My Baby. My Big Girl.

Abby is the most precious, beautiful, talented, curious, hilarious little girl I know.

Abby is the most stubborn, strong-willed, overly-independent, curious, frustrating little girl I know.

These things all reside simultaneously within a girl-child who is at one moment an amazingly bright 4 year old, at another a tantruming 2-year old, and at yet another a precious and cuddly infant.

Some days, I can't get enough of Abby's silly antics and adventurous nature.

Some days, I have had my fill of her antics by 9:00. In the morning.

Today was one of the latter.

So to remind myself of what a precious joy that my daughter is all of the time, regardless of her behavior, I look at pictures like these. And my heart overflows with love for the sweet and precocious little girl who calls me Mom.

Autumn

We love autumn. It's our favorite season. The beautiful leaves changing colors, pumpkins, cooler weather, long shadows as evening approaches.

Here are some autumn shots through the years, reminding me of just how quickly my children are growing.

A pictoral summary

My two Big Kids getting ready to start preschool again this year!
Abby had a rough start, but has hit her stride with a new teacher Miss Damian whom we LOVE! Just this week, Abby stayed on the rug during the entire 15 minute circle time (for the first time) -and- cleaned up all of the dress-up area without prompting (for the first time). There is hope for Kindergarten yet!
Ethan is doing fabulously in his 3 year old class. He started this year knowing his letters and letter sounds, shapes, colors, and most of his numbers, but his new teacher Miss Jennifer is finding ways to challenge him.

Abby turned FOUR! She had a spectacular Tinkerbell party, and even got everyone to dance the chicken dance for her birthday (her favorite dance).

Jennifer, Donielle, LeeAnn, Jenny and Me (Missing: Merideth)
My Jennifer's have finally met! We went for a girls' weekend away to scrapbook, talk and stay up way too late (isn't that always the way it goes?) Jennifer and her sisters, Jenny and I ... it was a lot of fun!

My super-silly Superkids!

Abby has made huge developmental progress over the last 3 months! Here, she drew a picture of "Awful Alvin" (from LarryBoy) just like Daddy did - - - isn't it good? I love the squiggly hair.

Ethan loves music. Here, he's playing the Melodica, but the amazing thing is that he found a newspaper ad that has music notes in it (on the right-hand page, at the bottom) and he "played" the music. Then he wrote out his own music on the green paper (see all the lines - they're notes).

Did you miss me?

So.

I have been absent. At least here. For a few months.

Lately, my life has been beyond overly busy. I have taken on two large projects (one for church and one for preschool) that have sucked.up.all.my.time.

Rewarding? Sure. Stupid? Definitely.

And now, as I sit writing this at 12:47 a.m., I realize yet another bad side effect of being over-extended. Insomnia.

But, one good thing comes. This blog is finally going to get a little update. Enjoy!