Daniel's new shoes!

These are Lightening McQueen shoes! He loves them.

What are you doing this morning?

Daniel and I are playing Connect 4. This is Daniel's favorite game right now. He hasn't quite figured out the rules to the game but we have lots of fun together playing it. That is what he and I are doing this monday morning, which is lot better than dishes, laundry and cleaning. Hope you are having just as much fun on this Monday morning.

Our Gymnast in Training

Here are a few videos of Allie doing cartwheels in our living room.

Allie working on her cartwheels.

Allie still trying to perfect her moves.

Looking Good Allie!!!

Teacher Conference Time

This past week was half day for the kids and teacher conferences for me. It was so fun to go to meet each of the kid's teachers and hear how they are doing.

Allie showed lots of improvement in here reading and her teacher tells me she is such a sweet girl who is nice to everyone. She gets along with everyone.

Matt improved all his grades and his teacher loves how nice and polite and kind he is to everyone.

Katelynn has worked really hard this quarter to get her grades up and she has done well. Her teachers love her and one teacher says she is the breath of fresh air when having to deal with all the other kids.

That is so wonderful to hear as a mother. We see behaviors that the teachers never see, of course and it is so comforting that some behaviors at home do not surface at school and in public. I love my kids and boy do they teach me a lot.

I Did it!!!

We have had leaky kitchen pipes for quite some time now(maybe years). I was determined to fix it, so I bought a new faucet and hoped that would be enough motivation. Well, it wasn't. So when my parents came to visit in February, I figured this would be a great time to get that leak fixed. My dad helped me take things apart and while looking at the garbage disposal, he commented that it was very old and very undersized for our family. So we went off to the store and bought all we needed to replace the garbage disposal. I was so glad that Dad had me do almost everything. It felt so good to install the entire garbage disposal and faucet myself. When we were done, it appeared that the leak had been fixed. I was happy and feeling so great. Well a couple days after they left, I noticed that the pipes were still leaking. So I have put off what I have needed to do. So today, Daniel and I took on the challenge of replacing all the pipes and hopefully fixing the leak once and for all.

We did it with only 2 trips to the hardware store. I think it looks great but now that it is done, I just close the door and noone will ever really see the brand new plastic plumbing. But I know that we no longer have a leak and everything has been replaced and will last for many years to come. It feels like a great accomplishment.

My plumbing buddy Daniel!

Under my kitchen sink!

Our Bad Choice Chair

This is where Daniel spends lots of time. It is our Bad Choice Chair. Hitting is his biggest or most often occuring offense. I am hoping this phase of development will end shortly...it is getting really old. But once his couple minutes is up, he runs to the sibling he hit and loves them and tells them he is sorry.

Daniel's silly face in the Bad Choice Chair

My Birthday Present!

For my birthday I received a Families are Forever plaque from Jen and Amy (and I heard that Tim helped too). I love it. So here is where I put it along with our family picture bulletin board and a neat framed picture that we received as a Christmas present this past year. I like the way it looks in our dining room. Just spruces up the wall. So thank you, thank you, thank you for this sweet gift.