Mischief Came

Been happening more and more often, first time I've had camera handy.

Eight Months

Crawling, six teeth (four top, two bottom), has been seen to pull to standing but not common. Favorite mischief: playing with empty yogurt jars.

Before and After

Agonized over having our river birch removed (i.e. too close to the house, possible foundation damage, falling down in an ice storm), but went ahead with it last week, along with having front oak cleared of dead branches. The event all but ruined our homeschooling day, watching three guys shimmy through the trees, and lamenting the loss of good whittling wood (G) as it went into the shredder.

Remaining stump that will be ground down further at a later date. Learned from G that the brown part in the middle is the pith.

Plan to plant something else there, don't know what yet.

Bucket Echo

Not sure how he got in there in the first place, but he was enjoying hearing the sound of his voice in there.

Hats

Sisters gave us belated-Epiphany gift. Kids all got knit hats, a box of chocolates (with pistachio hazelnut almond filling), and a beautiful new icon of Virgin and Child.

Homemade

Girls taking a ramped up interest in cooking thanks to Laura Ingalls Wilder. G made Nutella entirely from scratch (this recipe), including cracking all those hazelnuts.

M cracked eggs and BB cooked them up scrambled.

Clip-On

In button-up that San YeePoh sent him. M called him, "Little [version of] Daddy."

Bibs

Pink is first one we had, bought the set of animal-mouth ones (including dog, not pictured) for X. 

Scooting

Bean Bag Chairs

For the record, AhPoh's Christmas money got us two new bean bag chairs (for movie watching and reading nooks), which match the two we already have, craft supplies at Hobby Lobby, and will renew our zoo membership for another year. Thanks, AhPoh!

First Tooth

Z lost her first tooth, as finally yanked out by Dada.

January Birthday

BB made lemon bars for her cake.

G made her a duct tape wallet.

Daddy and Mama got her glow-in-the-dark wall stars and the card game Qetchup.

Epiphany!

Fort Magic! Our first project was a mansion, but there was squabbling during the final stages of the construction.

There were a couple other structures (like a car and a pirate ship) before BB constructed this house for M2. Afterward there was a teepee and a fort with fake-out tunnel.

On the Twelvth Day of Christmas

 Olive fairy book.

On the Eleventh Day of Christmas

The lilac fairy book.

On the Tenth Day of Christmas

Orange fairy book.