An animal they're not afraid of!

 

Daddy put up a new fan

He couldn't have done it without all the help.

Making tracks in the snow

there wasn't enough snow to make anything else.

Craig wanted a hat, too...

My favorite Christmas tree ever

The perfect symmetry, shape, and height. 

The gorgeous, handcrafted decorations. 

Or maybe it's just how happy they are. 

So proud of the tree they decorated!

This post is dedicated to Beth

Thanks for the hats. (And the picture.)

How did I get Eda to look the right direction for this picture? I am amazing. Or lucky. :)

What animal does Eda resemble?

Ruby saw it right after I fixed Eda's hair.

A beautiful Thanksgiving sunset

just one more thing to be thankful for.

Too cute

I realize that sometimes you just can't keep your eyes open

but why would you be in this position to begin with?

I'll just help myself...

How many layers can you see?

They dress themselves. And I encourage it.

Devouring books already...

Ruby After

This was the first time I have ever cut the girls' hair. It was a little hard for me to do, but it does look better and comb better.

Ruby Before

She's coming to get you...

After

It is more even than it looks in this picture. But I won't promise that is completely even. After all, I was the one who cut it.

Before

She loves puzzles

Mmm, mmm, good!

Cora can write!

Can you tell what she wrote with her cereal?

Fun in a box

Can you tell who we are?

I hope you can figure out Ruby and Cora, since they are labeled. I thought mine was fairly obvious, but a lot of people guessed wrong. The real question is, can you tell who Eda is?

Here's a hint: we had a theme.

Here's another hint: it had to do with a book.

If you can't get it now, see if this helps.

Babies cause me to...

chop my hair.

P.S. I hate taking pictures of myself. They always turn out weird.

The hazards of crawling

Sometimes you can't get back out.

Somebody had a birthday...

Guess which baby is older:

Now guess which baby is heavier.

Here's a hint: the heavier baby is NOT older.

The world is under attack!

But there's never been a cuter attacker.

Big fish

Since the fishing trip was less than successful, we had to take Grandpa and Grandma somewhere they could at least see some fish. Daddy was quite disappointed he couldn't catch any of these big ones. For some reason, the Fish Hatchery looks down on that. While you can't catch them, you can feed them. The girls quite enjoyed feeding the fish. The fun only ended when Daddy and Grandpa ran out of quarters (to buy the fish food).

The girls had so much fun we decided to go back a week and a half later with friends. The second time was just as much fun feeding the fish (Mommy brought LOTS of quarters), but not nearly so nice a day.

Fishing Trip

 

They were doing exactly, as far as they could tell, what Daddy and Grandpa were doing.

Cora told me she was going to stab the fish and pull them out.

Look comfy?

Grandma and Eda were there, too. So was I, but since I was behind the camera, you'll just have to take my word for it.

Actually, if you look very closely, you can see my reflection in Grandma's sunglasses. :)

What do you think

of Eda as a blond?

Apparently,

the chairs were tired, too.

These

are to go with the hat.

Ray's idea

of a good wedding gift.

P.S. I suppose I should be insulted, but it is kinda funny.
P.P.S. He did give it to one of his coworkers.

Very possibly

my favorite baby girl outfit, ever.

Ruby's "'puter"

Someday...

my prince will come...

Silly girls

Maybe I should let them play with makeup. :)

How Eda uses a pacifier

Raising them right:

Ruby's boots

They're just like Uncle Roy's. Pink, glittery stars and all. :)

Her first ponytail!

It's sort of like a bunkbed

Good thing Cora was on the lower bunk, she rolled off. :)

Maybe I can be a hairstylist...

If you've read my blog since the beginning, you may (but probably won't, and that's okay) recall my attempts at putting a cute little baby mohawk curl in Cora's hair. I failed miserably. So on Eda, I didn't even try.

After Eda's bath one day, I rubbed her hair a bit with the towel and pulled it off. This is what her hair looked like:

The baby mohawk curl comes naturally to Eda's hair. :)

Four Inches of Standing Water

This spring, (which was a while ago, I know) we got a lot of rain. So much rain that many places around us flooded. During this flooding time, Lil needed to get to the airport. No big deal, it's a two hour drive on the interstate. I offered to give her a ride.

Two days before her flight, the interstate was closed due to flooding. Lots of flooding. In the pictures you couldn't see the interstate at all. All of a sudden, instead of four hours driving time on interstate we were looking at eight to ten hours driving time over a mountain range. I still agreed to take her.

We left with plenty of time. A friend of mine watched Ruby and Cora so they didn't have to spend all day in the car. It was a cloudy day, rain was predicted. We got over the mountains without any difficulties and stopped for gas. A lady at the gas station asked us which way we were going. She was headed the opposite direction and wanted to make sure the roads were open. Then she warned us that we had a twenty-mile stretch of dirt road ahead of us where we would only be able to go ten miles per hour.

We actually made it past the point where she had said the dirt road was and no dirt, so I wasn't too worried. Maybe she had taken a different route. Then we hit it. The highway was under construction and the pavement was gone. Due to the rain and all the extra traffic the road was in horrid condition. It wasn't dirt. It was mud. Some of it was very deep mud. It was no exaggeration when she said 10 mph, that was about all we could go most of the way. For at least 15 miles, maybe further. It was a very, very long 15 miles. Good thing we had planned on Lil having time for lunch before catching her flight.

We eventually made it to the airport. Lil was there in plenty of time. I took a break to feed Eda and call Ray. While I was talking to Ray he got another phone call. It was a friend of ours calling to say that he'd heard the road over the mountain was now closed due to a slide. Ray decided to check it out for me. I sat there looking at my atlas figuring out how much farther I would have to drive to get home. It was suddenly looking like a seven or eight hour drive to get back and I would still have drive through the miserable road construction again.

Ray called back. He couldn't find anything about the road over the mountain being closed. What he did find was this: the interstate was open. They said there was still four inches of standing water, the road was open, use caution. We talked about it and I decided to give it a try. It would mean a two hour drive, no construction. My car could clear four inches easily.

The drive was great. Not much traffic since most people didn't know the interstate was open again. About two miles before the flooded section they had us narrowed to one lane of traffic and speed reduced to 35 mph. As I reached the water I was a bit nervous. There was a flagger standing there with a SLOW sign. I was definitely going slow. I got into the water. No big deal, my car was doing fine. I was just starting to feel like there was no issue when I hit the deep spot. Four inches? Are you kidding? The water was coming up onto the hood of my car. That was NOT four inches. About the same moment I also realized the water was not standing it was moving. Moving rather rapidly across the road, pushing on my car, which suddenly wasn't doing so fine. I gunned it a little and got through the worst. My heart was pounding by the time I got to the other side of the water. Now might be a good time to note that the interstate was lined with emergency vehicles: state patrol, fire trucks, ambulances. Lots of them. Just sitting there waiting for someone to get washed off the road. Very comforting indeed.

The rest of the drive was smooth. One funny thing, the only part of the drive where it wasn't raining? Right where the interstate was flooded. I don't know that I would recommend it, but I was glad I didn't spend as much time driving as I expected.

I also hoped the water had washed some of the mud off my car. No such luck:

This is what my car looked like when I got home, and for a couple of weeks afterwards until I finally got around to washing it. Almost has the wood paneling affect, don't you think?