29-31/365 (and a few extras)

We have a mole issue. We've been fighting these varmants since we moved to this house four years ago. I'm quite sure Rocky's tried every trick known to man to evacuate the critters but they keep coming back. The silver lining of moles (if there is one) is the kids are provided with great entertainment smashing down the dirt hills. After a bike ride on the trail in town the girls and I came home and hit the hills.

The floral hat is Millie's latest fashion accessory

Smashing of the hills quickly turned into digging in the hills!

WOW! Great dirt!

Can you say C-H-E-E-S-Y?! Love that snot nose girl!

Flashback Friday

I can't believe these two are about to turn 4 and 9! Oh where does the time go?

28/365

We've been having the most beautiful winter(sorry California)! I'm loving all the sun and lack of precipitation!

27/365

Sepia

Just playing around with the shadow button on picasa.  I really like the color in this picture, how the light colors stand out so much.  The girls were looking up at how tall the ladder was on one of the fire trucks. I think if Jo tried to look any higher she would have fell over.

Stop, Drop and Roll

Millie's preschool class took a field trip to the local fire station today. She's been talking about it for days! I think the trip lived up to all her expectations!

Josie had no problem joining in on all the activities..

she even cut in line for her turn in the fire truck!

Millie loved spraying the hose! 

Bring it On! 22-26/365

Well you lucked out. I was actually going to post pictures of my sparkling clean fridge...that was the most exciting event of our day. Until my friend Jaclyn stopped by with a few hand-me-down dress up items for Millie and things just got rocking at our house! There was some major 2 Bits and R-O-W-D-Y going on and Amelia has now declared she's going to be a cheer coach! Yippee! Do you sense the sarcasm?

For some reason she was going with the "angry" cheerleader pose. She assured me she was not in fact angry but rather cheering for the "mad" football team. Hmmmm, interesting.

In action and once again looking a little irritated!

Kick that leg!

Josie thinking her sister is pretty darn entertaining!

My view....love my comfy house slippers! So I feel like a cheated a bit with the pictures but I HAD to get caught up...it was getting to me! Could have been worse...you could be looking at my clean fridge from five different angles!  PS...Sam had a great game tonight and even hit a three pointer! He's got a milkshake coming his way!

Mondays with......

Millie   Maggie.  So it was my conversation with Maggie this evening that I have to share. She was standing in the kitchen visiting with me as I was cleaning up the dinner dishes (hmmm, should have put her to work). We were talking about music and she said "mom there this singer and he sings the funniest songs. His name is Weird Al and he makes up his own words to different songs. Like he sings one called Eat It but it's supposed to be Beat It, you know...the song Beat It, by Michael Jackson." Ummm ya Mag, I know Michael Jackson's song Beat It and I even know Weird Al! These kids of ours must think we're so old!:)

21/365

The tupperware drawer...hours of good fun!

Flashback Friday

To help with the staleness factor I've decided to make Fridays a day to pull some pics out of the archives. I had so much fun looking through old pictures. I only have as far back as 2006 on my computer...must have been when we bought our first digital camera. I absolutely LOVE this picture of Maggie Lu. I know she absolutely despises it but she's forgiven me for the headgear shot so I'm sure she'll let me off the hook for this one too. I love her sunkissed skin and the highlights in her hair that most of us pay lots of money for. Her turquoise eyes and the priceless expression on her face. She's doing one of the things she does best....mothering her little sister, keeping her from climbing up on the table. And of course I must mention the chocolate left behind on her sweet lips...this little clue so completely captures my sugar tooth girl!

20/365

Can you find the baby? Jo crawled into the bag of basketballs and then sat so quiet and still waiting for me to find her. This is a good reminder to NEVER leave plastic bags laying around. Small people like to climb in bags!

19/365

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.   1 John 3:16-18

Happy Anniversary!

Happy 48 years Mom and Dad Poulin! 

We LOVE you!

17&18/365

The girls on a dig this afternoon. Any guesses what they're digging for?

Nope not gold....

Worms! And they are quite plentiful in the garden!

We had a fantastic day soaking in the sunshine and loving a day at home. Rocky had to work on the East side of the mountains and with his car not working the kids and I were stuck at home. It was nice though and we thoroughly enjoyed our day! The kids and I had a great discussion about MLK Jr. , did a little acrostic poetry, worked on a crossword and Millie stayed busy copying words Grandma was writing about MLK.  We spent a good amount of time outside and I think at one point we had every toy, ball and ride on emptied out of the garage. We had a sweet visit with the little O man and got to witness his new trick...raspberries (strawberries according to Millie). Maggie and Mils even got our Christmas card scrapbook put together...yay for a day full of blessings!

On another note...this whole picture a day challenge I gave myself is proving to be just that....challenging! I'm loving it but already feeling like it's getting a little stale. I am however, loving blogging everyday...even if it's just uploading a picture. Soooo....I think I'm going to create(read copy) some ideas I've seen for making the days a bit more interesting.  I haven't quite figured them all out but I do know that Mondays will now be Mondays with Millie. This girl says the funniest things and I'm always saying I need to write them down or I'm going to forget all her quirky little stories and quotes. Well, why not do it here? My first Millie conversation actually happened about a week ago and it's one I don't want to rely on my brain to remember.

