Around here

Our own personal Sandlot, courtesy of Ms. Frankie.

This costume was from one of my dance recitals when I was Kate's age.  It's her favorite one to wear.  Glad I saved it all these years!

Double wedding

Meet "Mark" (C), "Jennifer" (K), "Lukey" (H) and "Babes" (M).  They have an ongoing game of family...pay attention because they morph into it at any moment around here.

And of course, their youngest "Babe-skadoodle"

Being a 'Dufflepud'

Bailey has a little spunk left in her, but we don't see it very often.  She spends most of her days like this, somewhere in the house.

LLLC Art Show

Hudson has been working hard to make some great art for the annual LLLC Art Show!

Later that day, Kate gathered up all her art work she's done so far this year with Mrs. Maureen and put on her own art show.  I guess she was inspired : )

Ice

We studied the Ice Age in History this week.  After we finished our lesson, the kids had a race to see who could melt an ice-cube in their hand the fastest.

And how cool is it (pun intended, haha!) that the week we're learning about the Ice Age in school, we have an ice event a couple days later??

Hudson had been sick that morning, so he had to stay in.  

He was a great sport about it...never complained.

Poor little guy.  

I know it's hard to miss out on sledding, especially when it's a weekend and Daddy is home!

Brooks was quite content to stay in his nice, warm bed.

The hill at the seminary intermural fields is a great one for sledding.  Even though there wasn't that much ice still on the ground, it was slick enough to get the job done!

Whee!!

Ear piercing

Kate got her ears pierced today!

She's been asking to for a while now.  From the beginning, we've explained to her that it's a big responsibility to care for them, and we would want to see evidence from her that she is ready to handle that when the time came.  She really rose to our challenge, and ,since that initial conversation, has grown so much in personal responsibility and taking care of her things.  So, we decided it was time!

The best part about it was I got to surprise her!

We were at the mall getting a birthday gift for a friend.  After we had finished shopping, I told her how proud we are of her and how we'd noticed what a great job she had been doing of caring for her things, etc.  Then I asked her if she'd like to go get her ears pierced : )

She about squeezed my hand off, she was so excited!!  I LOVE a good surprise!

A post-piercing celebratory cookie : )