all I want for Christmas...

 This is technically her fourth lost tooth, but its her first front tooth (and boy, was the baby tooth looking skeewampus, so we're glad to have it gone.) She was so excited to post the pictures for grandmas and grandpas to see.

I'm sure by Christmas we'll be singing the whole song.

what we've been up to

Spencer recently turned 2. Just like his older siblings, cake does not interest him. He specifically requested donuts for his birthday cake. 

I love this outfit he's put together.

I also love this outfit that Whitney's put together. This is her daily ensemble lately. Glittery t-shirt, frilly skirt over funky leggings, messenger bag, and sunglasses come headband.

We decorated eggs for easter. 

We had a muppet movie night in sleeping bags.

Spence recently spent 2 weeks in a cast unnecessarily. But, I assure you, he made the most of the situation.

And Stu lost his first tooth! He was so excited to get his first visit from the tooth fairy and subsequent trip to the Dollar Store. Since then, he asked me how much it costs to bounce on the giant bungee sling at the mall. When I told him it was an exorbitant $4, he gasped excitedly, "I only have to lose 4 teeth?!" I thought about suggesting plasma donation, but he'll discover that soon enough.

just stuff

We've had lots of beautiful weather this month. We spend hours everyday riding bikes and scooters in the cul-de-sac. This fine day pictured here, we had a pistachio picnic. Spencer has recently fallen in love with Stuart's old winter coat which is too small and, I suspect, too warm on an 80 degree day. Whitney had the right idea and sat in the shade.

She never leaves home without a tutu. 

They love playing with the kids down the street. Stuey and Joey are inseparable despite a 3 year age difference.

My 3 little princesses can't handle eating a frozen gogurt without a napkin wrapped around it to keep their hands from getting cold. Spencer has recently begun insisting that I tape the napkin in place so that it doesn't shift. I've attempted to stage a resistance but they fight me back every time. 

Stuart, my little people pleaser, found a happy alternative for both of us. We've recently discovered that you can check out hand puppets from the library, and he loves to have his dog feed him a gogurt.

Spencer has adopted a "Teetle" (turtle) and "Hooper" (the hampster from PBS Kids).

This is a class project Whitney did for Valentine's Day. If you can't read it, it says, " My mom loves me and why because mom always says I love you. Edmond is in love [with me] I know because Connor told me." She does not lack confidence, my Whitney.

christmas in february

For those of you requesting "new" pictures, this is the newest I've got. Conveniently though, I still haven't posted any Christmas pictures yet, so here ya go!

That is seriously all I've got. They're reading the Night Before Christmas in their Christmas pj's. (We didn't even bother buying a jammie shirt for Stu this time around. It would have been flushing money down the toitie. He's pushing his train across the carpet as I type, in "naked pecs" as he calls them.)

And here's a cute little painting I did from someone else's genius again. (This is from a book called Lapin Plays Possum. The illustrator is Scott Cook. I love his stuff. Obviously. Maybe this year I'll paint something of my own.)

halloween and stuff

Its already Christmas and I just realized I never posted Halloween pictures. Whitney looked so beautiful and was so proud of her costume, that it didn't occur to either of us to put any make up on her. That means she felt pretty stinking beautiful. Thank you Aunt Kristina! As you can see from Spencer's costume, the older kids wouldn't have felt so excited and proud of their costumes if it had been up to me. I blame last year. My costume efforts met with so little success that my confidence hid timidly in the corner this year.

Rob's costume was pretty awesome too. Can you tell who he is?

Caution: Brag Fest Ahead

Whitney is my little budding artist. She got the quarterly award for most outstanding Kindergarten art student. She loves to draw and paint. This is one of her favorite books. She asks to check it out from the library every time we go. She loves the beautiful illustrations.  

Last Sunday morning, she asked to use my oil pastels and copied every page of the book that she could before she ran out of black paper. 

I love how well she captured the emotion of each of these.

You have to click on this one to get a better look at how well she copied the color and strokes and smudging on this one. I LOVE IT!!!

Its possible that I may be swayed heavily by love, but I think she may be the most beautiful, talented girl I've ever encountered.

more goings-on

I take fewer and fewer pictures every year. More often than not I forget to bring my camera to fun or important things. During the 11 days Kristina was here for a visit, I only managed to pull out the camera once. Here is a selection from that occasion:

Aunt Kristina picked up a little treat for the kids at IKEA: an art easel.  A day never passes without a drawing session at the easel for each kid. Strong work Aunt Kristina!

Again, totally unrelated: I LOVE the places Stuart falls asleep.

This is me working on my piece at the Round Rock Chalk Walk (and my little helper keeping me company briefly.)

Thanks to James Christensen's creativity and talent, it turned out pretty well. Unfortunately I don't have any good pictures of the finished product. With all the coming and going of Rob and the kids, the camera didn't make it back before it went to its new home. This is the best I've got (but you get the idea): 

While Rob's parents were in town, we did LOTS of movie watching and card playing and food eating. We also took a lovely morning trip to the botanical gardens in Austin. The weather was perfect, the company was wonderful, and even the kids loved the gardens and fun places to run and climb and play. Its an ethereal Austin must-see. And then there was McDonalds, which was so transcendant that it finally occurred to me to pull out the crappy phone cam. Once again, here's a selection from the one time I pulled out the camera during their trip (and didn't even manage to get a picture of the kids with their Mutti and Papa.)

Good times. Noodle salad. :)

kindergarten

So much fun stuff has occurred lately! A visit from Aunt Kristina, Whitney started Kindergarten, the triumphant return of Rob's parents from their mission in South Africa and consequent visit to Texas, a street art festival, Stuart's preschool co-op, and many less note-worthy but time-consuming blather.

First things first: Whitney LOVES kindergarten!

On her way out the door on the first day of school.

These pictures are unrelated to Kindergarten except that that is the cute face she wears to school everyday. Actually, this is a trial hairdo we did for the Primary Program, which I completely forgot about on the day of the program. Good thing I took 200 pictures of the practice run. Look how beautiful that hair is! 

Ah man I love that face!

Anyway, back to Kindergarten: Tonight, as we were snuggling at bedtime, she sighed deeply and said, "Mom, do you know what I love? School." Yesterday at dinner, Rob asked the customary "what was the best part of your day and what was the worst?" Whitney's "worst" was coming home from school. When I semi-involuntarily pouted, she rescinded her answer. Too late. I get it. School's cool. I'm not.

This is what happens when her dad oversees the homework initiative:

(That says "2 dogs pooping down the street." Make sure you click on this one for a close up. You don't want to miss any details.)

The assignment was to write a sentence and draw a picture to illustrate it. Rob claims he read her the instructions, but before he got a chance to offer her help, she had already "completed" the assignment. I tore it out the next morning (but gave it it's rightful place of honor on the fridge) and had her re-do it. Afterall, she had to sit in the penalty box on the 2nd day of school for giggling about "poopy" in music class. Her teacher reported this to me, laughing and slapping her knee. I'm grateful she has a sense of humor (clearly the music teacher does not)--and I'm sure it will continue to come in handy for just such scenarios--but I opted not to push our luck with the homework assignment.

More to come. But not tonight.

You're welcome, Dad.