A love letter to my beautiful girl, part two.

I've been terribly negligent of this blog for about a year now. I've realized that I'll never be a regular blogger, and the older my children get, the more cautious I am about what I post about them online. But I do so love to look back at old things that I've written about them. Peanut has barely any written record of her milestones and quirks, beyond what I've written on Facebook. I've tried downloading an archive of my Facebook profile so those precious memories aren't permanently lost to the ether, but I've been unsuccessful so far. Pumpkin has a decent amount of things written about her first years, but I still feel like it isn't enough.

I want to remember it all. I look back at Youtube videos of Pumpkin from when she was even just a year younger than she is now, and I can't believe how much she's changed. I forget little words that she used to mispronounce or physical eccentricities that she had. And she is only three-and-a-half. What won't I remember when she is ten? Twenty? Thirty-four?

I swear that she was just learning to crawl and jabber and walk and talk yesterday.  Now she's got a vocabulary almost as sophisticated as mine, and she's as physically capable as any middle school child. And now she's going to be The Big Sister to not just one sibling, but soon two. Is she really already almost four?

Yesterday was Valentine's Day, and The Captain and I don't really make a big deal of the holiday. I wanted to post something about love on my Facebook page, and I came across this old "letter" to Pumpkin from two summers ago. It was June 2011, and I was about seven months pregnant with Peanut. I think that was the point in my pregnancy that I started to get a little bit nervous about dividing my heart between two girls (at the time I really didn't buy into the notion that "hearts don't divide; they grow"...but now as a mother of nearly three children, I can attest that it, in fact, does...though that is a post for another time.)

I was giddy with excitement to be welcoming Peanut within the next few months, but I was also beginning to try to find ways of coping with the inevitable loss of my one-on-one time with my beautiful firstborn baby. Reading the post now is bittersweet; that baby isn't necessarily gone now, but the baby now buried deep within the core of a little girl with self-confidence, sass, an independent streak ten miles wide, and layers upon layers of experiences that make her need her mommy less and less every day.

She doesn't really fit in my lap any more; she's the size of many five-year-olds, all lanky arms and coltish legs that are difficult to curl up next to my now-growing belly. Never mind the fact that she rarely has time for a cuddle.

Spontaneous kisses from her are rare, and I sometimes have to ask for hugs. Sometimes, she even says "no", and while I admire and respect her right to dictate what she does with her own body, it makes me sad every single time.

Most of the fingerprints and noseprints around the house are now Peanut's. Pumpkin is usually quite conscientious of washing her hands.

I haven't been allowed to kiss her feet during diaper changes in over a year. She's nearly out of diapers, in fact. 

She says "flower" perfectly, as well as every other word that she attempts to pronounce. 

As her face has matured, her eyes are more evenly shaped, and more lovely and reflective of her burning intellect, every day.

She is still very bossy. I'm assuming that won't ever change.

She hasn't used signing instead of words in a very long time. Peanut has made up her own sign language, and Pumpkin doesn't seem to remember many words.

She does still love sympathy for her boo-boos and starts dance parties, and every once in a while brings us all in for family hugs, Peanut included. Other things are now her "butt". And of course she still has that curl that falls on her forehead, and toes just like daddy's.

I think she'll always be dramatic and sweet and brave and tender.

She's still mine...at least for a little while longer. And I'll always be hers. 

Pumpkin, from November 2012...turned three in September.

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THE critical accessory for all people with kids.

When people have asked what our must-have baby accessories and items are, I have trouble pinpointing a single item. However, I can quickly respond with a few things that we found to be completely pointless.

Wipe warmers; seriously, the baby gets used to the warm and silky caress of a perfectly warmed wipie at home, then you try to change them at a filthy and freezing-cold gas station on a road trip to Ohio in the middle of December, and it ruins their entire day.

Nursing/feeding timers, like the "Itzbeen" timer. Do people seriously use a timer to determine when they should next feed their baby? I suppose it is important when babies are premature or have growth issues, but if you have a vigorous baby, just feed the baby when they are hungry. Simple as that. The Captain and I had one of those Itzbeen timers for when Pumpkin was born, and I honestly never even learned how to set the damn thing. What a waste of $25. Some lady bought it from me on eBay about six months ago, and I think I sold it to her for about $4. Sorry, lady. You could have bought yourself a nice latte from Starbucks instead. I felt a little like Bernie Madoff for even listing it.

