Digging for worms

Annette helped me with a little gardening today. My nephew Isaac would have loved all the worms! Annette must have had 40 worms in her bucket! We put one on Ivy's lap and she just cried. Not just because she is sick but because she always cries when she sees worms!

Poor Ivy

Our sweet little Ivy is sick today. I was up with her in the night after she woke up sick and I had to change her sheets. We sat up for a good half hour while she jabbered happily on and on in her two-year-old chatter about the dog that had visited the yard that day and about Hannah and about Annette. Every thing she could think of that was an important part of her little world. Then she wanted me to sing "Jesus, Baby in a Manger" over and over. Suddenly, she was sleepy again so I put her back to bed where she slept the rest of the night.

I actually enjoy these little moments in the night sometimes. Of course I pay for it around 4:00 the next day, but I do get to keep the sweet memories and fortunately I usually get to forget the yucky sheets!

Boquets from Annette

One of my favorite things about living in Tennessee compared to New York is that the winter is so much shorter and the growing season is longer. This gives my girls, especially Annette, several extra weeks of flower-picking.

I asolutely adore the little boquets that Annette brings me several times a day. Even when she picks the stinky flowers that smell like a musty basement, I thank her profusely! She is always so proud!

She picked these daisy flowers tonight when we went for a walk up the street. As we were walking up the driveway she asked, "Mommy, isn't that the biggest boquet you ever saw?"
Each and every boquet is her pride and joy!

I think I will plant a bunch of cutting flowers again this year for her. Maybe Cosmos, maybe daisies... Definitely something that doesn't smell like a stinky basement.

Chocolate chip 'n' mint cookies

This week my old (well, not all that old!) friend Rachel posted on my blog! I had actually just been thinking of her that morning. Isn't that funny?! Anyway, I noticed that she also had a blog account so I went to her site and was very impressed. While my blog is set up to be a picture blog, hers doesn't have any family pictures but instead has the random things that interest her, sewing she has done, baking, scripture thoughts, and such. She even had some pictures (very nicely done) of the baked goods she had made along with the recipes. I think I will expand my blogging horizens a bit to include this type of thing myself. Still keeping the family pictures, though, of course.

I also, from looking at her photos, am inspired to try photographing things other than people a bit. Even though portraits are still my favorite.

So, for the first non-family-photo picture entry, Here is a picture of cookies I made today using a recipe off Rachel's site! I am planning on puting these into the freezer and sharing them at Easter time when most of you will be here in town! (obviously, my readership is not very expansive!) I'm planning--not promising!

Rachel made these for St. Patrick's Day but I am calling them "spring green" and making them now! They are Mint flavored cookies with chocolate chips and they really are yummy, especially along with my favorite way to drink coffee: With two scoops of hot chocolate mix stirred into it. Yum Yum!

Here is the recipe. My only rule is, if you make it, you need to leave me a comment! (I'll do anything for comments!) :
Mix together:
1 dry white cake mix
2 eggs
2 Tblsp oil
1/4 cup water
1 tsp. peppermint extract
green food coloring
chocolate chips
Drop by spoonfuls onto lightly greased baking sheet. Bake 350 degrees for about 10 minutes ( I did mine for a bit less. You don't want them to brown on top; it messes up the pretty green color.)
Enjoy!

Faux Snow!

Steve started shaking the branches of our big Bradford Pear tree this morning and the girls were laughing and twirling and giggling in the "snow"as the white petals fluttered down all around them! What fun!

Ivy blew but only her bangs moved! Mommy had to help! That is Uncle Evan looking on at the left. He just wants her to hurry so he can eat cake.

Grandma Eimers called during the party and while Ivy was wearing this dress from her. Ivy just grabbed the phone and started jabbering away. I have no idea what she said but I know it was full of excitement!

Ivy turns two!

