February 20th

Get ready for picturama.  Today was a special day, I couldn't choose just one or two pictures.  We drove down to Columbus yesterday so we could come see Leanne in a play today!  She was cast as Cinderella in a children's concert put on by the Columbus Symphony Orchestra.  It was so cute and so fun!  Leanne did an amazing job!

Here is most of Leanne's fans, minus Rachel the picture taker.  

My sister came up to enjoy the performance with us.  

Along with her son Dylan, she brought my niece Michal for the occasion.  It was Michal's birthday present from her Aunt Teresa.

All us girls in the bathroom.  ;o)

Leanne on stage!  She was beautiful.  Much prettier than those stepsisters!

The fairy godmother arrived to make her dreams come true.

What a beautiful princess!

And now she has her prince.  

To finish off the night, I had to get a shot of my 12 year old....who will turn 13 tomorrow!  This is my 'baby boy'.  Oh how time marches on.  

February 19th

Today we drove down to Ohio and stayed overnight at a hotel.  It was nice to enjoy a change of scenery and enjoy a dip in the pool and hot tub.  :)

February 18th

Emily drew a picture of Rachel and Luke today.  It looks just like them, wouldn't you say?

February 17th

Jr. Thespians

In our homeschool co op, I like to teach.  This semester I taught drama to 1st-3rd graders.  I find that funny.  Like they need to be taught how to be dramatic!  :P

February 16th

It was a very busy day today!  A total of 7 kids were here.  4 of them were age 5 and under!  Thank goodness for the help of my teenagers.  They love kids, I'm very thankful for that and their energy.  They were all very good, but let's just say that I slept deeply that night.  ;)

February 15th

Attack!

Christopher sure had his work cut out for him.  Taking on two daring swordsmen was risky, and there for a while it looked like it was curtains for him.  Until mom stepped in and took away the weapons.  Danger avoided.  

February 14th

What better way to celebrate Valentine's Day than holding and loving on a baby?  Leanne was out of town, so we helped out by taking care of the little ones she watches a few times a week.  Isn't little David the sweetest??

February 13th

Sara's first piano recital.  

My niece Sara started taking piano this past school year.  She is loving it, and today was her first performance.  She did very well!  Good job Sara!!  (The picture is a tad blurry because I didn't want to use the flash and distract her.  It was hard holding the camera still because of the way I had to angle my body to get the picture.)

This is Sara with her mom and brother.  :)

February 12th

Snowboarding!

My guess is this is Christopher's favorite Saturday in a long while.  He is a kid who likes action.  He is also a hard worker and smart with his money.  Dan took him shopping with some leftover money from his snow shoveling and Confirmation (which was more than a year and a half ago!) to buy his own snowboard.  They went to Play It Again sports and got a great deal on the board and clip-on thingies.  (technical term)  Then they went to try it out.  He loved it!  Thank God for helmets is all I got to say.  ;)

February 11th

Two heads are better than one?

February 10th

Can you see me now?

Sometimes laying on the couch is dangerous.  It requires extra protection.  See picture below for the reason why.

You see, at any given moment a sword fight can break out.  Then, your little rest could turn out to be dangerous.  Thankfully Dan and the boys are considerate.  They didn't ask me to get up, they just threw an extra blanket and pillow on me to protect me from any mishaps.  Aren't they sweet?

February 9th

Hair.

There is lots of it in this house.  It can be curly, it can be straightened.  It can cause certain members of this house to scream.  One member misses it.  Hair.

February 8th

This was a really tough day for the family.  A couple of years ago the city did some work on the sewer drains and when they were done they put in new gutters, the front of our driveway and we also got a new sidewalk.  As they were preparing the cement I looked outside and saw them taking an axe to the roots of our once-beautiful huge maple tree.  We were stunned because we knew what would happen.  We did what we could to revive it to no avail.  The tree never recovered and slowly died.  Today they came and took it down.  It looks so barren out front now.  :(  The kids and Dan really struggled with it.  We can remember them spreading out their blanket when they were so little and playing under the wonderful shade the tree provided.  We would rake up huge amounts of crunchy autumn leaves for the kids to jump in.  Yes, we can plant a new tree.  But it just won't be the same.  :( 

February 7th

Doesn't Charley have the cutest smile?

February 6th

AKA~Super Bowl Sunday.

While Dan and Christopher went over to a friend's house to watch the game and eat "garbage pizza" the rest of us stayed in.  We had our own pile of snacks, and Luke joined us to watch the game....mainly the commercials.  We had a good amount of snow on the ground, so when Charley would go out he'd come back in all wet and we were stepping on it and getting our socks wet.  I hate wet socks!  Rachel and Luke came up with the perfect solution.  Blow dry the dog!  I'm not sure Charley was enjoying it as much as they were.  

February 5th

Burger!

Daniel loves his burgers.  It's definitely in the top 5 of his favorite foods.  In his opinion, one of the best part of birthdays is the free Red Robin Burger.  Dad took him out to enjoy his birthday burger and sundae.  

February 4th

15

Today our sweet Daniel is 15.  I can't believe it!!  What a blessing he is to us.  

Almost 13 and 15.  

We had the boy's b-day party today.  6 boys ranging in age from 11-15 came over to spend the night.  It's loud, but it's fun.  They are all good boys.  Hope my house can handle the Nerf Gun wars!!

February 3rd

Homeschool co op was cancelled because of no heat, and I kept Rachel home from school because her cold was sounding worse.  She got bored and decided to cut and style her head.  Does this picture creep you out at all?  

February 2nd

Entrepreneurs

We got LOTS of snow on Wednesday.  Not as much as originally thought, but still a good amount 7-9 inches.   Leanne and Christopher went out to see if they could make some money.  Funny thing is, Christopher made more money off the 3-4 we got last weekend then they did on the "big" snow.  

February 1st

Do you think there is a possibility that the kids are getting sick of me taking a picture every day?  I wonder what type of shots we'll get come October??

January 31st.

Substitute Teacher.

A substitute teacher showed up in class today while I was away.  Word has it that she read some creative writing lessons out loud to the students.  She looks a lot stricter than me, wouldn't you say?

January 30th

Mice? Worms? Bread-Face?

Someone didn't knead the bread very well at the bakery.  This is what Rachel's slice looked like as she was trying to make her sandwich Sunday afternoon.  

January 29th

Sledding with Dad.

This is truly a Dad activity.  Mom does NOT like the cold!  They had lots of fun, even Daniel who they had to drag out.  :)

January 28th

Guess who's happy it's Friday??

As soon as Rachel saw me pull up in front of the school she came happily running out to the van.  I was pretty stoked to be at the end of the work week as well.  :)

January 27th

LUNCHTIME!!!

Today was a super-busy day starting with an appointment at the orthodontist.  Rachel got her wires so we quickly ordered lunch so she could eat before her mouth got too sore.  After this we went to our homeschool co op, Rachel had cosmetology classes and then the kids all went skating.  I was home a total of 30 minutes from 8:45am-9:15pm!!

January 26th

3-year old wake up call!!

Emily loves to wake up Miss Leanne!  As you can see she brought her "school" so she could show off her handywork.  Of course, once I brought out the camera...this is the "smile" I got!

January 25th

Cold winter day?  No problem!!

Daniel loves his warm bed and his DS.  

January 24th

Guess who's looking forward to prom already?

Tonight the kids went to do their "Siblings Night Out".   Leanne takes them all out for dinner and a movie.  They had some extra time before the movie started this time around so they did some window shopping at the mall.  The boys went to GameStop while the girls checked out the formal dresses.