Here are a couple of other cutie pictures.

Art post! here is a train olivia did this week, and a little progress on a painting im working on.

We got some beautiful snow on Saturday. Olivia spent a lot of time playing in it. She had bought a sled this past summer at a yard sale....and we finally got to use it.... several times. I pulled her and Lincoln and a neighbor friend down the hill in our back yard several times. We also tested out the down the driveway across the road route as well. Lincoln couldn't keep his mittens on and had to call it a day early, because he had frozen hands (and was seriously upset about it). He just held his hands up to me (for a long time after we came in, and they were already warmed up) screaming at me. I sure wish We could talk to each other. Olivia is beginning to read with the independent readers in her class. She is doing so well. It is exciting to watch her learn. She reads to her lamb in bed at night.....so cute. Jonny is almost done with this quarter! He plots tomorrow!! I am so happy. But not half as happy as him I'm sure. Then we get a little break. I have to tell you, the closer it gets to our flight to Utah the more scared I am. If you know Lincoln, you know why.

Olivia and Lincoln Just sitting around. Liv has her mouth full of muffin. Then...about 2 seconds after this picture she lost another tooth. Her worried look=my tooth is falling out.

Above picture she is holding out her tooth to see. The fairy brought 4 quarters and a chocolate coin.

P.s. Sorry no art post last sunday. We were out of town. Thanksgiving you know.

jonny. this is one of my favorites of jonnys recently.
photoshop.

virginia. start of painting
acrylic, collage on canvas

olivia. acrylic and chalks on canvas

olivia. crayon on paper.

Okay so if anyone out there ever reads the H.A.M.B. you know they have a friday night art"show" where people post pics of thier work....anyway here at haha touched your heart we will be copying them. Sunday night is art night ....when I will publish art from our family.

So check back on sundays for art works from olivias school week, updates on any paintings im working on, and a little bit from Jonny angel too!

enjoy.

olivia in her new "bedroom"

Scenes from the inside.

Today is a rainy rainy, cold cold Saturday. Its a good day for fort building. Whats funner than a house inside a house? Not much.

Halloween was a wonderful concept to Lincoln. He rode around in his red wagon , while his older (and a much more experienced trick or treater) sister filled her bag, as well as his at every door. He sat there... eating candy after candy, happy as a clam. We went down a couple streets untill olivia said she was done. After... we went to our friends house, and went through a cool haunted house, and hit a pinata, and ate cupcakes.....woohoo halloween is fun. Olivia carved both of our Pumpkins this year...with a little help on the gut cleaning parts.

costumes: Jonny- robber

Virginia- little red riding hood

Lincoln- skeleton

Olivia- Zombie princess.

We found a princess dress at a yard sale this summer for one dollar. After that olivia made up the idea of being a zombie princess. (not to be mistaken for a princess zombie) She had it all planned out how she would look....her only dissapointment was that she could have no blood on her feet....theres always next year.

This fall (so far) has been beautiful. We played outside in the dirt and grass and water well into october. Our garden did pretty well this year. I am pretty sick of tomatoes by now. The green and red peppers were my favorite thing to grow....so pretty. Here is Lincoln enjoying some carrots. And Olivia and him digging in the dirt. Olivia is wearing a tutu in this picture.....because if you wear a tutu while worm hunting I hear you have better luck.

the tomato plants...look at those cute things.

Here is a video of Lincoln walking. He walks!

We have had a fun and busy summer! We had visitors from Utah, and Indiana. We have visited Jonny in Ft. Wayne and family in Bloomington. We went to every fun thing to do in Cincinnati. Including the zoo, the childrens museum, the aquarium, the movies and kings island. We caught fireflies and let them go....many times. We sliped and slided and swam. I am tired. But the kids don't seem to be. They could go go go forever. Lincoln has learned to walk and he is in love with the new carpet on the stairs...he is up and down them all day and always want me to help him. Although he can fly up and down them with ease going backwards, He wants to lean how to walk down them forward like a big person i guess. Olivia got a letter from her new teacher...she is quite excited, and I am excited for her. She starts on August 19th...four days after she turns 5! She was telling me the other day how much she loves to think. " I love to just think and think and think" she claims.

