First Day of Ballet Class

Today is Elise's very first day of ballet class! She was super excited, and she did great! She's a natural.

I think this picture just about sums up her excitement.

And here's a lower quality one. But seriously, she was grinning so big.
Her teacher, Miss Grace, is so sweet with the girls.

Fishing

Elise decided she and Charlotte should go fishing. I love how creative she is!

It's a big one!

Snow Cave

Matt made a snow cave as a scout once and wanted to make one for the girls to play in. So much fun! They loved having an igloo.

best dad

Bunking with Books

Daddy's Girl

Charlotte has always been a daddy's girl. I love watching these two together.

Ballet Shoes

Aunt Holly sent us the best package in the mail, including all kinds of fun ballet clothes. Elise nearly jeté-ed to the moon when we opened it.

Great Girl

dressed for church

Sometimes I look at Elise and just marvel and think, Wow, she is growing up to be such a fantastic, beautiful kid. I'm so blessed and glad to have her in our family.

Have a Heart

It snowed! A lot! Perfect for building a snowman with Dad. Vera and I watched from indoors.

eclectic snow gear

Matt is such a fun dad.
Even with the snow being pretty powdery, he made them a great snowman.

Our snowman even had a heart!

Two Things

Elise and Charlotte wanted to wear their Thing 1 and Thing 2 outfits from Halloween and read The Cat in the Hat together.

Couch Crasher

This is what it looks like when your two-year-old, who needs a nap but won't take one, sits still for too long. Late nap on the couch.

Stacks of Happy

Charlotte has always loved books so much. She'll sit for so long and tell herself the stories.

Mixing Colors

Fingerpainting with bedhead and peanut butter on your face. It's good to be two.

Snow Ice Cream

Our friends invited us over for dinner and Family Home Evening, and it was so much fun! After dinner we made snow ice cream, which is just 8 cups of snow, one can of sweetened condensed milk, and a teaspoon of vanilla mixed. It's easy and fun to make and so yummy, especially with fresh strawberries.

Vera Turns Six Months

Vera turned six months old today! We are so blessed to have this beautiful girl in our family. We love you, Vera!

Leaf Pile

Charlotte likes to dump out all of the dress up clothes and jump in them and pretend it is a leaf pile. She was doing that, and Vera rolled over nearby, so she started piling the "leaves" on the baby. Vera loved it.

Alphabet Craze

I bought this alphabet puzzle for Christmas for Elise one year and she hardly ever used it, but it is one of Charlotte's favorite things to play with. She is doing great recognizing both uppercase and lowercase letters.

Reading Together

One of my very favorite parts of Elise being an early reader is that she reads to her sisters.

Pigtails and Ballet Shoes

Elise has been working hard doing chores around the house to earn enough money for ballet shoes. I'm happy to say that, at a quarter per chore, she finally earned enough! I'm proud of her hard work and diligence.

This was my first attempt at pigtails on Charlotte.

About to do a joint leapfrog off the stairs.

I love that these two have each other.

Blond Curls

I'm in love with Charlotte's blond, blond curls.

Also, Charlotte snuggles Vera like this a lot, but I never realized what a skilled multitasker she is. Holding hands while sucking her thumb.

Elise Types Too

Elise loves to type on the computer, just like Charlotte. Except she uses capital letters and can type her whole name and everyone else's names in our family too.

Intended for Easter

I bought this dress on sale while I was pregnant for Vera to wear for her first Easter. I wasn't counting on her growing so fast. I went ahead and put it on her for church today so that she won't outgrow it before she ever wears it.

Photography by Charlotte

The older girls love it when I let them take pictures with our nice camera. Here is some of Charlotte's work. She's lucky if some part of the person she is photographing is in the shot.

Typing

Charlotte has recently figured out how to type her name on the computer, and she loves to do it. She knows the order of the letters in her name and can recognize them, so it's fun for her to type it.

Sometimes she has typos, but she did this 100% on her own!

Simple Gifts

One of Elise's favorite things to do is to wrap things up and give them to me. This is a present she gave me today: the Tag pen, wrapped in Vera's sock and tied with a bit of ribbon.

I love her little gifts and the way she always tells me to cover my eyes when she gives them to me, even if she knows I saw what it was already. Sweetest girl.

Nemo Family

We watch way too much Nemo around here because it's Charlotte's favorite movie. She lined up her Nemo friends and told me which ones represented each member of our family. From left to right: Daddy, Mommy, Elise, Charlotte (of course), and Vera.

Beach Day

Elise and Charlotte wanted to play beach, so they got a blue blanket for the water, toy shells, flip flops, and puddle jumpers, and they had so much fun pretending to swim.

Once There Was a Snowman

So excited for snow!

Once there was a snowman
tall, tall, tall.

In the sun he melted . . .

. . . small . . .

. . . small . . .

. . . small.

Birds on a Wire

I forgot to get the camera out, so this is a picture Matt took from today out our back door.