Future Architect

Luke loves building with whatever he can get his hands on. In addition to legos, k'nects, and blocks, favorite materials include couch cushions, broomsticks, blankets--and cans. He was very proud of this tower of black bean cans that almost touched the kitchen ceiling!

Practical Prayers

We had cake with dinner tonight. I greatly appreciated Lily's request in her dinner prayer for a blessing the "the cake will not make the children too hyper for mom and dad to control at bedtime tonight" :-)

Keeping up with these kids...

...makes me laugh and cry

Lily quote (when I told her breakfast would be done in half and hour): "When you reflect that half an hour is really only thirty minutes, it doesn't seem that long."

Mark's shenanigans: You always know there's trouble when the toddler is being TOO quiet. I walked into the bathroom and found him with the toilet lid half lifted, a wet washcloth in his hand, and a distinctly guilty look on his face. He had apparently been dipping the washcloth in the toilet then sucking the water out of it. Hopefully my theory that we're already immune to all the germs in the house is true...and it's a really good thing my older kids have learned to flush!

Lily's new dresses

Lily recently received several cute dresses as hand-me-downs from a friend. She wanted me to take photos of her modeling the dresses for grandma and grandpa to see. Here she is!

Birthday Boy!

OK, I'm a couple of months late getting this posted--here's Mark's first birthday, and my first attempt at a gluten-free cake. The strawberries came from our garden. I'm really not sure what he thought of the cake, but he did enjoy climbing on the table and sticking his hands into what was left after everyone was served!

Diapers...

Dan and I ran some rough calculations this morning, and figured that I have probably changed about 24000 diapers over the course of the past 8 years.

I think that qualifies me for expert diaper-changer status...

1950's maternity dress

I've been sorting through books as part of a de-cluttering process. I was looking through a book published in 1952, entitled "Nurse's Handbook of Obstetrics"--something I picked up at a library book sale. I came across this drawing of maternity dress patterns. Um, those women look spectacularly NOT pregnant...