What we've been up to lately...

Not much really :) We've mostly gotten over colds and the flu now, except for Jenna who is congested and seems to be teething. She is not her normal self, poor thing. Steve is busy with a lot of meetings lately.

Steve decided to watch the Lord of the Rings movies as a family, a little bit each night here and there (the extended versions - wow are they long!). I think Joel's too young and there's a lot of nail-biting and pausing the movie to explain parts, but they are really getting into it. Actually, Joel sticks his whole hand in his mouth when he gets tense :) I'm hoping Emily and Marie will read the books, if not now then in a few years.

Holly never tires of playing with her doll and listening to its electronic sounds... I'm very thankful that they did a good job making the sounds sweet and soft even when it's crying, although it's still trying at times and I've also wondered if it's the doll or Jenna.

Em & Marie are taking a knitting class at coop school, and enjoying it. It's a little challenging to come up with new projects as they are so ambitious they go through quite a few. Below is Holly modelling her new scarf. If anyone would like one done, let me know and we'd be happy to make one for you.

The kids had fun growing hybiscus (each year there is a virtually unlimited supply of free bulbs, compliments of brother-in-law Travis). They each grew at least one, but Emily did most of the watering. They are now planning out what to grow in the garden soon. I think pumpkins and sunflowers top the list.

Joel builds a lot of Lego airplanes. I really should take more pictures of their creations. Emily's latest is a pyramid, complete with a mummy wrapped in bits of toilet paper inside (she used a Lego skeleton man for that :). Does anyone else have trouble getting their kids to take Lego stuff apart? My kids want to keep them up on top of the piano for MONTHS. I guess that's one disadvantage to having great amounts of Lego. We found the motherload at a garage sale years ago, for less than $10.

It's not spring yet! We got more snow just this past week, and a big windstorm two nights ago.