Wait! It's Not Over!

I write this from a comfortable seat on the couch at home. We flew home this morning, waking up at four in the morning, taking two planes (one sitting by very pleasant young people, the other sitting by not as pleasant old people) to get here.

As you might imagine, having awakened at four am, I am exceedingly tired, but I wanted to post to say I'm not done yet. I'm going to do a few more posts to round things up, so I hope you'll stick around!

Grandpa's visit

Kay, so Blogger is being completely and utterly annoying and won't let me see what I've done and the pictures aren't showing up, they're long strings of gibberish words and... *calms self down*

Anyway, rather than just stew and consider throwing my laptop across the room, I shall just say what I meant to say here and you'll just have to decide for yourselves where it should have been in the post. Okay?

Dad is here to visit/take me home on Monday. Of course I have mixed feelings about going home, but we'll discuss that another time, preferably when Blogger isn't being so aggravating. The girls have loved having him here. They were a little shy at first, but within a few hours of his arrival they were covering him in their toys and books, showing off their treasures. Pretty adorable.

The Cuteness

My sweet Abby.

Charlie has a new hat.

You like?

Mia is so curious about my camera.

She wants it. Wants it now.

Belly button show by Mia. Picture by me.

New fences; new hangouts

We recently rearranged the gates in the downstairs. We got rid of the clunky chair/bag of rice/chair trio that was guarding the way between the couches and put up gates at the base of the stairs and at the entryway to the kitchen.

The girls have loved the extra space. In fact, they now spend probably 60% of their time out in the hallway instead of in the family room/play area. And of that 60% spent in the hallway, 60% is spent on the little linoleum square before the front door. I don't know why they like it so much -- it's cold in the mornings and slippery to walk on in socks -- but they do.

By the way, do you like the sweatpants? It's been getting colder, so they spend lots of time in them.

The little red ribbons they are wearing are actually connected to the bells they received at the Polar Express themed ward Christmas party we went to last Saturday. Sadly, I did not take my camera, so I've no pictures. Ashlee does though.

If you look closely, you will find that all three girls are in the above picture. Charlie is hiding behind the corner, sitting (of course) on the linoleum square.

All that room to play in, and they are all three congregated right there on that little four by four patch of slippery, cold linoleum. *shakes head and grins* Silly, adorable girls.

Random Video Post! YAY!

There will be more eventually. But videos take forever to load, so you've got to give me a little time.

EDIT: One more.

Thanksgiving Part 2

The second part of Thanksgiving, unfortunately, does not involve pictures. So settle in for some reading.

You know, every time I use the word Unfortunately, it reminds me of a book my parents would read to me as a child, and that, as I got older, I would read to myself and, even older, to my nephews. The copy I read from was old, secondhand; it belonged to my dad before me. It was his favorite book as a kid, and his name, in his child's handwriting, is written on the inside of the cover.

In the book, the main character goes through a series of mishaps that then turn out favorable. You know. Fortunately, Ned was invited to a surprise party. But Unfortunately, the party is a thousand miles away. Fortunately, his friend loans him his airplane. Unfortunately, the motor explodes. But Fortunately, he falls into water and survives. However, Unfortunately, the water has crocodiles. Fortunately, though, Ned can swim. Et cetera, et cetera.

I think a lot of life is like that. Like, for instance,

Unfortunately, Mia got a cold while my Mom was here, which she then passed on to her sisters.

Fortunately, she was pretty much done with hers by the time theirs really kicked in so there was always at least one happy, healthy baby to cheer us up.

Unfortunately, we got in that accident last month.

Fortunately, no one was hurt.

Unfortunately, it's been getting colder and colder here lately.

Fortunately, that means Christmas is right around the corner.

So I guess that's what I'm thankful for this Thanksgiving. I'm thankful that for every Unfortunately, there's always a Fortunately. For every bad thing that happens, there's always something good to counteract it. There's always a flip side. And the story always, always ends with Fortunately.

That's what I'm giving thanks for this season; that there is always something to give thanks for... if you can find it.

Thanksgiving Part 1

Next up we have Mimi and Poppy's visit for Thanksgiving. Aunt Randa and cousins came to visit for a couple days too, but I didn't get any pictures.

For something fun to do while Mimi and

Poppy were here, it was decided upon that we would go to the zoo.

Charlie discovered her nose during the long long drive to the zoo.

"Ew, Charlie. Just ew," quoth Mia.

Unfortunately, as you may have read on Ashlee's blog, the zoo parking lot was completely full. Completely. Not a single empty spot. So, rather than just turn right around and take another long long trip home with babies becoming more and more tired of their car seats, we searched out a park and let the girls roam.

There was a playground, but it was obviously for older kids, so the girls mostly ran around in a big baseball field.

"Let me out!"

"Wazzat?"

Running to first base!

Looking stylish in matching sunglasses with Daddy.

"Run, run, run as fast as you can, you can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread man!"

Charlie and Poppy.

Mia and Mimi.

Despite it's other faults, this park had lovely trees and nice benches.

Or maybe they only look so lovely and nice because they are in gorgeous Abby's background.