We had a moment of extra craziness the other day:

stair sledding with pillows!

The kids used to do this frequently...back when they were younger than Elena is now. Funny how it doesn't work quite as well now that they are all bigger!

It was still a fun event!

Happy Birthday, little one!

Here's Elena with some of her presents and her cake.

She enjoyed her special day! :)

This is the scene that met me when I walked back into the house after changing a light bulb in the garage:

The kitchen table, while strew with homework, was surprisingly empty--no kids.

Apparently, the first of Tanners two loose upper teeth had just "fallen out" while he and Alia were giving each other spelling tests. Alia, who has some experience in these matters, deemed the second tooth"ready".

They were working on getting the second tooth out when Martin arrived home. The second tooth did indeed come out ...and there was much exuberance and rejoicing!

:)

Are we ready yet? It snowed this week and we took some time on Saturday to go sledding. We took this one photo at home before we went, and the smiles stayed big like this all afternoon!

Tanner loved our friend's dish sled....he would go down spinning!

Elena took turns going downhill with Mom & Dad, as did Alia. But Alia also went by herself and with a friend.

A good time was had by all!
Happy Sledding!

You should have heard the laughter as Dad made his way through Elena's tunnel tonight! He even "wore" it to call Tanner out of the tub....and the laughter continued!

Just thought you might like to share our crazy moment! :)

This was our New Year's Eve project. It's a 500 piece puzzle. Alia took the photo of the finished piece and she was our helper. Tanner & Elena each did their own, smaller puzzles.

We paused mid-puzzle to celebrate with ice cream and/or root beer floats. It was a fun evening!

Happy 2010!

Here are a few pictures from our trip to the farm:

Tanner at the tree. He decorated the branch with the little wooden people. He was very pleased. The branch was very glad the wooden people aren't heavy!










Christmas morning. Everyone in the family was up at a reasonable, if early, time! (I don't remember what everyone is gesturing at! :)











Back at home, Alia loved her new bookcase. It has been stocked with her "library"!


And, wouldn't you know! Santa gave the youngest child the reddest chapstick! We wiped red chapstick off her face for days!



Happy Holidays to you all, and best wishes for the new year!