We've gotten a ton done around here lately. My goal has been to clean and organize the totes in the garage. Since we have no basement or attic, as you can imagine, I have quite a few out there. Every weekend we have pulled out a few hundred totes and sorted through them, labeled them, and stacked them neatly back into the garage. It feels sooo good to get a project like that done. This day, we brought in all nine totes that said "coats" and spread them out all over the living room.
It really wasn't all that cold that day, but my boys were so excited about the things they were finding (just the stuff from last year) that they were outside in winter coats, snow pants, gloves, scarf, hats, and, of course...
flip flops.

Joshua just had fun trying on the hats.

I don't remember serving it this way

Two!

Two years old! What a great age! It's the year she will decide she's not a baby anymore, she will become "one of the kids", she will find her voice, express herself in whole sentences, she will learn the whole alphabet, trade the diapers in for big girl panties, give the binkies to baby brother, and just plain (sob) grow up.

But we will cherish this year that she is two, we will love her gorgeous curls, her mischievous twinkle in her eyes, her sweet little "Ank ooo" (thank you) and "meeee do it" and that giggle, oh, that giggle.
And conversations like this...

Courtney "How old are you?"
Grace "Two ! Yeah! Appy to you, appy day to you!"
Courtney "Hey, Grace, Two year olds can sing their ABC's."
Grace (wisper) "A - B - C - D - H - I - J - O - P...yeah!"
Courtney "Can you say it louder?"
Grace "YEAH!!"

I wanna play!

Cousins

Amy surprised us with an afternoon visit. After her phone call, I told the kids that she was only coming over if the worked hard and got everything done in the next hour before they got there. But I lied. They came over anyway.

I love to see the cousins playing. I do appreciate the large family we have been blessed with. Now we get to watch the babies grow and develop friendships.
Here's our first set of friends.



There's another set of friends.



These guys don't know it yet, but they're friends, too.





As much fun s it is to watch our kids, this little guy caught our attention by dangling in front of where we were sitting. The funny part about it is that we couldn't figure out where he was coming from. There were no trees or anything above him so where that web was attached to, I don't know. But he sat still enough for a picture.






Grace was throwing the ball to Caleb


"Yeah, Ca- eb!"


Now it looks there like she is such a great cousin, so kind to him. And she does love him. She always gets excited to see his picture on the computer (good thing Amy posts a lot of pictures of him) and she is forever following him around...
But lately she has found that it is so much fun to push him down. She just walks up, oh so casually, and boop, down he goes. So this next picture depicts their relationship better.

Speechless

Quite literally. We have been struck with a cold. But after what we have been through this year, this is a piece of cake. Most of us have had it, a little bit different for each of us. But it's basically your typical stuffy nose kind of bug. I sound a whole lot worse than I feel. I have spent the last two days not being able to talk. The kids are loving it. Now, it's so much work for me to get their attention to do a chore for me, it's just easier to do it myself.
Tonight Joseph wandered around the house (every room but the one I was in) asking "Mama, can we make pumpkin bread tonight?" ... "Mama, can we make pumpkin bread tonight?" Of course, I wasn't answering him, well, I was trying, but I couldn't get my voice any higher than a whisper. So he just kept asking "Mama, can we make pumpkin bread tonight?" ... "Mama, can we make pumpkin bread tonight?"
It was frustrating. I would have screamed but...
I just so hope my voice comes back tomorrow.

Joshua is the most pathetic thing tonight. He is sleeping peacefully now but he wakes up every hour or so, and he can't cry. He's trying to, but nothings coming out. Just a very sad, quiet "heeee, heeee, sob, heee" Anybody that has ever had a croupy baby knows exactly what sound I'm talking about. So sad, he is.

But tomorrow will be a new day. Tonight we will do our snuggling and vaporizing, and breathing the cool night air (from the doorway- cause it's raining) and in the morning we will be back to normal...

And, yes, the pumpkin bread was delicious. Sorry, we didn't save you any.

clay

I love it, just love it, when she pulls out her clay box. She tells me often that she doesn't have enough free time and never has the time for her artsy projects.
Hey, I know the feeling.
It's part of growing up... but another part of growing up is realizing that the "free time" that diminishes with childhood is replaced with responsibilities that (if your heart is in the right place) may be more tiring, more tedious, more taxing, but so much more rewarding.

But for now, she is still in the midst of her childhood. And to watch her enjoying a few minutes of creative play, is just as much fun for me as it would be if I were playing with the clay myself.
Besides, I wouldn't want her to show me up.