The Amazing Feats of Sara!

After watching her brother and sister play on the equipment Sara was determined to go up and then down the slide by herself, just like the big kids could. After trying and trying and working REALLY hard, this is the results.

YEAH SARA!!!

Alas, it's not good enough for her. She wants to be able to climb up the slide too, just like her idealized brother, Nikolai, and is now working really hard to figure out just how he does that.

Random Snapshots of our life at Christmastime

MaryKate was so funny, this was the third picture we took and she made this face just to look silly. I love it!
Sara got this fisher price zoo from Nikolai and MaryKate at Christmas. She tries and tries to get on so she can go around in a circle just like the animals. It will be a sad day when she realizes she is just too big.

Santa brought Nikolai this HeroScape game... it's kind of like Dungeons and Dragons but geared for kids and we changed the rules so that it is even more like D&D. He has gotten me to play with him every spare minute since then so we keep it set up downstairs where we can go and play a round whenever we have a chance.

Sara makes the cutest faces. If you look really closely Haleigh and Haydan and half of Kora are in the background.

Nikolai helped me make cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve. MaryKate was sick (throwing up and fever, she was better by the next day thankfully) so Kora helped him out.

Sara loves the puppies. She tries to get in the cage with them or if we are cleaning the cage and they are in a laundry basket she tries to get in there with them. She likes to look at them and point. She'll be really soft and gentle then will pull them towards her to see what they taste like.

A HUGE milestone, Sara is climbing onto everything now and feels so proud that she can get way up high on the chairs all by herself.

Another adorable milestone, she discovered standing on her head. People think she falls and bonks her head all the time now but what she is really doing is this, wanting to see the world from a different perspective.

Nikolai is such a great big brother. He was cleaning his room and Sara followed him in (like she does no matter where he is going, she wants to follow him) he was trying to clean and keep her out of things that weren't safe for her and play all at the same time. When I took this he had finally came to me in exasperation and asked if I could PLEASE come get her.

This is MaryKate helping us decorate for Christmas. She has such a fun flair about her.

Our Christmas

I love moments like this, Nikolai was thanking MaryKate for the watch that she got him
Sara is so cute in her cheerleader outfit from her big sister, Haleigh. One of her new favorite things to do lately is climb up into her old bouncy seat and relax.

Nikolai was SOOOOO happy about his build your own light saber

Here is MaryKate in front of the kitchen that Santa brought her

Kevin and I at the temple lights a few nights before Christmas.

Our Bielefeldt Family Get Together which now only includes Amy's family and Mine since Karl and Kristopher abandoned us...

We met at a park by my house and had a brunch and froze to pieces...

Kevin and Mike pushing Sara and Zach on the baby swings and talking, talking, talking...

All the big kids playing Narnia. Look closely in the tree, Nikolai is up top and Chesley is below him. On the ground is Emma, MaryKate, and Colin.

Sara loves following Zach around.

Dad swinging in the baby swing... actually I think this was a clever way to make a chair.

Sisters! Amy was thrilled that I finally illustrated her book, Oma's Magic, that she wrote years and years ago and gave it to her as a Christmas surprise.

We missed you Karl and Kris at our family gathering and thought of you and your families fondly.

Big Kid Pics

Nikolai wanted to make a Ninja outfit. He asked me for a big black cape and when I told him I didn't have one he improvised with construction paper and created this outfit...

Complete with a closable mouth piece...
I taught MaryKate, Chesley, and Emma an art class this fall. This was our final project, drawing a landscape, tracing it to make two copies, then painting one with cool colors and one with warm colors. I LOVE their results (Chesley was sick that day so she didn't get finish it at my house. Hint Hint Amy, I need a picture of her with hers)

Did you ever think you'd see a snow scene done in warm colors?

Karl, my Dungeon and Dragon's playing has totally rubbed off on my kids, Nikolai especially. Here they are in the park planning the game they are about to play out. Nikolai plays the Dungeon Master AND a character with MaryKate. He always has the Hunter's Bear Trap as his daily power and he allowed MaryKate to have a Horse to ride, a bear and a Lion to fight his. We definitely have a future gamer on our hands.

More Cute Baby Pics

Sara loves driving her car
and LOVES swinging (she cried when I thought she was done and begged to be put back in, can you beat that smile!)

and ADORES her riding chipmunk...

She is mesmerized by the dogs, this was taken before the puppies were born (I have some new cute ones of her gazing at them) but this is what she does, she follows the dogs around and squats down to observe them, when they move out of her eye sight she gets up and moves to a better vantage point...

The girls in the tub. I just love the expressions on each of their faces...

Goofy Golfing with the Gang

Haleigh and Haydan came over two Saturday's ago. We got to spend the day with them and took them goofy golfing.
It was a bit more challenging then I thought with the babies. This was Haleigh's creative way to keep Haydan from getting in the middle...MaryKate putting...

and Nikolai putting...

Kevin managed to get closer then all of us while holding both babies at the same time... he got within a foot of the hole putting like this...

Haydan fell fast asleep in my arms as we walked around the Christmas lights. Amazing how heavy babies get when they are asleep, both my arms fell asleep before Haleigh rescued me.

A week in the life...

Kevin got home late from a basketball game with take out burger king. He left his fries out. Sara found them the next morning and this was the resulting scene...
Sara has started scribbling, no, she didn't write her name, but if you look closely you can see her scribbles on top of it. She'll scribble on top of things you write with chalk, crayon, pens, or pencils. A VERY cute stage, and yet again, way ahead of schedule, all of my books say to look for this around 15 months...

Nikolai claimed my Shelf Reliance box and it has become an extension of him. He figured out how to close himself into it and has kept Sara totally entertained playing hide-and-go-seek in there...

Sara has discovered opening all of our cupboards. She found a box of plastic bags, dumped them all out, put one on each foot, then proceeded to "skate" around the kitchen floor... (side note, she is carrying around another favorite toy, empty yogurt containers from the recycling bin, I keep finding them placed in all of the cupboards, replacing whatever she has taken out)

I love how MaryKate knows how to carry Sara around on her hip, it must be a girl thing because Nikolai doesn't get how to do this. She looks so little to be able to sling this big baby around...