"Sibling Sofa Sandwich" ~ or some such silliness!

Hide-and-go-seek . . . taken to an extreme!

Valentine's Day

The kids enjoyed Valentine's Day and having a three day weekend (no school on President's Day). Emily waits all year for heart shaped pasta on Valentine's Day! (I still haven't figured out why she thinks it actually tastes better than plain ol' pasta . . . but she's convinced it does!). Anna and Samuel both thought that pink milk was really cool and Levi and Daniel couldn't eat enough pink mashed potatoes or heart shaped meatloaf. Many years ago we began hanging curtains of hearts in the kids' doorway(s)--with love notes or fun things written on them. The past few years it's been hit and miss with actually getting them hung up in the doorway (sometimes they've woken up in March to find that I finally managed to hang them up!) . . . but this year I made the deadline! Daniel seemed the most excited to read them, Anna seemed the most excited to run through them! Kevin moved his really quickly! (so he could walk through the door to his study)

Emily recently had a chance to do another worship dance at church. She put one together a few months ago, when she heard Mark Harris talking about his song "One True God" and it finally worked out Sunday to share it.

A big week for Emily!

The past week has been an exciting one for Emily. She got to go to a Father/Daughter dance with her daddy! (who looked dashing in his Pooh bear neck tie!). The following day she got her ears pierced (along with Auntie Penny!) and mom and dad got to have Emily to ourselves for the afternoon to celebrate her half birthday. We played tennis, goofed off a bit, roamed around Barnes & Noble and stuffed ourselves full of over-priced ice cream! A few days later, Emily welcomed her "newest baby"--her long awaited American Girl doll, Kirsten! How Emily acquired Kirsten is a very fun God story--she could not be more thrilled and has spent every waking moment trying new outfits on her and changing her hair bows!

It's almost February!!

February is right around the corner and Emily is counting down the days until her 1/2 birthday! (we're a weird family!!). Anna is absolutely thrilled with pre-school and tells us several times a week "I'm a BIG girl, I go to pre-school!" We've been having fun (and making lots of messes) doing art and fingerpainting lately! The boys had fun dressing up in Kevin's old Air Force uniforms for "soldier of the Lord" night at AWANAs. Emily is never found without her doll (Faith), they dress alike whenever possible and Emily takes very good care of her! ( . . . she even requested that we hang a stocking for her on our mantle at Christmas!)

Anna starts pre-school!

Our kids attend an enrichment program one day a week. They offer a pre-school program also and Samuel has been attending there since September. When we moved, Anna had remained at the Joy House day care center, where ALL of our kids have gone (for at least one day a week) since 2001. We recently decided that the drive was really very long (especially in snowy weather) and a spot opened up at Samuel's preschool . . . so, Anna enjoyed her first official day of pre-school with Samuel last Monday! She was very excited and Samuel was a wonderful big brother and watched over her all through the day ("a perfect gentleman", according to their teachers!). We think she was most excited about her lunch box, but the arts and crafts and books were a hit too!

Happy New Year!

As we all knew it would, Christmas break has gone by entirely too fast and we resume school tomorrow. We have enjoyed spending many hours with the kids, watching movies, playing games (Yahtzee is the current favorite) and trying to beat them at "speed stacks" (cup stacking) -- they're getting much too fast though! We have fresh snow outside right now and I'm guessing sledding is in our future for this afternoon. We've also enjoyed our daily trips to the mailbox, seeing new pictures and receiving updates from friends (which is, for me, one of the best parts of this season). One of our special highlights of the past few weeks was praying with Samuel as he asked Jesus into his heart (after a discussion we had while making Christmas cookies). Emily and I enjoyed a trip to the Nutcracker Ballet with "Auntie Penny" (and our good friend Patty). The kids were indulged in (again by Auntie Penny) a fun night at Chuck-E-Cheese's, while Kevin & I were able to sneak off for a date--which was 1 part dinner and 2 parts homeschool planning--but it felt like a date nevertheless! With enough sleep (and a little caffeine tossed in!), we're excited about getting back into our "school routine" and looking forward to what 2009 has in store. The pictures below start with Emily's worship dance performance a few weeks ago, as well as cookie making, Christmas Eve candlelight service & Christmas Day.

Snowy days and swimming lessons

Our week has been full of swimming lessons and a lot of snow . . . which the kids haven't minded in the slightest, since several years ago we began a tradition of eating cinnamon rolls for breakfast when we woke up to fresh snow (we've decided that we may be in for a lot of cinnamon rolls in Castle Rock . . . and if we ever move to Alaska or Canada, we'll have to change our tradition!) After returning home from swimming lessons this morning, we got back in our footie pajamas (well, the kids did!) and decided hot chocolate and popcorn were in order! Emily recently took over hot chocolate making duty, so she was very excited! Anna and Samuel discovered Emily's body crayons--and quickly began painting Samuel's toenails and face!

Beds and Brothers and Sisters and Such!

A couple of weeks ago, the kids woke up one morning and emphatically declared that they were ready to swap rooms (they've debated about this for many, many months). We now have a boys room (that couldn't possibly have any more firetrucks in it) and a girls room, with an awful lot of stuffed animals! So far, everyone seems quite happy with the new arrangement!

A blast from the past! . . .

This season has us thankful for many things, including our 15th wedding anniversary -- which happens to fall on Thanksgiving Day this year. It's amazing how quickly 15 years can go by . . . and how many changes those "blink of an eye" years bring!

Daniel turns 6!

Daniel is very excited to finally be a 6 year old! He has also recently perfected his back flip on our trampoline . . . proving himself as the first in the family to be able to actually land on his feet (but watch out, mom or dad might just be next . . . or maybe not!!) We even found a way to weave his love of the trampoline into his birthday celebration (hence the pictures, below, of his goofy cake). We have been enjoying autumn and even attended our first "pumpkin chucking" event--talk about fun for those in our family who love contraptions!

Celebrate!

A few weeks ago we reached a milestone in our house . . . we came to the END of 3,346 days (that's 9 years, one month and 27 days--approximately!) of non-stop diapers or pull-ups. Anna & Samuel are both completely potty trained and moving on to new uses of our money! WAHOO!

Levi recently celebrated his half-birthday (the same way he did last year)--with a night at Monkey Bizness with just mom and dad. He is quite the little monkey . . . and an awfully fun kid to hang out with! The night went far too quickly, we're thinking that we need to expand on our "half-birthday tradition" (and start spending an entire day with our "child of honor", rather than just a few hours).















We also were able to go to Wyoming (along with Kevin's brother, KC) to celebrate Grandma Helen's 95th birthday . . . wow! The photo (below) with the rocks behind it is from our favorite spot in Wyoming, "Devil's Kitchen" . . . great, hidden away spot where we love to go hiking and play around on the rocks.














Today was yet another day of celebration. Kevin picked up his book from the printers! We now have several boxes of Undone gracing our garage! If you weren't aware, he's spent the better part of the past several weeks writing (finishing) a book on the presence of God -- which has been a growing passion of his and the topic of nearly every sermon he's preached for the past 7 years! (www.periecopublishing.com)

Daniel is counting down the days until he turns 6 years old and looking forward to his "Inside, Outside, Upside-down" party next week!

interior decorating at its finest!