Photo Scavenger Hunt

The girls are a little reluctant to go play outside in this cold weather, but I think they need outdoor play time no matter what, so I set up a scavenger hunt for them and sent them out with a clipboard of items to photograph and my camera. It was really fun. They didn't get the extra credit items--a bird and a flower (I thought it would be really funny to see if they could manage to get a picture of a bird!), but they got everything else on the list like a pine tree, a tree with no leaves, a chair, footprints in the snow, a water spout, etc. Here are some of their pics:

Summer Party

It has been seriously cold here this week-there was a day when the high was 7 degrees. One day, after school, Ashley suggested that we have a summer party, so we did. We dug out all the leftover party supplies we could find, played games like pin the face on the clown and drop the clothespin in the jar and of course, we ordered pizza. The girls insisted it wouldn't be a party without pizza. I way overtipped the delivery guy since he risked freezing to death just walking to our front door.

In other news, Ashley will now wear jeans. We have gone for nearly two years with her only wearing dresses or stretchy pants, (and apparently, it's contagious, because Paige won't wear jeans either..) but when it's this cold outside, leggings and cotton pants just don't cut it. We have a couple pairs of jeans and cords that are just sitting in her drawer, so last night, I got them all out and asked her to try them on and if she didn't like them, we would just give them to her cousins. It was just like Green Eggs and Ham. She was pulling them on saying, "I don't like them. I won't ever wear them. Even if they fit, I don't want....HEY...THESE are jeans? I like them..." So she wore pink cords to school for the first time. Crazy girl!

Mostly Mike

After church today, the girls found the bucket of old Halloween costumes and played dress-up. They decided Mike HAD to try this one on.

Then I realized I haven't taken pictures of him in the tub since the first bath of his life, last January--

He enjoys bathtime much more now! More than once, he has gotten himself into the tub all by himself and he has even turned the water on for himself! (all over his clothes, right before we have to be somewhere, of course!)

This isn't a typical look for him, but it sure does make me laugh. A lot.

I'm worried he's not eating enough...

26 pounds of hunk!

There's nothing better to end the day than a couple of sisters snuggling with you in your crib!

Elisabeth Charlotte

Last Friday, my newest niece was born! My sister-in-law, Lauren, went into labor early Friday morning. I really wanted to go visit her in the hospital, so I left Michael and Paige at home with James and dropped Ashley off at kindergarten, and drove as fast as I could up to the hospital (45 minutes away), planning on staying an hour and driving back to get Ashley at noon so James could go to a half day of work. I thought about texting Lauren on the way up and telling her I'd really appreciate it if she could have her baby between 10:00 and 11:00 so I could be there, but sometimes, women in labor don't have the best sense of humor, so I didn't. (Plus, it was starting to snow and I was going 75 miles an hour...) Anyways, when I got there, Lauren looked great and we were chatting quietly (Jeremy had been up all night), but she said she was only dilated to a 4 and things were progressing slowly. I was disappointed, but happy to be able to keep her company for a while. Then, she started feeling sick all of a sudden and called the nurse to ask for some anti-nausea medicine. It was a good thing she did, because the nurse checked her and she was an 8 and then about five minutes later, Elisabeth popped out! It was 10:50--perfect timing for me! I think the little doll just wanted her Aunt Amelia to be there :) Isn't she darling--and I got to take this picture! She had a little fluid in her lungs due to the quick delivery and she was teeny-5 lbs, 8 oz, so she was observed in the NICU for a little bit, but she's home and doing great now! I'm so happy for Jeremy and Lauren!

The other part of the story is that it started snowing like crazy down where we live, so James called me when I was getting ready to drive back and told me I should pick up Madeleine and Katherine (Jeremy and Lauren's older girls) then instead of after their preschool like I was planning. Ashley and Paige loved having their cousins sleep over all weekend and weren't disappointed at all that Monday was a snow day and they got to spend an extra day with them! They had such a great time and played so well all weekend! We did manage to go swimming at the Y on Saturday, but I did not even attempt to get 4 little girls ready for church on Sunday, so we had a nice weekend at home! Here are all the guests invited to a wedding--Madeleine was the bride in a lovely pink fluffy crown and Ashley was the groom in a sparkly blue hat. Katherine and Paige were guests and were invited to dance with all of their animals at the party afterwards. These girls are so fun!

Our Little Hero

Yesterday, the girls were in the pool at James' parents house, and James' mom, dad, Michael, and I were all right on the pool deck with them. Paige was wearing a life vest and asked if she could take it off to see if she could swim without it like Ashley does. I told her to wait until Charie got in the pool with them in a few minutes. She's normally really good about minding, so I didn't really give it another thought. I turned around and was playing with Michael and then I heard Ashley yelling something. I turned to see Paige in the middle of the deep end, about to go all the way under, so I ran over and gave Michael to my mother-in-law, and was ready to jump in fully dressed when Ashley grabbed Michael's pool float and held it out to Paige. Paige grabbed on and Ashley pulled her to the side. It happened so fast! I'm so proud of Ashley--and Paige won't be trying that again anytime soon, I'm sure.

Who loves the beach?

We do! We're loving this warm weather in the middle of winter! We got to drive over to the beach the other day and everyone had a great time playing in the (cold) waves, making sand castles, collecting seashells, and of course, burying each other in the sand.

Ashley had a sand castle on top of her!

Michael LOVED the sand and didn't mind when Paige dumped a bunch on his head!

Snuggling with a nice warm and dry Aunt E!