I know, I know, is she really doing a post?

I am the ultimate slacker blogger, it's true! Quick summary and photos to catch up and hopefully I will be back on the ball again soon (haha) :)

Valerie and Ryan both had surgery last year, the girls were all sick for nearly a month straight - all at the same time! - in February with everything from colds to croup to scarlet fever! For Christmas Ryan, with a lot of help from wonderful friends, almost completely finished an area under the stairs which is now the happy hut where the girls play happily for minutes on end! The finishing details are still wanting, but now our focus is on yard work (we have two peach trees and raspberry bushes coming, yay!) as long as it doesn't snow in the morning, which has happened about 4 days out of 8 the past few weeks, but it melts by afternoon and is usually pretty warm. We also are helping our neighbor with her garden, which is fabulous because we can't figure out a good spot for one in our yard. We have been blessed by friends and neighbors with things we really wanted but couldn't afford, like a piano and a swingset! Val is loving teaching the girls' little dance class and is nearly done with one entire year of joy school curriculum, with a new appreciation for the effort that teachers put into their classes every day. Lily is registered and thrilled for Kindergarten this fall (what? I can't believe I have a school-aged baby)and begs every day for me to buy her a dog and name it Ollie (I must admit I am weakening). She loves to recite the pledge of allegiance, create art projects and do her fast stomping dance for anyone who will watch. Avery is bright and a huge tease like her daddy, loves baby dolls and copying everything her big sister does. She says cute things like "Stank you" or "I stink so" (her /th/ sound comes out /st/), binga bag (bean bag) and gunk bed (bunk bed), which is the incentive we have bribed her with to be potty trained, but she is content as a clam to stick with diapers for a while.  Alison is a little ray of sunshine and all of us can't help but smile and kiss her everytime we look at her. I don't know what is so captivating about a perfect little person, but she certainly takes my breath away and can make me cry for no reason other than being overwhelmingly happy that she is here with me. She won't crawl but likes to inch-worm upside-down by arching her neck and back and pushing off with her feet...it looks really painful. Or she rolls every which way and can get to about anything she wants with an 8-point turn, which is usually an electrical cord which she promptly puts in her mouth.She is going to give her mother a heart attack. Ryan is working away at his master's degree, hoping to learn something exciting this summer with various media classes, including how to create films. I have a feeling I am going to be watching a lot of seminary teacher humor videos by the end of it. :-) He has had a few more gigs for his balloon tying, juggling and magic fun, but we are working at finding more. He loves it so much, I am lucky to have a hubby who is so happy with his work.
All in all, life is super wonderful. These girls are so much fun and I really do enjoy motherhood more every day.

Girls love to smile for the camera!

Snuggling in the rocking chair before we sold it; with limited space in our little home, it was the chair or piano. The chair lost.

Cute Christmas pics....

Ry ready to go in for tonsillectomy :-(

  He was so brave!

Lily crafting her little heart out.

Photo shoot with Ali, I had way too much fun.

And the rest of the pictures I want are on Ryan's computer, so I'll try to get those up when he is home. :-)