Say "Cheese!" (or Maybe "Fish Face!")

The big kids love holding Baby Todd and posing for pictures.

Apparently Joy still likes coaching her younger siblings on how to properly smile for the camera.

A Winter Day at the Beach

The weather has been unusually warm this winter . . .

. . . so some members of Phillip's choir planned a beach party today.

Joy played in the waves . . .

. . . Daniel flung sand into the ocean (cuz he likes to throw sand, and the ocean doesn't mind) . . .

. . . Anna played in the dry sand for a while before moving down by the water and somehow getting a big glob of wet sand in her hair (I suspect her big brother had something to do with that) . . .

. . . and Todd caught some rays with Daddy . . .

. . . when he wasn't snoozing in the sling with me.

Stuff

Stuff we've been up to lately:

Joy - playing with little boats in the pool

Daniel - playing with another boat in the pool ('cuz what else are you going to do with a pool in January?)

Anna - checking out Daddy's headphones

 Todd - smiling in his rocker

Cake and a Stormtrooper

We celebrated Cool Aunt Heather's birthday this evening.

Daddy lit the candles with Papa's special lighter . . .

. . . and shared his cake with Anna.

Aunt Heather got the coolest alarm clock ever.

Happy Birthday!!!!

Todd's Blessing Day

Nine of Todd's aunts, uncles, grandparents, and great-grandparents joined us for his baby blessing today.

As Phillip offered the blessing in church this morning, he felt inspired to make some sweet promises to Todd about his life here on Earth.  They reinforced to me what a privilege it is to have this little son of God join our family.

Jedi Bread Sticks

We gave Joy a Star Wars cookbook as a gift last month . . .

. . . and she decided to make the "Star Wars Pretzels" (using canned bread stick dough) this afternoon.

Who wants plain, old, straight bread sticks for dinner when we can have an homage to our favorite movies?

Hydrorecreation and Photobombing

We had grand plans to go see the Rose Parade floats in person this morning . . .

. . . but we slept in and ended up watching ye parade at home, . . .

. . . playing with water in the sink . . .

. . . using crayons to make some paper (and the artist wielding them) a little more colorful, . . .

. . . and photobombing.

Wheels and Candy on New Year's Eve

Here at Hendrickson Manor, we rang out the new year . . .

. . . lounging around the apartment (OK, I admit it--I just threw this photo in cuz my baby's cute), . . .

. . . polishing roller blading skillz, . . .

. . . and decorating a gingerbread house using a kit Aunt Terry gave us.  Joy and Daniel each got to decorate one side of the roof.  Note that Joy's side is orderly and symmetrical . . .

. . . while Daniel's is totally random.

Watch out! That zombie followed us home from the mountains.