"Mama, look at Coco, she's sooo funny!"









It sure looks likes she wants to be out there playing in the snow with her sister, doesn't it? Well, don't feel too badly for her. We had just come in from outside. She was out for a whole whopping five minutes and then this...

Part of the boys day includes reading lessons. This used to be a long, draining process. They would stumble over every word and it seemed to take forever to get through a couple of sentences. We would sit together, upright and I had to remind them constantly to sit still and concentrate.
Now they are on lesson 83 and I can finally step back a bit and let them go. I can lean up agaist the other side of the couch and just listen to the story.
(The stories still are not very exciting)
These pictures look so much like the ones I took just a few weeks ago. They are so cute and peaceful (and maybe it's also because I'm so proud of them) that I can't help but run for the camera.







Jacob showing his daddy his math work...

Just whistle while you work

When Grandma babysits

Oh, isn't this just like a grandma? Let the kids destroy the house while she takes a nap. Notice the hairdryer to warm up their feet and the cup of yogurt that shouldn't be in the living room? I can't imagine what the baby is doing...

I'm only kidding. I was home. Not paying attention obviously, but home. And the reason she fell asleep is because I talked her into giving the boys their reading lesson. I thought it was just me but I guess they have that effect on everybody. Those stories are just sooo exciting!
I was walking by (and I just happened to have my camera in hand) and the girls said "Mommy, Mommy, take a picture of Grandma!" because it is just always so funny when someone falls asleep. But when I looked at the picture, I thought it was funny enough to share.
Hopefully Grandma thinks it's funny, too :)

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And this one's just for fun. Yeah, what a man he'll turn out to be!

What a beautiful day it was yesterday

The kids played outside for, well, longer than I told them they could. But they were having such a good time, I just couldn't call them in. Not after it had been so cold for so long.

We keep losing our hats. I can't imagine where they all go...





Paige, as always, turned her face away from the camera when I came near her.
Me - "Oh, come on, just one nice smile."
Paige - "No, I don't need any pictures of me."
Courtney - "Well, Maybe I want some pictures of you."
Paige - "What for?"
Courtney - "Well, what if you die? I wont remember what you look like."
At least it got her to laugh and I snuck a photo.

Twins

I've been going through my pictures and tagging them all in photoshop. Quite the job! I've gotten all the pics tagged back to the beginning of summer. Just when I was finished for the night, Joe came over and wanted to look at the pictures with me so I showed him how you can click on a name and all their pictures come up. And then I showed him how you can click on two names and it will show you all the pictures with those two people together. He was pretty impressed with that. "Do me and Jacob."
So I did and there were a lot of them.
I had to laugh at how many looked exactly the same. Bent over, side by side, heads together, usually in the mud. :) By looking at their pictures, you can easily see what good friends they are. I have always been and still am amazed at the bond that twins share.
There were many to choose from, but I just picked a few to share.

Wordless Wednesday

So weird

Yeah, it's a pickle. Can you see the face? He sings, too. His name is (was) Mr.. Pickle.
We'll miss him.

bink

None of the other kids ever had a binkie this long. I never had the "how do we get rid of the binkie" issue. I think what really helped her along with getting attached to it was the kids forever giving it to her, I think because they thought it was cute. So now here we are, can't leave the house without it. "Got the diaper bag? Anybody grab the binkie?"
She says a few words that only we understand and she certainly doesn't say "pacifier" but we all know when she wants it. She sucks her cheeks in and gives a great big Smack. This, of course, is so cute that everyone goes running to help her find it. Doesn't really help with weaning her off, but well, she's only one. And could you say no to this face?

Don't mess with Grace

Snow Day

We got a phone call on Tues morning inviting us over to Amy's house for a visit. Of course, this is something my kids would never let me pass up, so they put their books away in record time and were waiting at the door before I could even hang up the phone. It was a great day for playing in the snow and all the kids went out except for the babies.
Amy ran across a great idea and I got to try it out this day. One of the kids stepped outside and filled a a bowl up with snow and put it on the table. This is such a great idea for kids who are a little too young to play for a long time outside or for when it's just too cold (like it will be today and tomorrow!) I can see this idea really taking off, using cups to make snow castles and raisins for tiny snowman's eyes.
But these girls didn't care to much about creating, they were content with giggling at the snow in front of them for 10 minutes, then eating it, and sharing it, then giggling about sharing it.







Then comes every body's favorite part of the day... lunch

She's just a basketcase!

"What? No, I didn't sneak a chocolate pop tart."

Have you had enough yet?

...of this snow?
If I didn't love photography so much, I'm sure I would hate winter. But every time we've had a snow storm (and we've had our share already) you can't help but be blown away by the beauty of it all. And being able to capture it on film (film?) is just too much fun. This is one of the little birdies that hangs out by the pond at my mom's house. Cute little guy.

The tree came down today :(
So I was headed out to the garage to get the totes and Grace, of course, was following me all around the house. When we got to the door, she handed me her boots. "Where are YOU going?" I asked her. She grunted and pointed to the door. She doesn't say much, but she sure knows how to get her point across. So I did take her with me. And she thinks she was quite the help. After we were done bringing in the totes, we moseyed around the yard, eating snow and pointing at EVERYTHING.



She just loves to be outside... for about three minutes. So it didn't take long before she was grunting and pointing at the door to go back in. I said "you want to go inside already?"
And she gave me this look. It means "I'm cold" and comes with a lovely "ca, ca" sound (kind of sounds like she has a hairball.)

My Favorite Guys