Yeah, it's been a while. Got sick, then got behind. Then got further behind. I recently realized that if I don't get caught up now, I won't get caught up. Once January comes, I'm not going to have time to catch up. I'll be lucky to
keep up.
I won't try to "catch up" all the posts I should have been doing all this year. To tell the truth, it's a bit of a blur. I know we've been busy, but don't ask me to tell you what we've been doing! Instead, I'll let you know what we're up to now, and hope hope hope that I can sort of keep up with it from here on out. I finally uploaded all of my pics from this year (literally, starting from January - that's how behind I am) to
my shutterfly page(11 albums, 100s of pics). So if you want to to see them, please visit. I'll add a few of my favorites to this post, though.
For those who don't know (most will), we're expecting number 4 in January. We're pretty excited to announce that it's a girl! Two of each, what a wonder. Life will continue to be crazy busy for a few more years!!
Audra recently turned 2. Hard to believe! She is a little spitfire: stubborn, FULL of energy, opinionated, and so stinkin' cute that it hurts. She's got all of us pretty much wrapped around that little pinkie of hers, so it's a good thing she's going to have a sister around soon. Otherwise she would be spoiled completely rotten! She's a talker, like her brothers; speaking in complete sentences most of the time already. And she has no idea she's only 2. She does most everything that her big brothers do, and many times she's better at it than they are.
Hunter has entered a stage where on most days he feels the need to get into some kind of trouble - usually the messy kind. In the last week, with the help of his sister, he has emptied the diaper pail and spread the dirty diapers around Audra's room, got out a new package of clean diapers and spread them around Audra's room, broke over a dozen raw eggs all over the garage floor (where we keep an extra fridge), and tore up about 15 SpookyTown boxes (our Halloween village, which is very breakable, and for which we need the boxes for storage; luckily the boxes were empty at the time!) Is it any wonder I'm behind on everything? I spend a lot of time cleaning up this kid's disasters. This morning first thing, I procured a promise not to make a mess or destroy anything. So far, so good. Today. I hope I remember to procure the same promise every morning!
Marshall turned 6 in August, and started first grade this fall. We are still homeschooling, so he is progressing at his own pace. Which means that he is already more than halfway through 1st grade math and reading on about a late 2nd grade to early 3rd grade level. He is really enjoying school this year, and smart to boot, so getting ahead has happened almost without me realizing it. He's still a complete goofball, though. A couple of months ago we were having a conversation with him about baths, and how the reason we make him take them is that he's so stinky (it's true!). And he says "Yeah, well my life is filled with annoying" (which is what he calls his brother and sister - isn't he nice?)"and my force field against that is the stink. So I need to keep that on me." Nice try, kid, nice try. Still gotta take that bath, though.
Some pics. These aren't in any specific order.
Our recent portrait session. Came out very cute, but we have a lot of pictures with Audra pointing: The photographer had a stuffed monkey, and kept putting it on her head and asking "where's the monkey?" So Audra kept pointing and saying "on your head!"
Marshall's 6th birthday. Transformers.
Easter.
Audra's 2nd birthday. Go, Diego, Go and Dora the Explorer. She was sick with a little fever (which turned out to be teething, I'm happy to say), so she wasn't too happy. She cheered up later, after eating some yummy cake. Chocolate, of course - her favorite.
One of Audra's birthday presents. I'm saving this one for blackmail purposes, obviously.
Audra has been having to share her brothers' couches, so was thrilled to get her new Dora chair. For the first couple of days, she insisted it had to go in a bigger chair.
Our fashionista. She was quite proud of this outfit.
(Kerry and Ethan: recognize the slippers? She LOVES them!)
More of her fashion sense.
Fishing trip to Abiqiu, with Granddad and Dad, on Granddad's boat.
Another blackmail shot: Dancing with each other.
She can almost pedal by herself. This may not be much of an accomplishment for some two year olds , but her brothers were AT LEAST 3 before they would even try to pedal. They prefer to wait until the skill is easy to master before trying. She, however, thinks she can do anything.
Marshall's first black eye. None of the pictures came out very well, but it had to be recorded. I no longer remember exactly what happened, but I'm pretty sure it was not something that usually gives black eyes. Figures.
