It's raining!

those rock climbing lessons are really paying off!


Just random pics...........just wanted to give Aunt Rita something to see! It is raining and that is good but not so good for us as the boys do NOT like being house-bound! Building with Legos is fun but only for so long. Cait has been flirting with the potty again. We;ll see. She is so strange about this potty thing. off for coffee before the troops awake.

Christmas hangover

John and I built this with some neat blocks we got for Christmas
Cait on a slide
John
3 critters

Bill had to go back to work today and the rest of us had the post-Christmas hangover. Grumpy irritable people. We used our present from my parents....family pass to the Botanical Gardens! Thanks you Mom and DAd. I took the kids for the afternoon and it was empty which was nice. We rode bikes and scooters in the school parking lot, played at the land trust, went to the library, ate dinner, read books and passed out.

Bill's Aunt passed away this afternoon. She was very sick so we are glad she is no longer suffering. We will be going to Mobile some time this week. We will miss her.

Merry Christmas!!!

4 little people really excited to wake up
Our tree
John reading the 'letter' from Santa
Cait got a baby bed from Santa

I am back. Now that the insanity of Christmas is over I hope to be back to blogging! Whew, Christmas is a lot of work. We had a wonderful Christmas. We had a mini-Christmas Saturday with my brother and Tara since they are in Detroit (cold) for Christmas. Christmas Eve we went to church and dinner at Mom and Dad's. Christmas morning Mom and Dad came over here to have breakfast and see the kids and their presents. The kids are tired but very happy. We all over-indulged them but that's OK.

Aunt Rita- we are thinking of you and wishing you lots of healing thoughts. Get out soon.

Merry Christmas.

Christmas is coming

Here's Cait in her Christmas dress

We went to see Santa


Bill's home!!! We went to see Santa last night. Zach tells us he still believes but he feels he is too big to sit on Santa's lap. Cait declined as well. Owen couldn't get dressed fast enough and John I think was on the fence but in the end he couldn't resist!! I am pretty much done with the kids shopping and Bill and I have divided up the rest of the last-minute things. The kids are getting so excited. Thursday is their last day of school. Zach is singing in a school thing Tuesday night and he's VERY excited about it. Never thought he's be excited about standing up in front of people doing anything. Many class parties and events. Will be a busy week.

can you tell we had a great time yesterday?

Toay it's back to reality.....but I would rather go back!

more of our great day

"frog pond"
crossing a dry creek bed
is he 9 or 16??????

Best day ever. We hiked for 4 hours! We are all tired. Sometimes you have to take a 'mental health day'

well.....................

I just may be the worst Mom ever..........we played hooky.

Holidays leave little time for blogging..

Give them a pile of sticks and they are happy

more pile of sticks

she was showing the birds her leaves

It's fall

Bill is back in DC for the week. Yuck. Yesterday we had a birthday party and a cookie exchange. Busy day and everyone was tired. We have a pretty busy week lined up with Christmas activites starting up. The week should go pretty quickly. The weather is amazing so we are playing outside as much as we can 'cause I know it won't last.

Some Owenisms- "Mom, why is the earth round?"
"Why when I look out the truck window the clouds are grey but when I open the window they are white?'
there were several others but I can't think of them right now. He is such an interesting kid.

more of our tree cutting expedition

Christmas is coming

almost 2
john
look what's under our tree....
dragging it out

We got our tree today! It is officially Christmas season. I am not ready. Bill leaves for DC in a week.....I am really not ready for that.