Fun in the Snow

Caleb takes his shoveling job seriously.



Camille sleds down the hill



Even Daddy had fun in the snow

Cute children

For the Unbelievers

This video is for those who cannot believe Rob is finally finished with school!



(And for the record, we totally don't even know the man offering career advice to Rob!)

Parades, Pretties, and Peas, Prunes and Pancakes

Saturday was a fun day for us. We went to the Christmas Parade, a birthday party and a Christmas Party. Here are some pictures from the parade:

Mommy and the kids

Daddy and the kids

My favorite part of the parade. They were called the Showstoppers - three cars like this, with drivers revving their engines and driving with their feet out of the open car doors. I'm not sure if they were hard pressed to find folks to fill up space in the parade, but perhaps next year we'll see the local high school kids driving their cars in the parade all crazy...who knows?


Here are some cute pictures of Camille




And some of Chloe working on dinner:

Bobbing Tomatoes

This video clip is a few weeks old, but still funny enough to share.

The kids wanted to play bobbing for apples and when I said no they improvised using the last of the tomatoes from our garden...




(The rotten tomatoes Caleb refers to are old and shriveled...not really rotten...rest assured.)

They didn't really say that did they?

My kids have come out with the funniest things lately. Today Caleb got off the bus holding a mysterious black object. When I asked him what it was, he replied, "It's for Chloe when her wrist gets bigger." I asked him to let me see it. "It's a bracelet," he explained. "Amber made it for me." (Amber is the little black girl down the street. She comes over to play sometimes and she and Caleb sit together on the bus.) What was the bracelet? One of her hair extensions had fallen out and she had tied the ends together. So my kid came home with a little girl's fake hair. Nice.

Camille has (finally) decided to use the potty full-time. Hooray! And, on top of that, she has graduated from the little potty to the toilet. We have made sure to give her a lot of encouragement and praise. How much? So much that she feels the need to return the favor. Every time she catches me going to the bathroom, she gets this amazed look on her face and exclaims, "Wow! I'm so proud of you!" It kills me every time.

Caleb has become the little reader and writer at our house. He is quickly figuring out how to sound out words and is able to communicate some thoughts in writing. Today he came home from school with a drawing of a scene from the Gingerbread Man. It showed the old man, the old woman, the boy and the gingerbread man. On the back he wrote (and this is his spelling):
I liket that the Gingerbred boy rund u wa from the old lady and the man and the boy. Yum! Even better was the letter he wrote to my folks this past week when we spent the night at Auntie Gail's house on Thanksgiving. It was all about "Oone Geal" and her "champlne"...figure that one out!

Chloe has reached some milestones too. She sits really well, claps her hands and has almost cut a tooth. She has become very aware of other people and is more interested than ever in talking with people (no real words yet) and playing.

Perhaps I can get the kids to cooperate for pictures tomorrow!

A new 'do

Our day included an impromptu trip to the hairdresser when Camille decided to do this:

(She sneaked into my bedroom and found a pair of scissors in the nightstand drawer - which, incidentally, has a child latch on it...she gave herself one snip, put the scissors back, hid the hair in her step stool and waited for me to discover the damage.)

Since I didn't want it all to come off, we were able to do this, which sort of camouflages the damage, but we're stuck with leaving it down for now. It's cute, but can you say "magnet for lollipop, boogies, peanut butter and anything else sticky, gooey or otherwise nasty"? Perhaps I'll invest in some head bands.

She does look cute, though - don't you think?

The Rainbow Connection

So today we're outside waiting for the bus to pick Caleb up for school when Caleb exclaims, "I see a rainbow!" We looked up, and sure enough there it was. What a fun surprise!


The kids have been really fun lately. Camille has taken to listening to kids' music on CD since she can run the CD player. After listening to a collection of nursery rhymes and other favorites she decided to sing them herself. This is what I heard: "Papa's buns...Papa's buns...One a penny, two a penny...Papa's buns." When I figured out what she meant to say, I tried correcting her, but she refused to listen to the possibility that it could be "Hot cross buns." So there you have a it...a musical tribute to my dad!

Caleb hit a milestone the other day. He picked up a book (Dora's Perfect Pumpkin, a beginner reading book that my folks sent the kids for Halloween) and read it. He actually read the words, not just made up the story according to the pictures. He is learning how to sound out words which is really fun. It's exciting to see him learn to read so quickly. He loves it!

And Chloe is still working on sitting. She can't stay for too long, but she's got it!



Here are the kids playing outside yesterday. I put Camille to work, as you can see!

Silly Sisters

Chloe loves playing in this doorway jumper. The big kids like to play with her in it.

Chloe being silly

So sweet

And two blurry ones of the sweet sisters

Sitting Pretty

So these pictures are, again, horribly blurry as I had to shut off the flash to catch Chloe with her eyes open, but here she shows off her new skill.

She's not completely steady yet, but almost. This is my favorite stage of babyhood...when she can sit up to amuse herself with her toys but she can't go anywhere. I love it!

In honor of Halloween...

Here is Caleb with a fairly musical tribute to this fun day!



And a couple of pictures of the kids on the way to the trunk-or-treat. It was a low-budget production this year. Since I've grown accustomed to not going anywhere if possible, Halloween costumes somehow slipped my mind. I did make Camille this big tutu, but forgot that she needed something to go with it. Caleb, after changing his mind a hundred different times, tried to persuade me to let him cut two holes in a sheet and let him go as a ghost. But since I didn't have a white sheet (all of ours are colored) and if I did I certainly wouldn't let him go as a ghost anyway (the last thing I need is to have him out in the dark not able to see anything!), he opted to wear part of his Ninja Turtle suit. He was not a Ninja Turtle, he made sure to clarify. He was just a regular turtle. Camille was a "ballerina princess." Chloe is a little ballerina.

Mudbath anyone?

So the big kids decided they'd take advantage of this week's rain and get in some good mudpie making time. It really looks like they decided to take a mudbath instead. This is before I sprayed them with the garden hose.

Spooky

The girls enjoyed wearing their matching Halloween shirts today.

Heard any good jokes lately?

How about this one?


Or this one?


But I'm sure you've never heard this one...


The rest got even sillier after this, so I'll spare you!

For Nana

What Camille meant to say...

Supermodel

This is what I call her model face. Can't you just see this beautiful girl as a pouty teenager modeling jeans in some trendy catalog?

New Pics

Cute baby pictures



Cute sisters


New fashion fad

(Caleb put this outfit together himself. He calls his socks "soccer tights" - lovely, aren't they? I'm just not going to fight about it early in the morning.)

Cute Camille

Bathing beauty sporting a mohawk