked directly into the prisoners rooms that they had to go to the bathroom...every time....with someone watching them...pee and poo. no privacy. most of the kids stared at me in disbelief when i mentioned this and then a slight realization came over them. i heard lots of ugh's and eeeeww's and yuck's....we were going to actually go into the common areas while the prisoners were in lockdown but the jail was over crowded and they could not lock everyone down while we were there. i would have liked them to see the people in the cells close up instead of just behind the glass like we ended up doing. in the end, i hope that that tour of the jail will deter at least my kid from any kind of life of crime.

what's been happening since mother's day...

lots around here. first of all, mom, here is a picture of scarlett, sorry i've been so lame about posting. this was taken at one of austen's baseball games. she is such a cutie. more of her later.



this was a very interesting day about 2 weeks ago. my neighbor has a friend who is a makeup artist. she knew of a production company who wanted to make a movie about a child who had no sense of touch, she could not feel pain. it is based on a true story and they needed a young, blond toddler to play the girl as a one year old. so eden was picked. she had to have makeup done on her forehead to resemble a burn and none of us thought eden would sit still long enough to let her do it.
turns out we were wrong....as long as the makeup artist chased her around her playroom and did most of the makeup while eden was on her rocking horse watching the backyardigans on tv.
this is the after make-up job. the production company filmed a small trailer for the movie at my neighbor's house that showed eden supposedly pulling a hot iron down on her head. this is the burn mark when she was finished. i was over at tina's house taking pictures while they were setting up and doing all of the filming. it was pretty interesting. this trailer is really a storyboard that the production company is presenting to the film makers. it will be called "touch" and they told me that they would send me a video of the docudrama if it gets developed.

happy mother's day.....

may you have a very restful and peace filled day....

we got a letter from the grand blanc optimist club last week.....

it was addressed to the parents of austen mandernach and it said that his teacher had nominated him to be honored at the Grand Blanc Optimist Club 2nd Annual Youth Appreciation Night on May 9th. we were surprised and a little unsure of what this was. i asked austen if his teacher had talked to him about this and how many kids from his class had been nominated and he told me that it was just him....when i asked him why, he told me that it was because he was most improved in his class. we were thrilled to hear that because he has worked so hard this year.
he was one of 14 kids nominated from 8 schools in his school district. it was held at the senior center in town and there was a dessert reception.
he got a name tag and a special award certificate...
and his teacher got on stage with him and talked about how hard austen has worked and improved his grades this year and what a wonderful kid he was to have in class..he just stood on that stage and beamed...we could tell that he was very proud of himself (as he should be) and we are so proud of all of his hard work too. good job boog....

more maternity pics....

i just love doing these shoots....pregnancy is such a happy time. tina trains me (to lose weight) and has about 3 weeks to go before she has her next little girl. we tried to get the pictures done a couple of weeks ago but tina became very ill and we had to reschedule for this past sunday. i love these pictures and and we had fun doing them. her daughter eden was less than cooperative and unfortunately i didn't get any of her kissing mama's tummy, but we did get a few family shots.
we got these fun poses and she was game for anything.
i had trouble keeping her awake, though...i guess that is a good sign that she was really relaxed and comfortable. :)

every pregnant woman should look this wonderful at 37 weeks...

the boys of summer are back...

it's baseball season once again. and this time, they mean business. you bat until you get a hit, get a walk or strike out. 5 innings or two hours, whichever comes first. this was his first scrimmage, from last thursday.... and he got to play catcher for a couple of innings. even though he never played that position before he did really well. he got a triple, too.

and he didn't let one ball get by him....well almost... champ loves to go out to the ballpark too. although he is more interested in the other dogs there than in cheering austen on....and he is just a tiny bit humiliated by having to be tied to the fence....

if we do anything right in this family.......

we grow good looking kids...
samantha, at 12 going on 22......
and allison, 15 going on 16....
both incredibly beautiful...it's scary, really, just how fast they are growing up. it almost takes my breath away...

she is just about 30 weeks now...

the time is flying by...for her and for us.
she revels in her pregnancy....
feels good...
is so incredibly beautiful.....

and just glows.....

i spent last weekend getting my degree in.....

