The Francis Family Blog

Pictures

2011-01-13T13:21:00.003-05:00

I'll be posting most of my pictures on my Flickr account. Most of my posts here are just pictures anyway. I'm sure I'll have some more interesting posts after the baby arrives in March!

Thanksgiving

2010-12-24T10:21:00.002-05:00

Livi helped carve the turkey.

The kids had fun running around all over great-gramma's house.

After supper, the kids "helped" put up great-gramma's Christmas tree.

Ruby's birthday (back in November!)

2010-12-22T10:08:00.002-05:00

Painting her face for the party.

Opening her presents, with a lot of "help" from her friends.

Last year, she wanted to stop and play with each gift. This year, she wanted to open them all up as quickly as possible, throwing each one aside after barely looking at it!

Ruby had the most perfect cake-- pink with a horse on it! Thanks to her godmother, Donna, for getting it for her.

I truly cannot believe she is three. She's an official "big girl" now!!

Here's our card!

2010-11-25T22:34:00.001-05:00

Starlight Flurries Christmas Card

Make a statement with custom Christmas cards at Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

Christmas Cards!

2010-11-23T19:24:00.007-05:00

Shutterfly is having a great giveaway for bloggers-- they are offering 50 free holiday cards in exchange for blogging about them. I've ordered my Christmas cards from Shutterfly for the past 4 or 5 years, and always been very happy with the choices they offer, the price and the quality. I also buy their photobooks a lot. I was on-the-ball enough to make actual scrapbooks for the kids' first years, but have used the photobooks every year since.

Here is one card that I'm considering this year, with this picture:

I also really like this one and this one, with these pictures added in:

I love sending photocards for the holidays, and I really enjoy receiving them from others. I prefer the flat cards to the folded ones, that way I don't have to write anything in them! I know that this makes it a lot less personal, but I don't think that I'd ever get them out before Christmas otherwise. And besides, I think that the pictures make them personal. My cards always tend to have black-and-white pictures, which I think makes them look a little special.

Be on the lookout for the Francis family Christmas card in your mailbox soon!

It's a girl!!!

2010-11-09T09:57:00.001-05:00

Soccer is over....

2010-11-02T10:40:00.001-04:00

Look at that form!

Halloween!

2010-11-01T10:27:00.002-04:00

Ruby was Snow White (originally a zookeeper, but she can't resist a princess dress!) and Jack was a ninja. I have a feeling that Jack will be in some sort of black head-to-toe outfit for the rest of his Halloween career.

The kids were so polite at each house-- Jack had a very articulate "trick OR treat" for everyone, and Ruby always remembered her "tink-ewe" at the end.

We let the kids eat as much candy as they wanted when we got home-- maybe not the best idea. Ruby was acting like she was on drugs for about 2 hours. I guess 6 suckers will do that to you. Then they chose two pieces of candy to save for the next day, and left the rest of the candy out for the "Sugar Fairy" that came during the night. She left them each a little gift in exchange for their candy. And now we don't have to worry about anyone begging for Halloween candy for weeks to come!
This was the first year that we've just trick-or-treated in our neighborhood, instead of trying to tag-along with other family or drive around to visit people we know in town. We were only out for about 45 minutes, which was perfect. It gets really busy out there! Our community does such a great job of handing out candy, so we get families from a lot of neighboring communities visiting that night.

The kids had a lot of fun, and John and I actually did too!

I took my kids to the pumpkin patch.....

2010-10-11T11:53:00.000-04:00

....and all I got was this lousy picture. I always look forward to our annual picture of the kids posed amongst the pumpkins. Not so much this year.

Lesson learned= take the picture when we first get there, not at the end when the kids are seriously wound up.

Annual Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

2010-10-10T11:48:00.000-04:00

Ruby's favorite part-- the goats and the cat
Jack's favorite part-- the wagon and Alex

Soccer Fans

2010-10-09T11:45:00.000-04:00

Jack is very lucky to have a lot of his own fans at his soccer games.....

