Bye-Bye Little Crib

Tonight is little man's first night out of baby jail. At first he couldn't quit grinning and bouncing on the mattress. He got on, off, on, off....and thankfully wore himself out rather quickly! *Sigh* My baby.

Earmuff Madness!

I can't tell you how much fun it is to go shopping with these three girls!

And A Happy Valentines Day To You!

The girls had so much fun making and getting Valentines! (Didn't they make lovely ones?) What are you doing for those that you love?

Wizard Checkers

I may not be the biggest fan o' the Mall, but right outside Macy's is the coolest giant chess/checkerboard I've ever seen, complete with playing pieces. Elora played against Team Seleia/Amarra and the game came down to one king each, chasing each other around the checkerboard, before Elora finally let Amarra jump her so we could actually go to Macy's. Even the onlookers enjoyed the game, as Elora actually jumped over, ballerina style, each piece that she jumped and Amarra did a little victory dance each time she captured a piece and got to carry it off of the board. Seleia, of course, had a great time walking around the board telling Amarra what to do. Good times had by all.

Aaaand now we've all got it

Suffice it to say that the Juhala household is doing our part to keep Similisan, Ricola, Puffs Plus, Boiron, and Alacer Corp. in business. On the bright side, Dash seems to be out of the woods and on the mend!! See you when we're a bit healthier around here!

Kids Today

I just had to take a quick second to share yet another reason why we choose to educate our children at home. Wow. These kids deserve better.

Poor Baby!

My week has largely looked like this. Ambulances, hospitals, and tests, oh my. Little man has a good case of pneumonia and was having a lot of trouble getting oxygen. There were scary, "we think we may see" type test results and a lot of sleepless nights. Today, for the first time, Dash seems to have some, albeit cranky, personality back and isn't totally lethargic. He's even eaten twice today, yay! So we're on the mend. But I realize I've been MIA from the blogosphere. Sometimes life just knocks you off your feet for a bit. When Little Man is all better, I'll be back. Hope to see you soon!

King of the Playground

This time of year, we have to take advantage of sunny days when we get them! Today Seleia and Elora wanted to go practice shooting some hoops, so we headed on over to the playground by our old house. Amarra basically grew up there because we used to walk there so often, but this was Dashiell's first trip. And he had so.much.fun. He went back and forth...going down the little slide by himself and the big slides with the girls, chasing the basketballs and running his heart out, swinging, climbing, running through the soccer fields while giggling maniacally. We all had a blast, but watching Dash dominate the playground with a smile from ear to ear was awesome. I know some kiddos who will sleep very well tonight!

My Little Artist

Not only do all three of these girls have extremely different personalities, they approach all of their tasks...even artwork...in completely different ways. Elora loves to work on details, making everything elaborate and beautiful. Seleia likes to get the point across, working quickly and with few details. She saves the detailed work for special occasions. Amarra, however, was born with an eye for design.  Where her sisters would draw stick figures and flowers at a young age. She would do color blocking. Her pages would be full, bursting with colors, and completely abstract. Here eye for balance and use of negative space are amazing. I'm very excited to see what this kid can do as she gets older. In the meantime, I love working on projects with her. She has a couple of watercolors framed up in the house, and right now we're painting a funky architectural piece we found for a couple of dollars at the thrift store. It was cool but dark and dreary, so I started working on it to lighten it up and give it a fun shabby chic-esque patina. But I didn't get very far before Amarra took over!  She spent an hour this morning getting the first coat exactly how she wanted it, and tomorrow she's going to add the details.  (We haven't decided whether to keep it all in cheerful shades of yellow or to add in other colors. In this house what we set out to create often works itself into something even better somewhere along the way.  I love that.) I love watching her concentration and seeing the love that she puts into her work.  I can't wait to see how this turns out and get it hanging on the wall!

Big Boy!

Little Man no longer needs help to get into chairs, climb onto benches....all that big boy stuff.  He is SO proud of himself. That look of pride was for climbing up into that chair.  Now if I can figure out how to keep him from standing once he's up on the chairs...