Thanksgiving's Over. Christmas Here We Come!

Finley had a great Thanksgiving in Milwaukee, which was a new and fun way to celebrate for the whole family. Jill prepared a wonderful meal for us, along with Annie and Luke, and Jill's brother and sister-in-law and niece and nephew. We watched movies, sang through the entire meal, played Pictionary (where the girls had a serious come-back to win), had a who-can-make-the-ugliest-face contest, ate a gorgeous Annie-made pie, and watched YouTube videos until the wee hours. We also found that Finley can now look like a girl with adorable pigtails! It was lots of fun and we really enjoyed spending time in Josh and Jill's comfy home (THANKS!).

Today, Finley and Cam and I picked out our Christmas tree and finished decorating the house. Finley has been enthralled with all the lights in our neighborhood. She points at them out the window and says, "pretty". When we were at Bachmann's, she walked all through the gift store saying, "ho, ho, ho". It was, as usual, adorable.

Finley's Tub Adventure

Last week, Finley and I stayed at Auntie Megan, Cousin Sadie, and Uncle Phil's house. After playing for hours, the girls took a bath. Finley got out first and I took her downstairs to get her jammies on. Sadie kept playing with her PollyPockets in the tub. We came back upstairs to join Megan and Phil in watching the best show on television, "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia". Being a bit distracted (don't turn me in!), Finley was able to wander out of the room. All of a sudden, we hear Sadie yelling, "Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! She fell in with her jammies on!" I went running into the bathroom, expecting to find Finley screaming and hurt, but it turns out, she just didn't want to miss out on the fun and climbed in the tub voluntarily. It was pretty funny! Sadie was nice enough to give Finley some jammies that didn't fit her anymore and we threw her wet, but clean, pj's in the dryer for the night.

Finley Does Laundry

This will come as no surprise to those of you who know Finley well and have seen her "work," but Finley's new favorite activity is helping Mommy do the laundry. For some reason, she thinks the piano is the place to put the "folded" clothes. I love when she snaps the clothes out of the basket, just like she sees her Mom (and Dad, on the rare occasion) do. As funny as it is to see her go to work, it sure makes doing the laundry take twice as long. Now, at least, we can hold this against her when she's 13 and doesn't want to help fold clothes. "I remember when you used to LOVE to do the laundry..."

"I love you!"

Those three little words we all long to hear... and Finley now says them! Not only does she say them to Mom and Dad, but last night, Auntie Annie and Uncle Luke were over and I had to put her to bed. I told her to give everyone goodnight kisses. She said, "I love Duke. I love Annie. I love Daddy" without me even telling her to. Then, I said as we were walking into her room, "Don't you love your mommy, too?" She said, "I love Mommy. I love Duke. I love Annie. I love Daddy!" It's absolutely adorable. She also is continuing to wow us with her brains. Megan baby-sat Finn while I was at a school party the other night and she was playing with Sadie's bath toys. Sadie asked her what each shape was and she knew "star" and "moon" without any help. Tonight, I drew a moon and asked her what it was. She told me. I drew a star and she told me what it was. I drew a circle and a square and she knew those, too. I tried a triangle, but she had lost interest. Then, the smartest of all, she found two binkies on the floor and put them in her mouth and said, "I have two!" What a genius! I can hear Grandma Brenda saying, "She's not even two!" She's a stinker.

The pictures are from a variety of occasions. We went to Trimont for an early Thanksgiving on Saturday and Finley got to spend some quality time with her cousins. Hunter is so sweet to Finley and I caught him "proposing" to her in the hallway. The weekend before, Sadie came to stay with us and let Finley play with her magna-doodle. This was a BIG hit with Finley and now Mom and Dad know just what to get her for Christmas! Finally, we also spent a day in Zumbrota with Grandma Julie, Auntie Annie and Uncle Luke, and Great Grandma and Great Grandpa Laven. Duke was his usual bad influence and gave Finners a tattoo. Of course, she loved it, so now Mom and Dad will have to be sure to watch her closely when she turns 18 or so.

What a Week!

Well, this momentous week started off with a bang for Mommy - literally. I came to school Monday morning and opened the kiln to unload all of my 6th graders beautiful, gorgeous, high-quality masks, only to find that the kiln had malfunctioned and destroyed 90% of my students' artwork. I truly cried. Turns out, the kiln malfunctioned and fired on fast speed, instead of the slow, low-fire speed my clay required, so everything exploded. Needless to say, I gave every kid an automatic A on this project.

I came home from school that night and gave Finley her first haircut. Seriously, the picture you see is the one and only snip I made. She's 20 months old and this is her first haircut, and I don't think it really even counts as a haircut. I really just cut the one snip of hair that fell in her eyes all the time. I couldn't bring myself to cut off the locks on the back sides of her head because I didn't want more people than already do think she's a boy. I did put the tiny lock in her baby book, just like Cam's rat-tail is in his. ;)

Then, as you all know, Tuesday was a big day. I couldn't wait for school to get out so I could cast my vote in this momentous election. Finley came with and she stole my "I Will Vote" sticker I got from school (we had a referendum - first question passed but the second question didn't) and my "I Voted" sticker, too. She ripped the things to shreds, which was disappointing because I really wanted my free Starbucks! Oh, well. It was well worth missing my free coffee when they named Obama the next President of the United States of America. Let me just share the lyrics/poem my cousin Paul texted at that moment from the patriotic song we all know, "My Country 'Tis of Thee": "Let music swell the breeze and ring from all the trees sweet freedom's song. Let mortal tongues awake. Let all that breathe partake. Let rocks their silence break, the sound prolonged." Amen and hallelujah! Here's to better days!

Happy Halloween!

Halloween was quite the event for both Finley and her parents! I couldn't wait for the day to come because I have been planning for years to be my favorite artist, Frida Kahlo, and finally all the stars alined. I nailed it! My kids at school were very impressed. Sticking to the artist theme, Cam went as Van Gogh. My 8th graders painted him a "Starry Night" shirt and I sculpted him an ear. Unfortunately, all our hard work didn't really pay off because he wore his sweatshirt all night (despite the gorgeous weather!) and he never once showed anyone his ear. Also, he walked around making weird faces all night so people really thought he was Ed Gein. Uncle Luke was Brett Michaels from Poison and Rock of Love. He went all out and even embodied his personality. I don't think Finley's blog is the place to discuss that, though (wink, wink). Finley went trick-or-treating at school in her lady bug costume and made a killing before going with Sadie, aka Ariel, the Little Mermaid, where she made an even bigger one. Mom and Dad are going to be enjoying her hard work for quite some time, I think. Yum!