First taste of Spring

 I can't tell you how long she sat in this position watching her siblings shovel and build snowmen.  She is a very patient and content little girl.

 The temperatures soared today to eight degrees above zero.  I think the whole town breathed a collective sigh of relief.  The sudden rise in temperature had Dave and I feeling a little worried about my parents' roof and the significant ice dam that had built up over the entryway.  So, we spent Saturday morning shovelling the roof.  Hannah and Jacob won the privileged rooftop positions while the rest of us watched from below.

 I tried to take a selfie, but it was so sunny that this was all I could manage with my sunglasses off.

 Jacob with the scoop and Hannah with the shovel.

 Sarah's godfather popped over so that I could sign his daughter's passport as guarantor.  If you know this man, you also know that he couldn't leave without offering to get up on the roof as well!  Dave actually didn't need the help, so John stayed grounded with Mariana in his arms.  Several time Dave has been asked if Sarah's godfather is his brother.  I have never seen the resemblance until one day when I was walking into town and thought I saw Dave heading into the post office.  I began to call out his name until I realized that the above man was not my husband.

 Isaac and Joseph with their snowman.  Immediately after I took the photo, Joe punched off its head.

 Ben and Sarah - the slightly more docile pair.

 How I love her face.

 His too.

 A successful selfie.  I always find it a little embarrassing to post photos of myself, but I do enjoy when I get to see other blog authors.  Now that I look at that photo, I realize that the candida cleanse that I started in the fall has done wonders for my skin - rosacea gone!

 Something very grown up about this photo of Sarah.

We were all so astounded to find Hannah asleep in the middle of the afternoon that Ben had to take a photo.  Very sweet.

The First Instalment

 Mariana has declared war on winter and being cooped up in the house.  There comes a point in every day where she goes to the front door and pulls on her coat (hanging on a hook) until someone lets her wear it.  She then goes looking for her boots and tries her best to get them on.  I have to admire such initiative in a 15 month old.  The majority of the time, someone takes pity on her and brings her out for a walk.

 I have absolutely no memory of this photo being taken and might actually be asleep.

 Isaac lost his first tooth halfway through grade one!  If Waldorf is correct with their theory that reading takes off with the loss of the first teeth, then I'm waiting for literacy to bloom in this child like spring flowers.

 This photo is for Rebecca who asked to see Mariana's hair.  It is blond, but not as blond as Isaac was as a child.  It has grown into the perfect little haircut and swoops off to the side just like Ben's.

 The oldest three went to Winterlude in Ottawa on Thursday with the grade 5-8 classrooms.  They left at 6:30am and were back by 8:30pm.  I and the four left at home slept through their departure and the start of school.  Ahem.

Here is Jacob leading a group of grade eights down one of the fabulous snowslides in Gatineau.  I also found video of Dave coming down a slide to much cheering.  And a wet bum.

Houston, we have a problem

Sorry, I know, tacky title.  However, when I get in a blogging rut, I resort to dumping photos so that we have some sort of record of our daily life.  And here's the problem:  whoever has been taking photos on the iPhone mistakenly set the phone to Live setting.  Thus, almost every single photo taken on and since Christmas is a 1-2 second movie.  Have you ever tried loading movies onto blogger?  Probably not, because nobody has that sort of time available in their day.  I will try and remedy the situation, but I can't make any promises.
In the meantime, all the kids are well, actually thriving is a better word.  Jacob is taller than me and, when he enters a room, I often mistake him for Dave.  Hannah is praying for a few more inches to at least catch up to her maternal aunts.  While Jacob has become a man overnight, Ben still remains a boy and I often laugh when I see the two together because they look like Russian nesting dolls, except that Ben is about two doll sizes down from Jacob.  Joe is still smiling despite some brand-new-to-us asthma attacks.  (We have some great video from the ER - not the asthma attack, but Joe playing Darth Vader while wearing a breathing mask.)  Isaac recently lost his first tooth with the aid of his father and dental floss.  Sarah declared herself homeschooled after the Christmas holidays and hasn't been back to JK since.  I am quite content with the situation, as I really was missing her presence around the house.  Plus, she's a quick learner and she seems to have learned more in her brief time home than in the few months that she spent at school.  Mariana has probably changed the most out of all the kids.  Her hair has grown in blond and into the nicest of baby styles.  She has the most fetching apple-doll cheeks that make for the cutest of toddler smiles.  Dave is in the midst of report cards and we are all hunkered down through the endless snow waiting for the end of winter.  (Hannah has proposed a possible solution to the photo problem.  Perhaps I will be back!)