My little Picasso

Olivia has become quite an artist over her 4 years. She was drawing smiley faces pretty early on, and has moved on to bodies and even appendages! We're so proud.

The top picture has "robots" in it (and Luke on the right... we can all hope he grows that tall one day). (Note that they actually have five fingers and toes in some instances)

The one here on the left has Captain Hook on the right side and what appears to be a potato with hair on the left side. These guys didn't get bodies, but they got some nice frizzy hair on top!

Happy Birthday Cupid!

Today was our Valentine's Party with the MOMS, but Olivia was really confused thinking it was a birtday party, so we kept saying Happy Birthday to cupid. It was a LOT of fun for the kids, despite being a super busy day. The girl who ran the party had all kinds of craft stations set up for the kids to keep them busy (which totally worked) including face painting. Olivia's friend from dance class had hearts on her face, so Olivia had to have them too! And Luke spent a good portion of the day entertaining his friend Sofia under the table. He must have eaten 6 cookies (without frosting or sprinkles...how boring!)

Ikea fun

On the way home from NJ today I thought it would be fun to stop at Ikea and "play" (really shop) for a bit to stretch and get some exercise (for the kids, not me!). That was a real silly idea. We got right into the kids section where Luke and Olivia proceeded to run every which way but the same so I couldn't find them. Luckily I've been a few times and know their favorite spots. They have this great little spinny chair with an accordian cover that comes down and "hides" the kid inside...that's where Olivia hangs out. Luke likes the doorway with the fringe hanging down. He likes to run in and out of the fringe as much as he can. And today he was playing with the tea set...I had to buy that, it was so cute.
As usual, Luke paid no attention to me and did his own thing (argh!!) while Olivia acutally responded to her name (a rarity these days). Luke played with every fake computer in the place..."I'm just checking my email" he said.
Then, as I'm paying...for stuff for THEM, Luke sets off the alarm in one of the aisles. Oh the embarassment! He is such a pistol to shop with. I really need to get him a leash...

I'm back!

I know, I know... it's been a while!!
Here are a few pictures from the past few months. We had a lot going on. Christmas, and other NJ stops as well as Olivia's fourth B-day!! She wanted a Wall e theme. It worked out great, but the cake took me four hours!!!

We did Christmas at home again with my mom and then headed to NJ for the next few stops! Here are the kids in their Christmas outfits (I made Olivia's dress) they were really excited to see what Santa was going to bring them the next day!

Olivia started dance lessons (though we've only had one due to bad weather the past two weeks) she LOVED it and feels the need to practice her moves all the time. I'm hoping she learns some gracefulness at these classes because she is a clutz (like her mommy).

We were really sad to lose Mabel Douglass (brad's grandmother) in January. She was such a great lady. This is our last picture of her. She got all done up for our visit. The kids got to visit with her one more time too, which was really nice.