Christmas is for children!

Here are my screwball kids while I was trying to take a nice, posed picture for Christmas cards. This is just one of 27 attempts at getting the perfect picture out of a cheap, toss-away camera that would be rushed off to Walmart for the VERY last minute!


This is a very sweet moment around the Advent wreath that I wanted to choose but my wonderful sister told me was "kinda overkill". Seriously, I know my children aren't always angels, but at this moment, they ACTUALLY were saying their morning prayers. So THERE, Trine!


This picture is probably my favorite. I always liked pictures of the children from this view, probably because they giggle the whole time I'm taking it and they are all on an equal plane despite the difference in ages, also I can fit them all in the picture this way!

Butch-January 1973 and Niklaus-October 2005 

The apple doesn't fall...

HMMMMMM, if I were a bettin' gal, I'd bet that Butch won't ever ask for a paternity test...ever...never...

The picture of Butch was taken a month away from his 2nd birthday and the picture of Niklaus was taken a month from HIS 2nd birthday. I think it's pretty funny that they're both wearing stripy shirts and even cuter that they both look the same. I'll have to dig up a pic of Matty at that age, he had the same hair as Butch and looks much the same as Butch when he was a little older. No paternity test necessary for Matty, either...I bet!

Katrina's Art

I really love the creations Katrina comes up with. Especially her cartoon girls. She is so darn creative and when I saw this sketch she had just done, I thought to myself, "Now THIS one is great, I gotta scan it before it gets destroyed!" Hmmmm, too late, although, it looks as if Analise and Niklaus appreciated it as much as I did and just maybe tried to "improve" it. Oh well, someday when she's famous they can say, "I knew her when..."

Joint Effort by Katrina, Analise, and Niklaus 

Tenacious Two's

I'm starting to get an idea of what people mean by "terrible two's". My other children were never "terrible" per se at that age, I always thought that the 3's and 4's were MUCH worse due to the fact that they could start to sass you back or realize that if you were in public, they could basically get away with murder and/or run in the opposite direction that you needed them to be and were a lot faster, too. I guess as a result of having three other siblings to learn from, Niklaus is just a bit advanced in the "curious kid" stage of what people like to call the "terrible two's".
Tonight alone, he:

A. got into the markers and drew all over Trina's new book and his own body that was naked because...

B. I had to undress him because he had crawled onto the counter in search of chocolate chips in the cupboard but instead found a whole, little bottle of cake decorations which fell onto the slightly damp counter and turned everything including the bottom of his feet all red, then...

C. I realized that the reason that the counter and his clothes were slightly damp was because he had discovered that if he crawls up on the stool, turns on the water and presses the sprayer, water will spray out.

D. pulled every book of the shelf at least 4 times today after I had organized them for the nine billionth time

E. started to pull the decorative balls off of the tree and tried pitching them around the room like they were play balls (luckily this year I opted for non-glass ornaments)

F. has developed a bad habit of whenever I say "no, please put that down" he throws it as hard as he can (which is pretty darn hard for a 2 year old) no matter how heavy it is and in any direction which is usually for some reason right where Weazy is and I swear, today alone he really hurt her (however accidentally) at least 3 times, the last one being...

G. when I was decorating above the front door on a ladder, the kids were handing me stuff very nicely and Niklaus had gotten hold of one of those big, pillar candles and pitched it to the ground right on weazy's foot.

WHEW! I don't really get mad at him too much because usually, everything he does is a result of someone else's carelessness and my (however momentary) inattention to him. He's walking the fine line of "just bored" and defiant, but for now, I think yelling at him or punishing him so much after the fact is a bit like kicking a dog after he pooped on the carpet the day before...neither one knows what the heck you're getting so worked up about!

I think I'll start taking pictures of his adventures like one of my old neighbors used to do with her "extra curious" daughter when she was about that age...hey...come to think of it, she was the fourth child, too!
Her mom used to take pictures of her adventure aftermath and catalogue them in a "naughty" book. I don't like the word "naughty" because he really is quite innocent and he looks up at me after getting into writing utensils and says (with his face all "decorated" along with anything else within reach), "Mama! Markers! It's NICE!". Now how could anyone get mad at that?!