In an attempt to restrain myself from blabbing on and on about the rugrats, I've started a blog to upload photos and videos and the occasional story for your internet browsing pleasure.
Leah wanted to redo her room for Christmas. We bought paint & wrapped it up under the tree & apparently on the day over break that the kids were fending for themselves, she was trying to figure out what the gift was & couldn't make it out. Ha!
I didn't 100% get a "before" photo, but this gives the idea. Beige on beige!
She wanted it to be "seafoam green." She also requested that we pack up the dollhouse furniture (sob) & she's going to use the dollhouse that my Grandpa Bob built for me as a bookcase (& put her own stickers on the back wallpapered bit of it).
She was helpful!
We moved her furniture around while we were at it!
Jim's up next, but can't decide on a paint color. When we were first talking about it he wanted black (!) but now he's being somehow even more ornery & says he wants to re-paint it beige.
Leah had signed up to participate in the Ridgeway Talent show before she broke her wrist. She was set on making a costume & doing a dance routine!
She was also pretty excited about the makeup aspect.
She made up the choreography- I think she left out a spin in the middle & the over exaggerated facial expressions are part of it that might not be as visible on the video!
It was super nice yesterday, so Sam got up on the roof with the leaf blower and cleaned out the gutters, and trimmed some branches back from our neighbors tree that is overhanging our garage. One of the things we wanted to do was too clean out the dryer vent, but it is a fixed in such a way we can’t take the cover off without disturbing the shingles.
As you might have seen, Leah's got a broken bone. She fractured her wrist out riding her bike with Jim about 5pm. They came in the house afterward & Jim said, "I told her not to go down that hill," and then later Leah said, "Jim told me not to go down the hill." Apparently, two different people stopped their cars to help.
I took her to urgent care & we got an x-ray and a splint (it closes at 7:30pm so I was glad we didn't have to go to the ER!) She's got a pretty gnarly bruise on her opposite hip.
And then several days later Sam took her to the orthopedic clinic & they put on a waterproof cast so that she can still do the water park when we head to South Dakota.
She's had several of her classmates sign the cast.
And of course it's her left arm & her handwriting with her right hand is very, very poor!
Now she's just switched to holding the pencil with the tips of her fingers in her left hand - which I was surprised the doctor said was OK for her to do in the cast.
Amelie broke her wrist when she was 8, too, but she did it in just the last few days of school right after she'd turned 8 & Leah will still have her cast on for her 9th birthday.
It doesn't seem to have held her back much so far!
I think for her 13th birthday, Amelie picked out paint & painted her sad beige room a bright blue.
I think it is a little bit of a swimming pool color.
She did a lot of the work on it!
And then for Christmas this year, she asked for a dragon mural. Apparently, we got the wrong one - I'm still not sure if the error was on the part of the Etsy shop or me (I really thought I just "added to cart" the one that she chose!) But she is still quite pleased with it.
this is Leah I have accsed moms blog and am now makeing a post I have a miner fractur in my wrist.
I was riding my bike with Jim and fell I screamed and 2 cars stoped after dinner mom took me to urgent care. this is just a splint Monday or Tuesday I will get a cast. 67676767676767876767676767676767641414141676767676667676767674141414141414141411414141411114414141411414414114141414141677676767676767676s767s6767s67s67676sx77676767 yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa whoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooohoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!bye 67
by:Leah
Monday, February 16, 2026
hello!, Jim has accessed crystals blog, and is now making a post.
I found this in my drafts folder & thought - screw it - I'll go ahead & post. (I don't know a way to go back & put these where they should go chronologically on Blogger!) Amelie is now 15.75, but here are her 12th & 13th birthday parties!
From 2023: I realized I never posted from Amelie's birthday - I think it got lost in the end-of-school stuff! And while I was working on it & went to link up last year, I saw that last year never got published either!
Maybe I never posted because I took exactly 0 photos at her sleepover! Mom fail! She had 3 girls over - she invited the same group from last year but one couldn't come. They went swimming at Grandma Mary & Papaw's pool, then came home & watched movies & ate popcorn & I don't remember what all else!
Here is her family cake:
And then we went to the doctor & she got blood drawn:
She got a phone for her birthday! And of course, the big trip & the sleepover party. James was a little offended on her behalf that she didn't get a pile of actual presents to open.
From 2022: Amelie chose a Dutch Baby Pancake (of course) for her birthday breakfast. We put candles in and sang to her, as is tradition. She wanted to have a sleepover birthday party, so 4 girls came over Saturday and spent the night.
We went to the store to buy snacks in preparation & Amelie sat in the front seat, because she can, now that's she's 12! She looks like she thinks she's breaking a rule about it here:
She was VERY IMPRESSED that we spent $100 at the store. We also picked up frozen fettuccini alfredo, which is what she wanted most for lunch while we were there! I didn't put a candle in, though.
Amelie wanted a Hollow Night cake (like her Halloween Costume), which Leah and I made when we got home, with a little artistic input from Amelie, and then cleaned & hung up balloons. And then we shipped her siblings off to the grandparents for a sleepover with their cousin Ben.
And then Spark and I hung out upstairs since 3 of the girls are a little bit afraid of dogs. He went on 3-4 walks and had a pretty good time with it, actually. They probably didn't want me hovering, either, so a win-win for them, I think.
All the kids immediately ran upstairs into Amelie's room and shut the door.
They watched 1.5 movies. And sang "We Don't Talk About Bruno" into the microphones downstairs using Sam's musical setup. There was quite a lot of VERY LOUD and EXCITED talking.
While they were eating cake, Indigo asked, "Do you have any more skirt?" and everyone thought it was funny when I knew what she meant - the red cloak decoration on the cake was made out of fruit by the foot & I did have the rest of the box, so I passed it out too.
She got a whole ton of presents, including many books, and a homemade purple sweater, which she'd requested - I think she wore it once but now it's too hot! I made it big so it would fit next year, too. Here it is finished except for the buttons:
And then here's Amelie wearing her too-large birthday sweater (now with buttons):
Singing Happy Birthday:
They did coordinating temporary rainbow tattoos:
They ordered in Chinese takeout & had just a ridiculous amount of snacks & cake & ice cream & candy. There was a period of quiet reading (so sweet! And funny!)
Aunt Holly brought over her superior air mattresses and human bubble inflatables (there was lots of inflating). It rained and thundered in the morning and I was afraid they wouldn't get to play outside -- but it held off in the afternoon, thank goodness! They put these back on the next morning and continued the game.
And painted with acrylic paints!
I was so glad that everything went off okay! It had been a while!
It had been a little bit since we had professional photos made! Looks like the last one was in 2024 (when Jim had short hair & Amelie had long hair - now it's reversed!)
It was a mini session & I didn't even try to narrow the photos down (or put them in order)!
Jim is 13 & in 7th grade.
We got the pictures made at Shelter Gardens, which was in full bloom.
Leah is 8 years old & in 3rd grade!
My very favorite are of all 3 kids together.
Amelie is 15 & in 10th grade.
Here's Leah with her half a tooth! And her fancy butterfly earrings!
The woman in the family getting photos done before us also had on a denim dress AND the woman in the family getting photos done after us was wearing a denim dress.
