bird feeders and santa

Daniel helped the girls hang the bird feeders we made this afternoon. He initiated this whole craft idea where we rolled pinecones in peanut butter and bird seed. He loves to watch for birds out our back window and the girls have picked up a love of it too. We hung these feeders right outside their windows hoping they would be able to see some from their bed during the day.



Later on in the evening we were all on our bed talking about santa. Daniel had gone into a big explanation about santa's bad list. They didn't know much about it. He asked the girls a few questions about what they thought santa knew and how he knew it. Ellen told us that santa doesn't see he just knows. Right after daniel finished his last words Arianna leaned down and kissed his face a few times. We couldn't stop ourselves from laughing. After Ellen stopped hysterically laughing with us she asked us what was so funny! :)

all together again!

I pretended to be a photographer the other day and spent a little while trying to get a photo of all of us to send out in our christmas card. I couldn't get one that I really liked but this one turned out pretty good.


I let the girls take pictures with the camera when we came back inside. This one was taken by Ellen. What a model! I'm getting him back for joking that no one reads this blog!



We went to see the christmas lights at the zoo tonight. It was a beautiful night. I haven't seen that many lights in a long time. I made the mistake of telling the girls that it was the 3rd Santa we have seen this year. Ellen didn't even want to talk with him. Arianna told him she wanted a cinderella dollhouse. i don't know where she got that from. Ellen told me today when she was writing a letter to santa that she wants a purple fairy book. I can't figure where she got that from either. I told her I didn't know where to get that and she was sure that santa would be able to get one for her. Anyone know where I can get a purple fairy book?

being vegan

I got this cartoon from a friend's myspace page and I'm not exactly sure where he got it but I love it. I haven't talked much on the blog about being vegan but I will eventually. I'm hoping this cartoon will just get you thinking:) I was trying to figure out a way to get it to stay at the top of my blog but when I put it in my profile picture it was so small you couldn't read it. oh well, i'm still figuring all this stuff out. Now that I have access to the computer in the evenings again you'll be reading a lot more from me! Daniel is out late finishing his last night of grading before our holiday. I've been working hard rearanging my blog:)

Arianna and Drew

How sweet!! Claire and I are already making wedding plans! If you listen closely you can hear Arianna talking about riding the Black Stalion.

good friends, good places

The original plan for when Daniel had to go back to Indy to defend his thesis was that he was going to go by himself. But, I just couldn't imagine staying here in Columbia while he was going to be so close to our friends. We made the 10 hour drive in my grandmother's hand-me-down car. The car ride there was harder because the girls didn't sleep as much as we were hoping and daniel and i were very tired. I had run into a curb and had a flat tire on Friday right before taking the girls to a ballet at a theater downtown. That added a little stress to our day and put us on the road a lot later. Anyway, we made it to Indy and the drive was well worth it. I enjoyed every single minute of being there. Even though the kids hadn't seen each other in about 5 months they acted like we had never moved away. It was very cold there the first couple of days so we didn't play at the parks like we were hoping. We did get to spend a day at the Children's museum and walked around the mall that was so close to our old house.



Arianna and Drew were so cute together. I was trying to get a video clip of them up on the blog but I'm having trouble with it. They were riding the horses on the carousel and reached out and held hands. They were always together, holding hands and playing together. I even caught this shot of Arianna with her arm around Drew waiting for our turn on the carousel.


I'm sorry that I didn't get a picture of the grown ups on the trip. Claire and Val were so sweet and put us up in their basement. We got to hang out over at Shael and Tom's house a lot too. Daniel was working most of the time. It was bad timing for him because he would have loved to sit around with us but he was so busy finishing his semester. Don't worry, I had a lot of fun anyway. Claire and I went out for a glass of wine one night and we all just had a great time hanging out. It is so nice to spend time with other families. We shared meals, helped clean up after each other and played with the kids together. The time went by so fast. I am so thankful for those families. Good friends are hard to find and I hit jackpot when I moved to Indy. I have to keep reminding myself that I was there for over 6 months before even meeting them. It takes even longer than that to really get to know someone.

We really miss Indianapolis. It is such a cool town and Columbia doesn't seem to be quite so great, yet. At least it is warmer here and we are only 2 hours from the beach and 3 hours from the mountains and an hour from our family. Oh I almost forgot to mention our lunch at Shalimar (Indian food). It is my favorite restaurant of all time. They have a great buffet and we would ride our bikes there almost every Saturday. They treated us to a free meal the day we moved. Anyway, they remembered us and it was the best meal I've eaten since I left! We ate there twice and the second time the waitor was waiting for us with our drinks ready! He saw us getting out of the car and got the girls mango juices ready!

another chapter

Daniel defended his thesis in Indianapolis on Monday and he has now officially completed his masters degree in Philosophy! He has worked very hard for the past 2 1/2 years. When we made the decision to sell our houses and quit a good paying job in one of the most beautiful places (Booone) you might have thought we were crazy! We moved away from everything we were familiar with and made a life for ourselves in Indy. We began the life of grad students. Daniel took on the job and lifestyle like a pro. Once I got adjusted to the new town I fell in love with the big city and of course the people. I am so proud of Daniel for taking the chance--leaving what he knew and was good at to go for what he really loved, studying and teaching philosophy. It is not a rare thing around our house to brew a pot of coffee or tea after dinner so daniel can get through several more hours of work after the girls go to bed. I tell him he is crazy. This weekend, my friend Claire called him a machine. He just looks at me and tells me he loves it. What a man! We are proud of you daniel. Congratulations!!!! Now we get a whole month to be together and take a break. :)

zoo

This was an amazing experience. Once again we were at a place when hardly no one else was there. We had the whole zoo to ourselves. We got to see a lot of animals close up but Arianna and I loved to visit the gorillas. There are 3 males that live there behind a huge sheet of glass. They will sometimes sit right next to the window. They have been interactive in the past but since we were the only ones in there we really got to spend some time with them. This one was actually giving kisses to us and looking us right in the eye. One time he stood up and hit his fists against the window before running up the hill. He came back and sat right back down by us. When I was sitting there next to him I had set my purse down to put my camera back in and he was very interested in what was inside. He was watching me look through the bag and we pulled a few things out like a coloring page and snacks and he was looking at them. The girls had a lot of fun showing him the stuff.




Ellen said that her favorite part of the day was watching the meerkats. Those little squirrel like animals that dig in the ground are pretty fun to watch. But she also loves to feed the lorikeets. These birds are beautiful. Arianna and I are a little skiddish. I have yelled out a few times as they fly right by skimming my head with their wings. We have been in there when they sit on us. I have to hold Arianna because she said it hurts when they get on her.

angels

Well the girls have been sick for a few days. Pretty much as soon as we got home from our trip, Arianna started coughing. That turned into runny nose and fever and then Ellen got it. Thankfully it only lasted a couple of days and the girls are feeling much better today. I got to get out of the house yesterday and meet Gail and Anna in Charlotte for some Christmas shopping. We had so much fun. Daniel got to spend a lot of quality time with them this weekend and today they spent the morning outside building a fire. We have one of those outdoor fireplaces and they spent several hours out there in the cool weather gathering sticks and playing in the yard. Then we all sat around the fire before coming in to enjoy some hot chocolate and cookies. I got this picture of them enjoying their drinks and watching the angels. My mom sent that to us in Indy last year and it is so cool. The girls love how the angels spin around and make the sweetest little jingle as the bells are tapped.