seven years old ...

 two weeks ago (exactly) was a very special day!!!

I promise, they do have clothes...

kind of funny that in my last post I talked about how I buy most of my kids' clothes at yard sales and thrift shops and how my budget for those items has decreased so dramatically ... and as I thought about that I thought:  yah, people probably think my "budget" dropped because I don't buy my kids clothes, not because I buy so much less "new" clothes!  ha ha ha.

I know, I know.  Jericho is always shirtless and Liam is constantly in a tee with underpants ... or just the underpants.  but I promise, this is more because they just seem to like to be in states of "half dress".  lol!  it's not for lack of clothing!!!

that said - I really enjoyed these pics!!!

new toys ...

I think I've mentioned, at least a few times, my love of yard sale-ing! in fact, I seem to remember at the start of 2011 trying to blog more about my finds ... well, we all know how that went. anyway, i do indeed enjoy yard sale-ing and go out most saturday mornings to do so. some weeks there's only a couple sales, others there's more than twenty!!! I pretty much always stay on base and I really enjoy finding a good deal. that has very little to do with this post though, other than the fact that this new toy came from a yard sale (and I don't mind admitting - so has most of my kids clothing and even shoes for the last six months ... my kids clothing spending has dropped dramatically, because of my "new" love of thrift stores and yard sales for those items).

anyway, this saturday morning I caught a couple pics of the little playing with Zoey's new toy!

keep your eyes open!

with a title like that one would never know where I might be going with this post, but in this case it's pretty simple and literally self descriptive.  Liam seems to have developed the same thing his daddy has, blink-itis.  common symptoms include nine out of ten photos turning out something like this:

so, I was trying to pics of him this day (at his request) and brought it to his attention (because he likes to see the photo on the camera screen after it's taken) and we worked a little on keeping his eyes open when the camera flashes!  the result:

 slightly bug eyes, but pretty darn precious just the same!

and then we took a few more and they looked something like this:

LOL!!!

Zoey's got a fever ...

she's focused on the tv ...

do you like "see" food???
ha ha ha - she looks like a little fishy!

bubba was enjoying the music and his sister!

and what was on???

Zoey's got the Bieber fever!!!  lol.

I love her sweet smile ...

so much!!!

she LOVES to dance!

oh. my.

love.

Annicka likes to hold Zoey up on her shoulders - 

succeeding in sufficiently freaking me out!

Zoey likes it -not sure what prompted the face- 

but I sure did crack up when she made it!!!

quotes of the week ...

this is pretty funny!  on monday Liam was talking to Nana (that's my mom) on the phone.  he really enjoys talking on the phone with her and they have simply wonderful chats ... usually they consist of Nana talking and Liam being distracted, or Liam giving every detail about a toy or something he's playing with - then he'll hold it up and say "see it?"!!!  Nana is quite patient, even dealing with Liam just zoning or crunching his snack in her ear while she says "are you still there?".  LOL.  cracks me up!  anyway, Liam was on the phone and I had it on speaker phone to make it easier and so she could hear me if I threw in some comments ... I was in the kitchen fixing lunch and could hear him (in the living room) telling Nana about Dora, which he was watching.  then I hear him ask her, "does your kid like to watch Dora?".  crack. me. up.  oh my gosh - I totally giggled out loud!




today (1-25-12), while walking to the school -

***pause:  yes, people, I walked - but don't get too thrilled.  I actually drove from my house and parked half way between our house and the school - then got the stroller and the littles out and we walked the other half.  seriously, it's probably like one-eighth of a mile or something ... but I'm so out of shape, I have to start slow (there are benefits to being slow though, Liam walked with me and since I'm not rushing I don't get antsy to have his little legs speed up - I was amazed at how much of it he walked too!!!).  I'm attempting to force myself to "be better" (remember that) and given recently finding out my cholesterol is high, it's truly time to get serious about the way I live!  it's always been a struggle, but hopefully in a few months I'll have good news - we shall see, and if you like go ahead and pray for me!!!***

Liam informed me that "at my birthday, I want a little pet puppy".  oh my gosh - the way he said it was so stinkin cute too.  for about a fraction of a second I was tempted to actually indulge in the thought of making his birthday wish come true ... fraction of a second being the key phrase!  there's no way we can afford a pet and I already have enough to do with four children and a hamster!  but I had to share, because it was adorable.  he even said "and I'll play with it and I won't get dirty".  awwwwww.  resist. resist.  maybe one day, little man.

mamarazzi strikes again ...

picked with love ...

a couple weekends back I came home from errands (my usual weekend happening) to find a vase on the table ... a vase, full of beautiful little yellow flowers! Jericho picked them for me, how sweet is that! he was very proud, I could tell by his little face, to show me what he had found in our yard and picked just for me.

I have to say, I loved it! I love the way the flowers have their long stems and seem to fit so nicely in this vase I happened to have. I love the yellow. I love my thoughtful little guy and how he thought of me! ... so, what was I to do with all that love - take photos, of course! if only I'd thought to get a pic of him with them!

we noticed right away that these are pretty cool flowers too - at night they close up and in the morning they open back up - Annicka first noticed this and we all find it pretty cool! (I know lots of flowers do this, but we've just never noticed any "in the house" ones doing it)

I should note they're lasting quite well, it's been a week (as of me writing this) and their still looking pretty nice!

the girl likes television ...