Ivy turned two on Friday. I can't believe it has been two years since she was born. Really! It just does not seem possible. She is such a little bundle of happiness and we all just can't get enough of her. My little two-year-old!

Ivy was super excited when she saw that Grandma and Grandpa Falk, Uncle Evan and Great Grandpa Anderson came to the house. I don't think she took another natural step the rest of the night. She just waved her arms and "skipped" everywhere. She was so thrilled to have company. This was before the presents!

Opening gifts was even better. Every gift, and I mean every gift, was received with squeals of delight. It was so cute! I think her favorite was the little pink baby doll from Grandma Eimers but it's hard to tell. She also got quite a nice selection of clothes which, being all girl, she wore each of before the night was over!

Great Grandpa's Lap.

Great Grandpa Anderson subscribes to Netflix and on Saturday we were there to have pizza with him as is our tradition when my folks are away. He had "The Prince of Egypt" that had been delivered that week and so we all watched it together. He really seemed to enjoy it. I did.
Ivy loves to cuddle with Great Grandpa. Doesn't she look so cozy there with Blankie, Paci, and her Grandpa? I think I'll put this one in a frame for her. I wish she hadn't insisted on wearing her "pukkin" outfit that day!

Here's my cutie in her cowgirl boots and little denim skirt. I just love those little not-quite-two-year-old knees!

Cowgirls

The girls are showing off their new cowgirl boots that cam from Grandma Eimers in the mail. Hannah was so excited that night she couldn't sleep! The box was mostly filled with birthday gifts for Annette and Ivy but Hannah got her pair of boots just for being cute!

Annette and Ivy are wearing new outfits and feeling all fancy. Especially Annette, who was on cloud nine because Hannah declared her to be, "Stylin'!"

Ivy will open the rest of her gifts on her birthday, tomorrow!

Thank you Grandma!

A best friend is the best gift!

Annette was so thrilled to have her very best friend in all the world come to her birthday bash!
We went to Grandma Falk's house and Annette got a bunch of nice gifts. A few dresses from Grandma and Grandpa, some audio books from Mom and Dad and a $20 bill from Great Grandpa Anderson. One of her gifts was a yellow sucker from Hannah that Ivy ate before Annette had even opened all her gifts! Annette was so happy she didn't get too concerned. She was busy making plans with Sarah to play with her new My Little Pony from Grandma!

Annette's Fifth Birthday!

Annette enjoying her cake and drinking out of the cup that Hannah gave her. "I got it for FREE!" Hannah proudly proclaimed to Annette. It came from a local furniture store called Bargain Marty's and I guess 'free' counts as a bargain!

I told Annette last night as I tucked her in that I didn't want her to be five already. She tried to make me feel better and said "Well, at least I was four for a really long time."

Great Grandpa and Great Uncles

One of the Many good things about having my Grandfather living here in Tennessee is that we get to see relatives we otherwise wouldn't see very often. I am very grateful that the girls have this chance to get to know their Great Uncles and Aunts. Here, Ivy is sitting on Uncle David's lap and Annette is hearing Bedtime for Frances from Uncle John. Grandpa Anderson is there too. He really isn't ever grumpy, I don't know what that expression is!

Annie, still four

My blue-eyed girl; well, one of them!

Upside down Ivy

Ivy loves to Fween! If no one is there to push her she swings on her belly!

Dufus

A dog from somewhere in the neighborhood got loose for the day and spent his free time with us. Hannah named him Dukas (Steve keeps driving her crazy and calling him Dufus) The girls all loved him; especially Hannah and Ivy.

Red high heels

Here is a better picture of Ivy's favorite shoes. She has not broken the trend that Hannah set for her sisters; they all love fancy, unusual shoes! Hannah started it with her ruby slippers and now Ivy in her polka dots. At first she couldn't walk in them but now she is quite good at it! I don't let her wear them much because the heel is about an inch and a half (which is pretty high when your foot is only 4 inches long!) and I don't suppose it's very good for her but they sure are cute and it is obvious that she feels like a million bucks when she wears them.

