Catching Up

We've been struggling around here the last two months.  Since we got back from the US the beginning of April, the household has gone through two rounds of the 24-hours tummy bug and a 7-day tummy bug.  Todd has had three work trips and we've had various birthdays and other celebrations thrown in the mix.  Then, in the last two weeks, we've had another couple of rounds of actual influenza/flu, one of which put Zora and me completely out of commission for 5 days.  So, yes, I've gotten behind, but in light of everything else, I feeling rather okay with the state of the house and life in general.

That said, I have been desperately wanting to catch up on "life" here in blogland.  So many things have happened in the last few months, which means this will be a picture montage of sorts.  Hope you enjoy!

Over the last year, our family has been on a journey to really discover who we are and what we stand for.  We realized that there was a lot of junk cluttering life.  As a result, we donated, garage-saled and will donate again a number of items from the entire house, not just the garage.  The kids have fewer toys out, but we rotate boxes in and out regularly (such a great idea!).  One Sunday, as I was getting more and more angry with trying to brush my hair, it occurred to me that I have long hair but it's eternally wet and in a ponytail.  So, after some discussion, I had it chopped and sent this to Locks of Love.  Hopefully, someone else will find a use for it since I wasn't.  

 Todd had a number of business trips recently, one of which was to Ethiopia.  His trip was very near Father's Day and so the kids and I took the opportunity to give Daddy something he would love:  a fire pit.  And yes, he LOVES it.  Gotta be honest, it wasn't the easiest to dig into red clay, but so worth it and the winter fires around the fire pit with hot tea instead of watching TV or some other random activity have been simply fabulous.

 Right before everyone got sick, we had taken an afternoon in the park.  This was my favorite of all four kids.  Sorry Harper, looks like you got stuck with your mommy's "smily eyes" (as Daddy calls them).

The kids were sick, really, really sick, for a solid 6 days.  That meant every DVD/downloaded show we own was watched no less than half a dozen times.  Mommy and Daddy could only do so much and since we had time on our hands and couldn't go anywhere, we made the most of it and got some of the organizational projects on my Honey Do List done.  We bought some dog tail hooks at IKEA when we were in the US a few months ago, and I had Todd put them up to hold the kids' backpacks.  It's worked out really well.

 And after much fussing with the layout (via newspaper representations of pictures), I also got our gallery wall sorted, complete with the kids' silver baby cups!  I've been wanting to display these since Em got her's at 5 weeks.  It took me forever to figure out how to get them up, but we managed it and I'm so pleased!

 Em recovered from illness just in time for her first Daddy-Daughter date.  I'd purchased tickets to go see the Russian Ballet Exhibition months ago.  I didn't think she's make it through a full ballet at 8pm, but this was shorter, with individual dances and such, in the middle of the day.  She and Daddy had an amazing time.  Daddy bought her flowers, took her to a nice restaurant, and then went to the ballet.  Can't believe my girl is old enough to be going on dates with the best guy in the world, but I guess its time I started to share.

 All ready to go!

 In the midst of all the chaos, the two littlest girls have decided that they are going to assert their independence and chaos or not, achieve major milestones.  Harper firmly and emphatically insisted she was going to use the toilet.  Zora let her voice be heard that she wanted food.  Real food, like what everyone else gets at the table.  Good times all around :)

 After days and days of just laying around watching TV, the girls had had enough.  They put on their dress-up clothes and ventured outside.  It was possibly one of the happiest sights I've seen as a mom.

 Em's favorite:  Making her dress "big and poofy".

And not to leave anyone out, Zora, in all her big-girl glory, showing off her sitting up skills.  They grow too fast.  I'm just not ready for it all yet.