Cold!

I know it's been cold everywhere this week.   It's probably been a lot colder for everyone else, but I do not like the cold!  We just have a heat pump and not a furnace and although we are ok, our house does feel cold when it gets below freezing.  When it stays below 30 degrees for 4-5 days straight I get to the point where I just want to sit on the couch with a blanket all day!  But, we survived!  The week started off warm enough with a day off school and having fun with Aunt Jenny on Monday.  We walked to the park and played some basketball, on the playground and with some chalk!  Then on Tuesday it got cold and Jenny had to go back to sunny southern CA.
We spent the rest of the week indoors trying to stay warm.  On Saturday it started warming back up and we ventured out to clean the church and then later to run some errands.  The kids got new shoes and mom nearly lost her sanity getting them!

Celeste fell asleep on the couch one afternoon

Anna Elise modeling her new 'shoes' and the cute pot holders she made at activity girls this week.  Techincally her 'boots' are tennis shoes - they will work for gym class so they meet my requirements.  She absolutely LOVES them.  Her dad said it was ok with him if she wanted to look ridiculous...

Celeste modeling mom's new cowboy boots.  They aren't 'real', they were 50% off and they will work with my 'new' skinny jeans that Rachel found for me at the thrift store last week.  Score!

I thought I took a picture of Calvin in his new blue tennis shoes, but apparently I didn't.  So a picture of his newest lego creation with have to work.

Our family spotlight is Calvin.  He goes through shoes every couple of months (ok, maybe it's more like 5-6 months, but it feels like I am always buying him new shoes!).  He just goes and goes.  He can't hold still.  He is either digging in our yard (we just had some stumps removed so it's prime digging) playing basketball against himself, playing with his legos, playing the wii or begging his dad to go throw the football.  He thinks that life should be fair.  I told him if life was fair, his situation would most likely get worse, not better, but it's hard for him to see any kind of injustice.  He enjoys reading and is getting better at it, he does his homework standing up or dancing around the table, he is well liked, very competitive, and is growing like a weed (straight up, but not out).  He eats more then anyone else in the family and thinks his mom is a good cook (don't tell him otherwise).

Coming & Going

This week was full of comings and goings.  First Mike left.  He had his annual NHance convention.  It was in Florida this year.  He opted to stay an extra two days for the sales seminar.  He left on Sunday morning.  I stayed home from church with sick kids.  On Monday Calvin stayed home sick, but he was feeling much better that afternoon when our friend Rachel came over!  She was in Richmond visiting for a week!  We got her on Monday afternoon and then again on Tuesday night through Wednesday afternoon.  We had a lot of fun visiting and thrift store shopping!  We missed Dave and the kids but had fun with 'Aunt Rachel' as the kids call her (or Rachel Gordon as Lilah calls her).  On Wednesday evening our super babysitter came to see us - Anne came with belated Christmas gifts and stayed for dinner and bedtime.  I had a grouchy baby on my hands and was glad to have some help during dinner.  The kids loved seeing Anne and they love their cereal bowls with the built in straws.  Late on Friday night Mike came home and then Aunt Jenny (Mike's sister) came for a visit.  The kids were so excited to wake up Saturday morning to see Daddy and Aunt Jenny.  We played and went to a civil war battle ground for a 'hike' and some history.  It was a fun (but kind of hard) week for everyone to not have Dad around but to get so many fun visitors!

Other things - it rained ALL week and on Thursday evening the water backed up in our utility room.  It's a sunken concrete room with a drain actually built into the floor so the water does occasionaly back up.
When the ground is so saturated then our washer won't drain.  I really needed to do laundry on Friday (and since it snowed the ground wasn't going to be drying out anytime soon) so I had to haul out the washing machine drain water in 5 gallon buckets in order to do laundry.  It was not my favorite way to wash clothes, but I take that over scrubbing them by hand in the river =).  I had kids stay home on Monday and Wednesday and school was cancelled on Friday - so I didn't get everything done that I thought I 'needed' to get done - but sometimes things don't really 'need' to get done =).  I was so glad to see Mike!

I didn't do so well with taking pictures - there were lots of great moments I thought of taking pictures but didn't =(.

I did get a couple of pictures from our snow day on Friday:

Lilah wore her fancy feathery gloves with her ring!

