More Snow!

Of course, the day after Daryl leaves for Haiti,w  we get dumped on!  This happened last year too!  Thankfully my Dad came over and helped dig us out.  He and Samuel decided to try shoveling the driveway in a different way today.  Samuel thought it was hilarious!  Samuel loves to be totally covered in snow and he doesn't (usually) mind if he gets some in his face or on his head.  The girls enjoyed sitting on the front step and "making food".  

Later in the day, we went to Abigail's birthday party and then Samuel had a special treat of going to the WMU basketball game with Grandpa and Grandma and then going over to their house for a sleepover.  It was so strange not to have him around in the evening - he is my "busy" child and I'm always trying to keep up with him.  To have just the girls around was very different.  We painted toenails and read books and did . . . quiet things!  Ha ha!  It's great to have boys and girls. :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

I'm not one to make Valentine's Day a huge deal, but this year I felt like doing something a little extra for the kids.  When they woke up, they all had a balloon tied to a little crate with a few odds and ends in it.  The kids loved it!  The $1 balloons, of course, were the biggest hit!  Next year I'll just stick with that. ;)  For lunch I made heart-shaped peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  Those were also a big hit with all three of them!  I forgot to use the heart paper plates that I bought . . . I guess I'll save them for next year!

Happy Valentine's Day to my wonderful husband and to my 4 precious children!!

Kid Creations

Samuel's bath tub art this morning - a snowman, snow, and God way up in Heaven sending the snow!! 

Aliyah's duplo house.  Made with help from Mommy. Anything with houses, babies, and mommies and this girl is happy! She's just like her Mommy!

Hope's creation.  Done without any help at all! And I have absolutely no idea why she has her sleep hat on . . . I'm pretty sure this picture was taken during the middle of the day. :)

I have no words . . .

. . . to describe how blessed I am to be raising these beautiful children!

Dark Skin, Baby Names, and Camels

I stayed home from the Wednesday night programs at Church so that Samuel and Aliyah could go to bed on time.  They were both cranky and tired and sound asleep by 8:00pm.  Hope went to her class at Church while Daryl went to his class.  Samuel and Aliyah waved to them out the front window when they left for church.  I asked Aliyah if Hope was waving back at them.  Samuel told me that they couldn't see Hope and Aliyah chimed in with "yeah, cuz her has dark skin."  Samuel corrected her and told her it was because the van windows were dark. ;)  Always the big brother!

Friday night at supper, were talking about boy names and girl names.  Samuel said, "How about if it is a boy we name him Kaelyn?"  (Cute name for a girl but not a name on our list!)  I told him that was a girl's name.  He said, "Then how about Boy-lyn?  Is that a boy's name?"  Ha ha ha!  Maybe we should put it on our list. ;)

I bought both of the girls a little cami to wear under some of their thinner shirts.  (And just because I thought they were so stinkin' cute!)  They both love to wear them, but Aliyah loves to wear hers.  This morning, I convinced her to take it off so that I could wash it (she had worn it all day yesterday and then slept with it on too).  Tonight, I was putting her pajamas on when she kept asking to wear her "purple camel". It took me a few minutes to figure out that she meant her purple cami!  Needless to say, she is sound asleep in her bed tonight with her purple cami on. :)

My little copycat :)

Today was "hair day" at the Huinink house!  I was busy doing Hope's hair when I looked over and saw Aliyah doing this:

She set it all up by herself and was very busy doing Callie's (or Laila's - her name goes back and forth between the two) hair.  She was pretty proud of herself!  

** I love to watch Aliyah play.  Daryl says that I love it so much because it's probably exactly how I played when I was little.  I think he's right!  She will sit and play with her dollhouse or with the little people or with her babies for a long time.  I'm fascinated by how she sets the dolls/dollhouse up or with how she talks and "interacts" with her baby dolls.  She'll play by herself and be lost in her own little world for a good 20 minutes - sometimes longer.  Yup, she definitely plays like I used to when I was a little girl!

Best Friend

Samuel tells me all of the time that his best best friend is Savannah.  I love how much fun they have together!