Kelli was loving the snow, too! She had just seen a show where a black piece of paper was used to look at the snowflakes a little more closely--she decided it was a wonderful idea!
Too bad that by the time she got bundled up (notice how she's still wearing capri's), the snow had died off & was just a flurry of little bits--she was a bit disappointed. I'm going to have to buy more black paper so she can have more chances at making this idea work!
Here's Addie's first piece of artwork from preschool. They read the book, "Rainbow Fish"--or something like that--and had some other fishy activities. Making this picture was her favorite part. She just couldn't get enough colors on there... :o) 
This shows how mobile Taylor is getting. I had been in the bathroom putting on my make-up, with Taylor on the floor next to me. When I looked down to see how she was doing, I realized I couldn't see her anymore! This is where she had rolled to:
Yep! She was under the bed! What a cutie! I had better check under the beds for any dust bunnies.... Who would have thought you'd need to baby-proof underneath the bed?!!
With all the icy cold & snow falls outside, Mark had the kids keeping active inside. :o) Here are a couple of pictures & videos to show what we were up to:
Oh, yes! It was time to play rough! Mark was a bit sore from football the day before--apparently he hadn't "punished" himself enough!! They were running all over the house--boy was it noisy! They were all over the floor, up the stairs, down the stairs, hiding in the pantry.... Taylor sat in her high chair & squealed, she was so happy! My tummy got a really nice workout from laughing--never a bad thing! ;o)
Here is Taylor absolutely loving all the excitement!
You might want to turn the sound down on your computer. We didn't have that luxury when recording the video clips--still working on volume buttons on each kid. :o)Whew! Everyone calm down! It's time for a trip to the Chair of Tranquility!
Addie went to the Build-A-Bear Workshop with Grandma Harker the other day--it was a part of her birthday gift that needed to be redeemed still. :o) Oh, Addie had fun! Here's a few pictures that Grandma gave to me so I could see the fun. 
Here's the checklist of the steps Addie took to build her bear.
First, Addie had to choose her bear. Did anyone else think, "Pink?" If you look closely, you'll see the white spots are actually hearts.
Next, came stuffing the bear. The bear was placed on that silver tube at the bottom of the machine. The machine was turned on, the stuffing flew, & as Addie pushed on a foot pump to "help," the bear filled up with stuff & fluff!
Right after stuffing the bear, Addie got to place a heart in her bear--Addie says, "It makes her know that she loves me." She also got to choose a voice mechanism that was placed inside the left paw--her bear says, "I love you. I love you."
This is the station where Addie gave her bear an air-bath...she used a brush & the shower heads blew air--Addie said all the fuzzies blew everywhere!
Addie got to choose the clothes--pink, again! Here's the bear, all dressed up and ready to love!
This is the station where Addie named her bear (Sarah) & made a birth certificate for her.
She got all boxed up in a little house to play in!
Addie absolutely LOVES her Sarah-Bear!
Addie says, "Thank you, Grandma, for going to the Build-a-Bear Workshop to get my favorite bear! I love you a hundred and a google and five & seven & eight & nine & four....is that a lot?!!"
Since she still had some soccer games to play (she also tends to just play rough anyway), she got a black brace to wear when being active. She should have to wear that for another 3 weeks, then she should be all healed! Hurrah! Let's try to be a little more careful, Kelli! 
other than I loved her hair & expression---they seemed to go together well. :o)
Yep. 
Hope you enjoyed these pics as much as I did! 
Brooke & her cookie
Here's Mikey out on the field--he's the one with 
Addie has also been having fun...she copied Kelli's idea of putting on play make-up, but used a purple ink stamp pad instead. Let's just say she looked a little rosy for a while. :o) 
Our bedroom has the chair rail deal going all around the room (what's the deal with that? We don't have any chairs in our bedroom?! :o) It is a nice touch, though!), so we've only painted away the deep navy paint that was on the top half. Well--most of it. There's still plenty of dark blue spots to cover on the ceiling & framework. When we're finished with painting the bottom half (in 'golden crust') then I'll do the touch up. We're painting the bathroom, too...it needed it so badly! The biggest wall has the dark color you see in the picture (caraway seed) & then the rest will be painted with the lighter color. We decided to keep the paint pretty neutral in case we chose to change up our colors with a few different towels & new bedding. 
You'll notice, Mom, that I finally finished a certain project started long ago.... I'm very pleased! I'm also glad I didn't finish it sooner, since I ended up changing the color of the "Happily Ever After" lettering to match the rest of the room! (yes, I know it's not quite centered in this picture--I just fixed that!) I've been so excited about this transformation, that I've been painting all of our mirror frames, shelves & the bathroom clock to match--even the hardware in the bathroom got a coat of paint! 
I used an outdoor acrylic paint that is supposed to work on metal, etc. & then gave it a nice glossy finish. (yes, that was a silver cheap-o!) I'm hoping they last for a while--I'm assuming they should put up with a lot since they are supposed to be permanent, but if they don't, I'm only out the time for the experiment & less than $3 in paint! Cheaper than having to pay $10-$15 for a towel holder & still have to get all the other hardware to match! I'm itching to work on the silver hardware in the "Garden Valley" bathroom! 
