The monster...that is to say my daughter.

I'm afraid there's a monster running amok at my
house! Of course she only pops up occasionally but
there nonetheless. See...above is the adorable Caitlin
we all know and love. Some of you may wonder, "why
in the world would her mother do such a thing to
that poor little girls' hair?" Now here is where the
monster comes into the story. Just a week ago I was
at choir practice and as I walk in the door I'm accosted
by all sorts of shouting and chaos. Quite normal I assure
you. One comment caught my ear however..."Honey, you
really need to keep the scissors up where the kids can't
reach them."HUH?!! Scissors?!!
That terrible little monster came into MY home
and terrorized poor Caitlin by cutting off her beautiful
golden locks 3 inches from her scalp! And on the Sabbath
no less!

I did what I could to tidy up the mess that was Caitlin's
hair. I also (surprisingly) managed to get a good shot
of the creature.

Now tell me that doesn't look like a mug shot!!
Hopefully we've seen the last of her!

A Caitlin Day

Today was my Caitee bug's birthday. The big...oh-4!
Yah right! 4 going on 20! Today I seriously had to stop and
think how old she was going to be. Sheesh..some mom
huh?! I blame that mostly on my beautiful, old soul of a
daughter. She's always saying things that normal 4 year
old girls should not be saying. (check out the right side of
this blog...almost all Caitlin)

Ok...let me cut to the chase. I didn't start this post to smear
it with sarcasm. I really just wanted to give my baby girl a
shout out. Here goes....ahem....so, when I was pregnant with her,
I was terrified that I wouldn't be able to love her as much as Ev.
(Of course this made me feel like a slime ball but I'm told it's a normal
feeling.)
I think Heavenly Father blesses moms with a large capacity of the stuff
(love, not slime...eesh you guys!!)
because not 5 minutes had gone by after giving birth before I was
utterly and completely in love with her!

She has been such a wonderful addition to our family...
What a darling girl she is. I'm so grateful to have
been entrusted with her and her old soul.


Happy birthday little lady...I love you so much!

My Family

Believe it or not, but these are my familys' first real
professional portraits! Sure, we've had family pictures
before...you know the kind...with the timer and the
make-shift tripod. Yah, we've had plenty of those! For
some reason none of those turned out quite right...hmm
I wonder why? We have a friend in our ward that just so
happens to be a photographer! A couple weeks ago he
took on our group...bless his heart! My children gave him
a run for his money! All in all I think we ended up with
some really nice shots though! Yay! Now I just need to
decide which ones to print out!

All the Joys of Motherhood

The other day my darling husband comes
into the kitchen and this is how it went...
"Amanda, you know how women are really good
at dealing with pain, delivering babies, and
scooping poop out of the tub?"
Apparently Spencer had a problem that James
didn't feel comfortable dealing with.
I thought it was funny....you know,
after the bathroom was sanitized!

Tis a Gift to be Simple

So, I've had a really hard time deciding what to blog! One
reason, I think, is that I haven't felt very wordy (is that a word?).
I do however have quite a few good pictures. So as I was
thumbing through my pictures this morning(..thumbing
through pictures on the computer...huh) I decided I wanted to
share the Amish ones.
About an hour south of Nashville, is this pretty little Amish
settlement. James really wanted to take his parents down, being
as how they were here for a visit and don't get to see that sort of
thing very often. First of all let me just say that I love the Amish
(Even though they consider me a Babylonian). I think their lifestyle
is fascinating! I just read an article about the Amish and the thing
that impressed me the most was the fact that they're so family
oriented! Which is not all that common anymore.
I didn't take any pictures of the actual people. Somewhere in
my jumbled mind, I remember hearing that they feel it's a sin to
have their pictures taken. I'm pretty sure I'm not the devil, so I resisted
taking photographs of them. I did take a picture of one lady's
laundry and some horse drawn farm equipment.

