Those of you who have been following our progress, or lack there of, this fall and winter will not be shocked to learn that we’ve had the stomach flu. That’s the only reason for the delay in the snow day pictures. The stomach flu arrived on the heels of the snow.

We did have about 5 inches before it “sank”. It was a very wet and cold snow. Would you believe that just five days later it was 82 degrees here?

So much has been happening here over the last month or so. I did a terrible job keeping up the postings. Mark had a wonderful missions trip to Haiti, and hopefully we’ll have some photos from that soon.

In the mean time, here’s a look at some of what we’ve been up to in January and February.

Enjoy!

Sounds of racing and screaming…..

“You okay, Wils?”

“Do I look okay?  I keep getting run over by cars.”

“Oh, sorry.”

“It’s like I’m a pancake or something, a really flat pancake.”

So much for MarioKart.

“Well, you wouldn’t go up to an apple tree and expect to find bananas. Would you?” – Sam (12/30/08)

Join us for a little photo tour of the holidays. You can’t really see all the decorations, but you will see some of the fun. I just recently figured out how to do this photo stream, so somehow I got the photos in the show backwards. Sophie was in The Nutcracker, and then we had Christmas. Ooops…..

Happy New Year to you and yours. I’ll see if time permits any reminiscing on the blog tomorrow.

Today, Sophie (Princess Elizabeth) had a TEA PARTY with Claire (Princess Pipsqeak), otherwise known as Princess Pip. I did not know that this party was going on here today, until I walked down the very quiet hallway and was greeted with this….

Princess Pip made her debut moments later in the computer den.

I was told that modesty prevented the Princess Pip from being able to wear her “gown” as intended. It was too risky. It might slip down. So, she wore a lovely white turtleneck and pink play pants under her party gown… just in case the party headed outside.

As the ball worn on, Princess Pip was seen to give Princess Elizabeth a BIG love.

And sporting the “trademark” pouty lips……

Well, I’m a day late. Better late than never!! Yesterday was my 38th birthday and I was more than adequately spoiled by Mark and the children. Mark even took the day off to spend it with us here. What a nice Mark! For those of you who sent cards and well wishes, many thanks. It was a lovely sunny day until the rains came in the evening.

Just in case you’re not sure (smile), I’m the taller one. Claire is in pink.

We were very busy, and very sick, for much of October.  While we were well though, we made really good use of our time.  Here are some photos of some of the fun.  We had quite the assortment of costumes on display here.  A cowboy (who actually won the costume contest), an Indian Princess, a petite ballerina, and … Darth Sam, I mean Darth Vader.

Claire at 15 months old.

The art of carving the pumpkin is not lost!

Yikes!

Ballerina Baby

Indian Princess

Darth Sam

This is the “cow-dude” before winning the costume contest.

Claire tried her hand at some finger painting recently. She was fine with it, until she realized that the paint was sticking to her hand. Then she was ready to be “clean”.

Wilson’s idea of art is sometimes a little different. He’s a man of “working” arts. Mark and I recently gave Wilson a JOB to work on in the garage. We gave him the adirondack rocker off the porch and a Black and Decker Mouse sander. He’s stripping the paint off with the sander and has done a wonderful job thus far. He’s now also equipped with a dust mask and ear protection. We are looking forward to a “like new” rocker for the Spring. He’s already made a list of tools he needs us to give him for Christmas…. ha ha ha.