January Fun

January has been a pretty relaxed month for us and we've been enjoying being at home with not many extra activities in our schedule.  Here are a few cute pics from the month that aren't about anything specific, just fun for the grandparents to see some glimpses of our days. 

Faithy sitting back and reading all by herself. :) It's just the BOB Books first readers, only 4-6 pages each, but still, I love that she enjoys getting them out and reading through them on her own sometimes.

 
Alice...I mean Faith  :) doing the big USA puzzle while the boys are sorting our wooden letters in the back.

For some reason they actually think it's fun to dump the whole box...on purpose... and reorganize them. I'm glad they do though, cause before they decided they enjoyed this, I use to hate it when I would, or one of the other kids would drop the box and all the letters would get mixed up! It would take way to much time for me to sort everything in the right places...but now they do it for fun. :)

Samuel draws people now!! He loves getting out the magnet clothes and shapes that I cut out and likes to use them on the whiteboard.

We've had so many cold, dark, gloomy days this month. One day we got a package from some dear friends that had glo sticks in them. The next day, though it was already 8am it was incredibly dark in the house still because of the snow clouds outside. We decided that was the perfect time to break them out and play with them! And it was tons of fun but I didn't get many pictures since the light was so bad.

He's getting so big. Happy :)  and sad  :(  about this.

Joy's been helping with a lot with the baking. She loves to make treats with me before our Bible study group comes over each week.

For the first time in our house we can play a game and EVERYONE can play themselves...we don't have to have any 'teams' with the littlest ones....it's bitter sweet! Samuel can totally play UNO with us now and can match the colors and numbers all by himself. It's been fun when we all play together but it's sure making me miss my babies!!!

I went to the flower market with a friend earlier in the week and I was hunting around for vases and jars to put all my flowers in. One of them was just a clear sauce jar and Joshua decided he wanted to make it pretty for me. So he layered it with masking tape to give it texture, then painted it purple. :) It turned out beautiful and perfect for my little flowers. He's such a sweet boy!

Even playing in the rice Faithy turns it into a tea party! :) She loves her little plastic party tea cups that Oma sent. :)

Desert Diorama

I always love it when the kids can all work on something together. Today we made some desert dioramas and all four of them got really into it. :) 

Here Samuel is coloring his cactus :)

And Faithy is coloring what will be the floor of her desert. :)

Joy and Joshua, hard at work on all their details...

Samuel is gluing broken toothpicks on "to make the pokes" he said, for his cactus.

Some of Joy's adorable desert creatures!

Joshua's great diorama! :)

Samuel, Faith and Mommy did one together but Faith didn't want to take a picture after we were done with it.

Joy and her adorable diorama. :)

All of them together. :) It was something fun to do one cold afternoon....but I sure wish spring would hurry up and get here!!!

Brothers Having Fun

The Adams kids are especially spoiled by their Aunts and Uncles and this Christmas was no exception! They received all sorts of wonderful gifts but this mini air hockey table has bonded these brothers like no other toy. They LOVE it!!!

It can be kind of loud, but when it produces smiles like these, I can't complain and I let them play it whenever they want!  :)

Cold Days

We have been having a LOT of cold days here lately. So when we're stuck in the house we tend to do a lot of art projects. :) Here are a few recent ones that Joy and Joshua have been working on.

Some optical illusion pictures...

 And some word art..

Mommy made one too so they wanted to take my picture. :)

Some of Joy's creations displayed on her door...

Samuel Art

Since turning 3 in the fall, Samuel is suddenly very into creating. He loves to color and paint and do art projects like his big brother and sisters. :) Here are a few of his recent creations.

His Adorable Penguins...

And he wants to do everything himself now, which makes for a big mess most of the time, but it's always worth it!

His heart tree...

All I did was trace his hand and cut out some hearts for him. They had to be green, not red, he insisted. :)

Stamping hearts with a squished paper towel roll cut to a small enough piece for him to easily hang on to.

And another Valentine craft with lots of glue and yarn...he was pleased with himself. :)

Lego and Duplo Fun

The start of Joshua's Lego Maze.... I'll post a pic when it's completed

Samuel, with very little help, built chairs for the baby dolls and stuffed animals today!

Then Faithy helped him build a table and they had a tea party with the babies. :)  Since they did this, the kids have been coming up with many more things to build for their babies and pets....beds, houses, cages, a couch! I don't think that Duplos or Legos will ever get old!

Just about everyday Joshua has made a new creation, and often wants me to take a picture of it.  :)

This tower was a part of some bigger city but I only got this picture of him peeking in!  :)

Joshua and one of his animal creations. :)