Dare I Say....Diva?

My daughter has, shall we say, a flair for the dramatic. Everything in her life is a Greek tragedy. It is amazing she has survived thus far. A perfect example of the oppression my daughter faces on a daily basis....

This morning as we were getting ready for school, Greyson was looking for his belt and this brought up the subject of the dress code at BGA. Greyson kindly informed Quinn that when she went there, if she had belt loops, she had to wear a belt.

"But Mom I don't want to wear a belt!!"

"You need to wear one if you have belt loops, Greyson is right."

"But I don't want to!!"

"You have too" piped the peanut gallery (aka Greyson)

She then proceeded to begin her sniffles and marched into her room and returned with her pink belt.

"Fine, if I HAVE to wear a belt, I will wear this one."

"Quinn, while that is a beautiful belt. Belts at BGA need to be either black or brown."

The sniffles then turned into almost hyperventilated gasps.

"I can't wear my pink belt??"

"No dear, you have seen the uniforms...they are blue and yellow - BGA's colors."

"But I love pink!!"

"I understand that, and you can wear as much pink as you would like at home but at school you have to wear yellow and blue."

She then threw herself (literally) on the couch and the full sobs began.

"They can stop me from wearing pink at school but they can't force me to stop loving pink!!! I will always love pink!! They can't take that away from me!!!"

I foresee an Oscar in that girls future.....

Snow Day - A Different Perspective

The kids' big Christmas present this year was a new pair of cameras (Quinn's was pink of course). Last Christmas, Greyson got a kid camera and both kids wore it out this past year and so we upgraded them to real digital cameras. They were very eager to take some pictures of our newly fallen snow...


and so I present to you Snow Day through the eyes of a 4 and 5 year old.....

(Greyson)
(Greyson)

(Quinn)

(Quinn)

Snow Day: The Sequel

We don't get snow in Nashville. OK, technically we do actually get snow....but not SNOW. But last night we got SNOW. 4 inches of real packable, sleddable, not seeing the grass type of snow. The city shut down (well except for my husband who went to work) but the rest of us enjoyed an honest to God SNOW DAY!!

(Got to start them young on that manual labor thing)

Mmmmmmm - snow cream

And look at that...we have a puppy!! Believe it or not, that is Guinness acting like a 2 year old. The kids made snowballs and he jumped and caught them in his mouth, ran around the backyard...I don't think he has had this much exercise in years.

Yay Snow Day!!

Best Guests

An astute eye might have noticed that over the last couple of posts a third child has been appearing. No, we didn't have another and not tell anyone. Our friends Jamie and Page with their son Hudson made an appearance in Nashville for New Year's Eve.

So of course we had to show off our driving skills....


And teach him the finer points of hockey...


We even took him for his very first time on the ice (which of course I forgot my camera for).

After 100 takes this was the best group shot we could get....


Maybe next year.

Happy New Year

The Winter Classic

His second favorite hockey team

A reason to stay up late and watch TV

His Daddy's hockey jersey from when he was a kid

A Boy in Heaven

Really Big News

I suppose if you didn't know us and just happened upon this blog you would know a lot about me and the kids and probably assume there was a husband somewhere around - he occasionally is in the background of one or two photos and every once in awhile he gets a mention in the text. I can't imagine he is too upset about his supporting role here but today he is the star of the show. (Lucky him).

As long as I have known Raif he has dreamed big, really big. He never does anything halfway and never takes the easy way out. The way we eat, live and do almost everything screams a certain amount of vibrato. He has carried this into everything he has done....well almost everything. For years Raif has been itching to get out from under the thumb of 'the man.' He has always detested working for someone else...the thought of his hard work making someone else besides him money has never set well with him. I personally was never bothered with working for someone else. I enjoyed the comfort of that steady paycheck and someone else taking most of the risk (along with most of the reward).

But as everyone knows I am not Raif, which is probably why our marriage works so well, and as much as I tried to convince him that security was the bomb-diggity he of course didn't listen and last week Raif became 'The Man.' He bought 1/3 of the company he works for and is now an owner. I am immensely proud of him (and admittedly immensely nervous) as well. His actual work duties aren't changing just how he is compensated is.

So to my darling husband - "I love you and am very proud of you. Keep up the good work!! And no more complaining about your bosses."