We have been doing the summer reading program at the library this summer. Basically we just read like we always do...but on wednesday when we go to story time Olivia gets a toy prize! I love the library...we get new books every week. Puppet shows and crafts. And movie rentals .....all for free!

Our garden is starting to do well, We have lots of tomatoes on every plant. We have peppers and little baby cucumber starts. We have alot of carrots and a watermelon plant with nothing on it yet. I am so anxious to get the fruit and veggies from it. Olivia always asks "when its time to pick the tomatoes can i do it?" I am happy she likes the garden...she really loved when we planted. She found all sorts of worms and bugs. And now she gets to see what turns out of all those seeds she put in the dirt. It really is amazing.

Sorry to all friends and family for such a long time between posts. I don't have a lot of new happenings but i will add some great pictures and videos this time. It is finally warm and the kids couldn't be more excited. We get to eat dinner outside and play in the muddy garden...it doesn't get much better. Lincoln is still not walking, but he is thinking about it. He has started to push things around in front of him. He always gets quite excited about it too. Olivia is well. She had 4 shots at the doctor a few weeks ago. You may have thought by the sound coming from the examining room that she was having an arm removed. She Got her bike, and jonny ordered all the parts to make it new and fancy. It is coming along and will be so cute. She had decided on the color MAGENTA!

We were playing a few rounds of "Hungry Hungry Hippos" the other day. Olivia really likes playing this game, anyway Lincoln saw what we were doing and he got sooo excited and just started screaming and screaming and hitting the game board. He was quite passionate about the game. Sadly his Hippo never did win.

The weather has been so unkind these past few months. I believe they call it... Winter. We have spent a lot of time indoors. We have played with every toy we own and played many many computer games and watched more spongebob than i care to. But the one thing that seems to be the most fun for Olivia and Lincoln both, is building a small house inside our already existing house. We made a small fort under a tiny little table in the kids room....covered with a blanket. Only Liv's torso and head would fit in and Lincoln was quite upset when there was no way for him to get in too. So we moved on a while later to a big cardboard box (occupied by the cat at night, and the children during the day). This was great. Both kids could fit. We cut a door and a window in it. They could draw on the walls and if they hit thier elbow or head...no pain. I could just stick them in the box and they were happy. What a great time we had for those few weeks before it ripped and was taped up, and ripped.... then trown out. This past week we were reading a book where two friends had a picnic under the kitchen table. This sparked an.." I have a great idea!" from Olivia. So we put several blankets over the kitchen table and made yet another club house, fort, or whatever you want to call it. It was good ... except the dog always had to barge in, and we bumped our heads and elbows more than one time. But it was big enough for us all. Im sure we will continue to make these tiny homes (inside our home) untill the weather lets up and we can get out and play. But I have a feeling than a giant carboard box out on the lawn would be just as fun...if not more.

We had a nice christmas. Complete with snow and all. One of the gifts Olivia got was OPERATION the game. She had asked santa for this game, and was excited to get it.... untill she found out that it made a horrible buzzing sound. She wanted nothing to do with it. She would cover her ears and cry and run away everytime the buzzer would buzz. We played it a few times during our vacation and she would never want to play. Well we finally got home and I asked her to play with me. I told her I would help her and so (out of boredom im sure) she agreed to play OPERATION with me. She told me first thing. "the charley horse is really really hard....DONT give me the charley horse card" " I dont want that charley horse!" She repeated herself several times untill i assured her I had given myself both charley horse cards. So we played. I held her hand when she went in to get the body part, and It did buzz. But guess what, The buzzing sound didn't send electrifing bolts of electricity through her whole body. It was just that, a buzzing SOUND. She was okay and we played the rest of the game and by the end She was picking up breadbaskets and brain freezes all by herself with no hand holding and no BUZZING! She got pretty good and by the end of the game she said "mommy I think I can do that charley horse now" Well she did try the charley horse and It did buzz, But she didn't care. Because you know what olivia was right the charley horse really is pretty hard.