Sorry for my, 'lack of conversation', in my posts, I have still not been feeling myself. These are just some pictures of the girls being goofy and asking me to take picture of them while they are doing so....

H&N's b-day party

Hannah and Nora's b-day cakes...I made them individual cakes--one purple, one pink--at their request



Yes, I know---wow, a picture of me. I am always behind the camera but this time I am behind the video camera--and thanks to my friend, Robin, for taking pictures she got one of me as well.





My mom by the end of the night with some of her grandkids

opening more gifts from mom and dad

sleeping bag chairs--what a great idea.
This is how Nora looked for church, although it was very cold so she had a turtleneck under with also a coat.
Oh, the sugar, here we go.

Birthday morning

Hannah and Nora's birthday.
Nora loving her pink donut for breakfast, along with her pink decorations. She is very excited about today.
Hannah also very excited about today, of course.
Opening some presents
Dress up clothes. They chose to look like a princess for church that day, they did look adorable though.

Ahhhh, quiet. I love when they put themselves in such cute positions like this. I have been so sick---I haven't felt this bad in so long---I think about 7 years. I am sure that I have a double ear infection and my throat hurts so bad...and the coughing, oh the coughing--I have to take extremely shallow breaths to not cough and I find myself just holding my breath and when I cough it is the kind of cough that continues until my eyes are watering. I haven't found a med that is really helping yet. Good news is---I can't sleep, SO I find myself laying in bed and wondering what to do to pass the time so why not have some devotional time....so, God and I have been having a lot of time together lately. Thankfully the girls have been doing well...I pray this doesn't pass on to them. We finished our trip to Italy today next week we are off to China--I am very excited about this one!

CRAZY WEATHER

Crazy weather we are having! The picture below was taken last year during this week.
And this picture was taken yesterday and today it was almost 70---I actually had my windows open because it was too warm in my house! With our new curriculum we are doing our last story was done in watercolor so we decided to do our own watercolor painting---thankfully it was a good day because there would be no way I would allow them to do that in the house, not with their record.

Italy....cards for dad...MORE CLEANING

So we recently started a new curriculum called 5 in a row. I am lovin' it and so are the girls. You read one book a week, or however you like to do it, and each day learn something different about the story---Geography, Science, Art, etc....---So on Monday we started a story called, Papa Piccolo, which takes place in Venice Italy--we are learning all about Italy, eating Italian food, learning some Italian words and having a great time doing it. For today we were talking about a father's love and we decided to make daddy some cards and some of his favorite cookies. We were well under way when I realized I was out of eggs so I got the girls set with making their cards and walked next door to my neighbors house to ask for an egg, (I live in a townhouse, so when I say next door, I am talking 20 seconds or less) so I was in there maybe 4 minutes and when I should have known but YES, I returned to another mess....Marker EVERYWHERE! I guess it was time my counters needed a really good scrubbing.

Nap Time NIghtmare

Another 'nap time nightmare'....I allowed them to be up playing in their room during the second half of their nap. I was busy doing desk work downstairs and I heard Emma use the bathroom and didn't realize they followed her into the bathroom until I heard something roll across the ceiling where I was sitting and then I quickly sat up and realized---the bathroom---below are some pictures, after I removed them from the scene. I just refilled the Q-tips so there were about 100 of them scattered throughout, but mostly in the toilet, the floor was covered with water from the toilet overflowing and Nora's attempt to scrub the toilet--see the toilet brush below, they also emptied two containers of hand soap, a thing of bubbles, shampoo and an entire container of wipes. They work so fast....we are still working on a punishment for this one. Right away they smiled and said that they wanted to work for their punishment so I know that I working for wasted products is not going to work anymore. They had an initial punishment...I had to give them a shower and made them sit on the couch quietly till dad came home....we think we came up with something but if anyone has some pointers--Please pass it on.

Happy Thanksgiving

Here are some pictures from my mothers house. We had a very nice, quiet thanksgiving dinner early on Thursday morning. Everything came out perfect and it was a very relaxing time with Kevin and the girls. We ate early, cuddled on the couch to watch a good movie, then we had some hot drinks with dessert. Then we went to my mom's house to see the rest of the family--pics below.

Nora being goofy
My brothers--Ben and Chris
Their wives--Ashely and Mandy
My mom showing off her apple pie
Indiana being gorgeous

So I am still feeling sick. I haven't had energy to do much of anything lately. Thankfully the girls seem to be feeling fine. In the past every time I have ever been sick, they have as well and it takes everything out of me to survive the day. So, we have just been taking it easy the past few days, well really it has been a week that I have been feeling this bad, hopefully by Monday I will feel better and be able to carry on with life again.

Many years ago

Kevin's mom recently sent me some photos of her wedding. This picture is my favorite. I love the expression on Roy's (kevin's dad) face. Wow, does he look like a trouble maker or what?

Being Silly

Here are the girls being silly before bed. Not much to say today, I haven't been feeling very well and I am very tired, sorry. Should have some better posts soon.

Stolen material

Well my husband, Kevin, has started to blog again, which is great--he has a very unique view on the world and I love to hear his thoughts, BUT---he is starting to steal material! For example, yesterday 3 posts--The sleeping position of my darling Nora, The candy wrapper that would not open, and my painting experience last night. (OK, so in my defense--Kevin did not feel like helping at all and told me to paint the doors without taking them down, which I did....he fell asleep and when I got to the bathroom door and needed to paint the inside it moved every time I hit it with a brush, so I had no choice but to shut the door---and the rest is history.) Wow, I never realized fumes like that could take away feeling in your arms--it is unfortunate that 8 or so hours later I can still taste the paint in my mouth, so weird. So, if you would like to read about these things you need to check out Kevin's blog--I have it linked on my site or
http://pakinjaksramblecorner.blogspot.com/ click here.

A surreal morning

I am not a morning person. I have to be up because of Kevin, the girls, and to spend some time with God before I start my day, but if it was my choice, I would be in bed till at least 8. What makes it so hard is that I am a night owl so I am usually up every night till about midnight sometimes later--my most productive hours seem to be after 9. So, when Kevin's alarm is going off at 4:30....*roar roar*, I am not ready to start my day. Some mornings are God-given mornings though, and this particular morning, pictured below, the girls quietly came down the stairs, climbed on the couch with some books and were just reading. It was SURREAL and I had to capture the moment with my camera. Oh, I pray they are night owl's like me.

Oh, the SALT

What is it with the salt? They have been doing great not getting into things so I slacked....I used the mouthwash and left the cabinet door open when into my bedroom to get dressed and when I came out---SALT---and laughter. Yes, I know it is fun to watch it pour out all over the place and to rub our hands in it and then rub our hands in our hair--so, I was calm and I just put them to work...after having them vacuum it up they washed my walls again. Hopefully it will be a while before we see something like this again. ( They did try to clean it up themselves before I came out of my room, as you can see the wipes they used about 20 wipes trying to clean it up. )