Winter Wonderland

Since I last had a chance to sit down and write Winter has shown up in a big way. Our area got hit with a big storm right as the kids were ready to go back to school after the Christmas break. The long-time residents say the worst in 20 to 30 years.  So, save for two days, there was an extra week of snow days and I was about ready to lock myself in the bathroom just to have 10 minutes of silence. Even Kevin was home for a good chunk of it as his office flooded so he worked from home while they dried it out. Thankfully everything is slowly getting back into a routine. I took a lot of photos of this, that, and whatever from our winter wonderland so I put it all in a slideshow to share…enjoy!

Photo Friday

Obviously working on big important brainy things around here. Pardon us on our irregular posting.

Photos

I got the digital prints of the photos I had taken last week by Bethany at Set in TIme Photography.  She did a wonderful job and really captured the kids’ personalities. I’m struggling to choose a favorite – and I think that’s a good thing, it means the photographer did their job well. I know she posted a ‘sneak peak’ on her blog, but I wanted to share some of my favorites. I now know who to recommend for studio work and I’m eternally grateful to my regular photographer Cindy at Cindy Lynn Photography, as well as my Mom’s group, for helping me find her.

Jack – This one right here (right) is my absolute favorite! That expression…..that little smirk that says, “Yeah, I’m up to something!” is so completely Jack. I’m ecstatic that she was able to capture it on film. For a ‘normal’ smile picture the one below is my choice….I think. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Emilie – The original goal of this shoot was to capture Emile in the, for lack of a better term, heirloom dress worn by generations of girls in the family. This one on the left managed to get a good shot of the dress along with an expression that is totally “Emilie.” However,  I think my favorite is the one below. I have a color copy too but for some reason the black and white just works better for me.

 

 

 

 

 

Both Kids – Toughest category ever. They are all my favorite. I really am struggling to decide which one I like best. If your Christmas card comes this year and it’s just a stack of prints you’ll know what happened. I know Kevin and I are completely biased, as are all parents, but really could these two get any cuter? They manage to look adorable and ham it up at the same time. Though, that is pretty much them in a nutshell. They know it too and often try to use it to get away with any number of misdemeanors.

Hug or Kiss??? I have them both in color and B&W. I think I may end up putting both of these in a single frame with a dual hole mat.

 

Hamming it up – Yep, these ones are ours.

One for the Wall?? – Leaning towards this one for the wall/Christmas card but honestly, who knows.

Photo Friday–All ‘Tie’-d Up

Wearing every single last one of Daddy’s ties…..and nothing else.

Wordless Wednesday: Jack-in-a-Box??

Hours of entertainment here folks!

Great for hide and seek, and magic act, jump launch pad, and dancing surface.

**Some adult supervision required (can’t have them locking each other in and shipping each other to Timbuktu…or can I??? )

Fun, Family, Fourth

Whew! I forget how exhausting playing with 5 age 5 and under can be. Lots of fun, but exhausting none the less. My parents came and visited us for the long Fourth of July weekend and brought my sister’s three boys with them. That meant we had two 5-year olds, two 3-year olds, and an 18 month old in the house. Busy, busy, busy!

Since they have a long drive from the Vancouver area we agreed to meet them in Boise and hotel it overnight. Shortens their drive a bit and allowed us to visit the zoo the next day.

All five kids had a blast at the zoo. Jack was enamored with the Butterfly Garden. Matty was a little leery of the animatronic dinosaurs but braved it anyway. Noah couldn’t get enough of the ‘Monkey Slide.’ Emilie, as usual, made a mad dash for the Jelly tanks. Even little Owen shocked everyone by walking around the entire zoo. Granted he was flat out spent by the time we were done, but he made it.

In all honesty, with the heat and everything. Most everyone was wiped out by the time we wrapped up with the Zoo. So after a quick lunch and group meltdown by 2/3 of the kids over a flattened penny at the MK center we made a judgment call and headed back home. Emilie was out cold 1/2 block from the MK center parking lot. Jack made it to the bridge over the Boise River. I think there were similar results in my folks’ rig. The kids then snoozed until Buhl when we stopped at the Cloverleaf Creamery. It was a day that called for ice cream. This was despite the place being packed by a tour bus full of senior citizens from West Texas who had somehow managed to find their way to tiny Buhl, Idaho.

After polishing off half a dozen ice cream cones as a group, we took the kids home and dumped them in the kiddie pool where they played till they dropped. Next day was Independence day so we packed everyone back into the cars and went back to Buhl for the parade. As usual the kids had a blast. The airplane flyovers were a hit and there was candy galore. Plus we sat in with a great group of kids that were all playing together, sharing pop-its and snacks pre-parade. Got to love small towns for this reason alone.

 

Once home from the parade it was tons of yummy food, fireworks, and a good old water fight. There was also a wiener and s’more roast. None of the kids napped and pretty much just fell over from sheer exhaustion about 8pm. Well, most of them did. We had a couple hold-out every night it seemed.

Saturday we stayed home and chilled out as much as you possibly can with five little kids. For those wondering, it really isn’t much. It is amazing how much energy is packed into those kids!

Sunday morning Mom, Dad, and crew headed back to the westside. It was a great visit all around, but too short as usual. I have tons of things I’d love to do with and show these kids but there never seems to be enough time to fit it all in. I guess that’s part of the reason we keep having them come back. That and the fact, that we love seeing them.

Wordless Wednesday

Just your average Wednesday morning….Em is all dressed and waiting to head to preschool. Once we talk big brother into putting some pants on we’ll be ready to go.

Cooking With Dad

The picture really says it all…..

Photo Friday

Don’t let them know that they’re probably out of luck on getting any more snow until next November….

Photo Series–Emilie & Henry

We had some friends over to watch the Superbowl together. They happen to have two kids right about the same age as ours and as you can see the younger two especially had an absolute blast. Lots of running and twirling until you’re so dizzy you fall on the floor. Not sure who had more fun. The two of them or the four adults watching them.

Almost Wordless Wednesday

Guess which midget is more excited about swim lessons….

Wordless Wednesday

I love her unique sense of style….. you just can’t beat it.

How Much Wood Could a Woodchuck Chuck?

Tis the season to make sure your firewood stash is cut, stacked, and ready to burn. We’re dropping below freezing at night fairly regularly now and a fire in the woodstove is needed.

Saturday afternoon I promised Kevin I’d help split and stack the wood he’d cut the day before but I did have to break to take some photos. The light was just too irresistible.

I would like to point out that most of the split stuff in this pile is wood I split. Yep, me. That’s right…I split wood with the best of them. Well, maybe not the best, but I’m decent. Kevin had been stacking after he finished bucking up the big logs and took over splitting so I could take pictures of him in action.

 

Don’t go thinking wood splitting counts as ‘couple’ time either. Both our two and four-legged helpers were out in force.

As you can see, some were more helpful than others…

 

 

 

Jack and Emilie were pretty darn cute loading wood into their wheelbarrow and then hauling it across the yard to stack by the back door. They even restocked the bucket next to the stove in the house.

Few more years and we’ll have a whole wood cutting crew…..