Day 97

Sixty degrees and sunny? Are we sure this is January? Feels more like April! Old Man Winter must be saving all his snowy days for when you return. That's OK, we'll cuddle up together with some hot chocolate in front of the fire. Hooray for snow days when you're actually home!
Bennett, for one, is prepared for snow. You never know when you might need a snow shovel while riding your bike!

WILD man. All I can say is that it's a miracle that we haven't been to the ER with this child.I believe this child may be pedaling a bike before he's two. He LOVED to put his feet up on the foot rests and have me run him around.

Maura wouldn't come outside, even for a minute. She was busy making you a surprise and later loving on Emerson. She just loves this baby! Maybe she needs another sibling??

Day 96

Playtime! Despite the fact that it was in the 50's today and really nice outside, all the kids wanted to do this afternoon was get out the castle and all their dragons and nights. I almost killed myself getting the castle down from the shelf in the garage and we put it together sans directions, actually using the majority of the pieces. Maura and Tristan had a wonderful time imagining with their dragons, while I distracted Bennett with animals and blocks.

Bennett loved showing me the noise an elephant makes!

Budding architect?

She has such an impressive imagination--but you'd better work by her storyline!!

Day95

"Dear my sweet teacher. My Dear Ms. Vanlandingham."
This one made me want to squeeze the fire out of my big girl. Precious, sweet child. All on her own, completely unprompted and unassisted(until we got to her teacher's name, which I spelled incorrectly in my distraction--and she knew I spelled it wrong!) She packed it in a cellophane baggie decorated by a snowman and added some Hershey kisses, a candy cane from her stocking and an apple. I imagine that she went bursting into her classroom to give it to Mrs. Vanlandingham. I hope her teacher appreciates how precious this child is!

Day 94

We invited ourselves over to Grammy and Pappap's house tonight for a Mexican Fiesta! Brad and Emily were cooking and it sounded too delicious to be missed. After dinner and baths, the kids cuddled up to Grammy for some bedtime stories. What a sweet moment! What wasn't so sweet was little stinker Bennett climbing up to jump on the couch. He thought it was hilarious to go over and bother Pappap. Pappap gently shoved him backwards on the couch and he found this absolutely hilarious, repeatedly going back for more and even falling back himself and laughing uproariously!

I have to give credit where credit is due. I snapped this sweet photo of Pappap and granddaughters on New Years Eve. I love that our parents are helping to foster an atmosphere of literacy for our children.

Day 93

Today was a pretty lazy day, really, as we attempted to recover from Christmas. It was our first day home in a couple of days and the kids were really enjoying just playing and enjoying their Christmas toys. Tristan had a great time setting up this parade with his cars.

Maura had fun trying to walk on the bouncy ball. Don't ask me why--we were supposed to be having a dance party. Later, we all snuggled down to watch Cars 2 and I dropped Bennett on his head. I think he's OK--I've been checking on him pretty regularly. He's just such a squirmy worm when you pick him up. He dived straight out of my arms and I managed to grab him by the seat of his pants before he really hit the ground. STILL. I'm such a bad mom. Hoping for a better day tomorrow.

Day 92

While not "technically" from our day today, I thought you might like to see some pictures from our party last night for New Years Eve. The kids were really excited about the party. I told them I'd allow them to stay up til 9:00. They were pumped! I didn't tell them that it was only about thirty minutes past their usual bedtime. :) They had lots of good food, we played games and close to 9 it was time to ring in the new year!
Bennett was READY!!

Grammy brought out the big guns...sparklers! Tristan made me a nervous wreck with them!

Maura loved them and actually used them safely.

We also did poppers, which the kids adored...all except Alex.

This is the adult's midnight celebration. I told you it was low key. We didn't even leave our seats!

12:01 am. :)

Day 91

Happy New Years Eve! Here's to a beautiful New Year with lots of togetherness! Can't wait! Bennett was the cutest little New Years baby. If I uploaded a few of the other photos I took, you'd see that his lips were forming the word "lollipop."

I asked Maura and Tristan to come up with some resolutions last night. They were pretty funny!I had to subject Emerson to the same torture. She might just be a cuter New Years Baby. So sweet! Happy New Year everyone! Here's to a blessed New Year.