iPhone + Instagram: February 2014

january days

Lex was enjoying one of the last popcorn balls Grandma made us for Christmas. . . while making donuts. He loves his sweets.

So I think we're pretty much in the middle of winter now.

The cold, dreary span of January and February is often my least favorite time of the year. I love a month or two of winter, but I prefer that it start around mid-November.

I'm about over the cold by the end of January. I'm not ready to skip to summer or anything and I still like the big fluffy snow when we get it, but too often it seems like the months are a lot of darkness and working and frozen things and bad roads and not a lot of gathering or celebrations to look forward to.

We still find ways to enjoy the days. As I was looking through this collection of pictures from the last few weeks it seemed we mainly do that with food, weapons, and sporatic near-nudity, but I'm sure there are other things as well.

Like mustaches. . .



And playing in the snow (in the near-nude, with a mustache. . .)

And some reading and drawing and writing. Lex is actually getting pretty good at writing.

And he's getting better at shooting. He is a multi-talented guy.

The kids used their gingerbread houses as targets. I think that was the symbolic end to the holiday season.

Instagram. . .

One thing I have been loving about winter lately is the beautiful pastel sunsets. . . or that hour right before sunset. Some days it really seems magical.

And we've had lots of time with cousins:

Hot chocolate & fresh banana bread. . .

Hot tubing. . .

Some more sledding now that we finally got some good snow. . .

It's not too bad really, this winter thing. I'm pretty sure I still like it better than that middle of the summer heat. (Unless I can just spend the summer at the lake instead of working. . .  or I get the AC fixed in my car or house or at least one place I can escape to. . . then summer might pull ahead. )

iPhone + Instagram: Novemeber

iphone + instagram: October

Month of birthdays!

iPhone + instagram: August

iPhone + instgram: 8.24.12

iphone+instagram: 8.17.12

We spent all day Saturday hanging out with friends, reminiscing, celebrating, catching up. . . a pretty good evening.

___________________________________________________

Lex has decided he like the watering the plants job.

Sometimes he even gets around to watering the  plants.

___________________________________________________

We've been cleaning out things and trying to de-clutter and get organized. We discovered we still have some tiny costumes in the costume box. (We didn't take them out earlier since we had so many tiny girls during the day for the last couple years.) I didn't realize Azia was so tiny when she used to be a little ballerina.

Azia's bathroom light switch has a mustache.

Of course it does.

It always amuses me when I find Azia's various drawings and things all over. This was actually from a story she wrote last year.  Her and Jenna as ninjas. (Notice their respective brown and red ponytails poking out of their ninja suits.)

Fake particle board furniture makes me sad. I decided I'd attempt to paint this bright red instead. I haven't finished the project so it's still up in the air whether I've totally destroyed it or improved it.

___________________________________________________

I started trying to find the kids school shoes. Zoran spent the day trying to decide between two pairs we ordered from Zappos. Two pair that are almost the same, almost the same as each other and almost the same as the pair he picked out for last year. At least he knows what he likes.

Just a one last week till everyone is back at school. . .

iphoto + instagram: 8.10.12

 Letters from teachers have arrived!

I guess summer really is coming to an end.

The good thing is both the kids didn't really care which teacher they got this year-- all the options seemed good. Hopefully they're excited to go in a couple weeks and this year goes more smoothly than the last.

________________________________________________

Israel is continuing to spoil Lex. Lex is going to be so sad when he has to go back to school and no one buys him treats and does whatever he wants them to do all day long.

________________________________________________

Azia got a giant box of clothes from our Florida hand-me-down fairies. She was super excited. She now doesn't really need anything for school.

We did do a little shopping after her dentist appointment this week. Like always, she found all sorts of things she didn't need:

What would the occasion be for zebra glasses with an attached mustache?

But mostly we just found a few things for her brothers

And then got her a new haircut

For the last month she's been obsessed with getting bangs:

________________________________________________

In the middle of the week we took off for a few days for a little camping...

Lex was ready to go with his headband and backpack full of sleeping bag.

Once we got everyone in the car I saw Lex did add to his camping supplies. He collected his Captain America blanket, Spiderman floatation suit, and stuffed Captain America guy, stacked up all of them on his booster seat, put on his seatbelt and then opened his Avengers tin (full of rocks) to check out all his treasures.

He also had an iPad to keep him entertained on the drive.

Glacier Park was pretty great, despite all the crowds of people.

Lake McDonald is always nice.

Flat tires aren't nice, but this fix-a-flat stuff in a little can is pretty amazing!

Lex decided when it was time for bed he wasn't really interested in camping anymore. But, since we were three hours or so from home he didn't really have a choice. We created a little bed in the bad of the car illuminated by glowsticks (and the movie Up he was watching on the iPad) and he survived.

Morning at our Hungry Horse camp. . .

Any one need to borrow a few kids for their camping trip? We have a few dozen!

Bathing beauties. . .

and one last stop for a swim at Lake McDonald on the way out of the park. . .