things to be proud of...

There's a lot of prideful people around our house! :) just kidding...

But, here are a few things we have been proud of recently:

- the much requested picture of our table. I found that no matter which angle I try to photograph it from, it never looks quite like my pottery barn catalogue page, but I guess that's why I'm not a photographer! Anyway, we have been pleased with it so far. It does seem to be a little chameleon-like, in that usually it looks black unless the sunshine spills in the room via our living room windows, and then it looks nice and yummy chocolatey brown. Any of you are welcome to join us for dinner and try it out sometime (offer does not include airfare :)

- it appears that my little samantha (who at this exact moment is trying to convince herself and me that she does not need to take a nap) is quite the little (as katie would say) sneaky McSneakster! She's been pulling fast ones on us all week, but the most notable one is that several days ago I left her in Emma's bed to play. Emma's bed is nice and bouncy, and has a very expensive guardrail so she was surrounded in safety. But...when I went to go retrieve my baby bundle a few moments later, she was not happily playing with stuffed animals...she was STANDING up on emma's bed! Holy Moly! then, yesterday morning, this was the scene I walked into after leaving her to play books...

- Emma has had some good days of poo to be proud about, so just to make her feel good about herself, I'm posting a picture of her poo chart. She absolutely adores putting stickers on her paper every time she uses her potty...sometimes, she will even stop a little prematurely so she can go again just a few minutes later to double her stickers! What a crazy girl!

- last night, I finally finished the labor of love I have been working on for my eldest child...her second year video! It's a tradition I started last year, and who knows how long I'll be able to keep it up, but finally it is finished! It actually didnt' take me a terribly long time, but it sure seemed that way to josh! I tried explaining to him that normal people can work on projects in large chunks of time. Mothers, however, have brief windows of time during the day, so a 30-hour project could very likely take me 30 days to complete. Anyway, the point is, that all of our happy memories from last year are forever recorded, and now my evenings are free to go back to my happy world of Apple Pie Spice bubble baths and Bejeweled! Special thanks (even though it was duly noted on the video itself) go to: Paul, for the use of his vast music files, and Alicia O who patiently taught me how to preserve such great memories. Thanks!

In other package news, I know you are all waiting on pins and needles to discover if our packages are going to make it in time before we head for warmer weather. It's almost like how you feel the entire week leading up to the Survivor finale or something like that. But as of today, we are still sans 4 boxes...but we're holding out hope of a speedy arrival! T minus four days and counting...

We aren't taking our computer on vacation, but I think I'll still have a few opportunities to blog between now and when we return here on Feb. 28. Plus, my gals have cute swimsuits, so I'll have to share some beach pictures with you all!