A butterfly hovers closely

A butterfly hovers closely
And then quickly moves away,
Swiftly going wheresoever
Her heart may freely say.

A butterfly lowers and rises
With the wind's gusty breath,
As if coupled within a dance
Of a loving tenderness.

The butterfly only knows
How it feels to have wings,
To kiss the petals of flowers
In such elegant flitterings.

To have but one moment
Of such an esquisite flight,
Would be like a dream
Where all seems so right.

Author Unknown


The butterfly exhibit was beautiful. I recommend it to anyone. The butterflies landed on our shoulders and hair and flew around so freely.

What a wonderful Christmas it was

To all of you, I hope you all had a Merry Christmas. We had a wonderful one here filled with family, laughter, chicken and noodles, cookies, presents, Skype, visit to the park to play, t-ball with the family, and an hour of reading our new stories at bedtime. The house was torn up from the mess. I know that Bud couldn't stand the sight of it for the entire day. But, he put on a smile and just left it alone. Faith loved her presents. By far I think her favorite was a new soft blanket and a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse leggo set full of three characters and the slide and all. She enjoyed playing t-ball. I think that Bud will enjoy it more. As we layed in bed last night he said, "I can't wait to teach her how to play t-ball." It is a boy thing. He played baseball for the longest time and to think that he could help his daughter learn what he loved so much was just what he wanted. Nothing else could do. Just to be able to teach her something he enjoys. As for today, we are off to the city. We excited to go to the Smithsonian's National Museum of History along with a visit to the butterfly exhibit. Pictures to follow tomorrow.

Fröhliche Weihnachten!

That is how you say Merry Christmas in German. Faith is quite the star pupil in her class as she was chosen to say this special greeting to the entire Rainbow Station Christmas concert audience by herself. Not an ounce of shyness that sometimes surfaces; not an ounce of quietness, she spoke it as loud as she could for all to hear. She could say it the best out of all her friends, that is why her teacher chose her. She was dressed so beautiful in her Christmas dress and little red bow in her hair. She shook her jingle bells to the tune of We Wish You a Merry Christmas with all her friends. I found myself one of those moms at their child's recital of some sort. I was so proud.

The first present

It has arrived. The first present under the tree and Faith has officially claimed it. Each year we get her a book for her library since she loves to read. This year it will be a collection of Hans Christian Anderson fairy tales. She loved Grace's Bedtime Stories collection that Bud decided to get her a shorter version. I didn't think that at her age she would ever just sit and listen before bed to a story without pictures. However her new favorites are the Pooh Animal Encyclopedia and the Bedtime Stories collection. I can't believe that Christmas is one week away. I'm excited to see Faith's spirit come alive with giving. She is making presents this year. What will you get?

Read to your bunny often

It's twenty minutes of moonlight...it's twenty minutes brand new....read to your bunny often and your bunny will read to you. I remember this story and thinking that the day would come when Faith would pull out her books and read me a story to go to bed. The day has come. Tonight the story was Pooh's Leaf Pile. As she told me to get into bed and lay with Lamby, she opened up her book and began on page two. "Crunch, crunch. What is that loud noise? said piglet. Where have all the leaves gone on the trees? She turned a few more pages. With much excitement in her voice she said, "Oh no! Now we have a big mess, said Rabbit. Maybe we should do something not so messy." She continued on. "Let's use the leaves to make crafts. We will glue them onto some paper. Will we use our handprint. No we will not. We will make crafts." As she continued on through the other pages I realized that she loves reading and when sometimes I find myself just not wanting to read, I need to put a smile on my face and be thankful that she has come this far. She has her books memorized and she has shown me tonight her love for them. At school I have realized that she often sits alone and reads by herself in the morning. She is often reading when I pick her up from school. So thank you mom for teaching me the importance of reading to my child. And now my bunny is reading to me.

Breakfast with Santa

Yesterday we woke up early and headed off to a small historic town up the road to have a holiday breakfast with Santa. We waited in line for a while before we caught sight of the man in the big red suit. Faith was excited. Her eyes much reminded me of Grace's at Thanksgiving when she saw Santa arrive into town in his carriage. She smiled from ear to ear and asked Bud to lift her up so she could see. A breakfast filled with eggs, pancakes, sausage, fruit and cinnamon rolls. It was good. Then we headed to line to get pictures with Santa. She did great. Wasn't scared at all. She gave the lady her ticket and then walked over to Santa's lap like she had seen the other children do. She told him what she wanted for Christmas, how old she was, and that she had been very good this year. She was so excited to get a gift from Santa. Of course, that will go in her stocking for Christmas and she will have to wait for Christmas morning. Christmas just seemed to get better this year as we see the spirit of Christmas shine through the children.

