Accidental Match....

I'm not one that thinks to buy matching clothes for my kids...not that I don't think it's cute, I just never think to do it. Anyway...this Sunday I was dressing Ava and Eriik went in to pick something out for Alec to wear. The kids came out of their rooms matching perfectly! I never even thought of these two outfits as matching. I had to take a picture after church and they posed so sweetly. I'm about to sell our new camera on E-Bay though...it's driving me crazy!!! The pictures have all been coming out blurry if the kids move even just a little! Oh well...the pics are still sweet even if a little blurry. The cute dress that Ava's wearing is a hand me down from Meredith....love it! I know what you must be thinking..."Man, things must be pretty boring in their household to be posting about what the kids wore to church!!!" Really, I just wanted to share these cute pics....but I guess things have slowed down a bit for us lately!

The thoughts of my 4 year old....

Many times when we tell Alec that he can't have something or do something he says "Well, when I'm six years old I'll be able to...." or will ask "Will I be able to when I'm six?" He thinks of six as being this golden age or something. Well....I guess two more years is a long time for him considering it's half his life! The other day while I was driving him to get his hair cut he said, "When I'm six years old I am going to be sooo big....bigger than you, and bigger than the trees!" I started by saying..."Wow...that's really big!" Then I think I may have crushed him by saying "Did you know that Allie just turned six!" He sat quietly the rest of the ride....thinking it through.

He's always thinking of the future. For instance, when he falls and bumps his head, in the midst of tears he'll say..."It's OK...it will feel better tomorrow!" So sweet. I love my little thinker, he's so caring. The other day after Karate class he got in the van and picked up a few of his hotwheels cars and said "Mommy, I want to give these to Levi and Sammy" I said "are you sure, you won't get them back if you give them away?" He said "I know...can I give them to them?" I said "Sure!" So, he ran out and gave away his prized possesions (he really loves his Hotwheels cars)! I was so proud of him. He did the same thing before Christmas with his buddy Brett, and has said that he wants to give a car to Carson too. I am so blessed by his giving spirit....now if he would only be that giving with his little sister!

If your happy and you know it!

This video was taken a while back and I forgot about it. I thought it was pretty cute....even though Alec was doing a silent protest/"I'm totally bored face" because he wanted to sing Away in the Manger instead. That's why you'll hear Ava saying "Manger!" in the beginning. Ava always lights up when we sing "If your happy and you know it"...she can't sing it yet, but she's great at the actions and saying Amen! She's quite the little chatter box these days and can parrot back just about any word we say to her...she even sais some three word sentences that at least I can understand... ("I love you" "I go outside" "I want ....(drink, book, bear, whatever she wants at that moment)") or sometimes she just sais "drink please". She's even showing intrest in potty training, which I personaly wanted to wait on. But when she sais "I go potty" and starts undressing...I guess it's time! It's a very fun stage....but I guess every stage is fun!

Our little photographer!

While we were at the park last weekend, Alec asked if he could take some pictures with my camera. I thought to myself, "sure...why not... it's digital, we can always delete the dozen pictures he takes of the grass". But to my surprise he took some really good pics! This was the first time he had ever shown any interest in taking pictures. We gave him absolutly no instructions other than which button to press to take it. We told him he did a really great job and he said "So...does this mean you're going to send me to picture taker school?" So cute. Anyway, we might have a little photographer on our hands...thought you might like to take a look.

I love this one because he was holding the camera at a strange angle...and it came out pretty cool...other than Ava throwing a fit!

Notice he cut Ava out of this pic...it may not have been an accident. There is a little sibling rivalry every once in a while!

Look how well he centered this pic!

This is the only picture I had to crop (to make it closer) because he took it from so far away...but still..pretty good!

Into the Woods!

I couldn't resist this title since I was in a musical called Into the Woods back when I lived in MO. Anyway...that is completely beside the point! We went to Dangerfield State Park today and had a great time! Eriik had mentioned last night that he wanted to go there and take Alec on a hike. We didn't think that Ava would last very long so I had intended on just hanging out at the playground with her while the boys hiked....but I changed my mind at the last minute and thought we would give it a try. Ava did great! She is sooo sure footed...she would be in full sprint and then when we got to a really bumpy spot slow down and carefully manuver around it. She also had way more stamina than we thought she would. This was all during her nap time (Eriik got off work at noon today) and she walked for a really long time (well over an hour) we carried her just a couple times for a little bit. I think the fact that a dog found us and stayed with us on our "hike" kept her in the game (she loves dogs!)....I think she would have run a marathon if the dog would have...she followed him the whole time. Alec had a great time too. He was a little more pokey than Ava, in part because he was so curious about everything. He brought along his banoculars that his Uncle Shawn and Aunt Stephanie got him for his birthday (which was completely his idea by the way...he really thinks things through). He was looking at everything through those binoculars which was so cute. They both did great and loved every minute of it. Then we went back to the van and got Eriiks ramote controll plane that I got him for Christmas. Alec and Eriik had fun flying it for a while before it got too windy. Let me tell you, the weather was perfect!!! It got up to maybe 65 and the sun poked out a little here and there. What a great day with the fam!

My baby is 4!!!

I can't believe my little boy is 4 years old already! Everything is moving so fast! This was the first year that we actually celebrated Alec's birthday on the day of his birthday... since his birthday landed on a Saturday it worked out perfect. This was also the first time we celebrated his birthday at our house! It was tons of fun...I think I prefer having it in our home. I think Alec has more fun being on his own turf too. Anyway...we ran with the whole Kung Fu Panda theme since Alec loves the movie, and loves Karate. We invited his Karate buddies from preschool, and a couple friends from church. I think the masks were a hit...they looked so cute. We played a couple games, and had a pinata....good times. Also, we couldn't have asked for better weather...it was 75 degrees and sunny...who would have believed it was January 3rd! Here are some pics.

A few of the boys practicing their Kung Fu skills!

Alec as Po the Panda!

Sophia being a little monkey!

Happy New Year!

We had a great New Years Eve at the White's house. She is sooo brave having the whole small group crew to her house to stay so late into the evening! We had 11 kiddos..and we were even missing four kids from another family! Thanks Mer...it was fun. The kids all did great until about 10:30 and then the melt downs started in and families started heading for the door. It was a fun time of food, sock wars, picture taking, playing on the Wii and chatting. My pics of the kiddos didn't turn out that great since I had my new camera on the wrong setting...still trying to figure it out...so you can see more pics with the kids on "The Lions Den" or "Oh Blog Dee Oh Blog Dah". Hope you all had a very fun new years eve and pray you have a wonderful 2009! Anyway...Alec's birthday party is in a couple hours...what am I doing blogging...I gotta get going?!

Eriik and I cuddling.

Some of the girls (minus two) from our small group! Love the pose Mer!

Dirk playing sock wars with the boys!