Its amazing to me what will entertain a little one.  Emma was having so much fun playing in a box. I think a plain card board box is one of the best toys for  children.  They all seem to love to play in them.  Its always so fun to see what adventures they will have with just a plain old card board box.  "M" was using this one as a bed for her and her doll.  Oh the joy of being a kid.

Our Winter Snow Storm

We had quite an amazing snow storm this winter.  We ended up with two feet of snow.  It is slowly melting away.  But it is taking a very long time.  We had another snow storm come in, it wasn't as big about tw0 to three inches of snow came that time.  The last couple of days it has gotten up in to the forties and I have been so excited it has felt so wonderful. 

                        Here is our little Emmy out in our snow with Challee.

 

It took us a couple of days to get the cars uncovered.

I am really looking forward to spring!  But at the same time I realize snow can be so beautiful.

Halloween Carving Party

Im a little behind in posting these pictures,  but I thought I would share some of the pictures from our Pumpkin Carving Party.

William carved Emmys pumpkin and it was so cute she was having her pumpkin be her baby and then feeding it a special pumpkin bottle.  : )

Lochs pumpkin is really scary I didn't realize we hadn't gotten it all cleaned out before we took this picture. 

Ta Da!  : )

Autumn Walk

The children and I went for a walk on Sunday it was so beautiful.  The leaves are just breath taking and the weather as been just right, just a little nippy to need a sweater but not to cold.  It actually has been raining the last couple of days but the sun is out this afternoon which is a nice change.

They do so love to be silly!  I Could send this picture to mom to hang on the wall.  It does show us in our true colors : )

     I just love how the light shines on the leaves it so beautiful!

Loch's Birthday

Loch is seven years old today.  I think he had a really nice birthday.  He was a little worried about it.  I think he was afraid I wouldn't get him any presents or maybe he was really afraid I wouldn't get him any of the things he wanted.  But I did and it turned out really well!  I got a bike for him, its kind of big for him but he can ride it.  I think it will fit him better next summer, but it will still work for now.  He needs that physical activity very much in his life.  He is such a sweet guy he loves to give lots and lots of hugs and kisses.  He really loves his little sister and I can tell he really looks up to Taylor and William.  I made him an ice cream cake, this one was tamer : ) a simple chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream in the middle. Before I frosted it he thought it looked like a big Oreo cookie.  He is really in to Knights and weaponry right now.  I think he has been influenced by his older brothers. : )  He also really likes Bionicles, the older boys got him a couple for his birthday and then he received some birthday money and spent it on another Bionicle, but he was so excited because he had found the very one he had wanted so badly.  I do wish he will be able to keep that enthusiasm as he grows older.   I'm so grateful to have him in our family!  He definitely add spice to our lives.  : )

The Start to a New School Year

I am still amazed at how fast summer has gone by it has truly just flown by.  I do love fall though, and its fun to be starting school back up again.  Loch has been enjoying drawing.  I thought it would be fun to share one of his drawings with you.

 

He was very proud of that flame he drew.  It was pretty cute.  I was impressed by the detail he put into it.  Its hard to see as well in the photo but it is a great flame : )  Challee and I had fun yesterday.  I had gotten a drawing CD and so we watched it together and did the activities that went along with it.   We really had a good time with it.  Then the book I had ordered came, Yea!  Its called Mary Frances learn to Knit and Crochet.  I have been wanting to teach her how to knit and crochet and thought this book would be a fun way to share the process with her.  Its about a little girl learning to knit and crochet (obviously from the title).  To help her she meets some magical friend who make the task easier for her to accomplish it. So we had fun reading that together yesterday also.  Taylor is working on learning how to count in Number Bases and to do conversions.  Well we are trying to learn : ) I start to obsess in trying to figure it out.  Searching the web for sites that would explain it more. I did find some pretty good sites and we did figure it out untill we got over 64,( he is working on the 8 base right now)but then we were stuck again.  Its actually rather fun trying to figure this crazy stuff out.  I personally think my brain is expanding of course some times am afraid I might try and stretch it to far : )  Willow needs to go to the library to get some books.  He wants to study the Philippians so he is going to study the history and the Myth and Legends from that country and then he'll write about what he has learned.  I think it will be neat.  We will also through in the foods from that country to if we can.  Then when he is done with that country he'll move on to the next. : ) This summer he has been working on a computer game we found which helps you learn where all the countries are in the world and he has learned were they all are it was pretty impressive.

Well so far that is what our school year is starting to look like challenging but adventurous.

Challee's Birthday

Our dear Challee is ten years old now,oh where has the time gone!  It has gone by so very fast.  I do hope that she had a wonderful birthday. Here she is with her new bike.   I also made her an artist bag.  That she can take with her and do her artwork.

 

 

I tried something new with Challee's Birthday cake this year she wanted an icecream cake in the shape of a butterfly.  It was really challenging to get it to work right but we did it.  I think next time we should keep the flavors a little more simple : ) Her cake ended up being a strawberry cake with chocolate frosting and Rocky road ice cream in the center.  I think it was a flavor over load. I forgot to take pictures of it before we started cutting into it but Im kind of excited to try another one again.   Maybe Loch would like one for his birthday.