Soccer

2010-10-08T11:26:00.000-04:00

Jack started his first team sport this fall-- AYSO soccer. He's really enjoying himself, I think he might win the prize for "most enthusiastic". He spends most of his time skipping across the field and pumping his arms up in the air. He's definitely learning a lot about soccer, and we're getting a lesson in how much you can expect a bunch of five year olds to focus on a soccer field-- which ends up isn't very much at all.

Fun with cousins

2010-10-07T11:22:00.001-04:00

Here are some pics from a recent trip to visit John's family in Illinois....

more from the gardens....

2010-09-15T09:37:00.000-04:00

Trip to Frederik Meijer Gardens

2010-09-14T09:33:00.001-04:00

Playing in the water

Hoping not to get pooped on by the giant iron horse.

Rolling down the hill with Aunt Meagan.

Pondering the art.

Trip to Sarrett Nature Center

2010-08-29T20:38:00.000-04:00

Walking the trails.

Stopping for a pose.

Green water.

All smiling?

more Onekama pictures

2010-08-28T20:31:00.002-04:00

Ruby's favorite part about fishing = playing with the worms.

Jack sight-seeing.

Sitting on the rocks, shhhhh!

Swinging with grandpa.

Onekama Trip

2010-08-26T20:26:00.001-04:00

Ruby

2010-07-06T18:17:00.000-04:00

"Ummmm, seriously mom?"

2010-07-04T18:15:00.000-04:00

more fun at Aunt Sarah's

2010-07-03T18:10:00.000-04:00

Olivia Grace

2010-07-02T18:19:00.000-04:00

pretty pretty princesses

2010-07-01T17:58:00.000-04:00

As much as Ruby loves to run around with the boys, she loooooves dressing up in "pretty dresses". Whenever I ask her what she'd like to wear, her answer is "pritty dras". She especially loves going to Aunt Sarah's house, and digging through the boxes of princess dresses. I think we'll have to do a dress up box for her soon!

from Memorial Day

2010-06-30T17:54:00.002-04:00

3 little birds

2010-06-01T14:25:00.000-04:00

Lucky for us, a mama bird made her nest right outside of our back door. The kids were so excited to check on the three little eggs each day, and then watch the babies grow. Unfortunately for the birds, they were disturbed over and over again, and were very possibly scared out of their nest a little earlier than they would have liked. I had to work hard at keeping Ruby away from the little hopping birds while they were trying to figure out how to fly-- it was really beautiful to watch the mama bird keep an eye on them at their various hiding spots around the yard.

(and it just so happens that Jack has been singing this song a lot lately.....)

Pre-school Graduation

2010-05-30T14:20:00.000-04:00

summer is almost here.....

2010-05-28T09:48:00.002-04:00

.... and I think I'll start blogging again:)

I have tons of pictures from the last few months that I could put up, but I think rather than playing "catch-up" I'll just start from the present. Here are a some snapshots from some backyard fun-- we got a head start on the summer by burning some backyard waste and roasting 'smores.

Easter, Part III

2010-04-08T09:02:00.000-04:00

After church, we went to Easter brunch at my grandma & grandpa's house. The kids got more Easter baskets and more candy, and got to have another Easter egg hunt. It was a long, wonderful day for all of us. Luckily we got to finish the day with a great 2-hour nap in the afternoon. Now we're looking forward to a nice, relaxing spring break.

Easter, Part II

2010-04-07T08:52:00.000-04:00

After Easter baskets at home, we went to the Easter morning service at our church, Church of the Mediator. After the service, the kids had a fun Easter Egg hunt outside, where they got waaaaay too much candy!

Easter, Part I

2010-04-06T08:57:00.000-04:00

Easter morning = finding Easter baskets, peeps, and jelly beans.

Ruby's First Peep

2010-04-05T20:51:00.000-04:00

another birthday party

2010-03-26T14:14:00.000-04:00

Jack had another small birthday party. We had pizza, a private planetarium show, and a trip to the arcade. He had tons of fun, and hopefully it satisfies his arcade craving for a long (longlonglong) time.

um, cute.

