My rear view :)  These kids make me smile.  J-boy is in love w/ a set of CD's that were given to us about 5 years ago called Scripture Scouts - it's children dramatizing/telling/singing/pretending-they-are-in scripture stories.  It drives Joseph CRAZY, and he has forbidden it when he is driving (can't really blame him - one of the characters is a talking dog.  'nough said.)  But J-boy constantly requests it, telling Daddy, "Scripture Scouts helps me learn about Jesus!"  His pleas fall on deaf daddy ears.  :)  But I'm a softy, and I'll usually put it in for him.  The silly parts get them all smiling and giggling and all 3 kids sing along. It's priceless.

(and it's all part of my not-so-secret-fantasy where my life is really a musical - dim the lights and cue the vamp!)  

Whenever we have playgroup at our house this little guy goes straight for the weapons.  :)

Love this girl!


cleaning up my computer -rearranging hard drives/backups/10 years of digital pictures/clearing out space for my new toys!
I felt so giddy installing this stuff (muah ha ha - adobe software... total domination is emminent!)

Every little girl needs a big brother with a light saber and ski goggles to protect her.


J-boy was so excited about his new lightsabers (he got THREE yesterday at his birthday party!). He woke up early, rescued the lightsabers from their forced exile (brought upon them by bedtime the night before), and quietly distributed one to K-lady (still curled up on that multi-colored blanket there - yes, she IS in there), and one to Baby A (still asleep in her crib). Now THAT is love. :)

 J-boy's b-day party was OUT-OF-THIS-WORLD!!!!  :)

 J-boy birthday!  cupcakes at school

 ninja sanctuary on the kitchen table

 Joseph bought all the girls potted tulips for Valentine's day, and J-boy got candy.  We were all happy. :)  He also bought me a trunk-load of canning supplies.  I guess I'll CAN this summer!

 all that snow melted pretty quick when the sun came out - this puddle (lake?) along the side of our house made me grateful we don't have a basement!

 Happy Valentine's Day!  Dinner of steak, shrimp, roasted red potatoes & green beans, with strawberries, bananas & marshmallows w/ chocolate fondue.  And then cheese cake cause we needed more sugar (!).

 we've been into the games lately -- J-boy can beat all of us at mancala. :)

 a little soccer in the church gym on Sat. afternoon

 Valentine's ready for school!

 a little Valentine's Day photo moment (snow day #4 in the last week, with two days off for parent teacher conferences meant that the kids only had 1 day of school this week)

another view of the drifted patio -- that window is the one I took the last picture through.  

quite a bit more snow - and all of it right on the tail of reading a book called The Children's Blizzard for book club -- sad sad book about a bunch of children being caught in a horrible sudden blizzard on their way home from school in the northern midwest in 1913.  I am so glad I don't live in a sod house.  Or a log cabin.  Or travel by horse & wagon.  Or let my kids walk 2 miles to school by their own little selves.  I am happy to look at the blizzard from INSIDE, thank you very much!!!!

 More snow; more snow days.  The house borders two sides of the patio, this fence borders a third side, and the patio opens to our itty bitty backyard on the fourth side.  The wind whips the snow up and around in a circular motion through this alcove - the drifts are about 1 1/2 feet high there against the fence.

Post-FHE-treat (Joseph's: generic oreos dipped in peanut butter and dunked in milk).  She was really concerned about a little smudge of cookie on her right index finger.  I don't think she quite realized this is what her face looked like. :)

 After a fabulously fun morning playing volleyball w/ the young women in our ward, K-lady and I headed home & loaded up for the baby shower.  She put the little flags together in the car on the way - So cute!!  I loved how everything turned out.  And it was, as always, so so fun to see all my old friends.  I told Joseph it was like spending the afternoon with my sisters - so good for the soul.  

 Making treats for a special baby shower!  (cake pop recipe from http://www.bakerella.com/hope-these-put-a-smile-on-your-face/)

K-lady on her way up to piano lessons.  It always cracks me up to see the antique chandeliers stocked w/ those energy efficient compact fluorescent bulbs instead of old fashioned decorative ones.  I guess common sense and frugality beat out style this time.

