Looky, looky here! I have something crafty this week.

I have some Christmas cards to show you all, (since they are finally finished and were mailed out today, hooray!!) but I think I’ll wait til next Tuesday so it won’t spoil the surprise in mailboxes this week.

But I did just finish 2 tutus. They are too, too cute – if I do say so myself.

This is Addie’s, she is going to be dancing to the Pinocchio song in the recital on Saturday. They are wearing red on the bottom and white leotards.

And Em’s. They are dancing as pink poodles (?), so they just need to be in all pink.

I am making 3 or 4 more for Christmas presents, I should probably get on that. My sister was giving me grief for procrastinating. She called tonight while I was furiously trying to finish them, and yes, it is true that the dress rehearsals are tomorrow morning. But it isn’t procrastination, it wasn’t like I was putting it off, I have just been working down my list of to-dos. And I finally got to them.

Anyhow, they are done, but the pics don’t really do them justice. I’ll take more photos tomorrow (well, today) when they are on the little cuties. It is also a little bit of a dress rehearsal for the tutus…let’s hope they don’t fall apart!

How about you? Any Christmas craftiness to share?

Addie and I had a rare moment to just hang out together this afternoon. Em was at school and I asked Ad if she would like to lie on Mommy and Daddy’s bed and just read some books. Take a little rest.

Of course she said “yes” and grabbed a stack of princess books from Em’s room.

So we were all cuddled up in the comforter with the sun was streaming in through the windows.  We were just lying there giggling and having a totally fun time. After I had read a few books, Addie looked at me and said, so sweetly, “Me read to you, Mommy? I read Ariel to you.”

“I would love that, Addie!” I said, as I settled back in the pillows and waited for my story.

This is the story of Ariel, as told by Addie.

“Once upon a time, there was an Ariel. She was a princess.” (turn page)
“Once upon a time, Ariel swimmed in the ocean with the fishies, their names are Flounder and Sebastian.”
“Oh, no!” Sebastian is no fish (giggles), Sebastian is a crab!” (turns page)
“Once upon a time, Ariel had a dinklehobber (I believe it is really a “dinglehopper” in the story.) and she combs her hair.” (turns page)
“Once upon a time, Ariel marries Prince Eric.” (slams the book shut)
“THE End.”
“Good story, Mama?”

The best story. Told by the sweetest storyteller, Addikins.

Happy Anniversary, Happy Anniversary, HAAAAppy Anniversary!

Hope you are having a great day together Mom & Dad (Nana & Papa)!

38 years! Amazing.

That we may all manage to live through the ups and downs of marriage and come out on the other side, like you have, as a couple.

Wishing you a great day today and many more happy years to come.

We love you!

Today I am thankful for country music.

There, I’ve said it. I really do like all kinds of music and my iPod is a crazy, eclectic mix of stuff.

And maybe it is just my hillbilly background coming out, but there is something about those country songs. They make you stop, think, and realize how short our time on earth is.

I remember when I was pregnant with Emma,on a roadtrip to see my family, and I heard Kenny Chesney’s the Good Stuff song and bawled for a good 10 miles after I heard the part that goes –

Was the sight of her holdin my baby girl.
The way she adored that string of pearls,
I gave her the day that our youngest boy, Earl,
Married his high school love.
And it’s a new t-shirt saying, “I’m a Grandpa!”
Being right there as our time got small,
And holding her hand when the good Lord called her up.
Yeah, man, that’s the good stuff.

Okay, so I was pregnant. But man, that really is “good stuff.”

Or the time, sitting in my dining room with my mother-in-law and sister as we all cried to Martina McBride’s, In My Daughter’s Eyes. I still can’t listen to this part without tearing up –

In my daughter’s eyes I can see the future
A reflection of who I am and what will be
Though she’ll grow and someday leave
Maybe raise a family
When I’m gone I hope you see how happy
she made me
For I’ll be there
In my daughter’s eyes

Oh, there are a hundred more examples I could give. Tim McGraw’s, My Little Girl (definite tear-jerker when you have two little girls!) or Billy Dean’s, Let Them Be Little –

So let them be little,
‘Cause they’re only that way for a while.
Give ’em hope, give them praise,
Give them love every day.
Let ’em cry, let ’em giggle,
Let ’em sleep in the middle,
Oh, but let them be little.

I could go on and on.

And then I had the CMAs on last week while I was working and Kenny Chesney performed that new song of his, Don’t Blink.

That dude has some seriously good songwriters on his payroll.

Don’t blink
Just like that you’re six years old and you take a nap and you
Wake up and you’re twenty-five and your high school sweetheart becomes your wife
Don’t blink
You just might miss your babies growing like mine did
Turning into moms and dads next thing you know your “better half”
Of fifty years is there in bed
And you’re praying God takes you instead
Trust me friend a hundred years goes faster than you think
So don’t blink.

My mother-in-law called to make sure I had heard it and told me I had to watch the video. If you can watch that video without getting a little weepy, well…more power to you. But I can’t. I can’t even though I have already watched it a few times and know exactly what is coming up next.

After an especially long day, where I am counting the minutes til the girls will be in bed, um…kind of like yesterday, I only need to listen to one of these songs and it reminds me to slow down. Enjoy them while I can. So for that I am thankful.

There is just a whole lotta baking going on around here.

Two dozen cookies times 3 (2 dance classes, one school pumpkin party) later.

At least I got to use up all of my old Halloween ribbon. And the girls like to decorate cookies – even though after about one dozen they became disinterested, so Mommy had to decorate the rest. They are kind of hard to tell what they are. Most of them are witches and black cats. Or blobs. We have lots of Halloween blobs.

Any Halloween craftiness going on around your haunted house this week?

Twinkie is having a little photo contest right now. I have entered this photo, which you all have seen –

but if you are so inclined, you might want to go over and vote for it? There are some cuties over there. So if you find one you like better, I will, well…I won’t really understand, because in my mind, there simply is nothing cuter than these two. But please go check it out. Pretty please.

This is my 250th post on Barely Controlled Chaos! I can really only count when I switched over to this, my official blog, because my old journal didn’t have handy little stats pages. I guess I could go back and *count* them, but I’m far too lazy for that.

Just happens that I also just hit my all-time high in visitors for the day. (Yahoo! We still have half the day to go, too!)

AND we are nearing the 15,000 visitors mark. That just really blows my mind. 15,000. I had always assumed I had 20 faithful reader or so…but even at 250 posts, that is only 5,000 visits. So me thinks there might be a few other people lurking out there. And speaking of *lurking,* I am really close to hitting 1,000 comments. Hmm…I’m thinking maybe I’ll have to have a little contest for my 1,000th commenter. I’ll think of something to maybe help some of you “de-lurk!”

But, I really just wanted to say thank you to all of you who consistently come back to read about our exploits, laugh and cry with us, and ooh and aah over the cutie photos of the girls. I started this as a journal really intended for our family to keep up with my pregnancy and the growth of Emma. Nearly five years later it has turned into this! Pretty cool. So thank you.
I have so enjoyed writing, crafting and creating these fun memories and being able to share them with you. I hope you have enjoyed it as well and come back often.

(And maybe leave a comment to win….you know I so love comments! I’ll give you a little help, we are at 974 right now.)