once upon a time...

There was a perfect little family.

The happily married couple were very much in love. They spent each day as though it were there last, never taking each other for granted and enjoying every minute together. They never fought, they were never angry with each other, never impatient or rude and loved each other unconditionally. They were always happy.

They had three beautiful little girls who all adored each other and got along swimmingly. They were very well-mannered and always on their best behavior. They too loved each other unconditionally and never, ever raised their voices or used aggressive behavior when upset. They shared with each other, played well together, and always listened to their Mommy and Daddy. They sat at the table through every meal, never complaining or refusing to eat, and they never, ever made a mess with their food.

There was no drama, no temper tantrums, and absolutely no screaming. Everyone always used their "inside voices" in this happy, little family.

They always had fun and got along so well!

It must have had something to do with ALL of the good sleep they got...

...or the nutritious food they ate...

Or maybe it was just because they loved each other so much. And love is always perfect.

Or not.

support me please

I know I've mentioned on at least one occasion that I am coordinating the MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) ministry at my church this year. This is a new ministry for my church, and though I've personally been involved in MOPS at another church for last 4 years, this is my very first year in leadership. In fact, aside from being on Student Council back in the days, this is my first experience with leading anything.

With it being a new ministry, the gals and I ("the gals" being the fabulous women who serve on leadership with me) are working tirelessly to build a budget for our group. We hosted a garage sale in August, and even with it raining, it was a major success. So now with one fundraiser under our belts, we're on to the next one! So, this is where YOUR support comes in, and I promise it won't require much time, energy or even much money.

This Sunday on October 26th from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m, we will be hosting a fundraiser at Cici's Pizza in Eagan. The address is 1292 Town Centre Dr. It's quite simple, actually. All you need to do is show up, eat a lot of food for really cheap (I think their buffet is something like $5.99/person) and drop your receipt into a bucket labeled for our MOPS group. Ci Ci's will then donate 15% of the all the proceeds to our group. And voila! We made a little extra money for a really good cause.

So if you live in that general area and are looking for something FUN to do with the family on Sunday afternoon, PLEASE show up! You don't even have to KNOW me to do this...How cool is that?!

a helping hand hold

Ella absolutely adores Chloe, there's no doubt about it. Unlike her relationship with her other sister,* her relationship with Chloe is full of kindness, generousity and affection. She thinks the world of Chloe and is always doing her best to keep her involved in what's going on around her.

For example, should Chloe be left alone in another room for even a second, Ella runs to her rescue and does this to solve the problem...
You might not be able to tell by the picture, but Chloe's feet are several inches off of the floor because Ella is carrying her. As you can tell by Chloe's expression, this is not a new thing for her, and in fact, she's quite happy being carried around the house by her big sister.

The first few times Ella tried this, Chloe screamed and wiggled so much Ella was forced to drop gently put her on the floor. But like a cat gets used to being swung around in a blanket (though this is NOT advised, my little brother did this to our cat all the time while we were growing up, and in the end, my brother was the cat's favorite person in the whole wide world), Chloe has gotten used to this. Ella will even sit down on the rocking chair with Chloe like this and the two of them will sit there rocking for several minutes at a time. It is the sweetest thing to witness, watching Chloe giggle as Ella rocks and talks to her.

* While Britten and Ella love each other dearly and are best buddies, they have a love/I'm-going-to-beat-you-to-a-bloody-pulp-if-you-look-at-me-wrong relationship.

our new not-so little toy

I am so excited about the new toy my husband brought home today! It was a gift. A very generous gift from very wonderful friends. And did I mention I was excited?

They gave us a brand new piano! Well, it's not brand new exactly. In fact, it's really, really old. It's an antique piano, and a cute little thing at that, and it originally belonged and was played by the mother of my very generous friend. But it's brand new to us and we are so excited to be owners of a piano! We've been wanting one for ages but couldn't afford to buy one, let alone move one. Hiring movers to transport a piano costs an arm and a leg and wasn't in the cards for us.

Good thing for me I'm married to a strong, manly-man. Oh, and it helped my manly-man husband that our very generous friend was once a body builder and he offered to help us move it.
My husband is also resourceful and had the clever idea of pulling the piano on the trailer behind his John Deere tractor to our backyard so they could bring the piano into our walkout basement. It was quite hilarious to watch, but a seamless process, and my piano was ready for playing within minutes of arrival!

I have such high hopes for this piano! Now I just need to get my girls in lessons so they can start serenading me throughout my day!

fall fun

Britten is attempting to pick out a pumpkin. She settled with one that fit in the palm of her hands.
Our family loves everything about fall. The beautiful weather, with just enough chill in the air to justify wearing a sweater and jeans, the ever-changing colors, and best of all, the crunchy leaves that have fallen from the trees.

Britten's enjoying a sucker at the pumpkin patch. Fortunately, we didn't have a repeat of this.

I honestly think this is the first family picture we've had taken since Chloe was born. It only took us a year.

Me and my girls. My husband took about 12 pictures of this pose and there were none in which the girls were actually looking at the camera.

By the end of the afternoon, Britten had enough of the camera and was begging, through her tears, for her Daddy to put it away.
Soon we will have to say goodbye to this beautiful fall weather. But until then, we'll cherish our time having fun in leaves!