And finally...........................FEBRUARY (or Feb so far)

My mom visited the first week of February and we had a GREAT time. This was my old comforter and i REPURPOSED (don't you love that word???? i got it from my favorite "store" etsy) into tea cozies. i wish i could show you how cute they turned out, but i kid you not...i spent a whole day sewing them then put them away somewhere where they disappeared and now i cannot find them to save my life...gees. well, anyway, since this comforter had diapers changed on it, babies nursed on it and the occasional dog sleeping in it...maybe it's for the best...but i did wash those tea cozies....back when they existed. so my mom came to help throw my sweet cousin Jennifer a wedding shower...but we had to cancel it b/c of the crazy snowy icy weather!!!!

and between anna kate's eye gash #2 (a scooter accident into the brick fireplace corner) and the kids getting the stomach bug then the flu (that they all three still have and are still throwing up with)...and all the weather cancellations....we have a ginormous-sized case of cabin-fever-blues.

when i had the flu caroline got my red nail polish (how??? she's EXTREMELY resourceful) and gave herself and mimi a pedicure. she came into my room saying, "Look toes ma-ee. toes ma-ee." It was (is in some spots) all over our kitchen and living room.

caroline says so many cute things these days. she loves to "hole hands ma-ee" especially during prayers before meals...we don't even do that so I don't know how she knew about that. whenever she hears a beep she says, "Reh-ee ma-ee!!!!" like food is ready. she calles Anna Kate, "Kate" and J.R. "bruh-ee" and jon is "daa-ee." If you ask her what her name is she says, "Baby." She is such a little cutie....but she is a MESS....but it's not really her...it's that 1-2yr age range she's in.....sometimes I wish kids started out their lives potty-trained at age 3!!!

Happy Valentine's Day Sweetie!!! We had sushi then our favorite treat...the Thunder Down Under at Outback.

The rest of January 2011!

silly girl.

action shot while waiting for Anna Kate to finish piano lessons.

WHOA...thanks abby for giving them the idea to add bubbles to their bath.

and thanks even more for all those (over 50?!?) barbies from the 80s...a third of them naked. that was a great addition to our toy repatoire.

anna kate put this note in the back of the library book from a sweet little library a woman does in her home for neighborhood children....the ones from the public library don't have pockets so she'd never seen that before!

she said it was for leaving a note about the book. so she wrote "Th princess book was great," and stuck it in the pocket. Awwwww. My kids have amazing manners (yeah right).

Baptisms!!!

Jon's family joined us!!

you might now be able to see, but lambie or caroline's "mimi" was with her the whole time - haha :)

So it's so weird growing up Southern Baptist then baptising our kids!!! I've always believed in repentant "believer's baptism." But we are PCA presbyterians now...through and through. There are a million things I love (and now prefer) about the presbyterian perspective...particularly their emphasis on the gospel....and the intellectual approach to the entire Bible as one story pointing to Jesus in its entirity. My favorite pastor of ALL TIME is Tim Keller and he is presbyterian. but i must it admit...it took me a while to come around to the infant baptism thing...basically it boiled down to my believing that bapstism is the new covanent version of circumcism and it was a believer's household that did it...even Ishmael was circumcised and he was not in the family of faith according to the new testament. this helped me see why infants...although, unlike catholics, we do not believe baptism saves you...that still requires repentance and faith when you "grow up." and then finally...sprinkling...i never got that. until realizing that paul talks about noah's ark and moses and the israelites crossing the red sea as examples of baptism and the believers were not dunked/drenched....that was a sign of judgment upon the NONbelievers...the believers were saved from the water and recieved more of an annointing "mist" during those events. WHEW!!!! so that's that if you care...you probably don't :)

The best Christmas Present!!!! The VITAMIX!!!!

This isn't the vitamix, but an example of the green smoothies we love!!! with kale, frozen oj concentrate, frozen pinapple, frozen mango, a banana and flax seed oil and water.

