A little bit of Valentines

February 14th. It came again. :o) Yay! :o)

While waiting for some little friends to arrive for playtime and lunch on the day before Valentines Day, I let the girls into their package Granny sent up for them in the mail.

The assortment of heart stickers, cut outs and foam shapes kept them busy for a nice little bit.

Joy is mastering the art of doing stickers "all by herself."

Lydia (Kumpolt) and Hope play with the train, up and away from the twins and Joy. Hope had to show Lydia how it worked at first...

The 2 year olds woke up from their naps before the littler ones, so I thought Play Dough would be in order. Can't believe I didn't get any pictures at all of the Kumpolt twins and Joy... oh well. Guess I was busy!

A rare after breakfast playtime in their pajamas.... things just happened differently that morning, and I had to dress them after breakfast instead of before. "Let's make a train, Joy!"

Valentines Day fell on Moms 'n Tots day, and I couldn't resist dressing the girls up in pink, girly stuff for the occasion. :o)

But to try and get a "good pose" of them together - FORGET IT!

Twirl time after we got home.

Twirls turned into chasing her shadow around in a circle, but hey - it was cute.

Ahh, baby Joy, must you sit that way in the rocking chair? 

I guess so. :o)

"Rocking, rocking..." this really is a gentle game, not dangerous at all... when Hope's the one pushing. :o)

She just loves to make her little sister happy.

Girl stuff.

We love to laugh!!!

The day after Valentines brought more little friends to our house for playtime and lunch, but this time I failed to get a picture of their oldest girl, and just got Hope with baby Khaira. (Mosher)

Khaira was fussing, so I told Hope she should go make her happy. And she did. And it worked!

The trusting eyes of a child...

Joy the hungry. Little squirt would have eaten an entire chicken thigh at dinner that night if we let her, which we didn't, cause I thought that was too much for her small tummy!

No chicken for this one. :o) But she sleeps better than Joy even if she doesn't eat protein. :o) Different kid.

Happy Days at Home

This is just more of our little darlings, and how we play and work at home. :o)

As for Joy, sitting = boring for the most part, so she stands. :o) On anything. :o) I occasionally hear these desperate squeaks coming from that corner when she realizes she has stood on the table long enough and needs help getting down. What she needs is to learn not to climb up, but I guess it's me that needs to teach her that, so... there we go. :o)

Hope enjoys this activity much more when Joy isn't walking around trying to break the train track or take the train from Hopey. :o)

Little smartie waltzed into the kitchen like this on her own one morning after breakfast. :o)

At the same time, this is what Hopey chose to do to occupy herself. :o)

Joy with her prize - a roll of TP she had toted all the way up the stairs by herself. She was quite insistent that I not take it from her, placing it down many times as needed to climb onto the next step and then pick it up again in her very big-girl way. :o)

Thought she'd put it in the basket with the rest of Mommy's....

...and then try and carry the basket down the hallway herself, which proved to be something she couldn't do due to the weight/size of the basket.

I "kindly" reached down to pick up the basket, but she pulled it from me and snatched "her roll" up to carry it off and put it away by herself! She amazes me. :o)

This could be trouble, Joy. Life on the edge, that's where she likes to live it. It's the best way to jump into the adventure with both feet! LOL.

"But buttons - they're the best things ever, Mom!" Haha. These ones don't work because we don't use the dishwasher or keep it plugged in. :o)

"Iiiiiii want to fold yis one, Mom."

Taking over for me, Hope was flapping one of Daddy's undershirts up and down making it "windy" for Joy, like I had just been doing for both of them.

Oh what fun can be had with laundry!!!

Hope folded and stacked all those washcloths by herself! She really is a bonified helper! What a blessing.

Friday night playtime with friend Micah, at his house, while we watched the old movie "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" and had a laughing good time!!!

A big mess and a whole lot of fun

Up for a little adventure? Sure. Why not? I mean, why make pasta by yourself when you could do it with four extra hands? Come on. :o) 

It starts out simple.

Like this.

Then it gets a rollin'...

...and then another joins in.

Flour on the hand, Joy? It's in this line of work. :o)

There she goes. And yes, that is a Play Dough rolling pin, and yes, I did wash it first. :o)

We press down hard to make the dough obey.

And then we look cute...

...and Mommy takes our picture. :o)

The dough goes through the roller until it's all thin and uniform. Then it goes through the cutter and is made into oodles of noodles. Mommy's hands were too busy for her to take pictures of that part of it though. :o)

Then, the little helpers decide to keep being little helpers, and wipe up the mess they made off the floor after Mommy sweeps it. :o)

The noodles dry in the afternoon, and then some of them get cooked for supper and the rest get put in a bag for another supper.

Thus ends this edition of pasta day at the Langemanns. :o)

The joys of home

Last week we were blessed to have friends in our home several different times. I have one little helper and one eager tag-along who like to work right beside Mommy. :o)

Joy is multi-tasking - making new fingerprints to replace the ones she's sorta wiping off, you see. :o)

And then she decided it would be more fun to go around and clean Hope's window. :o)

Found my dreamer girl like this when I looked into the living room later.

Not sure if Joy was licking the bowl because of the sweet grapes inside or because of the salty Play Dough taste on the outside. :o)

Hope loves the Play Dough press Mum gave her. She can easily spend an hour creating with just it.

And while they were playing Play Dough...

...I was making buns. :o)

A Sunday-night story from Daddy.

Love how much Joy is getting into dolls. :o)

Look out Hopey - here she comes.

So glad our house has a "round-about" of sorts. Perfect for doing laps and using energy!

Little Miss Grin and some plastic lids to bang together. This was her way of consoling herself, as Mommy told her she couldn't play in the cupboard you see open behind her. :o) Joy knows she's not allowed in there, but she still tries it out every day or so, just in case Mommy should change her mind. :o) She's allowed in the other half of the cupboard, where the pots 'n pans are. :o)