One down, two to go.

Science fair season again . . .

Not quite sure what was up with Sophie's pose in this one. Kind of hilarious!

Friday Night

I'm continuing my "blogging the ordinary" theme. Tonight, I'm focusing on Jake. He was not a very willing participant in my evening photo shoot. I love him to pieces anyway :)

And in case you were wondering what was going on in the McRae house at precisely 9:48 p.m. this lovely Friday evening, here it is:

Stuffed animal school with Sophie:

Emma & her friend Mary playing with Barbies, I think:

Jake's making sausage & eggs:

There you have it. Until next time...

I love these kids.

I'm not doing very good so far at keeping my blog current this year. I just haven't been taking any pics. I'm not giving up. When I don't have anything to blog about, I'll blog about the ordinary. Here are the girl's this evening at bedtime.

Sophie, freshly bathed and ready for her bowl of lucky charms:

Emma, looking glamorous, even in dad's shirt:
Not pictured: Jake, who would not crack a smile and wanted nothing to do with this post.

Good night all.

Move over Picasso.

I know every parent likes to brag about how cute or talented their child is, but seriously, Joseph & I were just blown away when we saw what what our sweet Sophie did. Her raw talent just stunned us.

Take a look:

Sophie baby, we've never been more proud!

(p.s. if you read the Christmas card post below, the answer is yes, I really did just use my kid's school pictures as my Christmas card photos. What can I say? I was really busy last month!)

Merry Christmas!

I know. I'm a few weeks late. I have 50 of these sweet little Christmas cards sitting on my counter. Right now. At this point, I'm too embarrassed to send them out, so I'll just post it here and let you know that if you didn't receive a Christmas card from the McRae's this year, don't feel bad. No one did.

Fashionistas

Knits hats & Sophie's skirt purchased at the Beehive Bazaar.

The Bella Saga

Where to start. We received Bella from Joseph's mom this past summer. We instantly loved her. She is sweet, cute and clean.

She wouldn't leave Emma's side when Emma had the flu:

Of course, we already have a cat as you know. Sammy is sort of sweet, kind of cute and honestly, not that clean. He tries, but due to his size, he has a hard time reaching everywhere when he's cleaning himself.

At first Sammy & Bella weren't too sure about each other. But eventually, much to our delight, they became friends!

Enter the evil neighbor cat I like to call "Hitler". Hitler started showing up in our backyard toward the end of the summer. I would chase him away and so would Sammy, but Hitler kept showing up and taunting my two kitties.

As this continued to go on, Sammy's demeanor around the house started to change. He wasn't so nice to Bella anymore. In fact, he started chasing and pouncing on her frequently. He even starting "marking" his territory around the house. Ewwwwwww. He had NEVER done that before.

We took Sammy to the vet to see what we could do, and $300 later our answer was "Get rid of one of your cats."

We were debating what we should do, when suddenly one night, when Joseph got home from work, he opened the front door and before he could stop them, Sammy chased Bella out of the house, down the street and around the corner. Joseph went running after them, but could not find Bella.

We called Bella all night and morning, but she didn't return. We put up signs around the neighborhood, checked the animal shelter several times a week, but no sign of Bella.

More than two weeks had passed and we had all just about given up hope for her return. All of us except Emma that is. She prayed every night that Bella would come home. I did too, but the reality was starting to sink in. It was COLD at night. Bella was tiny. It had been weeks. It didn't look good.

Then, on Thanksgiving weekend a miracle occurred! Emma looked out the front window and thought she saw Bella running across the street. We all ran outside and called her and searched for her, but no luck.

Then about 30 minutes later we received a call from a neighbor saying he had our kitty! And he did!! Almost three weeks to the day, Bella came home. Really tired, very dirty, extremely hungry and thirsty, but she's home! Emma calls it a Thanksgiving miracle.

All is well again in the McRae house.