The Faces of Trouble . . .

As crazy as they drive me, is it any wonder I love these faces?

Mr. Jack-o-lantern is very round and fat!

For Halloween, Gabe was a Pumpkin--or Punkin, as Eleni called him. You can't really tell (thank goodness), but I was Princess Leia, after a fashion.

Lydia's Phoenix costume--something went crazy with the camera, so you can't tell the amazing "feathers" I cut out of the edges. I'm so grateful my kids were fine with my homemade, low-creativity costumes. They are good sports!

Jacob & Eleni with friends at their school Halloween party--the cute little guy on the bottom left was Linus. Jacob's armor came off piece by piece during trick-or-treating until he was left in the red robe you'll see below. He and Eleni lasted for about 10 houses. But Lyd made up for it-- went with some friends to every house (and I mean every house) in the ward and came home at 9:30 with quite a haul!

A bit tardy . . . here are the kids in their Halloween costumes.
Eleni was (of course) a princess--Cinderella.

Jacob was King Peter from Narnia

And Lydia was a Phoenix, inspired by Faux, Dumbledore's pet phoenix. (Does the fabric look familiar? . . . thanks to my wonderful Aunt who lives near the Nike plant in Oregon, I have yards and yards of amazing stretchy fabric. Instant costumes!)

Lydia's post

Daddy made us do big eyes. He wants to see whose eyes are the biggest. I think I won. (Lydia)

Gabey has such a worried look on his face. It looks like he wants his milk. I'm guessing Mommy won't give it to him because he always throws it on the floor.

A princess cell phone! What could be better?!

I keep trying to tell Jacob & Eleni that they're setting the example for Gabe . . .

Here's Lydia's first day of school--I know it was a couple of months ago, but hey . . . at least I took the picture, right?

Gabe is walking now! He still prefers crawling--it's faster. But he can walk. The problem is that as soon as you give him any attention for it, he starts chuckling and falls over sideways.

We took a family walk through a nearby golf course, and the kids had a blast running from hole to hole and feeding the ducks. It was a nice way to wear them out . . . :)

Well it's about time . . .

No, we didn't drop off the face of the earth . . . it's just that we've been living through one whirlwind after another.

This about sums it up! and I haven't even thought about blogging for a very, very long time. So I apologize to family and friends who wanted to see pictures of the kids. So here they are! This picture is of Eleni (in her "fancy dress") on her birthday. She is three now, and was VERY excited about all the fun presents--especially the Cinderella from Grandma Yaya and the "Paper Dolls" from Grandma Kaye! :) Thank you thank you!

Lydia at breakfast early in the morning--isn't she growing up into quite a beauty?

This is Gabe's sign language for "airplane." Every time one goes overhead (which happens a couple of times an hour), Gabe makes a nasal sound, "Gnk!" and points to the sky. Gabe is still wearing braces. He only has to wear them at night, and his feet are amazingly normal!

Here he is with Jacob, who is learning how to read! We're doing a little neighborhood preschool, and Jacob & Eleni really enjoy it. Jacob will sit and say letter sounds over and over again; "Cheese! Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-tch-tr-tr-t-t--Mommy, Cheese starts with T!" We still have some work to do . . . but at least he's showing interest!