Since I had only been there once before I had my mom meet us there.
(She's an Amish pro!) She took us to all the good houses and helped us
navigate. If you're picturing a settlement like M. Night Shyamalan's
"The Village", you'd be sadly mistaken! See, interspersed in the so called
Amish village are normal Babylonians...like me! Because of that you've got
to drive to get any where. By the time James and I got home the kids had
been in the car 11 hours! They did really well though. Perhaps that's because
they were all strapped in and figured there was no use in throwing a
fit? I don't know. They were great and I'm not going to argue the
point.

All in all it was a great day! I hope you had as much fun as we did
mom and dad!

My ABC's

A. Attached or Single: Pretty much attached...married
B. Best Friends: All the ones who read my blog :)
C. Cake or Pie: Do I have to choose?
D. Day of Choice: Fridays...James is usually off.
E. Essential item: The internet! (does that count?)
F. Favorite color: green, red, orange, pink...um.. I guess it just depends on the day!
G. Greatest accomplishment: Surviving the 4th!!
H. I claim Erda UT as my hometown but I'm loving East TN sooo much!
I. Indulgences: Chocolate chip cookies made with cadbury dairy milk bars!!
J. January or July: Niether one! I'm a spring/fall gal...I guess if I had to choose I'd say January because you can always add more layers but there's only so much you can take off before you're utterly indecent!
K. Kids: Evelyn, Caitlin, Madelin....Spencer..uh lyn
L. Life is incomplete without: hugs and kisses from my main Spencer man
M. Marriage date: December 29
N. Number of siblings: 4 little big brothers and one lil sis.
O. Oranges or apples: Honey crisp apples...try one!
P. Phobias or fears: The dark....yah, I'm afraid of the dark ok...stop laughing or so help me......
Q. Quotes: "Imperfect house work still blesses your family" The Fly Lady
R. Reason to smile: My walls are green and I love them!
S. Season: Fall is my all time favorite!
T. Tag 4 friends: Amy, Nikki, Laura, Kami
U. Unknown fact about me: Up until I was pregnant with Evelyn, I had a Maddona"beauty mark" that my OB removed by tying it off with a piece of string!
V. Very favorite store: Home Depot Yay power tools!!
W. Worst habit: Expecting my husband to read my mind and then getting angry when he doesn't!
X. X-ray or ultrasound: Ultra-sound....who would rather have an X-ray I'd like to know!
Y. Your favorite food: Home-made chicken noodle soup or roast beef
Z. Zodiac: Virgo... is that a bad thing Amber?

All our Lovely neighbors

Living in Utah most of my life made me appreciate
every squirrel, chipmunk, and rabbit. Of course there
was the occasional skunk and deer sighting but not very
often. But being here in Tennessee it's not uncommon to
see these little critters roaming the yard. This lovely
picture is of a member of the ground hog family who
lives under our deck. They mostly keep to themselves
except for when they are hungry for my poor herb garden.
In which case they help themselves

We had a new neighbor move in a few days ago. He's rather
rude though. I don't much like him...mostly beacause he digs
through our garbage can. I heard him rustling through the trash
at 4 this morning and finally got up to put an end to his mooching.
The only thing I could think of doing was to put an enormous rock
on top of the can. Our garbage can lid actually snaps shut but this
little guy figured out how to get in anyway. Racoons are very smart!
I haven't managed to get a pic of him but I did look up racoon
recipes online! Roast racoon with sweet potato dressing...yum!

Our newest friend perched himself right on the side of

the house. I looked on line to find out a little more about

this little buddy. He's called a Luna Moth. And he won't eat the

garbage or my herbs because it turns out that adult Luna Moths

don't actually have mouths! They basically live to mate. Then they

die after about a week of that. I told James about

him while I was on the phone with him. He thought it would be

a great idea if I caught the thing so that he could inspect it himself.

He's just a big kid at heart! So, I caught him and put him in a tupperware.

I accidentaly cut one of his legs off in my hurry to put the lid on.

That still kinda makes me sick when I think of it! Blah!!

Any way...that's the neighborhood. Unfortunately the best neighbor

is on his way out...then again, the others might be on their way out too!