Long Overdue

I can't believe its March already....especially since I'm getting ready to post Christmas pictures :-) Ellie's class had a very sweet Christmas party. Then there was the Christmas play...which, thanks to Sandra, Ellie had the standard uniform for (no shedding of the sheep this year).

We spent Christmas with all the Mitchells' in Ocala. We decided to be very brave and try to get a group photo of the cousins. The best option was after the Christmas Eve service when they were all still dressed up. By the way, if you've ever wondered what Christmas would look like with 6 children receiving gifts (from many families, check out the MOUNTAIN of gifts behind the kids. It's hard to tell in the picture, but it comes out about 6 feet or so...it was so much fun on Christmas morning. Jay, Jo, Spencer and I all slept on air mattresses in their play room and were totally free game for pouncing early in the morning.

For New Years', the Ocala Mitchells' and Mary's family all came to our house...which was CRAZY FUN! Ellie & Clark got an easel for Christmas and Thatcher and Rylee decided to try it out. Joanna was reminded of why she doesn't have such an easel with paint at the ready. ;-) We also had a very hard freeze while the Keels' were still here and Spencer left the mister on all night to make icicles for the kids. They loved eating them.

Ellie has really enjoyed her easel and for about the first 10 paintings, they all looked the same as in the picture. They were variations on a princess with very long hair. She's very comtemplative as she paints and studies her work often. Clark likes the chalkboard side which we put lower at his height, and try to keep him from eating the
chalk.