Elora took these pictures with a new digital camera from Santa.

Oh, man, is he cute! Best Christmas present ever!

El's wearing a stylin' tie-dye from Grandma and Grandpa Ericksen.

Viv is posing by her pink princess castle block set from Santa.

What if?

Vivian:
"What if there was a monkey in our house and he keeped washing the dishes too much?"

We went to the Jonesboro Christmas parade downtown. Levi was very warm but not very flexible. Plus he couldn't see. But he was happy anyway. He just watched the parade whenever I remembered to check on him and push up his hat, or studied fabric fibers when I didn't.

This is Levi asking Aunt Cristal to please make just one more stocking. And could it be even BIGGER than Vivian's?

Put Away the Silverware

Vivian got right to her assigned chore of putting away the silverware. Maybe she knew it had been too long since I wiped out the silverware sorter, or maybe I just wasn't specific enough. So, next time I will have to say, "Take the clean silverware OUT of the dishwasher and put it INTO the silverware sorter, please." Who does she think she is, Amelia Bedilia?

Getting a Christmas Tree-Part Two

Elora took this picture. I was pretty impressed how good it turned out. I kept saying, "Make sure you get both of our faces." She sure did!
Levi bobbed around in the backpack while we hunted for a tree and fell asleep in his carseat on the way home.
Another year of fond tree-finding memories! Hopefully next year there will be some snow!

Getting a Christmas Tree in Jonesboro

Bonding with our beautiful tree
Every year we end up with too big of a tree and have to trim the top or bottom or both. They look so much bigger when you get them in your house than they do out under the big sky. This year we tried not to make that mistake, and when we got it under our ten foot ceilings I thought, "Hmmm. Maybe we should take a tape measure next time." There are about six empty feet above the tree this year. But it is beautiful!
Was the price of the cocoa and popcorn painfully high? Is there tree sap in his eye? Or could this face mean, "This is my smile, like it or not, so hurry up and take the picture!"

We have a picture of the girls for three years in a row drinking their cocoa on this porch after finding a tree. Next year we'll think of this place fondly.

There's Only One Vivian

On Not Matching: Notice her mittens. One Sunday at church I noticed Viv had one shoe on the wrong foot and one shoe on the right foot. I'm a little slow, but it didn't take me too long to figure out that this was unusual, even for a three-year-old. On closer inspection, I saw that one shoe was larger (one size too big for her) and the other was smaller (one size too small). Somehow The jumble of shoes she chose from that morning included two shoes of the same style and color, neither of which fits any child in our home right now. She didn't seem to mind, even with the one that was too small. Her primary teacher noticed and we laughed about it. After class we laughed even more when she showed me her coloring activity for the lesson--they were learning about being reverent and having quiet feet at church and they traced their feet onto construction paper. So we have an artistic reminder of a three-year-old with two left feet--reverent, I'm sure!
On Academics
Viv: "Mom, what's a battle horse?" (I ponder an answer) Viv: "A battle horse is a horse with a bad saddle."
On Gift Giving
Mom: "What do you think daddy wants for Christmas?" Viv: "A boo-yah".
The next day:"Mom, what's a boo-yah?"
A Friend: "What do you want for Christmas?" Viv: "A diamond necklace of my own."
On Manners
Viv: "While I'm eating this you can make my chocolate milk mixed up wif da pink kind." Mom: "Can you say please?" Viv: "Uh-huh."
On Nutrition
"My tummy hurts. I think I need a. . . . . hmmmm. . . . . . cookie!"
Another day after eating gummy worms: "My tummy hurts. I'm too sick for gummy germs."
And again, studying the mangoes I brought home: "Are these tormados?"

I can't wait to see what she's going to say next!

Halloween 2007

On the left is Viv's pumpkin. She drew on the eyes and nose just like you see, and I carved them and made her the scary mouth she requested. Naomi's Picasso face was her own creation, carved by dad. Elora traced on her face and carved it herself. We sang our pumpkin song after carving:
Pick a pick a pumpkin from the pile
We can make his eyes and a great big smile
Pick a pick a pumpkin round and clean

Then we'll be ready for Halloween

Glow in the dark Levi is guarding the trunk-or-treat candy

One Halloween fairy, one regular princess, and one angel

She's got her sweetie and I've got mine!

Five treats in the trunk

A Halloween spelling story:
One night after the kids went to bed Daniel got creative with the soft wax in our orange pumpkin-pie scented candle. He wrote
"Happy Hollow Weenies".
I wonder if he suspected I'd report him to the general assembly of friends and family. Anyway, the next morning Elora was eating breakfast near the centerpiece candle and asked,
"Does dad even know how to spell Halloween?"
I just said
"Nope".

Picnic at Vedauwoo with Smiths

It's so fun to see Rosemary's cute little girlies! Hi Jeanne!

Caleb LOVES to play with Addy.

Cute Curly Kate

Good chips=good times

More good times

Elora and Babies

Elora loves to play mini mom with Levi. She was amazed at how much Levi and Quentin sound the same.

More Matching!

We didn't plan to have matching car seats any more than we planned to give birth the same day.
Chubby cheeks unlimited!

Dad and Daniel

Working on a dresser for Cristal and Rocky
Is it measure once cut twice?

Porter and Grady

Grady steals some camera attention from the babies.

Porter wanted to hold Levi one more time before it was time to go.

Grandma and Grandpa with the babies

Getting ready for church. Levi had to borrow Quentin's shoes.

Grandma and Grandpa Ericksen

Snuggly Viv

Vivian loves to snuggle. She loves Jake a little more than Jake loves her, but this doesn't seem to slow her down.

Levi in his whites

Levi Owen . . . man child

Blessing Outfits

Cristal made matching blessing outfits.
Snazzy!