Gratuitous Baby Shots!

oooooh so grateful for babies! These three were in arms and underfoot at Emily and Charlie's Thanksgiving feast. What lovely beasties!

Our Hostess, Lady Scarlett would like to play some Connect 4. Or, have it for an appetizer.

Miss Esther Rose and her scrumtious cheeks:

I like baby bums, and I cannot lie. What a dupa on this one. Forest loved to play with Scarlett's new walking cart. He sort of reminded me of Hans or Franz. He is not a girly mon.

In other news: We made a beautiful braided bread of gratitude on Monday with our pal, Raina and then she got to stay overnight because the power was out and there was a blizzard! 3 whole inches!

Gratitudes.

I do a lot of reading of self-help books. In fact, next to parenting books, they are what I read the most. Then there are the self-help/parenting books, and the self-help/homeschooling books. What do they all say? Start with gratitude. So I do, I start each day with a little gratitude for the day. I look out my window, it's gorgeous here on Mama Earth. Especially right here, in these Coast Range Foothills. I am grateful for my warm covers right now--and that I remembered to pick up my clean comforter from the cleaners, and that they didn't throw it away or donate it since it had been there for so incredibly long.
I am grateful for the warm little body next to me, sleeping peacefully on his lambskin, looking like a cherub, and that he chose us for his family, when we didn't think we were going to have any more littles around here.
I am grateful for the Dude I live with, who gets up very early a couple mornings a week to make a not so nice drive 100 miles away to work so that I can be a homeschooling mama, so that we can eat local, organic food most days, so that our children can have all sorts of amazing opportunities like music lessons, ballet, gymnastics and days at the horse barn.
I am grateful for those ever growing children. I cannot think of another job that I would rather have right now that being present for their childhood. It IS fleeting, going so fast that I am nearly afraid to blink. They continue to be my teachers. The lessons are no less challenging than they were when they were all under 3.


I am grateful that we could spend Thanksgiving with some of our extended family in Portland. I fantasize sometimes about living close enough to share a meal weekly--or at least every other week. I don't know if it will ever happen, but it sure was lovely to be in the same room with those folks (and all the babies!) for a few hours.

lately...

we've been doing a lot of driving. to and fro, back and forth. then, the weekend comes and we do big projects, like move half the books (which is a lot of books) around to different places and different shelves, and dust and vacuum and rearrange so that our house is more baby proof. why? because our bumblebee is very mobile. flitting from place to place finding the most dangerous stuff in the house to chew on or crawl over.



and that smile you see up there... well, it's about to change, because i think the teeth are finally coming after much hard work to get here. this is early for a doggett kid (lucy got her first at 9 months, and that was 3 months before anyone else had.) mr. f. has been in an unhappy mood for the past day and i am pretty darn sure he is going to have something to show for it soon.

meanwhile, we got a new dishwasher, so i can stop pretending to be ma ingalls (a good way to feel like handwashing dishes is no big deal) and move on to prep for thanksgiving.

i am feeling so grateful for my four lovely kids, my amazing and supportive dude husband, my extended family of beautiful people, and my amazing friends.

these photos are from the weekend before last when i finally decided it was time to move some woodchips. the pile has only been there for about a year and a half, and, well, it is TIME--also, if it gets moved, we will have nice garden paths to walk on and if we ever get wood delivered we won't have to haul it AROUND the pile to put it in the wood shed. good plan, huh?

{{this moment}} a la soulemama

Halloweening

In the words of my friend Kat, "Halloween in this town is an endurance sport!" We have had a very full weekend of Halloween fun, and now, we are recovering. Here are some of the photos:

Pre-Halloween Hair-doing

Samantha, An American Girl from The Turn of the Century

Rose Wilder

Harry Potter casting Expelliarmus!

Our very own Baby Bumblebee!