Snow Day Tea Party

Lydia dressed herself for her tea party..I helped daddy a bit. She is fallen in love with tea parties all over again because Braylon's MawMaw got her a set for Christmas. (Thanks MawMaw Bonita, she loves them, especially the sugar and creamer).

Here is Daddy taking a double shot of Lydia's fabulous tea.

They are stylin...looks like high tea in England right?

Cheers!
Lydia is not so sure about it.

Testing

and we have contact!!!!! I downloaded Firefox and now I am able to upload pictures again..I don't have any new pictures of Lydia on my laptop but I will fix that right away!!

Halloween

I had found when I told folks who Lydia was going to be for Halloween that Sword and the Stone was not Disney's most popular movie. So I have provided some pictures so you know who we are

Disney's version of Sword in the Stone

The Hatten Family's version of The Sword in the Stone

I do have to say, these were the most fun costumes we have done yet. Most everything was something we had to we borrowed. I enjoyed creating the costumes instead of just buying a pre-made one. I thought you could see the "inscription" on the sword from this picture.
Here is Merlin, Wart/Boy/King Arthur, Merlin and the Archimedes the Owl. In the movie, Arthur's foster family call him Wart or "the boy" most of the movie. So if you ask what Lydia what she was for Halloween she would tell you "the boy". I thought we would just embrace Lydia looking like a boy instead of fight it.and here is our version. I think we entered Mark and Lydia in a Father/Daughter contest they would have won. Everyone commented on his costume, no one guess Merlin exactly but they all knew he was a wizard. If you want to see a cool Mother/Son combo head on over to Miranda's blog..she has come cute pictures of the kids together as well.




Mad Madame Mims. She is a female wizard that Melin duels in the movie. I guess there is such a character in the book but her name is something different. It is too early for me to text April what it is so just believe me or google it! Here is Wart trying defeat the evil Mad Madame Mims. I tried very hard to make my hair purple. I used two cans of that spray stuff.
Lydia and Braylon trick or treated a little together in Braylon's neighborhood.

Then we visited our friends that we do every year b/c they all live in like a half mile radius of each other.

Vickie and Jack



Uncle Mike and Aunt DJ

and what officially was our first place but I was tired of fighting the pictures on here

Mike and Donna's

Archimedes, I think he is my favorite character in the movie. I first was going to try and be him but Owl costume was going to be too hard. Thanks Braylon for letting us borrow your Owl! He is riding on top of Mark's hat in case you missed him the first time.

Halloween 2008

Halloween 2007

More Halloween 2007


We made it to my mom and dad and Aunt Kathy's but I think that was toward the end of the evening and the kids were really fighting the cameras. I know I did not get any pictures but Kathy and Nonni might have.

Don't pass out

Here is two posts in two days..this was WVU midnight madness. We had a good time. We are sharing two season tickets. I am excited to go because Lydia really has enjoyed the games in the past.

Here are the famous piggy tails I have waiting so long for..

more of the piggy tails...

We got to see a couple of friends there with their little girls and Lydia loved visiting with them.

Go Moutaineers!

10 on Tuesday the photo edition

I have kicked Mark off the desktop so I can post some pictures. None of Halloween are downloaded yet but they will be on here ASAP!

I was looking for photos that I had not published and I found some golden oldies that we downloaded from my Mom's camera.

Here they are in the Hough Park in Mannington. Here was a visit to Nonni's work. Lydia still loves to pretend she is typing. I am sure it has nothing to do with the fact that everyone she knows is attached to a computer or cellphone, typing or texting.

Here was Uncle Mike's college graduation May of 2008.

This was from last spring I believe at the West Virginia Game Farm.

Here are some more up to date photos, Lydia carrying around her buddy Thelma. Yes, our cat lets her do this.

Poor Thelma.

Here is our first official "tail" as she called it. This is when she announced one morning before church that she was a girl and that she needed bows and a tail.

She was very proud of it.

