Sweet Sillys

I take so many pictures, most of which never make it to the blog. I follow (stalk) my kids with my camera constantly, much to their dismay. Sometimes days go by without time to blog, and the miscellaneous photos slip through the cracks. These are some funny and random moments from the last few weeks that make me chuckle, and that I want to remember.

We have a central vacuum system in our house. I didn't even know what that was before we lived here. We have special little outlets in the walls that this funny little sweeper plugs into, and all the stuff gets sucked into a tank in our garage. Anyway, the vacuum has a REAALLLLY long hose attached to it, and the adorable old lady who lived here before me sewed a little hose cover out of an outrageously vintage fabric for it. Kind of like a vacuum cozy. :) The whole get- up is so old fashioned that we named our sweeper "Hazel" after the housekeeper in the old TV show.

Well, Emma is quite the fan of Hazel. Every time I get her out to sweep (which is once every third blue moon, mind you), Emma goes nuts. She has to come drag Hazel through the house and get tangled all up in the fabric hose.

I'm not going to complain about a child who loves to clean. Finally! Got one!! One day very soon I'm going to hook her up with a dust rag and a toilet brush and see if we can't keep this love affair going.

I believe the law of child rearing says that for every one adorable habit (such as Hazel-ing), two far less charming ones are also developed. Guess who knows how to THROW OPEN the piano lid and HAMMER out a tune?? All day?? How in the world do you baby proof a piano?? Perhaps she's a child prodigy. Or perhaps she's just a smidgen naughty.

Hannah was on a road trip for three weeks with her Bible Bowl team. We missed her so much! Her team got in about midnight one night, and Buzz and I woke up Emma and the boys to go to the church parking lot to welcome them back with homemade signs. We had fun painting all these.

Hayden is all practical, with very little (if any!) concern for fashion or appearance. He only wears clothes that feel right, regardless of whether they match. He has no radar for cool factor. So, it came as no surprise to me that he stole his Daddy's huge and cumbersome earphone set to listen to his teeny tiny MP3 player. They are much more comfy on the ears than those silly ipod earbuds, after all! This thing has a long and bulky cord on it that almost rivals Hazel's! And don't you love the mouthpiece? I suppose that's for singing along. :)

Things around here never seem quite perfect or quite finished, but they are always quite silly and quite active. I wouldn't trade this funny house for the most organized home in the world, because I really do think it is in the midst of the messes that I find the most memories.