Auntie Erin and HerAmazing Sock Animals

Aunt Erin has lovingly made a different sock animal for each of my girls for their birthday. We have been excitedly anticipating the last installment, and it recently arrived for Savannah's birthday. We have had a great time w/ these wonderful creations. Thank you Erin!

Brooklyn & Pretzel the Lion

Savannah & Jelly the Elephant

Madison & Wiggly the Piggly

Charlotte & Lambie Pie

My Father told me to do it!

Lots of children have imaginary friends. I hate to admit that sometimes I even prefer my children to have imaginary friends, because imaginary friends don't eat anything, they don't take up a real spot in the car, they are always polite, and spontaneous play dates are totally acceptable.

Charlotte's imaginary friends on the other hand cause me a lot of concern. Her most common visitor is named "Father" and he is usually around when she is making poor choices. When we ask Charlotte why she did some particularly mean or crazy thing, she responds, "My Father told me to." When she is rude to her sisters, again it is because her Father told her to do it.

One day after church Charlotte was telling us about her "Mother" (also imaginary I guess) and her "Father." She was telling us how her Father beats up her Mother, and that he kills bad guys. And that he is really mean. Kind of made me wonder, first of all, where these ideas came from. We don't watch violent shows on television, and we all try to be very kind to each other and not "kill bad guys," unless it is totally unavoidable. ;)

I really hope that she wasn't telling her nursery leaders all of this. Can you imagine what they must be thinking about our personal lives if she did?

A few weeks ago we were watching a cartoon series that we all have enjoyed as a family called "Avatar; The Last Air Bender." One of the main characters (Zuko) has a Dad that he always refers to as "Father," and this father happens to be a really bad father figure that does bad things. It all became very clear to me where Charlotte had come up with this imaginary friend of hers. Just goes to show that things that seem purely innocent can be seen as something very different to a three year old.

So, in the future if you hear Charlotte talking about her "Father" and you just can't imagine that Jeff would have done those types of things, then most likely it wasn't him. It must have been her other Father that told her to say those things!

It's a Boy!

Don't fall out of your chair thinking that the Beck's are going to be having, or have had, a boy baby. That doesn't seem to be in the cards for us. (Have I told you how much I love little girls??? I wouldn't change a single one of them in for a boy, ever!).

No, this "boy" that I am talking about happens to be our cat. I took her into the vet to get some vaccinations, and the vet returned to our room to say that Midnight most definitely is a boy. (I sure hope I am not the only anatomy challenged pet owner in the world!)

Jeff has a little competition around here for the alpha dog spot ... or is it alpha cat these days?

Sesame Seeds

We were eating sloppy-joes the other day for dinner, and Savannah (very seriously) said that we should plant the sesame seeds. When asked why we would want to do that, she replied, "That way we can grow our very own Sesame Street."

That girl has such a great sense of humor. And she can keep a straight face when she makes a joke.

A Cat Named Midnight

We would like to introduce you to our new Kitty, Midnight.
As you can see, she is very loved.

I suppose it was inevitable that we would get a cat someday. My two oldest daughters never wanted a baby doll to play with. All they ever wanted was another stuffed kitty. Every birthday, and every Christmas we have added numerous stuffed cats to our collection. Always with the promise that someday we would get a real cat.

"Someday" finally came when a friend of a friend had a "free" kitten. We went by to see her, and we all fell in love. She came home with us right away. She was shy at first and hid under the couch for the first few hours. I went to the pet store to get a few essentials, and $100 later I thought we had everything we could ever need. So much for getting a free cat!

Midnight is fun and playful now. She unfortunately likes to pounce our toes randomly, which kind of hurts. A cat's claws can be pretty sharp. Other than her claws (which have also scratched up some furniture), and her ability to wake up my children before 6:00 am, we totally adore her!

Where has the time gone?

It is hard to believe that we are already starting on the third month of this year. Where has the time gone?

Charlotte celebrated her third birthday last week, and I found myself asking that same question. Where has the time gone? How is it possible that my baby is three years old, and refuses to let me call her a baby. Charlotte is an amazing little girl. She is so full of life, it makes my head spin sometimes. She has more energy, and ideas of what to do, and more words to express herself than I can keep up with.

The other day Grandma Honeybee was watching the girls, and Charlotte asked her "If Jesus made the earth and everything, then why did he make Pinocchio at Disneyland?" She has had lessons in nursery and in Family Home Evening about Jesus making the Earth. To simplify, I'm sure we said "Jesus made everything." In her mind that of course included Disneyland (which I had no idea she was still thinking about), and you might remember that she did NOT enjoy the Pinocchio ride. She is full of questions like this.

I love this little girl so fiercely! I'm looking forward to the upcoming year with my baby. Happy Birthday Charlotte.

