Bennett's first bike!

We were trying to hold out for Christmas, but the weather was so nice this weekend (and so was Bennett), that we decided he might, afterall, outgrow it by next spring, so we'd better go ahead and hand it over. Now, he never wants to come into the house again. In fact, last Sunday he asked if we could drive to church while he followed on his bike.

Good hair day!

Sometimes, it happens that your hair will simply cooperate. It's usually on a Saturday when you're slated to paint the basement. But Julia got lucky and for her, it happened on a Sunday (also known as photo-op Sundays at the Ratcliff household).

Piano Lesson

Obviously we come from a musical family. These things skip a generation, so Bennett and Julia should be extremely talented. I can tell that their banging has a certain ability associated with it. :)

First pigtails

You can't possibly wear a Dallas Cowboys cheerleading outfit and not have pigtails! (Well, at least not if you're under 10.) These were a first for us. Julia was fairly accommodating--at first. Obviously they didn't last the day.

Pumpkin Patch

Bennett and Julia helped their friend Sofia celebrate her third birthday at the pumpkin patch last weekend. The warm weather made it easy to hang around for several hours to take in all the fun.

And so it begins...

After much hounding by my friends and family, I'm FINALLY starting a blog. It has the potential to be one of the least-updated blogs ever. But hopefully, it will serve as an incentive to actually download the photos from the camera instead of letting them sit there and viewing them only on the spectacular 3x2-inch screen.