Our family spotlight this week is Lilah.  Lilah is at a good age - she has outgrown the terrible 2's & 3's and hasn't gotten into what I call the emotional 5's yet.  She is helpful and fun to have around.  Lilah is more social then I realized.  She really misses her siblings when they go to school.  She plays when Celeste is around and enjoys her even though she complains about Celeste taking her toys or ruining her play.  As soon as Celeste goes to bed Lilah is bored and subdued.  She either lays around doing nothing or follows me around the house.  She doesn't really play with Celeste, but needs to have someone around in order to play - so funny.  Lilah is one of our  more serious kids, but just cracks us up.  She has a somewhat dry sense of humor and expresses her every thought with her beautiful brown eyes.

Happy Birthday Madeline

The highlight of this past week was Madeline's Birthday.  She turned 6 on Thursday.   She picked donuts for her birthday breakfast, hot dogs (her very favorite food) for dinner with a chocolate birthday cake for dessert.  She wanted blue frosting with a rainbow and clouds.  After dinner she opened her presents.  I think her favorite present was from Anna Elise - she gave her a polished rock and a coupon to play with her beloved doll.  She had a good day!

Other highlights of the week include a trip to the dentist for appointments for all five kids (and no cavities!) and some exceptionally warm weather and playing outside!  Unfortunately it also includes some sick kids, but we are hoping it doesn't spread...

Pictures from Madeline's Birthday:

 Birthday cake helper - right before her bath

Madeline opening presents (yes thats the best one we had, I may fire our photographer =) )

Singing Happy Birthday

Madeline is our highlight this week.  Our very observant and considerate middle child is loving kindergarten.  She loves going to school and being with her friends.  She makes friends easier then anyone else in our family but she is most often found sitting on her top bunk bed, surrounded by her hidden treasures, playing by herself.  She is also very sneaky and is probably the best at getting out of chores.  She loves to laugh and to make people laugh.  She has longer hair then anyone else in the house and probably the smallest feet for her age!  She is so excited to be 6!

The Rest of Winter Break

The second half of our winter break was great!  On New Years Eve day we went to the Science Museum to watch 'The Polar Express' in IMAX.  We wanted to stay and play at the museum but after a short time Mike confessed he was not feeling well.  We went home so he could take a nap.  We postpone our yummy New Years dinner and had a very subdued evening at home - but we made up for it later!  We were able to go to the Botanical Gardens to see the lights!  The kids loved it! It was beautiful and so fun!  Mike wasn't too happy that we happened to go on SPCA night and we had to deal with all the dogs there, but we still enjoyed it.  The kids also played way too much Wii, played with their toys and games, did some clearance shopping and spent lots of time together.

Here are pictures from the Botanical Gardens.  

A few days prior I came home with a cute new monkey hat for Celeste and she refused to wear it.  When she saw everyone putting on hats to look at the lights she decided that maybe she did like the hat.  She wore it the entire evening.  On her way to bed she caught a glimpse of it on her dresser and insisted on wearing it to bed as well.  

This weeks family member update is on Celeste!  She is growing up so fast it scares me.  She is still a little monster, but a very loved and spoiled one.  What she's been up to lately:  she loves to sit on the potty, she hasn't done anything on the potty yet and I haven't really pushed it; she loves to sing songs - hopefully we'll get a video soon; she won't sit on her booster seat the way she is suppose to, she either sits on the back of it or kneels on it; she is talking like crazy and we only understand about half of what she says; she loves to play outside; her hair is getting thicker and her eye lashes even longer!

Please don't look at the oh so very flattering shot of me in the background =)

2013!

I usually start thinking about New Year's Resolutions and Goals around New Years.  By the time I have things figured out and some details worked in, it's way past New Years.  So even though I'm post-dating this entry for January 1st, it took me two weeks to figure out what I wanted to do with my blogging this year, that's why I haven't posted anything in forever =).
I really enjoyed my 'picture on most days' last year.  It really pushed me to take more pictures and to pay more attention to what I documented about my family.  However, it also put a lot of pressure on me, sometimes took the fun out things, and on occasion prevented me from blogging about things that I didn't have a picture of.  So...I'm going back to blogging once a week.  My goal is to do a weekly recap on Sundays and to include a family member update as well.
As for other personal and family goals - I've been very ambitious this year, but I have to be, I have a lot to do!  I'm excited to see what good things this year can bring.