just gwenie and me

...and Nezzie makes three. Oh, yeah—and Dave too.

a birthday card for grandma and grandpa

this girl

Gwenie gets wicked bedhead. It cannot even be tamed with a clippie.

It's something we can deal with though. For when she's washed and combed the bedhead 'do magically disappears and instead we have these lovely little curls.

Unfortunately, her scowls do not wash away.

happy are we

Finally. Now Dave can work at a more "normal" speed because of the larger processor and stuff that I don't really know about or remember five minutes after he tells me.

Finally. I no longer have guilt or feel like I'm a neglectful mother because I haven't taken pictures for months(including Christmas) of our growing girls and our family. I am now back to taking too many pictures of everything.

our Easter events

Last week we went on three Easter Egg hunts. Inez was so happy that she's got full-on flared nostrils.

Gwen caught on pretty quickly and actually says "candy" which I completely blame on Grandpa Kewish even though he's currently in China.

We colored a million easter eggs with the Butlers and the Tracys (minus Jeff who was out enforcing the law)

Inez, Julie and Ashley

Dave Butler doesn't get out much.

Apparently, neither does Inez or Kaylie.

Sharing the "ooh-ahh" Kewish tradition with the other kids and Buzz Lightyear.

Do you think that Inez was near the green/teal dye?

Easter morning, this was her reaction to seeing her easter basket.

And a bunch of shots of the girls outside after church. I was really proud of myself because I made their skirts and I only started the Thursday before Easter. I'm pretty sure that Dave got really sick of me fishing for compliments from him about the skirts. But I just LOVE how they turned out and I love the colors.


I love that they are doing the same thing here—besides ignoring the camera and their parents.

I love this one of Nezzie

Desperately trying to keep Gwenie in the picture


Happy Easter!

Day 2 @ Dis

Here's our second day summary:

FYI: ask multiple strangers to take your picture on the 'L' so that you have more than one option.

Inez on Storybook Land Canal Boats, in awe of the miniatures. Okay, she's probably not as much in awe of them as I am. Seriously. I think they are really, really cool.

This is a recent thing that Inez does, she "grabs" things with her two fingers, like she's plucking them out of their existence to put in her pocket and keep for herself (this probably deserves a post of its own).

Gwen meets Pooh Bear, her absolute favorite. And gives him a BIG, HUGE hug of course.

A hug for Tigger too.

And we can't leave out Eeyore.

Then I put Inez up by the honeypots to take a quick shot and this Cast Member yelled to her, "Get out of the honey pots, there are snakes in there!" Of course like any other rational four-year-old that's not very fond of snakes, Inez slightly freaked out. Somehow I don't think scaring children should be allowed at Disneyland by anyone other than their own parents when they force their kids to go on scary rides.

Gwenie enjoying the parade and her finger.

I love to find hidden things at Disneyland, this one is at the end of Tarzan's Treehouse.

Gwen was even excited to see Buzz. This was surprising to me though because I didn't think she knew who Buzz was.

He got a hug anyway, which is kind of hard when the character is made of plastic. Maybe it was because we went on Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters about a million times.

On the Jungle Cruise, Inez plugging her ears from the pop gun the guide uses to scare off hippos.

Inez "getting" some sort of animal from the ride...see her fingers?

Our little snuggle baby, who put up with us dragging her around Dis for two days.

And this is how we all felt at the end of each day and on the drive home.

I, of course, was very happy to have Dave on the way home! Good company, conversation, music, In-n-Out and Girl Scout cookies. He's the best road trip partner. He even sings some mean Kool and the Gang.

To sum it all up, it was a lot of fun to do something so spontaneous. There was a lot packed into four days, but I would do it all over again in a heartbeat. Roadtrips with my little family—in my opinion—are one of my happiest places on earth.

day 1 @ Dis

When I was growing up, my family (those of us that were still living at home) had annual passports to Disneyland. The first year we had them my brother, Jon, was still two years old. He called Disneyland "Dis" and the nickname has stuck in our family. He also called Pinocchio, "Mock-y-doo" which makes a lot less sense. But since he was only two, I guess we'll let it slide. By the way, I have no idea how to spell that, so I went the phonetic route.