Hannah Nicole

This is my lovely Hannah. She loves posing for pictures. After all, I have been taking loads of pictures all her life and "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em"!

She is 7 1/2years old now. Where does the time go? I really don't think I'm old enough to have a seven-year-old!

Bunk Beds

In case someone is reading this who doesn't know, we are in the process of adopting three children from the country of Ukraine. Here are the girls trying out the new bunk beds that we got for my birthday (hey, it's what I asked for!). We put them in Hannah's room since hers is the smallest and would most benefit from the added space. Hannah sleeps on the top bunk and is very concious of the admonition printed on the footboard: 150 pounds maximum top bunk capacity. Here she is sitting off the edge, trying to put her weight on the stairs and railings since both Ivy and Annette are up there with her. Maybe for a math problem I should have her add 55+45+25. It was funny when I crawled up there with her; she was trying to be polite but knows that I weigh in the 150 range and was obviously nervous!

Annette "helped Steve to put the beds together with her plastic tools from Grandma Eimers. Here is a picture of her with her two hammers hamming it up. By the way, let me tell you the difference between boys and girls: she has named all of her tools. She got the Idea from Handy Manny, a kids show on TV. One of the hammers is named Pat, naturally.

They don't show up very well in this picture but Ivy is wearing her favorite shoes, the red high-heeled Spanish dancing shoes with white polka-dots that I got her at a yard sale last summer for $1.50. I'll have to post a better picture of her in them later.

Friends

Annette with her friend Sarah. These two little girls just love eachother and play My Little Pony or whatever and never fight. I have never seen anything like it. Must be like David and Jonathan in the Bible. Sarah is coming today and Annette is just as excited as if it were her birthday!

Hannah on a snow day

Hannah is standing with our snowman. ( Oh, excuuuuse me, snowgirl) The Snow person only lasted one day but took all the snow from the front yard to make and was very cute. Not as cute as Hannah, though!

Lil' Iv'

Here is our little Sweetie, Ivy Mae. I took this picture a couple months ago but she will be two years old on March 23rd. How time flies!

First Commenter Award!!!

Daniel, for the time being also known as "My faaaavorite brother" is the first one to comment on my site!!!
Thank you, Daniel, for your comment. I enjoyed getting the chance to know your thoughts.

For anyone who missed Dan's comment, here is the quote, (drum roll, please)"I just love Ivy's expressions. She is so dramatic." And there you have it, Dan's comment is forever immortalized. Now that you mention it, Dan, she does have some very expressive moments...I wonder if that runs in the family?

Family Picture

Here is our family on Dec 23rd in our yard. I took this so that I could replace the horribly outdated picture in our living room (Annette is six months in it) but have yet to do it!

Here we are at my mom and dad's house right before Steve left on his Mission trip to Moldova in Eastern Europe.

Happy girl

Ivy was playing out on the swingset. Here she is ready to climb the slide but her favorite is to "Fween" (swing)!

Lovin' the goats

We got a family membership to the Buffalo zoo this past summer (it's good for a year). It was $55, which is the cost to go to the Knoxville zoo for one visit. The good thing is that withthe Buffalo membership we can get into the Knoxville Zoo for free!
Sneaky!

Ivy is lovin' on a goat at the K. Zoo. She loves animals. It is really because of her that we even did the zoo thing. It's warming up now and so I can't wait to take her again!

Hannah is in the background. They all enjoyed the petting zoo portion. Especially brushing the goats.

Our Girls

The girls on the camping trip.
They had so much fun.

Steve and Melissa

Hannah took this picture of us when we were camping
this past fall in Cherokee Lake.
Well, not in the lake.

Welcome

Welcome to our family page! I have a million pictures but I'll just start with a few...

My favorite

This is my favorite picture of the girls and Steve. I have it on my desktop of my home computer.