backyard photo shoot.

I had several ideas for Christmas cards and Christmas card photos, but I never had time for any of them. In the end, I just attempted to take a quick photo of the kids in the backyard. Unfortunately, on the day I needed to do it in order to meet a deadline for ordering cards, it was already getting dark by the time the girls got home from school. The lighting was pretty terrible and most photos ended up blurry. Simon was constantly on the move. But I captured a few fun moments of the girls being silly. (Amelia doesn't have her glasses on because Simon had broken them the previous week and her new glasses hadn't arrived yet.)

when sisters come home.

This might be my favorite video. The boys can always hear the school bus coming down the street and get so excited when the girls get home every afternoon. They run to the door and wait for hugs. I captured it on video a few weeks ago.


After School from Sarah Black on Vimeo.

january happenings.

It was hard to see my mom go after having her around for nearly 3 weeks. I'm so glad she got to spend so much time with us and especially with the kids. Even though she was around to witness some of the usual daily chaos and mayhem around here, she also got a real glimpse of the kids' personalities, something that is hard to do when you only get to visit a few times each year. Simon loved seeing Grandma in the mornings or when she would finish working each day. He would run to her and give her a hug and then go about his business. Sometimes it's really hard to live so far from family.

Some random pictures from January...

Chatbooks! Ben gave me my whole instagram series for Christmas, 23 volumes in all. They are so fun to look at. In fact, the kids can't keep their hands off them and I think they're going to need their own set so they don't ruin mine! I'm still working on printing my blog and keeping up with my blog because it's a much more detailed family photo album, but I'm really far behind (just finished printing 2010) so these chatbooks at least give us something in print, with no extra work involved. I'll probably make one custom book for each of the kids every year that they can keep as their own scrapbook. (If you use instagram, I highly recommend checking out Chatbooks.)

Staying warm by the heater one cold morning.

A hot cocoa stop at Sheetz with Amelia after Activity Days one night. School was delayed the next morning because of a freezing rain forecast so she got to stay up late.

These boys love to "read" books together.

While Ben was working at home one afternoon, I took Oliver out for a special date while Simon napped at home. We went to the discount theater and saw The Boxtrolls. We had the entire theater to ourselves which was fun. He was a little scared of the movie though.

Elsa started a ballet class on Saturday mornings. She loves it. All the other girls and parents were standing around on the first day and the teacher asked me what Elsa's name was so she could find her name tag. When I said "Elsa" everyone in the room gasped. The girls were pretty excited to have an Elsa in their class.

Amelia started a gymnastics class and so far she is loving it.

 We noticed a really horrible smell coming from Oliver's nose. We took him to the doctor and the doctor managed to find the source. Oliver had shoved something up his nose. It was unidentifiable when it came out (we think it had been in there over a week) but my guess was a red berry from the bushes in our yard. Ben's guess was a black bean. The important thing is that it's out and the smell is gone! And hopefully he learned his lesson.

 Another cozy reading spot.

 Not a great picture, but these biscuits were delicious. Caramelized onion and gruyere biscuits (recipe from Smitten Kitchen), like french onion soup in biscuit form. And I love butternut squash so I made a butternut squash and goat cheese frittata to go with them. Good dinner for a gray January day.

escape from reality.

My mom had offered to watch the kids while she was in town so Ben and I could get away (a delayed 40th birthday celebration for Ben). We were so grateful for the offer and her willingness to put up with 4 crazy kids for 2 days. It had been a long time since we'd had a little break like this (we miss our days of weekend swaps with friends). Ben and I decided to stay close to home and we started our first day in downtown Raleigh, trying to do things that are normally difficult with kids. We went to the North Carolina Museum of History to see a special exhibit on the history of film in North Carolina. We had the whole place to ourselves and spent TWO HOURS walking around the exhibit, reading everything (something we never get to do when we're with our kids in a museum). Our next stop was the famed Beasley's Chicken and Honey for lunch. Best chicken and waffles I've ever had. The sides were amazing too (we tried the buttermilk biscuit with honey, mac 'n cheese custard, and sweet potatoes).

We had a good laugh about how easy it can be to find parking in downtown Raleigh vs D.C.

After lunch we drove to Chapel Hill where we had a hotel for the night. Our hotel was in a prime spot near restaurants and the UNC campus. First we decided to check out the Christmas decorations at the Carolina Inn. They had fun displays for the 12 days of Christmas. We also walked around the Coker Arboretum on the UNC Campus. We saw a late afternoon matinee (the latest Hunger Games movie) and then had a really nice dinner at Lantern. We finished off the night with the best s'mores cookie of my life at Insomnia Cookies down the street.

Twelve drummers drumming.

Our hotel had a really nice breakfast in the morning, included with our room. So it was hard not to order everything off the menu. We hit up another museum, the Ackland Art Museum, got lunch at a yummy vegetarian cafe whose name I can't remember, and then saw another movie (The Imitation Game). The day ended with a stop at the grocery store to pick up diapers and then it was back to reality. Thanks again mom!!