I'd like to introduce you to...

Sky, the oldest. The mother hen and attitude ridden tweenager. The one who is the most like myself in every way.

Skylar woke up earlier than everyone else in the house one day this weekend. Knowing that Nai and I would also be waking shortly she sweetly decided to brew a pot of coffee and have it waiting for us.

As quietly as she could she filled the pot with water and poured it into the coffee maker. Then she dug into the cupboard to locate the filters and ground coffee.

Once she figured out how to put the filter in she proceeded to add a few scoops of coffee. Then she added a few more scoops. Not quite sure it would be enough she added just a little bit more coffee until it was almost level with the top of the filter and then started it brewing.

Have you ever tasted coffee made with enough grounds to brew five pots? It most definitely adds a jolt to your morning, that's for sure.

Nai, drank a good portion of it, liberally watered down of course. Being the bad mother that I am I stuck with tea.

Now we have Taylor. The true girly girl and little homemaker of the bunch. She's so anxious to learn everything there is to know. Every five minutes she's asking you why, or how, or what?

Last week it hit the negative double digits in these parts (not in that picture though, it's from December). Knowing that Tay has a tendency to feel cold I advised her the night before to lay out clothes for the next day that she could layer for warmth. Tay thanked me and went off to put together the perfect, most comfortable outfit to wear to school.

Fast forward to the next morning when I'm chiding Taylor to hurry up and get dressed or she won't have time for breakfast before the bus arrives. She ran hurrying into the kitchen apologetically explaining that she had trouble getting her pants pulled up and buttoned all the way. It was almost impossible to get dressed, she explained.

Not fully awake myself I stopped and gave my daughter a good once over and noticed she was a tad *puffier* than normal. It prompted me to ask her to raise the legs of her jeans so I could see what she had layered underneath.

She complied and I glimpsed more denim underneath.

Highly amused I asked her "Tatie, are you wearing two pairs of jeans?!"

"No Mom" Taylor responded with the utmost look of innocence on her face "I have on three pairs of jeans, why?"

I could barely contain the peals of laughter long enough to recommend she take off two pairs of jeans and swap them with a pair of tights instead. I didn't have the strength to hold the laughter in long enough to say she probably wouldn't really need to wear four shirts all at once either.

This is Jon. The only male child surrounded by a house full of Sisters. Terribly independent and full of bravado he feels the need to act as if he's years older than he is. Except at bedtime when he needs Mom to stay in the room with him until he falls asleep. My little manly man is a just a bit afraid of the dark.

Jonathan is fully potty trained, which is a good thing seeing as how he's three going on four. The thing is, Mom was the one who did most of the training. She didn't want to try and explain to such a little guy about standing to go wee so she trained him to sit on the potty when he needed to go instead.

This has worked quite well for some time until recently when she noticed he seemed to missing his mark and making a mess. Odd, she couldn't fathom why he would suddenly be having problems with this when he never had before.

A couple of days ago Mom was folding and putting away laundry when Jon rushed past her exclaiming "I gotta go, I GOTTA Go!!!"

Mom laughed to herself and finished folding the last two items in her basket. She gathered everything up to put it away when she decided to glance into the restroom to make sure Jon had made it the toilet alright.

What she saw was her son standing in front of the toilet with his pants down, hands on his hips, smiling at the ceiling while going potty.

Of course in this pose he was completely missing the inside of the bowl he should have been aiming for.

This is where Mom messed up. In shock she gasped out "Jonathan!!!"

He of course turned towards her in surprise. Hands still on his hips. Still going wee.

It wasn't at all amusing to Mom as she cleaned the floor afterwards. Dad seemed to find it hilarious though.

Last of all is little Anna-Marie. The baby. The snuggler. The all around cutie pie who has all five members of the family wrapped around her little finger.

She's a doll. A joy to be around. There's only one thing that could be considered a character flaw, and even then it's such an adorable little flaw that it's more amusing than annoying.

The little imp is a shoe thief. Leave your shoes out where she can get to them and she will claim them for her own.

She doesn't care how big or how small they are. She's put both feet into one of her Daddy's boots and then tried to hop across the floor in it.

She received a doll for Christmas that she pleaded to have opened right away before she opened any other presents. The second the doll was out of the box and handed to her she pulled it's shoes off and threw it on the ground. She then proceeded to put one doll shoe on the end of each of her toes and smile triumphantly around the room at everyone, completely enamored with her skill. In the picture above is she wearing her shoes? Of course not, she has on Taylor's boots and would not give them back until Tay gave her Sky's house slippers in exchange.

I love them all so much I nearly burst with the feeling I have for them. For all the mischief they cause there are the little things like this that happen numerous times each day. How mad can you get at them, when you're so busy laughing at the silliness of it all?