Wanna see the cutest thing(s)?!?

Here they are...
The Cutest Sisters in the World!
They are so cute together! My Pixie and my Curly top! Callie loves to go to the swingset, lean over the swing, and swing herself back and forth! The other day I look out the back door and see this:
I grabbed the camera and got a couple pictures! Jovie had been pushing Callie for quite some time and Callie was just grinning from ear to ear! Unfortunately, then Lettie saw me taking pictures and pushed Jovie aside so she could get her picture instead. Little stinker! I wanted to get a better picture that showed Callie's happy grin! It was so sweet! Jovie loves to take care of Callie. They have a special little bond! They seem to know what the other one needs!

Here is Jovie & Callie playing t-ball together. Well, actually Callie is interupting Jovie's t-ball "practice"! I thought Jovie would get mad, but instead she let Callie join in and "help". Jovie loves to put the ball on the "t" and hit it off. She takes it very seriously! But she did not mind sister's company!

Ok, last group of super cute pictures!


They were out playing in the sprinkler. Callie goes over to Jovie, looks at her, then hops into the wagon. Instantly Jovie knew exactly what Callie wanted, picked up the handle, and took Callie for a little ride. They speak each other's language!

Mmmmm... Cheap American Chocolate!

We went to Wal-mart the other day and the Hershey candy bars were $.33, so I told all the kids they could pick out 1 candy bar (and YES I was in Wal-mart with ALL 7 kids, by myself... more about that in the future late Father's Day post that details why I am the best wife in the world). Anyway, Nolan & Lettie knew what they wanted, but Salie, Yonas, and Yomane had no clue which they wanted. I tried to show them the pictures, but I knew they had no clue what they tasted like.

So, what is a mom to do? Buy a couple of each type, divide it up, and have a Chocolate tasting dessert! So, now they know what Hershey's Milk Chocolate, Hershey's With Almonds, Almond Joy, Reeces, and Kit Kat now taste like. I do not know what their favorites are. I do know by the handful of Almonds with the Chocolate sucked off them that was given to me that Yomane is not very fond of nuts in his chocolate. And know Salie likes EVERYTHING by the fact that she spent the entire time saying, "I lika dis one! I like dis one!" Which is the cutest thing to hear! ... except... She always goes up to Callie and says "I likea dis one!" which is too cute, until she follows it up with, "Jovie no! No lika Jovie, Lika Callie! Lika dis one!" Basically, Salie likes to baby Callie and Callie LOVES to be babies. Jovie on the other hand scowels at her and walks away at any attempt to baby because in Jovie's head she is 5 years old and how dare you even try to touch her!

But back to the point! It was a lot of fun to enjoy chocolate with them! So, enjoy the pics! And yes, it is the summer, and yes Yonas is wearing a winter hat, and no amount of trying to explain that it was 100 degrees outside (literally) could make him take off the hat for about 3 days.

Way Too Many Pictures of My Family!

Here are 240+ pics if my kids Pre-Ethiopia. If you think I take way too many pics with 4 kids, it is only going to get worse with 7!!!

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=9AYuWblo2aNJQ

This is me catching up on everything from before the trip! Next I will make a "In Ethiopia" slideshow and then I will do a "Post Ethiopia" slideshow because I have that many pictures! I love digital camera and have a tendency to take a TON of pictures!

Warning: There are a lot of pictures on this slideshow, but they are super cute!
Of course you have to consider the source, I think so because they are of my kids!

I will do some more blog posts soon! There is a lot going on around here!

The Annual Mother's Day Pinata!

I don't know exactly how this ended up as a tradition, except 2 Mothers Days ago when Levi asked Nolan what they should get me for Mother's Day, Nolan said, "I think Mom really would want a Pinata!" I think he wanted the pinata, but the point is, I got one and it was really sweet! We happened to have a Pinata we bought from a yard sale that he filled with candy and a gift, and that was the start of the annual Mother's Day Pinata!

