As I held my favorite granddaughter

in my arms yesterday, we stared at each other for the longest time. We do this often -- mainly because she likes to see herself reflected in my glasses. But this time seemed to be different than all the others. My glasses were on my desk, so that as her eyes locked on mine she really seemed to be focused on me. And I soon found out why. She rubbed the side of my face softly as I grinned at her and in her sweetest little voice asked the question I always wanted to hear. It went something like this....

Sophie: "Mamaw"

Me: "What sweet, precious, adoring young thing who I love with all my heart?"

Sophie: "Why does the skin by your eyes look like it has cracks in it when you smile at me?"

Requisite Weekly Pictures of the babies

Sophie was going with me to Wal-Mart on Friday and she picked out her own clothes. Sorta. Andi picked out red polka dot tights to go with this dress that was too short to wear without some. Sophie chose her pink cowboy boots to go with the outfit and then declared that it "didn't match" so she would fix it.Which she did, by adding this lovely layer of clothing. A stunning green silky dress and pink sweater that has just a touch of a green in the form of crochet flower on the sweater. And THIS is what she wore to Wal-Mart with Mamaw. Note the red clothes are still on, also.

Then there is Keegan, perfectly content to wear sweats everyday. With a grin like that, I would have let him wear whatever he wanted to as well. Maybe even a green dress.

Easy Ravioli Lasagna

I found this recipe in a Kraft food magazine (changed it a bit) and all the cheese lovers in my family loved it.

2 jars of spaghetti sauce
1 can of undrained diced tomatoes
dehydrated onion
2 bags of frozen ravioli
Mozzarella cheese
Cheddar cheese

Mix sauce, tomatoes, onion and spoon about a cup into the bottom of a 13 X 9 pan. Lay out the frozen ravioli square by square to cover pan. Cover with sauce and sprinkle cheese on it. Repeat layers with sauce, ravioli and cheese, ending with cheese. Bake covered at 400 for 30 minutes, then uncover and bake for 15 more minutes.

No pictures - no leftovers.

Breaking the after Thanksgiving rule

we put up our Christmas tree - or in our case - the front half of the tree Sunday afternoon. Sophie and Keegan are enjoying theirs so much at their house, it inspired the kids and I to want to put ours up for several extra weeks. Keegan was definitely displaying his all boy side during the decorating part because he would ONLY put the ornaments on that were ball shaped. He would not even touch the other ones. It was fun to try and hand him an ornament and just watch him exclaim, "No, want ball."

Since the entire tree is decorated in Pooh, they love seeing the characters they read about doing all sorts of cool things. We have a lot of animated ornaments on it and just as we thought, they loved pushing the buttons, pulling the strings and listening to the music.

We didn't expect Keegan to do some sort of country stomp dance every time he heard the music - that was just an added bonus.

I'm not going to put the presents under the tree yet -- nobody wants a dusty present and I can't imagine me dusting wrapped boxes.