I Wonder if it's Nature or Nurture

Or, where on earth did she pick this up?

Happy (Chinese) New Year

We celebrated last night in style.




Or something reasonably similar to style, anyway.

Alison Hearts Pharaoh

We went to see Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat on Friday. Everyone loved it, but it's Alison's favorite favorite movie. She LOVES it. And she really enjoyed seeing it live. Her favorite favorite character in the musical is Pharaoh, and afterward, she wanted to meet him. She was so tickled (as was he; he liked having a fan!) and wanted to get a picture taken... it was very cute.

Elaborate Justifications

I really ought to find a friend who's a brilliant photographer and is willing to take pictures of my kids, because they're so dang cute, and it's so hard to choose that I end up spending WAY more than I should on photos.






The older girls called this one her "evil plotting" picture...








But, really, could you choose just one?

Snow Fairies

Sorry it's sideways...

It's All Makeup, Really

So, Megan's taken an interest in theater makeup of sorts, mostly wounds though... she's been experimenting for a while. The other day, she came up with a "cut" on her hand and freaked us out until we realized it was fake. Anyway, she's got Caitlyn involved in the process.




But, afterward, it's not always quite so glamorous.

Making Breakfast

Behind, behind, I know. It's hard to find things to write about in January... we don't do a whole heck of a lot around here. A couple of weekends ago, Caitlyn had Merry sleep over, and the next morning, they decided that they wanted to make waffles for breakfast... by themselves.


They did a pretty good job, too.

Rockin' Out

We finally got batteries for Alison's Christmas present. Kristen really liked singing with it.

No, snow but still a snowman!

Sunday, since our church is at 2:30, we decided to make a snowman cake for treat. Mom did the frosting, and the girls did the decorating.




Kristen did the eating...


And voila! Snowman Grandpa!

I Get a Little Help

Caitlyn had a project for Girl Scouts to make a set of flashcards of either the alphabet or number 1-20. She chose to do the alphabet, and Megan helped out by taking pictures.

Oh, and by being in a couple. This one's "girls"


And this one's "friend"

I just liked the pictures.

What We Did on New Years Eve

Took the whole stinking day, too.

Russell Turns the Big 4-0

Even though it was a big deal, to him at least, we didn't throw a big party (the downside of having a birthday on December 30th is the party on the 1st prevents anything big for your birthday. Good thing he's old enough to understand that!): just presents and some cake after dinner (which just about killed Alison; she wanted to know ALL DAY whether or not it was evening yet).

Alison was his helper... Here she is, explaining the present.


Opening the big box; Alison, at least is excited.



Notice the outfit change? We decided that Daddy needed new clothes (and shoes) for his birthday. Alison's looking a bit anxious here...

Finally! He gets to open a present by himself! (Maybe it's because he's wielding a knife?)


Megan decided that the candles -- yes, there are 40 of them -- needed to be in a swirl. Here they are, before we lit the bonfire.


And yes, he did get them all out in one breath. I guess being long winded is good for something...