Emeline is cute--among other things

This is what happens when you have no counter space. Your rolls have to raise on your bed.

Why isn't my bed made, you ask? Let's not delve into such unpleasant issues today. Or tomorrow.









Ghost-man. Mime. Whatever you call him--he looks strange covered in mud dust. No, he is not wearing lipstick. His shirt makes me feel all warm and fuzzy, though.















Some of you might have been wondering what happened to school during the mad chaos of the last little while. In all honesty, it has mostly been on hold. I've played some math games with the kids to help Cowen learn to recognize numbers. He can count objects but he doesn't know the corresponding written numbers. So, I made a memory/matching game and that was great with Miriam, but not so great with Cowen. Since it wasn't going well, I had the kids go to a different room and then I taped two sets of four of the same number around the room and had the kids come and race to find their numbers first. For example, Miriam might have had the number 3 and Cowen the number 4, and so four 3's and four 4's were hidden and whoever found all four of their number first won. That was a HUGE hit.

Miriam, in the above picture, is matching the colony written on the paper on the pin to the colony on the map. I didn't put this together myself. I laugh at the very thought (although, now that I've seen how useful it is with Miriam and how much she loved it, I'll probably be trying to talk Timothy into making more of these in the future). My homeschooling buddy Julie (Ahnika and Ty's mom) put it together and let me use it. It's made on that kind of board that is a little puffy so things stick in it. What is that called??

After she'd put them in a few times, I gave her an outline map of the colonies and she wrote the first letter of the colony on the right space. Good times. She loved it, and after the third time sticking the pins in, she remembered where most of the colonies were. She's taking her third math test on Monday so we can move on to chapter six, and next week she'll be sewing her Thanksgiving tablecloth. So . . . while we've been pretty lax with school, a few things have got done.



The Yankee Peddler came again. The biggest winner of the night was the ducks Emeline bought. She is obsessed with ducks and likes to go around the house singing, "Duck, duck, goo (goose)." It is from a game we have. I think much of her duck love comes from the fact that ducks are "yallow." Her favorite color.







I saw this coat at Gap when it was full-priced and drooled over it forever and almost bought it. But it was WAY too expensive, so eventually I left the store without it. Months later, I happened to be at the mall again (I'm at the mall maybe once or twice a year) when Gap was having its moving sale and the coat was there for $10. YAHOO!!! I felt like Amy. So I bought the smallest size, and have waited three years for Miriam to wear it. I thought it would fit when she was seven or eight. She's five. Regardless--the coat is awesome and she looks so ADORABLE in it--even if it makes her look way too old. It is a brighter green than this pic makes it look.






If Timothy and Emeline were dinosaurs they would be called Big Mouths.

I'm posting these pictures to show off Emeline (she is just so dang cute and gets cuter every day) and to show off the dress Beckie (my mom-in-law) made for her. Miriam has a matching one, but I haven't managed to get pictures of her in her dress yet. Miriam is a dawdler. She is usually the last to be ready and the grumpiest post-church. I might have to take pictures of her in her dress on a non-Sunday.










Why do kids always want something in their mouths?? Such an Emeline expression though.

Isn't her nose cute?! After falling madly in love with Timothy I became something of a nose connoisseur as Timothy has the cutest nose in the history of noses. I adore it. I can't emphasize that enough.

Miriam has Tim's cute turned-up nose. At first, I thought Emeline wouldn't have as cute of a nose as Miriam and Timothy--but it just keeps getting cuter. Yeah!






Yes, you can't see Emeline, but this picture is the best one of the dress. Isn't it awesome!!! Thank you Grandma Beckie!!!


















One of the hair brooch/clip thingees that Becky (my college buddy) made for Emeline to help ease my grief over the haircut situation. It is perfect for this dress. LOVE IT!














Everyone take a moment to really appreciate that face. I just want to go smush her with hugs and kisses. But I won't, because she's asleep.


So, my baby brother--yeah, the football star--got his knee wrecked in tonight's game. Ethan was very upset because of the pain and implications for his football scholarships, but also because this was the last game before the championship game next week in Rice-Eccles Stadium (UofU's stadium). Ethan and team are pretty devastated because while their offense could probably muddle through without Ethan--it totally messes up their defense to not have him. While I am not one to think sports are the end-all and be-all, I feel so sad for Ethan because he worked so hard for the past two years to get to this championship game and now he can't play. And this is his last year of high school ball. It reminds me of when my whole life revolved around singing and then one morning I woke up and couldn't open my mouth. The difference is I wasn't expecting to get any scholarships from singing--or to sing after high school. And there was no championship game I'd worked my tail off preparing for. Sad, sad, sad Ethan.