Hazel Julia

Now ten days old, meet the newest love of our lives...








I feel great really. Other than the emotional blow Ellie dealt me minutes after arriving home from the hospital.

"Mom, why is your stomach still big?"

"Well, it takes a little while to get back to normal." (Never mind that "a little while" translates to about a year for me) And then I motioned, "At least I'm not this big anymore."

"Yeah, you're not one hundred big!"

Nothing like a 4 year old's honest convictions to boost your postpartum self esteem.

Got giggles?

I was laying down the other day and for some crazy reason Jonah gets it in his head he wants to rest with me. Not quite one minute into our rest and Jonah starts laughing.

"What's so funny, Jonah?"

"I was just having a funny dream. Remember at Haigler the bat that was in my suitcase?"

"Yeah, I remember. That was kind of funny." (I'm thinking maybe terrifying's a better word.)

Quiet. And then Jonah starts laughing hysterically.

"What's funny now?"

"I'm having the same dream."

And I'm thinking, I desperately need a nap right now. But then before I know it I can't stop laughing either. And so I guess what I desperately needed was a good laugh. Thanks for keeping me in line, Jonah.

Happy Valentine's Day

Can you feel the love?



And see the stamps all over this girl's face?

I'm a mean, mean mom..

...or so I've been told by my 5 year old. Not only am I a mean, mean mom but if I don't give him 5 pieces of candy, read him a story and sing him a song tonight, I'm not getting a Valentine from him. This makes me a sad, sad mom.

"Well, I'll still make you a Valentine, but you're not getting two."

And one is what I got.

Charlotte Get Your Hair Cut

I take a quick jaunt to Alabama and come back to what has gently been termed a "pixie" cut on Char. If we're being honest it could more accurately be called a bush-wacking by Ellie. Still, I have to admit, it's pretty cute. And now we're twins cause I did the same thing to mine (without Ellie's help).What's funny is that if you ask Char who cut her hair she'll tell you "Amy" (the lady at the salon). Her loyalty is to her sister...a good thing? I'm still deciding.

Not related, but note worthy is that I love, love, love that Jonah considers himself the authority on birds. He for sure knows more than me on the subject (which he's very quick to point out). During lunch the other day he turned his chair around to watch the birds after which his sisters quickly followed suit. It was a little surreal. Silence during meal time. I love that bird feeder.

Christmas Past

Here was our Christmas in a flash.

Ellie's Dance Recital "Up on a Housetop." She totally succeeded in teaching the entire thing to both Char and Josh. I should get a video of that!

Christmas Eve

Christmas morning

"All for the Little Ones' Christmas joys."

Mermaid Mountain for Ellie. (Note: When the 'Constuctive Playthings' catalog inexplicably shows up in the mail next year 2 weeks before Christmas--throw it away immediately!)

A dolly for Char.

And Lego Star Wars for Jonah.

Josh totally got me this year by planning fake magnetic earrings for the girls' stockings and letting me think he put some in my stocking as well so it was a girl thing. They weren't fake and they weren't magnetic.

Char wins this year for being the most excited. True, she didn't have as clear an idea what was going on as the other kids, but this is also why she was so much fun. Every present was the best, including the $1 dollar dolly and clothes Jonah got her.

I'm not sure I've fully come to terms with the fact that the boys in our family are hunters--I just didn't grow up that way. Jonah on the other hand, has completely and irrevocably come to terms with it and was thrilled to have his very own hunting jacket that holds bullets in the front and dead animals in the back. Okay, I may never come to terms with this.

I'm much happier to see him building Legos with Dad.

Ellie's obsession with headbands has no fashion sense to it, but boy is it cute! The one she fashioned the other day had about 5 different clips attached to it. And yes, I let her wear it to church.

Hope everyone had a very merry Christmas!!

Deck the Halls

Ellie has been decking our halls with various ribbon scraps she finds laying around the house and is convinced..."Santa's going to be like, this house has the prettiest decorations!" I quite agree, Ellie.


























































































































































































Jonah had an interesting derision of this particular carol. Rather than 'Tis the season to be jolly, he's been inadvertently singing "Change the season to be jolly." I'm loving it, especially considering my efforts of late to make this holiday as stress-free as possible. We've been having a blast. This week, like everyone else I'm sure, we have something every night. This is how I've decided to approach the busyness. Do we have time for it? Yes. Are there any major conflicts? No. Do we want to be there? Most definitely. So, what's left to be stressed out about? Nothing. We're changing the season to be jolly this year and reaping the benefits.

And these are just some fun pictures of Jonah with the geckos we found in our wood pile. He's fearless with these reptiles.