Time for an update

Life has been busy...I know, your life has been busy, too! I try to check in on other bogs and often feel that I should update my own, but then someone needs me to get them food or clean up a mess or teach them math or just yell at them so they'll stop arguing with a sibling :)

I have wanted to update my photos....we had a fun photo shoot recently and I'm so excited about all the great pictures that came from it! I know there are lots of pictures in the post, I just couldn't decide which were my favorites :) Enjoy!

Chase's first time playing in the snow

We had our first snow this year and Chase is finally old enough to bundle up and head out, especially since it was only 1-2 inches of snow.


Chase all bundled up! He's trying to warm his freezing hands because he won't keep mittens on.



We've not taken down the Halloween witch...she's pretty cute and the girls like her. So we topped her with a santa hat and now we can keep her up longer!


The kids were cleaning sidewalks at our neighbors' houses as their daily service.


Isabel tossing a snowball at the camera. Unfortunately, the snow was very powdery and the kids were disappointed that it would not stick together.



Not sure what to make of it all...he kept batting hsi eyelashes to get the snowflakes off.

A true angel...love ya Belly!

Decorating the Christmas tree

Chase didn't undecorate the Christmas tree, like he did last year. It was a lot of fun! We put out the decorations, made sure they all had hooks and were ready to go before letting Chase at them.

He carried these same 3 Christmas balls for awhile.

And did not want to put them down! Surely his little fingers could hold more...

Connor is growing up so fast! Al and Chase left to run an errand and I was goign to start the tree decorating with the kids while Chase was gone. Connor refused to decorate the tree without Chase. He insisted that Chase be part of it all and the girls joined the chorus! I was so proud of them.

Chase got the honors of topping the tree this year...it took awhile.

And finally (with the help of grandma and daddy) he did it....applause please!

Drive-by Blog Posting

I'm out of time, yet again. But I know if I don't share what I have, I won't remember to do it later. So here is the quick and dirty version:

We avoided another visit to the ER, but barely. I broke my toe last Friday night. I was walking along and somehow kicked the corner of the sofa...wanna see?

Connor is folding a basket of towels for me and as he spread a towel on the table, he asked Chase is he wanted to help. This is Chase's way of offering a helping hand. This is typical in everything he does!

We had a lovely afternoon flying kites. The kids were exhausted! This is our local sledding hill, you've probably seen it before while covered in snow.

Lillee is going to be our scientist, or more specifically our entomologist. She loves all things bugs, worms, creepy and crawly. Here, Lillee has a lightning bugs (aka Firefly). She caught it the night before and put it in her bug specimen jar. In the morning, she wanted to let it go, but the lid flopped down on his rear section and mushed his light. She bandaged him with scotch tape. It took my a good 5 minutes to try to gently unwind the tape so as to not damage the poor guy any further.

Today, I saw on a local message board that a guy we know had some bees in his shed and he wanted to know how to get rid of them without poisoning them. So I called him up and offered my beekeeping knowledge :) I headed over to diagnose the situation. When I arrived, I found the bees had burrowed into a piece of fiberglass insulation. Long story short, bumble bees make a hive in the ground, not like honey bees, and they substituted the fiberglass in place of dirt. I was able to get them all out of his shed and I felt like the hero beekeeper! Here is a picture of their hive.

These two boys have the most amazing bond. Connor was sleeping on the sofa one morning and when Chase saw him, he ran across the room, threw his head upon Connor's back and gave him the biggest hug saying, "Nonnor, Nonnor, Nonnor!" Connor is so patient and sweet to Chase, it's just wonderful to see my boys love one another so much.

My 4 kiddos! Aren't they adorable :) Lillee (5), Chase (18 months), Isabel (4), Connor (7)

For those of you who have seen our pictures over the years...do you remember the picture of Connor on the floor with the eggs? here's Chase's version, with grapes :)

We're been super busy, but we're all well and enjoying life! We started our summer reading scripture challenge and the kids are encouraged to read some church history as we're planning our trip to Palmyra and Pageant next month! A busy summer ahead, full of exciting adventures and lots of time with family. Fencing class ends next week and swimming classes start the next week. Violin and piano are continuing sporadically through the summer as we're around. Lillee will be a flower girl in a wedding next weekend and the list just continues. We may need to take some time off in August to have a break from our summer!