I'm so excited! We finally got a piano! Well not actually a piano, but close. It's a weighted keyboard and feels like the real thing. I wanted it to last us so we got the grand piano size with 88 keys. I got it so that I can plunk out the tune of a song the kids are learning, but mostly I got it so that Karen could start piano lessons. Her grandmother has taught piano for many years and has offered to teach Karen. Karen is very excited and looking forward to lessons with grandma. Michael has also expressed interest, though he's still too young, but hopefully he will still want to when he is older.


My favorite thing about the piano is that it has 60 songs programmed in and plays by itself! I've got a player piano just like I grew up with except without the piano rolls. It's a lot of fun and the kids love it too. Here is Karen pretending that she is playing.

Valentine Fun

Valentine's day was much looked forward to by Karen. She had been making Valentines for a couple of months and waited very patiently to give them to us. It was cute. The kids and Neils picked out some beautiful roses to give me for Valentine's day. Here is a picture of Karen with them.

I also got very industrious and made sugar cookies for the holiday, all shaped in hearts of course. The kids had a lot of fun decorating some of the cookies. Here are their masterpieces.

I found these darling shirts and couldn't pass them up. We surprised Neils with them that on Friday and he loved them. The kids were thrilled that they were able to surprise daddy.

Hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's day too!

Budding Artist

My daughter is constantly developing her artistic talents. Sometimes it's a bit overwhelming how many pictures she makes and tapes up around the house. Yesterday I found both her and her brother's door covered with pictures. They were so cute I had to take a picture. Only one of them were Michael's and I'm sure you can tell which. The one with writing on it says "Karen is sick dont deestrv(disturb)". Most of the people depicted are Karen and Michael with a couple that have mommy or daddy or a friend.



Another day after naps I found Karen had decorated her shirt with stickers. I guess it didn't have enough bling on it for her.Another day she decided to make a crown and become a queen. I had to help get a crown the right size, but she loved it. When the crown was finished and declared beautiful, she announced that now all she needed was a throne. This is what she devised for her throne.

Just a funny picture. One morning I woke up to find my kids on the far side of the bed on the floor with Karen reading a book to Michael and Michael playing games on daddy's iphone.