the rest of February

again, catching up with my photos... or getting closer to caught up (as my camera has evidentially decided not to upload the rest of my current photos, perhaps this counts for something in the meantime).

If I remember correctly, I took this pic for Grandpa W, one afternoon the kids were pouring over this big astronomy book and Afton was reading some of the photo explanations.

A went curly one day

I just love this guy, I really need to get some more recent pictures up too, cause he's amazingly much bigger, though still just as sweet as he was in Feb :)

the girls got more awards at their school third quarter assembly (both made the principal's honor list/straight A's, and perfect attendance for the quarter)

This was just a random Saturday, but I liked how typical it was of the kids that I could just step outside for a second and find them in their natural habitats (ps, if I remember correctly, Paul was fixing his bike on the front step, also his natural Saturday habitat, though I didn't' get a picture):

Rayna up a tree

Afton digging in the dirt or playing with a bug

Malachi in his own 'outfits' with chocolate smeared on his face

Malachi had a time when he would climb in the crib whenever Asher started crying and they'd snuggle 'til I came in to get them. very sweet

And there was one day I noticed my boys were matching, so I took some pictures just 'cause I thought they were cute...

Then I realized it was 'twin-day' at school and the girls were matching that morning too, so when they got home I took some more matchy-matchy pics...

(feel free to ignore the dirty dishes piled up behind them)

they posed themselves...

and ironically, when daddy got home from work, he changed into a blue shirt like the boys' so this was a happy coincidence for me... I can't get them all matching that well when I try!

And for some reason, this picture just makes the Fluckiger side of me happy... I debated even posting it because my house was such a mess, but one evening just before the kids were supposed to be getting ready for bed I walked in to find them like this:

they all had a book, and were thoroughly engrossed :)

Happy End of February...

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 :)

This week

This week Afton spoke at a baptism for a friend in our ward. She did a great job despite her nerves and a VERY large crowd (about 50+). She even took the initiative without any hints to record it in her scrapbook:

see her name on the left there?!

I hinted that she might like to save the notes for her talk. She read most of it, but ad-libbed a bit on the object lesson:

sorry this is so light.

it says:

The Holy Ghost is like a yellow light -- it reminds us to be careful. Sometimes you need to slow down because there might be danger around. It comes from God. The priesthood holders are like the mailmen.

(object lesson) Water = world and people around you

pepper = temptations, sins, bad choices, & things from Satan

finger (she had the boy being baptized come up) = you

(then she asked him what happens when he put his finger in a cup of water with pepper floating on top--it gets dirty!)

dish soap = the holy ghost (he wiped his finger off, put soap on it, and tried again)

what happens? (the soap repels the pepper so it stays clean)

2 Nephi 31:12 tells about Jesus -read ** we learn that you have to be like Jesus to keep the Holy Ghost. That means standing up to bullies, helping others, being nice, and reading the scriptures.

 

ps, in case you're wondering, I made he write the whole talk herself, her rough draft was a bit rougher than this, I helped her write the final copy so it would be done faster :) --and a bit neater/easier to read ;)

 

 

and here's Rayna's big project from this week. She was supposed to get all her family's favorite modes of transportation and put them in a pictograph. she could have limited it to 3-4 types, but she liked the variety. unfortunately we didn't get all the categories in one line :) that one sitting a bit high on the right is motorcycle.

for those that are having a hard time reading the final results it says:

4 Stroller

4 Airplane

8 Car

2 Bus

11 Bike

6 Walk/run

3 Train

1 Limo

1 Helicopter

2 Rollerblade

1 boat

1 Horse

1 Skateboard

1 Motorcycle

 

(I'm guessing she has the biggest graph in the class! --there were 2 other jokes about horses, and 1 about camels that later changed their minds)

and just to give you an idea about Asher's big movements this week. he's doing a lot of planking and scooting backwards and has even managed to go from tummy to seated pretty consistently for the last few days. note his face. he does NOT like being on his tummy at ALL thank you very much!

happy almost April... and if I don't see any more snow 'til November, that's plenty soon enough for me!

Asher in January

as promised, here's a million, or nearly, pictures of Asher from January. I tried to narrow it down a bit, as I still have so much catching up to do, but here's a peek at how he's growing.

I see you... this is his serious face.

I'm havin' a ball!

His brother (and sisters) like to make sure he's not going to get bored... 

he he he :)

snuggling with Dad

fold in half you say, no problem!

I didn't get any pictures of the first time he tried solid food, because Daddy snuck him some pound cake one night at dessert... he was immediately a fan of ALL solid foods, and hasn't slowed down yet (except for peas... but he still ate them!).

yum!!! gimme, gimme :P

this day the kids were all taking turns with the camera taking pictures of Asher eating, so I had about 30 pictures of us, most of which were not very flattering to either of us ;)

it's true!

sleepy angel

baby, it's cold out-side!

I don't take him out on long walks when the wind chill is below 20 (aka, Wisconsin-esque), but occasionally we'd wait at the bus stop with the girls well-bundled!

so sweet!

chillin'

Asher is seriously the best-behaved, happiest baby, I can't believe it! he communicates so much with his face too, I feel like I usually know what he needs/wants, which is really nice. We're so blessed to have him in our family!