Very Useful Engine

*K found the bananas in the cabinet, stacked with the plates.
*I warmed my hot chocolate 3 times this morning before having a sip.
*When UPS asked for my phone number yesterday, I could not remember it. I started saying a number then realized it wasn't mine.
*I was asked to sign and date something this morning- I wrote a random date in 2010.

These are all real things happening to me and I can't decipher whether I have a brain tumor blocking all sense, or it's just how my brain works. Have I always been like this? So much for blogging more often. I just don't have the time. I should surrender to that fact.

I wish I could remember to write down all of the funny and crazy and down right unbelievable moments that happen around here between 2 awesome kiddos and a flustered me, but I don't. Remember, the brain thing?

I can tell you that Chamblee is so grown up I could weep over it, and Jacob isn't far behind.

We have been busy getting ready for the Christmas season- making gingerbread houses, ornaments, snow globes and cookies. We have been decorating together, which in my {biased} opinion, is much more fun with littles toddling around. Every year we have picked out an ornament for Chamblee and this year she got to pick out her own. She would find the only gaudy Thomas the Train ornaments in the store. Bad mom. I wouldn't allow it. So, to spite me, I'm sure, she picked the 2nd most gaudy ornament in the store. An obscenely large bright blue ornament with a reindeer on it. It's tacky. She loves it. It's on the front of our tree. And the Thomas ornaments adorn her little tree. Yes, we got both. Good mom. 

We are doing Christmas differently this year and not buying presents. GASP. That's right. We will be doing something for our community, instead. Neither us nor anyone we know really need for anything. Some people do. So that's where our Christmas budget will be going. I can tell you, I am enjoying the season more already. What are you and yours doing this Christmas season?

We had family pictures taken last week for the first time and I could have died when I saw the results. Died happy. I can't believe how talented our photographer is and we are so happy with the photos.
I'll be sure to share some with you when the CD arrives. For now, I'm spending hours online trying to find the. perfect. Christmas card to go along with the. perfect. picture. It's impossible. So, when you get your card from us, be sure to tell me how wonderfully unique and beautiful it is. Because I spent forever trying to make a decision. I mean it.

Now that I think about it, I have failed miserably at telling you about Thomas the Train and how he has almost, this close, taken over Owlie's spot in this house. We have Thomas toy trains, plates, cups, bowls, toy boxes, a pillowcase, a train station, playing cards, stuffed animals, books galore, movies and Thomas shoes for cryin' out loud. It's an epidemic. It's insane. When we go to Target, we go down his aisle to say hello. Or else. There is nothing she loves more. Nothing but Owlie, and he is hanging on by literal threads. I'm happy to be called a "very useful engine" when I do something for her. When she is playing with her trains, her imagination runs wild, and that's what I love to see most.

As I'm typing, Rosie is stuck. Hanging half way off the table. James has come to the rescue. "Oh, thank you James," she says.

I tried to capture this play because it's a total rip off of the cartoon she watched this morning. She hates to be filmed, so I had to do it all secretive:

I love that girl. When I ask her not to grow up, she cups my face and says, "oh mommy, but I want to grow up. I need to be a big girl." And then I die. 

Until Next Time,
The Guff