Sweet Sleep

No worries... no cares... she just snuggles down in that heap of blankets and forgets the world.  It's that blessed bridge between life and eternity... Sleep.  It's a gift - everybody needs it.  And this little girl has just worn herself out playing. :)

*****Because I Think She's Pretty*****

Honestly, I think I have the prettiest sister in the world.

Little Boys And Warriors For Christ

Luther, on his sixth birthday, was sitting in the car with his mother and suddenly started rambling on about what he's going to do when he's a Daddy....

"I' gonna teach my children to be sober minded and chew with their mouths closed, and to love the bible. I'm gonna read the bible to my kids every night and every day and tell them to bring their bibles to church and take them upstairs. I'm gonna teach my children never to turn their backs on Daddy and God."

Mother: "What do you mean by turning their backs on God and Daddy, Luther?"

Luther: "When daddy tells us something to do, and we don't do it... we just turn around and walk away. That's wrong. I'm going to teach them not to do that to Daddy or God."

O! This little warrior for Christ! He's already fighting his Lord's battles.

A Baby!!

Today was Natalie's 7th birthday party! She had a few friends over, and among them were three girls who had a new born baby sister... Eliza Kneirim. I think she's two months old. Anyhow, we took some pictures. :) And... well... y'all know how I feel about babies. :D She was so cute--absolutely adorable.

χλɷɩ (It Means... Blooming)

Usually I don't advertise my older sister on the web, but this picture was irresistible. :)

You Gotta Love the Steelers... And If You Don't, That's Your Problem, Not Mine...

Somebody's happy. :D

Way to go Holmes!! He made the winning catch for the Steelers in the end zone.

Nate Washington....

Roethlisburger and Hines Ward, who smiles through the whole game. Just like Davy Crockett "grinning down a bear" Ward grins down his opponents and it drives them nuts.

I am sorry Kurt Warner....

Boo looking like we just ordered a coffin for him...

"Wahoooo! That's my team baby! THOSE are the Pittsburgh Steelers!!!"

"Thank you so much Harrison!!"

Duncan is wondering why we're taking pictures while the game is on, Peter is enjoying itching his neck, Angela is nervously watching the TV, and Tirzah is bored.

Oh boy...

Now THEY look like Steelers fans...

And she's an adorable Steelers fan. :)

Well? We couldn't take a good picture of us smiling, so we decided to take a bad one of us not smiling... Doesn't that make all the sense in the world?

All us girls victorious... er, rejoicing with the victorious. :)

First quarter...

And Gabriel the Egyptian Pharaoh Steelers fan.

The 2008 Annual Unisversal Big Ugly Beauty Pageant!

Some of you may know about this, and some of you may not. So in case you don't, and even if you do, I'm going to explain. For the past three years, Olivia Howard's birthday party has been a Big Ugly Beauty Pageant. In other words, the Ugliest Girl wins. Only on this day is "You are perfectly hideous!" a compliment. The first year was Local; the second National; and the third Universal. Last Tuesday was the Universal and Final Big Ugly Beauty Pageant of Wheeling, West Virginia. (There actually is a town called Big Ugly in West Virginia--hence the name of our show.)



The contestants are as shown below (in age order)



Chloe ~ Francesca Margarita Tequila Josephina Cuervo from Barcelona Spain

Allison ~ Rosa Bella Roma Rigatoni from Rome Italy

Olivia ~ Host

Jordan ~ Sydney from Australia

Ruby ~ Angus O'Beef from "Dumbeden" Scotland

Rachel ~ Just Jennifer from Hollywood California

Emma ~ Arriet Daft from Bath Britain (actually her real name was Harriet, but with the accent it sounded like Arriet.)



And now, whether your prepared or not, here are pictures from the best, the ugliest, the most hilarious and hideous Big Ugly Beauty Pageant! (Okay okay, I know I don't sound professional...)

Told you it was hideous... This is me, dressed up as a Scottish shepherdess.

Hey, Olivia looks pretty!! That's not right!! Actually, she was the host... She didn't necessarily HAVE to look ugly. She can't really make herself look ugly. She's too beautiful. :D

Rachel, on the other hand... (she's right here with me posting, so she doesn't mind that I said that. :D)

Rachel, me and Olivia after the first half was over... Three more hours to go... *sigh*

Allison... She actually looks Muslim. In this picture, she wasn't from Italy. She was actually playing the part of a murderess. I'll explain in later pictures. :)

One Big Ugly and one Little Lovely

JORDAN!!! And such a Jordan picture too. Rachel says she looks like a rabbit. :P And the reason for her obesity!?!?! It has to do with Allison's murderess picture. Again, I'll explain in later pictures... When the right one comes up. :)

Our wonderfully patient and funny film crew, Mr. Howard INC..

Here is Francesca with her Smart Balance. She's a Bull Dancer, and apparently, "This helped all the dancers in the school keep their balance on the horns."

A close up of my eye. Isn't it beautiful?? You gotta love those eyebrows. :P My makeup was supposed to imitate that of a sheep. :P

Jordan eating her lunch...

It caused much hilarity...

Rachel... Lovely Jennifer. :P

I don't have an explanation for Olivia's expression... But for Jordan's obesity, here goes... Mr. Howard researched Big Ugly on google just to see what would come up. He found a newspaper headline from that town saying, "Big Ugly Woman Killed" and so we decided to do a news report to go in between BUBP segmants about her death. Jordan was stuffed with pillows, and the reporters fought about how she was killed, and finally decided that she was strangled. And so we re-enacted the strangling. Allison was the murderer, and Jordan the hugely obese victim. There, it's all explained. :)

Me and Emma both looking very bad indeed.

Andrea, Tirzah, and Willa played the parts of the news reporters. :) This is Andrea (Clarke).

I posted this picture mainly because of the way Rachel looks in the background, holding Jordan's hands. It looked like something... so... movie-ish or something... I don't know. But I thought it looked kind of cool. :)

Tirzah....

Ugh.

Allison and Chloe. Chloe's eye makeup looks like a devil, doesn't it??

Just a behind-the-scenes picture.

Adorable Seth watching all this ugly ladies act weird.

Tirzah in the dressing room. There was about two feet of clothes on the floor... Yeah.

**sticks tongue out**

Trying on dresses...

Allison...

Hahahahaha! We pick the worst dress combinations for this thing. Fashion matters not.

Willa... :D

Olivia. :)

Emma was a chimney sweeper... However I accidentally called her a swim cheeper. :p I think she looked adorable.

Typical Jordan.

Even more typical!

I didn't purposely have three pictures of Jordan in a row. But oh well!

Rachel looks OK...

And I just love this picture. We have to end the post with a pretty picture anyhow. It doesn't do to have an ALL ugly post. :)

And that's it! We might have little snippets of the pageant up, but we'll see. :)