Are you shy? I know I am, but at the same time I am not. I have noticed more and more as the kids have grown how shy I feel in situations outside my comfort zone. In places like my own home or my mother’s it is different. There I am easily able to meet new people, focus on having fun and enjoying a relaxing time. There is something scary about walking into a group gathering where you know no one. Taking as large and as young as ours we draw attention. Sensor sometimes, others gawking (especially with the boys being identical). For me it is intimidating. So our larger family is good for me, you can’t be shy when your kids need socializing. You can’t hide when the kids are out there experiencing life.

Talk about experiencing life… we have started to really make sure we keep busy during weekends and then some. Sunday School at 11 for the boys and then right off to sled at the nearby park. Talk about quality time with Daddy. And the day was not too cold to boot.

Sledding (Gavin right)

That left me home with the girls. After calling my mom for a chat we put Echo down for her nap and then spent some time cleaning. We are still hoping to have the place all sorted and ready for the party well before Saturday. Keeping school stuff organized feels like a full time job. What I wouldn’t give for a couple more wardrobes or tall bookcases. Hopefully when we move in the spring I will have the time and space to start us off ready for schooling.

So, as promised, here are the best of the Emanuel’s pictures. Now I just need some opinions… which one should I put up on the wall as an 8X10 ??? HELP!!

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Echo was quite obliging tomorrow (too bad this morning she was VERY restless at the crack of dawn) and I got some more scrapbooking done. 3 pages this time, one for Echo, one for Emanuel and one for Trinity.

Emanuel's ECG

Trinity's faerie costume

A selection of Echo

I also made the twins each an origami heart to do with as they like. It was rather simple to make and of course another off the UK site! A friend from my Stitch’n Chat egroup gave me another link to check out. (if you are a stitcher or crafter and interested in being a relatively small group for chatting please let me know and I will send you an invite!) Hopefully tonight I will make some time to try out a few of them.

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I think our whole family is just a little over excited what with Chinese New Year, Zander needing glasses and the 3 birthdays in such close succession. Everyone is buzzing a little and at times unable to entertain themselves (something VERY frustrating when you are dealing with a baby woken up by the same kids making too much noise before her nap was over). Definitely a bit of sad over Baba and Nana not coming. We are just VERY glad that he found out he was feeling under the weather and why BEFORE they attempted a flight out of the states. Now we are waiting to hear back about treatment. Ken plans on calling his mom tomorrow to get an update. In the meantime we had the kids all make Baba a get well soon card.

Making Get Well Soon cards (Gavin right)

Tonight the plan is to continue cleaning, maybe fold some origami… do some laundry (ran out of cloth diapers again) and of course get something for the kids to do school wise for tomorrow morning. Tuesday during the day (for some odd reason) there is a free Michaels activity that we are taking the kids to – making Valentine themed paper bag puppets… so there is that to work  towards in the immediate future. I don’t even want to THINK about the weekend yet. Not beyond baking goodies of course.

Baby!!!