House Full of Munchkins

It’s hard to believe that just a year ago we were all awaiting Eleanor’s arrival (her due date was on my birthday). I’ve thought a lot about what I want to accomplish this coming year and I’ve decided I am joining the bandwagon of the 365 photos project I’ve seen many of my friends doing.

So, between now and Feb 6th, 2011 I will take at least one photo a day. Some will probably be snapshots or poorly lit but I want to document a part of our life each day. I may not be able to edit and upload them daily but my goal is to have at least 7 new photos added to the blog each week.

So, to kick it off here are some pictures from swim lessons this morning:

Reid colors while we wait for Evelyn to finish

Eleanor enjoys some milk

Evelyn shows off her newly painted toes. She was thrilled that the polish stayed on even though I had assured her it would

And a little mishap photo of Eleanor. I didn’t adjust the shutter speed properly in my haste to catch her expression. I have no idea what she was trying to express here but it made me laugh.

Even though its been colder than normal here the kids were still able to ride their bikes and not have to wait until April when the snow melts. I do not miss Minnesota winters. Or snow plows. Or salt trucks.  Or sub-zero days.

Evelyn wanted the boys to wait for her. To which they replied “If you weren’t so slow this wouldn’t be a problem …” Gotta love big brothers!

New scooter and new bike

A little chilly but worth it

Chris wanted me to explain sun flare so I thought a picture would be the easiest way.

And here are a few other random pictures from the past few weeks.

A real smile from Chris. Blurry or not this one is a keeper.

Roller skating

Eleanor just being cute

Now that the craziness of the holidays has passed I hope to be able to update more regularly again. Hope you are all having a great start to the new year

We celebrated Evelyn’s birthday a little early this year so that the whole family could be here. As she will tell you, she’s not actually 4 … she’s “almost 5″.

Happy birthday sweet girl. May the next year bring you lots of smiles.

Then she got a second celebration while we were in Arkansas. Lucky girl

It seems like just a few years ago we were welcoming in 2000 and yet a whole decade has passed and we’ve added 5.33 children to the world

We spent New Years with Aubrey’s family in Arkansas. Chris stayed up well past midnight watching the Three Stooges and the rest of us were asleep at about 12:02.

Aubrey and Uncle Tim admire their handiwork

Eleanor wonders why she is up so late. And what’s up with all the noise and flashing lights?

Evelyn was quite excited about the “big bangs”

Chris and Luke write their names with sparklers

Happy New Year!

The Tree. Other than assembling the tree and putting on the lights the adults got off easy and didn’t have to do a thing. The kids did a great job decorating and I am happy to pass this tradition on to them

Reid opened the first gift of Christmas - a Handy Manny toolbox.

After he opened that all other gifts were thrown to the ground, unopened because they just weren’t able to compare to Handy Manny.

Lucas was very happy to add some Wii games to our collection

Eleanor loved her new doll

Chris wasted no time looking up the value of his coin collection in his new book

It was the year of the princess for Evelyn

Aubrey is always happy with anything that says Razorback on it

After all the wrapper paper was picked up and toys put away it’s always nice to come upon a scene like this

I’ve been meaning to get these pictures up for weeks but someone (name Reid) hasn’t let me have a chance to sit and finish them. I have too many pictures to squeeze into one post so there will be several.

Pre-Christmas decorating/baking/spending time with friends.

Cake balls with Ms. Jon

Mice cookies

Knitting with Grandma

Decorating the tree

Santa’s sleigh

More mice cookies

Watching the Polar Express on Christmas Eve

Not this kind of snow day , but the real kind!

Imagine our surprise to wake up to this in November in Dallas!

It didn’t last long but it was enough for Evelyn to declare it had been a white Christmas so she was happy. After a very hot summer this cool weather has been a very welcomed change!

We have so much to be thankful for this year. Family, our health and our friends. We spent the Tuesday before Thanksgiving at Elizabeth and Tom’s house and we all had a great time.

Reid didn’t know what to think of his headdress

Eleanor had the best seat in the house

Evelyn had a huge fit about sweet potatoes, then decided she liked them and asked for more

After lunch we had a Thanksgiving story and made turkeys out of cookies, caramel and candy corn.

Reid wasted no time in eating his

And shared one with a very eager Eleanor

On Thanksgiving day we drove to Oklahoma to celebrate with Aubrey’s Mom and a family friend. The kids had a blast playing outside.

Evelyn and her friend the shadow

Reid decided he wanted Evelyn’s bike

Which he turned into a stunt bike very quickly

After the little ones went to sleep we roasted marshmallows

Evelyn likes hers crispy

We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving filled with family, friends and fabulous food!

Happy birthday, Chris. I can’t believe that a whole decade has passed since you were born and showed me what being a Mom is all about. Thank you for your patience when I made mistakes along the way. It has been such a privilege to watch you grow into a young man and find your way in the world. Welcome to double digits!

Here you were 10 years ago:

And this is my very favorite picture of you during your 10th year of life. It was taken the day we finally made it outside in time for the ice cream truck.

Reid and Evelyn made a gigantic mess with one of our games this afternoon. I told them that before they went to bed it all needed to be picked up and that they needed to do it together. Evelyn devised the plan that Reid would collect the cards, hand them to her and she would organize them. I was pretty impressed that at 3 and barely 2 they came to this mutual agreement. All was well until Eleanor crawled over and was taking the cards out just as quickly as Evelyn could put them away. At first Evelyn thought it was funny but after a few moments she stood up, hands on hips and said “Mom, really, what I am supposed to do?? I can’t get anything done with this baby pulling it all out again. This is SO unfair”.

I internally laughed remembering all the days Evelyn took folded laundry out of the basket, got into the dishwasher while I was loading it and would wreck the older boys’ lego sets just as fast as they could build them. I thought it wouldn’t be until she had kids that she got to experience that particular joy.