Sorry for the delay

Kelly's been having health problems of late, so most of my non-schooling, non-cooking, non-grocery-and-necessity-shopping time seems to be taken up with appointments, procedures, prescriptions, insurance companies, etc. But at least, here are Aubrey's pictures!

Brynna's pictures

I was elsewhere when a good many of these pictures were taken. I came back in to see all these pictures of someone I didn't recognize: I almost never see her without her glasses anymore!

More pictures

Hailey, this time. I have to tell a story about the first one. With everyone of the kids my brother-in-law got to a point where he told them to be serious. It made every one of them giggle, like he'd tickled them on the neck, except Hailey. She immediately wiped all vestiges of a smile off her face. She's a pro! I thought Kora would do it too, since she's got that teenaged stoic thing going, but even she laughed before she could get serious.

Lauryn

More pictures. We had individual pictures taken of all 6 kids, and there were some real gems in them. Here's some of Lauryns'.

Ashlynn

Some highlights of the picture taking sessions from last Saturday.

Family picture

Believe it or not, I think this was our first family picture with Ashlynn in it! Complements of Smith Photography of Kyle.

Uhg

I'm potty training this week. Rather, I'm potty training Ashlynn this week. In all the things I have to do as a parent, this ranks right up there in the top 3 of my least favorite. Partly this is because the more kids I have, the harder it is just to concentrate on that. It's harder to have a few days when I don't need to do anything else. So I decided to do it after Christmas but during our Christmas break. The kids aren't doing school yet, except for their co-op classes, and that's just the older two. So this is as close to "free" as I get.

The other reason I think is that it is just constant discouragement at first. I know the accidents teach her, but I always go through a time when I think "this is it. This is the one that will still be in diapers when she's 10." Ridiculous, I know. But I do have some stubborn children...

That said, I am looking forward to not having to buy diapers. Ever. Again. At least not for my kids. I keep reminding myself "last time, last time!" And fortunately I have a few years before I have to start Ashlynn on phonics, so I'll get a break on that one.