photos for the end of the week

We have been pretty chill the last half of this week. Other than our normal dance classes, we have had very little to do, just the way I like it.

I spent a little time in the kids schools (well, I do that every week, but this was the first time back from break). I highly recommend volunteering at the schools if you can. I love going in and helping the teachers and seeing how my kids interact and behave and learn. It really is an eye opener. As well as really helps to keep track of what the kiddos are learning and if they are caught up, confused and need a little more help, or if they are getting it. It is a good thing for sure.

Here are some pictures:

day 9 {09 jan 2010}

Here is my girl, A, getting very mature! This is her Christmas present.

Today we progressed to actually using thread.

Up until today, we have only been working on controlling the machine by following lines on paper.

So she was excited when I told her today she was ready to sew WITH THREAD on paper. :)

I think tomorrow we will actually make a little square pillow, and a star ornament.

day 8 {08 jan 2010}

My sweet S snuggling with her thrice recovered, snuggliest of all snuggly blankets.

This is her most prized possession! No joke! :) Thanks, Aunt Dawn!

day 7 {07 jan 2010}

Mike has to constantly remind me that this beautiful baby isn't mine.

That is it THE FAMILY computer. ;)

Yeah, right, we all know who he bought it for. :)

day 6 {06 jan 2010}
Rough day for my red head today. She is an avid thumb sucker. We haven't stressed out much about it because our older two were also, but she has now sucked her thumb a year longer than her sister (which was a VERY long time) and it is really not getting less frequent. She even has told us how much she wants to stop. We have tried socks, charts, and bribery with candy, to no avail. We have been very concerned as her mouth is forming. Today we received in our handy dandy dental apparatus, the T-guard. It is this soft plastic thing that goes over the thumb and wraps around the wrist, it is fastened with a bracelet like the amusement park type. We had many tears shed throughout the day as she repeated tried to suck her thumb. I felt so sad for her when she told me tonight, "My mouth just NEEDS something to suck on," as she was going to bed, so I snuggled her until she was calm and nearly asleep. This photo was taken at a good moment. (I think it may have been the only one.)
This thing says that it has a 90% success rate after 3 weeks. We shall see...

Just a little FYI, She stopped sucking her thumb about a year ago, but for a good month or two, but then Mike and I went to Costa Rica and when we came back she was sucking her thumb again. sigh! any way we are hoping it will stick this time.

new year, new post, new goals...

Yes, I am going to try again. A photo a day for a whole year! Last year I made it (with missing only a few days) all the way until soccer season and football started-- all the way to the middle of Sept. I didn't post them all, but they are taken and on my computer. I am very happy with what I accomplished. It is so fun to see the HUGE collection of photos from our every day life and not just he BIG events. Plus, I love what I have learned about my camera, photography, exposure, and light. I am excited to re start and record our moments and also to learn more. Again, the photos are posted in reverse chronological order. (Because that is how I always end up posting them, and I am too lazy to move them . LOL!)

day 5 {05 jan 2010}

This is Misty's Dallin. I HEART him.

I made an "emergency family trip" to my sister's house for some much needed chubby cheek smooches.

Seriously, have you ever seen cheeks like my nephew's?? I love them.

day four {04 jan 2010}

"Hello, Daddy, you at work? doing? Miss you! Love you! Bye, Bye!"

That was D's conversation with his Daddy via a banana phone.

I opened his banana and gave it to him, he took a bite out of both ends and then examined it. The next thing I know, he grins and puts the banana up to his ear and began talking.

Luckily, my camera was on the counter right next to us, so I could snap a few quick shots before he realized he was being watched and got shy.

day three {03 jan 2010}:

This picture cracks me up. J is giving me his typical grumpy look. Why, you might ask? Well, this boy is not a big fan of reading, and we came up with a plan to get him reading more. For every 10 minutes of reading he earns 5 minutes of video game time. And our kids NEVER really get to play video games, unless it is a family event. He LOVES to play the Wii Legos Star Wars, as well as the NCAA football on the Xbox. So here, he was very grumpily reading for a good 40 minutes today to earn some video game time. He REALLY wanted to play with Dad and his uncle. :)

day two {02 jan 2010}

The sun peaked through the clouds at sunset, and for just a few minutes it was phenomenal. This is a fairly typical view on a winter evening out of my kitchen window,

as long as the sun can be seen through the thick clouds.

day one {01 jan 2010}

Our left over Sparkling Cider bottle, sitting on our kitchen window sill, on a typical cloudy, overcast, rainy day on the harbor.

Christmas Tree Shopping

We have had a busy Christmas season, probably like many of you. :) I was hoping to get our tree early this year, but that didn't happen, mainly for two reason, first, Mike worked until it was dark everyday and our favorite tree place to cut our tree down closes once it is dark (it wouldn't be much fun or very safe to try to cut a tree down in the dark after all), and second, it was far too rainy. We actually had plans three different times to get our tree and had to cancel due to work related issues, the dark, or the weather. These pictures were taken in the van on our first attempt to get a tree. I hate using my flash with my camera, but for a dark night sitting in the car it was either the flash or no photos that we could see the kids in.

Here they are snuggled together while we were waiting for Daddy to come get in the car.

D was not a fan of the flash!

J sitting in the back seat stretching tall so that his head was above S's seat.

He looks a bit giraffe-ish here. :)

A grinning and being a happy girl!

She is turning into a quite the sweet helpful mature girl these days.

S with a tired grin.

She was very excited to get the tree, "but was just SO tired!"

D didn't get a nap this day, so he was ready to snooze on the drive out to the tree farm.

He actually fell asleep after the dejected return treeless!!

Eventually, a few days after these pictures, we drove to the tree farm on the Saturday before Christmas and bundled everyone up and tromped through the tree farm amid the rain and the mud. This kids didn't mind much; I think they have acclimated fairly well to our WA mist. The only thing that I don't like about the rain/drizzle/constant mist is that it limits my ability to cart around my camera, so I was unable to snap any pics that day. We ended up with a HUGE tree. Mike, J, and A all selected a different tree and then played Rock, Paper, Scissors to decide whose tree was the winner. J's tree one, and it was the hugest one. It was a beautiful tree, it just took up a large space in our living room, and we could barely fit our star on the top.

We have a practical jokester in our midsts...

We untied the tree from the top of our van and Mike and I were shaking the tree out to shake of some of the rain, and some of the loose pine needles. Moments after we shook it out and went inside, J, who was outside moving some sticks, came running in screaming, "There was a mouse in our tree!! There was a mouse in our tree!! It fell out while you guys were shaking it. I saw it run over into the bushes." I sort of started freaking out, worrying that I might have just brought a tree full of mice into my home, which after our mice infestation in our TX apt complex (only 5-7 mice in our actual apt, but MANY more in the apt next to ours--it was SO SO gross!!) was SO NOT OK!!!! Mike had J show him where the mice ran, Mike even went to look for it, and then J cracked. He could not keep a straight face any longer. J thought he was hilarious. I was not entertained, still worried that maybe I still brought a tree full of mice into my home, even though J didn't actual see one (because I am sort of irrational like that). In the end I loved that he got Mike and I. It was fun to see him pulling his Daddy's leg like his Dad pulls his SO many times before.

There is still plenty I could share about our Christmas, but I am hitting the hay for now. :) TTFN!!

Happy Bday!

We celebrated S's bday today. She is such a hoot! We had a simple family bday party and she was spoiled. :) She talked to a ton of family, and felt very special!

Happy Birthday Sassy little S!

Admiring her lovely cake!

hahaaaaa! blowing out her candles!

(and with this blow she only got one! hahaha!)

Posing on her new bike with her new helmet.

I find it interesting that I LOVED Hello Kitty when I was her age.

Being a nut; these type of pictures always sneak in when she is the subject of my photos.

I think she had a great day.

Here you have it--D's cut!

Yeah, I know he is just about the cutest little guy ever. No posed and fabulous pictures, but here are a few shots of D doing his "homework" and the standing by our glass door watching our neighbors dog. You can see his full head and get a great look at his haircut. His hair was not combed, I did nothing special to it, this is just the way it is. And sorry for those of you who frequent Facebook for the redundancy.

D trying to smile at me.

His fake smile consists of squinty eyes and some sort of upturned lips.

Squinty eyes again

Oh, wait, he does have a real smile, and it is pretty cute, too. :)

D staring out the window, wishing he could go play with our neighbor's dog.

Just about as cute as cute can be! :)

peeks of D's new do!

I still haven't taken any good pictures of D with his hair cut. but I have some poor ones, in bad lighting, blurry because D wouldn't hold still, and with a majority of his face cut off. And then I cropped them even further, just to be a pain in the butt. haa haa!! :) Really the pictures are quite poor, but to pacify those aunts and cousins that have been itching to see his hair cut I put together a little photo montage... a Sneak Peak... Enjoy!

Here is one last photo...

He was Sheriff Woody from Toy Story for Halloween. And once again, I failed in getting pictures. But here is one from three days before Halloween, when he insisted on wearing his costume while watching the movie. :) He is the cutest, rootin'est, tootin'est, cowboy in the wild wild west!

He looks like such a big boy now. I do have to admit that I sort of hated his hair cut the first few days. Even though he looked cute, I just was lost without my little darling long locks. I kept looking at this little boy and thinking where's my baby, and who is this little boy! LOL! But this last week I was looking back at pictures of his long curls and I have to admit that now, to me, D is a short haired boy. It was funny looking at the long haired boy pictures, it just wasn't my D anymore. Plus, Mike combed it on Sunday, all to the side with a cute little part, and MAN!, did he look adorable!

Any way, I hope to get some nice pictures tomorrow.

TTFN!

My baby's locks...

will soon be gone! SIGH!!! I feel the need to take a bajillion photos of him with his long shaggy hair. Here are some I took this morning. I am hoping to get some more this afternoon, although he is fairly grumpy, and I think getting a little sick. Then, I think he and I are off to the salon. SIGH again! I will miss his darling baby curls. Mike had been MORE than patient with me and my desire to let his locks grow. :) He wanted them cut way back last spring. I told him I would cut them when D turned 2. And, well, he has been 2 for over a month now. SIGH!





and here are a few pictures from a year ago. WOW! He was still totally bald then. What a difference a year makes in hair--for sure!