Our sweet Lana Rae's birthday is today! She is four! Lana has her very own lovable personality, and keeps us laughing. She has a love for shoes, and has since she was a toddler. She loves them so much that she's stolen   claimed a pair of her older sister's Cinderella dress up shoes. I think Ella has maybe been able to wear them a handful of times. Lana has worn them out as she wears them almost every day. Any time we return home, off go her shoes and on go the Cinderella slippers. She must get her love of shoes and heels from me. ;) Before I had kids, I lived in heels. Now, I choose function over fashion. I do miss wearing beautiful shoes! Lana also loves babydolls, fashion, The Little Mermaid, and Ursula. At the beginning of the year, The Little Mermaid came to The Fox, and Ella and I went to see it with my Grams. When we returned, Lana was looking through the book and saw the picture of the actress dressed up as Ursula. From that day forward, she has become intrigued ...

In looking back on this year, I've dubbed it as the year of unexpected surprises. Some of these surprises have been good, others weren't, while still others were somewhere between. I've intended to write down and process each of these, but I haven't gotten around to it. I will start here with the most recent unexpected surprise. My second-born started Kindergarten this year, so I now have two in school! We've had to adjust to a new schedule as there are a couple more subjects in 1st Grade, and then simply adding another child into the schooling mix is a big change! Add in the new and frequent sibling fighting, and it has been a challenge in starting this new year. I *think* we've finally found some sort of a groove and schedule, but time will really tell. Recently, Owen's Kindergarten teacher stepped down as his teacher in order to take on a different job. As a result, the kindergartners are now in the 1st Grade classroom with Ella's class and teache...