Make believe--with flair

Aidan and Emma like to act out scenes from their favorite movies. And ever since they got dress up clothes for Christmas, they've taken it to a whole new level. Can you guess which movie/character Aidan was pretending to be?

Yup, he was Shrek. Emma was playing princess Fiona and was all decked out in a princess costume and Aidan wanted to have something distinguishable, too, so he went into the toy box and got the nurf bullets from his gun. He licked them and stuck them to his forehead. I found him checking himself out in the mirror as I passed by the bathroom and couldn't help but snap a picture. I love that my children have such great imaginations and love to play pretend.

The impossible shot

With four children, I have learned that getting a decent shot of one, let alone all four together, is virtually impossible. As you will see from the pictures below, this attempt was no different!

This one of Aidan and Emma was actually pretty cute. I love Emma's face and smile in this one. The crotch shot however, not my favorite!

When we really ran into trouble, was when we tried to add Olivia to the mix. It only got worse as you will see...

getting mad...

and, yup, there we go, full on baby cry! Oh, well. One day we'll get some decent shots of everyone, until then we'll have fond memories of trying!

You need to read more

That is what my loving husband told me recently. He swears it "didn't come out right," but really, I think he truly does wish I would read more. I wish I would read more, too. But, honestly, by the time 9 pm roles around and we finally have all four kids asleep in bed, all I want to do is crawl into bed myself. However, I have taken on my husband's challenge to read more and am starting with the above two books. We had a coupon for 70% off at Barnes and Noble dot com, but when we finally decided on a book to buy (thanks Amanda and Melanie for the suggestions) our coupon wouldn't work. Figures. SO, last night for our date night we went to the library and checked out a few books instead. I went with an old favorite to get me back into the swing of things, The Witches by Roald Dahl. I love all things Roald Dahl but The Witches was always on the top of my list! Then I thought I would delve back into Dan Brown. I haven't read his newest (well, old by now) book The Lost Symbol. The books I wanted, two suggested by my sisters-in-law, were of course either checked out or not at our library. I have them on reserve though and am really anxious to read both Dealing with Dragons and North and South. We also checked out some Madeline books--our kids latest obsession, and Harry Potter and the Soceror's Stone on CD for Aidan. He LOVES listening to books on tape at night as he is falling asleep. Anyway, if any of you out there have any other suggestions for me I would love to hear them, because, well, apparently I need to read more :)