Christmas cheer.

Aimee is loving her first Christmas season!
(look closely and you'll see her two teeth)
If I could just get my hands on some eggnog...

Elise is also excited this Christmas.
(look closely and you'll see a missing tooth)

Elise has been waiting for this day since the start of kindergarten! She was more excited about the trail of pixie dust left by the tooth fairy than the coin she left under the pillow! I just smile at how magical her world is. What a wonderful life.

Happy Holidays!

We've really enjoyed the Holidays this year and can't believe how quickly they go by. We decorated the house and put up the tree the day after Thanksgiving. That night we decorated the tree, turned the lights off and the carols up, then drank eggnog in the magical glow of the twinkling lights. It's one of my favorite moments of the holiday. Right next to that inevitable moment of trying to get all the kids to sit nicely in front of the tree, smile and look at us at exactly the same time!

TAKE ONE: this is fun.

TAKE TWO: we lost Lindsey -Lou.

TAKE THREE: Lindsey -hey,look at ME!!

TAKE FOUR: come on, smile for just one more....

TAKE FIVE: OK, we'll take what we can get.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Happy Thanksgiving!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Thanksgiving was nice and quiet this year. With Nathan and Aimee a bit sick, we celebrated with just our little family and really enjoyed the day together. The boys played football in the morning while the girls made the feast and watched the parade. I woke up at 4:30 to pay hommage to mom and feed Aimee and then Jim got up at 5:30 to cook the turkey. He stuffed it with an orange and an onion and baked it upside down. It was delicious and Jim won the honor of cooking it every year. :) We laughed at our first attempt of completing the feast on our own. The gravy was too spicy, the potatoes a bit gluey, the sweet potato casserole was just terrible but our spirits and praise were high. The kids took turns telling us what they were grateful for during the entire meal. Wow, those are some grateful kids. We are all grateful for our friends and family and our good health. Oh, and traditions... you'll see.

TRADITIONS!!!!
I set out the olives and just knew Nathan wouldn't let us down.
High five for Nathan and Heidi and that certain spirit that makes
and keeps these traditions alive. What would life be like without you? :)

Ahhh, sweet Elise -who kept me company all morning and baked us an amazing apple pie! She measured the ingredients and mushed the crust by hand before rolling it out. I sliced and Elise spiced the apples to perfection, piling them high and topping them with what was left of the crust. It was absolutely amazing and the best part of the whole Thanksgiving meal.

TA-DA!

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween!

Elise was Tinkerbell and really flew
from house to house to get the candy!

Nathan was a knight in shining armor.
He was so excited because this is his favorite
day of the year when people give you candy
and more candy and more candy and more candy...
and NathanLOVES candy!!!

Lindsey was Sleeping Beauty and was just having fun
dressing up and showing off her costume.

Aimee was the infamous pumpkin. She learned a great
trick -sitting up! What a treat for us.

Flying High and Mama's Girl

Nathan loves airplanes and making things fly through the air (whether they are supposed to or not). Another love of his life is Legos. He wakes up early on school days so he has time to play before breakfast! Jim has helped him to build several trucks, helicopters and airplanes. That's not to say that cars have taken a back burner. He is constantly building ramps, racing them across the house and is currently saving up to buy a race track. What a boy, we love it.

Mama's Girl :)

If you could take all of Nathan's curiosity, mix it with some extra determination, add a bit of imagination and wrap it in a sweet little body you'd have Lindsey. :) She spies the mascara on the table and immediately grabs the tube. "No, Lindsey -that's mommy's!" I caution her and head on my merry way. Within five minutes I hear Jim say, "Well Lindsey what did you get into?" And I just knew she couldn't resist. I grabbed my camera to capture my little mama's girl all made up and ready to go.

Now that's a cute baby!

The other day at church, Jim was walking by a lady at church carrying a child and he stopped to comment, "Now that's a cute baby." Taking a closer look he added, "Oh wait, that's mine!" :) I love that story and got to hear it several times as all the women standing nearby thought it was extremely funny. Aimee's not only adorable, she's mellow and happy and everything I'd hoped she would be. She smiles at everyone that stops to say hi to her and loves to be picked up. She's so calm as she watches the whirlwind of activities around her. She's almost five months and has started rolling on her belly and pushing her head and chest up to get a good look around. I like the quiet look in the first picture and the smile in the second.

Go Aimee!

Ballerina Dreams

Elise dreams of being a ballerina, dancing through her days and now she finally has a chance to learn. She, Allison (above) and Nathan all signed up for dance classes at a local studio. Allison and Elise are taking an intro to dance combo of ballet, tap and jazz on Wednesday afternoons. Nathan is taking a ballet, tap and tumbling combo on Friday mornings. Elise looks like she was born to dance, she is so graceful in class. Nathan makes me laugh as he learns his ballet positions. We told him he'd probably be the only boy in a class of girls and he said, "that's okay -I love girls!" All the kids watched "so you think you can dance" this summer and it really made them eager to start. It also showed Nathan just how good the male dancers can be. It was inspiring to us all. I love peeking at the kids through the studio windows.

