Israel Good to Have You Back - Get it?

It's really good to have my mom and dad back home. They had a terrific trip to Israel. I got my dad's photos (hundreds) uploaded to my computer, and I'll be putting them into slide show format and onto DVD for them, once he tells me what captions to use. He captured a unique perspective on some great architectural elements. Looking at the photos makes me want to tour the area. It must feel so neat to walk where Jesus walked.

All three of the kids got to spend part of the day out at GiGi and Grandpa's house, so the kids are thrilled to have them back, too. I got to do some laundry catch-up while the kids were gone.

This and That

I miss out on blogging about a lot of the little cute things that happen each day, because I just can't keep up with it. There have been some really cute things said and done over the past few weeks, but I can't remember them all.

Poor Olivia is sick now. She didn't even make me do the entire bedtime routine tonight. I did have to do extra songs, but I didn't have to do each of the books and listen to her read them back to me. She was up again a little bit ago, because she spit up more stuff. I had to do the songs all over again. She has a long routine that she wants to go through with me each night. It now includes asking me if she is going to get boobies someday, and if she can get earrings. She knows the answers, of course, but it's just part of keeping my attention a little longer and delaying the goodnight a little bit. She has been wanting boobies since she watched the Miss America Pageant. I told her that even if she didn't get boobies, she could wear pretty dresses and be a sweet girl.

Last weekend, I got to work on sorting and clearing out more toys. Billy took the kids to the Family Fun Center for a little bit, while I worked on sorting. I packed up 3 more trash bags full of good, new or nearly new toys to get rid of. These kids have WAY too much. I want them to appreciate what they are given and realize that it's a privilege to have what they do.

Anyway, Billy said they had a lot of fun playing. He exchanged the tickets from the games for a barrel of monkeys (the little game - not live animals) and a tattoo that he put on Parker without asking me.

Tattoo Artist

Friday, before I cut Natalie's hair short, she kept saying all day that she was having a bad hair day. She first said it when she got up and was getting ready for school. That evening, she wanted to go out with me to play around with some lighting techniques and be a little model. When we got there and I was moving some lights around and stuff, she was messing with her hair and saying that it was not a good time for her to model for me, because she was having a bad hair day. It was just interesting because it was just that one day that she mentioned her bad hair day several times. She wasn't just saying it because she's heard someone say it...she really thought it was a bad hair day and it concerned her.

Anyway, I didn't take any really good shots, because my goal was not to get her portrait but to work on some shadow techniques for black-and-white newborn and maternity shots, but she was such a good model. She changes her pose around really well, and it just comes naturally to her. I never tell her how to pose for anything. I just watch her. I hope she doesn't still want to be a model when she's bigger, but she's fun to watch now.

There were some really cute poses that I missed out on capturing because I was just trying to work on some lighting stuff. This would have been a cute one with proper lighting, but there were even better ones that also had poor lighting.

She found this hat in GiGi's dress-up stuff.

We watch a great program called Signing Time that teaches sign language. I've learned a lot from it. One afternoon last week while we were watching, Natalie said that Ninny needed to be watching Signing Time because she was losing her voice and it would be great for her to be able to communicate in sign language. Such a vocabulary on that girl! I wish I could remember some of the really surprising things she's said lately. I always think I'll remember them, but I don't.

Parker made me get up with a smile Saturday morning. I was back in bed when he got up, because my head and neck hurt. A while after I heard the kids playing around, he opened the bedroom door and crawled up into bed with me. He lay down beside me and patted my arm a minute. Then, he grabbed my hand and said, "Wake up, Mama. Daddy cook. Come on, Honey." I just smiled and giggled right away. He's too cute and super sweet. He always makes me smile...Well, when there's flour all over the floor and all over him.... He ALMOST always makes me smile.

