Snapshots of Life

Recent life events as documented by the camera:

 I had three boys playing the Wii - kind of rare at this house.  Note who is in the middle of it all and who has her own remote.

Hannah sporting her new nerd glasses & suspenders.  They were part of a party invite that she got this week - her whole class is going bowling dressed as nerds and wearing their gear is all the rage.

 Saying goodbye to cousin Lori after she stayed with us for the weekend.  We love having Lori around!

A Sunday evening dinner with Mandi and friends - Mandi made dinner for us all.  Cute Chris is on the left holding the extension cord - he is mentally handicapped and has a pension for all things with cords.  Hannah is holding her hot pink clock radio per his request.  Chris has a good heart and a sweet disposition and we like to have him at our house.  He always wants to take pictures while he is here and the fact that he wanted us all in the picture says that we are officially in his circle of friends.  Tyler and I consider that quite an honor.

Hannah didn't have anything fancy to wear to her etiquette dinner so her mom did a fancy up-do for her as consolation.  Hannah has great hair - it was super fun even though I'm out of practice.

 I caught my little ones back-to-back and couldn't resist a photo.  I loved that Emmie was just sitting nestled up by her brother, entertaining herself.

 And then the progression as she discovered the photographer.

This girlie has a GREAT smile.

 Emmie has taken to this indoor bike.

The boys have taken to zooming her around on it.  Pure delight for all involved.

 The two little ones had fun watching our growing pile of dirt the other day.  We have started excavation for our basement walk-out.

Emmie has turned into a little girl.  Gulp.

 The girls were playing Just Dance Disney yesterday.  One of them looked down and saw they had a little girl jamming along with them.

 Emmie had some great moves that are not justified by still photos.

 Check out the bike stance.  One foot on the runner, one on the seat.  This one is out to conquer the world.  One of her nicknames is "Little Spitfire" and she does it justice.

Two boys home from a campout with Dad and the young men.

 There was not enough love in our home today.  The prescription?  Hugging and singing "Love One Another".  Nothing like a little brotherly love to dispel anger and frustration.

By the end they were doing dips.

Valentine's Day 2013 Pictures

 Sir Drew helped me make this robot for his kindergarten Valentine's box.  He drew in all the details and made the hat and heart bowtie all by himself.  The jets, too (detail below).

Hannah's Valentine's Day was all things capybara.  She made a capybara Valentine's box and got some fun comments on that - "Why did you make a Valentine's Box that is Winnie the Pooh Bear?"  "What the heck IS that?" and "Is that a teddy bear?" were all questions she received, but her classmates all knew what it was because they know Hannah.  She got money offers from some of them for it, but she is planning on this having an honorary space in her bedroom.  Hannah also made a capybara comic to pass out to all of her classmates and was thrilled that it has been heavily quoted by some of them ever since.  (as a side note, for her Roman unit project she also made a Roman Comic Powerpoint presentation).  At some point I will put the comic on here.

 All three boys sported Valentine's tatoos.

I arranged a special play-date for Camden.  He and Spencer played so happily.  This is the first time that little sister felt the need to be a part of things.

 I had fun making up some love creations for some of my favorite people in the world.

Our *fancy* candlelit dinner for 8.  Valentine's Day and Halloween are my favorite holidays to celebrate with my whole family.  They are low-key and a lot of fun.  We always have a fondue as a family for dinner.

Our tower of deliciousness - and when this is the food that is a word, because it all gets dipped in LIQUID CHOCOLATE.

I take 5 extra kids to school everyday.  One of them waits at our house for 20 min. every morning.  He is in 5th grade and showed us what he got for his Valentine this year.  He said to Jacob, "Hey, Jacob - who is your Valentine, your Mom?"  It was in jest but I wanted to say a resounded YES!!!  You better believe it and it's going to stay that way for quite a few years to come!  I love my family and am so thankful for 7 of the greatest Valentines.  In the words of Camden, "Happy Valentine's!  Happy Valentine's!"  (Sing to the tune of the first line of "Happy Holidays".  Repeat.  Repeat again.  Repeat again.  Repeat again.  Repeat again, until you get sidetracked.  Pick the refrain back up whenever it occurs to you that you have stopped singing it.)

Valentine's Day 2013 Memories

For us, Valentine's Day is a family holiday.  My favorite moments of Valentine's Day this year:

1)  Hearing Camden sing his "Valentine song" throughout the day.  Get the melody of "Happy Holidays" in your head, but substitute "Happy Valentine's" instead.  Repeat that same phrase over and over...and over and over...and over and over - all through the day.  Loved it.

2)  Our fondue dinner.  I always love that - it's a highlight of my year.  Drew and Camden are young enough that they did not remember this tradition from last year.  Their eyes were huge upon seeing my "tower of deliciousness" (the foods to be dipped in chocolate).  We served everyone up their chocolate, let them pick what they wanted for dipping, and set down to eating.  Every once in awhile I'd hear Drew say, "Oh, Mom - you need to try dipping your banana IN THE CHOCOLATE.  It is so good!"  Or, "Mom - you have to try dipping the strawberries IN THE CHOCOLATE - it's so good!"  For me it was all a given, so to hear him delighting over each combination was very sweet.

