More Cuz Time!

This week we had a special visit from some of my family- my cousin Teresa & her husband Shane (from my dad's side) and my cousin Kristen (from my mom's side). They live in the same area and had a mid-winter break (must be rough!). We took a very thorough 4 hour trip to the Children's Museum... all this time I thought the Science wing was for older kids, but we checked it out and Emma loved it- finally a new room to go into. :)

Teresa and I...

Kristen and I...

The Not-So Children's Museum

Reese the future paleontologist

Emma the Rock Mover

Future Indy Car Team?

Reese branching out to meet Mr. Bear

Cuz Time

Daddy was out of town so we were off to visit Asher, Winter and Violet! Their daddy was out of town too, so Autumn and I were slightly outnumbered, but did just fine and had lots of fun. :)

Snuggly movie time

We spent twice as much time (at least) getting the kids all bundled up as they spent actually playing in the snow! Only a few tears after being hit by snow blocks and two boots stuck in a tree. Don't ask how.

Baby Violet is getting so big, but is still a little too young for the snow. ;)

Happy Valentine's Day!

We started off the morning right with heart shaped pancakes- Reese's with blueberries and Emma's with chocolate chips.

Then I forced Reese to wear his $3 Wal-Mart V-Day shirt.

Then Josh and Emma braved the massive dumping of snow we got yesterday. Here's Emma on "Pillow Hill" as she called it. Josh spent about 2 hours unburying us from the avalanche.

THEY DID IT!!!

The first time ever- the Indianapolis Colts won the SUPER BOWL! We had a bunch of people over to watch the game... including our good buddy Kai Warner who just had his first cleft lip surgery. He likes showing off his precoius new slobbery lip. :)

Are those the Colts cheerleaders? Okay, it's Kelly and I showing our support.

Trip to the Luces!

Micah- almost 6, Emma- 4, Drew- almost 4, Hannah- 2 1/2, Reese- 15 mo, Haddie- 7 mo. Several time outs. Lots of creative indoor games. One daring trip to McDonalds for 5 snack wraps on a 10 degree day. One very noisy trip to the Kouts Library. Only a few tears and tantrums. One incident of a prowler in the sugar bowl during "naptime." Zero major accidents or broken bones. A trip to the Luces: Priceless.

Me and my BFF Jen- no, we did NOT have time for makeup... or showers.

Alpha & Omega

Violet Mercy Nottingham made her debut on January 31st at 5:15 p.m. We lost our precious Great Grandma "Gigi" and were in town for her funeral. But what a blessing to go meet our new little niece/cousin that very night! She is a beautiful, healthy alert little thing and we are so happy to have her in our family!

Aunt Autumn introducing Violet to Winter, Emma and Asher.

Could you just eat those little piggies?!

Tight squeeze

After finding Emma under her bed at 8 a.m. eating a bag of Swedish Fish, I should've known it was going to be one of those mischievous days. This is what I walked in on when I noticed that Emma had been quiet for quite some time.

Snow- finally!

Every day Emma would ask, "Mommy, what season is it?" I would assure her that it was winter, but she was just not convinced since she had not seen snow yet. Well, we finally got it! Emma couldn't wait to get her hands on that snow. We had fun making snow angels and a snowman, but have since been told that we made the snowman wrong. Oops. Neither of us knew about the snow rolling trick.

Mmmmm... brownies

Stir...pour...lick batter off your leg.

Another indoor activity- Children's Museum!

The winter has hit us with a giant slap to the face. Makes us even more thankful for those 60 degree days in December! Thank goodness for our membership to the Children's Museum- the kids love it. Sand, water, blocks, play food- none of which mommy has to clean up. :)

Reese being a big boy... so close to walking!

They loved this big box... the second I turned around to take Emma's picture, Reese had crawled head first out of his little hole and was off!


Don't look back, buddy!

So happy to be somewhere besides our living room...

Chuck E Cheese!

What better place to go? Sugary pizza, crazy running children, the hope of getting enough tickets to buy a plastic spider. Reese and Emma had a blast with the Warner kiddos... check it out, but note that capturing the older ones on film is quite difficult!

Reese rather enjoys these little rides...

Just another expression of glee on Bob the Builder. :)

Reese with his buddies Makenna & Kai.

Our new camera!

Such little lovie dovies... this is on our new camera we finally got!