The Girls on the Hill

This is mostly just a picture dump.

I got several cute shots.

And I really liked exploring my camera.

Does she look excited?!?!

Um, I would say "YES!"

Kaitlyn went down a few times.  But not nearly as many as her siblings.

Therefore, she has less pictures.

My camera also takes videos.  I like the quality, but they take forever to load up because the files are so big.  We'll have to see what I decide to do about that.

In full blown motion.  Enjoy the enjoyment :)

Saturday - The Hill

Friday afternoon, I picked the girls up from school, and we left to drive north.  It ended up being a longer trip than we had intended, with details which I will not bore you with.  We arrived at our destination in VA about 4:30 Saturday morning.  We took a small nap, and then mostly just hung out and recovered that day.  At one point, however, it became imperative that we get the children out of the house, and my SIL suggested the kids take advantage of the hill in her cul de sac.  Feel free to scroll through the pictures and see what the kids thought of it.

I think he may have liked it....

This was my first real experience with my camera, and I took my SIL's advice and put it on the sport setting and took gazillions of pictures.  Prepare to be photo overloaded!

Poor Widdle Toe

In my house, I finally gave up the ghost, and gave my children the chore of putting away the dishes in the dishwasher.  It took me a while to assign this for 2 reasons: 1- I am slightly OCD (probably) and want all the dishes put away just so.  And 2- All of the cupboards are high, so no one could reach them without a stool, and climbing is something I tend to discourage around here.  I was eventually convinced that it might be useful to have my "slaves" help out around the kitchen, and haven't really looked back.  To make it work for me though, I gave each of the children a job.  Dylan puts away the silverware.  Kaitlyn takes the dishes out of the dishwasher, and stacks them on the counter top.  Kari takes the stacked dishes, and yes, standing on a stool, puts them away. 

 

On this particular day, Kaitlyn was taking the dishes out of the dishwasher, and was trying to hurry.  So, rather than taking them out one at a time (as I had instructed her to several times), she took out a whole stack, and then tried to boost them up onto the counter.  At which point, she dropped the whole stack onto her big toe.  The dishes, being Corelle, didn't even blink, bless 'em. 

For several days, she wouldn't put any weight on her toe, and I began to be concerned that she had broken it.  Being that we were planning a fun filled Spring Break that included quite a bit of walking, I took her to the doctor, just to be sure.  He informed me that it wasn't broken, but that he could drill through the nail to relieve some of the pressure, and therefore the pain.  Now, her father had offered to do this the night after it happened, but Kaitlyn resisted, and we didn't push.  After having her pediatrician do it, I am glad he didn't.  She screamed bloody murder, but thankfully sat stock still.

A few days later, she started to get a blood blister below the toe nail, and was kind enough to let me pop that as well.  I was quite surprised by how much blood came out of there too. 

And, if I am being honest, she didn't "let" me pop it so much as I gave her the leapster and sat in front of her so she wouldn't be able to watch. It is amazing how painless things are when you can't see!

As of a few days ago.  The pain is gone.  She can play on it quite well.  

She'll lose the nail, but, eh.  Such is life.  Now, the bigger question is, do I say "I told you so"? :)

Go to Hail

I have some friends.  Their whole family dressed as devils for Halloween last year.  They got a really cute family picture that the mom was tempted to put on their Christmas card with the caption "It's really hot where we live, how about you?"  (Or something to that effect).  Insinuating that they live in H - E - Double Hockey Sticks, but in actuality only stating fact.  It does get pretty hot here in Alabama.  I just figured I would explain my title a bit.  :)

 

We had a large storm go through our area the Monday night before we left for Spring Break.  It was a decent storm with thunder and lightening.  And hail.  My first real experience with hail.  And, as you can see from the picture below, quite a bit of it. 



Decently sized.

Then it started to rain.  And rain.  And rain some more.  And we developed this lovely little river under the truck

And through my (poor neglected) little flower beds.

I have begun to think that Heavenly Father has an interesting sense of humor.  I had just begun to lament the untidiness of the flowerbeds, and Woosh!  There goes all of my mulch into the front yard.  Guess now is as good of a time as any to work on them :p  Thankfully we came through the storm pretty well.  And we even get a new roof out of it.  Joy.