So Jon gave me a vitamix and I love it. it's basically a $550 blender that can do a million things besides just blend :) I make all our flour in it straight from the grains and so we eat so much more super fresh and healthy food. it can do just about anything. a kitchen genious. we've definitely transitioned to much more whole-food eating. my favorite books on it are "real food" by nina plannk and "the unhealthy truth" by robyn obrien. we are joining a csa thanks to our friends in california telling us about them (thanks bryson and annie!) and of course, we love the raw milk. if you are into this sort of thing let me know - I LOVE IT. My only concern is my kids' preschool and anna kate's elementary school next year having white flour snacks every day...and of course the artificial birthday treats for every one to share...gotta love those - not. i'm such a food nerd (now).

December and Christmas 2010!!!!

Caroline at the Heritage place...

meeting a reindeer...i can't remember which one he was.

sisters at the arboretume santa house! we had a little too much energy for this sort of thing...made the ladies hosting it a little nervious. stresses me out.

some friends

Jon and I at the Exchange Club Christmas dinner...Jon is the recruiter for next year so if you want to join (you do) let him know :)

My dad went to the Glen Beck "Restoring Honor Rally" tea-party thing in Washington D.C. on a bus - cowboys reprezent!

reading to rudolf...J.R. wore this costume a lot this Christmas season...especially out in public...it's actually out dog Ty's costume.

All the books Anna Kate has written. She loves to make up stories and and she asks me how to spell all the words she wants in her stories and she illustrates them...she's quite a prolific author! most are princess stories.

i feel like i live in the land of "smooshed lipstick." caroline cannot keep her paws away from my makeup!!!!!! she's the worst!

anna kate is the family interior decorator....libby pointed out it's a little like the movie a beautiful mind when anna kate is done with a room.not {quite} that extreme

crazy artist...constantly producing art!!!!

a fun Ornament Exchange with all the lovely ladies from our Church...LOVE them so much.

Anna Kate put this sign on the manger scene...i thought it was precious...it says, "Jesus is a slppe on the hay" so that the shepherds will know to be quiet...like we have a sign on our doorbell letting people know that babies may be sleeping :)

She did NOT want to see Santa Clause.

They did :)

Holiday in the Park!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SO fun. SO cold.

Kareokee star!

rides! rides! rides!!! Anna Kate rode the "Judgement Scream" with me...her first BIG REAL roller coaster...she loved it and love telling every one about it :)

passed out as soon as we hit the car.

our friend Grace let us borrow her bath toy beaver and the kids added some sticks so he could build a dam in our tub. we told grace her beaver was coming back home b/c he was naughty at our house and made a mess in the tub.

at beth's fun princess tea party birthday!!!

meeting clara from the nutcracker...our kids LOVE the nutcracker...especially anna kate.

aunt anna came to visit us for christmas week! what a treat!!! she even took my car to change the oil in it for me....priceless.

we had to do some new facebook photos.

Christmas dinner...our guests were Aunt Anna and Thao from Vietnam. We had crab cakes, libby's pear salad, roasted sweet potatoes, popovers with raspberry butter and homeade roasted nuts. The quote of Christmas this year was the morning of Decemeber 26th when J.R. asked, "So when's it going to be Christmas?"....are you kidding?!?! :)

pulling the presents out before Christmas to drool over them.

our advent calendar...we heart our advent calendar. we do a "family activity" together every day of advent season. some days it's big things like holiday in the park....other days it's small things like a christmas art project or special story.

i put up these balls and jon said they look like space orbits and we should get an alien to watch us from up there in lieu of an "elf on the shelf."

take a picture - it will last longer. we did throw all our ornaments against the wall this year to get rid of all the breakables and that made my christmas season much more pleasant than previous years with ornaments breaking all the time. it was festive.

more decor

watch out for that mistletoe

"oh starry night" bathroom

jon did a STELLAR job on lights this year. sure wish there was a contest...we could have won. just kidding. not really. well it depends who we were competing against.

see those ornaments on the trees???

and last but not least is Anna Kate's 1st piano recital!!! i thought it would post first on this post!!! she did great!!!!