A Scary Post- Wolverine Baby...

On this day one we all laughed hysterically at sweet Wesley. We had been at Jackson's ballgame where he had been eating a ring pop which made his long curls stick to his cheeks.

He had some rockin' side burns and looked like a werewolf!

Hilarious boy!

Plan A:

Plan A was for one boy to wear Jackson's old Blue's Clues outfit and the other to wear his old Joe outfit. Unfortunately they weren't too keen on it so we changed the plan.

I did get Will into it for about 3 minutes but knew it would never last long. It lasted long enough to get a couple of cute pics:

His expression here looks like he's surprising us that it's Will:

This was never in the plan:

This was definitely never in the plan!

Stay tuned, you may see this costume next year!

If I Had Known This Would Be the Last...

picture I would take of my beautiful baby girl with her beautiful baby front teeth I would've snapped away.

Wednesday Ashton lost her first front tooth. She's lost other teeth on the side and the bottom, but this is the big front tooth! This is the big one that heralds the passage from little girl to big girl. Songs have been written about this experience (OK, only 1 song that I know of and Christmas is in there too!). I was unprepared for how much this would effect me and how sad I would be. It's just that her look has changed so much.

I realize I might be a little over dramatic, but look again at those 2 pictures. Doesn't she look more like a big girl? She's my only girl and I'm taking these passages of time pretty hard :)

Time for a little confession: part of the reason this is bothering me so much might be the fact that I sped up the process- ACCIDENTALLY! We were playing on Sunday morning. She didn't want me to brush her hair so she'd pull down on the hairbrush, and I'd pull up. Then she bent her knees or something and went down and her teeth hit the counter and started bleeding. It had already been a little loose but now it was really wiggly. Now you see why I am feeling so bad- I knocked out my baby's tooth! Whew, it's good to get the truth out there! Maybe the confession will help me be not so sad? :)

There are 2 positives though. She is as beautiful an almost big girl as she was a little girl, and she is having a lot of fun sticking her tongue through the hole.

Now we're taking bets on whether or not her 2nd one will fall out by December so she can sing the aforementioned song! Hopefully, if it does I will have had nothing to do with it!

Warning: This Post is X-Rated...

I'm not sure you are allowed to use this word on your good Christian blog, but I had to share.

We were just outside carving pumpkins. OK, Jon was carving. I was sitting on the porch taking pictures. Ashton came running up to me very excited saying. "Mommy, Mommy come see Daddy carved nipples on my pumpkin's smile!"

Yeah, those would be dimples :)

Don't worry, the human body is on our homeschool curriculum coming up soon. Although I wasn't planning on covering those. hmmmmm?????

Mom, How Do You Turn the Cheek...

Ashton was very proud to read a book to me. I told her to read to me what happened while I got the babies ready for bed. Jackson, who had already read the book, started telling what happens. I assured her that I wasn't listening to him and to keep going. However, she was getting very frustrated with him and finally she did a big sigh and said, "Mom, how do you turn the cheek?" I asked her what she meant and she said, "Like the Bible says to turn the cheek. I'm trying, but I don't know how to turn a cheek!"

I don't even think I answered her because I was running upstairs to call Jon and tell him so we could laugh together!

You Know You're in the Terrible Twos with Two If..." #13

You innocently pull back your curtains and find this:

Since they laughed hysterically you do it again and again:

When you get distracted you realize they have been back there for awhile quiet which is a major red flag. You pull the curtain back and notice 1 has a pen and 1has his sister's make-up. Seems innocent enough so you return the curtain to see what transpires:

After a few more quiet moments you pull it back to see that your floor has been lovingly painted with several shades of lipgloss, great :)

Anniversary Surprise...

I know the standard joke is to blame everything on your mother-in-law, but I honestly lucked up and got the best in-laws around. They have been married 40 years this year. I'd been thinking all year that we had to do something special. We decided to have them a surprise party. First, we snuck in their house and stole all their old pictures. The kids were very upset that we were stealing! We then used their wedding picture to invite friends and family.

We had the food:

We had cute girls:

We had a huge banner:

All we needed were 2 unsuspecting people who thought they were coming to my party. They were very surprised!

Lucky Nana and Pop were treated to an impromptu stunt show:

We got to visit, eat and enjoy the centerpieces made of old pictures of them:

The stunt drivers took a break for some food:

The highlight was the video we made of all their pictures through the years. Jon and I had a great time making it, and it was fun to watch all together. We made sure to put lots of embarrassing pictures-of everyone!

Wesley enjoyed the video more than anyone even though he had watched it at home several times as we previewed it. He's laugh and point out people. He really loved the "Bad to the Bone" song that played when Pop's childhood pictures came on. He'd sing,"I Bad Bone".

David enjoyed his embarrassing photos too!
When it was present time there had to be a monkey card- it's a Dodd tradition:
Of course, Ashton made a gift:
And, of course, I made a scrapbook. This one was of all their wedding pictures and was beautiful, if I do say so myself :)
As the party wound down for the adults, the kids were just getting going.The twins had Uncle David pushing them around in the go kart:
Addie was farming with some chips:

Their were more stunts and some wrecks:

Their audience was munching and cheering:

This was my favorite shot of the day of my sweet hubby and my cutie nephew:

It was a great honor to do something for Nana and Pop who do so much for us. It really was a fun party and a great entrance into the next 40 years!