Birthday

Sometimes I think about our decision to make our blog private . . . then I remember that my kids are ALWAYS naked.  It's like the Garden of Eden . . . only with sickness, pain, and temptation.  

In fact, Garden of Eden might be the wrong allusion, I guess it's more like Lord of the Flies.

The reason for today's nakedness was a cup of spilled milk during dinner--which makes our house a lot like the Promised Land . . . FLOWING with milk and honey . . . or maybe jelly . . . something sticky.

She needed a little bit of instruction on proper candle blowing techniques.

Isn't this hideous?  A rat doll.  I never would have stood for something like this as a child.  BUT Jane loves it. She's very into Angelina Ballerina.

Jane loves this doll.  Sadly, so does Audrey.  Tale as old as time.  Possessions are the world's curse.

3

St. Patrick's day is so much more fun now that this little lass is around.

Happy Birthday, Jane!

Pictures . . . but not of the new house . . .

I know.  I promise, we do have a new house, and I will take pictures.  I always forget my camera when we go out there.  Here are some other pictures though!

I finished all the blocks!

And since no one has seen a decent picture of Claire since she was 6 months old, I thought I should take some.  I'll get lots of the girls in the next month since it's big birthday time around here in the spring.

She loves to play peekaboo with us when she's in her crib.

This picture is a little blurry, but I posted it because I can't get over how much this kid looks like a Groll kid.  I can see myself, Aaron, Jessica, and Jacob in her features--especially in this picture.

Hair

Today we have to run lots of errands.  I asked Audrey if we should pick up some more clips for their hair while we were out.  She said, "No . . . I don't think so . . . "

". . . Why don't we buy some wigs instead."

Done.

Prints for the dining room

I took these to hang in the dining room.  I ordered them in 11 x 14 posters.  I think they'll look awesome.  How should I frame them?

P.S.

Audrey can read.

Don't ask me how it happened, she just can.

I'm thinking Word World had something to do with it.

She also shocked me to death when she started beat boxing in the car today to one of her little Brite Music songs.  And she was REALLY good!

I'm thinking Dave had everything to do with that.  :)

Here . . .

I'm too busy to blog right now.  But here is a dash of cuteness in the meantime:

Kills me.  Every time.  It's like one of our kids is an adorable monkey.  Too cute to be a kid*

The expressions that Audrey makes are probably my favorite.  They're indescribable, and extremely difficult to capture on camera.  This is one of my favorite pictures because she just looks exactly the ways she is feeling in that moment.  

It's funny.  Jane lived for Claire when she was "sooooooo tiny."  But now that she's bigger, she's a bit mean to her.  Audrey has stepped up to be the motherly one.  And it's awesome.

This might hit a sore spot for a certain someone who is still at a certain office and who might be feeling like a work-too-much dad.  That's not the case.  And this picture in no way depicts him ignoring his children.  I love how he has such a tiny Claire strapped to the front of him, and The Cuddly One just hugging his leg.  No one could be more adored by his children than that guy in that picture.

I threw this picture of me in because 1) it's cute, and 2) to show how much my two youngest really do look like me!  If I didn't know any better, I would for sure think that was Claire.

* Go down to Stories in the Book, Mrs. Jewels.  If you haven't read the books, they're a MUST.  Do it now.