Here is Louie, Uncle Vince and Aunt Courtney's dog. We are still waiting on a visit from Geno, Lydia's other furry nephew from her Uncle Mike and Aunt Kelly.

This was Lydia playing around with Mark's buddies kids. They were so good with her and had such a good time.

Enjoy and I will try my best to get the Halloween one up soon.

10 on Tuesday

1. I have posting most of my pictures on facebook for those of you who have facebook accounts. I am still working on getting my laptop to work with blogger and post pictures but I am not hopeful.

2. Sad news, I have withdrawn Lydia from dance school. She loved loved loved the first three weeks. Then parent observation night happened. She went in like normal. Mark came slightly later than us and Lydia saw him walk in. She tried to run out of the room and one of the assistants picked her up and told her no, she could not go outside. Lydia had a meltdown. I do not blame the assistant, she was doing what she was supposed to, keeping Lydia safe and not letting her run outside the room and the assistant did not know that Mark had just walked in. But that did it for Lydia. She did finally make her escape and no amount of coaxing would get her back in. Next week, she dressed and went to class but would not go in the room. This past Wednesday she would not even get dressed or leave the house to go. I am so sad that one negative event has ruined the whole situation for her.

3. Good news is that Miss Stephine said if after awhile Lydia asked to come back she would be more than welcome to start classes back up.

4. So this is the week that the school are celebrating Red Ribbon Week. This means that I am supposed to coordinate 4 different Red Ribbon Weeks since I go to 4 different schools. One would think that the coordinator would remember to wear red today...oh well.

5. So Mark is out of town and I have a complete new respect for you working mommies that take you kids to daycare before you go to work..Lord have mercy..how do you do it. Thank God, I did not have to feed her breakfast or pack a "bag" of stuff since I just had to take her to my Aunt. I cheated and asked it my Aunt could come to my house tomorrow since I have to leave for work by 7:20 as it is without having to make extra stops. I guess if that was always our routine, we would be used to it but Lydia was not happy with getting up so early this morning, I am not even trying it the rest of the week. My dad always comes and picks her up thank goodness b/c I would have to leave the house at 5:45am on Thursday if I had to talk her to Mannington!

6. Have I mentioned that my family is not morning people?

7. Have I also mentioned that I am very spoiled to have my Dad come and get my child and bring her back to me on his babysitting days. I am very grateful as well now that I have had a small taste of the real working mommy world.

8. I also broke down and got the flu shot after swearing that I wouldn't. Geez, those doctors really know how to get that mommy guilt churning.

9. I am thinking about switching doctors. I love my doctor but I don't love that she is in Morgantown. I also don't love that she in a practice that when you call for a sick visit, you just get whoever, you cannot request her. And I hate that I have to take a whole sick day to go for my appointment..but I also hate change so we will see..

10. I was 100% this week on Football wins..Steelers, WVU and my fantasy football teams!

10 on Tuesday

1. Tomorrow is one of the days we get to watch Lydia in dance class, I am really excited. I hope that she is listening and not just running around like a wild women.

2. The world of pretend, here we come. It is so darn cute to hear her talking to herself. "Hi Dora, How are you" "I'm good"...and so on and so on. She has been pretending with us for a little while, we are Merryweather and Flora while she is Sleeping Beauty..but just in the past day or two she has independently started picking up her toys and makes them "talk" to each other.

3. We have been getting her to sleep at night by having her read to her babydoll. It is so sweet.

4. Speaking of reading..my kid loves Mo Willems books..has anyone read Piggie and Gerald books to their kids? I am not allowed to read them to Lydia anymore..she has to read them to me. But she LOVES them. She sniffed out The Naked Mole Rat gets Dressed out of my bag as soon as I sat it down (She loves that book and I checked it out of the library yesterday) She plopped down and started reading it on the kitchen floor.

