just some fun

Came around the corner to catch Anna sitting in the stairway basket…how silly.

A friend gave us this dog costume; the girls have had fun playing dog/owner.  They were even eating “dog biscuits” today and asked for newspaper for a pee spot!  What imagination!

snow?

Okay, so a week ago we really had snow…not so much now.  It was 48 degrees today, Maria was so excited to go out in her light coat.  I won’t complain, but I have to wonder is winter just tricking us?  We’re waiting for the big snow of the season!

The girls were throwing snow toward the window, where I was safely behind snapping pictures!

Maria reading

 

We have plenty to praise God for; Maria's interest in reading.

Sherman: The Ruthless Victor

As a part of a series of short biographies on generals published by Thomas Nelson, Sherman: The Ruthless Victor serves as basic introduction to the famous (infamous?) Union Civil War general William Tecumseh Sherman.   Authors von Hassel and Breslin make Sherman accessible as a person, filling out details of his upbringing and experiences of life outside the military and Civil War years.  However, the content is heavily tilted towards his life before and during the war, with very little space given to what he did after the conclusion of the war.  As I understand the purpose of this entire series on generals, this book fares well enough – it is certainly written to engage the non-expert and introduce readers to a well-known person without too much focus on military strategy or battles.   Neither author is an academic historian of the Civil War, which perhaps helps them to focus on understanding the person.  However, even as a general introduction, I believe it would have benefited from at least nominal use of primary source material for substantiation of claims, or even just to give an idea to the reader of how General Sherman thought and wrote.  There is no quote from Sherman in the whole book longer than a phrase of a few words (and neither are there any footnotes to help people track down more information on a certain topic, although there is a brief bibliography).   All in all, this biography is a sufficient, but plain, introduction to a very interesting person.   Note: this book was provided for review courtesy of booksneeze.com.

learning

 

Maria doesn’t look too excited, but she was pleased to show us her alphabet she wrote, on their new easel, made by grandpa.  She needed very little help and didn’t look at anything except her b/d chart to figure out which way they face.  I was impressed…she even included two versions of capital J…one with a cap, and one without!  Now I just need to get a video of her doing some reading, she’s doing really well.

Helping Daddy make pizza dough…messy fun.

Winter?

We spent some time earlier this week at the park since it was so unseasonably warm and we knew that snow was in the forecast for later this week…and it arrived overnight, causing a 2 hour school delay here. 

We were noticing how the lake is barely froze, not sure how much it normally is at this time of year, but it has to be more than this small thin amount, due to the average 40 degrees we’ve been having.

The ducks and geese didn’t seem to mind the mild weather.

We walked along the beach and notice deer, raccoon, geese, duck and some dog tracks.

Then we spent some time at the ship park.  “Iceberg dead ahead”  Maria wanted us to reenact the Magic Tree House Titanic book!

Anna was done on the swings!

We have plenty to praise God for; mild weather to enjoy the outdoors.

New Year's Christmas

Well, I got a new camera for Christmas, so I took way too many pictures trying out different settings, but it was fun and they turned out well.  I'm really happy with my purchase.  Plus, we purchased a new computer as Larry's and my gift to each other, and I used part of my reward money from the pedometer usage this year.  So, I waited till the new computer came to fiddle with downloading and editing pictures...so these are from the New Year's weekend when my family had our Christmas gathering. 

My dad.  I was impressed with the zoom quality from across the room.

 our nephew Trey.

 My two grandmother's, my dad, and his brother, my Uncle Bob...Anna was entertaining them...she did this very well ALL night long.  Seriously, could she be any more different than her older sister?

our nephew Easton

 Anna with our niece Everly.

 She was talking and looking up at me...but this is G.G.

 Brother Andrew and wife Therese...in "their" chair.

 Maria is pretty excited about these sequins...good job Aunt Michele.

 yum, yum...cookie cookbook.  And yes, a picture of me...quite a rarity, thanks honey!

 Anna's Gordon Food Service marshmallow man...he fit well in her new stroller.  My brother works for GFS.

 Aunt Michele helping Maria with the dressing of her new Strawberry Shortcake.

 Maria and Trey enjoying a movie together.

What a fun holiday!

We have plenty to praise God for; new technology to capture and keep up with memories and family.

more Christmas!

 The pinata we made while we were learning about Las Posadas...keeping the points of the star on were quite difficult, but duct tape helped me out!  The kids enjoyed beating on it today, and most of all enjoyed the candy!

 Our second snowfall, and we had fun!

 So pretty too.

 Snow in sand buckets...much fun.

 We hosted the Saunders side of the family for Christmas this year. 

 Look at that determination, tongue out and eveything!

 As you can see everyone got in on the fun of one of the best gifts!...even grandpa!

 Maria...

 and Uncle Justin!

 Anna liked her new gloves...

and thought they would make nice socks!

We have plenty to praise God for; more celebrating with family...one more to go!

Christmas day!

We have plenty to praise God for; the birth of a King, come to save us.