Day 1:
Day 3:
Day 4 (I did not ask her to pose like this):
Our Fish May 4, 2011
If you can look at this series and not crack a smile, you’ve got one up on me. I heart bath time with this boy. Husband gives him most of his baths, so every time I get the chance to bathe him I’m amazed at how much he loves water.
Hammy face.
Rinsing himself.
Heyyyyyyyyyyy…. April 14, 2011
Proof that I’m not the only one who can’t resist squeezing those chubby little thighs.
And then, some more gratuitous nekkid thigh pics. 
A brother to hug.
This is actually a pose she did for the camera. Yes, she’s my child.
“Mama, I wanna go out and play on the deck, tooooooooo…”
“Sorry, buddy. You have no pants.”
“Um, put some on me then? Duh?”
Anja and her prized bucket.
Tiptoes.
Love.
Reminds me of when she was a wee bebe.
Dallas, Day Three April 4, 2011
slept in
had cereal and juice in hotel room
drove to Dale’s Donuts (****/*****) (so small they don’t have a website, but we found them!) – two cake, three glazed, all delicious! (cake donuts had a hint of vanilla)
had Whataburger (**/*****) (Texans call it “waterburger”) for lunch, split a bacon cheeseburger and fries. It was meh
Fossil Rim – fed lots of animals while we drove, took video, bought shirts for the kids
Off the Bone BBQ (****/*****) in south Fort Worth for dinner. Had brisket and ribs with potato salad, fried okra and peppers/pickles/onions mix. Super-good and cheap. These hole-in-the-wall restaurants have really cemented our opinion that they almost always do it up better than chains. A. Mazing.
came back to hotel
worked out at the hotel gym
watched “Pretty Woman”
went out to TGI Friday’s for late-night apps (potato skins, boneless wings, fried green beans)
bed
I always get the best shots of Husband eating. It’s kind of my thing.
So from far away these might look kind of like MN cows (dairy), but up close they are HUGE (and for beef). You know…everything is bigger in TX. 
I will spare you the embarrassing Blair-Witch-Project-style video from when a European Red Deer stuck its head in the window of my car, but let’s just say that my mom nearly emptied her bladder watching it. Good comedy. And a zebra pulled the same stunt with similar effects. All over there are signs saying, “These animals behave as if they were in the wild.” My foot. They are trained, because pretty much every car has bags of food for them, to walk up to your vehicle and beg. Wild animals DO NOT DO THIS.
If you haven’t had fried okra before, you’re missing out.
Last Weeks in Pictures February 21, 2011
Haven’t had a lot of time to blog lately, so thought I’d just do a quick recap/share.
Sick girl snacks
No bathing privacy in this house! He’s recently figured out how to open the toilets, too (joy…), so we leave the bathroom doors closed at all times.
Sweetest. Thing. Ever. Husband may or may not kill me for posting this. (To be fair, he just used the stuff that was lying around from Anja’s Valentine-making…he’s not normally a puffy paint kinda guy.)
An up-do for the dance.
A different kind of dance.
A tradition. And the second one is blurry, but I like it anyway. The Valentine “Angel” was a special request from Anja. I aim to please!
A sucker from a classmate.
A makeup-less self-portrait. I don’t often post photos of myself, so why this one? I do not know.
And some cookies I made are here.
The Current House January 28, 2011
I realized, as I’ve been posting all these photos of The New House progress, I have been remiss in posting photos from the small renovation/room switcheroo we did at our current home last March! Egads.
And since the space will probably not receive enough attention to ever be considered “finished” before we move, you get it “as is.”
Here is Anja’s side of the room the kids share, which used to be an office/TV room. The fabric hoop art has seen better days, unfortunately. Anja regularly knocks them down, so they’re losing tension. The bed was mine growing up (just freshened up with a coat of white spray paint). More than one adult cannot sit on it or the side bows out and the mattress falls through. We may have to get a new bed frame.
I have been searching for the perfect (read: cute but not $35) toss pillow for Anja’s bed and scored this one at an occasional sale last weekend.
Unfortunately, as I was taking those pictures, I heard my boy shuffling around behind me and turned to find THIS.
Yep, he pushed almost an entire section of books out of the bookshelf. And since we have soooo many children’s books (a blessing, to be sure!), there are not one, but two sets of books in each cube. The side facing Anja’s bed has more of the “big kid” books.
And Markus’s side has the board books.
Here is the changing table area. That magazine rack thing we hung on the wall as a diaper-stacker is probably one of my best ideas ever. That’s pretty sad, I realize.
Markus’s side of the room. The lovely bedding on the chair (pillow and quilt) were purchased when Anja was but a seedling in my belly (thanks, Mom!). Markus will use it as his crib set once he’s out of the wearable blanket phase. The chair was my grandparents’, and it has some “farmer sweat stains,” which I covered with some beautiful white hand-crocheted blankets. Fast, easy slip-cover, right?
And, as is my life, Anja emptied half of the toy bin while I was photographing Markus’s side of the room.
That’s about it for their room tour! Maybe one day I’ll get some photos of the current office/TV room, too. But no promises. Ha!
The Stocks January 25, 2011
Sherman knew better than to mess with Anja. But he hadn’t realized how far punishment would go…
Sunday Sunshine 12.26.10 December 26, 2010
What We Tell Our Kids About Santa – Mark Driscoll for The Washington Post
In Which I Admit That Homeschooling Was Not What I Thought It Was Going To Be – MckMama
Yes, Virginia, You’d Better Believe There Really Is… – A Holy Experience
On Returning – Emily Freeman and her husband for Christmas Change (soooo good.)
