Sugar Baby! {part one}

I have really dropped the ball on my photography the last several months.  My life is so hectic these days with work and some personal/family issues.  Then when my computer crashed and I lost all my photo editing software, I just stopped taking photos.  I took a lot on my phone (and posted them to instagram) but my good cameras were collecting dust.

However, when Kate lost both of her front teeth, I knew I wanted to get some cute photos before they came in. It is really important to me to document our family's milestones.  I always think of this blog as our family photo album for the kids when I am gone.  I seriously envision them showing our grandkids posts and telling them about our family traditions.

Plus, it is such a short window of childhood when you are toothless and I wanted some cute pictures! I found a few shots of when Harry lost both of his within a week too.

He had a scrape on his nose  (right between his eyes) and it was healing.  I am so glad I did not photoshop that out as I look back.  It also tells the story of that part of life (wresting and Judo).

So about 2 weeks ago, I took Kate to her favorite little cupcake shop to mark this milestone.  Apparently, Harry had a root beer float to mark his loss of his front baby teeth!

Kate loves this cupcake shoppe.  It is a special place for her but we only go once or twice a year.
It is called Sugarbaby's and she had her 3rd birthday party there in fact.

I took 304 photos y'all.  That is why this is a two-part post.
Don't worry, I am not going to post them all.  But am I am going post a bunch.

 Kate had me laughing so hard.  She is really funny.

I love how seriously she studied all the sweet options in the case.









And finally she choses one:)










She was making silly faces for me!

After the cupcake a serious sugar buzz kicked in and she danced around the place.  I'll be back tomorrow to post those shots.

Thank you for the continued suggestions for Harry.  I plan to try some of them this week (especially the M-grain essential oil).

So Grateful

I am so grateful to Sibi for inviting me to join her last night on her blog radio show.  And I am so grateful to God for both bringing us together and guiding us last night. The hour flew by and we had so much we wanted to share.

Right before the show, both of my boys prayed over me (Dave had a business meeting and was not here).  I have to tell you it was one of my most cherished moments as a Mom.  I pray with my hand on their foreheads at night sometimes.  And sometimes Harry does this for me but Will has never done that.  It was truly special.  Maybe that is normal for y'all.  While we are big prayer people here...we don't usually pray like that and teenage boys can be especially reluctant if you know what I mean. {I forgot to add that BOTH of my boys independently prayed that "Mom would not embarrass herself."}

Thank you to all who encouraged us and listened last night. We really hope we helped at least one married couple out there.  In case you missed it, you can listen to the broadcast archived below.

Listen to internet radio with The Pearl on Blog Talk Radio

I wanted to update so I have it for my memory that Kate was SO excited when she woke up the morning after "losing" her first tooth. She ran in my room and asked if it was morning first. Then she ran back to her room to see what the tooth fairy left.  She was thrilled with the gold coin and $ the tooth fairy left but she was over the moon with JOY when she saw a trail of "magic pixie dust" on her pillow (her description).  It looked like very fancy silver glitter to me.  But apparently the tooth fairy left a little trail of it on the pillow and onto the floor.  Kate could even surmise how the tooth fairy entered her room with careful examination. Kate wanted to save the magic pixie dust and she even brought some to show and tell that day:)

A knock out!

We have some BIG news around here.  I told you a few weeks ago that someone had a wiggly tooth.....WELL...not anymore!

Tonight, while I was doing the dinner dishes, the kids were having a very innocent pillow fight with the couch pillows in our play room.  They do this a lot and Kate loves it.  Harry hit Kate in the face (gently) with a pillow and it really loosened her tooth more.  Then, Will immediately hit her in the back of the head with another pillow and her tooth popped out!  All I heard was a scream.  The blood kind of freaked her out.  It took us a few minutes to find the tooth in the carpet!  