5. I am so thankful for an old high school buddy on Facebook. We cannot find two of Lydia most favorite DVD's. Mickey Christmas and Cinderella. We had them on our camping trip in July. I remember Lydia watching Cinderella twice when we were stuck on the interstate during a wreck. I have searched everywhere and we just don't know where it is. So I researched Cinderella and it is so expensive to buy it now b/c "it is in the Disney Vault". Even the cheaper ones I found on Ebay, they want a lot to ship it. Anyway, my facebook buddy said she would mail me her VHS tape of Cinderella. All she wants paid for is postage..THANK YOU!

6. On Saturday, we met my parents for breakfast and Lydia was messing with the folks behind us. Finally we let her down to go and see Poppi while he was paying. I overheard the man say. "Oh look how cute, HE just ran from him and went into the backroom." Really? She had PINK pants on..

7. Later that day we went to see our friend Dereck and his band play. A man said something about Lydia being a boy. Usually I just let it pass but I was already grumpy about what had happened that morning and I said. "Actually, she is a girl and her name is Lydia"..the mans response??? "Why do you keep her hair so short?"

8. At the last WVU game this one man kept repeatedly calling Lydia "him" even after he read her Cinderella and a Mermaid book. Finally a women that was with him said, "She is a girl, look at her shoes". Not to mention that the shirt she had on had her name on her chest.

9. To continue the theme..the creme de la creme. There has been at least three different occasions where men, after I correct them on Lydia's gender, tell me to pierce her ears!! I am not kidding you.

10. No wonder my kid has a dress fetish and tells me constantly "I can't like pants, mama, I can't like wearing pants."

Mannington Fair

Lydia and Braylon had such a good time. They had really been missing each other by the time we got to go to the fair. We had been gone for 10 days! I wanted to post the rest of the beach and some of Mark's family reunion but I cannot find where he has those stored on this desktop. So the fair is what you get. Chattin' it up with some other folks.

Here we are on the top of the Ferris Wheel.

I was happy that the fish were back this year..actually they had more kid rides this year than in the past couple years.

The spaceships were a big hit. They rode them twice.

Here is the Merry Go Round shot. Mark did not go with us this year so we did not get a shot of them together..I was sad about that. Plus both times we tried to get on there someone took the horse with the roses on it.

These guys are such good buddies. I love it.

Just an update, Lydia is still absolutely loving dance school. We actually get to watch her this month so I am pretty excited. I hope she is doing well. She showed us some dance moves this week. I was proud that she is learning something! We also started Library School back up. If you remember last year, my dad refused to take her back. He said this time Lydia did great. She is growing up. She actually told someone today she was three!

Going against my OCD...

I am going to post pictures out of order. I know that people really want to see Lydia in her dance stuff so here she is...I will go back and fill in from the beach to now later.
Here she is in her original outfit . Rockin the purple pumps courtesy of Laura. Notice the foam piece around her middle. She was very upset that this outfit did not include a "ballerina dress".

She walks and dances in heels very well..some how this worries me..

She after several request to take her foam tutu off and then crying when forcible removed by mama, we compromised on one of her leotards that has a skirt. I was not 100% sure she was allowed to wear these and I guess there is still confusion if she is..but she LOVED it. She was hugging herself saying "I love ballerina dresses".

Warming up

These ladies are some friends in her class. They are of the daughters of the mothers I knew from work. This was the first time the girls met. She had one more buddy but she was a little later and did not make into this picture.

Here was Lydia's handiwork. She has been a picture taking fool. I will post more of those later.

She loved, loved, loved dance school. They danced to the princess songs for the ballet part and the Imagination Movers songs during the tap part. When Lydia came out to change her shoes, all she would say was "Change them mama, change them" then ran right back into the class after I put her tap shoes on her. I don't know how well she did in the actual class. Ms. Stephine did not ask me to come in and remove her and the helpers did not bring her out to me..so I guess she did ok. The last week of September we are allowed to watch from a window. I cannot wait! She did earn a stamp, sticker and a sucker that she was pretty proud of..

Makeup

These pictures are backwards but I was so glad to be able to post some, I did not care. Lydia is lovin' to play in my makeup. I have clear mascara that I use on my eyebrows but for some reason Lydia wants to put the black stuff on hers..you should have seen my face.