 And more ice crystals, this time on the storm door.  I took off the lense and flipped it around for a poor-mans-macro.  I think it's so beautiful!  Another snow day. (snow days complicate the babysitting when I'm supposed to be working...)

 That is a solid sheet of ice crystals on the storm window in my bedroom - BRR!  No school today!

 Baby A's new best friend: my i-touch.  She used to snuggle up in this little corner to look at books, but technology has intruded.

 Sunday afternoon called for a little Book of Mormon dress up.  I had mixed feeling photographing J-boy in his previous costume.  He's enthralled w/ the picture of Ammon defending the King's sheep and insisted on replicating it.  Baby A's denim skirt did pretty well for Ammon's kilt-ish garb, and it was quite the sight.  Disarming, if you will.  (HA!)

 I love her chameleon eyes -- usually they look grey or light blue, but in Jen's dining room they changed to the exact same shade as the wall - this almost blue-green.  Poor girl has been missing the same teeth for about 6 months now. :)

 We drove up to the city tonight to go to a piano recital - Joseph was given tickets, and he had a bee-keeping class on Saturday anyway, so we decided to make an over night trip of it.  But on the way up J-boy got miserable, so we missed the concert to make sure he didn't die.  Turned out to be J-boy's first experience w/ constipation (tmi? sorry), but being the health professional that he is, Joseph quickly assumed the worst and nearly had me in a panic over ruptured appendix scenarios.  A little prune juice later he was running around  and playing w/ cousins till nearly 11 that night.  All's well that ends well.  And I'm sure Jean-Yves and his hour-and-a-half of Liszt didn't miss us.  (Joseph and I were both happy to have a quiet night at home w/ Jake and Jenn and chat the night away).

 Waiting for K-lady at piano lessons.  J-boy and Baby A and I ran to the grocery store for a minute, he purchased this little race car.  30 minutes of fun in the long empty halls.

 K-lady at gymnastics.  Apparently I need a higher ISO if I want her to look like she has legs.  :)  Or something like that.

Here I am on my way to work!  (well, my day job, anyway)  :)  I'm helping with billing/payments/accounts receivables.  The older kids are at school, Baby A hangs out w/ a friend for a few hours.  I was really really scared at first (just how much has my brain atrophied since college???), but it turned out just fine.  I like figuring stuff out, and it was so nice to be around grown ups for a little while.  Grown ups who clean up their own messes (she said as her children trashed room #4 for the day).

Well, we made it!  My 30th year - at least 365 pictures of "Perfectly Ordinary Days."  I missed a few days, and had a few days w/ multiple pictures, but overall, I did pretty good.  I've really liked this project - it's an easy way for me to document, and I'm all for easy.  :)  I'm going to keep going - I want to try to take better pictures (I'm learning how to use my new camera, and I stink at it so far!  I have to keep reminding myself it's just a post-honeymoon period - now I have to actually buckle down and do a little work in order to make some progress...  So hopefully I can learn to use it properly over the next 365 Ordinary Days!).  And I want to take better/more pictures of my kids - specifically K-lady and J-boy who are busier and harder to catch!

My birthday this year was pretty funny.  I'm working part time at Joseph's office to help a transition w/ a new office manager, and Jan. 24th was my first day.  So Baby A was with a sitter all day, and didn't get a nap.  I got home in time to pick the kids up from school, we came home, did chores, and planned to go out to eat.   Seemed a good enough idea till we sat down w/ a very antsy Baby A and a touchy J-boy.  Baby A immediately began scaling the 5-ft-high-back of the bench upon which we sat.  My quiet remonstrations to 'get down, please' were met w/ a loud, "No, Mom, I climb, O-KAY?  You be quiet, O-KAY?"  Pretty soon we had a good audience in the small Chinese restaurant.  Her lemonade came, which held her still for about 2 minutes, then back to climbing.   I started pinching her leg to get her down, so she started yelling, "NO, MOM!  THAT HURTS!  YOU DON'T PINCH ME!  O-KAY!?!"  grrr.  I hate being bossed around by my 2 year old.  I distracted Baby A w/ my water, which she promptly spilled on the bench, getting K-lady and I wet.  J-boy's napkin (which he'd actually been using!  Wonders never cease!  And he was so proud of his momentary lapse of bad manners....) was employed in the clean up, which offended him beyond repair ("That was MY napkin!  I was USING that!").  As he sobbed in his corner of the booth I tried getting Baby A to play with my i-touch, but pretty soon she was back to climbing, I was back to pinching, she was back to crying and yelling, and Joseph asked for the check.  :)  He took the offending offspring to the car w/ their food in take-out containers, and K-lady and I had a lovely little chat and enjoyed the remainder of our dinner in peace.  :)  What a circus!  Joseph and I laughed and laughed.  Next time we'll get a sitter.  :)  Or Baby A will have a nap.  Or we'll get take-out!  So the picture is all our leftovers in the fridge at home.  I'm so glad we can laugh about these times - sure beats being furious!  :)

