March 2010

I am posting a lot of just pictures today. It seems the kids grow up so fast and when I visit all of your blogs I love to see pictures of the kids and see how they are doing.

Philip is beginning to follow Jacob's example of reading. Jacob reads all the time! I never thought I would here myself say, "Please put your book away, reading time is over," so much in my world. I try not to say it too much though, we believe in reading.

Benjamin and Emma just being silly.

Philip is so very gentle with Jane. He loves to hug her. She loves being hugged. I caught him in the act here. This is not a posed shot!

Robin's sister and her family came to visit. The kids had soooooo much fun. Emma was especially excited to be with her girl cousin Emily, but all the boys did well just being boys.

This is Benjamin doing his impersonation of a tornado. Has he seen one? No but, we have an awareness of these here. We have spent a couple evenings shut in our laundry room while the sirens go off outside. Now he waves his arms kind of like a magician and in a real low voice says, "I'm a tornado!" It is funny coming out of the mouth of a 3 year old and what can I say, you kind of have to be there.

We took our cousins to "Dig for Diamonds" at a National Park in Arkansas. No one found any diamonds, but we had fun digging in the dirt.

A couple of times the kids got upset about being dirty and we kept reassuring them that this time it would be okay we were here to get dirty.

We brought extra clothes with us to change into afterword.

I guess Robin has taught them too well about keeping clean while playing outside.

It was fun to have so many people around to play and enjoy all the aspects of life. Here is Aunt Becki cooking with Philip and her little girl Erin.

Here is Philip on a day out at the local science museum.

Jacob and Emily, "Building a House."

Jacob - How is he this big?

The boys and Uncle Ethan building a dam.

Benjamin trying out some kind of science thing.

Nato always wanted to be an astronaut. Doesn't he look happy!

Philip also decided this month to get past the picky toddler stage and just eat!

No, he does not always wait for the table.

Jane is loving life from a new perspective.

Robin is loving the fact that Jane is still light enough to hold and do the dishes.

Philip and Benjamin.

22 months ago Nato embarked on the journey of the MBA. It equated out to be a lot of long nights and weekends with an occasional break for Christmas and family trips. Most of the children do not remember the time before Nato started his journey and they are all very excited to have a daddy to play with after work and on weekends.
To celebrate this momentous occasion the kids posted signs of congratulations around the house and Robin made a chocolate tassel hat cake. It was a lot of fun to surprise Nato and show him our love and excitement on a job well done!
Congrats Nato and welcome back to the living and breathing!