Woolty Mantis

When I was a little girl, my family didn't have cable. I'm pretty sure I can attribute my awesome childhood, of playing outside, to this. Anyway, we had rabbit ears on top of our t.v. set, and channels 3, 5, and 8 were about all that came in. We also only owned about two or three movies on VHS. One of those movies was The Secret Garden. I remember this movie so well, because it was my favorite, and I had probably watched it about thirty-five times. Well, in that movie,there was a little girl named Mary Lennox. In the beginning of the movie, Mary is throwing a tantrum in her mother's bedroom. She ends up throwing her mother's ivory elephant on the ground, breaking the trunk. Suddenly, she hears her mother returning to her bedroom for her purse, so Mary hides underneath the bed. At this moment, an earthquake strikes, and her mother passes away. Later in the movie, Mary learns that her mother had a twin sister, who owned a matching ivory elephant. Okay, so there are many other important parts to this movie, but I am mentioning the importance of the ivory elephant, because it goes with my story. Please bear with me ;)

Fast foward several years... When I was about fifteen or so, my mom, who bought and sold antiques,ended up with an ivory elephant. It looked exactly like the one in the movie. I asked her if I could have it, and though she probably thought that was an odd thing to ask for, she gave it to me.

The little girl in me has always loved that little elephant, and when I moved into the house that we are currently living in, I placed it on top of my dresser next to my jewelry box. That is where it has remained for the past six years... that is, until a few days ago when I decided to put it on top of the box, instead of next to it. Well, Evan sleeps in our room now, and while he was in bed a few nights ago, I decided to sneak in the room to put my earrings away. in doing so, I forgot that the elephant was on top of my jewelry box, and when I opened up the lid to the box, my elephant slid off of it, and ended up smashing against the wall. The entire trunk broke off. :/

After it happened, I brought the elephant downstairs to show Jason, and told him about it with a sad voice. Ally was around, and she came running over, very concerned, when she heard the news. She knows how important the elephant is to me, because I always tell her not to play with it. So after she heard it had broke, she said, "Mama, it's okay. I'll make a new one out of clay for you."

A few days had passed, and I pretty much fogot about my broken elephant. Last night I took Evan with me to go get an oil change, and Ally stayed home with Jason. I came home from that oil change to a beautiful surprise! Ally remembred her promise, and decided (all on her own) that she wanted to make me a new elephant. So, she did, and she did it without any help from anyone. She was so proud to give that elephant to me, and I was even more proud...

For some reason, she says it's not an elephant, but a wooly mammoth. Even better, she forgets how to say wooly mammoth, so she says, "Woolty Mantis" And I just love my "Woolty Mantis." I'm pretty sure it's the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me. I love her sweet little soul.

Birthday Boy

My big boy is ONE!! Here are some pictures from his party, which was yesterday..


We did an Elmo theme for the party, because he's pretty into Elmo at the moment. Although, it seems to be fading. I guess he's too busy to watch TV these days.

This pic is of Evan with his Godmother, Michelle. Michelle is Jason's cousin. She's got four kids of her own, is super nice, and a perfectionist. I clean my house extra before she comes over, because I'm afraid she'll think we're gross if I don't.

Ally and Evan with their four cousins. (Michelle's kids)

Here Daddy and Evan are checking out Evan's party hat in the mirror. He loves his reflection... as he should, because he's pretty darn cute, if I do say so myself! ;)

Catching Up

It's been a LONG time since I've updated... or shared any pictures. Sometimes, I'm not quite sure why I even have this blog. I wanted to use it as a way to document my life, and share my pictures (even though I haven't shared my blog address with anyone). But I just feel like I don't have time to write eloquently or to keep up with all the pictures I take. I usually am too tired or lazy to care about my spelling, or how I've worded my sentences. It's funny, because I used to be such a grammar nazi. Now, I think I'm the queen of grammatical errors and first grade sentences. Maybe that's really a good thing though, because maybe it means I have much more important stuff going on in my life.

Which brings me back to my update! Before I share my photos from the past few weeks, I would like to share my most exciting and scary news. We found renters!! After almost three years of trying to sell, we found loopholes in our association's rules, and we decided to put the condo up for rent. Within hours of listing it on renting websites, we had dozens of interested people. We ended up finding a man and his wife who want to stay for 18 months to be closer to their son and his wife who are about to have a baby. It's great for us, but scary too... what happens if they aren't good tentants?! What happens after the 18 months are up?! Meanwhile, we are going to hopefully be building a brand new place of our own!! But while we're waiting for winter to end, so the builders can break ground on our house, we will be renting from one of Jason's cousins. I am not happy about it for several reasons. 1) It's in a semi unsafe neighborhood. 2) Jason's great aunt and great uncle both died INSIDE the home! Eeek. I'm a bit creeped out about the whole experience actually. But, it's practically free for us to rent, which means we can save the money we need for a solid down payment.

Anyway, enough about all that. Let's get to the fun stuff! PICTURES! These are going to be pretty self explanatory, but I will explain anyway (in random order) Halloween 2011, Evan is (almost) ONE!!, playing in the leaves... Are ya ready? Well, here you go: