Sleep Hat

Logan decided he needed a hat to sleep in to help keep him warm--a sleep hat--and this is the one he chose.

Professor Quirrell

Eli came downstairs with this mask on the back of his head and said, "Look, Mom, I'm Professor Quirrell!" Pretty creative! (And yes, my four-year-old has seen the first two Harry Potter movies, and we've read the first book together. He loves them, and his definition of being a big boy is "when I can watch the 'Fire Harry Potter.'")

Baby Clothes

The kids each have a memory box that is full of little things from their childhood, which of course we are still adding to... They love to look through the boxes and see cards and party hats from their first birthdays, their old pacifiers, and other little mementos. One of the things that always gets the biggest reactions from them are their coming home from the hospital outfits; they can never get over how tiny they are -- and neither can I! The other day, Ali wanted to see if her newborn clothes were small enough to fit on one of her dolls, and she thought it was simply amazing when they did!

Civil War Buff

Logan loves non fiction books, or "informational text" as he calls them. His current favorite subject is Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War. He knows quite a lot of facts about them, and being the boy he is has integrated his new-found knowledge and interests into his longstanding interest of creating things, and he made this Civil War game. And in the game he has managed to make it so that the Northern soldiers (especially Abe Lincoln himself) are harder to know down, so the North always wins! What a clever boy!

Valentines Day

On Valentines Day we bought an ice cream cake to share, as per tradition. But it wasn't decorated in any way, a problem the kids soon fixed with cut out hearts taped to toothpicks that they stuck all over the cake. Now it was as festive as it was yummy! 

Daddy Daughter Dance

Ali got to go with her Dad to the Daddy Daughter Dance at school again this year. Last year I had to force her into a skirt for the event (dresses for Sundays can be a struggle too), so imagine my surprise when I suggested that this year she wear the outfit Grandma sent her from Spain and she excitedly agreed and then came down wearing not only the dress but the shoes and hat as well! She looked absolutely adorable and you could tell she felt beautiful and ate up all the compliments from her brothers and me and then later her Dad when he came home. They had a great time. Ali is lucky to have such an amazing Daddy, and he and I are lucky to have such an amazing girl!

Snow Day

A couple of weeks ago we got about 19 inches of snow in less than a day and then the next day school was cancelled. I was starting to get annoyed with all the cold and snow days we were having (I think we're up to five in about a month and a half), until Jason reminded me that every one of those we have now is a day in the spring that I will have a newborn where the kids are still in school, and now I am a much bigger fan of them:)

Poor Jason had to do all the shoveling by himself, and was nice enough to throw most of it into one of two spots making the creation of fantastic snow forts possible. The kids spent at least two hours out there on both the day it snowed and the next day enjoying the snow. It wasn't so bitter cold as it was the previous times it snowed this winter which they enjoyed. And I enjoyed watching them play while sitting on the couch in my front room.

The snow was up to their knees or higher!

Working on the fort.

See the mailbox behind Eli? That gives you an idea of how high these piles are!