Sunday, March 9, 2014

If A Picture Speaks A Thousand Words...

...Then I won't have to write very much explaining these amazing photos! This past summer, long long ago, while we were visiting Boise, my sister in law Sarah took some family pictures for us. Literally, we spent about 20 minutes corralling kids and trying to force them to cooperate, which was no easy task-- but the results she managed to capture despite it all turned out fantastic. I'm not sure why I forgot to post this, but better late than never! 


 Isn't she just the most gorgeous 6 year old ever?!?


 Ahhhhh, those beautiful blue eyes kill me every time...

 Such a cute little stinker!

I love these little people!

March Madness!

We've had a very sloooow couple of weeks with not much going on lately. Just the same ol', same ol'! And I'm certainly not complaining-- I'm grateful we'be been able to just enjoy some down time with the kidlets and let the work-school-church routine take over for a little while. 
 Leah and Zach have become great friends since they are home together so much during the day--and they mostly play together very well. Zach LOVES to hear Leah giggle. Leah's three favorite parts of the day are 1) Zach's preschool pick-up, 2)Lucy's school pick-up, and 3) when Daddy gets home. She loves her siblings and is totally a Daddy's girl-- she runs to the door and waits when she hears the garage door go up, and just hugs and hugs him when he comes inside. She's a lover! She also likes to "dress herself," which is what is happening in this picture. She picked a neon orange sports bra to wear for a belt. Pretty stylin'!
 She is also a Mommy's girl. She is my little shadow who follows me wherever I go, and just finds a place to play next to me. I love it...mostly. She is absolutely in to EVERYTHING, and has an obsession with markers. Nothing is safe with Leah around. Jon and I laugh because when she's looking for me or wants me, she has this loud, low-pitched bleat, "MOM? MOM?" She makes us laugh every day.
 Jon finally bought himself a car-- a luxury he'd been waiting for six long years for! He's been driving a '98 Toyota Corolla which has been the perfect commuter car for him to put 80 miles a day on, but the poor man has yet to be rewarded for all of his hard work going to school non-stop for 9 years and then jumping right into a strict military environment for the last 2 1/2. We've learned that sometimes you just have to spend your money to feel like it was worth earning it in the first place! 
 He's very conservative with our finances, so when he came to me last fall and told me of his plan to buy a 2014 Ford Focus ST (functionality + style, according to him), who was I to deny him? He bought it clear back in December for a screamin' deal, but it had to be special ordered from Michigan, so he's patiently waited 3 1/2 months for it to finally come in. This weekend it did, and he LOVES it!
 We can fit all five of us in it comfortably, it drives like a dream, and he's not the laughing stock of the dental clinic when he pulls up to work in a car 10 years older than anybody else's.:) Not that it mattered, but it is a nice rite of passage to buy his "first car," since the Traverse is technically mine. 
 He'll probably keep driving the Toyota to work anyway just to put all the mileage on it, but it was sure fun to drive his "race car" (as the kids dubbed it) around town this weekend. Speaking of the Toyota, Zach kept asking, "What's Daddy going to do with his white car now?" I told him, "Well, I guess you'll have to drive it." Zach's eyes got huge and he thought for a second, "But, but, but! I'm just a small guy! I can't drive a car yet! I'd crash it!" Ha ha!
 The kids got invited to a fun Harry Potter themed birthday party this weekend for our next door neighbor Josh. They've been great playmates to have so nearby, and Josh is really into the Harry Potter books and has subsequently gotten my kids really into HP as well. Which is fine by me, because I absolutely love that series. Lucy has totally impressed me with how much she's learned about the books and has even read the first few chapters of the "Sorcerer's Stone." She dressed up like Hermione for the birthday party with special frizzy hair.
Zach-O, confused about the whole dressing-up aspect, decided he'd wear his Green Lantern costume. Fine by me! I guess when they look back at all the old birthday party photos, they'll be like, "Oh yeah! Who was the weird neighbor kid who came dressed up like Green Lantern again?"
 March for us definitely came in like a lion so here's hoping it will go out like a lamb. We had torrential rain for three days straight-- I mean humongous puddles everywhere-- and temperatures with a high of 40 degrees. Saturday and Sunday finally blew in sunny and warm and perfect. We spent as much time outside as possible! 
 Leah likes to steal people's shoes and wear them instead of hers. She's so funny to watch shuffling around the house in Jon's slippers or my gym shoes. How can we resist with that cute little grin?
Zach finally mastered riding his bike without training wheels so we're pretty excited for him! He was a natural on his little Spiderman bike and figured it out really quick. Hopefully if it's warmed up once and for all, he'll get plenty of chances to ride trainging-wheel-free during the rest of the month of March!