Shaving Cream Skating

During January Sylvia's preschool class has been learning about winter. Today they got to go skating (minus the ice) on shaving cream in class!

Preschool Olympics?

Tonight our LifeGroup had our own "preschool olympics"! Obviously Jeremy took it very seriously. 

I, however, was beaten by some very complicated plastic building squares. Pathetic. ;)

Kitchen Dancing to The Wiggles songs

Jane Eyre

Last night poor Jeremy joined me totally against his will in watching Masterpiece Theater's Jane Eyre. He was less than thrilled, but I thoroughly enjoyed it!! I remember reading the book in Mr. Norman's high school English class, but had totally forgotten most of the story.

Why is it that men hate this type of movie? Is it because of the romance? Do they really think it's boring; why? Is it because they can't identify with the time period? Why, then, do women? Is it because it reminds them of of being forced to read classic novels in high school and feeling uncool doing so?

I just don't get it. It was a fantastic movie. Wonderful. Ahhhhhh...

Bus Routine

The morning bus stop routine has changed over the few months Annah has been in school. When she first started, I took all the kids out to watch her get on the bus. (Remember, it's just in our next door neighbors driveway.) This was great fun for a few weeks while the weather was still summery. I would put Caeden in his stroller, and he loved seeing the big bus, and it was all fun and happy.
Then, Caeden started to hate being in his stroller. We tried me holding him, but he was too antsy. I tried letting him and Sylvia stay inside and watch from the window where I could see them while I took Annah out, but I'd come back and one of them would have destroyed something in the 2 minutes I'd been outside. So, we decided Annah would go out alone and the rest of us would watch her from the window. It works the best for everyone.
Here's how it now goes...
After Annah is all bundled, backpacked and ready, we pray for her and give her hugs and kisses. As she goes down the front porch steps and sidewalk we say, "I love you!" back and forth until we can't see each other. Then she runs a little ways towards the bus stop, and stands behind where the sidewalk crosses the driveway.
When she gets there, we wave, blow kisses, and show our "I love you" sign back and forth until she sees the bus at the stop down the way. She stays in her spot behind the sidewalk until the bus is completely stops, then she scurries across the road with Levi, the other boy who waits on our side of the road. I watch for her little bright pink shoes to go up the steps of the bus, and Caeden and I watch the bus until it's out of sight. (Sylvia usually loses interest long before this point.)
It's a bit cheezy, I admit, but we love our mushy little bus stop routine.

Sylvia's Rothschild Coat & Hat

I couldn't pass up this beautiful Rothschild coat and hat I found at a garage sale a few years ago. I was so excited to get it for $10, and so disappointed when Annah would have nothing to do with it. It's very heavy wool, and she didn't like that. Sylvia, on the other hand, loves it. She smiled all the way to church today, and obviously felt very special and pretty wearing it. I love that. She is such a darling. Maybe a budding little fashionista too. So sweet.

Funny Nakedness

I know; it's just wrong to post photos of my naked kid. And, in just a few short years he would probably really be ticked at me for this kind of thing. (I promise I won't do it then!!) But, right now he is just too hilarious and adorable.

Late yesterday morning, Caeden decided he was ready to get around and dressed for the day. So, on his own, he took off his jammies, took off his diaper and threw it away, and climbed up on the window bench to get a new diaper. Such a goof. I was cracking up and called to Jeremy to grab the camera and come see him.

It's a good thing he makes us laugh with stuff like this, because we sure weren't laughing when he woke everyone in the house up at 6:10. On a Saturday morning?!?!? NOT cool.

As, I said...it's a good thing he's cute and funny SOMEtimes.

Wait till you see......

Just wait till you see the picture we will post later. I think I am wearing the same swimsuit only 20 years later.

Puffy Eyes and Pretzel Sticks

Some unexpectedness to the day today.

Annah woke with puffy, red eyelids this morning, so we (me and all the kids) went to convenient care to see what was up. Doc didn't really know either.

Took all 3 kids to Meijer to get Benadryl for her (assuming it was an allergic reaction). What kind of a person takes 3 children 6 and under to the store by herself? Me. An insane woman. Caeden cried all through the store. Don't know what his deal is lately, but he is NOT good in stores.

While S & C napped, A & I made chocolate covered pretzel rods with peanuts! That was fun and yummy! You can see Caeden likes them!

the backdoor

oh yes, everything from the past year is still up at the old site until sometime in february when our domain will expire. if you have a "key" feel free to visit 'the backdoor'...

sibling rivalry?

Eric & Jeremy on the pier, originally uploaded by tarynleah.

Jeremy's Grandma D. sent the kids a little letter along with this photo this week. What a fun treat!

This is Eric and Jeremy on the pier by the lake in front of their grandparents' house. We don't know a date, but it would have been sometime in the 1980's, as they appear to be elementary school age. They also look like they're not exactly happy with each other, don't they? Some things never change...;)

"I want to kiss you!"

Last evening I put on lipstick and
Caeden looked at me and said, "You have lipstick?"
I said, "Yes, I have lipstick."
He said, "I want to kiss you!"

Scrapping away!

I did this scrapbook page today for a sketch challenge on www.scrapbook.com. (My favorite site ever.)

Grandpa Dave took this photo of Annah 6/8/03 (It was the day of Sylvia’s dedication.) on our front porch, and it quickly became on of his favorite pictures of her. Gram Vonda bought the dress for Annah w/ the hopes that it might someday become a family heirloom.

I’ve been scrapping quite a bit this month! I’ve decided to change my photo archiving style, and it’s totally liberating my scrapbooking and my happinness about it all! I purchased some regular acid-free/lignin free photo albums, and have started putting most of our photos (from the past almost 7 years since we’ve been married!) in them, and just leaving out my very favorites to scrapbook. I feel so much more at ease about being able to scrapbook what I want to now, and still have all our photos accessible to look through. (AND, there’s room beside each photo in the photo albums for captions/journaling/comments too!)

The Sick

We've all had the sickness all weekend. The one everyone else had over the holidays. It's finally reached us. It could have been a lot worse, really. There was no throwing up or anything; just fevers and sinus issues and fatigue and headaches. Everyone's started to feel better already too, but Sylvie and Caeden are still a little feverish. We've played waaaaaay too many movies this weekend too. And the girls had to miss Ashley's birthday party; that was heartbreaking. But, we're thankful the yuck is leaving us now.

New for us

Well, I think we’re going to try taking our family website “blog-style” for a while. We are trying to save $$ every way we can. So, we’re going to see if we can maintain our site for free. That means no nifty domain name and e-mail addresses of our own, and maybe more work for me. But, it’s also a new adventure and new things for me to learn! So, we’ll see how it goes… As always, let us know what you think!