Anyway, our little last minute road trip from last week was fun, tiring and quick. Inez, Gwen and I met up with the Cobb girls first thing Friday morning. Carol is one of the best people to go to Disneyland with. She's got the insider tips and mad skillzzz. Without her expertise we would be wandering aimlessly and waiting in the long lines all day. So we are always happy when they accompany us to The Happiest Place on Earth. So here's day one of our trip.

What's up with our four-year old going on fourteen? It's seriously disturbing.

Bridget and Caitlin on the Tea Cups

I told Inez to smile and this is what she did. When I asked her why she was doing that face she said because she was SUPER happy.

One of Nezzie's favorite stops, knocking on the White Rabbit's door

King Arthur's Carousel was down while we were there so we settled for the King Triton's Carousel over at California Adventure

We got really lucky and ran into Minnie Mouse as she was coming from behind the scenes. She grabbed Nezzie's hand and took a little walk. Mommy loved it.

This was Gwen's first character greeting and she was so funny and so cute. She wouldn't turn to face the camera because she kept turning around to see Minnie.

And then she just wanted to hug Minnie and every other character we saw.

Gwen and I cruised around DCA while Inez and the Cobbs watched the High School Musical 2 pep rally. Inez was so bummed that the real Troy Bolton wasn't there.

We all got very sleepy, but only a priveledged few fell asleep in the stoller


Probably no one besides Mom & Dad are excited to see the post on Day 2. Coming soon to a blog near you.

saliva, saliva and more saliva.

This is my new favorite cooking show. It's my favorite because it's all about baking instead of cooking. Not that there's anything wrong with cooking, I just happen to be better at baking.

I mean, just look at this!

It's an Orange Cornmeal Cake. Who would even think that would be yummy?! Well, I do now after watching John Barricelli make it on the show. Another one that looks yum is the Peach Buckle.

I highly recommend watching it. Not only do they have me convinced that I could successfully make each and every one of these desserts, but it's from Everyday Food. And Everyday Food comes from Martha. And Martha makes everything looks so lovely. Well, she makes her people make everything look lovely.

Pleasing to the eye and delicious, who could ask for more?

FIERCE

To all my fellow Project Runway fans,

Season 4 was so good, wasn't it? I am sad that it's over, but happy that I found this! Enjoy.

love,
holly

our blue-eyed babe

Disneyland through a child's eyes is the best way to experience it. Even very sleepy eyes.

A close runner-up to that would be winning a night's stay in the dream suite inside the park.

So Cal trip report to come...

we're off!

I must admit I'm not too fond of the idea of driving by myself with the girls to Southern California but, California is calling to us. Early tomorrow we will set off—as soon as I can get the car packed.

By the way, Inez has been telling anyone and everyone that we get to go to Disneyland. There's often much squealing involved, on Nezzie's part. And I must say that it's pretty interesting to see the way adults react to an enthusiastic (to say the least) four-year-old talk about Disneyland.

We're off to the Happiest Place on Earth.

should we stay or should we go now

So Dave has a business trip this week. This is his first business trip for this job (that he's had for two+ years) and I'm not looking forward to being without him for three days. I guess this would be my first business trip as well.

His assignment is taking him to a photo shoot for Hannah Montana (wait for it) clothing.
The actual girl won't be there so sorry. He won't be able to get anyone any autographs. If she was going to be there, then I think Dave would be the favorite Uncle, hands-down.

This shoot is taking place in LA. Here's where I come in. After they told Dave and he told me last Friday, Saturday morning I awoke with the most brilliant plan. Why don't I drive down to So Cal on Thursday, take the girls to Disneyland on Friday (possibly with the Cobb girls) and then meet up with Dave Friday night at the White's (as they were kind enough to not be bothered by us inviting ourselves to stay with them) and then go to Disneyland again on Saturday with Dave so that he can see Gwen freak out over Winnie the Pooh and take Inez on Splash Mountain himself. Then we would drive back on Sunday. It would be a super short trip, but there's nothing that we have to be here for and we could get a teeny family vacation out of it without Dave having to take any days off work.

One con would be that I am sick. I should be better by Thursday, but then what if the girls get what I have and are sick at Disneyland? A pro would be In-n-Out Burger. I should make a real pro and con list, but my fingers are too cold to keep typing plus I think Gwen is eating cat food right now. See? Doesn't she deserve a trip to Disneyland? I know I do, because I have no idea where Inez is right now. I don't know how that qualifies me, but somehow it just does.

So which would you choose? This:

or this: