Miranda Nadine

Miranda turns 5 years old tomorrow and she is growing so fast and getting to be such a little lady. I cut her hair short this last week and she loved it. Miranda kept complaining that her hair was in her face while she slept and it was time for a change. She has done a few very exciting things this week the first of which being SHE READ HER FIRST BOOK!!! I found these great little books in the library called "BOB BOOKS". She is able to read through and sound out the words. I love the way her face lights up when she reads all the words on the page and how we celebrated together when she made it through the whole book.

If you know anything about Miranda she is very careful. When I say she is careful I mean that she will not fully do something until she knows that she can do it, and does not like to take risks. The weather warmed up enough this week that we were able to go out and ride bikes and she tried again to ride her bike without the training wheels. (she tried a few times last year and did great but still didn't feel confident about it yet)

I am so proud of her! Steven still ran along side her for a little bit but after a few minutes she didn't even want that anymore and she did wonderful. Great job Miranda!

She is getting so big I can't believe how time has flown. We love you Miranda.

(I am sure there will be a post telling all about her birthday celebrations coming soon)

Baby Jackson

Some people (Aunty Erin this is for you) have said that I don't post enough pictures of baby Jackson on my blog. I thought about that and it must be true. When you have two other active children running around and all Jackson does at the moment and kick and smile on the floor there is just more to say about the older children. So I repent and will do better at taking pictures and posting them of my younger children because I know (as the last of 4 children) that parents end up having a lot more pictures of the older siblings than the younger ones. These are a few of the more recent pictures, I hope you enjoy. Sorry I can't figure out how to rotate this picture but Steven does enjoy sitting and holding Jackson when he has the time. Mostly they sit and watch sports together and they both love it.

Jackson has a darling smile and is the best baby. He starting sleeping through the night at 5 weeks and hasn't stopped, even when he has been very sick.

He is not sitting up on his own yet without a little help from me, or the wall but he is getting closer.

His brother and sister love him so much and we love having him in our home.

Happy Valentines Day!!!!
Here we are very early (not too early because Steven turned my alarm off so I didn't get up to exercise and spoil it) on Monday morning for our Valentine surprise Steven surprised us all by getting us hearts full of chocolate and making pink muffins for breakfast. They were delicious and darling.

The kids loved it. Miranda was fun to watch and listen to as she told everyone all day how much Daddy loved Mommy because he go her a huge heart full of chocolate:)

Steven went to school, taught his early class and then came home to spend the day doing fun things with us. Oh the life of taking days off just because you want to. It is great!

He made and then decorated sugar cookies with the kids. I am not a huge fan of sugar cookies and he loves them so he thinks of great excuses to make them. Of course the kids love that.

I just want to give a shout out to my wonderful Valentine. He made it a great day, Thank you Steven and I hope all of you had a wonderful Valentines day.

Snow Days!!!

For the past 2 days we have had a severe winter storm come through our area. This storm has been so bad for the roads that even Purdue University has been closed for those days. These are the kinds of things we do when we are forced to stay inside all day.

First of all we must shovel the snow. This storm has been bad because we have had freezing rain on top of the snow, so if you can see in the picture Steven in using a normal flat head shovel not a snow shovel because the snow is really a soft ice. It came of the walk in large ice chunks so he got it off the walks with that shovel and then I helps plow it off the driveway with the snow shovel. It was hard work.

With daddy home what could be more fun than a huge sward fight. Miranda and Jacob (mostly Jacob) could sward fight for hours but mommy and daddy don't last quite long.

As you can see he likes two swards for all sward fights, smart kid.

Of course what is a good day inside without a nice long jumping on the bed. What are guest beds for anyway?

We are so happy to be safe and warm inside on this cold and snowy day and even more grateful that our power has not gone out and we have plenty of room to play and have fun:)