Just thought I'd throw up a few Christmas pics.





Love you!

Thanksgiving, a bit late

Hi Aunt Tori!
Thanksgiving was really fun. Both girls got to help chop things. The stuffing was awesome! It was yummy too.
One of the eggs broke in the pot, while we were making deviled eggs, so it cooked all funny. Violet got to study it with a magnifying glass and it was gross!

Hello, Girls!

It's been dreary and cold and rainy here, so I decided I wanted to make our blog look a little more like spring. What do you think? Don't worry--we can always change it back.

I love you!!

Aunt Tori

Hello, Girls!

I know your Mom is sick, so I thought I'd send you and her a great picture to brighten your day. I hope she gets feeling better soon, and I love you all!

Love,

Aunt Tori

Sorry I've Been So Busy!

Dear Girls—

Good heavens, I’m the worst Aunt ever! I didn’t realize that it has already been more than a week since you last wrote to me! I’m so sorry, girls—I’ve just been so busy, and I had no idea that so much time had gone by.

I’m so glad you liked all the pictures in my last letter. My kids are so much fun to photograph, and Tevye is finally starting to learn that he’s actually supposed to look at the camera when I’m trying to take a picture of him, so that makes things easier. It’s so nice to have someone to send pictures to, because so far all I ever do with them is show them to Uncle Dustin, and he already knows how cute our kids are!

Willow, I loved you mouse song. It is so great! Do you know what my favorite part is? You used the word rather! Do you know, there are people my age who don’t know what rather means? You are so smart!

It’s neat that you all got to ride on a city bus. When I was in Russia, I used to have to ride on buses a lot, usually between 10 and 15 buses a day. Luckily it only costs 30 cents to ride buses in Russia!

So, do you want to know what I’ve been so busy working on? Well, first, I’ve been taking care of my 2 babies, which is so much work (but a lot of fun, because they’re so cute). But I’ve also been writing a book! It takes a lot of work, too. I actually got all finished with the writing part on Saturday, but I’ve been doing the checking it over since then, which is not the fun part. Writing is fun—looking for mistakes is not fun.

The book is all about how to spin wool into yarn. It is a school book for homeschooled kids like you. I would have loved it if there was a book like this when I was in school! Spinning is really fun, and really cool to be able to know how to do. It always makes me feel like Laura Ingalls Wilder (which is funny, because I don’t even remember if it ever talks about her spinning in her books). The book talks about how to spin with a drop spindle, though, not a spinning wheel. Here’s what it looks like to spin with a drop spindle.

Anyway, when my book is all finished, I’ll have to send you girls a copy. You and your Mom can try your hands at spinning, and then tell me if my book is any good.

I love you girls so much! Before I go, here’s a quick picture of Esther in her jammies to brighten your day!

I love you!

Aunt Tori

Dear Aunt Tori,

We really loved the video of Ester and the floppy hat picture. So cute!! And Tevye looks like a little boy!

We noticed that you got your hair cut, but we can't see the front in the video very well, can we have a picture?

Willow had to write a song for school, so she wrote it about the missing mice. Here it is.

(sing to the tune of Yankee Doodle)
Lost Mice

Ran upstairs to tell my Mom,
that we had lost our mice.
Found out they were in their tube,
which was rather nice.


She got a good grade of course.

We got to ride in the city bus yesterday, it was really really small. We thought that it would be really huge, but it wasn't. We saw lots of people get on and off and on and off. It was really fun.

We love you, have a great day!
love, Willow, Violet and Mom

Picture Day

Dear Girls—

I just love getting your letters. I had to laugh about your story with the mice—mice are just so darn sneaky! I’m very glad, for your Mama’s sake, that the mice didn’t really escape. No Mama wants mice running around her house.

Thank you for the lovely pictures. I made the one of the pretty red leaves the background on my computer desktop, and Uncle Dustin thought it was very beautiful. Next fall we are definitely coming to visit you!

Nothing very exciting has happened here, because it has been raining and raining and raining, and we’re all stuck inside (except Uncle Dustin, who is always stuck at work). But the up-side is that we’ve had lots of chances to take lots of pictures and videos! Here are a few that I though you might like:

This is my favorite video yet of Esther. She is such a sweet baby!

Here’s a picture of Tev that makes me happy and sad at the same time. On one hand, he looks so handsome and wonderful…but on the other hand, he looks so big and grown up! My baby! So big!

Here’s one of Esther that I get a kick out of. Tevye found a hat that belongs to her, but is way too big for her still. He doesn’t care, though—every time he finds it, he has to go put it on her head. So we have lots of pictures of Esther in a floppy hat.

Tevye’s been going through a phase where he’s completely fascinated with cars—he even makes the “vroom” sound as he pushes them all over the house.

And finally, is this baby adorable or what?

I love you girls so much! Have a wonderful day today!

Love,

Aunt Tori