Mardi Gras!

Jon just got back from New Orleans and brought me back some AWESOME gifts!

Pretty cool, eh?  ;)

Ain't Love Beautiful!

At a recent picnic with great friends.  Beautiful day, beautiful couple, beautiful love.  :)

Nate and Izzie

It's not just Michaela who's found a new BFF - Lexi's younger sister, Izzie, and Nathanael are two peas in a pod. Nate has finally found a friend who's as active, as full of beans, and as always bare-footed as he is. Lexi and Izzie's mom, Sarah, is quickly becoming one of my very best friends. With kids so perfectly matched, perhaps it was inevitable. :D

Missie and Lexi

This gorgeous picture of Michaela and her new BFF, Lexi, was taken by my good friend Josiah at a picnic with friends yesterday. Lexi is the daughter of another good friend, and though she and Michaela only met two weeks ago, they're already joined at the hip. Though there was a ton of great food and fun games, the second we arrived at the park, Lexi and Missie disappeared, off to explore the park's streams and small lake. This is them returning from their mini adventure. You probably can't tell from the picture, but they're actually soaking wet and covered in mud after "accidentally" falling into the lake. Michaela is so like me as a child, wouldn't you agree Mom? ;)

A Poem by Michaela

I dreamed

I was a snow flake

On a frizzy, frosty, frozen, dead flea.

Happy New Year!

To all of our loved ones out there, Happy New Year from all of us.

Face-painting at the Children's Museum

Helen as a butterfly, Nate as a saber-toothed spiderman and Michaela as... as... um... an expressionist painting? Anyway, fun was had by all!

Nosy - The World's Greatest Cat (1993-2011)

Our Wonderful Nosy went to sleep peacefully at the vet's yesterday. She was almost 19 and had spent her entire live making her family feel loved. There's really no other way to describe her. She was never not purring, she was always up for a cuddle - in fact, she was happy to demand them on a regular basis. She didn't pick favourites, although she did seem to have a particular fondness for my Dad, and anyone else with cat allergies. ;)

Nosy was the cat who made me like cats. There was no other quite like her. She was beautiful, sweet and had the personality of a dog. She will never, ever be forgotten.

A Walk in the Park

All Dressed Up

In preparation for a family wedding this summer, we decided to buy Nate some dress clothes. We were thinking shirt and slacks, but when we saw these mini suits, we couldn't resist. Nate was thrilled to wear something that made him look so much like one of his favourite TV character, Doctor Who.

And like David Tennant's Doctor, we just had to get him a pair of Converse to complete the ensemble.

Thanks to the Sonic Screwdriver Aaron gave me for Christmas, Nate is a perfect little Doctor. :D

(yes, we are all nerds, thank you very much. ;))

The Craziest!

Crazy Hair Day at Michaela's school today. We had a lot of fun getting Michaela's hair to do this... and I may have used a whole half bottle of hairspray! You can't really see it in the pictures, but the entire 'do' is covered in silver and gold sparkles. :)

Fencing Lessons

Her dream is to be able to play in the Olympics someday. :D

My Beautiful Boy!

The Fam

A nice day visiting the Old Market.

Like a Weed

She is growing so fast, I can't even believe it.

Chop Chop

Finally got a much needed haircut. I've been resisting short hair for years and finally got the guts to do it. I'm REALLY happy with it. :)

Tallulah

The Wee Tikes

Halloween!

I know it's been forever. Sorry everyone. :)

Jon took the kids to the Halloween festivities at UNO today. It's supposed to rain tomorrow, so the timing was good.

Have you ever seen a cuter Harry Potter!? In the picture below, he's pulling back his hair so that you can see his drawn-on lightning-bolt scar.

Michaela saw Cleopatra (or Cleopatra's zombified ghost) in a Scooby-Doo movie and was determined to be that for Halloween. I could only find a adult sized costume, but I pinned it up and I think it turned out pretty well.

She Wants To Be a Zoologist

If Michaela looks a little nervous in the above picture, it's because that snake she's holding bit her a few minutes before I took this picture. I'm quite proud of her for being brave enough to still hold it afterwards.

Same snake, different day. As far as I could tell, this was the same snake that bit her a few days before, but it was much calmer and Michaela expertly caught it, gently holding it behind the head so that it couldn't bite her. As I watched her catch it, she kept whispering to it, "You're alright, you're alright." If any of you have watched the Crocodile Hunter, that what Steve Irwin used to always say while handling wild animals. I don't know if she was even aware she was mimicking her hero. I thought it was adorable.

Michaela never keeps the snakes she catches long. She usually hold them for a bit, then we have a moment where she thanks the snake for letting her hold it, she tells the snake how beautiful it is, then she asks the snake to come back and play sometime soon, before letting it go in a safe place. It's really quite sweet.

Michaela caught this beautiful moth, not once but twice, two different days in two completely different locations. I took pictures of it both times and the markings were identical, so I'm fairly sure it was the same one. Michaela was very careful not to touch or damage it's wings, and after the moth had rested for a while, it eventually flew away.