Anybody noticed the lack of posts lately? I’ve been having trouble with certain parts of WordPress. Some days it works totally fine and others I can’t even access it to post or look at stats or even get behind the scenes to see what is wrong. I thought I had it fixed but now its acting up again. Grrr…….. I don’t have time to spend hours trying to figure out what’s wrong!

In other news February seemed a lot longer than 28 days. The cold, windy weather kept the kids indoors and everyone just seemed to lag in enthusiasm. Except the little ones. Their constantly tearing up a storm! This is what my house typically looks like after a morning of homeschooling.

Snacks left out and other projects strewn across the counters. At least most of the pots and pans are washed!

Clearly it is much too hard to walk six more inches and actually place boots and coats in the right locker.

The little boys must have run somewhere else after digging through the toys to find the ones they wanted. It used to drive me crazy how the house was like this every single day. But then I realized several things.

1. The little ones are occupied so I can focus on helping the other kids with their school work.
2. We live here! Over the last five years there has been an average of ten people living in this house at one time. If most of that time is spent getting after people to clean it’s not very fun.
3. Memories are being made.
4. It really only takes about half an hour to clean it up when everyone pitches in. Not a big deal!

I rotated some of the toys and you’d think Christmas has come again! The peg people received a makeover and now the little boys play castle constantly.

These pattern play blocks I picked up from Target have really been a hit. All ages enjoy putting the designs together. Its harder than you think for the littler ones because one end of each block is angled so you have to put them together just right to achieve the look of the pattern. Gideon has spent the whole day doing it.

Henry has become a very loveable little stinker. I think I must not discipline enough and take too many pictures. He came running into the kitchen yelling “Cheese!” as we all gasped and asked why he colored on his face. He kept saying “Cheese!” as if to say, “Look! I did something cute. Take my picture!”

Thankfully it was only dry erase marker so it came right off. Not like the permanent marker Jason used about a year ago.

There have been just a couple of nice days with no wind. On those days the squirrels start coming out so target practice ensues.

Finally, why aren’t fedora hats and overcoats still in style? If my girls have anything to do with it they will be soon.

The coat is from Spain, given to me along with two other coats when my three oldest were little. They can be for boys or girls depending on how you button them. Every single one of my kids has worn them to church during the winter months. The hat is Joseph’s. I gave it to him several Christmases ago. It looks very similar to the hat his grandfather wore in his missionary pictures in the 1930s.