Ahhh....the spirit of Christmas has arrived

The sound of the Salvation Army kettle bells ringing. The music that fills the air wherever you go. The smiles on peoples faces. The houses all lit up. The trees sparkling. The children's voices singing. The happiness in my heart knowing that my family is coming for Christmas. This morning I told Faith her Andma was coming to see her for Christmas. She said, "yeah, and maybe she is bringing Santa with her." I hope she doesn't think that Santa is staying here for the week. We are all going to have breakfast with Santa on Saturday and then have pictures taken, hayrides through a historic town and then off to the hunt parade filled with over 100 hound dogs and riders. I am excited as I see our house become filled with the joy that only the holidays bring. Faith just told me that princesses don't typeon the computer so I should go play with her.

A thankful Thanksgiving

I loved having family down from the Secret House this last week. We were able to spend alot of time to together which is something that I really needed. Bud and I were even able to get a night alone for date night. Thanks Forte and Carl. That only happens when family comes down. Faith and Grace loved playing together. Dressup, puzzles, painting, you name it. The highlight of the week was by far the holiday parade. Although quite cold the Starbucks line was right behind us. Well worth the 20minute line. Grace loved her sucker she recieved at the beginning of the parade and all of a sudden she forgot how cold she was when she tasted it. Here are some pictures of the week.

Happy Thanksgiving

My grandma's famous stuffing is smelling up the house and memories are filling the air. I love stuffing and I love Thanksgiving. It is early. Everyone is still sleeping; much like my house when I was little. Mom wakes up early to start the stuffing and turkey and everyone slowly wakes up to the smell of sweet goodness. Thanksgiving time is such a great time to just sit back and realize how thankful we really should be each day. As Grace and Faith run and play through the house I see what a good big sister that Faith will turn out to be next year and what a great cousin Grace is to Faith. This Thanksgiving will be different. I am cooking and mom is not. The tradition lives on. Green bean casserole, crescent rolls, cranberrry sauce and grandma's famous stuffing. Although the church is the gathering place this year, may everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving and may we all get stuffed like a turkey.

She takes after her mom

Scrapbooking is a joy for me to do. I love throwing paper on the floor knowing that it is ok if the entire area is covered. I am scrapbooking; it is messy. Faith has a crafty side to her also. She loves cutting, glueing, painting, coloring, drawing, sticker sticking. You name it, she loves crafts. The other day I had all my pictures out trying to update my books and she decided she was going to help out. She got her own cardstock out with the glue and continued to glue piece upon piece until she had 15 pieces of paper stacked on top of each other. She then took the stickers and placed them where she wanted. She had purchased some princess ones of her own. It was a joy to spend that time with her doing something that I love so much.

Movie and popcorn

So we decided to ditch the cleaning today and cuddle up on the couch for a good movie. We went to the movie store this morning to find a good one. Faith picked out Piglet's Big Movie. It was so cute. She enjoyed her buttery popcorn and lemonade and paid attention to most all of it. I love the longer attention span these days.

Where has November went?

I know that the holiday time flies by but I just realized that today is Friday and next week we only have school three days. Then my family will be here. Yeah!! This last week has been crazy with meetings and working late. I have been having morning sickness when I come home in the evening time which makes computer or family time the pits. The nauseous feeling will pass soon and then maybe I will feel better. Faith is doing fine now. She was sick yesterday and spent the day in Get Well with the nurse. Woke up at 5:30am vomitting. But she played as hard as she ever has last night running and jumping into Bud's arms or maneuvering through my legs. I guess that is what we get for having her in a single room yesterday for majority of the school day. She had many things to play with including a new kitchen, puzzles, books and movies but she was ready to get her energy out. We will spend the weekend getting ready for the big dinner next week. Sometimes I think it would be easier to do Thanksgiving here. The girls could sit at the picnic table by the big table. Otherwise I found out all my dishes have to be prepared for 30 people. Man, that is a lot of food. The goal of having it all together was to decrease the amount of stress from preparation.

Be a good listener

Faith has caught onto that saying, "Be a good listener." She has caught onto it so much she is now telling her toys and food to be a good listener. I have over heard her talking to her babies in which she tells them they are going to time out or not going to the park because they are not being a good listener. She told her toy pig he could not play with the others in the shaving cream yesterday because he was not listening. Tonight, it was her peas. Yes, her peas. Some of them were rolling over her plate out of their correct place and she could not eat them. She told them that if they would not be a good listener and stay where they belong she would eat them. So she did just that along with the full sound effects of crunch crunch crunch as loud as she could get. I think about a two year old's mind and wonder if I was ever as cute as she was. Sometimes I just look at Bud and smile because she is just so wonderfully amazing and enjoyable.

