Happy 9th Birthday!

My funny cutie boy Will turns nine years old today! Oh, man. Has it been that long? Nine years ago today Rob said, "Another boy! Blake has a brother!" We are so blessed.

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A picture tells a thousand words...

Back to School

Back to school...back to school...
The three "big" kids had to wake up bright and early this morning for their first day back after two weeks off school. The boys were dragging. But Audrey was all peppy and ready to see her friends. She said the only thing she does not like about school is that she has to leave me all day. What a sweetie! Of course I was sad to see them go, too.

This is one of my favorite pictures. We got Audrey the most darling baby doll I have ever seen. I made her a fluffy pink dress with a matching bow and blanket. Of all the things she got for Christmas she said that baby is her favorite. She defiantly plays with her more than anything else. I am so glad that God created Audrey to be such a sweet girly-girl. I'll keep encouraging playing "house" as long as I can.

Blake built the LEGO Tajmahal! It took him 14 hours and 55 minutes. Amazing! It's beside the Iffel Tower in the boys' room.

Will built the LEGO Carousal! It actually goes around and plays music. He did an awesome job! It was his first big LEGO project. He finished it about 30 minutes before Blake finished his. Right at 14 hours 25 minutes.

Some of Tess's favorite books! Baby Jesus, Christmas Cookies and the B-I-B-L-E!


Although we were sad to see the big kids go, Tess and I had an awesome day at home today! We are starting to focus on letters of the alphabet. She WANTS to learn. We were reading a book last week and we can across the word watermelons. She pointed to it and said every letter, "w...a...t.."etc. What the heck? I first realized her fascination with letters when she started pointing out all the t's, e's, and s's - from her name. That was three weeks after she was home! Since then I just talk about the letters in words and obviously she's paying attention! So, now I'm going through the curriculum my kids used in kindergarten. Seriously!

Also, Tess will start preschool this Friday! I am so excited. It's just three hours once a week. This is not normal preschool...she will be with a speech pathologist, occupational therapist and a physical therapist! And, there are only 7 kids in her class. Each kid has their own set of goals. Tess's primary goal is to have age appropriate language - so talk like she's four. Right now she talks like a 2 1/2 year old. The class is set up like preschool and the "teachers" are young and energetic! Each week they will give me a set of goals to work on for that week. I am so pumped!

I have to tell a story. We went sled riding last week on this awesome hill! I'm telling you, I have gone sledding a million times in my life, and this was one of the best hills! They are monster hills with really big slope landings. Well, Will and Tess were on a pink sled together and they started going crooked and somehow flipped off. Tess took a face dive into the snow. I was going down on a sled right behind them. I scooped up Tess and she was crying saying, "all done!" Poor baby. We all sat there for a while showing her sympathy - which she loves! Despite a bruised chin, nose and forehead, she decided to sled more. We were there for two more hours and had the best time! There were no more accidents - just four tired kids and a dog-tired mommy!

So, Tess loves to tell the story of what happened. She says, "Pink sled, snow, fall down, hurt, ouch, bummer! Pink sled broken, yellow sled okay!" She has told that to at least 15 people. She likes the reactions she gets. Lots of "ohhh, poor Tess!"

Thank you, Jesus for a wonderful Christmas and four perfectly healthy babies. We are blessed. It takes my breath away.

Happy Twenty-Ten!

My kids inform me that I cannot say "two thousand ten" I HAVE to say "twenty-ten". So...
Happy Twenty-Ten from our family to yours!