On Elise's first day of class, we put her hair in a bun (at Elise's request), put on her tights and ballet suit and turned to find Lindsey struggling to get her little ballet suit on as well. Lindsey insisted she have little buns like Elise and grinned ear to ear as she twirled around in too big ballet shoes. We were a little worried her smile would fade when she realized that her dance "class" was in the hallway, while Elise was with the big girls in the studio but it didn't faze Lindsey one bit. She danced, spinned and bounced down the hall for all the waiting parents to see. She loved it. Even now she asks to watch "Esee" dance.

The little belle of the ballet class.

The little belle of my heart.
This picture captures all the hope and love of a child's
desire to dance. I love it, she is so sweet here.

Happy Birthday Girls

Elise turned six this summer.

Lindsey turned two this summer.

Back to School

Elise started first grade this year and was so excited to meet her teacher, Mrs. Wilson. Her best friend, Allison, our little neighbor girl has just started kindergarten so they get to go to school together and ride the bus home together. I think it was a comfort for them to be together their first day. Elise has grown up so much this summer. She's very excited to tell everyone that she is a first grader! She's doing great at school and loves to read but is not very excited about the homework. :)

Elise now gets to sit outside the classroom door instead of waiting to be picked up by the teacher in the cafeteria. She feels all sorts of grown up. :)



Nathan also started school this year with his buddy, Jordan. They go to Pre-K mon-thurs, 9am-1pm. Nathan has such an amazing memory. When we got home after meeting his teacher the first day he said she was really pretty and he liked the shirt she was wearing with white flowers. When I asked Mrs. Henry if she had worn a shirt with flowers the first day, she said she had and we were both amazed at Nathan's observation of the little details. It makes it really fun to hear about his day. I think the funniest thing he observes very closely is what everyone else is eating for lunch. "I take a bite of my sandwich and then I look to see what everyone else has. Ben gets cookies every day and Emily gets the mixed up yogurt (trix). I'd really like that too!" :)
Nathan has waited for this day since Elise started school. Finally, he has his own class and teacher. He runs into class every day and is bursting with smiles when he gets home. We are so proud of him.

Adventure Camp 2007

This summer I decided to host a summer camp for some of Elise and Nathan's friends. We did an "around the world" theme, traveling to a different continent each day. It went for two weeks 9am-1pm, mon-thurs and we had 10 children and two camp counselors (volunteers from the young women in our church). I painted the world map in the picture above and many other posters/decorations for each continent. The kids were a great help and loved water coloring all our decor. I borrowed costumes and memorabilia from the different continents from people in our church. It was a lot of work preparing the art projects, deciding on the activities and keeping the kids under control but it was alot of fun and an experience they will not likely forget -well, at least for a few years. :) They are already asking about next years adventure camp... :)
One of the kids' favorite activities was making dragon masks on Asia day. One of the girls, Malavika (2nd from left) was from India and came dressed in costume, she brought other clothes for the kids to try on and bangles to keep.
Here's my favorite camp picture, including the camp councelors. The kids each got and Australian hat and got to leave their prints on Uluru Rock (famous in Australia). We made didgeridoos that day which is a long tube that you blow through to make music. I laughed knowing the parents were probably like, thanks for teaching my child to spit through a wrapping paper roll. :)
And of course, here's our camp mascot -little Lindsey Lou, wearing a sombrero on South America day. She loved doing the activities too and is the only 2 year old I know that can say all her continents! :)

July Fourth!

Elise and Nathan loved helping Jim put up
a flag to celebrate the fourth of July. Elise
learned the words to the star spangled banner
and loves to sing it when she gets a chance.

This year we went tubing down the Kelly River
with some of our friends. The water was cold
and it was quite the adventure trying to balance a
sleeping Aimee on my legs as we floated along.
Someone spotted an alligator in the water and they
closed the last half of the run for safety -but it
was still a fun day. Jim planted our first letterbox!

Lindsey's first time with French braids.

I just love this picture of Nathan. He's so content
with life and loves the adventures he creates each
day. He's the best little boy and just so darn cute. :)

How big is Aimee?SO BIG!!

And so proud about it!

We can't believe how fast she's growing. At two months she is 12.2 lbs and 24". That puts her in the 50th percentile for weight and the 75th percentile for height, wow! You grow, girl! :) She smiles now and sleeps through most the night, 8-9 hours at a time. We can't get enough of her, as you can see... :)

Tiny bubbles, on my mouth. Makes me happy....

Night, night...

Night, night...

Sleep Tight...

Let's all have another bite
of our little Lindsey sandwich!!

Lindsey was so excited to wear one of Elise's nightgowns to bed. They made the cutest little princesses. She has asked to wear Elise's clothes every day since then. And sometimes, Elise says yes. :)