House O' Sullivans

This afternoon, I convinced the kids to pose for a few photos. I like to take at least one decent picture of each of them every year. Here are a few of my favorites. (We mostly spent the time laughing as evidenced by the Hallee shots.)  My mom brought over some boxes this afternoon for the kids to play with. Somehow Zeke and Hallee got the idea that they'd sleep inside the boxes in Zeke's teepee for a sibling sleepover tonight. Those are Hallee's feet protruding form the teepee. The aerial view: Sophie, not wanting to sleep in her room without Hallee, moved into the teepee too. When I looked in on the scene I could not stop laughing.  

The only reason that I can update the blog tonight is because Casey is at a church meeting and the kids are all quiet and in bed. I told the kids that if they didn't bamboozle tonight (meaning they need to be quiet and stay in their beds even though we put them to bed at 7 pm) they could enjoy a stick of gum tomorrow after we eat breakfast. Living close to the ground, my kids are still motivated by one little piece of gum. Lucky me! The house is quiet and still. (This rarely happens, especially lately.) With the arrival of #4, there has been little free time or solitude for me. (Not that I had much before.) Unfortunately , I regenerate in solitude so often I am overwhelmed by the simultaneous noise and demands of four kids.  One classic example from this past week: Sophie got a sewing machine for Christmas because she really wanted to learn to sew. She's been begging me to teach her to sew for months . I've been buying myself some time by saying, "You nee...