Counting Sleep

Keira has been a real pain to get to bed as of late. 

She always insists on having Iria lay down with her before falling asleep, and then is up in a flash right after Iria leaves the room. Tonight we kept picking her up and bringing her back to bed, so much so that Iria starting keeping tabs.

She finally fell asleep on the 13th try, having only managed to get halfway down the stairs before passing out.

Happy New Year!

Lukas and Gwen

Lukas got a surprise visit from his buddy Gwen today.

Bike!

One of Keira's favorite words (and things) is "bike".

Here she is on her much treasured Christmas present from Grandpma and Grandpa. 

It is a cool training bike with two wheels and no pedals. The kids learn to push themselves along and they develop their balance as they glide. Keira is still pretty much walking it, but I have seen her try and push off once or twice. She is very athletic and daring... more so than our other kids were at that age.

Gator Lunch

Lennon and Lukas joined me in eating a Cajun style alligator dish for lunch.

Katharine was ferverorantly scribbling away at a "Save the Wildlife" poster when we were leaving...

Future dreams

Putting Lennon to bed...

When he grows up he wants to be a knight, a hunter, a zoo keeper, an animal scientist and a forest keeper.

Training Pocket

Keira is going through a potty training refresher course this week, and is putting her trainers to good use for carrying Iria's phone around.

I think I'll go clean mine off right now- in this house you never know where it has been.

Sticker Fun

The kids broke out their Christmas gifts from my Aunt Susan. She always sends them great presents- this year they got two really cool sticker books, some creative drawing pads, and a bunch of art supplies. A fairy and knight sticker session transitioned into an afternoon of fun and imaginative dress-up play.

Thanks, Aunt Susan!

Christmastime with Cornerstone

The Cornerstone class had a Christmas weekend lunch today, celebrating our continued (and growing) fellowship.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Evening

Last night the frousins got together to celebrate Jesus's and Ray's (Brian's Dad) birthday, with some extended family in tow. After the festivities we all had a brief ornament exchange. 

Lots of fun was had until the kids starting melting down near the end- some of them having been up for almost 18 hours by that point. Four out of five kids were screaming in the car for the first half of the ride home, with Katharine humming to herself as loudly as she could in order to drown out the noise.

Iria and I both fell asleep on the couch that night, a first for us.