The Kind and Beautiful Princess: A Happy Story

Once upon a time, there was a kind and beautiful princess who never liked the flashbulbs of her nation's paparazzi.


She didn't want attention, she only wanted to nurture and care for her subjects. The princess loved to pamper, making sure that each citizen had a lovey and a blanket, no matter how small...


Or large and disturbing.


There was nothing the beautiful princess loved more than inviting friends over and dressing them in her favorite finery


And serving them delicious foods


at her grand table.


But our princess doesn't do any of this for attention or glory so we will leave her...


And let her care for her little friends in peace.


The End.

Mobile Moments

This weekend was a mama and Autumn weekend! Mike and the community group guys went on a trip to Petit Jean State Park for their retreat so Autumn and I got to hang out Friday through Sunday. Now, I was expecting Mike to send us photos of the mountains, the cabin, streams...you know, something outdoorsy? But no. He sent me two photos. Here they are along with the emails in their entirety.

Breakfast!


Meat!


By the way, Autumn is watching me type and she said about the meat picture, "well, THAT is just GROSS." Ha! Although we were pretty busy while Mike was gone, I didn't take many photos but I did realize I haven't done a mobile photo post in a while. A lot of times, the most entertaining pictures I get are the ones I send to friends and family. Like this one,


That's a kid happy to go to school! And lately, Autumn's been helping me shop. First she just pushed the cart. She calls this stretch of floor at Kroger the "gentle floor" because it is next to tile that's really bumpy. :)


But last week Autumn graduated to "being a mama." She brought her bag with a cell phone, notepad and pen and she made a list. Every time we put something in the cart, she'd circle it on her list. And once in a while, she'd get her phone out to send an email or make a call. She called Lula to see if she needed oranges.


I just thought this was sweet.


Poor Molly. Autumn is always trying to do things for her. Molly's quite a bit more patient than anyone expected, though. She stayed while Autumn put together a cat picnic.


And actually spent some time in the cat tent Autumn built for her.


Oh, haha, this is Autumn after school. I can't remember why she was grumpy (other than that she doesn't nap at school) but she rode with her face like this the whole 20 minutes home.


Some of you guys saw this on facebook, but here is Autumn cleaning the toilets. She likes to help clean the bathroom which is an interest I'm hoping to cultivate. :D


But here's the funny thing: she was wearing four hats.


The whole time.


Until, of course, she changed into her cape and got her magic star that sends out a zapper that kills all the bad germs. My friend Will has dubbed Autumn THE PORCELANCER.


Here we are being slightly more normal. Autumn's sticker chart has evolved into every night she goes without an accident. After January, she got to use the gift card Uncle Donnie and Aunt Liz gave her at Paint A Piece.


She actually did a remarkably good job with minimal help from me. Do you see the smiley face on the cone part?


Awww, and to end on a cute note...here's Biscuit. Autumn put Biscuit to sleep inside a pair of her sweatpants and said that the striped sock is Biscuit's lovey. So sweet.


And those are glimpses of our silly every day life!

Foof, birthdays, and imaginary boats!

I was on the news last night! For like, 2 seconds, but still. It was kind of fun. :) You can, of course, read about what I was doing and see the clip at Passing Pinwheels!

The rest of the week has been pretty normal, haha. I was sick a good chunk of it so I don't have all that many photos but I have a few that I haven't posted since I've been doing vacation recap. I don't know if I really mentioned it here, but Mike turned 35 this month! Awwww, we're getting so grown up! The weird thing is that, in many ways, neither of us feels particularly grown up in the sense that...well, we don't have everything as in hand and under control as we imagined we'd be back when we were kids.


Here's Autumn with Lainey at Mike's birthday dinner. Autumn was hamming it up big time so this is the best we could do.


She loved her dress. I think Santa Lainey got it for her for Christmas. Although it wasn't quite Valentine's Day, I couldn't resist putting Autumn in it. I had her hair all braided but it just didn't survive.


For some reason, I feel really, really nostalgic when I see this photo. I don't know, like I'm going to blink my eyes and that's going to be a wedding dress or something, you know?


Now, something funny before WE ALL GET SAD:


This is Autumn's boat. Sometimes it's a rocket. But lately it's a boat. The day we took these pictures, the boat was Lula powered. So. Funny. My mom would put her feet on the back of the box and give it a big shove and then pull it back to her and do it all over again, Autumn cackling the whole time. We couldn't quite figure out how she got herself all scrunched up in the box. Look at her, her head is in the middle of the box.


This month, Autumn also got to go to a birthday party. They had a pinata, the real kind that you hit, not just one you pull strings out of! It took foreeevvvverrrr for them to break it open but, guess what? Autumn's the one who did it! I didn't get a photo of it, but here she is gathering her spoils.


Then she celebrated her victory with some drums.


And CAKE.


:) And that's it for tonight! Now I am off to soak myself in tylenol and muscle rub, ha!

More Beachy Days!

Welcome to the last of our beach photos! It's a little weird to be posting these because it's seriously 28 degrees right now. I'm kind of hoping it'll snow tomorrow but with our luck it'll sleet enough to close the gym and make the drive home awful and then be gone by Tuesday! So, let me dream of being at the beach again...

Here's Autumn entertaining herself with a flashlight. She shined it on the ceiling in such a way that it reflected onto the windows and then cackled maniacally.


Autumn attempted to hold Hudson but I think she didn't have a good grip because, man, she looks uncomfortable here! So funny.


DO YOU SEE HOW GROWN UP SHE IS. I JUST CAN'T.


We wandered on the beach a little Friday, as you could see in the photos, but Saturday we got to spend more time out there. It was remarkably nice for January. I don't know what was up with Autumn but she wore a bathing suit and played in the water even though it was a little chilly even for Mike.


We didn't really expect to play in the water but I put Autumn in a swimsuit just so she wouldn't get her clothes wet. Ryan, well. He figured Tyler couldn't get too wet.


And he didn't. But he did take off his pants. And then...


In other news...I got to hit a golf ball around for the first time. I kind of want to learn to play golf. It felt pretty awkward but not so awkward I never want to do it again. The body mechanics are pretty similar to throwing someone so I had some luck. I hit the ball the first time and hit it more often than not. I hear that's not too shabby!


Oh, there are still a few tar balls around. Yuck.


CANNONBALLLLLLLL!


I feel like this should be an invisible bike meme.


This is the face of a little lady plotting mischief...


This past year, Autumn has really come out of her shell in many ways. She still can take a while to warm up in a crowd, but she's gotten pretty comfortable with the family. I told the Kyle story last post and here she is playing water dragons with Ryan. And then in the hot tub, she was floating around him and sitting by him. Crazy!


Ok, I'm just going to be honest. These pictures are in this post just because I like her faces.







And that's it for the Autumn face parade. :) I do have a couple of cute ones to add...P'd and Lindsay:


Dawwww. So sweet. And another so sweet:


Kyle and Lindsay. I feel like that one should be on a greeting card. :)

Until next week!