Pretending to be Jackie (the First Lady - not Brody's Mom)

Lola is getting in some airplane time before her first flight to Florida by taking tours of retired Air Force One planes. When Daddy asked "Lola do you think you are the President?" her answer was "yeah"

More photos here.

Cookies with Santa

Lola and Sam went to see Santa today at their school. The event was called "Cookies with Santa" Lola had very little Santa time but did eat 3 cookies and a candy cane so it wasn't a wash.

Click here to see the events unfold.

best seat in the house

OTHER OPTIONS:

the sofa

rocking horse

high chair

the floor

super fun green chair

Yo Gabba Gabba mat

music to my ears

I wish many things for Lola like health and happiness. I wish that she grows into a strong (not manly strong) independent woman. I will do my best to raise her to appreciate everything that life has to offer and so far I think I'm doing an ok job because what she does appreciate is her Mothers singing voice. No one else appreciates that.

I do wish that Lola develops a better singing voice than I have. Aaron likes to tell me when I sing that "it's like angels came down from heaven and crapped in my ear" WHAT? Come on, it's not that bad. Anyway, Lola has a perfect little singing voice, something she got that didn't take after me.

Pajama Party Time

Rowan was over tonight for a pajama party with Lola while his parents hit the town in all their glory (staying out until almost midnight- wahooo party). He was a little upset with his parents when they left but Aaron distracted him with some really cool Hot Wheel cars. We had some play time, Lola had her bath while Rowan watched and then they ate a bunch of cookies before bed. Once Rowan figured out where we keep the cookies (in the Santa cookie jar) he stood right there by the kitchen counter asking for "more" until bed time. OK, not really the whole time but a lot of the time. In fact they have their mouths stuffed with cookies in the above photo.
Grandma Joni was here tonight to help keep things in line because when there are two toddlers and one 8 year old you pretty much need a full time Grandma in the house.



pajama party time, jumping around, pajama party time, jumping around.

Amy Sedaris loved by all ages

I was first introduced to Amy Sedaris when she played the hilarious Jerri Blank on Strangers with Candy, one of the greatest shows ever in the history of TV. She has had small parts in films like Elf and Bewitched. She played the cat loving girlfriend on My Name is Earl and has been on The Colbert Report (just to name a few). But most recently we saw her on Lola's favorite show Yo Gabba Gabba, she played the Tooth Fairy! As I was glued to the TV back in 2000 watching every episode of Strangers Lola and Rowan were glued tonight watching the Tooth Fairy. How cute is this? Not only are they watching YGG but they are sitting on the YGG mat.
Kids today...

Christmas tree decorated with live cats

The holidays are here and I am SO EXCITED! I finally got the house decorated and I say finally because I was ready to decorate in July but in an effort not to annoy my neighbors I waited until the day after Thanksgiving which seems to be a tradition since moving into this old farm house. A woman from the neighborhood across the street stopped to tell me how nice and inviting our house looks with the Christmas lights up.
Ian helped me put the ornaments on the tree, we did this while Lola took her afternoon nap. The look on her face when she saw it was awesome! Her jaw dropped and when she gained control to speak she said "tree". Nothing gets past that girl.
Our little kitty Gabbi is something else. I forget what it's like to have a kitten in the house. This one has the energy of an entire litter wrapped up into one small kitten. I was in the kitchen when I saw some shenanigans going on in the living room. The tree was moving and sure enough there she was climbing up. She climbed the tree three times that day. The novelty of having a tree in the living room seems to have worn off as she hasn't climbed it since Friday evening.
Gabbi is crazy, she fits in well around here.

P.S. HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANGELA!!!!

Thanksgiving Day skate

We had a very nice Thanksgiving Day this year. It was just the four of us and I cooked up all of our favorite dishes. We had turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, everyones favorite corn pudding, green bean casserole, stuffing, cranberry sauce straight from the can, pumpkin pie and a fruit pizza that I made Wednesday as a special treat. We have been eating leftovers all weekend and as of today have polished everything off.
While waiting for the turkey Lola and her Daddy went out to the pole barn for a skate. This is one of her favorite activities.


Lola's teacher has requested a family photo for the book at school so we set up the self timer on Aaron's camera and took this one without realizing how much water Lola spilled on her shirt. Nice one. First family photo in front of the tree this year and it's ruined! She's not even looking at the camera! arugh!

photo overload

Since I'm so far behind with my blogging I've decided to take a bunch of photos from the last month and cram them into one folder on picasa. I can't explain my lack of blogging. I fell like I've been so busy but if you ask me what I'm busy doing I'm not sure I can answer that. Seems like the normal stuff, you know, being a Mom. If I get a few minutes to myself I just want to relax and watch episodes of Whatever, Martha! that I record on the DVR.
For now enjoy all of the photos, there are a lot of them.

segregated at school

Lately Lola has been protesting nap time at school. When she does finally fall asleep for a half hour she wakes up the other kids by saying "HI" to them. Lola's teachers are trying a new approach, putting her alone by the cubbies while the rest of the crew is on the other side of the classroom. When she wakes up she has some quiet time with a teacher until her friends wake up.
Lola is so excited for her friend Rowan to start in her class next month. I'm sure they have all kinds of shenanigans planned for those teachers.
More photos below since it's been a while since I've posted photos of Lola in the pre-toddler room.

Editor's note: I realize that there is a blanket over Lola's face in the above photo. She does this herself, Lola has to sleep with her face covered or she doesn't sleep.


Lola and Ms Michelle


Lola and Miss Bettina

diggin for gold...

... heads up, this is the family photo we have chosen for our holiday cards this year.

C is for cookie

C is for cookie it's good enough for me
OH cookie cookie cookie starts with C

Tony Packo's is Awesome!

After work yesterday Lola and I headed to Toledo for dinner. This wasn't a regular dinner because who drives 2 hours to have dinner in Toledo and then drives home? Us. BUT only because Lola's Grandpa is in town this weekend closing up the car wash for the winter. We got to see a lot of super cool people like my friend Sam, the Fikes and Kelsey who works at Tony Packos.

It was worth the trip to see everyone even if only for a short time.

We love you Grandpa Chuck!

Halloween photos... finally!

Lola had a busy Halloween week. The Saturday before she met up with Rowan and Max for their annual kids fest celebration at Faketown. Lola, Rowan and Max have gone to this every Halloween of their lives! They should totally get some kind of attendance award.
Gigi came to town for a few days and was with Lola when she went trick or treating and to her school for the fall festival. Lola got to skip 3 days of school to hang out with her Gigi. They had so much fun together and we miss her already... come back Gigi!

Halloween photos here!

quick video

I am so far behind on blogging. I promise as soon as I get some time to spend on it I will post photos from Halloween. This has been a crazy busy week. I have something going each night this week after work. Yesterday while I was at the dentist Aaron took this quick video of Lola using his cell phone. They were out in his truck since playing in the truck is new the greatest thing ever.
Pretty cute for sure.
Enjoy for now and more to follow in a few days.