Introducing George and Gracie!

Warning, warning!!  Do NOT look directly at the following pictures.  Your heart will melt and it will end up in a massive puddle on the keyboard.  That's never a good thing. 

Ah-ha.  Brave, are you?  Well, don't say I didn't warn you.

I will get to our Christmas to-do soon, but I had to introduce you to the newest family members toot-sweet!

This is George and Gracie:

George, a boy's dog all the way

Gracie, with a smitten Gi-Gi 

We had decided last month that we wanted to get a dog for the kids for Christmas.  You know, because we're not crazy enough around here.  Somehow, someway, someone convinced my lovely, adorable, heretofore pet-resistant hubby that it's better to get two than one.  I never, ever in my wildest, craziest, hormone-inbalanced pregnancy-induced dreams did I think he would go for it.

Go for it he did.  Hence, George and Gracie.

George, again

Gracie, again

And now, we're all smitten.

Especially Daddy.

It was a good Christmas.

Catchin' Up

Oh, my poor little neglected, mistreated family blog.  I haven't meant to ignore you.

Honestly.

But, it seems I have done it again.  Six months is shamefully too long as I well realize.

Let's get caught up, shall we?  Last we spoke was June or July.  What's happened?

Let's see...

First of all, we now have three homeschoolers!  Gi-Gi entered fourth grade, while Bubba and Ya-Ya started kindergarten.

Meanwhile, Ju-Ju had been getting a lot of beauty rest.

Bubba has been experimenting with "cool" hair...never thought I'd see the day I'd have a son with a mohawk.

Speaking of experimenting, someone decided to see what it was like to be a beautician.  Ahem.

And Gi-Gi gave her first presentation at the History Fair.  She studied Amy Carmichael and did awesome!  We weren't even up until midnight the night before!

As for Daddy and Me, well, things are just about to get more interesting.

More soon.  I promise.

 

We LOVE Grandma!

My kids love, love, love their Grandma.

Want to know why?

Because, for one thing, she buys these:



She'll always be beautiful to me.



What can I say? He's one handsome boy!



Ya-Ya needs to grow a little more, don't you think?

Oh, and her big kid loves her, too!



That's definitely not the ONLY reason we love her. But it sure is one!

As for me, well, I already have to wear glasses and wax. Why draw attention to it?

Desert Beauties

Even though I'm a native "Zonie", there is no love lost between me and this desert place that I call home. There are some beautiful mountains in Arizona (they even have this white stuff called snow sometimes), but I've never considered the metro-Phoenix area breathtaking (except after a rain, but that happens so rarely).

However, we did get to travel down to Tucson on Memorial Day to visit the T'hono Chul (I'm almost certain that's misspelled) Desert Botanical Garden and it was gor-geous!



There was an abundance of butterflies as well as secret little havens for women without children with them to sit peacefully, drink tea and listen to the water fountain bubble up vigorously. I took a peek before they hastily shut the gate in my face when they saw the stroller. Totally kidding here.



Really, who wouldn't trust these sweet, innocent little angels?



I wish my camera could have done it justice, but alas, it could not. Some things must be seen in person!

Ya-Ya floating her little leaf-boat in the canal they have in the children's area.



Oops, looks like she got a little too close. It bugged her for the rest of the day, poor dear.



Thankfully, Daddy was there to save Bubba before his imminent head dunking.



Checking out the streams in the desert, just like the Bible says.



I know that I'm totally related to this guy some how. Check out his big mouth! Look familiar?



Although, I think I prefer to be related to her! She's pink, sassy and has fabulous taste in shoes. She should have come home with us. Everyone needs a souvenir, don't you think?



Better a pink chicken than a rattle snake!

Wanted: One Brave Dog

Wanted: One doggy to snuggle, lick and play with two little boys and two little girls. We can promise lots of hugs and squeezes, pulled tails, and food under the table.

And this is why we need a dog:



If we had a dog, the five-second rule would be non-existent at our house. Oh, who am I kidding? It doesn't exist now!

Unfortunately, the quality of this picture is not so good because he wouldn't stop inhaling the cheerios long enough for me to get a good picture. He's like a human vaccum cleaner, that boy!

Do you see this, Hubby? Are you convinced yet?

How Does This Keep Happening?

I still haven't figured out how this keeps happening.

Somehow, year after year, the kids just keep getting older. And they like it that way!

Gi-Gi is latest of the kiddos to grow in age and beauty.

I keep trying to put the books on her head, but she keeps knocking them off, proudly declaring that she's up to my shoulder.

Hmph!



Honestly, though, I'm enjoying having a nine-year-old. I love that I get to watch her grow and learn every day. I love that I get to teach her period. What an honor, what a privilege, what a responsibility.



And yet, there is still some little girl in there.

I'm loving that, too.

Happy birthday, sweet girl.

The Many Faces of Ju-Ju

In our family, we four children who we have discovered are all hams.

To the core.

We are genuinely amused by this. We laugh and then give each other the look that says, "That's your child."

The amazing thing is that they come out this way. There's no training here, no teaching about how to behave when you have a captive audience.

I swear it's in their DNA. The paternal side.

Here's one of the hams in action.



