Visitors and Fun!

We had so much fun having Grandma R and Aunt LaNita's family come to visit for Evelyn's baptism!  The kids loved having fun things to do with Grandma.  Here are Lizzie and Carson playing Hi-Ho Cherry-O with her!  They got this game from Aunt Carmen this past Christmas and loved teaching Grandma how to play!

It was truly a treat to be able to visit with Uncle Josh!  He was home from Afghanistan for his 1 month leave at the beginning of the year.  It was no small trick for him to be the jungle gym for all four kids at once, but they adored that he did it! 

Grandma gave Evelyn a craft set to paint her own sun catchers.  Evelyn loves crafts!

She chose to paint at least some of the sun catchers while her cousin was in town and it was nice to see all three older kids working together making their crafts!

That night, after the paint got all cleaned up, the dads watched the kids while we women - Mom, LaNita and myself - decorated some cookie shields with purple icing, sprinkles, and CTR (Choose The Right) symbols.  We made these to be part of the treat after Evelyn's baptism the next day. It was fun to work together and chat with my mom and sister!

Hole-y Ears!

Evelyn was so excited to get her ears pierced!!  She and I went to the mall, to Claire's and she got to pick out which earrings to be stuck with for 6 weeks.  She was a little nervous, but, as she said, "80% excited,' so it was a pretty positive experience.

Last hole-less picture!

After a brief talk and getting her ears marked, there was a little 'punch-punch' and there she was, all earring-ed up!

With the earrings and piercing, we got a discount on a purchase made at the same time, so I let her pick out a new hair thing.  She chose a sparkly rainbow headband to match her new, sparkly rainbow flower earrings!

**Update - We're down 4 and a half of the 6 weeks and she's SO responsible about keeping her ears clean and taking care of the holes.

Birthday Party for Evie!

Since we had so much planned around Evie's birthday, we agreed upon a pre-birthday party - almost a week before her actual birthday.  She invited 4 friends over for a pajama, pizza and wii party.

We laid out butcher paper for table cloth and invited the attendees to decorate it for the birthday girl.  Daddy and the boys joined us for the first little while, helping color, playing a few games and getting dinner, then Daddy took the boys to bed and himself to the basement to avoid the excessive girly time.

We had two pizzas - Aaron didn't think 8 kids could polish them off, but he barely got his three slices!  The girls would have eaten more but for all the pineapple.  MY kids will eat pizza with only pineapple on it forever, but evidently the other girls would all have been fine with plain pepperoni - and my other pizza was pepperoni-pineapple.  It was, nonetheless, a successful dinner.

After dinner, the girls got to decorate cupcakes.  Those six girls ate all dozen cupcakes - plus all the frosting and sprinkles they could fit on them.

Silly girls making silly faces!

Evie got a candle in her cupcake and we sang "Happy Birthday" before she made a wish and blew it out.

The girls took turns playing Mario Kart and really seemed to have fun!

I didn't take pictures of pedicures because I was the one painting all the girls' piggies, but they all loved to get their toes pretty.  After that, we played a couple rounds of Twister.  Things escalated when the girls started using the Twister mat as a parachute, until I remembered our own parachute in the playroom.

The parachute got used a couple times to hide under, then they took turns sitting on top of it while the others lifted and tossed them around.  It might not be what it was intended for, but they all seemed to really love this activity!

Evie opened a bunch of awesome presents.  From Mom and Dad she got pierced earrings - and the ability to choose when to get her ears pierced.  She set the date for the next week and we have pictures of that, too!

She got a Frozen story book, a notebook and pen, some bling jewelry with the letter E, glitzy sunglasses in a case, glow-in-the-dark friendship bracelet kit, and a spare Rainbow Loom kit - she has been so excited to learn what rainbow loom things she can make with two looms!

It was super fun to dress in pjs and have a fairly relaxed birthday party.  Evie loved everything she did and was so happy to have some friends over to celebrate with her!

I'm Going There Someday!

