The Long Drive Home

Most of you know we go to church 45 minutes from our house-- and love spending time together in the car to and from. Last Sunday, however, it took a little longer than 45 minutes to get home (we made a detour and a stop at a birthday party, then ate at Perkin's.) , so we broke out the camera and had some fun.
Willa found these glasses in a hidden corner of the church and nobody has claimed them so she brought them home!

When I turned the camera on, this bluish looking filter was on, and I loved the way it looked, so I left it on. :-D
A bit scary, actually.
Evil scientist...
Self-portraits are what I do best, right?

Oh, yeah, and Friday we went shoe shopping. I think this is the best mirror picture I've taken in a long time! Yes, I bought the glasses. Emma made the hat for me. :-D

I've got a Bible for a nose....


Just a wee bit bored.

Little Elsie always falls asleep while the rest of us fight it the last 5 minutes. :-D

We are really enjoying having Da and Popo visit! Oh, and Molly. :-D

Bits O'life

Not really sure what has been going on around here of late... but mother requested I update the blog, and so I shall.

We've had schoolwork, a piano recital, cleaning, and general enjoying-life-ness.
Willa's comment for this picture wasn't the absurdity of Emma's attire, but, "You went outside like THAT?"

Elsie and I had a little photoshoot on the steps Friday night on our way to watch Bolt, this was the only picture I posed her for. The rest she posed herself!!

This was the first. :-D

Where did she get the kissing idea?!

Her sisters certainly didn't give this to her... :-D

The weather has been lovely. Strange ailments are unfortunately becoming part of everyday life. Emma is practically the only one dependable for work right now. :-P Mother's nausea is getting a LOT better. She was able to go see The Widow's Might with us at the theatre yesterday! We absolutely LOVED it and will soon be buying the DVD.

I honestly don't remember what else happened this week. :-P

*Grin*

Willa puts her hands on her hips and, exasperated, says, "Olivia! Don't look so perturbed at me!" quite effortlessly. Not your average 10 year old. :-D

She also makes very interesting lists... "My first tooth, my first pimple, my first eyelash bug..." :-D

Mhm, More Life

Let's see... it hasn't been THAT long since I posted... only a few days. But even a few days holds a double dose of life for us. :-D
Thursday (I think) was a pretty sad day... our last furry animal died (3 others died of age last year, and another was... uh... "taken up". Probably by a raccoon.) :-( Ashley the bunny was 9 years old, Emma's 4th birthday present. We still have 6" fish, though.

Our little funeral service. :-D Elsie was terrified when we started to put dirt on the bunny. :-/

On a lighter note, there are bunches of beautiful flowers popping up everywhere!

M'kay... wanna know the biggest story of the week? Plumbing...

So I posted here about the hole in our ceiling. When all is in working order, between our house and our guest house, we have 2 showers, 3 toilets, and 4 sinks. Until Friday night at about 10 out of all that we only had a sink and a toilet (thankfully). Daddy and our kindly neighbor were able to fix the guest house plumbing on Friday, but last night when we were all bathing for church today, the handle of the shower came off, making the water shoot out of the wall at full blast... after the water was turned off, the tub was already full, so we figured for Seth and Elsie to bathe we could just carry a couple buckets of hot water from the kitchen sink of our house up to the bathtub of the guest house... it's only 65 steps, right? (albeit down one flight and up two other sets of stairs) It worked for them, but Elsie who is normally immune to cold was out in about 3 minutes after she was washed, and Seth quickly followed. :-D A couple more hot buckets later, Emma was bathed. Mommy and Daddy had showered earlier in the day. ........feel free to move away because *I* haven't showered in a week. Sponge baths are awesome. :-D

But because Emma had bathed in basically dirty water, she didn't wash her hair. We had a hair scrubbing party at the kitchen sink last night, which thankfully isn't broken too bad. :-D

Thursday night Daddy and I were sooooo close to finishing the fixin', but Lowe's had closed, so we turned in. I got to try my hand at welding.

We had Easter a week early, so we've started a new tradition-- Peep Wars!!! (You put two peeps on a plate with toothpick swords and microwave them... eventually one pokes the other. You've got to try it!)

Yesterday we also went out to St. Cville for a new member to the household (post when it arrives) so I took the girls to Jo-Ann's... and inevitably somebody had to use the restroom, which of course our Hickville (as proclaimed by its residents, don't worry) store doesn't have a public restroom... so we walked across two parking lots to Sears. :-D I guess that was explaining this picture of Elsie and me. :-D

Sooo... yeah, life goes on. We love it. :-D Especially since Daddy just fixed the shower... I have first dibs! ;-)

Those wondering about Mommy and the Wee One: She's getting a little bit less nauseated every day... but no big strides yet. It'll probably be another 2 weeks. :-/

*Smile!*

We are happy to announce that Mommy's carrying Howard child #6!!! See cool countdown thingy on the side. :-D

Life Continues...

I figured I should share what's been going on in our lives the last week or so. Life comes fast, faster than we think, and we're learning more and more to take everything with a laugh and a "Let's do this!" Grace is abounding around here and there is a definite need for it.
Things that take up our time aside from the usual schooling, babysitting, cleaning, cooking (although our church family has graciously helped with this), and living:

Piano practice for Willa and me and violin for Emma. We have a recital in a week or two.

An odd phenomenon occurred in our house this week... when somebody would shower, it would break the piano. The drain had a leak and so it would drip through the ceiling onto the piano, causing low G to stick. Daddy's been working on fixing it, but in the process we have a hole in our ceiling, our ceiling on the floor, and no working shower. Even our back up shower in the guest house has been broken for a couple months. That hole in the ceiling is right above the front door, too.

A really exciting thing that happened this week and we are soooo thankful and happy about is that my great friend Jordan finally got a sister after 6 brothers! And yes, that is a plastic spoon above our heads.

Kitchen duty is always a fun one, and why not do it in style? There's a certain time of day when the light comes into the kitchen just at the wrong angle and it causes us to need sunglasses. :-D

That's what Elsie does when we ask her to smile. :-D
Other things worth mentioning are that our dishwasher is finicky and needs more attention than Elsie some days, we've had GORGEOUS weather, I've been able to make it to dance class, Emma's absolutely wonderful and has endless energy, the front right wheel of the car is about to fall off, literally, Willa's as creative as ever, Daddy's always funny and oh so wonderul, we have two different sets of grandparents coming to visit over the next 3 weeks, Mommy's been a dear, and Seth is turning more and more into a near-four-year-old every day. The other day he "called" me on the "phone" and said, "Oh, Olivia, I lost this thing, isn't that so disappointing?" :-D

God is good and His love endures FOREVER!!!!