Toys. Your infant is only going to be interested in the television remote, wooden spoons, and their own socks for the first few months. Let grandma and grandpa buy the rattlers, squeakers, and danglers, and save your money for critical things like Excedrin, nipple butter, and Ghirardelli truffle squares.

Bumpers for the crib. Our crib bedding set came with one, and it was freaking adorable, but we left it out because of safety concerns. This Journal of Pediatrics article from 2007 sums it up nicely. "These findings suggest that crib and bassinet bumpers are dangerous. Their use prevents only minor injuries. Because bumpers can cause death, we conclude that they should not be used."

If I were to do a "favorite things" post a la Oprah Winfrey, at the top of my list would be my breast pump (one needs a good breast pump if nursing and going back to work, even for any small amount of time; I have the Medela Pump In Style Advanced), my BabyHawk mei tai carrier, our Baby Jogger City Select double stroller (seriously, this thing is like the Mercedes Benz of strollers; we call it the Strolls Royce; and it makes transporting together a reluctant toddler and a new baby a breeze), our 4 moms cleanwater tub (probably a wee bit over the top, but it is nice not having to stress about a mid-bath pooper turning the tub into a swamp), and finally, the Boppy pillow, but once again, this is assuming that one is nursing. Those are just what come to mind immediately, and there are a lot of incidental little things, but it isn't a coincidence that the things I thought of off the top of my head are related only to feeding, carrying, and cleaning the baby. That's what a new parent does the most of.

The Captain and I have found a single thing to be invaluable to have in the house with two children; dogs. Dogs and children are perfectly complementary of one another. Dogs clean up all manner of biological spills and accidents, if you allow them to do so. Did your toddler go the route of Mount Vesuvius with her applesauce? Call in the dogs. More noodles ended up in the high chair than in your kid's belly? Tip that thing on it's side and unleash the hounds. Did your five month old just spit up three ounces of milk on the carpet? Call in the dogs. The dogs work for free! (Note: don't let your doggies clean up chocolate, raisins, or grapes...they are toxic to them! Most pooches are at least mildly lactose intolerant as well.)

What things are on your "This Is Pointless" and "Must-Have" Lists for babies?

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RECIPE: Roasted Cabbage Wedges

Did you know that when you roast cabbage, it takes on a nutty, almost sweet flavor? I really, really love cabbage, and tend to eat it mostly in the spring time around St. Patrick's Day, but having discovered this recipe, I'm going to be eating it a lot more frequently. It is cheap, it is easy, and it is healthy. The trifecta of awesomeness!

There are a variety of recipes for this listed all over the web, and I'm not sure who the originator of the recipe was, but here's what I used, and how I did it:

Ingredients:
one whole cabbage, cut into fourths (I cut through the stem, so the stemmy part could keep the wedges held together)
olive oil
sea salt
freshly ground pepper
juice of one lemon

I didn't measure out the olive oil, I just poured some into my hands and rubbed it into the cabbage as thoroughly as I could.

Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.

Place on a cookie sheet, and roast on the middle rack of the oven for approximately 25 minutes at 375. Ours still had a bit of crunch, and was starting to get very brown on the bottom and edges, but no burning occurred. Just keep an eye on it!

Once you remove it from the oven, squeeze fresh lemon juice over each piece. Don't overdo it, though...the lemon is just to give it a little zip.

I served this with chicken quarters that I roasted in a Dutch oven with onion powder, garlic powder, salt, and pepper, and a liberal coating of fresh lemon juice.

Enjoy!

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Cute Babies in Hats

I work two days a week, and the rest of the week, I usually have the girls at home with me. Some days drone on so slowly, I can only watch so much Little Bear, do so many puzzles, and have my "temperature taken" with Pumpkin's little plastic thermometer from her doctor kit so many times. Some days, we go outside and draw with sidewalk chalk when it is warm enough outside for Peach to be outside too. Some days, it is a long bubble bath for Pumpkin in the middle of the afternoon. Some days, it is photo session time.

Pumpkin is essentially completely over having mommy's camera in her face, but Peach is still a perfect little model. Pumpkin was playing in her room the day that I took these of Peach, and came into the office to see what the excitement was. She, of course, wanted to get in on the action, and I managed to get some cute shots of her.

