Daddy Daughter Valentine Dance

Daddy took Tressa out to dinner -- Noodles & Company.  Then they made a quick stop into Home Depot.  And then on to church for the Daddy-Daughter Dance.  They had a blast!  Tressa got a corsage and they had their picture taken together.  Then they did a couple crafts and had ice cream and punch.  And they danced, danced, danced.  They were inexhaustible!

Family Heirloom

While at my parents house over Christmas, I came across this beautiful quilt.  It was made by my great-grandmother, my dad's dad's mother.  I love the fruit appliques.  It is perfect on Tressa's bed!  (And that "hungry caterpillar" she stole from Hayden is perfect with this quilt!)

To Mom. Love, Tressa

Creative...

...and sweet!

The Way Brothers Are, Part III

Sweet.

Tressa is the Personification of Cuteness

Little Twinsies

My sister Katie and I get a big kick out of dressing our kids alike!

Charlotte, Tressa, Hayden, Noah

Tressa Never Saw It Coming

...but Meghan did.

"OH NO!  Here we go!"

And the front of the tube sank, causing the girls to plummet headlong into the lake!

Swimming back to the boat... Tressa sporting the "drenched-puppy" look.

When It's 100 Degrees (and every other summer day)

This is the best summer toy EVER for the preschool crowd:

We have this water table on the deck and inside a screened canopy.  The little ones stay cool, shaded, and entertained for an hour or so.  I go about my business inside where it's a comfy 78 degrees.  Ahhhhh.  Yesterday I brought out the shampoo and showered the little monkeys on the deck with the hose.  It was THAT hot that the cool hose water felt good on their stinky little heads.

The Way Brothers Are

victory plunge

A girly-girl always wears her accessories...

This picture was taken at Meghan's field hockey tournament... but the attire is typical of Tressa, no matter where we go!

In case you can't see, Tressa is wearing sunglasses, a headband (Vera Bradley no less), two purses, silly bands, a charm bracelet, a huge jewel ring, a necklace, and a sticker.  What style!!

Middlings' Birthdays... Evan 8, Tressa 5

So many pictures to comb through... (the curse of the digital camera!)  Here is a sampling:

Seeing Double

Twins!

Meme and Pops gave Tressa a Bitty Baby this past weekend.  She LOVES it!  She named her doll "Messa".  (She's into rhymes right now.)

Bad Hair Day

But it's no match for Tressa's baby bad hair days of yore:

YIKES.

How 'bout that bow?  It's kind of like putting lipstick on a pig.

GASP!  How could Tressa's own mommy say something so horrible?

Because her hair is the pig, not Tressa herself!

But really I LOVED her bad hair!  And it still makes me smile.

☺

"Bright and Sunny"

a.k.a. "H-ee and Tabone"

I ♥ Midgets

H-midge

Megha-midge

T-midge

another H-midge -- an oldie but a goodie

T - Talk

This morning while I was brushing Tressa's hair, she says to me,

"Does hair have bones?"

"Bows?"

"No, BONES."

"No, hair does not have bones."

"So there's no such thing as hair-bones."

"Right." ☺

Then she says,

"Do dinosaurs like underwear?"

"What?  To eat or to wear?"

"To wear."

"I don't think anyone made big enough underwear for them."

"Noooo!  The cavemen's underwear.  But it was small on them."
"Oh.  You're silly!"
Tressa giggles.  ☺

Oh how we missed thee, backyard!

Playing with the 'doh.

A girly-girl always wears her tiara.

Singers and standards Swingers and standers.

Evan has freakishly strong hands for a 7-year-old.

Very little genetic variation between these two handsome fellas.

4-year-olds say the cutest things...

This morning Tressa was playing with this Leap Frog recording thingy and it said: "after the beep, say the longest word you know".  I was curious to see what she would say... and without skipping a beat she says, "anti-disestablishment" and then she trailed off. HOW CUTE! It was totally out of the blue. She must have been trying to say, "anti-disestablishmentarianism" which we had told Meghan some time ago was the word with the most syllables. I tell you, that girl is always listening and remembering.

A couple weeks ago I was singing, "You're so cute, you probably think this song is about you, you're so cute, so cute," etc. So Tressa looked at me, arms akimbo, and said, "is that song about me?" It was very sweet (and cute of course!)  I had forgotten all about this incident until a week later when we were in the van and "You're So Vain" (by Carly Simon) came on the radio. As soon as she heard the chorus, Tressa piped up, "Mom! This is where you got the "you're so cute song" from!"

"Daddy, hold me!"

Hmmmm, this works.  The daddy of all arm chairs!  I love it!