2010-03-26T14:12:00.000-04:00

Jack's birthday

2010-03-20T20:47:00.003-04:00

Ruby's 2nd birthday

2009-12-16T19:20:00.001-05:00

Here are some pics from Ruby's birthday party. (yep, back in November!)

Jack's Christmas Party

2009-12-16T19:17:00.002-05:00

Jack had his Christmas party at preschool today. It involved making ornaments, decorating cookies, and swimming.
Santa's elves dropped off some toys, and Jack was very excited to find out that Santa had gotten his letter at the North Pole and remembered to bring him a stuffed Pokemon toy.

Raking leaves (and jumping in the piles!)

2009-11-11T10:18:00.001-05:00

I know that my (few-and-far-between) posts lately are just pictures, but that's about all that I have time for. Between getting used to teaching full-time again, writing a small grant for a recycling program at school, overseeing a $130k planetarium upgrade, and taking care of the kids and the house, I haven't had a lot of time for blogging. Unfortunately I haven't had a lot of time for creating either. I'm disappointed to not have a homemade present for Ruby's 2nd birthday next week, and I don't have any Christmas presents planned yet. I have a hat that I'm knitting for John that has been half finished since September, and I did manage to sew a "Ash Ketchum" shirt for Jack's Halloween costume. I'm still wandering around craft-blogland when I have some free time, and of course I've bookmarked a million cute sewing/knitting craft ideas for some later time..... maybe summer? In the meantime, here are a few cute pics of the kids from this past weekend.....

Halloween

2009-11-10T18:16:00.000-05:00

Pumpkin Patch 2009

2009-11-02T19:46:00.002-05:00

the fountain

2009-09-19T11:14:00.002-04:00

We had our first visit to the Whirlpool Compass Fountain down by Silver Beach. The fountain runs 12-2pm and 5-10pm everyday. We headed down around 8pm, so it was a little chilly...

... but tons of fun nonetheless. And of course the sunset made it pretty magical. Jack ran around with a huge smile on his face the whole time, with fists pumping.

There are water cannons that shoot off every 15 minutes. We expected Jack not to like the cannons, but he loved it. We left just before the lights came on, due to a temper tantrum, so we'll have to return after 8:30pm to check out with the light shows.

It will only run through mid-October, so we're hoping for some warm weekends before then. I can't wait for next summer, I'm sure we'll be down there a lot!

First Day of School

2009-09-15T20:35:00.003-04:00

Jack started his second year of preschool this week. He loves every part of school, and I'm just sad that I won't be able to pick him up everyday and hear about his day. I started school last week, and am still getting used to being back at work. Jack and Ruby seemed to have adjusted fine, but it helps that they have someone wonderful taking care of them. Now I just need to find someone to take care of me at the end of the day!

new fringe

2009-08-30T08:29:00.000-04:00

green smoothie lover

2009-08-29T08:27:00.000-04:00

not just me, ruby too!

Kalamazoo Air Zoo

2009-08-28T20:19:00.003-04:00

What a fun place to go.... and it's free admission through September 30th.... check it out!

jack checking things out in the cockpit

john and jack experiencing "weightlessness"

collecting rocks on mars

john and jack (and some random man) checking out the view from space

john trying a ride with the kids that he didn't exactly fit into

enjoying ice cream after

and done.

it's been awhile....

2009-08-24T09:46:00.003-04:00

sorry, i know it's been almost a whole month since i've posted anything, i just haven't taken many pictures lately. our past month has included a week (for me and my mom) of counseling at sr. high church camp and a week of "bonding time" for john and the kids, ruby spraining her ankle three weeks ago and not walking since, jack and i getting ready to go back to school, weaning ruby, the county fair, and enjoying the last bits of summer.

here are a few pictures from my time at EYC (episcopal youth camp), where i was a counselor to a cabin of eleventh and twelfth grade girls. i had a wonderful time watching the way that these high schoolers loved each other into a true christ-centered community. but man, i was seriously tired at the end of it. i'm not able to post any pics of the campers, so the pictures aren't the best snapshot of the week. but at least you get a little peek....

lesson learned?

