January 23rd

Look at that cute guitarist!!  :)

January 22nd

Rock Star in the basement.  ;)

This is Dan's rehearsal spot.  You can tell by all the chords, guitar stands and sheet music.  Sometimes I can feel the vibrations of his jam sessions on the kitchen floor while I am cooking dinner.  I love to listen to him sing, he's pretty good if you ask me!  :)

January 21st

Baby it's cold outside!

With temps hitting a "high" in the low teens....nothing feels better than coming home at night, throwing on warm hoodies and p.j. pants, starting a fire, and cuddling up on the couch under an afgan.  

January 20th

If you've ever had a dancer live in your house, then this scene would be something you've seen before.  For the rest of you, do you mean to tell me that brushing your teeth en pointe in bright turquoise boots is not normal???

January 19th

Is it a mop????

Nope, it's our puppy Charley!!  He's getting a little older, not old-man old, but he's going on 8 years old. He gets up to play with the kids, but he also very much enjoys laying around on the couch. 

January 18th

Rachel and her Cosmetology Class

Don't they look nice?  They were on their way to a field trip.  They got to spend the day taking classes and seminars on coloring, make-up and styling by experts in the industry.  The day before we were worried that the weather was going to make travel treacherous, but thank goodness the temps stayed above freezing.  Driving on rain is much better than driving on ice.  Thank you God for the opportunity to learn and for keeping them safe on the road.  :)

January 17th

Cousins...AKA:

Thing 1 and Thing 2

Put these two together and what do they spell: T R O U B L E!

Christopher and Dylan have always had a good time together.  Sometimes it's at the expense of my house or yard.  But hey, it's all in good fun, right?!  

January 16th

Girl time!!

My lovely sister threw my adorable nephew in her red truck and came up for 25 hours of chaos, laughter and chocolate!!  :)

January 15th

Saturday=Project Day.

What a handsome project man I have!  Dan was just back from one of a man's favorite stores....Home Depot.  :)  He was getting set to cut up some logs for our fires.  Thanks, honey.  Yay for warm fires in the winter!  

January 14th

Reading, Writing, Arithmetic....and Piano.

Music is a big part of our family.  Everyone loves to sing, dance and just enjoy music.  Not everyone is always excited about piano practice though.  But, I feel it's an important part of their education that they will thank me for later.  ;)   Rachel's school schedule is too busy for lessons at the moment.  My grand idea to keep her skills current and developing is to require her to practice, try new worship songs and teach her brother.  Daniel is doing pretty well under her tutelage.  

January 13th

Orthodontics

My daughter thinks I'm a nerd, but that's not entirely true.  I'm a mom.  It is in my job description to be annoying and take pictures at the most inopportune moments of her life.  Later on, when she is grown and has her own children she will be better able to understand my obsession. 

I know this is a hard time for her, as everyone who's had any orthodontia knows it can be annoying at the least and painful at it's worst.  But the payoff will be an even more beautiful smile than she has already been able to share, and less dental problems over the years.  I am thankful that my wonderful husband has a job with good insurance and for all the hours of hard work he puts in so we can put our children through this good-for-you pain.  ;)

January 12th

Fun Snow.

Even though *I* do not like playing in the snow, there are people around here who are thrilled with all that white freezing-ness.  Emmy got so excited I could barely get her mittens on.  She played outside with Christopher for about 40 minutes till I called her in for lunch.  She took a nice long nap after all that fun.  :)

Christopher went on to play for another half hour till I made him come in for lunch.  It is a school day after all.  He would play out in it for hours, and he has.  I'm smart enough to use that energy to also get the driveway shoveled while he is out there.  

January 11th

Pretty Snow.

Can you say, YUCK?

Not that I particularly hate snow, it's very pretty.....from the viewpoint of my window!!  

This snow, made my tree look extra pretty.....and yes those are Christmas bulbs still on it by the way.  We took down the inside decorations, but it was COLD last weekend so I'm happy with leaving them out there, I'll just not turn on the lights anymore.  

January 10th

Pretty Rachel.

Pretty Rachel who saved her mom from not having a picture for the 10th.  It seems I am having a hard time remembering to take a picture every day.  Several of the pictures I posted were actually taken by the kids.  This is one of Rachel's self-portraits taken by her phone camera.  (and probably forwarded to her boyfriend, lol!) Hopefully I can get in the habit and not be in scramble mode to cover each day's happenings.  Nothing exciting happened yesterday other than school and me almost forgetting about Christopher's piano lesson.  :P

January 9th

Today we went to a birthday party for sweet little Gabriella.  Gabbs is the little sister of Rachel's boyfriend Luke.  We are friends with his whole family....in fact they all feel like family.  :)

January 8th

Rachel had a friend spend the night on Friday.  (She helped her paint Christopher's face.) Saturday they decided pancakes sounded like a good breakfast.  Fine by me!  There creations were, um 'interesting'. 

A sick gingerbread man? 

Dan and I both think this looks like a kidney.

Is Mickey Mouse 'mooning' us?

January 7th

On Friday, my wonderful husband had the day off.  During the day we took care of responsibilities like homeschool for the kids, grocery shopping and getting my fridge fixed!!  But that evening, we went out and enjoyed a night of being a couple.  :) 

While we were gone, for reasons I don't fully understand Christopher let the girls entertain themselves by painting his face.  Aren't they creative?

January 6th

Happy Leanne at our homeschool co op.

Leanne joined us today at our homeschool co op.  She ended up being a great help in my Junior Thespians class.  Imagine trying to teach drama to 17 energetic 1-3 graders!

January 5th

Sleeping Beauty

Or.....as Emmy would say "Seeping Booty".  I've had the joy of taking care of this precious little red head since she was just a few months old.  Isn't she the sweetest??

January 4th

My daughter the amazing baker!  Leanne has a patience and a talent for baking fancy goodies.  We had some leftover ingredients from Christmas.  Perfect!  I asked her if she'd like to try a new recipe and she said she would.  :)

They were sooooo good!!

January 3rd.

New Year=Back to School.

Some of us are more able to deal with it than others.  Christopher spent the night at a friend's house last night, and reported to me that he got 4 hours of sleep!!  Guess who's going to bed very early tonight?

January 2nd

Exhausted Santa's Helper.  

Dan works for FedEx.  Christmas is the busiest season of the year for them as they give Santa a hand in delivering presents.  He worked a lot of hours this year, which is both a blessing and a curse.  We've also had a lot of fun having friends that are more like family over to celebrate the holidays and ring in the new year.  We are sorry to see the holidays go, but I know Dan is ready to slow down......at least for a few days.  ;)

January 1st

Rachel is in Cosmetology school.  The people in this house have a lot of hair.  Perfect combination!!  Daniel's hair had gotten out-of-control long over the holidays and I couldn't stand it anymore so I asked her to cut his hair.  It was her first boy-cut ever.  She did a great job!!