Out of the mouth of Babes

I was looking at my cousin's wife's blog the other day. She had blogged about her youngest daughter's affection to the phrase, "Ta-da".

Within a day, Spencer took up the phrase.

It happened after his co-op preschool valentine's party.

When I came to pick them up he ran to the counter where their bags were sitting with decorated cupcakes that 6 two- year-olds had done themselves. He put up his "presenting hand" and said it with a huge grin: "Ta-da".

He said it several times that afternoon and again when Daddy came home. I asked him if he wanted to give his Daddy the valentine he had made. As he proudly handed the construction paper, personally colored heart to his dad he said it again: "Ta-da".

Hannah's new phrase cracks me up.

Although it makes me wonder what else my little ones are picking up as they watch TV with their older siblings.

If any of your children watch Disney Channel's Phineas and Ferb, you are familiar with Hannah's new phrase.

"Whatcha doin'?" frequently comes out of her mouth everyday. Add in her 2-year old voice and a drawl and you can hear it in your head.

She asks me when I'm showering.

She asks me when I'm putting my make-up on.

She asks me when I'm eating, sewing, at the computer, watching TV.

I think you get the picture.

It all makes me smile.

Holiday Haircuts

The girls have been asking to get haircuts since school started in August.

It's just one of those things that gets shoved to the bottom of the priority list for me.

Besides, Janelle needed to keep her hair long during marching season.

She had to be able to get it up in the "required" hair-do for Colorguard.

So after Christmas (and before the New Year), I took the girls into the salon

to get their hair cut.

Before

After


I was tired of the daily ponytail that Julie wore her hair in.

And she needed a "clean up" haircut after swim season.


Before


After

I loved Rachel's long hair.
Especially when she wore it in 2 long Indian Braids.
But alas, she wanted a change.

Before

After


And Daddy was the one who wanted to trim up Hannah's hair.
It was just getting to where I could put braids in it.

Hannah was the first one in the chair.
She didn't even whimper.

Before


Hannah's new "do" is my favorite.


After

Julie and Rachel both had enough cut off to donate to Locks of Love.

They always seem to wait to get their hair cut until they have enough to donate.

We will have to get a family picture done soon before everyone's hair grows out.

Concerts and Recitals

December is a musical month for our family.

We usually start with piano recitals for Julie and Russell.

Then it's band and orchestra concerts. We had 3 this year to attend.



Julie and Russell had been outside playing in the snow just before it was time to leave for their recital.
We had to hussle out the door.
Julie still had wet snow hair.















Janelle had to be fitted for a band uniform prior to her performance.

She also had to borrow shoes from the band closet.
The High School Band performs in their marching band uniforms and Janelle did Colorguard during marching season.








Rachel sat 1st chair 2nd violin for her winter concert.

You can see her on the front row, 3rd person in, just left of the conductor.



We also had friends over for our traditional holiday sing-a-long.

I think the kids were more interested in all the food than the singing though.

Snow!!!

These pictures are to prove that it actually does snow in East Tennessee.

This snowfall came the first weekend in December.

On a Saturday.

The kids love the snow but they'd rather it come during the week. Then there's a greater chance of school getting cancelled.

To date, we've had 2 days of cancelled school, 1 day with a delayed start of 2 hours, and 1 early dismissal day. (Not all a result of this snow fall but a combination of this snowfall and the one we got last week.)

Christian

Russell and Spencer

Hannah & Spencer waiting for a sled ride.

Rachel & Julie with the garden variety snowman.

The kids were up early before their piano recital to play in this stuff. We have a great sledding hill at the bottom of our yard. A lot of the neighborhood kids come to sled there.

The kids made the snowman and used remnants of our summer garden for the accessories.

Tomatoes for the eyes.

Green peppers for the buttons and nose.

Corn stalks for the mouth and arms.

That snowman was as tall as I was.

It was sad when later that day I looked out to see that someone had walked through our yard and knocked it over.

