Sous Chef duties (and blowing-out-the-candle dance)

Each day, the kids have specific jobs for helping out around the kitchen. The most coveted job of all is that of being Sous Chef (helping prepare the food and bring it out). In this short video, it was Brayden's day to be Sous Chef. Here he displays the perfected art of one of the most important duties of this job - the official "blowing out of the candle" at the end of a meal. The kids also exhibit the finer points of the little known, but highly acclaimed, blowing out the candle dance (with Brayden as the lead). For some silly reason, we have started lighting a huge candle that sits in the middle of the table for every meal. The kids can hardly wait for two things: one, when the candle gets so low in the bottle it sits in, a huge anticipation as to whether the candle will fall in the bottle before or after the light gets snuffed out; and two, the ceremony of blowing out the candle. Yes, we are a bit strange, but love it! :-)

Train to Chicago

While playing outside today, the kids decided to make a train. Brodie, the train engineer, announced they had arrived in Chicago. Ava thought she was on a roller coaster, and Brayden was surveying the situation from the caboose.

Purple Poop

For Aliyah's Birthday, we all had cupcakes with dark purple frosting. Everyone was quite excited to show off their tongues in a deep hue of purple. But, the highlight of the evening was when Daddy changed Brayden's diaper. Wow - that stuff looks radioactive!

Valentine's Day Dates With Daddy!

All three girls had dates with Daddy for Valentine's Day. Mommy was first, of course, the day before. :-)


Here, Ava is waiting at the door for her breakfast date to arrive.


She opens the door, and there is Daddy, ready to head to the Waffle House! Ava had her first taste of hash browns and absolutely loved them.


Next, it's Aliyah's turn for lunch at the Golden Corral. She and Daddy put a huge dent in the buffet.


And finally, Anna greets her date for a scrumptious dinner at her choice of fine-dining establishments - McDonald's!

Let it Snow!

Like most of the country, we too have had a mild winter as you can see from these pictures. Everyone had a blast playing soccer in the snow, including a few of the neighbor kids. Blaize, Brodie, Ava, and Brennan had never seen snow before. Now they are proficient at building snowmen and making snow angels. Of course, they think this is a normal occurrence during winter time here :-)

Cleaning Day

Christi had a couple nights away for a well-deserved break for her birthday. So, that meant Daddy, aka "Bob" ("Pop" with Brodie's accent), was in charge for cleaning day. Here each one explains his or her job for the day. When Mommy came home, there were no broken bones or missing limbs, which meant that it was a successful endeavor. However, everyone was truly glad to have Mommy home, because it just isn't the same without her!

Amazing Grace

The Bible says to "make a joyful noise unto the Lord." It doesn't say we need to be in tune :-)
We had a fun morning of singing in PJ's. At the end of Amazing Grace, Brodie wanted to sing "Jungle Balls" - better known as "Jingle Bells".