{writing a letter to the tooth fairy--she wants to keep her tooth to take to show and tell}

{putting her tooth and letter in the tooth fairy pillow}

{her little tooth pillow that our dear friend, Bagel (who is coming to visit soon yeah!) 

gave Kate years ago}

{a close up of the missing spot}




{she is just SO SO excited for the tooth fairy!}

{she LOVES her big brothers so much!}

I think it is so funny how Kate's 1st tooth fell out because although she has two big brothers, my boys are not really rough and tumble kind of boys.  I am kind of glad they knocked it out because it has been loose for a few weeks and it was not really making progress.  The boys kind of helped it along;)

In other news, it is Spirit week at Will's new high school.  And as part of that, the seniors traditionally shave the freshmen heads before the big rival football game this weekend.  Will has a large scar covering half his head (from a head surgery when he was an infant) so the school did not want to shave this head.  We went and had his done professionally.  You ought to see some of these kids.  They have all sorts of reverse mohawks and quilt patterns on their heads!!!  It is 100% voluntary and most of the freshmen really want to participate.

Harry has his first middle school dance tomorrow night (oh my word!). Will is going to his first high school football game (and a dance).  And Dave, Kate and I will be going to our first high school football game in Texas too.  My peanuts are growing up, y'all!

A Halloween of many firsts...

Updated at the bottom....

It was Kate Emerson's first Halloween with our family....

It was also the first time Kate tasted candy. She had a little piece of a Reese's Cup and she LOVED it! That photo is in the slideshow. However, she did not love the hat that came with this costume....

She also hated the very lovely Tom Arma flower costume I purchased for her.


It was the first time I met fellow blogger Denise who happens to live near me and recently got her referral for beautiful Maggie.....

Denise and I clicked immediately and could have talked for days! She is so sweet and I look forward to a long friendship with her and our children--all of them! The above photo is Hannah (a sweet little girl that Denise was taking care of), Denise and Katie Ru.


BUT the MOST EXCITING first was...........

Harry lost his first tooth! He will be 7 in about 6 weeks so we have been waiting a LONG time for this. I am really glad I took the Christmas card picture a few weeks ago:)

It was also the first Halloween that Will found out there is not a "Halloween Witch." Will has always been allergic to peanuts and both of my kids are allergic to 99% of candy so Halloween can be tough for them. Many years ago a fellow Mom suggested that I tell the kids to leave their candy out for the Halloween Witch and she will take the candy and leave a small surprise (a book or stickers or Pokemon cards). We have done this for as long as I can remember.

Last night a few of Will's friends were over and he was telling them that he was leaving his candy out for the Halloween Witch. His friends said, "I never heard of that. There is no such thing as the Halloween Witch." He said, "I know. I think it is my Mom. " Then he looked at me and said, "Is it Mom?" I said, "Yes." He acted fine and went back out for round two of trick or treating with this friends and Harry.

However, when he got home, he was devastated. He sobbed in disappointment. He was angry that we lied to him all of those years and he felt anxious that his childhood was coming to an end. He questioned Santa and the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy. Luckily, he still believes in all of them. It is a good thing too because the tooth fairy came last night. I apologized and explained to him that I wanted him to still love Halloween even though he could not have the candy. He said, "I never thought Mom would lie to me." Oh, it simply breaks my heart.

The thing Will was most upset about was that he feels like he only has about 5 more years of childhood. He told us how much he still loves playing with Legos and being a kid and he doesn't want to grow up. It was very sad. He did write me a letter saying that he forgives me and he hopes I leave two packs of Pokemon cards for his candy!

I dread the day when he figures the rest of it all out.
Added to respond to a few comments: Jill and others. I really appreciate your kind honesty and insight. The only reason I did not tell Will about Santa etc. was because during our long talk last night, he told me that most of all he was upset that I told him I was the Halloween Witch. He told me that he still actually believed and still wants to believe. In that moment, I decided that I would wait until he figured it out on his own. I teach my kids the true meaning of Christmas and Easter but Santa is magical and obviously Will wants to hold onto that magic for a while longer. Thank you for wording your response with such kindness. It really means a lot to me. Parenting is sometimes a gut reaction and we don't always do it perfectly.

Here is a little slideshow of the rest of our Halloween photos. We went to a neighborhood pizza party in the park before trick or treating. It was a lot of fun!!

Lastly, I still feel very ill and run down and I am going to another doctor today. I plan to take about a week off of blogging to rest and recover. Have a great week everyone!