Picture of the Day 2.17.10

I took Sophie and her friend Kenzie to the grocery store after school to pick up some milk. We go through a ridiculous amount of milk in our house (about a gallon a day), and I think Josh drinks most of it. Oh well, he could have worse vices.

Picture of the Day 2.16.10

Malisa loving on her camera at our photography class. I definitely learned some things in class. The biggest thing I learned is that, wow, I have a lot to learn. And also that I'm not sure where to go to learn it.

Picture of the Day 2.15.10

Ben discovered the joys of blowing bubbles into milk. He blew the bubbles, then grabbed a spoon and ate them, then blew more bubbles, then grabbed a spoon and ate them. It was gross. But it was funny.

Picture of the Day 2.14.10

David's sister Rachelle is super-creative. Every Valentine's Day I fail to remember to amp up the holiday and do something special for her, but she never forgets us. Along with little gifts for each of us, she made us a plateful of my Achilles heel. Ahhh, sugar cookies. How I love you.

Picture of the Day 2.13.10

Josh had Suzuki cello graduation on Saturday for Book Three. He's second from the right. He looks excited, right? That's because he was. Even though he wasn't totally thrilled about the experience (he didn't feel as prepared as he would have liked), I am proud of the progress he's been making.

Picture of the Day 2.11.10

Sophie had to build a barn for a school assignment. I love the way Sophie focuses when she has a project. She created some great pumpkins and some other crops and got up really early the next morning to bring it to the next level.

And did I mention that she and her friend Angela tied for first place in the fourth grade science fair? The other winner was a boy who built a hovercraft. Hmmmm.... Other than not being sure that plastic wrap over water glasses is quite as impressive as a hovercraft, I'm incredibly proud.

Picture of the Day 2.8.10

Does this happen in your house, too? (The culprit will remain nameless.) Seriously, if you're going to pour that much milk into your cereal bowl, drink it down, kid!!!!!

Picture of the Day 2.6.10

David took Ben, Kate, and Josh to the model train expo at the South Towne Expo Center while I stayed home and practiced with Sophie. Lucky Sophie. Actually, she wanted to stay home to finish Harry Potter #6. Mission accomplished. That girl has the Potter bug. She read #6 in about a week (maybe less).

Ben apparently now wants a train, if repeating "I want a train" ad nauseum is any indication.

I sent the little camera with the train bunch, but I forgot to check the battery life. Hooray for iPhone pictures.

Picture of the Day 2.5.10

Yet another clue that I am on child #4: I let Ben mix the PlayDoh. All four colors. Together. Into one big greenie-whitie-yellowie-brownie blob. And I didn't mind one little bit.

Well, OK, I minded a little teeny bit. Because I liked it when I made the kids keep the PlayDoh colors separate. It felt so controlled and safe and clean. But this was much more fun for Ben AND for me. I wish I'd learned THIS lesson a little earlier.

Picture of the Day 2.4.10

I walked outside to check on the kids and found fifteen kids on the street on all kinds of wheeled objects, including a black desk chair. Sophie ran inside to get a single roller blade to wear and informed me that it's Wacky Transportation Day. Who knew? Hope it comes again soon.

Picture of the Day 2.3.10

It's early out all week for the elementary school, and Sophie and her friend decided to try walking home to our house...a mile and a half uphill. Hooray for a lovely warm-ish day, and for two sweet girls willing to let Kate tag along. I met them along the way to take backpacks and give them my cell phone. They enjoyed the walk enough that they're planning a repeat. We all agree that we really REALLY miss walking to school, but the thirty minutes it took them to get home yesterday is just a little longer than the 3 minutes it took at our old house.

Picture of the Day 2.1.10

Domesticity. Some days I reach for it and fail miserably, and some days I succeed. Today I deserve a special prize. I found extra lean ground beef on clearance for $1.29 a pound, so I bought more than 9 pounds. By the end of the day I had made and frozen 3 meatloaves (meatloafs? Which is correct?), 100 meatballs, and four freezer bags of cooked ground beef and onions for spaghetti and tacos. Batch cooking, my friends. I'm all about the batch cooking.

Picture of the Day 1.31.10

Yes, it's another sunset picture. Sorry, but I just wanted to eat up the non-smoggy sky. Thank you, storm, for clearing our air and making my heart happy.

Picture of the Day 1.30.10

John, I told you you'd end up on my blog. Bwa ha ha ha.


Abby's baptism was so lovely. Abby is a wonderful, fun, spunky, bright girl. I'm so glad she's part of our family. I tried to get a picture of her at her baptism, but my battery died. This was at the after-party at Eric and Nina's.


We spent the afternoon sledding. Getting ready for sledding stinks. Sledding itself is wonderful. I ended up with more than 250 sledding pictures.

Picture of the Day 1.29.10

I love my Sophie. She begged to do the optional fourth grade science fair with her friend Angela. I said no. I figure we've got years of science fairs ahead of us. Why add an unnecessary year? Angela's mom said no, too. Angela is the youngest of seven siblings, and her mom has had six kids worth of science fairs. And despite parental disapproval, these girls planned the project, got permission to do the project even after the deadline was missed, and spent days working on their display. It's really fun to have a child without my tendency to procrastinate. Maybe I'll learn something I can apply to my own life...


See that egg on the counter? Ben decided to help make the cake. He did a great job of breaking the egg into the bundt pan while I was in another room. It could have been worse... One egg is a lot less mess than a dozen.


Mom and Dad came out with Chelsea and Chelsea's friend Jill for Abby's baptism. We had dinner with the family at our house on Friday night. I love seeing the babies together.

Picture of the Day 1.28.10

My sweet boys.

Picture of the Day 1.27.10

It is 11:00 pm.

I forgot to take a picture today, what with my busy day of sitting around the house wondering what happened to my super exciting life.

So you get my self portrait. And I can't promise it won't happen again. And, at least I made it small.

Picture of the Day 1.26.10

Yesterday Ben and I were running errands, when we saw that dream of all 2-year-old boys: Demolition with large work trucks. An excavator was totally destroying an old fast food restaurant. I will admit that I dug the whole darned thing, too, and postponed entering the bike shop for a seriously long time so we could watch the destruction. No camera, though. Sad. So this morning I headed back WITH camera. The destruction was done, but the excavator remained.

Picture of the Day 1.25.10

Family Home Evening does not always lead to family love and good feelings. Tonight, however, I looked over at my girls while we were attempting to sing "I am a Child of God" for the fourth time (certain family members were boycotting) and saw their sweet little intertwined legs. Does a mom's heart good.

Picture of the Day 1.24.10

We brought dinner to Heber to eat with Dave's mom. Ben was a little terror (a charming and adorable little terror, but still...a terror) for most of the night until we brought out books. And then he was an angel.