Copy cat

Nothing starts a your day off better than a good top knot.  After much yanking and pulling, we accomplished the task of pulling up almost all of her hair.  It was fun.  She is cute.

Then, Clairvaux swoops in and strikes a pose faster that you know what has hit you.

First, she smiles then BAM!! she hits the floor and immediately goes into this little number.

It now looks like someone is learning the trade.  Once Clairvaux hit the floor, Damaris wasted no time and hit the floor to strike her own.

A legacy of motherhood

“How can it be a large career to tell other people's children about the Rule of Three, and a small career to tell one's own children about the universe?
How can it be broad to be the same thing to everyone, and narrow to be everything to someone? No. A woman's function is laborious, but because it is gigantic, not because it is minute. I will pity Mrs. Jones for the hugeness of her task; I will never pity her for its smallness.”

― G.K. Chesterton

8 BIG months.

I asked my resident photographer, Clairvaux, to take pictures while I was making dinner yesterday.  Our lives are a conglomeration of routine tasks.  I generally do the same things everyday. Although, I always find it so beautiful that if I did NOT do those same 2,000 things each day, so much of our daily lives would be lacking and wanting.

How important it is for them to eat.  I was told that 75% of the daily happenings occur in the kitchen.  That is about true for our lives.  What a beautiful gift food is to a family. What a silent sacrifice it is to produce that gift each day.  I had her take a picture this particular day as Kapaun was wanting to be right next to me, Vianney was telling about all the tales she has been reading since the literary world has exploded for her, not pictured was Damaris wanting a snack.  I was there buzzing along, listening to Vianney, kissing Kapaun, preparing a meal for ten.  How can this work not be deemed so very important! 

Barely pictured, Vianney telling me about all her stories.  If I wasn't here, who would listen to her stories and make her feel important. 

Who would hold the koala bear?

We do all of this because we love you.  We want you to know how loved, wanted, and cared for you are and were!  I cannot help but think of John 15: "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for another."

First Rally Cap

Millard Fillmore got his first baseball cap.  This picture indicates Millard is approaching haircut stage.  He is kind of getting unruly in the back. 

Clearly, Millard has an eating problem.  He is not wearing rubber bands on his wrists and his cheeks drip down nicely.

Finally sporting two teeth on the bottom.

John runs the half-marathon 2014

Once again, John ran the half-marathon.  The sign up for this BIG event is January 1st.  For months, our whole family looks forward to cheering on John.

The early morning crew waiting for John to run by.

 He is awesome.  He trained hard and ran a great race.  He didn't get the time he was shooting for, but I would say running 13.1 miles in 1 hour and 32 minutes is quite superb!

Mammy came from Florida. 

Hilary and Timmy came from Kansas City.  I mean really.  How wonderful are sisters!  They drove all the way and woke up early to cheer John on! 

We go to 4 different spots to cheer him on!  It is loads of fun.

We ran all the way to the top of Memorial Stadium to yell him in on the final stretch.  It was great to see him look up and smile!

 This young man stole my heart.  My brother-in-law is a teacher for the Teach for America program.  He is changing lives every day.  Hilary and Timmy brought Tyron to experience the marathon and to show him a BIG college campus.  He really was the sweetest and gentlest guy.  I wanted to keep him forever.  We just met him this morning and within a few hours, he was holding Chancho's hand and wanting to carry her around. 

It was so cute to see her holding both their hands.

MoVeS like Jagger

Who is she? Adam Levine? Yes I did. Every time I looked at these pictures I couldn't not hum the tune to Moves like Jagger.I uploaded every picture I took because I couldn't believe I was capturing this ridiculousness. I couldn't wait for John to get home so I could show him what treasures I was hoarding on my camera. She loves the karaoke machine. She generally sings Puff the Magic Dragon or a couple of our history sentences for CC, but today she branched out.

She was acting like professional and she knew I was enjoying every minute of it.  Shot of the year!

You can only be so cool with an Elmo diaper on.

Reaching low for the high keys.  Get it Girl!

Right leg.

I even caught on video her scream belting Lord, I Need You.  She loves the echo sound so the video really sounds bad, but we know what she is doing.  I then had her sing her #1 chart topper.  The kids learned a memory verse this year about World War II.  She must have loved it because she sings that all day long.  She is speaking in two-year-old so I will translate the later half of her performance.

She sings:
World War II AXIS leaders were: Hitler of Germany, Tojo of Japan, and Mussolini of Italy.  

There is more to the song, but she usually just repeats this over and over.  I love this video.