Sticky Kisses & Dirty Hugs

Day 3

Day 2

Here is day one of the return of Elfie our elf on a shelf

My baby girl, Stella, got her first haircut last Wednesday.  The first cut is always the hardest but it was NEEDED so bad.  She was a perfect angel the entire time. 

BEFORE

DURING

This morning I was doing a little reading on one of my favorite blogs and Casey Wiegand was answering a list of her FAQ's and I was struck, as usual, by her immense love and pride for her husband.  It made me wonder if I show the same love and pride for my husband.  Also, this month some people have decided to do an "I'm thankful" post everyday on facebook until Thanksgiving.  I think it is FANASTICAL!  I also think it is something we should try to do all year, even though I know that won't really happen.  I posted today that I am grateful for my husband.  I posted a short little something but then realized that isn't enough to show my appreciation so I thought I would elaborate here.

My husband is an amazing man.  He is the best daddy I know.  He loves our little girls "to the moon and back" as we like to say.  They squeal with delight the second he walks in the door from work.  It warms my heart every time.  He plays dress-up and collects bugs with them.  He spends his one day off a week with them for "daddy day".  He also works in Lyla's preschool a couple times a month.  He would do anything for those two girls.  I mean ANYTHING.  He completely encompasses everything a daddy should be.

He is also extremely hard working.  When Lyla was about 6 months old he was offered a job working overnights from 11pm to 9am.  It was meant to be an 18 month deal and it was a good financial opportunity for our little growing family.  Well, 18 months turned into a little over 3 years.  This put a strain on him physically and mentally.  It also put a strain on our family.  I am a firm believer after this time of him working nights that it is unnatural for humans to be up at night and sleep during the day.  It takes a little something out of you.  Ages you a bit.  It is hard to put into words the toll this took on him.  I know he did it for our family and I am so grateful to him for that.  It ultimately lead to him eventually working during the day but he works long hours and misses family activities at times.  He is always sad when this happens.  I have to remember that when he is not able to be there he is working for us.  So either way his love is there. Thank you for all you do for your little family of four.

Todd, I love you to the moon and back.

Something left over from bath time.  Yes, that is princess leia in the warrior outfit.

A lot of questions are left unanswered by my discovery this morning.

Who are these 2 people? Where are they going? Why do they need such a big pumpkin?

Even with two sick girls, Halloween was pretty fun this year.  It was Stella's first "real" Halloween and once she realized that the people at the door gave you candy it was game on.  She really just wanted the suckers.  That is her new favorite thing.

Lyla of course is an old pro by now.  She knows what's going on and she takes charge.  The nice thing is she got just enough candy before getting tired so it was a nice short trip for us.

As you can see we had fun with the pumpkins this year.  Todd even carved Stella's itty bitty pumpkin!

For the Saturday before Halloween we decided to go to Knott's Camp Spooky with the girls.  Lyla wore a costume but I was going to just put Stella in her Halloween shirt.  Only problem is the shirt was long sleeve and it was going to be very warm.  So I did what any mother would do, I cut off the sleeves and hot glued the seam.  I figured that this was the last day she would be able to wear the shirt so I did the following:

1. Plugged in hot glue gun

2. Got a short sleeve shirt of the same size as a template.

3. Laid the short sleeve shirt on top of the long sleeve shirt

4. Cut the sleeves

5. folded the shirt over to make sure both sleeves were the same length

6. Turned the shirt inside out to hot glue the seam

That's it! The whole thing took five minutes and Stella was nice and cool.