just random pictures

Just a naked baby watching out the window
She heard the click of the camera so she thought she would turn around and pose!
my very first homegrown-in-my-backyard tomato!!! it was soooo good.

What a Homeschooling Family looks like

So Madeleine finally got a pair of shoes. She's only 9 months and already pulling up and trying to walk. Buying her shoes was my desperate attempt to get her to stop...it didn't work, she's already starting to take a step by herself and then fall.
Shouldn't ever home schooler's day include building a Lego tower taller then our Daddy? We did get the measuring tape out and actually measure it. Last recored at 10 ft 8 inches, then Elizabeth's arm got tired.
Madie got her first tooth, bottom left and now the one next to it has just started to come in. She likes to show off her standing ability, she can even do squats. (we've been talking to her about her chubby legs...)
Today we are super heroes and all three don capes in honor of saving the world. Or just running through the house like wild bandits. Madie even gets a little cape of her own. (Elizabeth put her bib on her backwards)
At least someone is reading at this here home school joint. Remember, home schoolers have class.
Madie has shared her love of the window seal with Caleb. Priceless.

Finally took that picture....

So what did we ever do before we had cell phones? I remember when pagers were the new rage, "just page me" sounded like such a cool thing to say. I wouldn't know, I never one. Home schoolers were never not at home! But now days I would be lost without my cell phone, who wouldn't? I seldom meet someone who doesn't have own one. I finally got a Blackberry so I can have internet access where ever when ever and oh yeah, a camera!
Yesterday as I drove with my windows down to go grocery shopping (after already visiting 5 other stores earlier that morning buying school supplies, birthday presents and wondering why super wide leg jeans are back) I stopped the car for a moment and clicked a picture of my favorite house.
Isn't it gorgeous? Just what you have always imagined in my head little country houses looked like. Old wooden boards, the front porch swing and a well just around back though you cant see it in this picture. I noticed the yard was cut last week, still don't know by whom and then my heart skipped a beat. They had trimmed down all the bushes that had been growing wild in front of the porch. Was someone going to live there? Or sell it? David suggested we should buy it. I thought why? So I can pretend to play house? That's all I used to day when I was growing up, pretend to play house and be a mommy. Why was it so much more enjoyable back then to "play house" then to actually have a house now? Maybe because it was so simple. I used to make our swing set fort in the back yard my "house". I would take blankets, some play dishes (I could only find 3 of my cups, a few plates and forget about ever finding silverware!), a baby doll and fake food. I would spend hours out there just pretending up a storm. But now when I play house those blankets have turned into piles of clothes from a 5 person family which most must be washed over and over again. I have more drinking glasses now then I know what to do with, coffee mugs run wild throughout my kitchen and I always seem to run out of spoon though I have a least two dozen! Real babies actually do cry, real food is expensive and you actually have to go buy it instead of just looking through your toy box.
So I contemplated all of this as drove to yet another store, looked longingly at that old, wonderful house.....I think I will buy it and just go back to playing house, a least in my imagination. I hope that part of me never grows up.

Aftermath of a Storm

We were outside watching the storm roll in when we noticed a tree leaning sideways behind our house. We didn't think it was in our yard, just behind our fence. Guess we were wrong! The tower held up nicely, the kids were sad to see the swing part go. Good excuse for David to finally buy a chainsaw though! The tree was rotten at the base so it was going to fall at some point. We guess it was about an 80 ft. tall tree! Wish you could burn pine wood, but perhaps we can chip it up for mulch later on.