Ashi, the iPhone genius! :)

My little 2 year old is amazing when it comes to technology! From the moment she first saw my iPhone, she could navigate her way right through it. I took this video recently. Usually she works even faster on it, but she was distracted my me with the video camera!

Stonewall helps with the laundry

"just don't put it on 'fluff' this time..."

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Posted via Pixelpipe.

Avi beans

My little Avery is quite the princess. She saw a dress when we were shopping today that she HAD to have. Normally, I would have told her she has enough dresses, but this one came with a matching doll outfit! She was super excited to put it on her American Girl Doll. Here they are in their matching outfits.

She decided they should go on a walk in their pretty dresses, and she invited Stonewall Jackson (our Chihuahua) to come along. He sat in the stroller, buckled in, the entire trip and acted like it was HIS stroller, afterall. What a spoiled little thing he is!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

We celebrated St. Patrick's Day by going GREEN! No... I don't mean I changed out all the lightbulbs and traded in my car for a hybrid. We just ATE lots of fun green things! :) Here are the kids sitting before their interesting breakfast...

Green eggs, green blueberry muffins, and green milk!

The kids REALLY went overboard when they dressed themselves. Noone likes to be pinched, right?? Ashi was still in her jams, but rest assured that she ended up very green!

After breakfast, the kids worked hard on their Leprechaun trap! It included tape fashioned into circles to resemble fly paper, a rainbow (everyone knows Leprechauns like rainbows, right??), some candy and some coins to tempt their greedy side, and a sunglasses case- ready to snap shut, but propped open only by batteries! :) As you can see, when we returned home, some of the candy was gone, all the coins were gone, the glasses case was open, and there were little green footprints everywhere!

It happened to be a 70 degree day, so we spent quite a bit of time outside, blowing bubbles

They had a chance to play with friends, and Avery enjoyed making a mudpie with her friend Hannah.

And at night, we had Irish soda bread for dinner... YUM...
Along with GREEN deviled eggs! :)

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Almost Like Spring!

"...And time remembered is grief forgotten

And frosts are slain and flowers begotten

And in green underwood and cover

Blossom by blossom the spring begins."...
Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837–1909)

We LOVED the day we were blessed with today! It actually felt like Spring! Mid-70's, and sunny! It seems so strange that just one week ago, it was snowing here!

Last week, Dan bought Alex a new BB Gun. He already had a Red Rider Ducks Unlimited BB Gun from MeMe and Pawpaw (they actually got it for him before he was born!!), but he wants to keep that as a collectors item. Today, it was finally pretty enough outside for him to have some target practice! I just love this first picture. Although it's a little blurry, you can just see how thrilled he is to be shooting!

During Alex's target practice, Dan was sweeping out the garage to make more room around my Granddad's car. We just LOVE this car. In the evening, Dan took us for a ride in it to get the kids some icecream! That's one of our favorite Spring/Summer time traditions!

Courtney treated her little sisters to a catered picnic. She ran her little legs off serving them! She is one of the most giving children I've ever met!!

Here are the kids on the back porch enjoying their loot from the icecream run! What a beautiful day!

Growing up...

I am amazed, excited, and saddened all at once, when I see how quickly my little 8 year old Courtney is growing up! She's almost as tall as Alex now (who is VERY tall for his age), and she is slowly changing into a pre-teen. She is such a sweet, sweet girl. She is sooooo giving, too.

Beautiful Kids!

I took some headshots of the kids recently for the FCHE homeschool yearbook. I thought I'd share them here-

Alex 10 years old

Courtney 8 years old

Avery 4 years old (or "FOUR AND A HALF!!!" as she'd say if she read this!!)

Ashlyn Belle 2 years old

Snowy Day in GA!

We recently were blessed with a snowy day in GA! It is always such a surprise here, but ESPECIALLY when it's March!

Avery stood at the door watching the flakes fall for quite a while!Here is the front of our house (with Dan on the porch), with some flakes falling!The kids couldn't do much since it didn't stick, but they had fun running around in it!
A view across the street through the snow. Some of the flakes were HUGE!

A view from our backyard to the golf course through the snow

Courtney and Alex had to stand on the chairs and scrape enough snow off the umbrella to form a snowball! :)

Avery in her too-big snow clothes :)

Mom's Visit

I enjoyed spending a week with my Mom recently! My Dad went on a fishing trip to FL, and he dropped my Mom here on his way down! We only got to see Dad as he dropped her off and picked her up- but it's better than nothing, right?

We got to do some fun things while she was here- we took her to the kids' karate class, and she got to go on the floor as Avery's assistant- here they are practicing her axe kick:

Remember that pinecone bird feeder wreath we made? (see blog entry below) Here is Mosby stalking a squirrel who is helping himself to the birdseed and peanut butter! :)

Then on Wednesday night, Dan treated my Mom, the kids and me to a WONDERFUL dinner at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse! Yummmmmmmm......

The family before we left

Alex all dressed up... He's getting TOOOOOOO BIG! He looked wonderful!

Here's my little Avery before we left for dinner. She was under the impression that celebrities are always at Ruth's Chris, so she wanted to dress like one. She was animal print head to toe, with a faux fur purse and sparkles in her hair. Ooh-La-La! :)Courtney was beautiful. She is also getting WAY too big. She has a special scarf in her hair that her Aunt Liz got when she was in Ireland. She gave it to Courtney on her last visit.

Courtney enjoyed her meal! It's almost impossible to get this kid to eat, so that's pretty impressive!

Avery got her fill of a tomatoe mozzarella salad. Right up her alley!

After her meal, we found Avery at the corner of the table, very cafefully considering the wine list. :)

Alex ate his weight in salmon and steak. He never ceases to amaze me!

We had a WONDERFUL TIME!!!!!

Homeschool Valentines Party

I didn't take many pictures of this event, but we had fun! Our homeschool group went to Catch Air (a jumpy place) to burn off some energy and exchange Valentines. The kids had a blast! I couldn't get great pictures, because I only had my iPhone, and the kids were in CONSTANT motion, hence the blurriness! But, it was a good time!

Many members of the K-3 Group...