Yes, purple looks good on everybody. Even in Lawrence.

Little Jordie. She's four months old and is a K-State Fan.

My twins were taught early on something I learned in my years in 4-H.

Purple looks good on everyone.

At least, that is what Mary Lou Odle, a Saline County Extension agent always said. She'd come to our 4-H clothing meetings on occasion and do a color test to see what season looked best on you. I think I was a fall. Purple, however, fell in every season.

My friend, Sarah Green, a KU graduate, calls it Kansas State propaganda. I say an Extension agent would never lie.

My husband agrees with Sarah. He's a KU fan. Fortunately, I've been able to pull the twins onto "my team" as they call it. Jayhawks are yucky, they say. John even caught Brett watching KU vs Oklahoma women one night on television. She was rooting for OU.

He told her there are some things you just don't do, even as a Wildcat fan. One. You never cheer for Missouri. Two. You never cheer for Oklahoma.

She wouldn't listen.

Sarah, however, is proof that there is compromise in the world. She knitted each of the girls "cat hats." Jordie received her hat last month.

I can't tell you how to knit it. I'm not very crafty. All I know is that her hats are adorable. And I bet she could make a mint if she'd open a knitting store in Manhattan and sell cat hats.

Kaci, Brett and Jordie. They are on my team.

Life continues - quickly

Life is busy.

So busy, in fact, I haven't had time to keep my blog as up-to-date as I'd like. There's also a pile of laundry in my laundry room that needs folded, and I haven't mailed all my Christmas cards out and it is February.

However, life continues. And the latest to the crib, Jordie, is growing.

So, I'll update as much as I can from time to time. More often than not, is the plan. Here's is life over the past five months.

Jordie's room.

Jordie, not long after she was born

The girls' Christmas present included scootersYes, Brett is a "farmer" today.

Ready for the 2012 Kansas State Fair. Plug for the fair. You can find these at the T-Shirt stand! Thanks Lori!

That's right. Jordie is ready for the 100th Kansas State Fair this September.

Jordie bathtime

The girls pick out pumpkins at their preschool trip to the pumpkin patch

The girls' Halloween costumes. Mary, Joseph. And Jordie was baby Jesus. Yes, they won the Gypsum Fall Fest Costume Contest for the third year in a row.

Happy Jordie

Oh Christmas Tree ... We found you.

I like to call this story of the quest for the perfect tree.

Not a brown tree. Or a tree trunk.

Not a Charlie Brown tree. Or a hall tree

A big, pump, green tree is what we were after.

It was a dark and snowy night.

Ok, not really, but it was a cool, crisp day. And there was a perfect tree to be found amid a small clump of pines at Hullets Christmas Tree Farm near Hutchinson.

So we went traipsing. We ran. And we managed to secure a tree that would be deemed perfect by just about anyone, including Charlie Brown. 

By nightfall, that tree had lights. It had ornaments. It had class. It was a Bickel-perfect Christmas tree. And the girls were happy. 

But it's three weeks later. Christmas music is off the radio. The tree droops in the living room. And I am sad. 

I still have Charlie Brown Christmas on DVD. 

A successful deer season

Another year of successful deer hunting. I bagged an 8-pointer. John got a buck and a doe, and now we are in the middle of processing nearly 200 pounds of deer meat! The girls love it. So far, meals have included deer steak, deer breakfast sausage and deer brats!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

So they lost their first competitive competition

Little Brett and Daddy waiting for the 2 and under contest judging.

Yes, Kaci has her pacifer in her mouth.

Happy Brett.

We're losers, but we sure are cute!

Kaci

Grrr ... I'm a Giraffe

My children are losers.

As we all are at some point of our lives.

It might sound harsh, but it’s true. Some of us have lost participating in sporting events. Others have lost in 4-H showmanship contests, playing video or board games and even the lottery.

My little girls’ first loss, however, came at the Gypsum Fall Festival’s Halloween contest.

Not a big deal? Oh contraire.

For years, I prided in the fact that I’d win this contest. I won as Oscar the Grouch, wheeling around the auditorium in a real trash can. I was a Smurf, with my face painted blue. I was Snoopy on a bike turned Red Baron airplane, a hula dancer with a real grass skirt, Michael Jackson with a microphone and the headless horseman on a stick horse.

All first places, mind you.

But this year, the girls’ first year, I didn’t prepare. I bought two cute giraffe outfits and figured that might work.

Boy, was I wrong. We lost to a book worm, which consisted of a mother pushing her baby in a umbrella stroller with a big cardboard book gracing the front.

Second place was Little Bow Peep with her “sheep” dog covered in white cotton balls. Coming in third was a sleeping bumble bee thing.

As for the girls, well, they handed us a bag of complimentary M&M’s, and we were on our merry way.

Oh, the pain. I’ve been bothered ever since at my poor attempt to dress the girls for their first official contest. I’ve failed my competitive nature. More than anything, I’ve failed as a mother.

No worries. I’m already making plans for next year. We won’t lose.

And, no, I’m not telling my grand plan.

Gypsum October Festival

The girls and I attended the 2008 Gypsum October Festival this year. I haven’t been back for the decades-old tradition since I graduated from high school, when our high school band director forced me to march with my trombone in the band (Yeah, he hated me :) ).

I grew up in the little Saline County town of Gypsum, population 400-something, if even that. I always loved the October Festival, included dressing up for the parade (I’ve been everything from Wonder Woman and Snoopy in a float, to the Red Baron and a pioneer on a covered wagon. I always won, too!).

Now, maybe the girls can enjoy it a little bit. At least, they liked the suckers all the politicians and others threw out.

Here are a few of the pictures from this year.

My dad, Gary Bickel, and his 1948 John Deere B.

We used to decorate it at Christmas. It was awesome. Now he doesn't do that as much. Probably because I'm not around to help and beg him to decorate it.

Dad, and the B.

OK, I'm not the best picture taker. But here is the backside of Rep. Josh Svaty, who was throwing candy. I doubt he'd read this, but if he did, I'd like to tell him I'm impressed with how long he stayed at the festival and mingled and hung around. Most politicans aren't that considerate. Anyway, he was there a good six or seven hours, and I don't think he was even hanging out with anyone.

My mom and Brett. Brett loves cows (one of her first words was cow and moo), and for some reason, kept calling the horses cows. At least she is a beef eater, like her mother.

Like I said, Brett loves the horses, or as she puts it, Cows. Aunt Lori needs to take her to her farm to see their stockers. She'd be ecstatic.

The girls sitting at the Gypsum gazebo. This is a rare moment of them sitting still.

Brett, my sister, Lori, Kaci, my nephew Jason and my brother-in-law Randy Hahn. They're watching the parade going down Main Street Gypsum.

Lori and Kaci watch the parade.

Grandma Karen and Brett.