Clyde knows how to sleep

I ADORE sleeping pictures. I have them in excess. All three of my children exhibit their personalities in the way they sleep.

Lucy bundles up, sweet and cozy. Just like her precious precious little self. She wears warm cozy jammies and has a big puffy cloud that she wraps around herself and we have to dig around in the cloud to find her sweet face and kiss it good night.

Iris (who sleeps in the same room as Lucy) sleeps in the (ahem) buff (almost). Always! And she sleeps straight as a little board. She always looks like she's in complete control even in her sleep. She has a very queenly look on her face. She sleeps ON TOP of her covers. Always. We have given up trying to cover Her Majesty. She frowns in her sleep and kicks the offending things back off.

Now, CLYDE KNOWS HOW TO SLEEP. It is incredible. I guess it's because he's high energy ALL DAY and needs deep sleep for survival. I take lots of sleeping pictures of him, so I can show him one day, how he instantly fell asleep growing up.

You've heard of falling asleep the moment your head hits the pillow?

That's Clyde.

and yes, he really is asleep. oh, he is SO asleep.

this was taken about 2 minutes after we sent them to bed with "sleeping books".

Smoky II

On day two, we met up with my Uncle Norman and went through Cade's Cove....

The colors were GOR-GEE-OUS!!! ....and it wasn't bumper to bumper traffic, like it normally is in the fall!

We walked the fields,

observed the newly-weds with the matching red fleeces tied around their waists :)

talked to horses,

sat on logs,

popped our heads through sunroofs (the kids favorite thing about Cade's Cove)

and set the camera up to take a big group shot in front of this God-painted mountain

Smoky

We certainly seem to love us some Smoky Mountains around here...we go alot. Sometimes on business, sometimes on pleasure. But we always put our Grandad/Grandmom-bought Dollywood passes to GOOD use!

This time (and I'm way late posting this cause of picture-related-technical-difficulties) Mom took us all up there for mine and Sherry's birthdays ( I'm 30 this year!). I adore this picture of Mom, Sherry and I.

Day 1 we went to Dollywood, of course........family pic
Nina and kidswhole group pic
Our first trip with new bro-in-law. The kids put him to good use. Actually alot of my favorite pictures are of mine and Sherry's husbands being such good sports on the kiddie rides!

Can't really tell in this picture, but those two boys in the front are Clyde and David. My little dude is quite the six-year-old-thrill-seeker.

Stephen was awesomely calming and patient with older two on the ropes course...and it was Rissy's first year to be big enough!...and this one officially cracks me up :)

God's Voice

After disciplining Iris today, I questioned her (as I often do)...

"Honey, you do know that when you disobey Mommy, you disobey God, right? You know that God tells you to obey Mommy and Daddy?"

"Well...no. I don't hear Him. I wish He would say it so I could HEAR Him."

"Well Sweetie, the Bible is His Word and He says it in there...you're probably not going to get to hear His actual voice say that to you, but I can read it to you."

"Okay, Mommy, but my nose is still running from crying. I need a tennis shoe to blow it."

Bad Guys, BEWARE

I was having a hard time rolling out of bed this morning...I'm ashamed to say I was there until 9:30. What finally roused me, were 3 very serious faces hovering over mine.

"Mommy, there are 3 guys on the roof across the street"- L

"Yeah, Mommy, and we've decided that they're BAD guys" -C

"So, can we put our super hero costumes on and go fight them away?!"- I

"Guys, they're just roofers." - Me (still groggy)

"WOW! MOMMY FIGURED OUT THE MYSTERY! YAY MOMMY!" -C

Now, of course, I'm regretting my logic. I mean how cool would it have been, if I had been awake enough to realize the humor possibilities in this situation. I wish so badly, I had looked very grave and told them to "suit up". I just wonder what they would have done once I let their super-selves out of the door.

*sigh* I'll never know.

Conversation

Iris- "Abby, do you want to play super heroes?"

Abby Leigh- "NO! I am a girl! I play princesses"

Iris- "Well, I will tell you a secret...Wonder Woman is a super hero AND a princess."

Abby Leigh- "hmph"

Iris- "But alas, I have lost my lasso of truth"

Me (thinking to myself)- " 'alas' really?! you're four."

Reformation Celebration/ Halloween

I ADORE costumes. I have always adored costumes. I have always dreamed of going to a masquerade ball!! My kids are the same way. I don't mind buying a new costume every year, because we don't just use it to trick-or-treat once a year...we wear them on a daily basis everywhere we go. We go to costume stores year round just for fun (but we only buy once a year).

This year was kind of weird though...Lucy always knows what she wants. As soon as one Halloween is over she knows what she wants for the next year and she NEVER changes her mind.

This year she changed from a 50's poodle skirt girl, to Jessie from Toy Story to.....well you'll see.

Iris thought she wanted to be a mermaid, but changed her mind.

Clyde took FOREVER to decide what he wanted to be...he decided at the store.

First we did trick-or at Grandad's and Grandmom's early in Oct. Then we had Reformation Celebration at church. Then we TRIED to trick-or-treat, but because of the whole Saturday vs. Sunday thing, we only got 4 or 5 houses in.

Lucy was Violet Incredible.

Iris was Wonder Woman.

Clyde was a ninja. (since he couldn't stand still for a pic, I put in 2)

Some fun pics from the Reformation Celebration.