Millie: Mom I'm almost gonna be this many (holding up four fingers)

Me: sad look on my face:(

Millie: Mom you not want me to turn this many?

Me: No Millie I want you to stay three forever!

Millie: Why mom?

Me: Because you are such a delightful three year old!

Millie: Mooom, I'm gonna be a "lightful" four year old too!

Yes Millie, I'm quite positive you will be a lightful four year old!

Sisters

Love that my girls are such sweet friends...

{at least for now, before they start sharing clothes}

                                * Disclaimer...picture not taken by moi

16/365

{SSR}

15/365

Yogurt, yum-o!

14/365

Anyone else ready for spring?

13/365

Singing in the rain {yes, she truly was singing in the rain}

12/365

Turkey sandwich anyone? Millie loves making her own sandwiches lately~problem is I still can't get her to eat much of it! Tonight's words of wisdom from Millie....I was reading the bible with her and Maggie and talking about being obedient. One of the discussion questions we had was "is it hard to be obedient?" Millie immediately responded with a firm "NO! because God says to obey and we must obey what he says, so you better listen to God and you better do what he says and you better watch out cause Santa Clause is coming to town." Oh Millie you make me giggle!

Christmas part 3

Sorry for the very small pictures. I couldn't seem to get them to upload any bigger from picasa. I'm sure I'm doing something wrong. This begins round three of the Christmas celebrating that we did at Grandma and Papa Dacey's. Here's our attempt at getting all the kids in one shot. I always think these are the funniest pictures, especially when there's more than one camera the kids are posing for. I think Jo's been trying to escape in all our group photos lately!

We had a great time Christmas afternoon. It was so nice to catch up with family and the kids had such a fun time together!
Josie in a fun game of hide and seek with Uncle Bob. The two of them were keeping us all entertained.
Like I said earlier...there was definitely a Sounder theme going on this Christmas. All the big kids are posing in their gear..Go Sounders! Hard to believe Christmas has come and gone and I'm already dreaming of Spring!

11/365

10/365

The camera never even made it out of the bag today. No pictures today. But I didn't want to break the streak so I pulled out an oldie but a goodie...one that melts my heart. This is Sam his first day of Kindergarten. I can hardly believe it was four years ago. Boy has this monkey changed and yet in so many ways he's still my little boy that still loves to snuggle at night and is never short on hugs for his mom.

Birthday Boy

Rock and Maggie getting ready to leave for a date when she was about four. I love this picture for so many reasons. I love her sweet little smile with all those tiny baby teeth still intact. I love the excitement and anticipation in her eyes knowing she's going to get an afternoon with her daddy all to herself. I also love what you can't see in the picture. What you can't see is him coming to the door with flowers in hand for her and you can't see that she waited days and days for the "date" day to arrive. But what I love most about this picture is that it captures the father that he is. He is a protector, lover, snuggler, coach, teacher, disciplinary, healer and spiritual leader. He's also my best friend. I'm such a lucky girl that I get to spend all my days with this man. I am so thankful God created this man just for me. I'm so thankful God crossed our paths and has continued to bless our marriage and our family. Today I celebrate my husband and the daddy of our kiddos! Happy Birthday Daddy....we love you to the moon and back!

Today

Today was a great day. A day with no commitments, no games to be played, no practices to rush to, just a laid back day with beautiful, almost spring-like weather. The kids played outside most of the morning and after lunch I baked up some of these....
While I was baking Maggie took down the last reminders of Christmas. The cards are always the last to come down. I love seeing all those sweet faces up there. Maggie Lu and are going to put together a scrapbook so the kids can look through anytime they want. I actually have boxes and boxes of old Christmas cards. I just don't have the heart to throw them away and it's so fun to pull them out and see how everyone has grown and changed.
Sam had a friend over playing so after I was done baking they convinced me today was a good day to hit the skateboard park. We're always a bit reluctant about the skateboard park because it's not always the most wholesome crowd hanging out there...but once again, it was a great day! My kids were the oldest ones there not counting the few dads that were trying out their kids' boards! Maggie had a friend meet her there and they rode their scooters while the boys practiced their boarding skills.
Jo was perfectly content to dig up sand in the baseball diamond. She also spent a lot of time running after Amelia yelling "ayee-a"(I'm not even sure how to type the way she pronounces Amelia's name).
And Amelia was in heaven kicking her soccer ball around, digging in the dirt and climbing the play toy like a true monkey. She was giving me a lot of cheese everytime I tried to take her picture.
I got this shot of Lu right before we were leaving and the sun was just starting to set. I love days like today. Just hanging and playing and enjoying the outdoors. Ahhh...it was a great day!

9/365

Love this giggly little girl!

8/365

Goal for tomorrow is to actually write about something and finally post Christmas, part 3:) Happy Weekend~

7/365

The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Psalm 19:1

{The view from our front porch this morning}

6/365

Nothing like a big sister to empathize with the horror of shots! Millie was so tender with Jo's little pin cushion leg.

5/365

Nobody puts baby in a box.