3)  Going around the table, saying things we love about each family member.  We started naming things we loved about Emmie and went on up.  The boys did okay for the first couple of siblings, but after awhile they zoned out.  I had to help the youngers quite a bit.  Camden was a riot.  When it got to Hannah he said, "What I love about Hannah and Daisy is that they bark at me"...it seemed that he always had to bring Daisy in no matter who he was talking about - very funny.  But when he got to my turn he knew exactly what he loved about me.  "I love it when Mom and I play the game where she says, 'Camden, how big is your bridge?' and I hold my arms way out and she tickles me.  Let's play that game right now!"  After hearing all the doggie comments I wasn't sure he knew exactly what we were doing, but when he said what he loved about me it referred to a specific time and tickle game that we played and I was very touched.

4)  I loved it when all my little Valentine's were gathered back in our house at the end of the school day.  I have the most wonderful children and I have a very happy, full mother-heart.  Add my wonderful forever-sweetheart Tyler into the mix and I'm a very blessed woman!

Random

Hannah's dollhouse is coming along.

 After staying home sick for a week she's made even more progress that we'll need to document.  It's looking more and more like a real house.  I love the colors that she has picked out for her rooms.

 Drew has decided that he likes to sleep in his caterpillar costume - he says it keeps him warm.

 We have been living in a winter wonderland.  It's beautiful.  I love to look out the windows.  I really enjoy shoveling.  I love being able to send my kids outdoors and they don't get muddy - just a little wet and worn out.  

 What you see below fell in one day - right after most of the previous snow had disappeared from our yard.  I shoveled twice that day - 4 inches once, and 6 more in the afternoon!  The last couple of inches that fell were left to melt on their own.

 Everything looks prettier with a blanket of white on it!   I was especially tired last week, though, and I realized that it is much more exhausting to haul two little ones around in the snow.  Our bumpy van rattles around more on the ruts in the road (and rear wheel drive is TERRIBLE) so my nerves get more shot, little 3 year old legs walk slower in the snow, which means I am carrying a heavy baby carrier around for longer, and having difficulty pulling out from my own street onto a secondary road is not a lot of fun.  I am grateful for the moisture and grateful for every day that I can either enjoy it on foot in my yard or from my windows!

 Drew is 100 days smarter!  Congratulations on your 100th day of kindergarten!

 Family night was in need of a revamp.  I asked Callie if she'd make a chart for us.  I found a simple one on-line and she completed it in an afternoon.  We're a little better organized and I really like how our last two weeks have gone.  After an hour together as a family with a short lesson, game, and a treat, we tuck in the youngers and sit down with the older girls for a discussion and then another game.  It's been great so far.  And I love having a cute chart to look at that can also keep us organized - thank you Callie!

 Callie has a term project to create The Game of Life for the U.S.S.R. under Stalin.  Of course this topic thrills her dad and he gave her a little light reading to help her figure things out.  I like the pictures she took:

 Jacob earned his Bobcat award at his first Pack Meeting.  This was a much anticipated event.  He has had to wait awhile to go to a Pack Meeting since previous meetings have been thwarted due to weather, illness, holidays, etc.  He works hard on cub scouts and we spent a lot of time together researching the country of Russia so that he could present for their "Respect for Other Nations" theme.  It was a lot of fun.

Drew wanted to jump in the picture - completely by accident I caught him looking up at his brother.  He loves Jacob and looks up to him so much.  We took Drew to Pack Meeting with us and left the youngers at home in bed under their studious sisters' care.  Drew thanked Jacob over and over for letting him go to Pack Meeting.  

Emmie's World

Emmie's world is expanding rapidly.  A few pictures to demonstrate.

I love what a good sport Emmie is at being hauled around.  Storytime, the grocery store, errands...she is a happy, good little sport even if it's during what should be naptime.  Sometimes after I haul her back into the house I set her car seat down and need to tend to something, like food that needs to be put in the freezer or a ringing phone, before unbuckling her.  She's such a good sport.  One day she was sitting in her car seat amidst the bustle and I caught her ever so patiently holding up the car seat blanket that was covering her face.  She wanted to make sure she didn't miss anything but she didn't cry - just held it up out of the way.  She is the sweetest little thing!

 This little lady loves everything electronic (phones, remote controls - yikes, she even loves to watch TV!) almost as much as she loves her daddy.

Drew. Loves. Emmie.

 Daddy was the first to observe Emmie's unusually long tongue. 

 You can see it in her face - she has pinpointed her next destination.

Very, very rarely will she snuggle with her Momma - she's a Daddy's girl all the way.

No pictures for this one, but Emmie is another little book-lover.  For several weeks we have been looking at some books before bedtimes.  Fat Mouse is a favorite.  The other day she was in particular need of a nap and I was in a hurry.  There were a few books sitting out in her room and I saw her eyeing them, so I turned around and tried to keep them out of her line of sight.  She kept trying to look around me to see those books.  The message was clear:  I want to read!  I sat down with her, picked up the beloved Fat Mouse book, and she was so excited that she started bouncing up and down on my lap.