A Cut Above

The Gift of Love

I just didn't get the time to put together the little Valentine party this year. I was sick almost all week. We did just our family and a friend. In the pic above, you can see that we didn't get to string the hearts the girls made onto a garland. They had fun scattering them around anyway.

The girls and I made candy. This is one of the chocolate suckers.

Parker got a wooden train set.



They all got this clock.


The girls both got an ATM savings bank. They use their card to see their balance, and they can make withdrawals. It's really neat. I wish I had bought one for myself.

Natalie's World

Just a few cute things from today:

The kids and I were sitting in the truck in a big parking lot tonight, while Billy was checking on something. Olivia said she was scared. Natalie said, "Just think about flowers, or the park, or birthday parties, or the alphabet. Let's sing our ABC's." Then, she started singing, and Olivia and Parker sang along. It was cute how Natalie helped Olivia forget about being scared.

Natalie was trying to answer a question, and she was having trouble figuring out the correct answer. After a few tries, she said, "Geez, I think I forgot to put my brain in. Oh, yeah...I haven't taken my gummy vitamin yet today."

Natalie and Olivia were playing getting married, and after they walked down the aisle and bowed and curtsied (Natalie curtsied, Olivia bowed after Nat taught her how), Natalie made up the vows. She told Olivia what she should say, and she used a deep voice. When Natalie said her vows, she said, "I promise that I will stay home and take care of the children while you go to work every day."

My new beautiful, "almost commercial-grade" range arrived today - much earlier than expected. I'm happy. ----- Plus, tomorrow is Friday!

Hammin' it up - in flames!

Sunday morning, I was making some breakfast ham and biscuits and gravy, and some electrical wires in the stove caught fire. The fire alarm went off, and the wall behind the stove is black in a few places now. We have a new stove ordered, and it should arrive in a couple weeks. I can use at least one burner on the opposite side for now - hopefully safely. I was planning on repainting and changing colors in the main living areas and kitchen soon anyway, so the wall won't have to stay black for too long, hopefully.

My mom and dad checked in for a few minutes, making a call from the Dead Sea today. They are having a good time. We didn't talk very long, because I was trying to keep Parker and Olivia under control as we waited for Natalie's teacher to arrive for a home-visit parent meeting.

Natalie had her follow-up ear specialist appointment last week, and she will go back again in 6 weeks - keeping on the same regimen of trying to clear some fluid with a Mucinex a day. One of her ears had made a slight improvement, actually showing a small mound on the graph test. She's been hearing us okay since a couple of weeks after starting the Mucinex after her first visit.

I actually have quite a bit I want to blog about and still try to catch up, but I'm too tired for that right now. I'll post a few pics of Parker on Valentine's Day after I cut his hair. It's the shortest I've ever gotten the hair on the sides and back of his head, because I had longer to cut it without distraction. His sisters were both gone while I did it, so he was very patient with me. He's such a sweetie.

I'll try to get to some more exciting blogging done in the next few days.

Chicken Nugget

Chicken Attack

New Haircut

My Valentine

I'll do more posts on our Valentine's Day activities and stuff later.

Here are some pics of Natalie after she got home from school yesterday. Olivia got to go to Natalie's party at school, too. I didn't get any pics of Olivia in her cute little Valentine's outfit, because she was too wild running around outside. I kept Natalie in conversation with me while she played, and I was able to get these shots of her in her pretty red dress. Her boyfriend really liked her dress, too. More about him in a later post.

You can really see her "Spongebob" teeth (as Aunt Laura calls them) in this one.

"Reflecting" on her class party.

Flour Child

Wednesday afternoon, while I was taking care of some paperwork in the study,

and Billy was "on-duty" with the kids...

The crime scene.

The obvious prime suspect.

During interrogation...Trying to figure out an answer to how the mess happened.

Later, the suspect was found to have nearly a quarter of a pound of substance consistent with flour "puffing" out of his pull-up. He removed his pull-up and carried it carefully to the trash, leaving a slight trail of flour dust along the way.