that's disgusting!

about a month ago libby learned to say disgusting. it still cracks me up to hear her say it.

early december

okay, so i'm a little behind. but here are some pictures and happenings from earlier this month:

asleep in her chair, again.

maria really enjoys playing piano. she's had a lot of fun playing christmas music and she started playing in the "hymns made easy" book. i admire her motivation. she likes to play things that are challenging.

i love the days when school is done happily and peacefully.

before you freak out, this is NOT the plunger for the toilet. this is for the kitchen sink. yes, still gross, but not as bad as the other. she's "strumming" it. she was using it as her guitar.

the fort/house/pirate ship we built in the front room.

earlier this month we celebrated hudson's birthday. he is four now. man, time goes by way too fast. he had a great birthday.

he got an adventure set with a flashlight, binoculars and a compass.

hugging all his presents.

new clothes. i had to take the pants back, tho - he didn't like them. they never like what i pick out which is why this year, for christmas, i didn't give any of them clothes.

and the next day was ethan's birthday.

hudson, the little stinker, snuck in there at the last second to "help" dad blow out the candles.

christmas pictures coming soon.

favorite kid quote of the week

hudson: i feel something, like, scratching in the crack of my bum . . . i think it's a bee.

christmas tree

we got a christmas tree - lovingly picked out by my niece and cut by my bro-in-law. lincoln likes it. he rolls right over there in his little walker and plays with it. that was okay until we decorated it last night. we'll see how that goes.

the kids had so much fun decorating the tree that they were still talking about it this morning.

school with libby

libby gets bored during school. poor girl. i try to keep her busy but there's no one activity that holds her attention for very long. a lot of times she's left to her own devices. sometimes that's bad. sometimes it's just funny. i thought these things were kinda funny.

pinching the wall.

reading in lincoln's walker.

for you homeschooling mom's, any tips for keeping a not-even-two-year-old-yet busy during school? i've only figured out how to divide my time between hudson and maria. they are so young that they are time-intensive for me. what about libby? how do you school so many kids at once?

only look if you want to see seriously cute kids!

man, my kids are cute . . .

look how big he's getting!

finally lost that front tooth. the next one is coming soon. she'll be able to say "all i want for christmas is my two front teeth."

maria's snaggle tooth

i can't believe this tooth hasn't come out yet. it appears to be hangin' on for dear life.

squeaky voice

libby has been sick this week. luckily, it never got very bad. but she did end up with a cute little squeaky voice. here is a compilation of the videos we took in effort to record her voice. she's crying in the second video but it's not as bad as it looks. she's crying because she doesn't want to take a nap, not because she's sick. her squeaky voice is long gone already so i'm glad we got some of it on video.

funny things kids say and pictures from this week

usually hudson is the one to say funny things but this week it's been maria tickling my funny bone.

yesterday i called the kids to come for school.

maria: argh! i don't want to do school! (and so on)

hudson (with a smile): i would love to do school mom!

maria: hmph! why does he always make better choices than me? i'm older than he is!

i told her that was a pretty good question.


while whining that there wasn't anything good to eat she said, "i feel like in my dreams there is better food."

there was another one but i can't remember at the moment (typical). if i remember later i will put it right here.

yup, another fall-asleep-while-eating picture. i take these as proof that she really is tired but when i put her down to nap she won't sleep.

this is a little out of focus but we just love the face he's making.

what a cutie!

cowboy hudson's at it again.

a cowboy's life is hard.

link's new trick

more of the usual

hudson and maria play well together most of the time. they were having so much fun on this day that they had to take nap together.

little linkies. he's so cute.

always happy to visit with anyone.

libby. so libby. she'd gotten herself ready for the day. this picture was taken in the morning before i had a chance to change her diaper. notice the duct tape around her diaper? this is what we've had to resort to.

so cute in her little hat.

she was suppose to be napping. she's got maria's slip on.

we enter a new stage:

smart aleck.

we went to vote this evening. it's about five blocks from our house, directly down the street. we were in a hurry - ethan had to get back to work. about a block from our house maria finally buckled herself. to make less of her situation with her angry parents she said something like, "well, we're almost home anyway." ethan said, "ya, you were supposed to buckle a long time ago." maria's response?

"a long time ago - like when the dinosaurs were around? ha ha (laughing at herself)."

oh, how cute. her first smart alecky comment. a monumental milestone has been reached.

pumpkin walk

every year we go to the pumpkin walk. this year's theme was "the magic of animation". every scene depicted a story from animation made with pumpkins.

hudson and maria ready to go.

libby is always ready to go anywhere.

here were some of our favorite scenes:

"cloudy with a chance of meatballs" is one of our favorite movies.

this was a christmas scene and ethan and i loved the tree. notice the presents are pumpkins.

this is "monsters inc."

"madagascar"

the monkeys from madagascar.

the penguins from madagascar.

"sponge bob square pants" - not one of our favorite animations but they did such a great job.

"up"

we like when people get really creative. some people just paint faces on the pumpkins but we like when people use the pumpkins and other things to make the character look as "realistic" as possible. ethan and i think it would be fun to do a scene as a family when the kids are older.

lincoln - 6 months old

lincoln is now 6 months old. he is such a cutie. he laughs all the time. he is also moving all the time. he is so wiggly! if he is sitting in his car seat in the house he kicks his legs to make the car seat rock - i should get a video of that sometime. he is tall but thin (for a baby) so all his clothes are too short, or if they are long enough, way loose around the middle. he does have some fairly chunky thighs for being so skinny.

and he has two teeth! i can't believe it. all my other kids waited until about 9 months to get teeth, and then it was only one. but poor linky got two teeth at the same time. he didn't like it.

check out those chompers.

he's really good at sitting up now.

he's a lot of fun and very patient with the other kids. he's pretty vocal and makes all sorts of cute baby noises. we all love him so much!

i'm so glad we have him. some people think he was the "accident" in the family - someone even said that at church. but he is not. we knew it was his time to come. and even though my life is really crazy with four young kids, i'm actually really glad that he is here right now. he forces me to slow down when i'm feeling rushed - you can't rush a nursing baby. he cheers me up when i'm having a rough day - his smiles are so infectious. he snuggles me when all the other kids are running around like crazy people - it calms me down.

i'm very, very grateful for my little linkies.