The Cookie from Martin Pictures on Vimeo.

Billy and I filmed this little video for a contest.  It had to be under two minutes, the theme was “stand-off”.  We lost.  At least it makes us all laugh when we see it  And we sort of like this making movies thing.

I have lots of updating to do on this ol’ blog, but I just wanted to throw these pictures up.  Because I really, really want to remember these days.  When my little guys are so, well, little.  I want to remember them zipping themselves together into jackets.  I want to remember the sound of their footsteps trampling down the stairs and flying through the house and the back door slamming.  I want to remember every little fort and leaf pile and contraption they build in the back yard.  I want to remember waking up and seeing their faces at my bedside.  I want to remember reading books to them at night.  I want to remember sitting out in the driveway while they ride their bikes.  I want to remember their excitement for everything.  I want to remember brushing their teeth.  I want to remember what it feels like to hold them.  

I love my people.

Reading Radical by David Platt.  Convicted on so many levels.  Where to go from here??

It’s a snow day here.  The kids played outside for a little while, but snow in March is a little less exciting than snow in December!  Then they painted while I made banana pudding (which tasted fantastic).  We’ve been working on memorizing Psalm 23 at dinner.  Reminds me of this sermon every time!  Love it.

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness
    for his name’s sake.

Spontaneity is alive and well here.  Through a series of coincidental events, Monday morning found us flying out of Richmond and into NYC.

If I hadn’t taken pictures, I would have woken up yesterday morning and seriously wondered if the trip had even happened at all.  It was a complete whirlwind.

(Learning never stops.  Especially with a reading three year old!)

This picture was taken right before I smacked into a scaffolding pole while walking very briskly:

It was extremely painful, in case you were wondering.

New York pizza = so good.

Real macarons = so good.

Traveling together as a family = so good.

Even these parts:

The kids loved the fact that we took off in rain, flew through the rain clouds, and up into the sunny sky.

It was such a great trip.  Even if I’m now in need of a vacation to relax.

We’ve been working really hard in 2013.  Of course, there has been some serious kitchen-table work:

And some serious not-at-the-kitchen-table work:

Last week Ellie and Finn were suddenly fascinated with dinosaurs, so of course we hit up the library first, but we also went up to the Natural History Museum to see the dinosaur exhibit.  It’s funny, we always cruise through the same dino exhibit whenever we go, but this time they really saw everything.

It was snowing all day here on and off, but nothing stuck to the ground.  Spring is definitely on the horizon, but I wouldn’t mind being snowed in one last time.  I am noticing such a shift in our days, as Deacon becomes more and more interested in what we’re working on.  Unbelievably, he is reading.  Mostly short words, with short-vowel letter sounds.  And of course all droids, like R2-D2 and C-3PO, ha!  What it is with boys and Star Wars, I will never know.

Have a lovely weekend!

That was the craziest December on record.  Billy and I took on the Christmas Pageant at our church, and with that came planning, writing, filming, more planning, directing, organizing and on and on.  It was really wonderful.  Very rewarding work.  I will have another post with some details, but for now, here’s a picture that someone snapped the night of.

We ended up taking a huge homeschooling break.  (As in, all of December!)  We kept up with the essentials (those second graders tend to forget math concepts), but that was about it.  The flexibility allowed us to actually feel the season while in the midst of chaos.  Still, I’ve never sent out Christmas cards so late in December

I really wanted to make gingerbread houses with the kids this year, so that made it to the top of the priority list.  My mom and I made some very elaborate ones when I was a kid, with porches, and bay windows, but I was on my own this year so I made simple ones.  (Actually Billy helped.  Love that man.)  Decorating is obviously the best part!!

Christmas actually found most of us sick with the flu.  It was a bummer to not be able to hold baby Felix.  Thankfully we’re all better now, and we’ve spent all of January really focused on schoolwork.

So Merry Christmas everyone.  I hope everyone had a wonderful year and my prayer is that God draws you near in 2013.

