These went out today

I just mailed out all Nina's baptism invitations. Jill did a great job taking the pictures and creating this whole invitation. It's helpful to know creative people. I am very pleased that Nina has chosen to be baptized.

Surprise!

Actually, I shouldn't have been surprised. But she tries to throw me off her tracks every once in awhile. So just a couple of weeks ago I would have thought that Nina had learned her lesson and we wouldn't have to address cutting our own hair anymore. But here we are having that discussion again. Right before her baptism and baptism pictures.

One thing leads to another

As you can see, it all started with a little discovery in Nina's room. Almost daily I do a sweep of her room to find anything that doesn't belong. This usually includes food she has taken and stored for later. But I have also found knives, lotions, my jewelry, a brother's trophy and random things of that nature. Today we found pieces of hair. I really wish I would have taken a picture of how lovely her hair looked, but I wasn't in that frame of mind. That discovery led us to the kitchen where I had to try to fix things the best I could, but I'm not too keen with the scissors myself. I just know better than to cut my own hair. 4 inches later I call it good and luckily she is still cute.

Getting back into the blogging thing

I was thinking about this blog a few months ago. I invited Nina to come take a peek at it and she loved it. She and I sat in front of the computer reading and laughing at pictures and funny quotes and stories. She asked things like, "did I really pick out that outfit?" and said things like "I can't believe I did that!". It made me feel so happy that I had taken the time to record all the fun, crazy, frustrating and happy things we've experienced with this girl of ours. I think that one of the reasons I stopped adding to this blog was because she was going through a few things that I didn't feel comfortable posting for all to see. Sometimes the things our kids do make us crazy, but we can laugh about them soon after. Some of the challenges we were having with Nina were things that I didn't think we would ever find funny. We will be so glad when we are past them, and we will be so proud of her for overcoming some hard things, but they won't be things I will be posting about. I know she provides us with lots of other memories, and I look forward to trying to keep up with them. I was browsing through some pictures and found this sweet picture. She came home from school feeling sick, and quickly fell asleep. I went up to check on her and stayed there for a few minutes thinking about what a sweet and perfect girl she was. I am so grateful she is in our lives.

The happy photo bomber

So here we have a happy Nina holding one of our geckos.

and less than a minute later our mood has dramatically changed. And we got it on camera. She didn't want other people to get a picture with the gecko I guess. I honestly don't remember why she was mad.

3 for 3

I was at the school one day working on some of my PTO stuff when Nina's teacher, Mrs. Frye, stopped me in the hall and told me that Nina really needed to get her eyes checked. Nina was sick on the day that the school had their vision and hearing screenings so we missed that chance. Sure enough, we take her in and she's blind as a bat. Just like Matt, me, Donovan and Howie. I guess there wasn't a whole lot of hope for her! She picked out some cute frames and can clearly see all the future mischief she would like to engage in. One of my favorite things is the ride home after the kids pick up their glasses. The whole time she was pointing out all the signs she could read, like she was seeing for the first time.

Finally a lost tooth

Nina was starting to wonder if there was something wrong with her when she went all the way through kindergarten without losing a tooth. Apparently "everyone" else lost one that year and it was so embarrassing that she never did. Because I know that 5 year olds get a lot more street cred when they are missing teeth. So I'm glad things are looking brighter for Nina. We all love a happy Nina.

editor's note. I can't remember which day she lost her tooth. This picture was a week or two after the fact. Poor third child.

A Fab New Hat

I was loading pictures onto my computer today when I came across this:

I'm pleased to see that she isn't always getting into trouble when I'm not around. I'm also pleased that she knows when she's looking good in a fab new hat.

Quite lovely

When I saw Nina walk by, my first thought was that she looked like she belonged in Egypt with her uncle Randell. Then she showed me her lovely make-up job and I'm not sure if that's allowed in Egypt, Randell will have to let me know.

You can guarantee that when these two get together, they will explore and push the fashion limits.

She is quite an interesting girl with an interesting way of expressing herself.

