You'll Shoot Your Eye Out!

Here are a few photos of our quiet little Christmas together. Every year, I try to take some photos of the kids together. With the addition of each child, the logistics of photo taking have gotten harder to say the least. I usually just madly snap about 30 photos then pick the best one or two. Trust me, the rest of these looked like blurs with eyeballs in the middle of them.




See what I mean? I give up! Ah, well, these kind of photos are more fun in my opinion than professional ones any day. One of my grandmothers (who is now deceased), told me she always liked the candid photos I would send of our family better than the professional ones. I think most people feel that way!



One of my favorite presents. :)



Rachel being a good mama to her new toy.



Stephen and his "lomster", a favorite gift from grammy and grampy. :)



Rachel overjoyed with her bird that plays (relentlessly, I might add) "We Wish You a Merry Christmas".

Rachel

When I went to get the mail out front one day, I noticed Rachel was getting ready to follow me. I grabbed my camera and decided to take some photos of her reactions to the open door, noises outside, etc. I also love using natural sunlight to take photos-that was a bonus! :)

She is getting too big!











A motorcycle decided to drive by at that time, and scared Rachel. She will get a concerned look on her face, start fussing, and stomp from foot to foot until the threat is gone.


Mwwwwaaaa!



Safe back inside...

Dudette

Engineer

Matthew came across a box of special Legos Dave had as a child a month ago. They sort of look like K'Nex, and you can build all sorts of things with them. There is even a little air pump that comes with them! Matthew can spends hours with these things...

Sickos

About a week before Dave and I went on vacation (and Dave's stepmom and halfsister came to watch the kids), the kids came down with colds. Children can look so miserable when they are sick, can't they? At the same time, I was silently thankful for the relative calm that sickness brought to the house. All the kids wanted was juice and Cheerios and fruit and videos, which I gladly gave in to. As I type this, the sickness is a far off memory and all is well once again. Another thing to praise: healthy children that bounce back so easily from illness.



Timothy felt miserable. All he wanted to do was suck on his fingers and cuddle with his blanket, A.K.A. "Soft One". I would have given that look, too, if someone took my photo when I felt like that!



All Rachel wanted to do was suck on her sippy cup. She wasn't too fond of the juice inside, though...






Rachel giving a smile. :)

Need a Better Deal on Auto Insurance?

I think I might be able to help. ;) We caught this guy right outside our front door. When Dave picked him up, he was a medium tan color. After we put him in the glass jar, he turned a bright green! It took less than 15 minutes for him to change. We were amazed-we didn't know that they turned colors. What a bunch of Yankees! The kids all wanted to keep it, but we decided we had better let him go, as he would probably die inside there with no food and not much air. I think I heard him say an accented "Thank you!" as he took off into our bushes out front...

When Will It Be Winter?

These are sights from our backyard this past December 2008. Now, don't hate us. Take comfort in the fact that the air force sends us where it wants to and we'll probably be freezing our bums off next winter as you all are as I type. For now, though, we'll take what sunshine and warmth we can get! :D



Rachel horsing around and Timothy emerging from the boys' "secret cave" they found in the backyard.




Rachel sits just like I used to as a baby.




Matthew showing off interesting berries he found on some bushes (yes, we warned them all NOT to eat anything outside!)









Rachel loves to hug things. :)

Flower Pot Farmers

Since we don't have our nice, big garden anymore (boo hoo!!) to grow yummy things in, we have to resort to using mama's flower pots. This time, the kids took some dry pinto beans and planted them. They grew like crazy! We had a string trellis for them to grow on (I think I posted photos of that before). Then, harvest time came and all the kids circled around Dave very excitedly to see what was in the pods. It was fun for all!




Here are some homegrown pinto beans. Note the "watchful eye" of Timothy!



Matthew carefully opening a bean pod.



Timothy opening his bean pod.



Stephen and his prize bean!

Random Kid Shots...

Timothy rubbing Rachel's hair, which usually leads to this...








Silly Stephen!




Matthew and Stephen hamming it up for the camera...

Larry, Moe, and...

I just LOVE Rachel's curls. I really hope she doesn't lose them. I think I might cry! :)

The Helper Elf

Rachel is getting more and more to be a big helper around the house. She helps pick up toys, grabs a kitchen towel and cleans up messes on the floor, and helps sort laundry.

I am so thankful for all her little "helps" every day. :)

Slimed

The Indian stood no chance...


On a rainy, dreary day, I found a long-ago, tucked away recipe that brought a good hour of joy to the kids. Slime. Dyed with a ton of food dye and made with a secret ingredient: psyllium powder.

I had a tiny bag of it on hand for a raw food recipe for pumpkin pie- an experiment I have still not braved. So, I decided to use it for the slime experiement. It worked great! It just doesn't store well (which I learned, unfortunately, the hard way...)

Unless you have gone to a health food store and purchased the powder (like I did), the name you will find it under is Metamucil. Yes, you read that right. Metamucil. Just don't think about it too much and all will be well. :D