scrapbooking arts....no kidding....A Bachelor of Scrapbooking Arts. at the dearborn hyatt regency...at creating keepsakes university. a real degree with a mortarboard and a diploma and everything..(including tuition$$$). i went with my friend and hairdresser lianne shown with me as we show off our diplomas. we went from thursday to saturday and had a blast. three days of scrapbooking classes, shopping, crops and meeting up and reconnecting with old friends. we took classes like digital scrapbooking, photography, wicked scrapbooking techniques, etc.

i saw some old friends, some of whom i didn't expect to see....like allison who i met two years ago in wisconsin at a scrapbooking event. how fun it was to see her again. and ali edwards....whom i've met a few times and it is always great to see her too. love ya, girlie...our hotel room was very nice but in a perpetual state of chaos the entire weekend. we just kept collecting more stuff. every class we went to we got more stuff. every store we went to we got more stuff. and when i packed the car to go home, i had way more stuff than i left home with....but that's okay...in fact it was good. but what is up with hotel rooms and their price gouging........... c'mon...$5.00 for a bottle of water??? good thing there was a target and a grocery store nearby. we bought our own dang water. at least it was a very quiet hotel, probably the quietest i have ever slept in. and clean....i didn't get too creeped out about germs in this room.
i guess i should have gotten a picture of the room after housekeeping got through with it. it was really nice. i want to thank my wonderful husband for agreeing to shell out the $600.00 it cost me for this wonderful weekend of fun (and schooling) after all, i did earn a degree..........

oh, but they're weird and they're wonderful.....

we had dinner at ci ci's pizza today, a new little pizza buffet in town. the food is good, about 12 different types of pizza from cheese and pepperoni - to chicken mushroom and buffalo chicken to spinach alfredo. it's really good and we though we'd take austen and allison there after going to home depot for paint for the new den.

my hairdo is thanks to the extreme wind we had today....but at least we had sunshine the entire day. after snow for the past week...even if it's cold at least it is easier to bear with the sun beating through the windows. while walking my food to the table, i looked outside and saw this pink mohawk walk by the window. it took me a couple of seconds to decide if i wanted to do it but i bolted out the door and chased him down the walkway. there was an older man walking slightly behind him and i wasn't sure that they were together but i approached this young man and asked him if i could take his picture. the older man asked me why i wanted to do this and i told him that i was doing a documentary of a week in my life for a scrapbooking project and told the young man that i thought he looked awesome. i loved his pink mohawk and i told him so. he seemed so surprised that someone told him he looked awesome and i don't think that his dad (which the older man turned out to be) had ever heard that either. he told me though, that they were proud of his individuality, although from the way that he was walking behind his son, somehow i don't know if that was exactly the case...

he happily posed for me though.....and i got these great pictures.

ever the photographer, i had him pose for me in so i could see all of him...he ended coming in to ci ci's with his dad and grandparents to eat and as we were leaving, i thanked him again for the pictures...i never saw such a big smile.....

this boy.....

got one A, four B's and one C on his report card this semester. we couldn't possibly be more proud of this great kid. he has come so incredibly far this year. last year we had actually talked of holding him back in third grade because of his progress (or lack thereof) in school. he was doing terrible and was working at a second grade level or lower in most of his subjects. he hated getting up in the morning and would whine and tell me he didn't want to go to school. he was frustrated when it came time to do his homework and he would lay his head down on the table and sob. he was required to read for 20 minutes every night and we made him read out loud to us. his face would get red and his eyes would start tearing up and usually would collapse in a heap because he just couldn't read.

