"in one word"

January has been fun, challenging, busy, and cold. And I have sat down many times over the course of the last few days to try and post something new, but one thing or another kept me from finishing. After I downloaded the pictures off our camera this morning I decided it was time to get a new post done regardless. There were a few really cute pictures of the kids that inspired me to see this through to the end. Even though at this very moment Dylan is asking me to color with him over and over again and Lola is playing with the doors on the computer desk, that I'm sitting at, pretending they are doors, knocking and roll playing to herself..."oh hello, who's there?" "It's me how are you...oh hi mom. Did I scare you?" And when I answer the "door" she acts all shy and says, "Oh, I'm just here to give you a message, hee." And she runs off to take her baby for a walk in her stroller. She is so cute, but I must continue on!!!

So here are the three pictures that I love and wanted to share a few words about....

Meghan - plucky

   having or showing determined courage in the face of difficulties.

This word describes Meghan to a "T" right now. I read it in a book recently and looked it up out of curiosity. This is a picture of her under my sewing table looking at papers and books. It is one of her favorite spots to make a mess. She has changed so much over the last month or two. She's walking everywhere and jabbering about everything. She reminds me of "Boo" from Monster's Inc. When she wants to show you something she'll put her pointer finger by her mouth and say "hmmm" and kind of tilt her head to one side as you follow her to whatever it is she wants. She loves to move to music and her favorite CD is Baby Einstein's "Playdate Fun" Music CD. She's even starting to do the actions to "Itsy Bitsy Spider". Meghan is a little girl now and Dylan and Lola love playing with her and Meghan loves giving them kisses. I'm just glad she has started to pucker her lips now instead of giving us open mouth kisses.

Lola - spirited 

full of energy, enthusiasm, and determination

It is so hard to get a good picture of Lola. There are only a couple of thing that she does where she is still and reading books is one of them--I was so excited to get this picture this morning while she was listening to a book on CD. And you can't really tell , but the book is a princess alphabet book. Lola loves anything "princess", pink, purple, that sparkles, and, well, "girly". She loves dolls and playing kitchen, school, but she and Dylan love to do Kung Fu, army, GI Joes, and Legos. Lola is full of fun, loves to sing, and is ALWAYS moving. She doesn't just walk from place to place. There is always a hop or skip to her step and I even see her twirl on her way to wherever she's going. "Spirited is a perfect word for Lola. Some things that she has learned or done recently is she is my little helper. She loves to help me in the kitchen and her and Dylan both love to help me clean. She loves her nursery class and joy school and is doing so much better with her teachers. And at night she always kneels beside her bed and says her prayers--it just warms my heart.

Dylan - learn

acquire a knowledge of, acquire skill in, become competent in, become proficient in, grasp, master, take in, absorb, assimilate, digest, familiarize oneself with; study, read up on, be taught, have lessons in; get the hang of.

Alright, so this kid has had so many brain connections this last month that I can almost hear all the click, click, clicking going on in his head. Dylan has been like a sponge lately. He is so smart and loves to color, build with his Legos, and can write his name and loves letters, their sounds and looking at words wherever he is and picking out the letters that he recognizes from words that he can read. I started teaching him how to read last fall, but I let it go because he just didn't seem quite ready-his concentration wasn't there, but now I think he would love it. This picture is of one of his latest quirks. He is coloring all day long lately and I came into the living room the other day and he was like this. Up on his knees on the table coloring. He loves to try new things, and even with all the educational stuff he's into he still loves to Kung Fu (we recently rented Kung Fu Panda), wrestle, play any sport, and eat. Typical boy this one. And he's been getting himself dressed on his own before he comes downstairs in the morning--so nice. Dylan also loves his Primary class. He is a CTR 5 now with new teachers. It took us a few weeks to help him understand that he's not 5 yet, he's just in the class with the kids that turn 5 this year. "Mom, so, am I five?" He loves it though.

Well, hmmm. I wasn't really planning on this being so long, but I guess it could qualify as our family holiday newsletter. In that case, I'd better mention a few things about Allen and me. Allen has been busy with work at WSU, freelance work, church responsibilities, and of course hanging out with us-his crazy family that is crazy about him. The kids have to have a kiss and hug goodbye in the morning as well as the question of "Daddy, do you have to go to work today?" They never forget Daddy in their prayers and if someone does than they are immediately reminded after the prayer is over. And they know he is home as soon as they hear the screen door open and go running in to the kitchen to greet him. Even Meghan goes toddling in after them with arms outstretched to him. We think our daddy is the coolest. He does so much for our family and we love him for it.

As for me. I guess I just monitor all of what everyone else is doing. Just doing the usual mom stuff that I absolutely love. Don't get me wrong some days are harder than others, but most days are so fun. And I've recently reorganized my sewing/project room, so being able to sit down and work on various projects, whether their family, church or joy school related, has been a lot easier. And I've even had time to post - wa-hoo! Go me! Does it really matter that I started this after breakfast and I've left to run errands, made lunch, naps, etc., etc. and it's almost 3:00 and I still haven't finished it--I mean, come on. I've started reading a new book that I borrowed from a friend. It's called The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith. And it's pretty good. Different, but good so far.

I'd better go. Dylan came downstairs, so I guess this is a no nap day for him and he wants me to color with him. Hope everyone is doing well. We just had a cold spell, and it was COLD. Good news? Every day gets us closer to spring. Yeah! Ha! It's 2:57. Made it before 3:00.