earrings, green bean casserole & assorted ramblings

Well, I like to keep you guessing. No, there weren't earrings in the green bean casserole, but there may be soon enough because Princess Olivia had her ears pierced yesterday! Mike has been bugging me to get them pierced since we returned home from Vietnam, but I wanted to let her settle in to life at home before we put her through the trama of having holes put into her baby earlobes! Incidentally, I was two when I had mine pierced as well. Anyway, Olivia has been irritated the last several weeks because I put on earrings and she can't. She pulls on her earlobes and points to the earrings and says, "Mommy!" with her 'I want them, too' look. She's so cute! So, I relented and we took her yesterday. They did both ears at the same time and I was so glad of that. She cried for just a couple of seconds but as soon as we put her in front of the mirror and she saw her earrings, she was smiling from - well - earring to earring! She was so happy! She looks absolutely adorable. I'll get a picture of her up sometime this week with her fancy new look. Have I mentioned how cute she is?

Ok. Now for the green bean casserole. Olivia hates fruit. She also hates all varieties of milk. She is just not a healthy eater which is not something I'm accustomed to! I have a house full of fruit and veggies! Vegetables are another thing she generally dislikes. I am thrilled to report though that she LOVES green bean casserole. As she ate her THIRD helping of it yesterday, I couldn't help but think of that old Saturday morning commercial where the celery stick (or whatever it was) sings, "Don't drown your food!" Perhaps the green beans are still healthy even with mushroom soup and fried onions mixed in. At this point, I'll take what I can get.

We had dinner with part of my family tonight and it was so much fun. My Aunt Judith and Uncle Jimmie were visiting from Texas and were very excited to meet Olivia. We had dinner at my sister Cathy's. Her family was there, my sister Caren and her family and my Dad and stepmom. I am the youngest of five. I have three sisters and one brother. Oddly enough, my brother is one of my very best friends. I'm closer to him than I am any of my sisters although I certainly love all of my sisters, too. It was nice just being with some of my family. Lots of adults and 7 children under the age of 12. It's always fun when we get together. I just wish we did it more often. Life is too short not to make time for the ones that matter in your life.

Oh I nearly forgot! It snowed Thursday night!!!!!! Of course by Friday afternoon it was all gone, but we took advantage of it while we could. We all got up Friday morning, bundled up and went out to play in the snow! This was Olivia's first time to see snow and Jake hadn't seen it since he was 14 months old. He was SO excited!!! It was so much fun. Jake and I had snowball fights and he, Olivia and I attempted to make a snowman. Attempted being the key word. We rode the fourwheers all over the place and then came in for hot chocolate. I would give anything for a few days of good snow! Jake would have such a good time. He's finally old enough to really get our and play in it. Olivia is still adjusting to the cold weather much less snow! She still had fun though. I made snow ice cream Thursday night and we all enjoyed it. My Mom always made snow ice cream. She loved snow even more than I do and that's saying something! I love living in South Arkansas, but I wish we could see a bit more winter weather.

I'm done rambling now.