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RECIPE: Buffalo Chicken Dip in the Crock Pot

Remember a few entries ago when I posted about the Nutter Butter Truffles, I said that was the last indulgent recipe for a while? I lied.

I had completely forgotten about this Buffalo Chicken Dip that I had made for the Superbowl party that we went to. It was out of this world delicious. If you like hot wings, and like dips for parties, look no further.

There are recipes all over the web for Buffalo Chicken Dip, and I'm not sure where the idea originated, so I don't know who to credit for the inspiration. I've also modified it to fit my own tastes. Many of the recipes call for you to use canned chicken, but, to me, the thought of that is nauseating! I used fresh chicken, boiled the night before and kept in the fridge until I was ready to put everything into the crock pot.

Ingredients:
two packages of fresh chicken tenderloins (there were probably about 15 or so)
12 oz. bottle of Frank's red hot (my personal preference...you can use whatever your fave is)
1/2 c. ranch dressing (we like Ken's)
1/4 c. blue cheese dressing (we like Kens; if you don't like blue cheese, use 3/4 c. ranch)
2 8 oz. blocks of cream cheese

Boil the chicken until fully cooked. Drain, let cool, and shred.

Put the chicken in the crock pot with the dressings and the hot sauce. Put the crock pot on low until everything is good and steamy and melded.

An hour or so before serving, put the cream cheese in. I always slice it into small squares to facilitate better melting.

Once the cream cheese is melted, if your crock pot has a "keep warm" setting, set it to that. Dairy products tend to break down when exposed to high heat for long periods of time!

We served the dip with a variety of things, but by FAR the most delicious was celery. We also used Ritz crackers, Fritos scoops, tortilla chips, and various other fresh veggies.

Side note: if I were to make this just for myself, I'd have added some extra hot sauce for more kick! You may want to have a bottle of hot sauce near the crock pot so folks can add their own. Blue cheese crumbles are another possible addition, for folks that really like it, and freshly sliced scallions/green onions would be a pretty and tasty addition as well.

Enjoy!

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Getting Healthy: Goat Cheese and Jalapeno Omelet

This was our Valentine's dinner, and whoa mama, was it good. I was really hungry last night, so I came up with this omelet, using things that we had on hand. The richness of this omelet really hit the spot. It was also really spicy, which I love! One serving is half an omelet, and has about 260 calories.

Ingredients:
5 eggs (I know, its a lot...but you're sharing with someone, right? So you're technically only eating 2.5. Make it even healthier by using most egg whites)
a few tablespoons of diced jalapenos
2 oz. goat cheese, crumbled (eyeball it; 2 oz. is about two inches of a standard "roll" of goat cheese...you could also use feta if you like)

Beat the eggs and pour into a large hot skillet. Allow the eggs to cook for three or four minutes, before adding the jalapenos and goat cheese.

Let it cook "open faced" for another five minutes or so...the key is to allow it to be solid enough that it won't fall apart when you try to fold it over.

Fold it over and cook until the eggs are golden brown on the outside of the omelet.

I served mine with a generous drizzle of sriracha chili sauce, a tablespoon of medium salsa, and a heaping teaspoon of lowfat sour cream. I also sprinkled a teeeeeny bit of cotija cheese over the top, just to make it pretty.

It was spicy, rich, eggy heaven.

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Getting Healthy: Curry Chicken Salad made with Greek Yogurt

I love curry. I've told my husband before that I could probably be a vegetarian in a heartbeat if I had unlimited access to fresh Indian food at all times. I created this chicken salad recipe to fit in with my healthier eating habits, and it turned out to be DELICIOUS!

Ingredients:
approximately 6 cups of shredded or diced chicken
1/2 c. fat-free Greek yogurt
2 c. apples, diced, with skins on for fiber! I used Macintosh
1 c. salted, roasted cashews
yellow curry powder, to taste (seriously, just put some in, taste, and add more if you like...who needs measurements?)
black pepper, to taste
onion powder, to taste

 I roasted a whole chicken for this initial preparation of the chicken salad. Buying a whole chicken is SO much cheaper than buying boneless, skinless pieces and parts!

I removed most of the skin, put it in my Dutch Oven, coated it with a bit of olive oil, and sprinkled it with pepper, curry powder, onion powder, and paprika. I roasted it at 375 for about 45 minutes, covered...then I uncovered it and let it roast for another 20 minutes. I let it cool completely, then picked it apart with my hands. It yielded about 6 cups of chicken.

