These are a few weeks old. Marie Helen is our new daughter (we are borrowing her for a few years) and these are her real parents. Marie Helen occupies the top floor of the house now. The smiley guy behind her is Daniel.

The 2CV rides again! The highlight of the day was that Ralph finally put the new battery in the old 2CV and it started up like a dream! The boys were so excited that they were completely wild! ALL of the boys had fun racing around in the field in the little grey car.

Hannes and Dylan have been insisting on having gel for their hair so I suggested that they buy it with their pocket money. They decided that it was a good idea so now they have gelled up their hair two days in a row. This is the 'in' hairdoo at school. Alinya hasn't asked for gel yet.

Alinya's first barrette. I am not sure how much she likes it but I sure think it's cute! Thanks to Lisa for the box of adorable clothes!

More of Alinya. Yes mom, her hair is definately reddish right now. Some Sloan heritage? Working on a big painting project right now...hope to show the before and afters by the weekend....

This is to tide you over until I have a few more minutes to post sometime!

Wow, didn't really mean to make all of my faithful readers (now I know who you are at least!) cry, or feel sorry for me. It felt good to write and I should do it more often. I guess there are times when feelings surface more than others and sometimes it surprises even us. I am not unhappy here, in fact, I am surprised at how comfortable I am in my world and how satisfied I feel. I think part of it is just getting older and more comfortable with myself. I am also extremely busy and that is good for me. Thanks extrem4 for bringing up some of your California experiences. We were especially glad to know about your experience with the curtains. Watch out for Shirley Jean's next visit.

Here it is at your request grandma!

My stateside nieces have been thumb suckers...my brother-in-law was still sucking his thumb well into his school years and our boys have all been binky fans. Soooo.....I was a little dumbfounded when I discovered Alinya sucking her thumb a few days ago. Ralph was away at the time on business and still hasn't seen it. It is adorable now but hopefully it won't last into her teens. Don't think I will waste time worrying about it now.