Memories to be Tucked Away

• Today while Ryan was doing his homework Lily was playing pretend with Little People. He looked over at her and with a tilt of his head and the sweetest smile on his face said, "I love the way Lily plays."

• Lily came up to me and asked, "Mommy, how do Nemos kiss again?" I gave her a puzzled look and then as she stuck her little nose out as me and shook her little head back and forth I realized she meant Eskimo kisses. So I told her the proper term and she said, "Oh, okay." Pause "You be a Nemo and I'll be a Nemo and we'll do a kiss." LOL
• We went to pick out some gifts to send to a little girl in Kenya. Lily helped me pick out some hair things. She picked these beaded pony tail holders and some heart barrettes. I was good with the barrettes, but I tried to steer her away from the pony tail holders. They were just a little much in my opinion, but Lily really liked them. She held them in her hand and said in a kind of dreamy voice, "They are so pretty. They are like jewelry." I figured if she loves them that much Brenda might just like them, too.

Letter to Santa

Lily decided that she wanted to write a letter to Santa. [She's asking to put cookies out for Santa, too. I think she's getting these ideas from preschool because it's not something we talk about here. It's okay though when she asks we will tell her the truth just like we did with Ryan.] I was cooking dinner when she asked me to help her, so I asked Ryan if he would help her. He was sweet and helped his sister. He even helped her find an envelope and fold the paper so it would fit inside. She wanted to send her letter so badly. She wasn't sure how it would work...she had some Winnie the Pooh type ideas about the letter being carried to Santa by the wind. I convinced her that we should mail it and let the mailman take it. We missed the mailman the first day. I just didn't have the heart to keep putting her off, so I let her put it in the mailbox this morning before church. She was so excited she skipped to the mailbox giggling all the way. Quite possibly the cutest thing I've seen in months. She had a sparkly pink Santa hat on when she did it which just added to the cuteness. Such sweet memories! I love that girl!

Christmas *Idea* List

****important note: my hair dresser changed salons, so if you were planning on getting Angles gift certificates please get Mane Connection instead. Thank you.***

Every year at some point someone asks me what people in my family want for Christmas. I've been compiling a list by writing things down as people ask for them or dream out loud about having them. Some things I added because I think they would be enjoyed. Here is that list. These are only ideas, feel free to pick from the list or not.

Christmas Idea List 2010

Jay:

• Satellite radio subscription*
• Panera gift cards
• (Jay's Amazon wishlist)

Lily:

• Pink soccer ball
• “We did it” Dora doll
• Playmobile Schoolhouse
• Little girl doll (~18 inches) She really liked the Disney World ones that have Disney dress ups I  just looked for these to link them and it looks like they don't sell them anymore:-( So I showed her the American Girl dolls and she likes Felicity, Elizabeth, Kit and Ruthie the best. I'm sure she would be happy with any 18"doll though.
• Pixie Power playset
• Prince Eric Doll
• Little Mermaid Dress costume  
• This Year's Hess Truck
• a jumprope 
• Pillow pet 
• Pinkalicious and Goldilicious books

Jen:

• Presto Poplite hot air corn popper
• This super cute "Capture Life" necklace (if you get this please tell Jay so I don't end up with nonreturnable duplicates)
• Syrup dispenser
• Umbrella and mount for Flash photography
• Trigger transmitter 
• New cell phone
• Gift certificates for The Mane Connection on 924 in Bel Air
• All in one speakers for my Ipod nano that are easy to move around the house ----  (picture a boomboxish thing that has a nano port)
• Home Depot gift cards for paint- there are a few projects I want to do:-)
• a kitchen island
• 9 cube organizer shelves in cherry finish
• Cherry Bookcase http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/S49885937
• 2x other cherry shelves http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/40085709
• Acrylic knitting needles- Any gauge is fine since I only have one set of circular ones at this point:-)

Ryan

• General Grievous’s Lego ship
• Lego anything
• playmobiles
• Anything Ravens
• lacrosse stick and ball
• Voyage of the Dawn Treader 3D movie tickets 
• This Year's Hess Truck

Zach

• Legoes -Star Wars sets
• Wii: Super Mario Galaxy 2, New Super Mario Bros.
• Redwall books: "Triss", "Lord Brocktree", by Brian Jacques
• Warrior books: Any "Warrior series" books by Erin Hunter
• Sudoku puzzles
• Chemistry set - individual activity-in-a-box with an experiment to do
• Voyage of the Dawn Treader 3D movie tickets

Family:

• High School Musical 3 DVD
• Prince Caspian
• Toy Story 3 DVD
• Season Passes or tickets to the Maryland Zoo, Aquarium, Science Center or Port Discovery
• 4th Wii Controller w/ nunchuk
• Winter Wonderland Tickets

The Restaurant

Ryan and Lily are playing pretend this morning. They are cracking me up. Some things from the game that made me laugh:

They came to me and told me they wanted to order breakfast. I told them pancakes are $100. Ryan said, "No, they are $.25 because that's all Lily has."

"Mom, you know you don't get to keep the money forever, right?"

"Mom, are the pancakes ready yet? I'm going to pretend your name is Mom in the game, so I can call you by your real name, okay?"

Ryan to Lily, "This is a slow food restaurant, so we can sit and talk until our food is ready."  A slow food restaurant, that just cracks me up.

I love when they play nicely together:-)

Saving Electricity

When the sun is out I like to use the natural light as much as I can. I love natural light and it doesn't hurt the electric bill if you know what I'm sayin'. When I went up to make dinner the family room was aglow with natural light. Of course the sun is setting quite early these days and during dinner I had to turn on a light to see. So imagine my surprise when I come downstairs to the family room and find Ryan in a very dark room reading. "Why are you trying to read in the dark?!" I asked. I suppose a stupid question deserves a stupid answer because Ryan very nonchalantly responded, "Because I can."