Some Friday Photos

Luci loves my rocking chair. She loves her blanket. And she loves reading.

Isabelle loves her sister. She loves kissing her and especially taking pictures with her.




Daniel also likes having his picture taken. He also likes his little sister because when he tells her they are on a boat surrounded by sharks and she is about to fall out, she doesn't argue.




Luci likes it when her brother sits by her and jabbers, but she especially likes reading about tractors.




Peter likes playing with his toys in the other room and often only realizes the camera is out a photo before the end.

Texas Snow

Half a Texas Snow

They predicted 1 or 2 inches. I guess they forgot that everything in Texas is bigger.

Texas Snow Boots

(courtesy of Kroger)

The first snowball of the day.

Absorbed by two inches of fluffy blue coat.

The second snowball of the day.

Thankfully, being as heavy as it was ominous, the second attack could not be launched before mother's reprimand.

Luci's first attempt at a snow man.
She's pretty good.

Finally, a Texas Meter Reader.
He was nice enough to stay for a picture.

Exhaustion

Many have wondered why my wife has not been blogging as much as she usually does....well, every time the dishes are put away, the laundry finished, floors swept, grocery lists completed, and it is quiet and calm in our house, she tries to sit down and work on sharing the joy of our family with our extended family and friends.

This is what typically occurs!

I will try to make sure I help out more around the house and make her get to bed a little earlier so she can blog just a bit more!

Friday Photo Favorites: In the Kitchen

Luci, enjoying the new Kid Kitchen.

Isabelle, after baking her first batch of muffins in her new bake ware. The others showed up when they smelled the fruits of her labor, which lasted only moments after they all shouted cheese.

Small Successes

1. Once, when I wanted to check my email, I didn't. That was a big success. Maybe too big for this list...

2. I made lunch. I did not wave the white flag from the couch with the chorus of whimpers, coughs and achy groans. I waved it after the bowl of Ramen.

3. After turning out a massive chicken pot pie, I successfully hoarded a handful of pie trimmings, fighting off five children, one much larger than the others, with varying assaults of pleading, whining and occasional foot stamping, all to assemble an off the cuff apple pie cobbler turnover mess of crust and sugary apples. And what a success it was!

Check out Faith and Family's web site for other Successful Moms.

Tebow's Ad

For those of you who enjoyed the Big Game this past weekend, and possibly witnessed the "controversial" Focus on the Family ad, here is an interesting article by Sally Jenkins. For someone openly pro-choice, she presents some compelling arguments against the whole "pro-choice" movement.

Sick Day

Isabelle with a 103 degree temperature.
Joe came to comfort her, and you could hear him purring all the way down the hallway.

Table Talk

We have "been in the habit of playing games" here recently, or so the saying goes.

We have enjoyed counting Cherries, suffered the ill timed slide of the 88th tile chute, and rejoiced with the Frosting Princes through many rainy days and after Christmas we have enjoyed the good fortune of expanding our collection to include a variety of checkers and Monopoly Jr., much to the mental relief of those regularly in charge of counting with the youngest cherry picker and candy hopper. With the expansion of our games has necessarily come the expansion of parental guidance in this budding community.

So, during a recent family competition, in an effort to cultivate an environment of cordial sportsmanship, in which all will prosper through the struggle for self mastery and competitive gain while sharing equally in the joyful success of all those competed against, and of course to subvert a developing alliance against the matriarchal figure of this developing community, I was forced to stop my oldest from enlightening his sister to a move of mutual interest in parental pawn annihilation, on the grounds of table talk, of course.

But my modest explanation of "table talk" was not enough for my six year old audience because, with absolute sincerity, he looked at me wide eyed, and with the hesitancy of the mildly confused, asked, "Can I just walk around the table then, and tell her?"