Hi Y'all!

This is a big THANK YOU to my Aunt Babs, who sent the girls these adorable socks for Valentine's Day. They were thrilled with them, and they promptly put them on OVER their tights (ever the fashion-forward girls) for the rest of the day.


This has been Adah's hair-do for the last two weeks. I can BARELY put it up into two puffballs, but they are adorable. She likes them because we can change ribbons or barrettes to match the outfit. She's a pro at smiling for the camera even when the camera isn't even on her face. :)



The rest of the pics are from our wonderful neighbor's Valentine's Day party. Obviously, I'm not the best photographer, and the kids were too busy playing to pose for me. These aren't the "organized" shots where we were doing Kindermusik activities, making adorable crafts, or eating chocolate cupcakes and chocolate chip cookies. The kids had a wonderful time, and I met another homeschooling mom in the neighborhood (too bad we're moving!!). Do you see the baby slings that Cora and Shiloh are wearing? Aren't they cute? My friend Kelly made me one for Nathaniel and then decided to make Abigail and Shiloh miniature versions for their birthdays. Cora borrowed Abigail's for her doll Susanna. (Or, as Cora still calls her four years later, "Zuzanna")
































So here's something strange. Apparently the word out there is that we're the parents of SIX children. Yep, I had one of "those" moments today. I was just thinking about nothing in particular when: Wait a minute! I have six children? How did THAT happen? (Okay, obviously, folks, I know HOW it happened - these were rhetorical questions to myself). Then I told myself to get a grip before the kids started noticing that I was acting weird. And then I smiled because it's just been a great day to be a mom to all these wonderful kids. Sure, Nathaniel threw a temper tantrum at lunch, Jackson spilled an entire cup of water that he was trying to prepare for his brother, Abigail and Adah continued their ongoing Chutes and Ladders feud and took it to new heights with Uno, and Shiloh got a little emotional during Latin (Latin?? How in the world does that make you emotional? I can understand math, but Latin?), but even WITH all that...it's a good day. They're all here, they're all healthy, they're all happy, and life is good. We are seriously, abundantly blessed. And apparently Cora is my favorite child today since I couldn't think of an example of evildoing for her, but wait...there's a funny story coming...
Cora had a spelling test today and after she wrote her second word, I told her that the words needed to be in cursive. So she went back to erase the other words, concentrated on getting the cursive correct and was preparing to write her third word when she looked up and said, "So, does it matter if the words are spelled correctly?" Um, yeah. It's a spelling test, sweetie. She's not naturally blonde, but she sure does act like it sometimes.

And the BEST PIECE OF NEWS FOR LAST! We got Adah's and Nathaniel's readoption paperwork in the mail the other day! They are officially Adah Resilia Houseworth and Nathaniel Erickson Houseworth, U.S. citizens. They will be issued North Carolina birth certificates, although the birth certificates will say they were born overseas (it sure is easier to have those than to try to track down Haitian birth certificates when they need them in the future!). We are DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE with the mountain of paperwork that has plagued our very lives since August of 2005. We have been encouraged to get Certificates of Citizenship for them, but since those are a whopping $420 per child, we're waiting until we have their social security cards and then we'll just get their passports. Much easier and less expensive.

Well, I'm going to prepare our schooling for tomorrow. We're pretty strict around here, what with actually expecting the kids to spell things correctly for their spelling tests, so I better stay on top of things.

Love,
Casey