Happy Thanksgiving

I've been very busy around here and haven't had the camera out much lately. Nani has arrived for the week and we're heading up to the island for the last time this year. We're excited to have Thanksgiving up there! Here are some photos from the past week or two. Above Nani and Magnolia are painting at the table. Below is the window arrangement I did for my sister's salon, Clementine Salon.

Magnolia has been cooking a lot with me in the kitchen. Here she literally put her face in the flour and blew.

Magnolia wearing her piggies playing in her kitchen.

The other weekend we had a wonderful visit from Magnolia's Aunt Alicia and Uncle Shariq. I wish I had taken more photos but here's one of Magnolia and Alicia. She really loved their visit!

This Thanksgiving, like last Thanksgiving, I am unbelievably grateful for having Magnolia. She has been the biggest blessing in my life and I couldn't be more grateful to be her mother. I have another unbelievable blessing this year, our little miracle baby that I am carrying. He is teaching me once again about life's great surprises. I feel so incredibly blessed this Thanksgiving! I think our time on the island will give me a chance to catch my breath, relax a little more, and take a lot of pictures. Check back soon!

Wishing you all a wonderful Thanksgiving!!!

"The important thing about being two is all the things you can do."

-Another Important Book, Margaret Wise Brown

Magnolia June, you can do so many things! You are talking in sentences now! You recognize all the letters in the alphabet. In the grocery store I hand you something from the cart and you identify all the letters on the packages. You love to sing and one day in the grocery you were doing it nonstop. After about 5 minutes of it, you said "mama mama" and then sang. I had to laugh out loud. I told you I had heard you for the last 5 minutes. The minute we get in the car you ask for music please! You are learning to put on your own shoes and clothes. You are such a girly girl. You want to wear your skirt and dresses so you can twirl. I recently bought a pair of fancy shoes and when you saw them you exclaimed "mommy's shoes, cute!" You've been wearing them since. You love to carry purses and wear chapstick. I put pig tails in your hair and you loved them, touching them all day and crying when they fell out, you called them "piggies." You say your name correctly as opposed to "namama." You can't seem to pronounce your ds. Cold is coln, bed is ben. The ds are replaced with ns. You love your babies and I love to watch you play with them. You do and say all the things I have done with you. When we ask you if you're daddy's girl you say "yes I are " and then correct yourself saying "yes I am!" I started to teach you how to use chopsticks. You have the pinching kind to start with and you like using them. We've been eating a lot of pot stickers for lunch and dipping them in soy sauce. You had a little ramekin of soy sauce and since you're such a salty girl, you proceeded to lift the ramekin and drink the soy sauce. I laughed out loud because I know how much you love salty things, enough to drink soy sauce! Your face was crestfallen and confused at why I was laughing. I felt terrible and explained that we don't drink it just dip in it. We cannot keep chips in this house because it would be all you'd eat. You're a real chipaholic, if they're around, you refuse to eat anything else. You get frustrated and don't like it when you don't get your way. You've started throw things when you're mad which we need to work on. :) Overall your temper is still pretty mild and it doesn't last long.

You can do so many things, I'm not even naming them all. You are getting to be such a big girl. You are doing everything you should be at two. I'm so proud of you! xoxo

*Photo taken before Charlie's Birthday Party. Happy Birthday Charlie!*

Magnolia is looking at pictures of her baby sister or is it brother???

Click here to find out!

Taking a break from myself and Miss Magnolia,
I want to write a post about three awesome women.

This first one is my older sister. Older but not by much. We're separated by a mere 18 months and have been close forever. She's going through tough times right now and chronicles it and life with her three beautiful girls here. She's a fantastic writer and she never ceases to bore me with her posts although I'm surely biased. :) Go on over if for anything to see her little girls.

My younger sister is somebody else I wanted to write about. She's younger but far more mature than I. That happens when you are the sixth born, you just mature at birth. :) We live only an hour apart and talk on the phone nearly everyday. She has been a hair stylist for a long time now but is opening her very own salon at the end of the month. I went to visit her yesterday so I could see it. It's absolutely adorable and she's letting me dress the storefront window for Christmas!!! She named it Clementine Salon and if you're ever in Wisconsin and need your hair done, look her up. You won't be sorry!

The last person I want to mention is my sister-in-law, Alicia. She is George's sister and a trained chef. Not too long ago, she started her own cupcake business, Baby Cakes. She is an awesome baker and her cupcakes are too die for!!! If you live in St. Louis please check her out and if anything, just take a peek at her website, it's adorable!

Way to go girls, you are all an inspiration to me!

It's always so restorative to have a weekend on the island. We can go the whole weekend without seeing a soul and hearing nothing but a crackling fire and the rustle of the leaves. Our house is small and cozy. We don't need much. I feel like we could live there. It's just so simple and uncomplicated. Then I realize that if we did live there I'd still have bills to pay, doctor appointments to go to, and the realities of life would creep in. So for that I cherish our place for what it is...a retreat, a place to rest, think, and be one with nature. This weekend I was finally able to show Magnolia fallen leaves, how to walk in them, crunch them, and throw them in the air. She loved it and I loved playing with her as we waited for the woodstove to heat up the house. This was the sunset we had while we ate our dinner.

On Sunday we took a walk into the woods to Stavkirke, a Scandanavian chapel that was built by islanders as a replica of the one in Borgund, Norway. Here George took this photo of me with Magnolia and baby.

Hoping you too had a peaceful and relaxing weekend.