Cuteness

Sometimes pictures fit within the context of a story or an event, but sometimes I'm left with a random assortment of snapshots begging to be shared. Thus today's post...

**Graham got this panda costume for Christmas and loved to wear it so much that one day he asked to wear it out to the store. My initial reaction was to say, "No way!" but then I thought, "Why not?" After all, it's not every day you get to go shopping with a panda.

**Aubree has a standing babysitting job every Tuesday afternoon. She watches Ben (5) and Rosie (1). Ben and Graham love their weekly playdates. Nellie also looks forward to having Rosie come to play. One week Ben and Rosie stayed later than usual and Aubree put Rosie in her pajamas. Nellie saw Rosie's penguins and rushed upstairs to put on her own penguin jammies.

**At piano practice a few months ago, Nellie was drawing and she drew her first person. I was so excited that I took a picture and sent it to Mark and Aubree. Aubree texted back, "Uh, Mom. She does that all the time. They're all over her papers. You hadn't noticed?!" Mom of the year over here.

**Thane, who loves to climb and hang on people, is extra patient when Nellie does the same to him. They came up with a game where Nellie pretends to give him haircuts with colored pencils. Silly kiddos.

**Heading into church one morning, I stopped Graham and Nellie to take a quick picture (the older kids had rushed ahead into the chapel). Graham could not manage a regular smile.

**For Valentine's Day, Aubree asked me to try making a heart hairdo. If you look carefully you can see that we nearly succeeded.

**Nellie wanted to watch Bryce get his haircut, but didn't want to get hair on herself, so she climbed in a big bag. Clever solution!

**Nellie wore this purple frog dress that my mom made for Aubree ten years ago.

Aubree had much longer hair and a hat.

**One morning I did Aubree's hair and Nellie begged, "I want hair like Aubree's!" It took a lot to get her to sit still long enough to do the braid, and the braid didn't last long, but it sure looked good for a few minutes!

Aubree still totally adores and spoils Nellie.

**Not long after she potty trained, we switched Nellie to a toddler bed. That worked pretty well because she didn't know how to open doors (I'd forbidden her siblings from teaching her). Unfortunately, she's a quick learner. One night I put her to bed, then went to help another sibling. I heard her fussing, but when I came back to check on her, all was quiet. I waited outside her door for a while to help if needed, but then Aubree yelled, "If anyone's looking for Nellie, she's downstairs!"

The sneaky girl had opened her door, then closed it again before running down to the playroom.

**One afternoon Graham was watching Mark on the computer and Mark turned around to catch Graham scowling at the screen. Mark busted up laughing, and for the rest of the day Graham alternated between scowling and laughing. Of course I wasn't able to get a picture of the scowl, but believe me when I say he had the best, most extreme facial expressions.

**There's not really a story behind this picture, she just looked so grown-up and sassy with her high ponytail and Super-girl outfit that I had to capture the moment.

**Thane went to a Primary Great-to-be-Eight meeting in February. His primary year is the biggest in the ward (the only one to be split into two classes). It's crazy to think that he will be turning eight in just a few weeks!

**On Monday mornings when I teach Aubree's co-op Graham and Nellie spend a few hours with our friends/neighbors.

They have so much fun playing, and I get to teach without interruption.

**The other night Thane came downstairs to show me that he had his pajamas on inside-out and backwards. According to Spiderwick Chronicles, having your clothes like that wards off evil creatures. Thane thought he was pretty funny, but couldn't stand to leave his clothes the wrong way and switched back pretty quickly.

**When Nellie's not "cutting" Thane's hair, she's trying to put hair ties in it.