The beautiful horses

With the three new horses living here we are all just as excited as can be. When T, our neighbor, called yesterday and said Faith can ride Teddy we hurried home from the store. She quickly got her shoes on and as we opened the front door, there was Teddy waiting for her. She hopped up there with T and rode around the back yard a few times. She had so much fun. Hurry, Grace, you have see these horses. Maybe we can all ride them at Thanksgiving time.

Monkey toes

Today as Faith and I drove home from the birthday party I realized that she has the family toes. I know Carl, Pa Pa, and I all use our toes to pick things up or do things that we are too lazy to do with our hands. Well as we drove home she asked for some fresh air in the back seat. So I rolled her window down and to my surprise the window seemed to magically go back up. She had taken off her shoes and socks and was using her big toe to roll up her window from her carseat. She started to laugh when I asked if she used her toes. That's my girl! When all else fails, use your toes. I remember Carl pulling my hair with his toes when I was little. I remember Pa Pa pulling my leg hairs with his toes or pinching my arms as we layed on the couch together. Oh, the toes. I'm glad that they have been passed on.

A new day

As November 5 came I was excited to awake that morning at 430am just to get on the internet to see the presidential results. As I was hoping for Obama, Bud was hoping for the other. His views are similar to McCain as he does not want more government, is pro-life and a veteran. However as I continued to research Obama I realized that his views were more what I believed. I believed that a man of different race would be able to change the country. It was just what we were in need of. As I tried to keep my eyes open as long as I could on election night I dozed off. However I opened my eyes just long enough to see that Obama had won Ohio and was ahead in Florida. It was at that very moment that I realized he was going to change the way Americans felt about politics. Those people who had been hard Republicans realized that the better of the country would be in the hands of a Democrat. It is also my desire that he may be a strong leader in the next 4 years. That his name will be a name that Faith begins to know. That he is from my home state too. That she will remember going to the poles to vote with her mommy. She will have her "I voted" sticker and her Obama 08 sticker that she wore to school for a keepsake. I agree, we all need a new bumper sticker just like Forte said. I found one that said, "Practice saying it: President Obama" or try this one, "I voted for that one."

Two and counting

Brooklyn is learning quite fast these days. She is very eager to try new things. I am working on number recognition with her. Although one day she may know all her numbers the next day she may only pick up a handful of them. All in all, she does a wonderful job. She is learning to count objects. With Autumn here, she counted pumpkin seeds and then glued them onto the matching numbers. In class she counted pumpkin pictures and then had to find the matching number and glue it on. At the library yesterday she found a counting book with Curious George. She was counting to 20 and was just as excited as can be.

Rainbow party

Meet....Happy Pumpkin

Man, I can't believe Halloween and the end of October are here. Soon it will be Thanksgiving and the Christmas and New Years. Where does time go? It goes fast during the holidays. Meet the newest member of our family. Mr. Happy Pumpkin. Our family carved it last night with the help of Andma and Pa Pa on the computer. It was fun. Faith's great uncle D even joined us for a while. Faith was not too sure about the guts of the pumpkin. She is a sissy when it comes to getting yucky like that. Bud did most of the scooping and carving. She mostly sat on the table and watched. She decided the shapes that she wanted for the face so this is what she came up with. He is sitting nicely outside on our step. Can't wait to see the Secret House's pumpkin this year. He is always so nicely carved.

Sing...sing a song....sing out loud

That is how Big Bird sings. Anyone who knows Faith knows how much she loves to sing. Today it is not only the Beatles, sorry Pa Pa, but Bud's rock stations. She loves Yellow Submarine, Life goes on by Beatles, Don't Worry Be Happy, and The Witchdoctor. If I want to teach her something important I put it to a song. She has learned her full name, her age, her address, telephone number, and how to spell her name all to a song. It reminds me of when I was little and studying for a test. How did we all remember stuff? We put it to a rhyme and it was 10X easier. She will just make up songs and sing and sing. Sometimes I will ask her what she is singing and she will tell me, "Oh just a song about my cereal." It is the songs she makes up and then all the ones from her class and the ones from my class. Yesterday it was the Baby Bumblebee song. When it came to cleaning off her hands because she squished the bee in her hands, she began to pretend to lick it off. Thanks to her teacher for teaching her the song that way. Yuck!! Her song Don't worry Be happy has now enticed her to say "Don't worry mommy, it will be ok. It's alright" whenever I get upset. I never thought my two year old would be telling me it will be alright.