teacher conferences were a nightmare. grades going down every semester and she told us of lack of participation from austen. it spilled over into his home life as he was so unfocused that asking him to simply clean his room brought a torrent of tears and temper. his teacher finally asked us to have austen tested for ADD. we did this toward the end of third grade and after months of waiting (and through the summer) we finally got a call from the school social worker who informed us that austen did indeed have ADD. we got this news about two weeks into his fourth grade school year. i took him to our doctor who started him on concerta for the ADD. we decided not to tell his fourth grade teacher that we had started the medication as we wanted to see if there would be any difference in his school work. about 4 weeks later we had his first teacher conference. while we were waiting for the parents ahead of us to finish their turn, my stomach was sick. i felt for sure that there was going to be no change and he was just going to struggle through the rest of his educational career. but when we walked in the room, his teacher greeted us with "i cannot believe the change in your son over the past month". i almost started sobbing with relief. we let her know that had started on concerta over that last month and she told us that he was on the perfect dose...not sleepy or lethargic and had a healthy appetite. she told us that he was participating in every aspect of the day. he volunteered to read to the class and raised his hand when she asked questions of the kids. this also spilled over into his home life as he readily reads to us daily and can clean is room in 10 minutes flat (without crying). he comes home from school and doesn't need to be told to get started on his homework, he just does it. and he gets good grades to boot. he still struggles in math some but we are working on that. we had a conference with his teacher last week and she tells us that he continues to improve in all of his subjects. we are beyond relieved....and so proud of our son.....

science fair time

last week was austen's science fair. he and daddy decided to do a really cool project, a levitating train which glided (is that a word??) over the magnetic tracks as the magnets repelled each other. you can see in this image that the "car" is actually floating. it was pretty cool.

daddy helped austen build the box using wood and plexiglass and austen actually did a lot of the cutting and nailing as well as painting.
we had to do a display board and i had austen do all of the typing so i could edit it for him. he arranged and pasted the pages and pictures on the board (with a little help from mom). this is what it looked like when he took it to school. we were very proud of him and for all of his hard work and research he did on this project.


final grade---A+

just a few pictures from yesterday......

we kept scarlett saturday night and sunday, i had the chance to take some long overdue pictures of her. she was pretty cooperative considering she is a 3 year old and i got some really pretty pictures of her.
i can't believe how big she is getting....not to mention how mature she seems to be. she is starting to lose her baby look and is starting to look like a kindergardener. she is such a joy and we are so excited to see her little sister in a few months.
she is excited too and talks about it all the time. she has taken to carrying a baby doll around now...good practice for later.
of course, i couldn't leave out a picture of my handsome boy who will be in the double digits this summer (10 years old). i can hardly believe that it has been ten years already. he is so athletic, so sweet and nice, still doesn't listen too well, but i think that is a kid thing, and we just love him to death. scarlett loves him too and he is so good with her. he started a new season of flag football and this time nick is playing on his team. his athletic abilities have really blossomed this year and he is quite agile. we keep him pretty busy with soccer, football, baseball and schoolwork. he is improving in all of these things. good job bubby... 

someone had a birthday.......

and i dragged her 45 minutes south to our favorite scrapbook store and to el charro restaurant (yum) for lunch. boy, i miss that place. then i dragged her to fort fraser, a fabulous huge wooden playscape around the corner from the restaurant for some birthday photos.
she gamely slid down the slide and swung on the swing for me so i could get these great shots. we froze and her nose got a little red by the end of the shoot.

but we had fun and i just want you to remember that "age is just a number" and "you are only as old as you feel"....even in the dead of winter with your butt plastered to a freezing cold swing seat. thanks, laura, for being such a great sport. and happy birthday, my friend....... and i didn't even mention how old, i mean young, you are...


pssst...36 ;) 

a little more history on fort fraser.....

i was still pregnant with austen when we found out that this huge playscape would be built in our old hometown of fraser. they spent months collecting money and donations for this project. when austen was about 3 months old they got to work. in one week, this project was started and finished, sort of an extreme park makeover, but without ty pennington and his crew. but we did have don mandernach, though who worked on it every night after work. he would haul his tools to the site and work for hours so we could have this wonderful park for the kids.
and one of the fundraisers included selling slats for the fencing. we had two of them, this one and one just for aubrey. in the two years after this was built and before we moved, this was our playground. austen and i came here almost every day in the summertime. lots of mammas and lots of kids for austen to play with. i didn't realize how much i missed this place until we went here today. there is nothing like this around here for the kids. a couple of nice parks and playgrounds, but nothing that daddy helped build. 

who do these darling tights belong to???....

who else. sometimes the best part of having little girls is the fun and funky clothes that we get to dress them in. think about it...the boy section of the children's clothing store is two aisles big, the rest of the entire store is dedicated to girls and their girly fun clothes.
who could resist these tights. and better yet, on clearance at target. and these are the least cute of the three pairs shannon bought for scarlett....and because she is having another girl, they get double use. i just love these yummy legs....all dolled up in funky flowers and stripes.
i think she likes them too... 

