All you private goers, reinvite me... would ya?

Kassi to be specific! You are always so good to comment on my posts and I can't even get into yours anymore. There are quite a few of you though. (Tracy too;) My email is shelligrins@yahoo.com

Thanksgiving Faces

Chris and Mikey

Gpa Dave, Me piggin out, jade, Sayd... Chloe

Mom and Chloe

Me and Chloe

Grams and Gramps turkeyin

The wonderful hostess... grandma Marge

Handsome Host... Grandpa Ira

Mike and Me

Oak and Sayd... can't hoard of the hunger any longer!

Getting ready to go

Beautiful smiley girl

(and check out those thighs!!!)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Some of the beautiful things that let you know you are in the right place at Thanksgiving. Grandma Marge does such a beautiful job making things look lavish and festive. I love her and my grandpa so much for all their hard work and efforts to continue to give me and my family a meal of tradition from the heart. It is becoming quite the job for them, yet they welcome us every year with open arms and smiles. I am thankful for all my family. I have so many family members and for that, I am blessed. We missed getting around to much of them and it was hard, but we had a great holiday all the same.

Ya think that's funny, Clo?!

I hate sharing the guts of this story, but the punchline won't work without it, so bear with me. We have two hounds, Max and Luigi. They are in our back yard and have quite a territory all their own to dominate. They turned out much larger than we had anticiapated or imagined. They are VERY smart dogs and sweet too. Nonetheless, they are HOUNDS, as I said before, and they are also teenagers as dog years go. So, when the wind catches our fence just right and it goes flying on open... it's as the gate speaks to the boys saying, "Go young dogs. Go and be free. Search and destroy. Explore and Master. Seek and Discover... Go and be freeeeee!" So, one cold morning, the wind had whispered to my gate, and the gate then encouraged my dogs. We looked out the window during breakfast only to see the gate flung wide open and not a second thought occurred about whether or not the dogs were still there.

We start yelling for them... breakfast is waiting. They never do come when called for, especially not during an adventure. After ten minutes or so in bare feet in the cold and both dogs trotting farther away with each call of their names, I retire back to the house and suggest we fetch them after eating. A few minutes later, I see Luigi and Max both in single file line prancing back to the house... A strange sight since they always run side by side and never back TO the house unless hours have passed. Then something else catches my eye... something is dangling from Weegie's mouth lifelessly and limp. He looks to be happier than normal. A smile is forming on either side of his mouth around this poor something. Max, behind him, looks ashamed... afraid... What IS that? I gasped. It was a kitten. A sweet, innocent, lifeless kitten. I screamed. Mike went and retrieved the kitten. Smacked Weegie on the nose. The rest of this part of the story is irrelevant and sad, so we'll skip the the punchline. Saydee had been helping us with the kitten. A rough life lesson... Death. She came in to see Chloe waiting for her. She felt the need to take blame for what her dogs had done and deliver the bad news to her younger, oblivious sister.

"Chloe, do you want to hear a really sad story that's not funny about your dog and my dog?," she begins. "Luigi, our dog, found a cutest baby kitten, grabbed it by the neck, and DIED it!

Chloe, loving her big sister so much and the engaging conversation, wriggled with excitement and laughter.

"Ya think that's funny, Clo?!," Saydee yelled with disgust. She looked to me, then her dad in disbelief of such an inappropriate reaction. We both assured her that her sister just loves her voice and cute face. She gradually let down her guard and you could physically see the tension leave her body. For a minute, though... for just a single minute, I think Saydee questioned the morale of her sister. "What a wicked litte person this baby DID turn out to be," I'm sure was the thought consuming her mind.

Love my girls. So cute!

Chiquita Banana!

(Chloe's FAVORITE!)

Yummy... leftovers...

Leave no corner (of my mouth) un...licked!

Scoopin' in some misses with the THUMB.

Once there was a snowman...

SMALL, small, small.

Too much excitement...

Four Months!

Chloe.

Chloe has been experiencing many firsts during this month, so I thought I should share. She will be five months on the eighteenth, but all these milestones have happened within this month...