Scene One: Ju-Ju is eating like a horse, as usual. We're celebrating Gi-Gi's ninth birthday and so everyone is there. Yet no one is paying attention to him. Cue the tears.




Scene Two: He's got our attention, but he's still mad. Notice the evil eye being used on his Nonnie (my mom).




Scene Three: Immediate cessation of the tears because everyone is laughing at him. He's looking pretty pleased.




Scene Four: What you don't see is that in between shots, he's screaming. As soon as he here's my camera focus (it chimes when it focuses), he immediately stops and smiles. In fact, I was trying to get more of the mad faces, but he kept smiling when he heard it.



Scene Five: Repeat of scene four. Screams until the chime and then smile for the camera. How did he learn this?




Scene Six: Repeat yet again. By now we are all laughing hysterically.

Yup, we've got a comedian in the family.

This is going to be interesting.

Easter Happenings

Better late than never, right?

I really, really, really love celebrating Resurrection Sunday! Last year, we weren't able to celebrate it as usual due to Hubby's nephew getting married, three kids in the wedding (they really were so darling, but three kids in one wedding?!) and a one month old.

This year was so much more meaningful simply for the reason that we had time to meditate on what it all means to us every day.



Funny how tricky it can be getting four kids looking and semi-smiling nicely at the same time. Can we do it?




Yes!! Got it! Everyone smiling semi-nicely, looking at the camera and not tackling each other to the ground. Miracles do happen!



We spent the evening before making Resurrection Cookies with our kids. Our recipe didn't really turn out well, so I won't share the recipe we used, but you can google them and hopefully have your turn out better than ours. It was a really powerful object lesson for little ones. It was worth it even if the cookies didn't turn out. Maybe next year, we could find a way to add chocolate in there. Hmmmm....

On Sunday, we spent time with Paco's familia after church and had such a wonderful time being outside in our gorgeous Arizona spring-time weather. Apparently, orange was the color this year. Nobody told me. Could it be because I look absolutely hideous in orange? Nah!




And then, of course, the egg coloring tradition. I love how my children have no patience for this (as in waiting for the color to set) and yet we HAVE to do this. Then, they won't touch them with a ten foot pole when they're done! I'm still eating them a week later. How long are hard-boiled eggs good for, anyways?

I'm just praying away the salmonella, folks. {shudder}



How did you celebrate this Easter?

Has It Really Been That Long?

I just looked at the last posting and I about fainted when I saw the date. Okay, maybe not really almost fainted, but I think there was an audible gasp coming out of my mouth.

Yikes!! It's been way too long, my dear little blog. And for that, I humbly apologize.

If only there were more hours in the day...

Know the feeling?

So, in a whirlwind-kind of way, I'll give you the lowdown on the monkeys and their latest antics:



Yes, that boy is walking all around the house. Officially one year old, he's a hefty24 lbs. 4 oz. and 30 inches tall.



Mr. Personality, he is. He's a friendly, happy, smiley kind of boy who lights up when he sees someone he knows and loves. A mama's boy to the core, which I'm sooo not sad about, he's a fantastic snuggler and is usually found in the vicinity of my legs while I'm working in the kitchen.




Ya-Ya, sweet Ya-Ya. She's always had an artistic bent and it's really been coming out lately. This art masterpiece is (in case you're not sure) a bride and a groom getting married. Can you see it now? Ya-Ya is the type of girly-girl who dreams of growing up, getting married, and having babies, just like her mama. {sigh} We must be doing something right!



Bubba is growing like a weed, both physically and in personality. His vocabulary has exploded, he's teaching himself to read, and his favorite phrase is, "Speaking of..." He's a pretty smart dude! Still working on the two-wheeler, though.



And then there's our Gi-Gi! She's up in the trees every time we let her, like a true monkey. She's still our little bookworm, working hard through third grade, helping me take care of Ju-Ju, and staying busy with her Literature Club (plus reading my blogs). She's loving spending time hand-sewing and crocheting, just like Laura Ingalls Wilder, dontcha know?




We've been keeping pretty busy, what with Saturday-morning dance party, and all. This is truly one of our kids favorite activities and they find that they have very willing parents.




Here's another one of our favorite things: acting out Bible stories as part of our family worship. This was Bubba and YaYa acting out when Jesus washed the disciples feet. They did a great job but we're still having to work at implementing this into our daily lives. Does it ever get any easier? Not only did I get to get my feet cleaned, but I also got to be the servant who clean the basin full of dirty water. Ugh! How lucky could I be? But I guess I was practicing servanthood.




And then we come to Miss Buttercup. Every year, our hummingbird comes to her little nest on our wind chime to lay her eggs on the nest she so lovingly made. Sure enough, this year she showed up, made a few improvements and settled down to lay her eggs. We waited with anticipation and lo and behold, the eggs hatched and out popped two little babies. But, they don't stay little for long! In no time, they've gotten big enough to push mama out of the next and she hangs out (literally) on the wall next to them. It's incredible to me how trusting she is of us. She buzzes (or is it hums?) around us whenever we're in the back yard and even follows Hubby around when he's mowing the lawn.

Now you've caught up with us all. And I promise I'll do better keeping this updated.

Cross my heart.