 Saturday P-90X - Baby A needed in on the pull-ups.  :)

 Donuts for Dad's day at school -the kids in the back of Dad's car on the way (couldn't quite snap a shot of the 3 of them....)

 more snow.....

breakfast of choice these days: vanilla yogurt w/ granola (and occasionally blueberries)

 I told my sister, even with Christmas decor lingering well past it's proper season, I still need twinkle lights somewhere.  It's just so dark in the winter - I can't quit cold-turkey.  I've found it's best to gradually wean myself away - not quite a 12-step program, but still pretty effective.  Usually by the time St. Patrick's Day comes around I can part w/ the winter-twinkle-lights.  It just takes time.  :)

Today's the day!  Christmas goes back into the blue bins till Thanksgiving 2011. :)

snow on the skylight - makes me so grateful for heaters!!!  (I can't put Christmas away on Sunday!  We're supposed to be resting!)  :)  This was actually my first day back to our ward since before Christmas - we drove home the 2nd, I stayed home w/ sick kids the 9th, so I started teaching my new  9-year-old Primary class today.  I think we're going to have some good times.  :)

Enjoying a quick snack of alpha-bits before Saturday morning chores.  Then we had a fun fun fun trip up to KC for the rest of the day to see buddies and go to Shelby's wedding receptions - we love being close enough to run 'home' for the day. (no time for putting away Christmas today, either!)  :)

Today it seemed like a better idea to play with trains rather than take down Christmas (we had Baby A's playgroup here this morning).

 Yes, the date says Jan. 13, and yes, those are still Christmas decorations glowing in my home.  :)  What can I say???  We didn't get home till the 3rd, and then we all got sick....  And then I just had to tie up all the loose-end-projects I had sitting around (messy craft room, collage wall, food storage....).  So tomorrow, I promise, I'll get the decorations down.  :)

J-boy's best friend (the heating in our apartment is terribly uneven - the ductwork is all in the ceiling of the first floor/floor of the second floor, so the vaulted-ceiling-living room never really gets warm (the heat just rises up the stairs) and upstairs is boiling hot when it's comfortable downstairs.  And then there's the 'craft room' with no vents at all.  So we've enjoyed our cheap-o space heater.

 She climbs all the way to the top of that chair to reach the buttons of choice on the DVD player - I don't particularly like my 2 year old having that much independence.  School was cancelled today because it snowed yesterday.  Silly school board.  So far J-boy has had 2 days of school since before Christmas, K-lady has had 3.   Can we please get a routine?!

 Why does he do this?!  When will he start being embarrassed to see pictures of himself in his baby sisters' clothes?!

All this time at quarantined at home has been great for my unfinished projects - I finished putting up my collage wall and completely rearranged/reorganized the 'craft room.'  I love deep cleaning in January. :)

Back in November we did some food storage work at my in-laws after our ginormous Thanksgiving feast (it was actually a GREAT way to spend the evening).  We finished off a big order from the cannery (mostly wheat, with a case of hot chocolate for good measure).  But then we bought a few bags of flour from Costco,  and didn't have time to package them up.  So they sat around the infamous 'craft room' for a month and a half - today I'd had enough.  We were still on the edge of sick but I was sick of being sick, so I got to work.  Pretty soon Joseph was feeling guilty for sitting on the couch (really, that was NOT my intent!), and came over to help :)  We had a good time and finally got things squared away.  I love putting things away.  

another sick day - we actually turned OFF the movies for a bit and made thank you cards (our DVD player sure gets a lot of use when we have sick people at home).