promised real update

obviously I've been busy playing catch-up with this blog, and I still have a lot to do, but here's a few really actual recent events to make you smile :)

one day last week Paul got an unexpected package in the mail...

it was a book

with a cool chapter

Asher likes standing
(ps, the chair doubles as a baby gate for the top of the stairs)

Asher's proud of himself, and Chi's a happy big brother!

evidentially my kids all have strong teeth, or slow at least... they don't come in early, and they fall out later than average too. Afton's been trying to get this tooth to fall out for a week... it was barely hanging on (she could turn it sideways!) but none of us had the guts to pull it out... finally last night I got tired of it and managed to get it :) she's thrilled!

and Rayna carefully planned and described this hairstyle to me to ensure it was just right! (lots of little braids going into a bun, but with some little braids coming down with beads on them). I thought it turned out nice. This morning at the bus stop I saw the big girl that inspired the style (though she didn't have the beaded ones hanging down).

it's fun to take the time to braid Rayna's hair, it's our mommy-n-me time :) yesterday we did it while listening to a conference talk, so that was nice too.

beginning of february

again, in my massive effort to catch-up, here's the first half of my February pictures, but not in order

 

Rayna's 100th day of school hair... it's a little hard to see the whole thing, but it was 3 braids, looking like '100'
her friends were all properly impressed

not gonna lie, this is one of my favorite pictures of the kids! messy hair, old blanket and all! if we hadn't just gotten those great family pictures done, this one would have made the header on the blog :)

we had another big snow-storm on Valentines day, I cheated and took this through the window, so the screen has most of the focus, but I still thought it showed off the big piles of snow better than my other photos.

and a bunch more snow pictures

the neighbor's tree

and maybe this isn't the best picture either, but there's something so very peaceful about snow and evening... put 'em together and it makes me happy, so I'm including this photo anyways.

my boys

Chi thought Asher needed a ball one day. I think it's really sweet how he takes care of his baby.

One of our favorite winter morning activities was simply standing at the window watching the birds. we had flocks like this nearly every day, and if not in our yard, in the one of the neighbor's. Malachi and Asher and I all would stand and watch them.

these next few pictures are from a project Afton did for school, it was a poster on wants and needs. She took the pictures and put them into a PowerPoint presentation nearly completely by herself. 

we need sleep

if I remember right, this was a picture of the trampoline for 'we need exercise,' but I liked Chi's outfit so well I zoomed in on it :) yes, he absolutely dresses himself!!!

and this one was of the whole house, for 'we need shelter,' but I zoomed in to show our cute door. the snowman was on the door for the whole winter, the top-hat is our window, and the scarf is SPARKLY!!!

and some of you may recognize this fox, it was made for baby Isaac, but Asher tried it out and pronounced it good :)

what does the fox say?

the rest of january, based on photos...

evidentially when it's cold outside, we do a lot of hanging out inside.. and we don't take very many pictures... but if we do, it's mostly because malachi gets the camera out

he takes the saying 'snug as a bug in the rug' seriously!

one snowy Monday evening, we went on a 'jammie walk' we generally do those in summer, because it necessitates getting ready for bed super-fast, then going for a walk around the neighborhood pajama-clad... we opted for winter coats this time.

Afton loves snow balls

Rayna and Chi love rainbows

everyone loves gently falling snow!

Malachi also went through an overall-phase, which I kinda loved (far better than the dress-up dresses phase). if I remember right, he was posing in this pic because he figured out that his shirt was yellow like his vacuum.

When Asher was born, I started doing push-ups over him (fake girly ones, but hey, it's something!) , so Chi did too... this is his best push-up form... Asher generally loved it when Big brother would play over him, but now he's getting too big, and sometimes gets pretty mad.

anyways, moving on through the photos, hoping to get caught up soon :)