i need to remember to do this....

on a daily basis. 

what!!!!..it's the new style for boys....

most of the boys in upper elementary and junior high are wearing their hair longer now. but when this came downstairs the other day...i had my doubts about this hairstyle. it usually looks this way the morning after his bedtime shower. whoa...it usually takes a dousing in the kitchen sink with a quick style with the blowdryer. but then i am rewarded with
this little cutie. mega freckles and all.

and a hairstyle that is a little bit more manageable.
no wonder the girls at school are after him. we love you, boog.





in other news, we have been watching the american idol show this year, for the first time. we usually just watch the beginning when they have all of the crazies and clueless wannabees sniffing around for their 7.5 minutes of fame. but we are enjoying it this year...and don is actually watching it with us. neither he nor i are big reality show watchers (actually not at all) but we really seem like this. the weather finally took a turn for the better the last few days and it isn't so bitter cold. it got into the 40's yesterday and i actually saw someone in shorts. oh well, gotta love michigan.

its a............

......nother girl!!!!! we are all so excited for scarlett to have a little sister. she, however, was certain that she was having a little brother and was a little confused when we told her that there was a baby girl in mamma's tummy. poor jason, he really wanted to have a little boy this time, but shannon, like her mamma, had two girls first. oh well, jason...there is always next time. ;)
scarlett loves mamma's belly and kisses the baby in there all of the time.
it will be so exciting to see what this baby will look like. blue eyes like shannon and scarlett or hazely green brown like jason's?? blond hair or dark like daddy's??? happy baby like scarlett or difficult baby??? the due date was moved back from july 4th to june 29 based on the ultrasound measurements. and speaking of the ultrasound...the tech was 90% sure that this one is going to be a girl. i think jason is going to hold out for the 10%...just to shift the balance of testosterone in the house.
whatever the baby really turns out to be...i'm sure that it {she}will be as wonderful as scarlett is. we love her so much. and shannon and jason are great parents and will have so much love to give this next little one. just look at them...beautiful mother and daughter. 

"the big chill".......

that was the title of austen's winter concert tonight. all of the songs related to "snow days" and how the kids long for them every year, "even if we have to make them up in june" as one of the songs went. they were all so cute, dressed in their sunday best.

lots of dancing and action with the singing. i was amazed at how good and in key the fourth grade sounded. they must have a wonderful music teacher. everyone knew their lines, the songs and the gestures.

austen, however, always manages to take things to the extreme with his class clown tendencies.
we really enjoyed this concert. short and sweet and the kids are still so cute at 9 & 10 years old. 

guns.......

that's what austen calls them..."mom, you have to take a picture of my guns"
he was more than happy to show off his muscles since he has been playing football. he was in a goofy mood the other night and ripped his shirt off to flex for me.
he told me that he has "four-pack abs" and just needs two more for a "six pack".....i told him he couldn't be considered "too manly" with his zipper hanging open....




i guess he takes after his dad.....:) 

scenes from an ice storm.....

we didn't just get winter gradually this year. it hit us like a ton of bricks. we had very warm weather all through the holidays...to the point of trees budding and crocus shoots starting. but this past week winter started off with a small bang...namely, a rather mild ice storm.
i love this picture...if you look closely in the middle of the picture you will see a very tiny but perfectly shaped snowflake. i think this is amazing. how lucky to capture this.
i bet you'll never guess what this is a picture of...give up yet? it is a water meter.
i love the way the leaf is enclosed in the ice. nature is amazing. 

they say pregnant women glow.....

they are right......
she glows...

more and more each day...














you are beautiful. 

can you just see the attitude in this face?......

so sweet, so lovely, so wonderful. a face that belies her personality. she is so like her mother was at that age, tall, smart and beautiful...and she is so unlike her mother was at that age, strong willed, sassy and bossy. she has complete control over champ and he cowers when she comes near him. if he touches one of her stuffed animals, she will yell at him "NO CHAMPERS" and drags him by the collar over and into his cage. we love her beyond life. thank you shannon and jason for giving us this exquisite gift.