innocent boy?

umm, i think not

 notice the slightly open window...

that sweet fella was scaring the birds away from our new bird feeder.

sisters...

man am i thankful they have each other.

puking girl. pulled tooth. painted face.

in this order.

this is how.

my morning went.

she pulled it out all be herself.

 his toes and hands were also painted.

 this is how he looked after i scrubbed it off.

pretty sure this is how he will look for the next few days.

thankful we have no where to go.

pretty sure you didn't want to see a photo of the puking girl.

by the way, it was sofie.

wordless wednesday

bald eagle day

we had a fun field trip last week to keokuk.

started out at the mall listening to a DNR employee give a short question/answer type talk.

moved on to the movie theater to listen to more DNR employee's give a wonderful presentation on several birds including the bald eagle.

sofie and her friends ayden and kendall

during the presentation some of the birds were able to fly through the room.

before this happened they announced that the birds were not potty trained.  lia immediately put her hood up. 

sofie and i talked about how fun it would be to have a job as a dnr

.

waiting for the birds to fly over

here is the hooded vultcher

they told us not to stand up or the birds would fly right at us--most of us naturally sunk down into our seats.

here's the beautiful bald eagle

both girls brought their camera's and took several photos

this was the nest on display showing the actual size of a bald eagle nest

then we headed down to the river to see more bald eagles.  they estimate 400-500 are living there right now.

have i mentioned how much i would love to get a new camera that can actually zoom!

this would have been a great photo of a bald eagle. 

sofie getting a good look at some eagles.

mornings are the best time to see them but we were able to see a few in the mid-afternoon. 

lia really enjoyed her day.  she loves hands-on-learning!

this old house

had a front room that looked like this

after removing some wallpaper and pulling up smelly, stained carpet--it looked like this

holes and cracks plastered, walls primed and painted, floor striped, sanded and several coats of polyurethane later...

our school room 

i would love to purchase a slip cover for our over sized chair

 we love the natural light and bright colors in this space

our snow day

started off like this

yep, your seeing right.  my 8 year old driving a lawnmower with a plow attached to it pulling my other 2 children on a sled down the middle of the street

i have to admit, it's not what i had planned for my morning activities...

but my grandparents drive needed plowed.  so i followed along behind in the van offering any bit of protection i could

there was a quick movie break/craft time and then back outside

can't play in the snow without creating some snow angels

can you see it?  lia's snow angel

mmm, nice clean icicles from under the van

the perfect ending to an afternoon of playing in the cold snow...hot chocolate and warm cinnamon bread.

looking forward to more snow days!

this and that

* sofie lost her 7th tooth last night.  she was thrilled to find the $1 the tooth fairy left for her--she's saving up for a special toy dog.

 

* last night when i checked on a sleeping kye before heading to bed, i found 2 guns, his woody doll and 2 horse's on sticks tucked in beside him.

*woke up this morning with 4 people, 2 small horses, 4 small cowboys and a broken cowboy arm holding a gun in my bed.

*worked out with my wii fit last week and was sore for days.

* lia also has a loose tooth, but is very nervous to let anyone wiggle or try to pull it.

* excited to have our new bird feeder hanging outside our school room window.  we got it after seeing several cardinals in these bushes the last couple weeks.

 

* sam brought these beauties home the other day just for fun.  we've got them all over the house.

*  the girls start their enrichment classes thursday--i'm so excited to get some alone time.  i'm shipping kye off to my grandparents so i can actually clean the house...it's been months.

* the girls each have a day they are in charge of lunch,and they always make pudding for dessert.  today was lia's day--she chose chocolate pudding with chocolate chips in it.  when it was time to eat the pudding none of us had chocolate chips in ours--sam checked the chef's bowl of  pudding and found every chocolate chip in it.  we all cracked up and then got the bag of chocolate chips out and added some to our bowls.

* i read the book, "90 minutes in heaven" last week in 1 day.  it was that good!  and tonight i started "the shack".  sam is also reading that one, however it's taking him too long so i checked mine out at the library today.

* i rocked kye to sleep this afternoon.  can't even remember the last time i did that.  it was by far the best part of my day!

* one of my girlfriends just had her 2nd baby a couple hours ago-a boy.

* got word today that sam's temporary license forms have been received.  now we wait for them to be reviewed.

*  spent an hour watching sofie draw a beautiful picture of a pair of yellow shoes today. she has such a gift.

* it's snowing right now.  the girls are so excited to play in it tomorrow.

* sofie and lia both said their favorite part of christmas was having daddy home.  so was mine!

* sam and i are both tring to eat healthier and exercise on a regular basis.  so far so good!

* starting to make plans for our valentine's day cards.  as well as lia's 7th birthday party.  i just love to plan stuff!

that's all for now.