2009-07-30T10:28:00.002-04:00

Ruby shouldn't eat ANYTHING unless she's strapped into a chair at a table.

I'm not sure why I have such a hard time learning this lesson. I still keep handing her bananas, crackers and other food and letting her walk around the house with them. Since she happens to be the messiest little girl on the planet, it always happens that said food ends up all over her face, shirt, and hands. Oh, and often on furniture, the floor and almost always on her "baby" (her filthy doll in the picture). This picture was taken on the way home from the zoo in Sarah's car. We decided to give the kids chocolate shakes for the ride home. Yep..... bad. idea.

trip to the zoo

2009-07-23T13:59:00.002-04:00

We took another trip to Potawatomi Zoo this week, this time with Sarah, Livi, and Alex. The kids had a great time and loved all the animals. Jack and Olivia saw it as their job to navigate with the zoo map.
It wasn't very busy, which makes it a little more fun. We were wishing that more of the exhibits were open. The Australian Walk-a-bout was closed, so we didn't get to walk through the kangaroos and wallabies. The huge monkey exhibit was closed, too. We also didn't feel like paying for the Butterfly house.
Sarah and I left there feeling a little like we missed all of the most special parts of the Potawatomi Zoo, but of course the kids didn't even notice. They were happy that they were able to pet goats, watch the cheetahs play, and see the lions take a nap.

July Fourth Celebration

2009-07-08T11:07:00.000-04:00

camping trip

2009-07-07T10:54:00.000-04:00

now it feels like summer

2009-06-23T00:11:00.002-04:00

: first official trip to the beach:

:making smores in the backyard:

:cuddling with cousins in the hammock:

:piggyback rides:

My little animal

2009-06-20T21:36:00.002-04:00

(on a recent outing to Curious Kid's Children's Museum, where Jack had me paint him like a leopard and Ruby painted herself)

trip to the beach

2009-06-16T09:04:00.001-04:00

just a few pics from one of our recent trips to the beach. the water is still a little too cold for swimming, but it won't be long!

ahhhhh, summer......

2009-06-15T11:59:00.003-04:00

Niles Bluegrass Festival

2009-06-06T09:34:00.001-04:00

Missy and I took the kids to the Niles Bluegrass Festival the other night. Other than the stress of wrangling four kids, it was a lot of fun! Bluegrass music is always fun to listen to. I had hoped the kids would do a lot of cute dancing, but Ruby was the only one interested in dancing and her skills are limited to squatting up and down, moving her arms around and showing her belly.Unfortunately I didn't have any cash, so I didn't get to enjoy any of the fair-type food. But they didn't have elephant ears, so I don't think that I missed out on too much. We might head back there on Saturday to enjoy some more music if the weather is nice. The weather was great on the day we went, and the sky was filled with what appeared to be cotton, and it almost looked like it was snowing!

Preschool Graduation

2009-06-05T09:20:00.001-04:00

On Jack's last day of school, he had a graduation ceremony, graduating from the "Butterfly" group he was in this year to the "Dinosaur" group next year. They sang a few songs, and then each kid came up to the front individually to "graduate". The teacher would introduce the child, and then tell everyone a little about them using some questions that they had answered ahead of time. Many of the answers were very cute, and there were lots of "awwws" and giggles from the audience.
We found out that Jack's favorite color is "orange" and his favorite thing about preschool was "playing with the bugs". He said that the reason he loves his mom is "because she is so beautiful" (awwwwww!). I had already prepared myself what he would say for what he wants to be when he grows up. There were a lot of cute answers from kids for that one: princess, dinosaur, etc. And Jack's answer, as expected, was "a Pokemon trainer like Ash Ketchum". Lots of giggles followed that one, which ended up hurting Jack's feelings. I had to assure him that he could definitely be a Pokemon trainer when he grows up, he just has a lot of practice ahead of him.

superheroes in the morning

2009-06-04T09:32:00.000-04:00

swimming skills

2009-06-03T11:18:00.002-04:00

On Jack's last day of school, I got to swim with him so that he could show off all of the things he's learned this year. The swimming classes have really helped him a lot. He swims on his own (with a bubble) and isn't afraid of getting his face wet anymore.

