Happy Birthday, Anthony!

Today Anthony turns 4!  It's hard to believe he is that old already.  He is very ornery, but also so funny and sweet.  He loves rice, noodles, superheroes, and numbers.  He will sit with a book for a long time, flipping through the pages and counting the numbers.  He was recently excited to discover a book that goes to 1000, and yes, it was the phone book!  He loves to play outside with his brothers and sisters, and always wants to do some work with Daddy. 

Anthony with his tower.

Anthony thought the cat might want want to read about Iron Man.

Looks like the cat was interested!

One day I told the kids to put on two shirts before they bundled up to play in the snow, and Anthony went and put on 8 shirts.

A picture from last weekend.  Anthony loved the new baby chicks.

Happy Birthday to our Anthony!

Miscellaneous

One Sunday in January, Dan's nieces came for a babysitting sleepover.

Evelyn and Anthony, aka Robin and Batman.

Isabella and Olivia found out it is a bit hard to catch chickens.

The hair-do chain.

The girls learned to make cookies by themselves:

Anthony was waiting for his chance to swipe some cookie dough!

One afternoon the boys got into a cutting paper frenzy:

At least they only cut up what I told them they could!

One day in February, the kids went out to play in the snow and decided to bury Anthony.

Mount Anthony!

He couldn't move.

They had a hard time digging him out. 

Working on the Greenhouse

In the middle of January, Dan and the kids worked on the new greenhouse.  Obviously, it was a warm day for January, since no one had on even a jacket!

Greenhouse, complete with door and window.

Who was handling that power drill?

Catherine!

Anthony and Catherine sat on the finished shelf.  It was built strong!

Dominic looked in through the window.

Joseph and one of the cats looked in through the clear wall.

The greenhouse, almost finished!

Go Shockers!

In mid-January, Dan, a Wichita State University alum, took Dominic to his first WSU Shockers basketball game.  At the time, Dan thought, hey, they are undefeated so far, this would be a great time to go see a game.  (Little did he expect that they would get to 34-0!)

Outside Koch Arena, aka, The Roundhouse.

They got there early to watch the players warm-up.

Dominic was excited to wear his new Shockers sweatshirt. 

Some free Shocker sunglasses!

Getting close to game time!

The stands were full as the game started.  (Of course, we know they won!)

Early January

Early in January, we got together with two of my friends and their kids.  It was hard to find a date to meet up because they are in two different schools and one of my friends only has off on Thursdays, but we finally managed it.

The boys' table at lunch.

The girls' table.

All of the kids, 5 boys and 5 girls.

Decorating cookies, this table looks like trouble!

Trouble is right!

 Catherine really liked the sewing kit she got for Christmas, and she got busy making some fun items.

An adorable stuffed cat.  She did all the sewing herself.

Anthony got a neat building set with balls and rods.  The kids have made some cool stuff with it! 

Rocket ship!

Blast-off!

The boys were getting ready to start a marble run that they had created with two sets.  They were standing in this picture so it was rather tall.  I tried to load a video, but it failed.  :(

Christmas at New Year's

We drove up to visit my side of the family on New Year's Eve for the family get-together on New Year's Day.  All of my siblings and their families were there except for Fr. Brian, who was deployed in the Middle East at the time.  We had a great time visiting everyone.

Grandma, Emily, and Anne.  See all the snowflakes on the windows?  Anne and Catherine showed the girls how to make those, so it was a new craze!

Catherine and Elizabeth.

Here's what the boy cousins liked to do.

The littler cousins just love Anne.

She had a captive audience at story time.

The kids ate first.  Here was the main table.

Baby Isaac in the high chair and the little girls' table.

Grandma and Grandpa. 

After dinner was gift-opening time.

There was a lot of this.

My goddaughter, Emily.

Sweet Anne.

Patrick, my godson.

After all that hard work, the kids were thirsty!  Grandma gave them a special treat of pop.