This is Just Too Much Fun!

What Ellary and I did while the big kids were at school:

Building More of what we Need

Geof relayed this story to me...
Tonight I believe they were reading a story about what it's like on the moon. It ends with the question, "do you think you will ever travel to the moon?" Kellen said no, he plans to be a builder. Geof said, "You never know. Maybe you could build a rocket and go to the moon." Kellen said that no, he just wanted to build houses... and apartments... and maybe stores. "Like, I could build another Target ... or Patsy Aiken." I guess based on my spending habits, he would think it useful to have more of those stores!

Another Toy

For Me! I got myself a black backdrop to play around with today. Too bad it was evening when I got home, so I could only snap a few odd pictures indoors with the flash. The kids were hungry so they weren't interested in hanging around for pictures much, and what they were willing to pose for was weird! But at least I know my backdrop should work well. Boy my kids look tired! Must have been a long busy weekend...

Miss Pac Man

I'm declaring it official:
Ellary Bea is crawling!
Today I watched her crawl across the wood floor, heading straight toward a tiny piece of trash, which she successfully got hold of and I successfully removed from her grasp before it became lunch. She has been scooting around for a few days, but today it actually looked like the real crawling - on her hands and knees, moving her hands and knees in a coordinated way to get her across the room. I guess my vacuum will be getting much more of a workout than it's used to... This has coincided with her teething and chewing on everything, and also finally being able to pick up small cheerios and other finger foods and successfully put them in her mouth. I suspect that now she will be making "bea-lines" for anything tiny that she can pick up and eat.

Crawling around the dining room floor (dusting for me)

While I was watching her scoot around the office floor, she also started pulling herself up a bit. She saw something she wanted in the window and managed to get herself up onto her knees using the windowsill. She definitely has her brother and sister beat in the moving around department!

She wanted the blind cords and managed to get up on her knees!

The Air is Cold and Dry...

...and Addie's hair has learned to fly!

Making the Best of it

So there was no more snow overnight, and the bright morning sunlight melted most of the dusting of snow that we got yesterday (and what was left was icy and powdery).  Kellen was quite grumpy about it this morning, but we bundled up and headed outside anyway and made the best of what was left!  Kellen and Geof managed to eek out a few snowballs, and Addie ate as much snow as she could.  I think this picture is pretty funny since there's obviously no snow in the ground and yet Kellen managed to scrape up a decent snowball!  I think this was headed for Addie and she was NOT happy when it landed on her back!

Snow

It started snowing this afternoon, but it wasn't until after dark that there was any accumulation. Kellen sat in a chair by the window for much of the afternoon hoping he would see enough snow to play in. I told him that tomorrow there would be more snow and we would be sure to go out and play in it. But just in case it started raining overnight or the snow disappeared, I took them out for a little while after Ellary went to bed to play in the snow. We had a light dusting of slushy snow, enough that Kellen could make a few snowballs and take a very slippery ride down our sliding board. He's looking forward to going out and building a snowman tomorrow, so here's hoping for a couple inches overnight.

doing the best they could to play in the dusting of snow

Warming up with hot chocolate and marshmallows

WHAT am I Going to do with Her?!?!?!

Parents always say, "choose your battles."  One of the battles we have chosen not to fight with Addie for the time being is the paci.  I just cringe at the thought of taking it from her and the days of misery we are likely to endure whenever I get up the nerve to make it disappear.  Anyway, today paci is missing, and when paci gets lost I refuse to help her find it saying that if she wants to have it she has to take care of it.  So Addie was moping around the house, dragging her precious bunnies by their ears, looking for her paci.  I was puttering around the kitchen putting away some things and I looked over and saw - I KID YOU NOT - Addie standing at a kitchen drawer sucking on the knob!!!  I guess a metal knob is better than nothing if you're desperate. :)

Thinking Big

Kellen is becoming very interested in big numbers.  Last night he did a lot of thinking about what it would be like to have 47 legs, and today he and his friend Robert were writing down numbers in the thousands (coming to us having written 2008, 8008, 10008, etc.).  So on the way home from Robert's house this afternoon, Kellen says to me, "Mom?  Even if a mouse had a birthday that was a really big number, he would still be small, right?"  I guess he's thinking about size correlating with age.  Thank goodness we don't continue to get as large as our age would suggest!

How many babies...

...can you stuff into a baby swing?

apparently 2 :)

Oh, and I thought this was a funny picture from today.
Looks like Ellary is left out of some major scheming...

Flickr

I'm trying out yet another online photo service - Flickr. This time more as a means of storing and sharing the pictures I REALLY like. As I'm working on learning more and more about photography, I'm finding this site to be a great place to observe other pictures and pick up on some interesting techniques and compositions. If I had a day to myself, I could get lost on this site for hours... To find my page, go to flickr.com and search for ellarybea.

Oh, and I'm so excited! Two friends have asked me to come take pictures of their newborns when they arrive! Yesterday I found a gigantic bowl that I think will look just amazing with a new little bundle tucked inside (my not so cooperative 7-month-old and a very cloudy day did not make for the best test pictures this morning, but at least you can see the bowl!).

Warm Afternoon

I took all the kids (and my camera) outside for the afternoon since it's around 70 here today! Kellen and Ellary were happy for me to practice on them. Addie not so much...

Drumming Video

Kellen, Dylan and Robert REALLY liked the drum set. Here's a clip of them playing together.

Kellen's Rockin' Birthday Party

Today we threw a birthday party for Kellen - his first kid party since he was 2. And what other theme could we possibly have for him than a rock band? So we built a drum set out of boxes and other recycled materials, created a backdrop, inflated some extra electric guitars and microphones, and we were ready to rock! Kellen got out of bed last night and came downstairs when I was decorating the living room, and it may as well have been Christmas morning! He just wanted to sit on the sofa and stare at his drum stage! I don't think he fell asleep before midnight he was so excited! Our friends arrived around 11:00, and the 2 hours passed quickly with crafts, the "clean your room" game, pizza, cake, gifts, free play, and of course rocking out to several of Kellen's favorite songs. Everyone got a turn to play the drum set for one song and everyone took turns playing different accompanying instruments or singing and dancing. It was really fun! And this was one of the first times I invited parents to just drop off their kids for the duration of the party. It was a big success! 4 and 5 year olds are quite manageable for two hours. :)

Before we could rock, the kids had to pick up socks.
The "clean your room" game was wildly fun with socks flying everywhere! (two teams worked to pick up all the socks on their side of the floor and throw them on the other team's side. One team actually succeeded, but everyone won.)

Warming up for the first song and the divas on their mics



Make a wish, Kellen!
It was a very happy birthday, and this officially closes the 2-week-long celebration of Christmas and Kellen's birthday. Whew!

Snap Happy

Over the holidays we had a family celebration for my granddad's 80th birthday. We had a nice dinner at a local restaurant with my grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and my parents and brothers and sister. I think there were 20 of us at dinner. Here's a picture of me with my grandparents and my siblings and cousins:

Ben, Jordan, Ashley, Laura, Mary Anne, Rachel, Wister, Phillip, Mary Beth
And just in case you were wondering,
I come by my obsession with taking pictures honestly... ;)