At the end of the day when

the day is re-run through my mind and I'm left remembering how often I failed my family, I look at these little sleeping bodies and realize that I did do something right. Not only do all four of them sleep in the same room (by choice), but Anna and Sarah share Sarah's twin bed. They settle in together, Anna covers up Sarah, and then Anna tells Sarah a story. When they are all ready and the lights are off, the four of them play their guessing game before they fall asleep. I smile as I hear them laughing and giggling together. Despite our many daily struggles, my kids are bonded to each other.

Well, I think my baby is cute

so here he is! He did go for a 2 month check-up where he weighed in at 14lbs, 6oz. That put him in the 95th percentile. Why are all our babies at the top of the scale? Just to make you jealous....but realize it took me five tries to hit pay dirt....Simon sleeps through the night and has for over a month. He goes to bed around 8:30 and *usually* doesn't wake up until 5:00. Can you believe it? Here I am doing my happy dance - xxxx!!!!!xxxx.

This is our life...

Beautiful days in the depth of winter = early dismissal They all stop to love on Simon. Poor Simon probably just wants some time alone. Can you tell that she was miserable? Two sweet boys

Another sweet boy... Jonah has started speech therapy at the public school. He goes 2x per week. My mom heart is so sad when I read his speech paperwork. My wonderful, sweet little 6yo has multiple speech issues with a dysfluency level of 38%. "Normal" speech has a dysfluency of less than 5% so he falls in the severe category for speech disabilities. He doesn't have issues with pronunciation, but rather, he has the more difficult speech issues of stuttering, verbal blocks, etc. The strange thing is that some days he speaks perfectly fine and other days he really, really struggles.

It all started about 1.5 years ago. The therapist told me that his type of speech issues are usually brought on by stress. I have a little niggling concern way down deep that I caused his speech issues since it started at the same time I started to teach him to read. :( I wonder if I started reading instruction too early. I am very hopeful, though, since his speech therapist thinks he is responding favorably. Her goal is to get him to 20% dysfluency within a year. That would be wonderful! Some children can't talk at all, so I remind myself that he is so very blessed to be very healthy.

1st grade looks like this sometimes

No, I don't get much personal space, but I did finally get a haircut yesterday. Only THREE months since the last one. You know the excuses....snowed in again and again and again, new baby, husband working a lot....

Wish I had this problem...

"Mom, if I don't wear underwear, my pants fall down." Guess I need to keep the laundry moving a little quicker, folks.

Too cute for words

Thoughts

This little boy combined with these shoes

bring back so many memories from my high school years and my brother's wrestling experiences. Jonah has started wrestling, and he is a natural. He is so proud to have won the effort award and to have been beating a 3rd grader at practice.

Here the group is working on their Christmas thank-yous. We make their lists on the board, and I try to keep order as everyone works through their lists.

Here is a life-saver idea. The snack tray. If I put out a snack tray, the snacks disappear and I am not bugged all.day.long by hungry kids. My kitchen stays much cleaner too. I love snack trays.

This girl falls asleep in the strangest spots.