I Love This Boy!

I love this boy so much, and somedays it is good to remind myself of that.... days when he does things like climb into his little pool nobody emptied out while wearing jeans, socks, and leather shoes. Its times like those that I have to say it to myself over and over again, "I love this boy."

Look What I Can Do!

This morning while I was fixing my hair before taking Elise to preschool, she came into the bathroom with a headband on and said, "Look Mom, I can fix my own hair!" Of course it wasn't anywhere near perfect, but she was so proud of it and wanted to wear it to school that way, so I had to let her. I can't believe how big she is getting! Here is a picture of her before school this morning, showing off her homework she was ready to turn in today.

I Love Surprises.... Sometimes

Yesterday I got a fun surprise from each of my kids.

Elise picked flowers for me while we were outside and told me she was going inside to set them on the counter. I sort of forgot about them until I went into the downstairs bathroom last night after she was in bed and saw them in a cup with rocks at the bottom. She even picked a pretty cup to put them in! What a cutie. I told her thanks this morning and she said, "Well Mom, I just wanted to make the bathroom pretty AND keep my flowers alive!" Good idea, Elise.

Then later I walked into the office and found the floor looking like the picture below. Steven had pulled everything off of every shelf and dumped it there. He even got a package of zip loc bags out of the kitchen and dumped the entire thing on the office floor, just in case there wasn't enough stuff there already. I had just cleaned it up from the same little "surprise" the day before. Good thing he is such a cuddly little boy. It helps me overlook a lot of other things. Lately whenever Chris or I pick him up he wraps his arms around our shoulders and pats and rubs our back while snuggling his head into our necks. I just love that!

Pictures From My New Camera

Here are a few pictures from my new camera that I took while my kids were playing outside. I was really just playing with the settings and trying to figure out how to work it, but some of them turned out cute. And yes, this means I finally figured out how to get the images from the camera to the computer. I think I must be a genius.

Sunny Days!

Last week we had some days that were so warm, it almost hit 90 degrees. To be exact, the thermometer on my car read 88 degrees while we were driving around. Elise decided they definitely needed to swim, and at 88 degrees how could I argue? So we put on swimsuits, got out the little pool, and they had a grand old time. Here are a few pictures. My camera died in the middle of one of the shots of them still filling up the pool, so I don't have any of them actually swimming, or "relaxing" in lawn chairs and "eating starbursts to warm them up" (of course, another Elise idea). Here are the few of the pictures I did get though.

How cute are these two?

Steven filling the pool with Elise looking on. I love the look on her face and the hands on her hips. She was absolutely sure that he was too small for a big job like filling the pool, and was positive he was going to somehow do it wrong.

Elise after she took over the pool filling job:Steven, testing out the water:

And in case you could see parts of it in the background of the pictures and were wondering, yes, this big blue beauty is now a permanent fixture in the backyard. I'm sure you are all jealous of my view :-).

New Camera!

I finally got a new camera, and here is what I went with: I definitely did not end up going the practical route, I got exactly what I wanted. I am really happy with it though. It takes great pictures. Now, if I can just figure out how to get the pictures off of my camera and on to my computer - it is so complex I have to read the user's manual and follow a step by step process. Hopefully it will not take me too long to figure out. I do have a couple of pictures from my old camera still to post though. On the day my camera broke I was taking pictures of my kids swimming in their little pool in the back yard. I can't believe we hit almost 90 degrees last week! Maybe I'll post those pictures later if I get the chance.

Shabby Apple Shakespeare Garden Dress GIVEAWAY!!!!

Shabby Apple Shakespeare Garden Dress GIVEAWAY!!!!

Crazy Boy = Crazy Mom

Steven is a little bit of a crazy boy, which in turn makes his mom feel a little crazy most of the time too. He is always into things, climbing things, pulling everything out or off of every shelf or container, and the list could go on. Last week he even fell out the window of the TV room. Thank goodness it was a first floor window. He just climbed up in the sill, pushed the screen out and toppled head first out the window. He had a pretty good raspberry and even a black eye for a few days to show for it. Ugggghhhh! Like I said this boy makes me a little crazy. Here are a few pictures of his war wound, although I should have taken a picture the next day when it was really good and bruised up.

And a few pictures of both kids playing in the bath. My camera went kaput, so these may be the only pictures I get to post for a week or two. I am trying to decide which camera I want to replace it with so it may take me a couple of weeks to actually get one. Actually, I know just what camera I want, but I guess I am trying to decide how much money we want to spend. Should I be practical, or just get the camera I want? Chris surprised me when he told me to just get the camera I really wanted and be done with it, but my practical side is still fighting it a little bit, so we'll have to see which side wins out.