He also attempted the diving board for the first time, which was a pretty big deal for him.

It took a few times getting on and off the diving board,

but eventually he got up the courage to jump-- with a little push from his teacher!

yea!!!

just a few more vacation pics

2009-05-19T09:41:00.001-04:00

You can see the rest of them here.

glad to be home.....

2009-05-18T21:38:00.000-04:00

.... but I sure do miss this.

the view from our balcony

2009-05-15T19:30:00.000-04:00

local children's science center

2009-05-15T08:42:00.001-04:00

We took a side trip to the local science center. We get in free with our membership to another ASTC museum, which is such a great deal. It was a nice "vacation" from our daily trip to the pool and beach.
They had a fun bubble making room, a few little animals (including cockroaches---GROSS!), and some great electricity-type exhibits.
It wasn't as little-kid-friendly as our kid's museum at home, so we only spent about an hour there. Ruby's favorite thing was the coin-drop at the entrance-- she kept running back over there every chance she got!

some things we're enjoying on our vacation

2009-05-14T18:36:00.002-04:00

:boggle:

:playing outside:

:playing on the beach:

:relaxing on the balcony, overlooking the ocean:

It's 940 miles to Florida

2009-05-10T23:15:00.003-04:00

Here we are, ready for the drive!

Indiana is a loooooong state to drive through. We cheered when we got to Kentucky.

We had an insane amount of cords/technology in the front seat with us-- MP3 players, chargers, phones, GPS......

I was really ready to start taking pictures NOT out of the car window.

We were excited to watch the temperature creep higher and higher-- until it hit 93, then we were complaining about how hot it was.

b l o o m

2009-05-08T12:27:00.000-04:00

one of our magnolia trees last week

Trip to Potawatomi Zoo

2009-05-07T12:22:00.000-04:00

It was a little too cold out for most of the animals, so it was a short trip. It was perfect, though, for the first trip of the season.

What!? A new post!?

2009-05-06T16:08:00.003-04:00

I know that I've been a blog-slacker lately. My only reason for it is that my camera has been in the car for the past month, and I haven't wanted to walk outside and get it to load any pictures onto the computer. That, and nothing picture-worthy has been happening lately. At least nothing exciting enough to lug my camera around with a clingy 18-month old in the other arm.
So, here are some pictures from Easter morning. I wish that I had better pictures of the kids in their Easter outfits. I also wish that I had pictures of them with their Easter baskets. But again, I haven't really been taking many pictures lately. I can't even remember too many details from Easter. But I know that the kids had a lot of fun, and of course looked very cute. More updating to come, p r o m i s e......

the word of the day.....

2009-04-12T07:41:00.000-04:00

Robot and Spaceboy

2009-04-05T08:11:00.002-04:00

Here's something that I recently made which I forgot to show on here! Jack got Robot for his birthday, and Spaceboy was a gift for last year's birthday. Both patterns are from Weewonderfuls, which has so many great patterns. Ever since I'd made Spaceboy last year, I've been waiting to make Robot, but wanted to wait until Christmas or his birthday. Both were easy and fun to make, and I'm sure there are more in my future!

our home

2009-04-04T09:57:00.001-04:00

Since most people who visit this blog are friends and family, most of whom haven't been to our house ever/in-a-while, I thought that I'd share a few glimpses of our home. I didn't clean before I took them, but then again this is how it looks most of the time anyway!
::We just got this great old couch from a resale store for $15!! It shows what a great husband (and brother-in-law!) I have that he spent hours moving the old couch to storage, bringing the new one in, and switching armchairs between upstairs and downstairs. And I don't think he even likes the new couch much! But it takes up a little less space than the old one, and I'm totally in love with it.

