Last week I took the kids to meet Santa Clause and get our yearly photo with him.

I know I say this every year, but seriously figure out a way to visit Santa before Thanksgiving. No lines gives Santa lots of time to talk with the kids! They had a really nice time visiting with him. Also? If you can bring a friend and their kid, it makes for a much more entertaining lunch. Thanks for joining us Reb and Jane!

Heaven gained another angel. I imagine my grandma was giddy with joy when my grandpa showed up. I have to tell you, that fact that it was 11/11/11 and Veteran's Day seems most appropriate as Grandpa was one hell of a guy.

I love you so much Grandpa and I'm really going to miss you.

You guys? I'm sorry, I just don't have much to write about right now. We've been really busy doing nothing important and to tell the truth I'm in a funk. Dido and Grammy both lost an uncle this past week and we've been told that GG John will be joining his wife (my Grandma in heaven) any day now. While all three of these men have lived long, lovely lives, it still just sort of stinks. So please excuse my little break in blogging. I'll be back soon with lots more funny stories to share.

Play-Doh and I have a love/hate relationship.

What you don't see is me in the background preparing dinner, sneaking a few pictures, and pulling all the stuck pieces of Play-Doh out of small crevices as the kids play. I love that Play-Doh keeps my kids entertained but I hate that Play-Doh accessories always end up with clogged pieces.

This post brought to you by First World Problems. Enjoy!

We got Daddy to finally join us on an outing to the waterfalls! (No I do not want to talk about my eye wrinkles, I'm learning to accept the aging process, or at least pretending to accept it while I silently freak out and make asides on my blog.)

I was pretty excited to have him there while I got to try out my new camera with the outdoor lighting on the kids. And can I just say, a picture like this makes the camera completely and totally worth the expense!

Or maybe a picture like this? (I lowered the shutter speed so the water would cascade, how cool is that?!)

And then there is this one, which makes my heart melt into a puddle on the ground. We might have to blow this one up and find a place to frame it.

Have I told you I love my family? Because I do. And this camera? So, so, so awesome. Now, about that face lift...

This week can come to an end now. I love that the kids and I have things to do but I get overwhelmed when there is so much going on in one week. So today, after skipping a couple days, will be yet another photo dump with stories to share. Thankfully, you all seem to enjoy these.

First off, Rory had her first hair cut. I didn't have my camera with me because I wasn't intending to get her hair cut. I had planned to get Max and my hair trimmed up but then I just decided to go ahead and do hers too while we were there. She did great of course, and I don't even have a real after shot because you'd really never know unless I showed you what to look for. We pretty much just cut off the baby hairs that were getting pretty frizzy and layered up her hair a bit to help the curls pull out.

On Wednesday I let the kids sit down and eat as much Halloween candy as they wanted during lunch. It actually worked out better then I could have hoped as they spent the rest of the afternoon in a sugar comatose instead of super hyper. And I was able to get rid of a lot of candy that day too.

One of the gifts Dusty got for his birthday was a 13 quart Le Creuset pot. You guys? This thing is so huge that Max can sit in it. And we now have a complete collection. They were so pretty I had to get a picture of them!

I finally, just finally, converted Rory's crib into a toddler bed. This needed to be done weeks ago but it just hasn't been on the top of my list. The last week? Rory and Max have either crawled onto the couches and turned on the TV or crawled into bed with me where they jump and talk far too loudly for a still sleepy Mama. So it was time to stop making her hurdle over her crib every morning. And so far? She seems to like it.

And lastly, Daddy taught Max how to thumb wrestle last night. It was pretty cute, even if Max didn't quite get the whole concept. But check out that concentration and triumphant smile!

And folks? That is all I've got today, hopefully you enjoyed it!

And since the last two days have been crazy...say hello to a quick photo dump and update.

Last night was a lot of fun at Katie and Andrew's. The kids were very sweet at letting us get a bunch of pictures of them in their costumes. Max and Rory love hanging out with their cousins, Lyla and Nora!

And Kenley joined the crowd later to show off her watermelon costume. The two babes didn't make it out trick or treating, but they did get treated like superstars with all the paparazzi photos of them!

Today the kids and I went to lunch with GG, Auntie and Taylor. We had lunch at the mall where the Williams Sonoma store is that GG works at so she was able to show off her grand-babies which made her extra happy.

And today is also Dusty's birthday! He got lots of nice gifts already but the kids and I saved our present for his birthday where we sang to him and had him blow out a candle.

(That's a football balloon in the upper right corner. I realize it looks like a butt, it's not. The kids picked that out for Daddy.)

Since we'd already been out to eat today and the kids were really wound up from spending so much time in the car and restaurant, we didn't get to go out. So the next best thing was to make breakfast for dinner! Dusty loves Eggs Benedict so I whipped that up for everyone to eat and it's been a relaxing evening - with lots of couch and TV time - which is exactly what daddy wanted.

Happy Birthday Daddy! We love you!