seasons

{photo by meg from whatever}

yesterday as i drove home from work with anna and ben, i asked anna what was her favorite thing about each season.

here are her answers:

spring: picnics in the green grass
summer: playing with josh and fishing at the pond
fall: playing in the wind, halloween and black cats
winter: snow balls, snow mans and hot chocolate

i just love her responses. and the innocent truth in them.

kitchen redo

i've been looking for some inspiration for changing my kitchen.
i know what you're thinking--finish one room at a time, girl--and i hear ya, but these kitchens are dreamy and homey.

*photos from BH&G

when i look at these pictures, my heart smiles.

i'll write more later on, after i enter every single home makeover sweepstakes i can find on the internet!

ahh, fall...

i went out for lunch today by myself.
i had the windows down, the radio blaring, and my big ol' sunglasses on.
for a moment i actually felt like i was 18 again...but in my mom van and with my three car seats!

there are so many beautiful trees outside and the leaves are spectacular.
i just want to get out my camera and take a zillion pictures.

(photo by meg from whatever)

fall has always been my most favorite time of year. football, pumpkins, falling leaves, apple cider, pumpkin pie spice...i love it all.
driving with the sunroof open, listening to sweet child o' mine (really!) and breathing it all in.

then i went to target and was bombarded by CHRISTMAS! ughh. can't we just wait until the leaves are gone?

ok, fine, i'll look at those pretty mercury glass ornaments if i HAVE to...

new background and benny bright eyes

i found this new background at thecutestblogontheblock.com.
what do you think? too much?
maybe, i'm sorta a simple kind of girl.
but i love the flowers. and the buttons.
i think i'll live with it for a day or two and see what happens.

by the way, did you happen to notice ben boy's newest pic of the week? john was washing his hair in the tub and josh said we needed to take a picture of his mohawk. too cute!

i wish i could explain to you how much ben has matured in the past few weeks. he is really becoming an ornery (but sweet) little toddler. he rarely cries during his therapies now and definitely communicates much more clearly what he wants and doesn't want. and most importantly, he is doing a lot more independent and interactive play. i gush over him every chance i get.

you know when ben was born, no one could tell me what his prognosis was. "you'll have to wait and see" was the saying of the day. people asked me if i knew "how severe" his down syndrome was, as if he was in a car accident or something. even one of my closest neighbors told me a story a few days after his birth where she recently saw a child with DS at her pediatrician's office and pointed out to her children that ben was going to be like him. and i know she had the best of intentions, but i felt like once she told them that, she simply labelled him, as well as the little boy, as different. and it hurt me deeply. no one wants their child to be labelled as different. different sometimes equates to bad or weird, right?

well, all of that doesn't matter now. sometimes i see the DS and sometimes i don't. mostly i see a sweet, smiling boy who is interested in the world around him and who is getting stronger mentally and physically a little more every day. a boy who loves to throw balls and chase his sister and giggle when i kiss his neck.

i don't know why i started to gab on and on about my benny bright eyes, but i just can't help it. when you love someone so deeply and so completely, sometimes you just can't help but tell people about it!
ok, enough of that. gotta run. oh, one more thing, check out lisaleonard.com TODAY! she makes the most beautiful jewelry (i have two of her necklaces and nana has one too).

20% of your sale (just today!) goes to help the nie nie benefit which you can read about here. it's a long and supremely moving story and this is definitely a worth while cause for a deserving family! so go, read, cry, and buy!

crazy blog

i've been having some problems with this little ol' blog of mine.

first i decided i wanted to change my header and make it look extra snazzy.
and i really wanted to have three columns.

too bad i know nothing about xml and computer code.
why i pretended to know is beyond me.

so now, after hours of rebuilding, i'm almost back to where i started from.
uuugggghhhh!

maybe i'll figure this out someday.

halloween pics

i'm a little late, but here they are--the kitty witch, the pirate and the spider!






we took lots of pictures with our neighborhood friends too.
everyone looked so cute!




i love halloween. i really do. it's my favorite time of the year.
but this year, all i've heard (all day. every day.) since halloween night, is "can i have some candy? PPPPLLLEEEAAAASSSSSSEEEEEEEEE!!!"

and honestly it's wearing me down. in fact this morning, at precisely 6:40am, josh and anna both had some candy.

mother-of-the-year award, here i come.

yesterday we finished up with our fall sports.
anna had her last soccer game and got a shiny new medal.
josh had his last football game, scored the winning touchdown (more stress for mom!), and they finally won a game! then he got a big ol' trophy at his party at chuck e. cheese.

please forgive me for my extra wide grin, but i just got back my thursdays and saturdays!

can i get a woot woot?