Mix the spices in with the Greek yogurt and set aside.

Mix the apples with the cashews, and mix them in with the chicken, then add the yogurt-curry mixture. Combine well.

I bought a head of fresh iceberg lettuce and pulled off individual leaves, and have stored them in a Gladeware container in the 'fridge, to make easy and fast wraps with them. I put two scoops of chicken salad in a single leaf, wrap it, and love it. So yummy!

Next time, I think I'll add more cashews and some golden raisins.

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Getting Healthy: The Smoothie That Will Change Your Life

Oh my goodness. What to call this? Almond-Oatmeal smoothie? Apple-Cinnamon Smoothie? Paradise in a Smoothie? Who knows.

This smoothie is aaaaaaaamazing. When I took my first sip, I wanted to cry. How could I possibly think that eating well would be too difficult for me? This is so, so good, and so, so good for you. And the ingredients are CHEAP and it is EASY to make. It is also very versatile as far as adding things or substituting ingredients. Going by this exact formula, this smoothie is about 260 calories.

Ingredients: 
1 cup unsweetened almond-coconut milk
1/2 c. unsweetened applesauce
1/2 UNCOOKED rolled oats (not instant oats)
dash of cinnamon to your taste (I like a lot)
1 T honey
5 ice cubes

Puree it all in the blender. Marvel at the goodness.

This morning, I did two cups of almond milk and added a banana in the mix as well, which took the calorie count up, but I was hungry!

Other options: add nutmeg, or unsweetened cocoa powder? Maybe unsweetened coconut? A bit of maple syrup instead of honey? Ground cloves? Yummo!

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Get Healthy: Homemade Fruit Snacks

These are wonderful. I think they may need a bit more gelatin powder in them than the recipe calls for. Play with it by adding a pinch more than the recipe calls for.

Ingredients:
1 cup of mixed berries, your choice (I used strawberries, blackberries, and blueberries)
1/4 c. water
1/2 c. unsweetened applesauce
1/2 c. fruit juice (I used Motts for Tots reduced sugar apple-grape juice)
2 envelopes of plain gelatin (1 envelope is equal to 2.5 teaspoons)

Bring the berries and water to a boil in a saucepan, and cook for about five minutes, until the berries are nice and soft. Transfer CAREFULLY to a blender, and puree until smooth.

Put the 1/2 cup of fruit juice in a separate bowl. Add the gelatin powder to the fruit juice, and set aside.

Return to the saucepan and add the applesauce. Bring to a boil again, then pour the hot mixture into the bowl with the fruit juice and gelatin.

Pour into 8x8 glass dish, and refrigerate until firm (like I said before, I think it needs a wee bit more gelatin). Cut into shapes of your choosing!

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Get Healthy: Cleansing Cabbage Soup

I found this recipe online, listed as a food that is appropriate for Phase 2 of the HCG Diet. I have absolutely no idea what that means, I just know that it only has 35 calories per 8 oz serving, which is music to my ears. It is delicious and filling. The flavor is just fantastic and rich. I hope you like it.

Ingredients:
Fresh:
6 medium stalks of celery, diced
1 medium onion, diced
1/2 head of cabbage, chopped
minced garlic cloves, your choice, to your taste

Canned/Prepared:
3 cans of chicken broth or stock, preferably low sodium and reduced fat (you could also use vegetable broth)
2 14.5 oz. cans of low sodium diced tomatoes
black pepper, to taste

Pour the whole mess into a large stewpot and simmer for about an hour, covered, until everything gets nice and soft and the richness of the tomatoes and garlic blend together.

This makes a LOT of soup; you'll have plenty to freeze!

Enjoy.

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Get Healthy: Green Banana Smoothie

I'm prone to hyperbole, but I'm not exaggerating when I say how amazingly delicious this smoothie is. I expected to have to choke it down, but I think my world rocked on it's axis a bit when I took my first sip. I'm pretty sure that healthy smoothies are going to be the secret to my success in adopting a healthier lifestyle.

Here's how you do it:

Ingredients: 
1 cup of almond milk, unsweetened

1 medium banana
2 big handsful of fresh spinach
1 T ground flax seed
five ice cubes

Blend it all, sip it slowly, and marvel at how delicious it is! This will forevermore be my preferred method for eating fresh spinach.