Preparing for Evelyn to turn 8 and be baptized, she and I made plans to go with Grandma B and take some special 'baptism' pictures.  We talked about going to the Chicago Temple or maybe the Mitchell Botanical Domes here in Milwaukee.  When the day rolled around mostly overcast and cold and windy, Grandma and I tried encouraging the Domes, since it's indoor and colorful.  We put the question to Evie and were surprised and so proud when she said she'd rather go to the temple.  She wore a white dress we picked out months ago and the beautiful cape her Aunt LaNita knitted for her last Christmas.  The cape really added some beautiful color to the 'white dress on white snow on white temple on overcast skies' monotone!

I was so proud, seeing Evelyn dressed in white on the temple grounds.  In 4 short years, she'll be eligible to go inside and participate in baptisms for the dead!  I did feel a little bad for her, since it was absolutely FRIGID out!  She snuggled into Grandma's down coat in between poses and even then she shivered for several minutes after we got back in the car!

Afterward, on the way home, we stopped at the 'Oasis', which is a toll road-reachable-only overpass group of fast food, mini-shops and gas station.  Evie and I had some Taco Bell and Grandma had some Chinese.  We sat where we were over the road and tried to get semi trucks to honk their horns as they passed under us.  We got a few to do it!

We are so looking forward to her baptism next month!

Grandma's Cookies and Baby Cole

Grandma R gave all the kids aprons and cookie mixes for Christmas!  Throughout January and February, we made sure to make use of them.  I didn't get pictures of either Evie or Cole making their cookies, but they each got to help with the process.

Lizzie made chocolate chip cookies with some added help from Evie.

Carson got to make some great peanut butter cookies!

He's here holding the recipe for his cookies.  Grandma sent everything except the eggs and vanilla in the mixes, so it was easy for the kids to open sandwich bags of ingredients and dump them into the mixing bowl.

Measuring out the cookies to the cookie sheet was the best part!

Not having to do with cookies, but it's been forever since Cole fell asleep while snuggling.  I asked Aaron to document it for me, since baby snuggles are getting few and far between.

Room Swap!

So excited about the newest projects!! Aaron's weekend project is to help/supervise a handyman make our wood stove functional. This has been planned for a month and is perfect timing, with next week's crazy sub-zero temperatures. 

My project is to move all my craft stuff into what will be hitherto known as The Craft Room. (Pictures to come.) The Craft Room is taking the place of the room formerly known as Cole's Room. Carson's Room with hereafter been known as The Boys' Room. Happily located in the upper-most level of the house.

I think it turned out adorable! I kept the animals from Cole's room.  90% of why I did this is because I have a little bedtime ritual with Cole where we go around and say 'goodnight' to each animal and mimic it's noise - except the giraffe, which has no sound that I know of - and then we say 'Goodnight, Cole' and he makes one of the animal noises back at me.  Most of the time it's the monkey.

Another thing I added to the boys' room is a set of glow-in-the-dark stars.  It ties in perfectly with Carson's rocket ship curtains.  The girls are sufficiently jealous.

This current exchange of rooms is due in large part to my Christmas gift from Aaron's parents: a sewing table!!! (Thank you, THANK YOU, Jana and Dennis!!)  One note: I'm not sure yet what to do with Cole's changing table/dresser.  I stopped keeping Carson's dresser in his room when I realized that most of the time the drawers were empty and the clothes were all over the floor - resulting in extra laundry by not knowing what was clean.  So until further notice, the changing table remains.  When you see it the sewing table, it's pretty unassuming.

But put this key into the lock and...

My treasure!

The basement will now be known as The Master Suite. I'm thrilled! On one level I will have a comfy wood-stove-warmed room, a Craft Room, a bedroom and a bathroom.  Happy. H.A.P.P.Y.  The Craft Room will also cheerfully double as a guest room when called upon.

I've been watching the icicles along our roof grow and shrink with the warming and freezing that's been going on here.  The night I took this picture, we had left on the lights for the back porch when I noticed the scene.  I love the neat look of the back-lit icicles!