Homemade Christmas

Phil and I haven't slept in weeks. We have been making these adorable playhouses for the kids. Each house took us at least 18 hours of work, the cost was cheap though because they are made out of felt. James also got one, his is a barn (sorry there's no photos of that one.)

Sam's is a spaceship, more photos to come (yes, he's wearing a headlamp.)

The ones that didn't make the cut...

I took pictures of the kids in the rain this weekend for our Christmas cards.
I will leave the ones that made the cut to be a surprise, hopefully you will be getting our card soon. Here's a few that didn't make the cut...

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

It has snowed here. The kids are loving it. We are unpacked and loving life.


Last week, to keep Lizzy busy, I asked her to make a Santa Claus out of Legos. This is what she came up with.

Liz trying to hit me with snowballs.

Luckily Sam doesn't understand what a snowball is and he's just throwing the snow.

But mostly he just ate it.

James wanted to go out in the snow and just stood at the glass doors watching the kids.

Halloween

I made the Bamm Bamm costume and the bat costume.





More info about the fam to come....

Backyard Broadway

Lizzy was in a backyard play last week. There were 17 kids and they did A Mid Summer Nights Dream. Lizzy was Demetrius. A boy, in love. She was great, her projection was awesome and she had a blast.

On the boat

The Summer so far

My camera is not always with me, as it should be. Despite the FREEZING summer we're having, we have had water balloon fights, picked berries, flown kites, and visited the coast. It has been so much fun. Here's a few favorite photos.

"Twin cousins, " James and Draven (they were born the same day, in the same hospital.) They sat peacefully while the rest of us were strawberry picking.

4th of July blanket brigade.
It was so cold we had to have huge blankets on us while watching fireworks.

James has MOOBS!

An inappropriate photo shoot

Our shower has beautiful, see-through glass doors. This morning while I was in that shower Sam came in with the digital camera and started taking pictures of me. He thought this was funny. "Taking pictures of Mommy!!!!" I didn't think it was so funny. I got out of the shower, got dressed and we were just about to go watch Liz perform in her schools talent show when I remembered the dreaded photos. Really, I didn't want to look, but I had to. Mirrors lie, photos do not. So I picked the camera up and turned it on only to see this message:


No Memory Card.


Thank goodness!

Creations

We planted a garden, and an herb garden. Then Liz and I made these cool garden markers for the herb garden. Aren't they neat?










Onto another creation.
So, do you know what these are?

They may look like they're just marshmallows on toothpicks. To Lizzy they are three dimensional geometrical shapes. She spent 2 hours last night making these and the whole time she didn't stop talking about which 3D shape was her favorite. I think it's a toss up between a triangular prism, a sphere and a pyramid. She told me that she's setting up shop and taking orders.

Robot Arm

Here's a quick update:

Sam is in a cast. I was gone (out with my visiting teacher) when it happened. He jumped off Lizzy's bed and dislocated his elbow. I took him to the ER and now he has what he calls a
ROBOT ARM.

Liz ran in a race yesterday. Here's a few photo's: (she did her own hair, don't you love the '80's sweatband?)

Also, I took off the quote part on my blog but here's a few good ones:

A few days ago Liz was in trouble and ran to her room. I opened her door and she said, "I'm unavailable right now!"

A few nights later at bedtime Phil tucked her in and was leaving the room when she said, "But daddy, I'm feeling forlorn and scared."

We were at a baptism a few weeks ago and when the baptized girl left to change her clothes Sam asked, "Where'd Violet go?" I said, "To get changed." He thought about it and a bit confused he asked, "To change her diaper?"

That's it for updates right now.