Slime!

The Valentine's Fairy gave ingredients to make slime this year in the kids mailboxes.  They had lots of fun mixing it, picking their own color and playing with it.

Daddy Daughter Dance

Mike and Raquel attended the Daddy Daughter dance again this year.   They had a fun time going out to dinner, dancing and then coming home and playing games. Raquel sure loves her dad!

Scooby-doo Live

Raquel, Natalya and I had a girls night out. We made it a little date with dinner and a show. We went to see Scooby-do live in Roanoke. The girls really love seeing Scooby-do and I had lots of fun hanging out with my girls.

Star of the Week!

 Raquel was her classes first Star of the week.  The week was all about her. She had fun making a poster all about herself to share with her class, she shared her favorite book, and we had lunch together.  Her class even made a book for her about why they think she is special. Some of the pictures were quite cute.

The Star of the Week

Her poster

Raquel's favorite things

And these are two of the pages from the book her class made her.

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9 Months

Erik turned 9 months and as you can see from his picture he is a very happy boy. That is unless he doesn't get fed fast enough or is tired.  He had his 9 month check up and is a tall healthy boy. He is pulling up, loves being mobile and got his first tooth.  

9 months stats

Weight: 19 lbs 7.5 oz (25th%)

Length: 29 1/4 inches (84th%)

Here are some of Erik's favorite things

He loves his sweets just like his dad and siblings.

He loves his mommy and daddy. 

He loves the water.
Baths, showers or the pool he loves it all!

Carrying things around in his mouth like a dog.

Food, food and more food.

He also loves playing with his brother and sisters. Marcus and him are being coming best buds and partners in crime. 

Christmas 2012

We loved being able to spend time with both friends and family over the Christmas holiday.  My dad was able to join us for a few days at Christmas and we ate lots of good food and had great company with friends for dinner.

Our 2012 Christmas card

Erik's 1st Christmas!

Opening stockings

Opening presents

Papa came to visit for a few days over Christmas.

The kids had fun playing with new and and some old toys over the holiday break.
The girls have loved playing Mario Kart on the Wii.

Erik & Papa Clinger

Papa & the kids.
They sure loved being able to spend time with each other.

Hermit Crab's

Mrs. Orndorff's first grade class has a class pet, 3 actually, hermit crabs.  Raquel took a liking to them last year in kindergarten and wanted to be in Mrs. Orndorff's 1st grade class just because of the crabs.  Well she ended up in class of choice and has been loving being able to play and see them almost everyday.  The little pets needed a home for the holiday's and Mrs. Orndorff chose Raquel to take them home for almost 3 weeks and care for them. Raquel loved having the hermit crabs in her bedroom. She did a great job feeding, watering and playing with them.

Santa Breakfast

The kids had fun at the Santa breakfast at Raquel's school.  I think Erik ate the most but the kids enjoyed seeing Santa and making a craft.

Author's Celebration!

Raquel's first grade class had an Author's Celebration. The kids all wrote stories and read them for their classmates and parents.  The whole family was able to go and help celebrate Raquel and her story. Raquel wrote about her yoga class she took and she did a great job writing and reading her story.  

Our author Raquel and her classmates.

We were giving a whole book about the authors.
The kids wrote them by themselves and some were pretty hilarious.

Raquel's story

Sugar & A Haircut

We made homemade gingerbread houses this year and the kids had lots of fun decorating and eating their houses.

Natalya again got a hold of the scissors and gave herself another haircut.  This time she took big sections out of her bangs and sides of her hair. Its going to take months to grow back but I think maybe she understands not to cut hair now but I guess time will tell.

Marcus

Marcus enjoys doing everything his sisters do, including getting his hair done.  He did his hair himself and was so proud.