1. Chloe experienced her first real 'belly laugh. Which is extremely contagious, adorable, and genuine. Her eyes light up and her whole body just melts.
2. She SLEEPS THROUGH THE NIGHT!!!! This is an amazing gift to both her and myself... well, to Mike too since I make him go get her when she wakes;) She sleeps til 4 am (it was 5 before the time change... I tried to explain this to her, but she doesn't seem to care).
3. She eats baby cereal. This attributes to the sleeping all night. Poor girl is just Hung-ry! She does enjoy eating very much (big surprise) but has a hard time keeping her thumb out of her mouth long enough to finish. It's a great new hobby for her, he he!
4. She rolls back to front and front to back and all around in a circle kindof like clock hands on a clock. I can't figure out how she does it yet, but one second she's heads up, then she's heads down... tick-tock, tick-tock.
5. She loves toys now. She's figured out how to grab things and move them straight to her mouth. Including my fry-holding hand... she got that to her mouth once too. She was that of a hungry parana!
6. She has outgrown her shoes, though her feet haven't grown. She used to be able to wear newborn shoes because her feet were so small, but now they are too chubby from top to bottom, so though they haven't grown in length, they no longer fit... and, the bigger sizes just come off. So, she's been sportin socks for awhile.
7. First Halloween, costumes, and trick-or-treating! This didn't phase her much, but she sure was cute!
   
   

Happy Halloween from Oz...

Mom, Do we have a rope???

I have been getting a lot of commentary on a recent Saydee-ism, so I thought I better share with all. My grandma Lynne broke her hip during the latter part of June. For any of you who don't know my grandma, don't get the wrong idea. She is not some frail, weak, 'grandma' of a grandma. She is a VERY strong-bodied, strong-minded, sharp, motivated, busy woman. She has more energy than me the majority of the time and, to give her a little less confidence, don't let ME fool you either... she's not even an oldy. Both her and my mother were young mommas, making her under 40 when I was born. Sorry, Grams if that's too much info:).. gotta set the scene! Ok, so she broke her hip by tripping over this so-called 'dog' named Britches. She is a very large snorting, stinky, slow and overweight bull dog, who despite my description is adorable, but BIG nonetheless.

A week or so after surgery on her hip, my grandma and Grandpa Dave came over for a visit when they were in town. They had been to the grocery store and were driving the bug which is already small when unoccupied, so there was only room for bum number one and bum number two. No room for Saydee's bum. Sayd hadn't seen Grams and Gramps for several days, maybe even a week. Before Chloe came around and prior to the big hip ordeal, we visited our grandparents every Monday for supper, so this separation was just too much for Sayd. She REALLY, REALLY wanted to go to their house, but Grandpa just kept telling her there was no room. As a joke Grandpa said, "We'd have to pull Grandma behind the car if you came." Saydee paused for only a moment. Looked up at me and said, "Mom, do we have any rope???"

Trip to Grandma Lynne's Work

So, the measurements are in! At 2 1/2 months, Chloe is 22.5 inches long and 12 lbs. She is just below the 50th percentile in height and just above it in weight (surprise, surprise!). For height to weight she is exactly at 50 percent. So, just an average lil, beautiful, sweet, precious babe.

Saydee is just above the 50th for height and at about the 25th percentile for weight. Polar opposite from her baby sis in every way;)

Busy Bee, Miss Saydee

Itty Bitty Ball
Prizes

Catchin.... grounders???

Very Tiring Princess Parties

Story Time

Dancin!

Pose

Pose

Pose!

Drill Team Clinic

Two Months!

So, I'm a little late on the two month mark post, but got the picture on time;)

This is little Chloe on August 18, 2009. Isn't she preciously chunky!?! We just love her to pieces. What a sweetie! She hasn't been to her 2month check up yet. We are going to the health dept since grandma Lynne works there. Also, I haven't found a pediatrician I love... or like, for that matter. I'll update with her stats (and shots reaction :( ) soon. I do know she weighs TWELVE pounds though! Chunky-monkey!

Happy Two Months, Sister.

Love you.

Natural Born Cowgirl

Saydee took third (out of three:D) in the horse show last weekend. She knew just where her hands should be and how her feet should point just so. She knew to hold her head up high and sit up tall. She knew to flash that gorgeous smile, but... she did NOT know how to do this when Fred started to jog! Whew! What a surprise! She was adorable, brave, and exstatic... and I was so PROUD!

Princess Tea Party