Saturday, September 5, 2009

MaryKate gets glasses!

These are the frames she picked out, it only took an hour to come to a decision!

Friday, September 4, 2009

Thankful for my many blessings.

I was going through my phone today as I was waiting for Nikolai's bus and came across this picture of him two years ago and wanted to share how thankful I was for Heavenly Father's love. Nikolai had taken a bad fall on his bike on the way home from school, rode the handle bars down and face planted on the pavement. Needless to say I totally freaked out and the presence of another grownup was required to calm me down enough so I wouldn't freak him out. He requested a blessings which stated that he would be healed by his faith. Later that I night I was worrying out loud about whether or not his face would scar. With complete faith he said, "Don't worry, Mommy, I had a blessing, it will be just fine." And it was. The scab fell off miraculously two days later to reveal a completely healed face. He has one tiny scar the size of his pinkie nail on the lower corner of his eye that you can only see in the summer when he is very tan. I am very glad that Heavenly Father healed him requisite to HIS faith and not mine. My little 7 year old boy taught me a great lesson that week about relying on Him and I am so thankful today for all the blessings we have been given, including Nikolai's intact face.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Kyle's Quilt

A tradition I started when I was pregnant with Nikolai is hand making a crib quilt for each baby. On the other three I got started as soon as I knew the boy/girl status. This little guy has just had to wait. I think i was intimidated by the idea of what I was planning on doing. I finally got started and this is what the top looked like before any embroidery detailing was done.

Here is a close up of the alien before...
and after.
I'm about half way done with the astronaut and will post more photos when he is finished.

Our Nikolai

Nikolai loves playing Star Wars on our Wii. He really doesn't get many chances to (maybe once a week if he's lucky). Sara just has to do whatever he is doing (she is enamored by him) so she got her own controller, climbed up next to him and "played" the game with him for quite a while. He is such a sweet brother because he not only tolerates her but encourages her to join with him.
(Another MaryKate photo) Another love of Nikolai's is the Heroscape game that Santa brought him last Christmas. He'll spend as much time as I'll let him down in the basement setting up and rearranging and playing this kid-friendly Dungeons and Dragons related game.
Nikolai was so excited about starting orchestra now that he is in the 4th grade. He picked the cello to play and loves his twice a week class and loves coming home to demonstrate all of the knowledge he has acquired.

Our MaryKate

MaryKate has been getting creative lately with the camera and enjoys producing dramatic self-portraits like this one.
Helping Kevin mow the lawn. Any time there was something on the ground that would be bad to roll over she'd jump down and move it then climb back up. I think her hair got caught a couple of times in the trees and she never complained.

Another one of her portraits. She went on a camera spree this day (it's so much fun to have a digital camera where it's no big deal if she takes 100 photos because I can just erase them without paying to have them developed). I'll let her do her own post of the "story" she told with the camera.

Our Sara

Sara is almost 20 months old and she just got tooth number 6!!! MaryKate was the one who captured this winning grin of hers showing them all off.

She discovered the wonders of washable markers and "accidentally" writes on her arms so she can then wash it off with a supplied wash cloth. After watching her do this several times I grabbed her and colored her face to help it match her doodled arms. The blue whiskers really brings out her eyes.


Where's Waldo? or Sara, I mean. MaryKate and her discovered this fun game while playing together in their room.

Now this one just speaks for itself in sweetness.

My new All-Time favorite photo


Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Drum Roll Please...

presenting...
Kyle James Anthony Anderson