Rain Rain Go Away

I caught this photo of Faith sitting in the kitchen window before lunch. It has been raining all morning and we only made it to the library and Target. No park today, no trunk or treat, no fall festivals. Everything is rained out. Drat! Sometimes she reminds of Abby our cat and how she sits up here looking outside.

Pumpkin fun

Yesterday was a field trip to Cox's Farm. It was only about 25 minutes away and Faith's class and my class joined together for a fun trip. I went in to wake up Faith yesterday morning and asked if she was ready to put on her Rainbow t-shirt. I have never seen her jump out of bed so fast. Cox's Farm is over 90 acres of fun including fresh cider, apples, farm animals, slides of all sizes, wooden cutouts to poke your head in, music to dance to, and a hayrides. Luckily because so many parents went we were able to split the children up into groups of one chaperone and two or three children. Faith went we me and I took one of my children along also. They had fun climbing the huge hills to get to the top. On occasion Faith would slide down the hill. I don't know if that was because she didn't want to put her apple down so she was trying to hold her apple and climb. When we first got there she had never seen so many fun things. She quickly forgot their were so many people there and she became lost and I watched all my children too. She wandered to another part of the train to climb on not realizing that she didn't know where I was. When she found me she held on and just cried. I quickly realized that her Rainbow shirt needed to be on the outside of her jacket to make her feel safer. That really helped because everyone had on jackets for fall. She blended in. Although she was scared we did alot better when we split the group. Before we left we had the opportunity to take a hayride around the farm. Along the way there were silly wooden cutouts such as ghosts, pumpkins, three bears, George Bush, Dracula, Little Red Riding Hood, Dora, Sponge Bob, and many others. At one point the tractor driver went through the water and pretended she was stuck backing up and going forward again. Then this big man came out with a big head mask and pretended to pull us out. We went through a haunted covered bridge that started with scarey music only to quickly turn to party music. It was really cute and I wish we could have stayed longer. Although there were 20 school buses there the farm was big enough that it didn't feel clustered at all. Faith had fun and of course tried to fall asleep on the bus but that was quickly stopped by her teacher. Bless her. Otherwise she would have been tired all night.

Lovin' the leaves

I love Fall. I love to be outside. I love the fresh air and I love to play in the leaves. This afternoon we raked some leaves up and crashed into them. We buried ourselves, threw them into the air and jumped and tumbled into them. Faith even made a leaf angel. If I had it my way we would leave the leaves on the ground until it was too cold to play in them. No more mowing over them. No more raking them into bags. Just leave them on the ground. The more the merrier.

The Spanish colors

Faith gets Spanish class for 30 minutes once a week. She has learned her colors and enjoys saying them to us. Here is a video of her. She made her swimming boat into a bed and put her soft blanket on top. Then she added her pillow and lastly covered up with her favorite frog sheet.

She's at it again

We went to a new store this weekend to find a pair of jeans for Bud and while we were there Faith nicely asked for this new puzzle. It is a foam puzzles with all the letters of the alphabet and numbers 0-10. She quickly pulled it out of the package when we got home and took all the numbers and letters out. She had them in a separate pile and then all the matching squares in another pile. She put it all together all by herself and I was quite amazed when she did the number puzzle. She said, "Look mommy, I know all my numbers." I went over there and listened to her tell me all of them and and she told me 0-8 right and just didn't know 9. I was amazed at her knowledge of the ABC's also. As she went through them she would pick up a letter and say to herself, "hmmm, where is the A or S or whatever." She would also tell me words that start with it also. What a little peanut she she is. A funny peanut.
Do you like her t-shirt. She decided to use her fabric paint to do a little decorating. Turned out quite nicely. She loves the skirt Pa Pa. Don't listen to mom about what to buy for her. Just get what you think she would like. Nine out of ten times she will like it.

A beautiful day!

I know Faith just wants to have some fun with mommy and daddy so we decided to take her to Frying Pan Park. We've been there before but it is free. That is all we have to say. Faith talked to the animals and there was actually a horse show going on. There is a ring in which horses and their owners come to show them and what they can do. They were practicing outside also. We stopped and ate snack while watching the horses. We then went on the horse trails for a little bit, circled back around to see some riding lessons going on, continued on until we came to huge climbing rocks and then finished off by going into the local suveniour shop. Faith really enjoyed herself. The weather was just right and the leaves were starting to change. As we left we decided to stop by Hooters for lunch. Faith loved the french fries and the music. The waitress gave her her own orange Hooters balloon and we paused on the way out to take this great picture of Bud and her by the sign. Her first Hooters restaurant. Just like her mom and dad.

