the boy

I was playing around with my camera this afternoon when Caeden woke up from his nap, and snapped this one as he walked into my room. He is so cute and squishy when he wakes up from his nap.

playing around with colors and Photoshop a little -- Doesn't he look so sweet and innocent? Ha!

It doesn't take him longer than about 30 seconds to get revved up and totally awake!

enjoying reading

Annah has really been getting into reading lately, and loving reading on her own. She will go off in her room or mine and read for an hour by herself! She's been reading Junie B. Jones books, and other chapter books. She also brings a book home from her classroom every night to read for homework. This week she is enjoying some Frog & Toad books. It's so cool to see her just love reading for the joy of it!

piano lessons

I gave both Annah and Sylvia a piano lesson last night. Annah, I recently discovered is not really learning a lot of note names or counting in her violin lessons, so I wanted to make sure she was getting that...hence starting her on piano lessons. Sylvia, just needs something regular besides school to be involved in, and she is excited about piano. She practiced twice today, and is happy about it so far. I'm hoping I can stay consistent with them on it!

tent

In keeping with trying to have the kids do other things besides watch movies all the time... I decided that Jeremy and I were going to make a "tent" between the 2 living room couches for the kids to play in tonight. They did like it. Wasn't too good for the static-hair though... ;)

Like Mother, Like Daughter

Now, this kid is definitely mine. My parents have photos of me dressed up in all kinds of crazy outfits when I was a kid, so I had to grin when Annah came downstairs in this getup! She is so like me, in more than just this way. But, how cute is this? ;)
The wings, by the way, are from one of Sylvie's Fairytopia outfits from when she was 3, held on by a hairclip.
Now this one scares me a bit, because she came up with this pose and face all on her own...!?!

monkey girl

Sylvie thought that since she was wearing jammies with monkeys on them and eating a banana, she should act like a monkey for a picture too! Hoohoohoohoohoohooheeheeheeheehoohoohoo!

Caed's First Theater Movie

Tonight Jeremy and I took Caeden to see The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything:A Veggie Tales Movie in the theater. It was his first time seeing a movie in the theater, so it was a fun adventure. Before we got there, we tried to explain a bit to him about what it would be like and how he should act.

He was funny...He had trouble sitting on the flip-down seats, because he's so small. But he thought they were cool, and he didn't want me holding it down for him! He stood through parts of the movie, when he got excited about what was going on. He really was pretty quiet, although Jeremy was very frustrated by him making any noise at all...until he heard another daddy say, "Alright, we're going home then. Let's go!" I mean, really, it's a kids' movie; there's going to be talking!
The movie was cute, and Caeden really liked it. It was fun to have time with just him and Mommy and Daddy! (Annah & Sylvia were at a birthday party sleepover.)
He ate a LOT of popcorn, and probably drank most of the huge Cherry Pepsi the 3 of us shared!

In the car on the way home, Caeden said, "Can we start over? I want to start this day over."
Me: Why?
C: Because I like it!

Made me so happy that he had enough fun to want to repeat the same day all over again!

Puzzling...

Our kids love to watch TV. Well, really they love to watch movies. All. The. Time. And, I admit, I allow them to watch them much more frequently than I probably should. We would usually let them watch a movie on a Friday evening, but tonight I told them there would be NO TV/movie watching, and they were going to play with their toys! (How pathetic is this, that I actually have to force them to play with their toys?!?! I am definitely not in the running for mother-of-the-year!)

So, they played upstairs in their rooms for a while, and after supper they decided they were going to do puzzles. They all got some puzzles for Christmas. They brought a few downstairs and all sat on the kitchen floor, each putting a puzzle together. And they were so excited when they were finished!

Locks of Love

I did it! I've always thought Locks of Love was such a wonderful organization. And, I decided a few months ago that I definitely wanted to make a donation. I was thinking I would grow it out super, super long and then give, but I started to get so excited about giving and couldn't wait! So, I went this morning!

BEFORE: I love my long hair. I am such the long-hair-girl!!


AFTER: I guess I can be a short hair girl too!


My stylist totally rocks!!


What do you think?
I love it, and am so glad I did this! I can't wait to send in my ponytail so someone in need can feel good about their hair!!


I had 12 1/2" to donate. (The minimum is 10".)

A Lamp Unto My Feet & A Light Unto My Path

I finally got around to doing this little project, and I'm so pleased! I wanted something I could carry with me that would contain scriptures that I want to memorize. I chose the scriptures and supplies last summer, and kept thinking I would need a good chunk of time to sit down and put it all together. It turned out, it didn't take long...The hardest part was formatting the text for all the tiny little cards.

I really love these papers (from the Blush line by Basic Grey), and using the new Glimmer Mist (in Gingerbread, by Tattered Angels) to make the whole project have a nice glimmer. I know I will love looking at this while I hide God's Word in my heart!!

(as usual, click on the photos, for larger view and other details)