Determined to eat fish

This girl is a mystery to me in so many ways. Here is one example. Nina loves fish. She loves to watch them swim, she loves to try to catch them, and when she catches them, she loves to put them in a pool or a bath and swim with them. She holds them, cuddles them, talks to them and I've even seen her kiss one. And then she will stand right by Matt's side as he cuts off the head and guts it. She watches him as he disects the stomach to see what it's been eating. And she does this with so much curiosity and interest. So she has no problem building a loving relationshihp with a fish and then killing it and eating it. That seems weird to me, but who am I to judge? So anyway, when our family went out fishing last night and didn't catch anything, Nina was quite upset because she really wanted to take a fish home to eat. Matt, being the dedicated father that he is, took Nina out the next day to catch a fish to bring home. I guess they didn't have the best luck because these are all they caught:

You might notice the little worm below the fish. Nina lovingly placed it there in case the fish wanted to eat it. The dead fish. And to give youa little perspective, here is how big those little fishies are:

But that didn't matter to Nina because that girl was determined to eat fish!

Cookie Sunday

A while back we started a yummy little tradition called Cookie Sunday. We made a schedule so that each sweet child of mine would have the chance to be alone with me in the kitchen making the cookies of their choice. I liked the idea of getting to spend some fun, individual time with the kids while providing us with good treats every week. And really, they are doing a great job learning how to bake. Some of the kids have made cookies all by themselves. Nina is really fun to bake with. At least when she's in a good mood. She is funny, curious, careful, and extremely chatty. Today she did a great job making these cookies:

The nightly rounds

Like we do every night, we made the rounds before we went to bed and checked on our babies. I know I've said this before, but the stop at Nina's room is always exciting. We never know what we'll find. Tonight we had to laugh:

Nina put collars on her pet dog "Millie" and her pet horse "Snowflake" and made sure they were secured to her dresser before she went to bed.

Resourceful

I'm not really sure what else to say about this outfit.

Sleeping Beauty

So often it's reassuring to have Nina sleeping. You know that nothing fishy is going on. But sometimes even when she is sleeping, you just wonder....

What she does in her free time....

and I just like Cameron's face in this one.

"I cut my tongue"

so naturally she would need to put a bandaid on it.

A trip to the bank

Nina has been giving me (and her teacher at school) a lot of grief lately. I am hoping that catching up on her blog will be therapeutic for me. That and I wanted to have a full arsenal of blackmail just in case I ever need it.

So anyway. Yes. She did put this outfit together especially for our trip to the bank.

Our thief in the night

It's such a great feeling to walk downstairs after we've put the kids to bed. Matt and I usually enjoy a snack and a show or just sit and chat. It's just wonderful to sit together and relax. Then when we are good and tired, we head back upstairs and check on our babies. Our visit to Nina's room is more to assess the damage than to check on her. We usually find that she was busy after we kissed her goodnight. It could be a pile of books on her bed, lipstick on the mirror, several changes of clothes on the floor, hearts drawn on the wall in sharpie. Nothing surprises us. Not even when she gets into the pile of teacher and friend treats we put together for Christmas.


See the little bag to the left of her?



I'm pretty sure she had sweet dreams that night.

Jekyll and Hyde?

Nina had a very fun morning. She and Matt had a little daddy/daughter date at Evergreen Lake where they tried their luck ice fishing. Even though they only caught 1 fish, a neighboring fisherman gave them 2 of his fish to take home and eat. Nina LOVES to bring fish home to eat. Doesn't she look happy?






With a house full of boys, I find it strange that the lone girl is the one who watches with a freaky amount of interest as Matt fillets the fish. I heard her say, "Whoa, that squirted some blood on me." Not even phased.



And her life is perfect.




Until later that afternoon. Here is her mug shot:



She went on a little naughty binge with the scissors and some of my fabric remnants.




Cutting me some lovely hearts.



And then cutting holes in her pajama bottoms so that her "legs could get some air".



And with all that hard work, she naturally needed some refreshment





Just when I was thinking she was growing out of her naughty ways......

What did your daughter have for breakfast?

Because our little lovely thought that opening a packet of Dream Whip powder would start her day off nicely.