dear aunt jeanie

i love you. i'm glad that you were my loving, wise, talented aunt. with amazing taste, gardening skills and a cooking guru. you were always welcoming, gentle and fun. one of the most lovable women that i know! i loved spending my summers at your house... eating wonderful treats... playing with the animals... making memories with cousins... playing at the dunes... sneaking your pickled beans and jams out of the cellar... looking at old family photos and hearing stories... i feel like i had a life full of memories but yet had a sleepless night thinking of all that i thought i had missed out on. but had just come to the conclusion that i was very lucky. very lucky to have you as my aunt.
i love you. thank you. and you will always be here with us. take care of the boys.

xoxo mollymalia

this was the last trip we took this summer... so here is the link to another post.

and here is another one from the summer before. enjoy.

discovery #264

merrick has a new place that he likes to play.. the laundry basket. it all started long ago when i would go down to the basement to do the laundry. me, the multi-tasker, would empty the dryer in the basket plop merrick on top of the pile and he would ride up the stairs in the load... he loves it! smiling and laughing the whole time... but tonight after dinner i put him on the floor to go play and before i knew it he was inside the empty basket. so we decided to go for a 'drive' around the house...

he was laughing hysterically! i love moments like that! then i decided to play basket ball... i would make them in, he would pass them back... one more thing that he is totally good at these days! then when he was ready to get out he would rock the basket to the side to crawl his way out.

i love this kid.

xoxo, mollymalia

halloween 2009

sorry these took so long to get up... but you know how it goes... we had tons of fun! paka was here... started out doing a corn maze... came home, we all dressed up, turned the orange lights on out side and walked over to the stoddards house for the hot dog roast. trick or treated around the neighborhood... cotton candy at the dewals... hot chocolate at the denisons... very fun night!

jordan was a vampire... she has been talking about being one since about march of this year... she had a blast... and loaded up on tons of candy... which i proudly raided after she went to bed... come on what parent doesn't do that?? jord had a hard time keeping those fangs in due to the fact that she has not front teeth... meaning three on top are gone... but man, it looks like all six anterior teeth are missing!

this fire breathing diaper wearing dragon is merrick! for the last month he has been wearing his dragon legs around the house, he loves them! every time he sees the costume hanging in the closet he races right over to it and has a huge grin as he watches me take it down and put it on him!
kasey had been a lumber jack the night before at a party we attended. ax, spenders & flannel... oh my! he fit the part to a T. but when we went out halloween night around the neighborhood he decided to go with the biker beard.
my pops was here! i think that it is becoming tradition to have my parents here for halloween... i seriously don't mind! pops was the devil... yeah right, no evil plots going on here... but we did joke about my dad wearing no shirt with only the sequenced bow tie (shown here) in a photo shoot for my moms xmas present... mom watch in the mail for your chip n dales portfolio.

and then there is me... dork... at work we dressed up as flies in our department and one of the guys dressed up as a turd... ha ha we got most creative though! later that night i was cleopatra. head to toe... beaded head piece, arm and wrist cuffs... gown and sandals for the party... but like my other half... wig did just fine while out with the kids... good call though cause it kept my head warm!

xoxo, mollymalia