The Pernot Family: Ready, Set, Goooooo!

Life continues at a breakneck pace for the Pernots. I hope to put up some of Matt's pictures from his trip to Shanghai very soon, but in the meantime...

Here's what happened while Matt was off on "vacation":

Joseph's artistic talent improves daily. He tells me that the donkey in this picture ate some hot sauce.
I'm going to give this one an A- and move on.
Also, this is my favorite pose these days, snuggled in Grandma's blanket with a cup of tea. The children have alerted me most recently that they can't wait to be parents so they can be lazy and sit on a couch and eat chocolate all day.
If you wanted to know what a mother of five (almost six) does during the day, WONDER NO LONGER!

Sarah's thirst for scientific knowledge is nearly insatiable. The child would read science books all day and dreams of living in a science lab...after she grows up to be a lazy mother/nun/nurse.
I couldn't be more proud.

Packing plastic. It's super dangerous. Never let your children play unattended. But if they do get their hands on some, make sure you sit there and take a million pictures and laugh, laugh, laugh. Because, c'mon! They are so funny.

An engineer, a ranger and some Sunday afternoon homework.

Matt has been uncovering all sorts of crazy things in our new home. He lifted the drop ceiling in our living room most recently and found this incredible medallion and an extra 1.5 feet of ceiling!

Her first hair-don't

Steve comes "home" every weekend to our house. We supply him with a warm bed and some mediocre food, and he gives us all forms of entertainment. I call this most recent one "Preview of July 4th, 2014".

It took us forever to pull out our hot air popper and make some popcorn. Now that we have, I can officially say the house is ours.

I caught Joseph reading a Star Wars book when he was supposed to be writing a paragraph about camping. So, I thought I would be a creative mother and ask him to write his paragraph about Star Wars and why he liked it so much.
The results were hilarious.
Circular thinking?

I DO allow Esther to pick out her own clothing. She is much bolder than her older sister, but lacks in the coordination department.

15 weeks...so, that would be five weeks ago now. I'm about triple this size now. Not looking recognizably pregnant yet, but putting on plenty of weight to make up for it.
People at church are usually a good indicator of when I start looking pregnant. They give that quizzical look each time and carefully ask how I am feeling, waiting for me to spill the beans.
Right now, the people at church are not looking particularly quizzical, since I only look like I consume cheesecakes for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

By the way, the floor in this picture is the original 160 year old floor. I love my bedroom to the max.

Nathan enjoys teasing me.

I brought all the children to my blood draw a while back. They took up every seat in the very small waiting room.
I had texted my dad that morning, to ask his professional opinion about how in the world I was supposed to take five children in -3 degrees to a lab that I've never been to before. He suggested a competition: each of the children was to find an object that looked like Han Solo. All submissions were to be sent to him, via text, and he would decide who chose the best Han Solo...and that child would receive a prize in the mail.
The kids were game.

This is Sarah's submission. "Esther is as funny as Han Solo!"

This is Nathan's submission. He can't read and I couldn't bear telling him that this was a woman.

Joseph's submission: himself. He IS Han Solo.

Thomas' submission: the Lego guy on the side of the box.

Obviously, since my dad is a Papa, all the children won. And, my blood was drawn with nary a problem. Success!

My valentine from Matt this year...
I do not feel as though we are becoming more romantic as the years pass.

131 inches out here in the frozen tundra.
I am now DONE DONE DONE with winter!
Enough Already!

She found a Sharpie, which is insane because Matt and I can NEVER find one when we need it.

He just needed one piece.

Esther was not interested in tracking Matt's flight across the world. She had other occupations.

Joseph was having trouble focusing in school because of excess noise. Matt bought him some earmuffs.

Tom wanted to try them.

Nathan missed the point.

How to deal with a cranky Esther in the morning.

We go places and people say what well behaved children we have.
These people are delusional and need to be medicated...maybe even more than my children need to be.

This is what happens when I ask the children to brush their teeth by themselves.

This is what happens when I get hungry. There are two states of being when I am pregnant: content/hungry and miserable/hungry. Either way, food is my friend. Chickpeas are the light of my life.