This has about 215 calories in it, but you could reduce that by about 50 calories if you omit the ground flax seed. If you do omit it, you're missing out on some good fiber and protein!

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RECIPE: Nutter Butter Truffles

Ok, one last indulgent recipe before my blog is overrun by healthy foods. Truffles, made with ground up Nutter Butter cookies and cream cheese. Oh my goodness, gracious. I made these for our monthly game night with friends, and they were a hit.

I was reflecting today that my blog has become somewhat of a recipe site, and had I anticipated this, I'd have chosen a title more appetizing than "Diapers and Dogfur"!

Ingredients:
1 package of Nutter Butters
8 oz. cream cheese at room temperature
white chocolate bark coating (or dark or milk chocolate, your choice, really)
Reese's peanut butter chips

Grind the Nutter Butters to dust in a food processor.

Mix the cookie dust with the cream cheese; you'll probably need to use your hands.

Roll into small balls. Put in fridge or freezer while you prepare the coating.

In a double boiler, melt the chocolate.

Using a toothpick, dip the balls into the chocolate. Decorate how you like before the chocolate cools and hardens...I used some Reese's peanut butter chips. When I do these again, I will probably break up the chips into smaller fragments. Enjoy!

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Get Healthy: Beginning the Journey with Curried Vegetable "Cleanse" Soup

One of my problems with healthy eating is that I don't have a whole lot of willpower when it comes to delicious food.

I'm the person that gets a large order of Chick-Fil-A waffle fries and a large, sugar-loaded lemonade to eat in the car on my thirty-ish minute commute home from work. BAM - 900 calories, an hour and a half before I eat a 1,000 calorie dinner. And I likely had fast food for lunch earlier in the day, to boot. And for breakfast, I probably had a large toffee nut latte and some sort of pastry from the Starbuck's drive through on my way to work. It wouldn't be a stretch to estimate that I would regularly eat about 4,000 calories per day.

I'm the person that eats an entire ten-inch pizza because it is so damn delicious, even if I was full after two slices. I'm the person that puts that second piece of cheese on a greasy burger, just because it makes it extra gooey. I can't do deprivation diets, because I simply can't make myself do them.

I've already mentioned that this is a lifestyle change, rather than a diet, so there really isn't a name for what I'm doing. I am using a really great iPhone app called Lose It!, in which you put in your current weight, target weight, and how much you'd like to lose per week. I want to lose approximately 25 pounds, and maintain that weight. Indefinitely. The app told me that, with that target weight, I can eat around 1700 calories per day and lose about 1.5 pounds a week. If I want to have a big lunch, I eat less at dinner or breakfast. I have all the power to decide how I want to budget my calories. I'm also not planning on being hard on myself about how I eat when I go to dinner with my family or hang out with friends. I'm also not following any particular workout regimen, or beating myself up with excessive cardio exercise; though I do plan on starting to run again.

I'm not quite at the point yet where I'm brave enough to disclose how much I weigh in black-and-white on the extremely unforgiving internet, but you can use your imagination. I'm about six-feet tall with an Amazonian body frame, and genetically predisposed to birthin' hips and...generous thighs as accessories to the hips. I've also given birth to two large babies in less than two years' time, and I have that unfortunate aforementioned habit of overindulging. You can do the math in regards to what the scale probably reads.

Anyway, I know what my target weight looks like. It looks like this:

Even when I was 25 pounds lighter, I was very vigilant about photos not being taken of me from the waist down, so I don't have a full-body frame of reference. I know, vain, right? And for the love of all that is good in the world, please don't pay attention to the atrocious Beyonce-esque hair. I was 22 in these photos; they were taken the summer of 2000. I won't ever be going to the perm and highlights again...what appeals to me in these photos is the trim waist and the toned arms. These were taken when I was working as a counselor at summer camp, and I certainly wasn't depriving myself; the amount of food I ate was simply limited, and I was getting a ton of exercise on a daily basis in the steamy West Virginia sunshine. I was so healthy. I wasn't skinny by any definition of the word; but I was healthy.

The Sunday that I started this journey, I made several healthy foods to eat for lunch over the next few weeks. The first ones I made were two soups. The first of which, I'm including the recipe for here.