A New Shade of Green

Choosing a color to paint the house was not as easy as I thought it would be.

We had several samples.

We even painted several swatches at the back of the house and asked the neighbors for their vote.

This dark green was the color that was most liked.

It took some getting used to for me.

View of the kitchen addition and covered patio.

The shudders aren't on but they're black.

You might be able to see that the front door is also dark green.

That won't stay that way.

We just ran out of warm days to get it painted and I hadn't decided 100% what color to go with.

That will be another post for another day.

Halloween in February

This post is for my mother-in-law who wanted to see pictures of the kids in their Halloween costumes.

We finally got the pictures downloaded.

So, here you go......

The whole crew

Prince Charming & Snow White

Spencer's tunic and belt was the only costume I made for this year. We were originally all going as Snow White and the 7 Dwarves but we already had Hannah's dress and I really couldn't get into dressing up this year, so only the little ones carried that theme.


The older kids "recycled" other costumes.


Christian & Julie dressed as Star Wars characters.
Rachel as a Spanish dancer.
Janelle wore her Wicked witch costume from last year.
Russell was a vampire.


I had to use my thinking cap for his costume. But we used his lion tamer vest (from the circus year), his sunday shirt and pants, and the Darth Vader cape from the toy shelf. It turned out just right.


Who knows what we'll do for this year.....

Our Thanksgiving

To start, I would like to thank our cousins, the Maloney's, for having us to their house for Thanksgiving and taking us site seeing. We even had our own tour guide (Cindy).

This was actually our 2nd day trip to DC.

The sun may be out but this was a COLD day!!

That's the whole crew. 12 kids and 4 adults at the Washington Monument.



Julie on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial

Our Tennessee crew at the WWII Memorial.

(Hannah's asleep under the purple blanket.)

This was our first daytrip into DC. We got caught in a short, cold and windy rain storm as we walked from the Air & Space Museum to the Capitol. It felt like little shards of ice were hitting us in the face. But we HAD to get a picture in front of the Capitol Building. Todd didn't even turn Spencer around for the picture.

Mount Vernon across the bowling green.

In front of the Potomac River.

We rode the Metro into DC the 2 days we went into the city. Christian had to sit in a seat where he could point to the map and count down the stops (There were about 12 I think- You'd think I'd remember having a 5 year old tell me after EVERY stop how many were left.). The morning we left our cousins's house, Hannah woke up and the first thing she asked was if we were going on the "big train, again?".

This was where I thought we lost Russell.

Russell lost his balance while walking on a raised part of the sidewalk and stepped in a muddy mess on the grass (The grass that has signs on it that say, "Please respect our Veterans and stay off the grass."). Julie found him scraping the mud and junk off his shoe onto the bushes.

I think you would agree with me that we Conquered DC!!

12 kids (ages 6 months-14 years) with 4 adults.

We also saw the Air and Space Museum, the Museum of Natural History, the American Indian Museum(we ran back to this building to get out of that rainstorm), the Vietnam Memorial, and the Korean War Memorial.

Hannah slept both days we were in DC in the stroller. I'm not sure she actually saw a whole lot.

Spencer LOVED running everywhere at Mount Vernon. I had to cut my tour of the house short because he had HAD it and wanted to be outside.

Christian liked being able to ride in the stroller and NOT having to walk the whole time. (I liked that part, too. Not as much complaining.)

Russell had fun playing video games with cousin Robbie and DS downloading with his siblings on the 9 hour drive to Fort Belvoir,VA.

Julie liked playing with Faith and MiKayla but didn't like NOT being a part of the "big girl" group.

Rachel liked staying up late talking to cousin Celeste and having late night snacks.

Janelle liked having someone as obsessed with the Twilight series as she is to talk to about it.

Todd and I decided that just the 2 of us need to go back so that he can have all the time HE wants in the Air and Space Museum and I could go see whatever I want to see while he is there.

(You know I didn't get to see the Hope Diamond.....)