To You and Yours....

BOO!

AAAAAAAaaaaaahhhhhh!




Not really, I guess. The only scary thing about these pictures of the girls on Halloween is that it took me almost 3 weeks to share them. Maybe that's not scary, really. Maybe bordering on a bit sad, a bit embarrassing, a bit... nevermind.





Caelin played the oh-so-fun game of musical costumes this year. She wanted to be a Corpse Bride, so we ordered her a beautiful lilac dress that we could distress with mud and scissors, and add a nice raggy veil to.



Said beautiful dress arrived, and the only thing that got distressed was Caelin, with the thought of ruining her pretty new dress. Corpse Bride was quickly abandoned for Newly Dead Model (no decomposing of the dress), then finally Model, so that pretty makeup could be added.

Gracie decided to be a vet this year, because she loves taking care of her doggies. Mean old me wouldn't let her take the dogs out trick-or-treating to torment the neighbor kids, so she chose a snuggly little Webkinz instead.

And she spent the day and evening correcting everyone that called her a Cute Little Doctor. No, actually, she would pull my leg and whisper to me to correct them. Such fun, being bossed around by a 4 year old. A lot.

But who could say no to that little face? Or the other little face, really. I spend entire days around here just trying to say no to cute little girly faces and failing miserably.

I guess there are worse ways to spend your days.

Love is in the Air

Caelin and Grace Wonitoy are honored to announce

the wedding of their doggie

Daisy

to

Dozer

Saturday, August 16

Two thousand and eight.

By four o'clock, the preparations for the upcoming nuptials were complete. The bells and tulle had been hung, the wedding feast (tacos, of course) had been prepared, and margaritas were well under way.

The bride and groom had both shed their cases of "cold paws" and were ready to get this show on the road and get hitched. The likelihood that this was a canine shotgun wedding was not even brought up once.

Unfortunately, some of the honored guests didn't quite understand the sanctity of such an event, (yes, you know who you are), and arrived an hour late, when most of the margaritas had been consumed (and I'm not saying by whom) and the officiant was starting to get antsy.

That's the officiant, right there. The husband. Waiting to perform a doggie wedding.

Now, just as an aside, would you call that an amused expression on his face, there? Bemused? Or just resigned? I'm just curious, I kind of get that look alot and I'm not quite sure if I should be insulted or not.

Anyhoo, the wedding finally began and the bride and groom performed beautifully. Neither one of them soiled the beautiful white wedding arch, which was apparently a bet going around with the guests. Nice, guys.

Daisy took her vows seriously. She's the well-trained one.

Or, at least she was, until she decided to show off her wedding night attire to everyone who would look. Show off. Nobody told her she was supposed to pull that kind of a stunt at the shower, not at such a sacred event as her own wedding. Shocking, really.

The bride and groom were happy to feast at the head table, though my suspicion is that despite getting their own special meal, many of the guests were feeding them tacos. I won't share why I suspect such a thing, because such talk is icky and stinky and gross. Enough said.

In all, a good time was had by everyone, and we would like to wish the happy couple all the doggy blessings in the world. Now let's see some puppies!

Our Twisted Little World

Um, I'm not sure which one is more strange. The fact that Daisy finds it perfectly acceptable to snuggle up to a partially-completed doll head...


or that my darling children accept that a tiny dog sleeping with an eyeless amputated doll head is perfectly normal.

No matter, I suppose.

Growing up in the home of a doll maker has grown them perfectly accustomed to seeing heads and limbs go in and out of the oven, boxes of eyeballs on the kitchen counter, and Mommy listening to documentaries on Discovery channel while repeatedly stabbing hair into a baby's head for hours at a time.

Yeah, normal is definitely relative at our house. Sorry, girls.

My Heart is Broken

My beloved Grandfather, one of the most special people I have ever known, passed away suddenly in his sleep on Thursday night.

An amazing man, my Grampa taught me to reach for the stars, and I always worked so hard to make him proud. He loved life, and radiated such warmth and love that everyone around him felt happier just to be with him.

I'll miss you, Grampa. I don't think I will ever fill the hole that is in my heart from your loss.

Babies, Babies, and More Babies

I have been back to baby-making full-speed, so our house is once again filled with parts everywhere and the smell of baking vinyl. Yum.

The girls are loving it, because it means fast and easy suppers (like pancakes, or spaghetti), and less Mommy-interference in their little games.

Poor Caelin has a nasty ear infection, and has been not well since Saturday night. She is missing a field trip today, and she is none too happy about it. Ryan has promised her a "bigger, better" trip once she is feeling better, so she has resigned herself to the fact that it is one more day on the couch for her.

Anyway, here are some pictures of my recent babies, I've been updating the site too, at http://www.dreambabydolls.com/ It is an ongoing project, but one I'm hoping to complete soon. I'll be back with pictures of my real babies - my girls - this weekend, I swear.

The Daredevil Emerges

... at the sledding hill. And, not shockingly, the Daredevil would be Gracie. In response to her big sister's pleas of "No, no, we're high enough!", Gracie yelled "Higher, Faster, Higher, Daddy!"

Yup, like we didn't see that coming. At least her Aunt Steffanie will have someone to ride the roller coasters with in a few years, right? Then she can get it out of her system and avoid all the future teenage nastiness with fast cars and the boys who drive them. Right.

The girls learned quickly the fastest and easiest way up the hill, of course.

They also quickly learned, however, that payback is a bitch.

Despite Mommy's frozen toes, the girls loved the ups and downs and ups and downs, and after awhile were able to coax Daddy off of the sled so they could have some parent-free fun.

And of course, some of that speacial sister-to-sister bonding that happens when the nosies are pink and the toesies are frozen.

He Finally Did It ! ! ! !

Not that I would ever admit to being picky, because that is *so* not in my nature (the admitting) , but in the past the husband has proved less than fabulously successful in picking out gifts for me.

He tries harder than most, he really does, and he has come up with brilliant ideas in the past. It isn't his fault that the super-cool floor washing robot didn't actually get the floors clean. Perhaps in a few years the technology will be vastly improved and the little robot will do more than shoot water and suck it up, leaving no more little footprints in its wake.

The vacuum that I got last year was well-received, even if the most important part of the gift, the promising to use it *for* me, was forgotten by the first week in January. Sigh.

But this year, THIS year, I got the best present ever! In collaboration with my brilliant Caelin, he finally got the reaction he has tried for for SOOOO many years: tears under the tree. I'm blaming it on hormones ('cause we women-folk can do that), but when I opened the gift that I am about to share with you all, I actually cried.

Okay, here it is. Now, it was a set of 3 photos that I received, but it was this one that got me.


Isn't she just gorgeous? Sure, the cheesy photoshopping with the fairies is cute and all, but look at her face. Just look at it.


In all the kajillion photos that I have taken of this child, none have shown her like this. This is my girl. Her pure, sweet nature. Her gorgeous smile. It is just so. Her.


So, husband, you finally did it. Let's give him all a fantabulous hand! Maybe next year, I'll get a picture of *both* my girls, but this year, honey, you did great! Thank you.

As the dust clears...

My apologies for having had to step away from the blog so long. After a wonderful and happy Christmas in which the girls were spoiled *rotten*, and during which we enjoyed spending lots of time with our family and friends, we were quite blindsided by some disheartening events in my family beyond our control.

In the end, as the dust settles in the aftermath, my girls and husband are great. I'm still sorting a lot out, but I'll get there too, I know.

I'll be back soon with some recent pictures of the girls, and I'll share with you what I think was my best Christmas gift *ever*.