::Here is the spot in Jack's room right next to his bed where he keeps his lizard, "Spongebob". Up in the corner you can see a cute little birdie decal (from an etsy store), which is one of three in his room.
::I struggled to find a place to take a picture of the kitchen. It's always messy and extremely cluttered, due to the fact that it is really small and I have a lot of kitchen stuff! This shelf is up high, so it never gets too cluttered! I have some aprons hanging from it, one of them on the right is the first thing that I ever sewed in Mrs. Warmbein's seventh grade home-ec class.
::This last picture is of the ledge between the kitchen and the living/dining room. There is always a variety of things on this ledge. Right now I'm forcing some magnolia branches into bloom since the flowers only stay on the actual trees outside of our house for a day or two. The Easter eggs were dyed a few days ago at Meagan's house, and the basket is from a resale store, filled with bibs and cloth napkins that we use everyday.

Well, I hope everyone got a little glimpse into our home. We're definitely not gracing the pages of any magazines soon, but it's ours and we like it!

from Jack's birthday party...

2009-04-01T13:13:00.000-04:00

grandkids

2009-03-23T11:13:00.000-04:00

Grandma with the grandkids on her birthday. Olivia was sad about something, Jack and Ruby were distracted by cartoons, and Alex is sporting her new haircut.

a few days late

2009-03-22T21:47:00.000-04:00

Okay, I know I should have put up a long post the other day detailing how much Jack has grown in the past four years and all of the things that he enjoys doing, but...... Well, we had a little accident the day before his birthday that landed us in the ER. Jack accidentally shut Ruby's finger in the bathroom door and she had to have four stitches to get her fingernail to stay on her little finger. Life was a little hectic for a few days getting ready for his birthday and taking care of Ruby. So my beautiful reflection on Jack's birthday didn't happen as planned, so I thought I'd put up a few pics from the last four years instead....

warm(er) weather fun

2009-03-21T13:15:00.000-04:00

Today he's four.

2009-03-20T13:14:00.001-04:00

What we've been up to

2009-02-27T15:21:00.000-05:00

baby pram/stroller/grocery cart/toy carrier

2009-02-19T13:20:00.000-05:00

My dad made these great carts for Ruby and Alex for Christmas. Ruby uses it a lot as a baby stroller, and Jack likes to fill it up with toys and take them from room to room. The other night, I walked into the room to find Ruby in the cart. I started taking pictures of her and pushing her around. She thought it was great.Then I stopped pushing her, and that's when the fun ended. She had a very nice temper tantrum, with a lot of pointing at the cart and screaming at me. I have a feeling Ruby has a lot of tantrums in her future.....

rainy day painting

2009-02-18T12:43:00.000-05:00

The boys and Ruby had some fun this afternoon painting. I've been doing a lot of staring out the window, wishing for nice weather...

As I was writing this post, Ruby pulled the (very wet) watercolors off the table and onto the floor. In case you were wondering, paint + unfinished hardwood floors = stains

Mom and Ruby

2009-02-16T11:14:00.000-05:00

My Valentine

2009-02-14T23:02:00.000-05:00

Jack was my Valentine's Day date this year (last year, too!) so we decided to go on the same date that we did for last year's Valentine's Day-- The Chocolate Cafe in downtown St. Joe.
We also ordered the exact same thing as last year's date-- yummy chocolate fondue. They cut up yummy apples, pears, bananas, strawberries, pineapple, pound cake and marshmallows to dip in warm chocolately-goodness.
We spent a long time dipping and licking our lips. I also discovered that when you're a mom, "I love you" means peeling the "skin" off apples with your fingernails.....
We had a wonderful Valentine's Day, I hope yours was as well!

