Daddy and Hannah

Bath time

OMG, I have clearly over-fed my baby.

Snuggly Shiloah

Post nap-time snuggles with Bethany and Shishaw.

Big Girl Stuff

Norah really wants to be big like her sisters. They all have their own drawing board, but Norah inevitably draws with her magnetic pen upon the board of one of her sisters. She loves to just sit near them while they play princesses, usually chewing on something princessy. This is quickly followed by, "Mommy, please come get Norah!"

She also has learned that it's way more fun to sit at the big girl table than in a high chair. And, she knows how to talk on a cell phone. Mostly, she just listens.

Norah

She is totally into wrestling, and her favorite place to do this is Shiloah's bed! She loves to fall and growl and roll around. She laughs so hard, it's so cute! She gets all worked up and out of breath, too. It's hard to capture the fun of the moment on film, but I did my best.

Hannah's creative illustrations

Hannah has started to demonstrate some real creativity and unique-ness in her work. Here she is holding up a picture of Mommy ("M") and Hannah ("H") dancing. Notice that the eyes are big circles, the noses are small circles between the eyes, and they don't have circles for faces, and the hair is very stylish. All are unusual in the drawings of kids her age.

I am such a typical proud parent -- my kid MUST be gifted!

Home Renovations, 2009-2010

Our basement is done and we've moved onto the kitchen and two upstairs bathrooms. We are living with David and Vicki while this is done.

The work is going faster than expected and we can't wait to get the finished product! It's going to be beautiful!

We are having a great time living here, even with all the many different people moving in many different directions. We feel so blessed and lucky to have such wonderful people to share life with and raise our children with. I am filled with gratitude!

10 months old

She's walking and running, waving bye-bye, clapping, blinking, dancing, doing happy feet and generally being very happy and funny...

Upstairs Bathroom

Most of the floor was rotten, the radiator leaked, the window was cracked and the shower system was broken.

The Powder Room

The Kitchen

This is at it's worst.

Dress Up

Here are some of the new dress-ups the girls got for Christmas from the "Sharing Sisters Elves."

Norah learns a new trick

We heard a crash/thud noise the other day, coming from the bathroom. I knew instantly what it was...

Norah had finally managed to climb in! She didn't even care about the bump on her head, she was just so interested in her new adventure! And she played in the dry bath tub for about 30 minutes with only a few cloths.

Today she is 11 months old!

Florida

Sadly enough, I have no pictures of people from our time in Florida! It was a little bit stressful with the kids being so out of their element, tired, cranky and in a non child-proofed setting, but still a great time. It's always a lot of fun to play games and catch up with everyone. Poor Brian ended up with "Linda's Crap." (It was actually mine.)

Christmas Day

It was a day filled with lots of wrapping paper and sounds of, "But Mommy, isn't there any more presents for me?!" Ah, Christmas...

We had a very nice morning and then it was off to Florida for vacation visiting my side of the family...

A Family Christmas Pageant

For Christmas we acted out the Nativity Story with the kids and our friends, Scott and Jan Wiese. Hannah was a shepherd, Shiloah was an angel, Norah was a baby, Mommy was Mary, Daddy was Joseph, Jan was another angel, Grandma Rae and Grandpa John were Wise Men, and Mark Snodgrass popped up just in time to be the third Wise Man, which he loved.

At first, Shiloah wanted to be Mary, but she changed her mind once she saw the sparkly halo that the angels got to wear. As Mary, however, she wore a blue "veil", underwear and pink high heels. Very stylish.

Hannah, on the other hand, really became a shepherd. She sat like a shepherd, looked at you like a shepherd, and walked like a shepherd. These were all just little things she picked up from books and videos, and boy was she serious about it!

It was so much fun and we really enjoyed getting to share Christmas Eve dinner with our friends and their sweet little girl.