So Far in February

I wish I'd had a better camera when my other kids were little. It's a lot easier to capture moments and expressions now. Jansen and Natalie have been reading through the few blog books I have printed, and it has made me realize once again the importance and treasure of recording the things they do and say. 

Leah is babbling more and says "Da da da da" a lot. She loves to spit with her tongue sticking out. We all love to say "Ah!" to her because she will do it back. 

This little container of markers will keep her busy as long as anything will. I hope I have at least a couple more months till she learns to rip the lids off. 

I can't tell you the number of times I walk in the girls' room and want to cry because it's such a mess. It happens so fast! They have a million little toys, but they use them, so it's hard for me to get rid of them. I think I need to though. Less things means less to organize and less to clean up. 

 We went on a walk on some trails near our house last week. It's so nice to have a little bit of wild and nature within a short distance of our house since so much of this area is construction and growth. Nate brought his scope and helped us see some birds on the pond.

Natalie is my mini me. The good and the bad. It's an interesting feeling to recognize so much of yourself in your child. 

Jansen got through one or two Harry Potters and then quit a couple months ago. I convinced him to try them again (even though I haven't even read them all), and he says he is so glad he did. On my to do list this week is to get our library cards.

Emmy had been asking me all morning to paint her nails. I had a lot on my mind and a lot on my to do list, so I didn't do it right away. When we finally painted them she told me it was "the best day ever because you are painting my nails!" 

Preparing some paper for an origami creation:

This is Leah's favorite thing to do lately. She loves to stand like this with some support from something nearby. She keeps herself busy so much longer now. 

We went to the rodeo/fair/carnival after school on Friday with Nielsens. We didn't end up getting to see any "rodeo" or really very many animals, but we we did eat hot dogs. :)

We didn't stay for too long, but we had fun walking around and being a part of it all.

I probably gave him a hard time about this incident, but these are also the kinds of things I love about Nate. Natalie begged to play every game and he finally caved at the one with the huge white tiger for the grand prize. Of course he didn't win. This kind of stuff reminds me of my dad though - he was a softy and loved to do things like this with us.

As long as we didn't contract any diseases, I'd say the afternoon was a success.

I love coming across things like this. Some day these kids will understand just how incredibly lucky they are to have Nate for their dad. 

I have the 3 older kids in swimming lessons right now. It's really convenient because most of the time their lessons are at the same time even though they are at different levels. I've never loved swimming, but if we are going to live in San Antonio I'm going to need to learn to like it and I need my kids to be good swimmers so I have less to worry about when I take 4 of them to the pool. 

Emmy created a little "unicorn puppet" from an old styrofoam cup. Haha, it's so creepy, but I love it. She is really into making things out of trash lately. 

Just playing at the park...the sunshine is so wonderful, but it also makes me feel sick sometimes. I just can't handle a lot of it, so it worries me that I'm already feeling hot, or tired, or sapped of energy after being outside for a bit and it's only February.