No, mommy, it goes this way!!

Recently I have seen just how obsessive Faith can be. If something is not done how it is supposed to be done she will have a fit. Some examples.... every night before bed she gets tucked in, if she doesn't have a small story right before the lights are turned off she cries because something was out of place. This is a story after storytime. Then if her blanket is not facing the right way, horizontal with flowers up, she asks me to turn it around the other way. If her toes are not covered or if she comes uncovered she figgets until the blanket is fixed. If she does not get a glass of milk at supper time. But milk is healthy she says. I can't change anything on her. She is set in a way to do things and that is what is comfortable. Last night there was no convincing her to stop with only one puzzle left to do, she told me that she had to finish all of them. I wish she could be half that obsessive on picking up her toys. Ok, just thought I'd try. A mom can always wish :-)

I think every one of her emotions is trying to come out. She is having a hard time dealing with them and often breaks down in the evening time. Nothing is wrong. Last night is was because she couldn't get the milk out and then it was because I put the chocolate pudding up. It was turning to milk. She didn't understand. I wish I could keep her home for a few days and just have some days of one on one time. I know that is what she needs. She loves school but she is not at home any to play. I try to just hold her when she gets upset. At first I tried ignoring however last night the hugging and holding worked better. Hopefully she will come around soon. I literally had to pull over the car on the way home last night and sit in the backseat with her to calm down. The reason she was so upset was that her stickers were on the floor and I couldn't give them to her. The drama of a two year old.

How many puzzles can she do?

Tonight Faith had too much energy for bed. Instead of settling down to read she decided she was going to do her puzzles. Tonight after completing one, she would set it aside and call that her completed pile. I thought she may get four or five in the pile however she continued to do her puzzles until every last one was finished and placed in it's correct pile. I heard her mumbling through her thoughts of where pieces go. She would say, "No, that's not right. Let's try it here. That just doesn't quite fit. Maybe it goes here." She did wonderful and was so proud to have her picture taken with her completed pile. After the count was in, there were a total of 11 puzzles that she did by herself. I helped her with some corner pieces but all in all she did them by herself. She sure loves doing puzzles.

Fall pictures

Faith has been loving learning about the colors of Fall. As we drive to school she says, "Mommy, soon the leaves will change colors, right?" Yes, peanut, they will be beautiful. She loves art, especially painting. This weekend we found some acrylic paints left over from my Fall sign paintings and then she found a nice wall brush to paint with. We found some red, brown, orange and straw colors and mixed them up for three nice pictures. Using silk leaves we painted over them and was left with a white print of the leaf. Then she took her hands and placed them in her red mixture for some hand prints along with some star stamps and leaf prints. Last she took all her colors and made a beautiful picture by mixing them all together for a rust color. She painted for almost 30 minutes and still wasn't done. Had I had more paint she would have painted all afternoon.

Run... It's Abiyoyo

I read Abiyoyo at school this week for the letter A and Faith was reluctant to hear it until I started singing the song. So we decided to let Between the Lions on PBS do the reading. I skipped most of the book where you could see the giant's big teeth and scary eyes as she started to quiver on my lap. I jumped to the part of the story where the little boy plays his ukelele and sings. Abiyoyo falls to the ground from being so dizzy dancing and the father "Zoops" with his magic wand to makes him disappear. Little Faith was the magician last night and Bud was Abiyoyo. We ran through the house hiding from him and when Bud would start to attack she would sing, "Abiyoyo, Abiyoyo, Abiyoyo, Abiyoyo," etc. until Bud would fall to the ground. She took her magic wand and made him disappear. "Zoop, Zoop" she said. Then she took me by the hand and told me to come with her to hide from Abiyoyo. We ran to hide under our bed sheets and Bud made his way down the hall again. This must have went on for 20 minutes or so. It was so much fun. One time I looked down the hall and there was Abiyoyo riding the big wheel. He called it his fat hog. Faith then she decided she wanted to be Abiyoyo so she ran to her room and then came back with a sheet over her head pretending to be a big scary giant. She is so much fun.

Happy Birthday to You

Happy Birthday dear Carl. Happy Birthday dear Carl. Happy Birthday dear Carl. Happy Birthday to you. Wishing the best year ever. We love you and miss you.

Oh the beauty

The sunrises and sunsets are stupendous here. I catch myself always watching them and just thinking about how beautiful they are. One minute the entire field across from us is filled with fog and then it slowly lifts to see the field. Then the night sky just lights up with the most beautiful shades of pink and purple over Bull Run as I head home from work. These are just a few pictures I captured the other day. You can see the trees in the distance of the field.