Playing Outside

My kids have this little routine when I send them outside. I always say to Elise, "Make sure you shut the gate so that Steven doesn't escape." So, the first thing they do is run for the gate and Elise shuts it and latches it while Steven rides on it. They are funny! The next thing they do is go straight for the scooter and the toy push lawn mower. Elise rides her scooter up and down the driveway, and Steven follows her pushing his little lawn mower. Then they end up on the swings and the slide, and then they come in. It is funny to me how they do the same thing every time. Here is a picture of Elise latching the gate while Steven "rides" on it.


Lately Elise only wants to sing in her "beautiful voice." This is what she calls her singing voice when she sings like an opera singer. If I sing anything normally, she'll say, "No Mom, use your beautiful voice," and she is just not happy until I sing like an opera singer too. While she was outside playing the other day, she insisted that I take a picture of her singing in her beautiful voice. I really should take a video of it sometime though.

The last couple of weeks when I tell my kids to put their shoes on, at least once a day one of them will come back with their rainboots. So, I guess they weren't such a silly purchase after all. They love them and are getting lots of wear out of them... rain or shine.This is a picture of Steven finding some treasure in the bushes. He finds things all over the yard when they are outside and either carries it around in his pocket or puts it in his mouth and carries it around in there. Gross! No wonder he is always sick.

Vrooom

Lately, Steven is very into Cars. He has two Lightning McQueen cars, a big one and a little one, and he constantly has them both in tow. The other day he kept walking around with the small one in his mouth and the big one in his hands. I kept trying to get him to take it out of his mouth, but for some reason that is just where he wanted it. He even would make the car drive on my leg while still in his mouth and make it say "Vrooom." Sometimes kids just do the strangest things. I wonder where they get their ideas from.

Sick

Elise has been sick the last few days. No fun! Of course, she had to get sick at 2:00 am and need to throw up. I think it is like a rule around here... if you are going to get a case of the throw ups, it must happen between 1:30 and 4:30 am. She came into my room, poked me in the arm, and said "Mom, I think I'm going to throw up." I jumped out of bed, ran her into the bathroom, and told her to aim for the toilet since I was not prepared with any sort of bucket or anything. She got a panicked look on her face and said, "But Mom, I really have to pea." So I told her to sit on the toilet and I grabbed the trash can and pulled her hair out of her face." As she was throwing up in a trash can at 2:00 in the morning, she looked up at me with the saddest face ever and says,

"Aw Man, I guess I'm too sick to go to preschool!" What a nut. Let's just say that preschool was the furthest thing from my mind at that moment. Elise just loves preschool so much though. So for the last day and a half she has been laying on the couch watching cartoons with her barf bucket not far. And the funny thing is, Steven usually just follows her around so if she spends the day watching cartoons, I can't get him to do anything else either. He just sits on the couch next to her, and once in a while he gets up,walks over and pats her on the hair and says, "Soft Elise, soft."

California Adventure

This past Friday the kids and I took a quick excursion to California Adventure. Our passes expire in the beginning of March, so we have been trying to get as much use out of them as possible for the last month or so. Since Chris didn't come and I was chasing two kids by myself we didn't stay long, but it was fun anyway.

We of course had to have a churro, which may very well be Elise's favorite part about going to Disneyland.

We watched the parade. It's funny that as often as we go, we have never just sat and watched any of the parades with the kids, and it amazed me how much into it they both were. Steven was just in awe of everything going by, especially Buzz Lightyear and Lightning McQueen. Here's a picture of the kids waiting for the parade to start. I wish I would have gotten a few pictures of the very excited looks on their faces during the parade. It was classic.

We rode the fishy carousel, and while on that ride ran into both a family from our ward and one of Chris' cousins there with her three kids. Small world!

Thinking of Sunnier Days...

I was looking through some old pictures this morning, and besides noticing how fabulously warm and sunny these days look, I was also thinking, "Could these two get any cuter?" Maybe I should say these three, since there is a picture of Chris in there looking pretty cute as well. Anyway, they made me smile, so I just thought I would share.

In fact, they were looking so cute in these older photos, that I had to look at a few more recent photos to remind myself that they are still cute on warm days

.....and even on rainy days when I have to dress them in full raingear to go anywhere ......and even on days when I have to let them run outside between the pouring rain to jump in puddles so they don't drive me crazy ......and even when they beg me all day to go out in the rain and play, but I am way too much of a party pooper, so they have to wait for Dad to get home and take them outside for "toothpick races." (Isn't he a good Dad?)......and even when they want to come tromping back in the house freezing, wet, and probably a little muddy, so I have to take their shoes, coats, and pants off outside to bring them in and wrap them in warm blankets to get cozy, right in the middle of trying to make dinner.

And it is a good thing that we have another baby on the way, because I don't even have to feel sad about these cuties not being babies anymore, but I can just enjoy them for the fun kids they are today. And to end with, a cute hugging picture. Aren't they really just too cute? Alright, I may be a little biased, but that's okay.