Starting to Feel a Little Jolly

Here are some of the lovely little planters Dad made me recently.  The Rosemary has a pretty new home waiting for it too when I have some time and some potting soil.



The holiday excitement and anticipation is already heavy in the air.  Peggy is one of the stops on the Marshall Historical Society Christmas walk this year so she started decorating early.  Evangeline has just been beside herself with excitement.  This is a picture Peggy sent me one day last week after they spent the day putting up the tree.  She has been asking when our tree is going up ever since. 

 

Kyle called me last week on his way to Terre Haute to tell me that I must take a drive out to see the moon over Archer Ave.  Now, for Kyle to call me to make a special trip out to see the moon only could have meant that this was really something special.  By the time we made it out of the house, about 5 minutes after he called, this is what it looked like.  When I showed the picture to Kyle he said that it didn't even compare to the moon at the time he called me.  He said that he had never seen anything like it.  Bummer, wish I could have seen it. 



Kyle's been hawking Christmas wreaths for the Rotary club.  We had 18 of these beauties in our garage last week waiting to be delivered.  It was a nice smell to walk out to my car to.

 

And here is Alphie 2.0.  I got the pattern for Christmas last year and made him shortly after.  I wasn't too happy with the construction.  I cut out all the pieces and did the embroidering for 2.0 last spring or summer so all I had to do was force myself finish the little guy.   Turning all of his little pieces right-side out was not an enjoyable task, but he is so much better made.  He will last, so I'm glad I redid him. 

Evangeline really enjoyed the first Alphie.  She was excited about the new one, but has already requested a girl elf.....Arggggg....now I need to figure out how to make an Alphie with pigtails. 

I am very much looking forward to the upcoming Turkey Day festivities.  I do so love this time of year. 

A Star-Studded Week

Papa and Karen recently took Evangeline, Savannah and Lily to see Disney Live.  The girls had a wonderful time.  The show consisted of Sophia the First and Jake and the Nederland Pirates.  They got a hefty dose of sugary foods, watched movies in Papa's van on the way to and from Indy, and got to pick out a toy after the show.  Evangeline picked out a twirling Sophia light up thing. 

 

And if that wasn't enough Papa and Karen took Evangeline, Kyle and I to see Sesame Street Live at the Hulman Center that same week!  We had backstage passes to meet the characters (oh, yeah).  Evangeline strutted right up to Elmo and gave him a big hug.  It was the cutest. 
She was so excited to meet them!

 

High fives!

 

She loved Rosita too.  Just marched up just like she's known them personally for years. 

 

They had a little coloring table set up backstage with a few other little activities. 

 

We had terrific seats.  There were only two rows of seats on the floor and we were in the second row.  The characters were interacting with the kids on the floor throughout the whole show.  It was stimulation overload!

I personally liked the dancing cookies the best.  Those guys were giving it their all.  It looked like they were having a blast.  Man, how do you get a gig like that?

 

Since you really can't ever have too many light up thingy's, she got a light up Elmo wand for good measure. 

 

During intermission she enjoyed dancing right under the stage.  

 

Evangeline said that her favorite part of the show was when they shot confetti out at the crowd. 

My Babbling Brooke

Well, I just couldn't resist.  Here are a ton of pictures of my little girl in the same outfit, same location, some of them very similar, but I just couldn't weed them out.  To Mommy every picture is just different enough to make it impossible to dwindle down any further.  And these are my memories, so I guess I can do whatever I want to. 

 

"Mommy, you can't get enough of me."

 

"What can I put in my hair that's glorious?"

 

Her little tush wiggle has cracked me up for a year or so now.  She thinks she is wiggling her bottom, but she is really just rapidly wiggling her arms back and forth. 

 

One morning last week she was singing one of her made up songs as she was going "bumpy" on the couch.  This particular one's chorus went, "who's going to take pity on Ammie?".  Ammie thought that was a great question. 
Evangeline is so good at making up songs.  Lots of them are just random jibber jabber, but everything ends with a great rhyme. 

 

One night last week she kept saying, "no flash 'atography'!"  She kept asking me to take her picture so she could say it again and again.  We all cracked up every time. 

 

After misplacing her little Elmo stuffed animal she came whimpering to me, "I can't find my little Elmo!  I mean everything to him.  I'm his sister." .....it was very dramatic.

 

I told her we could add some cinnamon to pumpkin seeds before roasting them.  She replied, "Let's make it really snackable!"

 

As we carved her pumpkin she said..."That's a big punkin a'course.  Is this the biggest punkin you ever had in this life?"





We both went to get our flu shots last week.  Evangeline was so nervous and upset about it.  She was a little trooper though.  She just clutched her little blankie and instructed to nurse to rub a cotton ball on the shot afterward.  I'm not sure how she got the idea in her head that the nurse needs to rub a cotton ball on the shot to make it feel better, but whatever it takes.  She always does a nervous babble when something she has agonized about is over with.  She was so clamed up before her shot and would hardly speak, but as soon as it was over she hopped off the table to pull up her pants and immediately started chatting it up to the nurse about how she likes to put tank tops on as soon as she gets home. 

 

She was looking forward to showing her pals at preschool her booboo the next day. 

 



Here is Evangeline's prayer that night after her flue shot:

 

"Now I lay me down to sleep

I pray the Lord my soul to keep.

Please make my boo boo better.

I love you too.

Amen."

Color Show

I have been in such awe of the beauty of this fall season.  I can't remember when we have had such a stunning display of fall colors.  It's such a joy to spend my weekend mornings gazing out the windows and walking around the yard, cup of coffee in hand.  It's nice, this time of year in our little house in the big woods....

Our little stream has had a nice trickle lately due to the heavy rain showers we had last week. 

This is the path up to our driveway.

I tore out my garden and pots over the weekend.  It was fun to see how big our sweet potatoes had grown from under our vines. 

Collecting leaves....this particular leaf is drying between the pages of "The Light in the Attic" at this very moment.  

It's a dandy. 

Napping in tights with dried leaves stuck to them.

We attended the wedding of one of my former youth group kids, Dustin Trudeau.  I can't believe the kids from my old group are so grown up, adults now and getting married!

  

The reception was at a winery between Marshall and Paris.  The drive alone was worth the trip.  It was breathtakingly beautiful.  The sun was golden, there were sunrays coming from the clouds, the fields had been freshly harvested and the trees were radiant. 

Here we are passing the cutie around.  Evangeline and I had fun in the photo booth that was set up at the reception.