Just looking through some of my old pictures, and noticing how much I love my husband. Just all the small little ways that he cares for me, his children, and just IS.

I love that he helps our kids with structural design. I am apt to say, "have at it, kids!" then am dismayed to find that their creative fun is short-lived. Conan, however steps in, gives good advice, and helps them succeed. Remember the Spiderweb they built in Indiana? Cannot find that post to link to it, but some of you may remember.

I love how everything he does, he does with style. Like beautiful orange peelings… just everything. I think that’s so cool.

 He’s a happy helper. OK, well, maybe not looking so happy here; but he’s tired, yet he’s helping his niece finish off a purple knitted scarf the day before Christmas Eve. He’s my kinda guy.

I love that he loves his kids and helping them bake cookies, and do projects, and just be around them. And he loves his Mommy.

I love you Conan! 

 Sorry I haven’t been as quick at posting things as I’d like. Planning a first grade curriculum on the fly is pretty time consuming at this point, though I’m sure it will get better as I learn more and have more time to plan ahead. This was our first Homeschool field trip, though there will be too many in the months to come to document them all. This was a nice way to kick things off. I think Neils was as fascinated with the dinosaur and anthropology exhibits as he was with playing photographer. Most of these are his shots.

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So, this is rather belated, but let’s pretend it’s January 2nd, and there’s a good 2 feet of snow here in Michigan (never mind that it all melted away at temperatures nearing 60 degrees this week!). My kids are cute, and it was fun to watch them play in the snow. That’s pretty much all there is to that story. Oh, and we spent pretty much all day getting the driveway and sidewalks shoveled out enough for company. Keane is a real snow baby. Even at one year old he would try to sneak outside at any opportunity… barefoot… into snow… and he loved it! Crazy kid. Burke had a blast playing mountain climber.  If I can figure out how to post a video, I will. Neils had no interest in hanging out in freezing temperatures. Once he’d picked off all the icicles with flying snowballs, he was ready to play inside. A boy after my own heart. Maybe I’ll feel differently if I can ever find myself some snow pants…

So, for Christmas Micah & Lizzie & Simon (I think it was his idea) gave us this sweet cookbook:

So, after we got home I felt like cooking up something for breakfast.  Fortunately, I consulted this cookbook first, cause I didn’t need to look far for a recipe to start my day out RIGHT.

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Just wanted to wish all of you out there a Happy New Year, and hope your winter Holidays were as lovely as ours were. We spent Keane’s birthday weekend and most of Christmas week in Ohio celebrating with his family there, and Micah & Lizzie who flew in from New York City for the holiday. It was SO great to see them again. We are so blessed to have family we enjoy spending time with and that are close enough to do so. It was wonderful to spend a little time with my nieces and nephews, Conan’s mom, and Great-Grandma Holben.  We enjoyed many late nights playing games, sipping hot cocoa with TimTams, and eating all kinds of delicious food.

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