A Slew of Pictures

 On Mardi Gras we used our Frisch's coupons and went out to dinner with Grandpa and then he treated us to ice cream cones at UDF. Flavors included: chocolate (Ben); cotton candy (Charlie); peanut butter-fudge (Louie); and black-raspberry chip (Meredith).

 Grandpa got the winning flavor (Paintball!) that turned your tongue all sorts of colors and Benny claimed it tasted like cake icing. Grandpa was kind enough to let all the kids try it and they all say that is the flavor they are getting next time.

 The weather has been unseasonably warm in February so we took the opportunity to go to a park with Grandma, Gracie and Maggie. Meredith loves chasing the very-mobile Maggie around!

 This is the beginning of Meredith's "potty sticker chart." She picked out scratch-n-sniff strawberry stickers and is doing pretty well so far. Nighttime and sometimes naps can be a problem, but her muscles will mature and she'll be able to hold it for longer period soon enough!

 Charlie missed Daddy so much on the first day that when I walked into our room that first night I found a Yoda picture that he had made to surprise Daddy when he came home. He even found some handy Kroger stickers to tape it to the wall!

This is a picture we took to send to Daddy to show him how well Meredith's doing on the potty (she gets a piece of candy for going potty). She didn't care for the phone's flash, however.

Catch Up Photos

Charlie's First Chicken Nugget Person

Louie's First Lost Tooth
I put it in black and white so it might be easier to see--with the teeth coming up from behind it's hard to tell that there's one missing!

It really is a "baby" tooth, isn't it!

Nine month old "birthday" having spaghetti and corn :)

Little Cutie

Feeling Left Out

I was in the other room with Meredith when I heard my name being called by these three goobers. Apparently they've been feeling left out of pictures as of late and requested that I take this shot. Ah, it's so nice when they are all getting along and want to get their picture taken!

Winter Images

Here is a collection of pictures of what's going on at our house and winter art that the boys did at school. (I apologize for some of them not being all that clear. They were taken through a window, because I am not going out there!)

Up the street from us, after the salt truck had been through the neighborhood three times.

I think this is funny: our icicle lights have turned into real icicles. Every icicle light's dream!

Our bird feeder has its own pile of snow and mini-icicles.

This doesn't look as dramatic as it really is. The branch from our tree is touching the ground from the weight of the ice!

I wish this were clearer. The patio structure next door is covered in icicles. Do you see that poor tree? It's touching the ground from all the ice. I hope it's not ruined! It's a beautiful tree.

This gives you kind of an indication of how much snow there is. And many of you are laughing right now because its nothing! You're right, but the mailman hasn't come to my door because there is a good two feet on the porch.

Louie's penguin. It has a piece of yarn on it so it acts kind of like a puppet.

Louie's snowman. It has a real scarf!

I can't remember if I already showed this or not, but after Christmas Uncle Nate took Lou and Ben to the aquarium and this is the picture Louie drew of the penguins.

On Inauguration Day Louie's class made patriotic wind socks.
They also talked a lot about our new president, as I've told you about. The kids also said what they would do if they became president. A couple of cute ones were:

• Ride Air Force One
• (then) Ride Air Force Five & Six
• Go shopping in Washington D.C.
  
• Louie said: Save Money (whaa? I don't think he's our kid)
  

Benny's snowman

Benny's hats (small, medium, big)

Benny's blue mittens.

I'm 3!

Ben equates being 3 with being a big kid...unless being a big kid means he has to do a pose for the photographer he doesn't want to. He tried to give our photographer a hard time, but she was eating him up and even when he growled at her she got him to give her a big ol' grin. Once again, she got me to buy more pictures than I planned to, but they were pretty cute pictures...and when I think about the pictures we got for when Lou and Charlie were babies we definitely spent more money on them than Benny. Just trying to make sure he doesn't have the middle child syndrome.