Backyard Beauty

Pictures of my little cutie... just because!

Christmas Photo Outtakes

The quest for a perfect Christmas photo of the 500 Babies is not for the faint of heart . . .Bribery with cookies may or may not have been involved . . .

Cheesy poses may or may not have been involved . . .

And getting one child in particular to look at the camera was next to impossible . . .

In the end, however, a good time was had by all! (Except for the photographer. She now has a headache.)

Baby Trickery

Hmmm....who is this baby? And who is this baby? Is it the same one as above?

Or could it be a brother? Hmmm....

Meet Mikea!

Our little sweetheart is now legally, officially, 100% ours! I will post pictures from the adoption ceremony later on, but for now enjoy the ones above, kindly taken and put together by our friend Jamie. Thanks, Jamie! And thank you to everyone who has been praying for us the past 19 months. Our prayers have been answered above and beyond what we ever dreamed! Praise God!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

May you never have to supervise an art project involving glue, green rice, and 3 toddlers.

Little Green Guy

A leprechaun arrived early at our house this morning. I'm going to try to keep him around until tomorrow. He's kinda slippery, though.

Waiting for Daddy to Come Home

Snapshots From A Weekday Afternoon

Hanging out together.I wonder what she is thinking about.

Look at the li-li! (lizard)

Dan the acrobat.

The Nurturers

Kids 1, Mom 0

The Play Set

After weeks of talking about it, we finally bought the kids a major outdoor toy. We lucked out because it was even on sale. The play set has a basketball hoop, slide, and a "rock wall" to climb. On one side there are holes to kick a soccer ball and to throw a football through.

After watching the kids play for a few minutes, we made the following observations: Kiki is the best at "shooting" baskets, Dan's strength is climbing, and Joe is good at kicking and throwing. I wonder if we have any future athletes among us? (Other than rhythmic gymnasts, of course.)

But of course you know they had more fun playing with the box:

Let's Go to the Zoo

This past Saturday morning we decided to pack up and head to the zoo. After some initial confusion about what time it was, we made it out of the door by 11:00 which is several hours earlier than we normally manage on Saturdays. (We slept late and blamed it on the time change but then a couple of hours later when our cell phones and TV clocks still had the "old" time we remembered the time didn't change Friday night, but Saturday night. Duh.)

Anywho, the zoo was surprisingly uncrowded for a perfect weekend day, I think because everyone had gone to the "Zoo Boo" on Thursday and Friday. Joe was able to enjoy the animals more now that he's a little older, and we even got Dan and Kiki to look at some. Joe was a little frightened at the lion exhibit because one lion got a little testy with the other and let out a menacing growl. He also did not like the rhinocerous. Billy and I did not like the fact that once you walked down to the elephant exhibit, you had quite a hike back uphill to get out because of the construction on the new Africa exhibit. Dan did not like the fact that as his mother was trying to guide the stroller down a steep incline in a narrow passageway he stuck his arm out and it got scraped up.

We didn't take many pictures, but here are a couple from the prarie dog exhibit:

Witness Protection Program

I'm still trying to conceal Kiki's identity, but it's getting harder because she's just too darn cute:

Turtles and Tigers and Dogs, Oh My!

I spotted these cute critters at the Mount Calvary Reformation Fest yesterday evening. There is something curiously familiar about them. What do you think?

Birthday Snapshots

Kiki definitely enjoyed her birthday to the fullest! She smiled when we sang to her, dove into her cake with relish, and squealed with delight when she saw her brand-new baby doll. She wore us out at the Fall Festival because she didn't want to stay still. It was too crowded in the main area of the festival to let her down, so when we got ready to leave we let her run down the hall:

Happy birthday, big girl! We love you!

Happy Birthday Kiki!

Today our little Kiki turns 1! We are planning on have a quick celebration as soon as Billy gets home from school and then we are heading back to school for the Fall Festival.

Here she is catching some z's before the festivities begin:

More birthday news and pictures to come!

I Need a Solution

No, no, I'm not talking about a solution for Kiki's hair. Some days we just let her go with the wild look because that's just what we do. The problem is Dan and Kiki are relentless in their attempts to climb onto the coffee table. After pulling them down about 53 times in a row, I usually give up and flip the table over. But that is never easy because they're always clamoring to get back on while I'm trying to turn it over. Telling them "no" or distracting them with something else only works part of the time.












So far the babies are definitely winning this one.

Let's Make a Pizza

Fortunately for Joe, he has a father who has great ideas for fun activities to do together. Sunday night was make-your-own pizza night and it was a success even though I forgot to buy the pepperoni.

Spreading the sauce

Sprinkling the cheese

Carefully carrying the pizza to the oven

The finished product

As you can clearly see, Joe takes pizza-making very seriously. (I really have no idea why he looks so somber.)