2009-02-11T18:52:00.000-05:00

watching silly boys

silly boys

eating cupcakes

wishing for spring

2009-02-11T18:51:00.000-05:00

quote of the day

2009-01-30T10:07:00.000-05:00

"thanks for cleaning the poopie off my foot"

Said, not by my (almost)four-year old as you'd expect, but by my (almost)thirty-five year old husband. How did the dog know to poop on his side of the bed?.........

last minute trip to the water park

2009-01-26T22:27:00.000-05:00

Sorry, no pictures of the kids actually IN the water park. I was too nervous to leave my camera on a random chair (the water park crowd is not the kind that you trust with your valuables) and too cheap to pay $10 for a locker. While not a relaxing getaway for the adults, it was a total blast for the kids.

playing in the snow

2009-01-19T12:04:00.000-05:00

The temperature finally rose above 20 degrees, so we decided to venture outside! It was Ruby's first time in the snow, and the first time that Jack actually enjoyed it! Ruby liked it too, but was pretty frustrated at not being able to move around at all. We had a lot of fun playing with Emma, who loves the snow but doesn't get to play in it with us enough.
Jack was in heaven. The very first thing he did was plop down and make a snow angel. He didn't mind the cold at all, and had to be coaxed back in with hot chocolate and marshmallows. It was definitely the first time that the fun he was having far outweighed the pain of his freezing face and toes. We'll definitely make a few more trips outside the week while John is home. We might have to go sledding with the boys. More fun snow pics here.

Walking!

2009-01-16T10:48:00.000-05:00

Ruby is officially a walker! She walks pretty much all of the time now unless she falls getting to her destination, then she'll crawl the rest of the way. I love this time when they toddle back and forth, and seem to be so pleased with themselves for mastering a new skill. I don't so much love the next phase that I know is coming....
the "get-into-everything-that-I-can-before-you-can-stop-me" phase.
She's also been eating an awful lot lately, probably due to the walking. She's eating as much as, if not more than, Jack. Some of her favorite things are macaroni and cheese, bananas, grapes, chocolate, and sour cream. She knows about eight different signs that are starting to become helpful in communicating. Most of them are signs for different animals (she still loveslovesloves animals), but she also knows the signs for "more", "all done", and "nurse".
And, of course, she is still as silly as ever.

Stuck in the house

2009-01-15T13:39:00.000-05:00

I haven't left the house since Tuesday. Jack's preschool was canceled today, as were my planetarium shows and Astronomy class. And it's just soooo cold outside, the thought of bundling up the kids and taking them in and out of anywhere is really unappealing. So, being stuck in the house has forced me to do a few productive things: laundry, bathroom cleaning, and lots of cooking. So far this week, I've made chicken tortilla soup (yumyumyummy), bread, homemade strawberry jam, yogurt, cocoa nibbles, and play dough. The kids are getting a little stir crazy, too. Jack really needs some time to run around and get all the "crazies" out. There have been way to many cartoons watched in the past 48 hours!

Ruby has been playing a lot with this pink, antique doll highchair. She has one special baby that she carries around a lot, and loves to put it in the chair. Of course, she'll put pretty much anything in it, including bananas.

staying inside

2009-01-14T09:35:00.000-05:00

growing bigger

2009-01-08T16:40:00.000-05:00

Here are the babies at Christmas last year, what a difference a year makes!

Man, I love ramen noodles...

2009-01-07T15:15:00.000-05:00

....and so do my kids. It's the one meal that I can cook in about three minutes and guarantee that they'll eat. Add some grapes and carrots on the side and it almost seems healthy, not to mention entertaining. Have you seen a one-year old eat noodles?

lazy days

2009-01-06T12:40:00.000-05:00

I used one of my Christmas presents for the first time the other day and made some homemade yogurt, which I love. I've been making it in my oven, but it turned out much better in the yogurt maker. Unfortunately, I didn't have any granola to eat it with! My favorite recipe calls for butter, and I didn't have any on hand. Never fear! I went to the store for butter yesterday and was able to make the granola today. You know you're craving something when you take two little kids to the grocery store just for butter. But a big bowl of yogurt and granola with honey drizzled on the top is totally worth it.

Another Christmas present that I've been anxious to try out (since seeing it here and here and here) is the book Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day. The idea is that you spend a few minutes mixing basic ingredients (yeast, flour, salt, water) together, store a whole bunch of dough in the fridge, then cut off a hunk when you want to bake it. It really is super-easy, and I always love a bread recipe that doesn't involve kneading and rising and kneading and rising. The bread is super-delicious, and I have to keep myself from eating the whole loaf in a day.