Well, this year for Mother's Day I was in Ethiopia. It bothered Nolan A LOT that he did not give me my Mother's Day Pinata! So, after weeks of Nolan mentioning how sad he was that I never got my Pinata and that he was sure I was disapointed, Levi went out with the kids and suprised me with a Belated Mother's Day Pinata! I was so tickled! I thought that was very sweet! So, we cracked open the Pinata before church! we now have a great place to hang it too, which is a nice plus! Enjoy the pics:

A Really Good Big Sister!

Salie (Selamawit... we call her Salie... said like Sally, but the "a" makes an "ah" sound instead of an "aye" sound) is very good at being a big sister... for the most part! She LOVES the babies... not too much where she smothers them, but she does dote on them and gives them some of the best attention! Callie is her particular favorite... because if you remember, Jovie is a big girl and must be treated accordingly, but Callie LOVES to be the baby!

The other day I hear Callie giggling... She sounded so giddy, so I went to see what was going on and found this:

Is that cute or what?!?!

Then, the other day I see her go into my bathroom and pick up some hair ties and hair clips. She then goes out of the room not saying a word. I go into the playroom and this is what I find:

The thing that amazes me is that Jovie sat through the whole "beauty treatment"! Jovie never lets me keep so much as a hair clip in her hair over 15 seconds. And she hates to sit still. But Salie probably worked on her hair for a good 15-20 minutes. Jovie was happy as long as she was sitting there with her toothpaste and toothbrush "brushing her teeth"!

Here is the results:

Jovie was so proud! We told her she was pretty and she just prances around! Notice the amount of hair bands and hair clips! And notice... she still has her toothbrush!

The Salie disapears upstairs and 5 minutes later Callie comes downstairs with her new do:

With her curly hair she could not be as through as she was with Jovie! But I think she did a good job just the same and Callie thought she was beautiful! She was twirling and high-stepping all over the living room. It was hard to get her to stop showing off to take a picture. That is why they are fuzzy!

And then tonight, Nolan made an attempt to wrestle with her and apparently he jumped on her back, she picked him up and wrapped him around her and just held him there. Then he did it again and picked him up and piggy-backed him and ran him around the downstairs:

This girl is one tough cookie! She is a trip!

We also have decided on Macie as her middle name, so she goes around saying, "I am Selamawit MACIE Jeppson!" She accents the Macie. By the end of the summer we may be calling her Macie, we will see how it goes! I was weeding the flower bed today and she jumped in a joined me and weeded just as much, if not more than me! She is a determined little thing in so many ways and she can be stubborn at times, but what kid is not? And she is a daddy's girl! We have had so much fun getting to know her as our daughter!

SNAKES!!!

So... we have found out that Yonas has "Eagle Eyes"! He seems to be particularly in-tune to snakes. 2 days ago he was in our front yard and started frantically saying, "Dad,Dad"! Our neighbor diagonally across the street from us had a 3 foot black snake trying to get into their garage. Levi was amazed he even saw it!

Then the next day they were at Nolan's t-ball game and Yonas looks up the hill and says, "Dad! Snake!" Levi did not see a thing, so Yonas took him by the hand, led him up a wooded hill to a bush, and sure enough there was a black snake. Yonas picked up a rock perfectly willing to do it in for Levi, but he explained it was harmless and could be left alone!

Then, during the t-ball game, a soccer ball that some kids were playing with hit a kid with 2 loose teeth in the mouth and their teeth fell out. They found one, but no one could find the other. Yonas walks right over, looks down, and picks up the tooth that no one else could find! Haha!

So... with all these snake sitings (which in the last 2 years we have only seen 1, so to get 2, 2 days in a row is amazing)... the kids have had SNAKES on the brain! So, the kids are playing in the back yard and we suddenly hear Salie and Yemane screaming, "SNAKE! DAD! SNAKE!" And I mean to say they were SCREAMING! TERRIFIED SCREAMING!!! And since it seems to be Snake Season, Levi runs out there. I hear the kids squeal even more because apparently Dad picked up the snake. And, can you believe it... Levi brought the snake inside. And here it is:



It is either a rare Pygmy Eyeless Mouthless Dwarf Snake... or it is just the common earth worm!!! I vote for the later! But still tonight when I showed them the picture they insisted it was a snake! It is a trip to see these kids discover new things. Now what are they going to think when we go fishing this summer and we buy and entire container of "Snakes!"