First Things First

There have been so many things that I've wanted to blog about over the last few months. Somehow time slips away too fast, and I never get around to sharing the fun that is going on around here... so I've decided to put them all together here in one post. Enjoy!

First Day of School:



First Day of Snow:



Jeff's First Marathon:

Disneyland vs. Chuck E. Cheese

For years our girls have been hearing about Disneyland from all of their cousins and friends, so last year we (meaning I) told the girls that 2010 was our year. "We will go to Disneyland in 2010!!!!!." And amazingly, we did. A few weeks ago, we packed up our car and drove to Vegas, staying the night with my sweet cousin and her family (Thanks Jen, it was great to see you!). The next morning we woke up really, REALLY early and finished driving to Disneyland. We spent the first day in Fantasy Land, seeing the princesses and riding Dumbo and the teacups mostly.






The second day we tried to go to all the other rides that sounded like fun. It is pretty amazing how tiring it is to stand in line all day. (And the lines weren't really all that long either).



At the end of two days, we asked the girls about their favorite rides. Brooklyn's was the Haunted Mansion. Savannah's was Dumbo. Madison said that she like Snow White's Scary Adventure. Jeff and I were confused, because when we tried to ride that ride, something broke and we were told to exit the line. We never did ride the ride. So, we asked her what she liked about it so much. She said she liked it because it was so short. LOL. What a funny kid. Her second favorite was the teacups. (She loves those Sit-and-spin toys). Charlotte maybe didn't have a favorite ride, but she did not like any ride that was too scary. And a lot of rides were too scary for her, even though they weren't made to be scary at all. We went on the Pinocchio ride, and she was crying the whole time. Finally the blue fairy turns Pinocchio into a real boy, and so I really played that up as a happy ending for her. Even two weeks later when asked about Disneyland, she retells how "Nokio was scary, but then he got turned into a real boy." It's pretty cute, especially because she seems so little to be talking so much.

After our vacation was all over, we asked the girls what their favorite part of the vacation was. Brooklyn liked riding in the car. Savannah liked playing with Cookie, the dog at Jeff's Uncle and Aunt's house. (Thanks Sam and Marty for letting us stay with you!). Madison liked eating Pizza. Charlotte liked the hotel rooms. Notice how none of them even mentioned Disneyland??? When we asked them on a scale of 1 to 10 how much fun Disneyland was, they all gave it a FIVE. When asked what they would rate Chuck E. Cheese, they said they would give it a SEVEN.

Next year, we will be taking a family vacation to Chuck E. Cheese.

Trick or Treat?

Brooklyn wanted to be a Jaguar this year for Halloween. We found the jacket and pants for a great price when we were school shopping earlier in the year. Then she sewed on the ears and the tail ALL ON HER OWN. That was an easy costume this year.



Savannah's costume was a much trickier costume. She wanted to be a Scarlet Macaw. No one had anything even remotely close to that, so out came the sewing machine. After working on her costume for two days (and thinking that I was finished), she asked me when we were going to add the feathers. Feathers? That wasn't part of my plan. I think that the wings turned out pretty good, but the face paint made her look more like a clown. I guess I should have done a practice run on the makeup sometime before the time we were already running late for school.


Madison asked to be a frog. I guess the girls all decided to be their favorite animal, and again there weren't many frog costumes to choose from. Luckily I found a Kermit hat on clearance at Wal-Mart (what, no one wants to wear that around the town? I can't figure out why they were going for so cheap ;) It worked out great for my purposes though! She was pretty darn cute, going around saying "ribbit" all the time.



Charlotte has been looking forward to Halloween for a very VERY long time. I've been hearing "I be Cinderella for Halloween" everyday for at least a month. She was Cinderella for the school parade, and then she was a unicorn for the outdoor activities since the Cinderella costume would have been too cold. Luckily she was easily convinced that she already had been Cinderella, and now she got to be something else. Whew, because at two and a half, she is not easily convinced about much of anything!


Jeff decided to go to work as his former self. He put on his suit from a year or two ago, from before he lost all the weight. It was hard to believe that the suit used to fit him nicely. He has our largest, fluffiest pillow inside of his shirt and suit. He amazes me with his will power to lose all that weight. Once he sets his mind to something, he never looks back ... well except to dress up for Halloween I guess.



It was a trick to get all those costumes ready in time, and now the real treat is that I have an entire year before starting on some new ones.

Happy Halloween!

"My" Community Garden

I love the fact that some really amazing people in this neighborhood have put together a community garden. I love that they keep chickens there. I love that they now have a goat at the garden. I love the fact that my children LOVE to visit the garden and talk to the chickens and the goat.

Most of all I love that my tomatoes and squash are thriving in their little raised garden bed. Brooklyn planted carrots and cantaloupes, and they are also growing super fast. She has dreamed of having a garden, and this year it is a reality for her. It is fun to share my passion for gardening with my daughter.

Here are some pictures so that you can love the community garden like WE do.