First handmade item of 2009

2009-01-05T10:03:00.001-05:00

sherbrooke cowl. pattern by her. ravelled about here. loving it.

handmade in 2008

2009-01-03T12:59:00.000-05:00

It's great to finally have pictures of the things I've made to look back on. I worked hard this year to make as many gifts for Easter, birthdays, and Christmas as possible. It's nice to think that these 16 pictures are only about half of what I've made this year. Missing are: embroidered hats for the kids, my dad's knit birthday scarf, baby dolls for Livi and Alex, Ruby's smocket, John's pillowcase, Sarah's embroidery, my mom's fabric napkins, Sarah's birthday purse, knit cowl for myself, Ruby's knit sweater, Livi's birthday apron, Spaceboy and Robot dolls, and probably a few other things I'm missing.

Let's hope 2009 brings lots of time for working on all things handmade!

looking back at 2008

2009-01-02T12:41:00.000-05:00

A Merry Christmas was had by all!

2008-12-27T09:31:00.000-05:00

Christmas Eve at great-grandma and great-grandpa Durren's house:

Christmas morning at our house:
Christmas evening at grandma and grandpa's house:
= 2 tired parents:
(more Christmas pictures on flickr!)

Handmade Christmas

2008-12-26T06:52:00.000-05:00

So this Christmas I tried to make as many gifts as I could by hand. Here are a few pictures, and my list:
-24 bottles of vanilla extract (made with Meagan, 12 for my family/friends and 12 for hers!)
-24 fabric gift bags
-painted/appliqued pillowcase for John
-a lot of felt play food for Jack & Ruby and a set for Meagan's boys
-2 sets of wooden peg dolls for Olivia and Jack of all of our family members, with felt bags for storage
-smockets for Ruby & Alex
-9 fabric napkins for my mom
-framed embroidery for Jason
-framed embroidery for Sarah
-seasonal word blocks for Sarah
-baby doll for Olivia

is that it? really?

Happy Winter Solstice (yesterday!)

2008-12-22T12:48:00.000-05:00

from my window (yesterday)

from Meagan's back porch (last week)

Ruby

2008-12-21T12:42:00.000-05:00

silly Ruby

sillier Ruby

Ruby looking out at the snow

pretty Ruby

Almost done!

2008-12-21T09:41:00.000-05:00

I'll let you know when I'm out from under the pile of almost-finished Christmas gifts. You can see my list on the corner of the table (but don't look too closely, you might be on there!). Only 4 things left to finish! And an idea for another thing to make for the kids..... Help, I can't stop myself!!!!

Preschool Christmas Party

2008-12-20T09:35:00.000-05:00

Jack had his Christmas party at school this week. I had a planetarium show to do that morning, so I missed most of it, including his visit on Santa's lap. I guess he was the first one up on Santa's lap, and would've love hanging out there all day. It's the third time that he's visited Santa already this year-- he sure loves Santa! The kids made cute reindeer hats and nice ornaments.Then parents got to watch the kids swim. Jack has really developed into a great little swimmer. He still isn't crazy about getting his fact wet, though. He's in the half of his class that swims down to the deep end, and then jumps into the water. You should see him try and jump in without getting his face wet, it's pretty funny. Then the kids got to jump in off the diving board, which Jack decided not to do. I think he realized that there was no way he could do that without getting his face wet.

Advent

2008-12-19T09:22:00.000-05:00

We are anxiously awaiting Christmas in the Francis home. My mom got the kids an advent calendar that has little wooden figures for each day-- it's been fun for the kids to play with, and a great visual to see how many days are left until Christmas. Jack spent the first week or so before we had the calendar asking, "Is it Christmas?" every morning. I think that the calendar has helped him see that Christmas is slowly approaching. Ruby loves the wooden figures too (of course she does, they are animals!).

The kids just had some great Christmas pictures taken-- I'll be sure to scan them and put them up soon! (Please excuse the crumbs and dirty table!)