I have so much to be thankful for.  Gratitude is underrated.

My baby boy turned six.  He happens to be head over heels for Star Wars these days, so a Yoda cake was in order.  I promised him that I would try, because I was seriously doubting my abilities.  I mean, Yoda isn’t exactly easy to sketch.  I was actually pretty impressed with how it turned out, I might even make a tutorial for it.

The lightsaber candles were my own creation after I couldn’t find anything in stores or online that was even close to what I was after.  I didn’t really want a giant Darth Vader holding a candle on top of the cake.   So while I was drawing Yoda, Carrington and Ellie went to work with polymer clay and some taper candles.

So just like that my sweet boy is another year older.  Now we’re on to December, which should be slightly (haha) less crazy this year because Carrington took a year off from the Nutcracker.  I’ll leave you with some Halloween/Thanksgiving pictures.  Yes, Deacon went as a spade for Halloween.  Carrington/Alice in Wonderland wanted an accomplice.  I only had a couple of hours, I couldn’t have pulled off a Mad Hatter!  The leaves are from Ann Voskamp.

Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
    for his steadfast love endures forever!

My sister in law is a rockstar.  I’m in love with my new nephew.

Welcome, welcome to the world, baby Felix!

As in, the leaves.  Because they’re falling and they’re so, so, so beautiful.  We actually pull over and stop the car to collect some of the prettiest ones we see.  Really.  We went to Charlottesville at the end of September for the Heritage Fall Festival, which is held at Monticello.

The grounds are gorgeous, right down to the vibrant brick red dirt.  The cider doughnuts aren’t too shabby either.  I would know.

There was a huge hill near the place where we parked, so on the way back to the car the little guys ran to the top so they could roll down.  When Carrington didn’t run after them I mentioned that the little Carrington would have been the first one to the top, but this bigger Carrington must be too old for such things.

Ahhh, there’s still some of the little girl left in her after all!

Then she proceeded to turn fourteen.  She’s almost as tall as me.  She towers (gracefully) over both Billy and I on her pointe shoes as she pirouettes around the house.

That’s a lot of candles to put on a cake!  I made this double-decker vanilla cake and topped it with vanilla frosting roses.  Yum.  It was super sweet, too.  Just like her.

So October finds us welcoming and waiting.  We welcomed (from across the country) my newest nephew, Weston, born to my big brother Jon and his wife Dana.  Rumor has it they’re coming here for Christmas, so I’ll be able to get my hands on the sweet little thing, but until then at least I’m getting pictures.  Now we’re waiting for my brother Jeremy and his wife Lindsay to have their baby.  She’s 40 weeks and 2 days today.  Any. Day.  Come on baby, Aunt Jen wants to snuggle you and eat you up!

This was my reality on Sunday afternoon.  I didn’t think to snap a picture of the dreariness outside my window though, I think it would’ve given my post a little somethin’.  It was wet out there.  Not to mention freezing.

Summer clothes packed away, winter clothes brought out.  It’s usually a pretty gradual process but I’ve been around the season-changing block a few times so I’ve got a pretty nice system.  Now, what does one do, with mountains of clothes to be sorted/folded/packed/washed, with the bundles of energy bouncing all around said piles?  You send them downstairs with daddy and a play-doh recipe, duh!

Then you take care of business.  Oh, you come down once to take snap a picture and eat a plate of play-doh food, can’t forget that.

We spent last weekend in Roanoke with my brother and oh-so-pregnant sister in law.  I can’t wait to get my hands on that baby!  School is going very well, we’ve all been working really hard.  This week my goal is to find a new table for my sewing machines, because there are some holidays on the horizon.  I got rid of my huge oppressive cabinet in hopes of something smaller and lighter, but then summer happened and GEEZ it’s been a few months since I’ve sewed.  Did I mention both of my brothers have babies due this month?  Hmmm.  Must. Get. Busy.