RECIPE: Curried Vegetable Cleanse Soup

(Essentially, you can use any vegetables you have in the house, and water for the broth. These are just the things that I used. I used a box of Wolfgang Puck chicken stock because I had it in the cupboard, but it would be simple to make this recipe completely vegan. The spices are critical in this soup, so don't forget them!)

Ingredients:
1 box of chicken stock or broth (preferably low sodium and low fat)
8 cups of water
about a dozen radishes, cut into quarters
one turnip, diced
two large bunches of broccoli, chopped
one large bundle of celery, chopped
one onion, diced
one sweet potato, diced (leave the skin on)
ten carrots, diced
four cloves of fresh garlic, minced (adjust to taste, you can't really use too much)
several generous shakes of smoked paprika (adjust to taste, you can't really use too much)
several generous shakes of dried celery seed (adjust to taste)
several generous shakes of freshly ground pepper (adjust to taste)
as much yellow curry as you like (adjust to taste)

I boiled this in an enormous stockpot until everything was good and soft. (As a side note, I learned that boiled radishes taste a lot like boiled red potatoes, and they have the same sort of texture as well. Good to remember if I'm craving potatoes!)

The steam made it hard to get a good photo!

Remove all of the veggies from the broth (I used a slotted spoon and put them into a colander that was nested down in a larger bowl to catch the drainage of broth).

Puree the cooked veggies in a blender with about a cup of broth each time, until the entire mixture is pureed. I added extra curry powder once everything was pureed, because I like a nice, rich curry flavor.

I'm eating about a cup and a half as a serving size. Since this is pureed, you can drink it from a mug.

Enjoy! Let me know if you like it.

I began this journey on Sunday, February 12th, and I have lost 5.6 pounds.

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Get Healthy: Track Your Water Intake

The Captain and I decided to finally pursue the path to wellness this past weekend. He really doesn't have to lose any weight, he is just participating with me for moral support. And I don't think of what I'm doing as dieting; I'm making a lifestyle change. I'm not doing this to have a bikini body, I'm not doing it so I look more attractive to other people (though I do have a pair of jeans that I love, and would be tickled to get to wear them again...) I'm doing this for my family; for my daughters, and my husband, and myself. I want to be healthier in my thirties than I ever was in my twenties. I want to be even healthier in my forties and beyond. I want to have the energy to keep up with two toddlers, and I want to have less back and knee pain for my next pregnancy, if we decide to have another child. I just want to be healthier.

I'm planning on blogging my way through my progress, though my time to do so is so sporadic, weeks will likely go by between the times that I'm able to update. I suppose that way, it will look like I've made a lot of progress! I'm planning on sharing tips and recipes throughout the process as well.

My first tip is related to water consumption; something that I don't do nearly enough of. Even through two pregnancies with third trimesters in the doldrums of Southern summers, I didn't drink enough water. Part of the problem, I think, is that I don't really have a concept of how much water I actually need to drink. Recently, I read that you should divide your current weight in half, and that number is the number of ounces of water you should be drinking per day. The old rule is eight ounces of water, eight times a day, which adds up to 64 ounces a day. Going by the weight rule, the amount of water I should be drinking is...shall we say...a bit more than that!

In order to track how much water I'm drinking, I'm drinking out of ball jars that hold 24 ounces of water. I was inspired by the idea when a friend was drinking water out of an old applesauce jar at the Superbowl party we were at several weekends ago, so she would know just how much she was drinking. Thanks, Marilyn!

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Score one for the South.

It is no secret that I miss my native Ohio as well as my family there, but I sure do love the fact that I can play outside with my babies at the end of January while living in South Carolina. We had a streak of several weeks where the temperatures were in the middle-60's, and it was wonderful. We spent some time outside several times, and Pumpkin really loves her sidewalk chalk.

This was January 28, and it was a perfect day with my girls.

"My chalk!"

Oh, how I love that curl.

She's so pretty that it makes me breathless sometimes.

"By the power of Greyskull..."

Pumpkin is a wee bit compulsive...lining the chalk up on the ground.

My heart, my big girl.

Sweet Peach, taking in the sunshine.

After we played in the yard, we came inside to get warm, and Pumpkin and Peach played with each other. I kept the camera out!

Well, this is interesting!

Pumpkin, all intensity, all the time!

Sisters. Their faces say more than I could with words.

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