Nathaniel's version...

Micaela was leading the troops in a march around the room singing her favorite "I may never march in the..."

Nathaniel sings loud and clear "I may never march in the trippery, shoot in the archery..." You have NO idea how appropriate that is. Hehe

January Success

I'm very proud to say that for the first time in 8.5 years of marraige..... We balanced our checkbook! Wow. I know, how can you go 8 years without balancing a check book? I won't tell you. We also successfully executed a budget. Well, we actually have 5 days left in January, I guess, but it's looking good. I bought groceries today for the last time this month, and I have about 4 of my $500 left. I never thought I could keep our grocery bill under 500 (to include diapers, soap, cat litter, and of course, food for 6). It was pretty painless too! I do admit that we ate out as a family twice- which we didn't budget for. However we only spent 28 on two meals for 6!!! How did we do it you ask? I shamefully admit to having spent 1.50 on everyone at Burger King one day after ballet, and we ate one evening at Cici's Pizza where certain members of our family eat free. Thankfully they reimbursed him for some gas money, so our splurge is covered.

Through Gabriel's eyes...

Gabriel and I had a discussion this morning about the baby in mommy's tummy. I showed him the picture of the baby on the blog ticker and said it looked like the baby in mommy's tummy. He said "Yeah, it eats cornbread."

Michelle's birthday... or better late than never?

Papa's birthday tomorrow!

Happy Birthday Papa! We love you!

sick kiddos

I've been fighting a cold, and so has Nathaniel, but yesterday Gabe and Micaela thought they'd join us. So today we're all playing sick, and this is what it looks like. Asher was laying in Micaela's lap, but he can't stand to not say cheese for the camera, so he had to get up and smile.

Ashurbanipal attacks!

This week we've studied about the Assyrian Empire under Ashubanipal. Micaela is fascinated that he conquered Egypt and chased lions for fun. The idea of a wicked king loving beauty is intriguing to her too. She tells me over and over that he planted beautiful flowers and growing things in Nineveh and made it lovely. The most fun lesson from our study was about siege warfare. Ashubanipal's army used siege towers on wheels with a battering ram to knock down city walls. We had to see if it really worked, so the kids built a duplo castle and daddy built the ultimate Assyrian siege tower, also out of duplos. The battering ram worked okay, but the real battle was won after Micaela rammed the life out the castle using the tower as a monster truck.

Also, we had to rename Asher. We used to call him Ash-potatoes, because potatoes were his first food, and he liked to wear them. He's taken to throwing all potato products on the floor, but he loves beans. Micaela thinks we should call him Asherpano'beans.