Waiting

She looks so grown up.  Her hair is so long.  Sometimes, it is so hard to wait for things.

Dance Party

This is the kind of video that my children will see in years to come and cringe.  I am not saying they are bad dancers, mind.  I AM saying that I will make sure it ends up in their wedding video, or that at the very least, their fiance gets a good look at. 

 

The girls get to do the Wii dance thing at school occasionally for PE.  And you can tell for Kari especially :)  Kaitlyn has some moves and a decent sense of rhythm!  I kinda love how Dylan is the typical little brother, coming in and out and jumping and wiggling.  I also love Kelsey just crawling around like she owns the floor.  If you have the patience to watch the whole thing, pay attention to Kaitlyn's very teenaged protest when Dylan gets in her way :)

This also happened to be the day that Kaitlyn went on her first field trip.  They went to see Disney on Ice, and I think she may have liked it :)

 After Dylan decided to stop dancing, he came to play with his dinosaurs.  That tall one is the one he picked out for his birthday.  It has a handle of sorts on the back with different buttons.  When you push on them, the arm moves, or the mouth moves, or the tail moves.  It really is quite neat :)

One day my children will forgive me for embarrassing them.  But probably not anytime soon :)

FHE

Around our house we fit Family Home Evening onto whatever night we can.  We open with a prayer, do the lesson (which is necessarily short), the song, and then quickly progress to the main reason for the evening: the treat and the activity (often referred to by my children as "the game" because they don't seem to understand that we can draw pictures, write letters, or read books together as part of the exercise, even though I suggest these thing EVERY time).  This night it was Dylan's turn to pick "the game".  He went for Ants in the Square pants.

This was the second day I had my camera, and I thought I got some really fun shots.  Did you see the random ant floating in the air in the previous picture?

And a good time was had by all.

And there was much rejoicing.

The End.

Baby Model

I tried to be semi responsible about the camera.  I opened the package and started reading the manual.  And I got to about pg 42 of the 247 pages.  And then life got in the way.  I had things to take pictures of (actually, it was Dylan's birthday...  Could you tell a difference in the pictures?).  And so, I just started snapping away...

I am still unsure of all the fun things it does.

I may never get that far...

I may never know how to change the settings, or the aperture, or anything like that.

Look.  I am already getting the "Are you still taking pictures mom" face.

But Kelsey doesn't mind.

She'll smile for me anytime :)

Take that big sister!

My New Big Girl Camera

Guess what?  I am really excited about this!  Due to a generous gift from my parents, and not a "gift" exactly, nor yet permission, but the "allowable-ness" from my hubby as well, I have invested in a camera.  Not the point and shoot camera that I upgraded to last year, though that was a serious upgrade from my previous one.  But a big girl, DSLR camera with changeable lenses and stuff...  To be honest, I don't know much about it yet.  Nor yet all the cool stuff it does.  And I can't promise that the pictures you see will be any different as both the photographer and the models will be mostly the same.  However, it makes me feel really cool to hold it and use it. And that is the whole point after all:  to make me feel cool.   And I do think that the pictures are more clear, with better coloring. This picture was obviously not taken by my camera, but by my awesome SIL's one.  There it is....  my new baby.

Here are just a few from my new camera.

And I think they are pretty dang awesome.

Even if my children's hair isn't brushed, or they aren't posing perfectly.

They are still pretty dang cute.

Don't you think?

Big Boy Presents

Again, I was pretty clueless...  He hadn't really asked for anything, and he really already has a ton.  That Friday, we went for his check up and then went to a local consignment sale to get some clothes for him and Kari.  Because it was his birthday, I let him pick out a present from the toy section.  He picked out a 2 foot tall dinosaur/Godzilla monster kinda thing.  I figured I was on the right track :)

As for the rest of them...  He got a movie (Oliver and Company), and a cool little batman action figure thing.

But I think the thing he was most excited for was the biggest box.

His arms almost look like they are bending backwards to be able to pick it up....

Kari made him a really cute card that I didn't find until last week because she gave it directly to him earlier in the day.  Kaitlyn made him a present also.  Don't let his face fool you.  He really loved it.

He was just upset one of them fell off.

That's a happy boy right there :)

Happy Birthday Little Man!