Sunday, January 31, 2010

Beautiful Day

As we were leaving church today, Sarah told me that it was a beautiful day. I asked what she meant and with a sweep of her hand she pointed to the sky and said, "look- it's all blue. I'm tired of the all-white sky". And I had to agree! I never know what that little girl will come up with next.

I seem to be quoting Sarah a lot. The others say very clever things, too. I just forget to write them down while they're fresh in my memory. And I still need to do a post about our cruise. I'll get around to it soon...

And then of course the biggest news around here lately... the ultrasound on Monday.


If you're not savvy with ultrasound pictures...
Top left: two feet
Top right: profile
Bottom left: boy...
Bottom right: looking right at us- this one is the toughest to pick out probably.

Ellie has been teaching Katie how to spell her name lately. Since Ellie stays up about 1/2 hour later than the others she has started doing art projects at night. Last night she decided to surprise Katie with what I call her "trail of love." She drew pictures and wrote Katie's name on all of these papers- leading from their bedroom down to the living room. She was so excited about this and even woke her sisters this morning so they could all discover it together. I love when they do sweet things like that for each other.


Tonight they dressed up similar and were marching around the house. Funny the things they come up with. Those are Ryan's ties, by the way. And with Children's Place clearance I found those cute sweaters for next to nothing and Carter's had those footy jammies. Can I just say that I love to shop clearance!

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Saturday, January 9, 2010

Finally Some Pictures!

I have been wanting to do something with pictures, but I'm lazy and prefer to have Steve do the editing since he does such a better job. But he's busy and I want to share, so you'll have to make do with my photo editing this time around :) A few of these are from Christmas morning. Here are some of my favorite shots...

After a whole lot of messing up and frantically searching for sold-out fabric to fix my mess-up, I made these nightgowns for my girls as well as the two Tolman girls. I swore it wasn't worth all the time and effort, but the girls wear them all the time, so I'm starting to rethink that promise. Then Grandma was wonderful and made matching jammies for their dolls. How fun is that?
Steve got these noise canceling headphones for his woodworking, but we thought Ryan should try them on for size. Looks like it'll be awhile before he can help out in the workshop :) Oh- and the orange was one of his favorite Christmas presents.

This toy is quite popular and is used all the time in the house. Ryan thought he should get a turn and he loved it!

Another of Ryan's favorite toys. He loves to push things.

Now this is by far the favorite gift from Christmas. There are girls riding this horse practically nonstop. If you turn it on, it plays "Home on the Range", galloping sounds and neighing. It gets old after awhile and we have them turn it off, but the girls love it.

I know I said I'd post pictures of everyone in the snow, but only Ryan was here (the girls were corralled to make cookies at a friend's house) so I bundled him up for a photo op. You never know when we'll have such a beautiful snow again. Thanks to all the friends who passed down these wonderful snow clothes! He was really quite enjoying himself until the mittens started falling off. It was cold!





Ellie asked my mom to make a sweater for her doll. Well, Mom had the fabric all cut and ready to go and her machine broke. I told Ellie and she was crushed. She even started crying. It was really quite tragic. So that night I decided that since I had extra fabric I would make a cape to keep Lilly warm until Grandma could get her sewing machine fixed. Ellie was quite pleased. But here's a quiz for you. At the breakfast table we were having a discussion about the fact that Belle had a cape, too. Steve was sure it was blue, Ellie was insistent it was red. Steve finally looked it up. How well do you know your Disney movies? Who was right? The colorblind Dad or the fashion expert Ellie? That may or may not be a leading remark...

I have never actually documented this and thought I'd do it for memory's sake. Ryan doesn't get to bathe in the big tub with the girls. He gets the purple bin, which he actually loves.


And there you have it. Steve and I are leaving early Monday morning on vacation. My parents are being saints and taking all four kids for the week so we can go on a cruise alone. We haven't been on vacation alone since we were first married and went to Disney World with our good friends, the Tolmans. I can't even begin to say how extremely excited I am about this trip! Now I just need to get packed so we can go...

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Backwards

Why is it that at the beginning of January, when it actually snows, there are no snow clothes to be found? They're already bringing out the Spring line! So, ebay, here I come. (Ellie has a snowsuit, but we are in need of just snow pants to go with her winter coat so she can wear it to school).

There is an absolutely gorgeous snow outside right now. Hopefully I can get a picture or two before three little icicles come back in the house :)

Monday, January 4, 2010

Family Newsletter 2009

Steve went ahead and shared this on Facebook, so I suppose I ought to put it on here as well :)

2009 Family Letter

Sunday, January 3, 2010

quote

“A home without books is like a room without windows… A library is not a luxury but one of the necessities of life.” ~Henry Ward Beecher

Love it.