Rainy Day Fun

A pile of blankets, cushions and pillows = awesome, rainy day fun!!

I wish I could take credit for this idea, but it wasn't mine. Just an idea I read somewhere and thought, "that's brilliant!" Here's how it works: pile up a bunch of your blankets, pillows, etc. Have your kids help; they will be super excited. 

Then, give them instructions to follow like "start at the end of the hall and walk backwards, do two twirls and then jump on the pile." Pretty soon they will be coming up with their own directives. And having a blast.

Even Piper thought it looked like fun and wanted to try (with Dad's help).

Here she is trying on her own :)

Time for a break! All this running and jumping makes you thirsty!

Piper liked rolling around on all the pillows.

Daddy joined in the fun too.

Then it was more fun to pile on Daddy!

After that bit of fun, Lila wanted to make a tent. Can you see her?

She even slept in it that night (since it wasn't a school night). I'll definitely have to remember this the next time it's a rainy, dreary day, and the kids have energy to burn!

Valentine's Day Dinner

I wanted to do something fun for dinner on Valentine's Day this year. But, I was in the height of my shingles outbreak and didn't have a whole lot of energy. I asked Ben if he had any ideas, and to my surprise, he did! He suggested doing fancy waffles (which worked out great for me since Ben is our resident waffle-maker).

I had seen this idea on Pinterest... freezing dyed milk in a heart-shaped ice cube tray.

Getting ready to eat. I don't always get the expressions that I want when I ask them to smile.

Our waffle toppings included blueberries, strawberries, whipped cream, mini chocolate chips, sprinkles... or maple syrup if you wanted to be more traditional.

Not surprisingly, the kids went with whipped cream and sprinkles. 

Wyatt said, "Mmm... this tastes like cake!"

I had a few krazy straws left over from Lila's class valentine's, so I let the kids use those with their milk.

They really enjoyed getting to doctor up their own waffle. The more sprinkles, the better! :)

Valentine Love

My sister gave the girls these really cute heart jumpers, so I thought they were the perfect thing to wear to church the Sunday before Valentine's Day. And of course, I had to try and snap a quick pic before we left the house.

Fun times with my sister

Then after church I tried to get a few more. Here Piper is giving Clifford a kiss.

Still got my dimple!

Cheese!!

Look, Mom, I climbed up on the fireplace!

She was pretty proud of that accomplishment!

And Miss Lila posed for me too.

I think these next pictures may have been taken on President's Day (which Lila had off from school). But now I can't remember when it was...sometime in February.

The orange light on Lila's forehead was from Wyatt's camera (you can see the strap hanging down at the top of the picture).

I'm gonna take your picture, Mom.

For some reason, I really like this picture. Piper is really good at walking, but when this was taken she still needed help standing up (not anymore - she is a pro!!).

I made these cute Valentine gifts for Lila's teacher and teacher aide. I was inspired by a picture I'd seen online. The teacher's cup says "Thank you for satisfying my thirst for knowledge!" The other one says "Thank you for being a great "ade" to our class!". I filled them with some Crystal Light pink lemonade packets and a Sonic gift card.

For Lila's Valentine exchange, I sent Krazy straws taped to Kool-aid singles packets with a tag that said "I think you're Krazy Kool!" on one side and "Happy Valentine's Day!" on the other. Lila wrote the name of each kid in her class on a paper heart and we stuck that to the tag. Ours were the only non-candy valentine besides pencils. I think they turned out pretty cute.

Sick of Sick

Well, my last post on this blog was almost one month ago, to the day. We've been up to various things, but over it all.. we've been sick. Yep, for almost a month! Here's the timeline:

Fri, Jan 20 - last post
Sun, Jan 29 - all 3 kids have fever, come down with cold
Thurs, Feb 1 - take Wyatt and Piper to doctor because they still have fevers... turns out they have nasty ear infections. Both go on antibiotics.
Mon, Feb 6 - start feeling a little pain/sensitivity on my left side
Tues, Feb 7 - wonder if I broke a rib? Pain has definitely increased.
Sun, Feb 12 - go to doctor because I now have a rash to accompany pain. It is shingles. Start taking an anti-viral medicine.
Wed, Feb 15 - take Piper to doctor because she has a rash and is still touching her ears. Turns out her rash is Fifth's Disease (common virus) and her ears are still infected. One even burst her eardrum :( So she begins a new course of antibiotics and ear drops. (Wyatt's ears are good.)
Tues, Feb 21 - take Piper to doctor because she has a fever (want to make sure it's not still her ears.) Good news: her ears look great. Bad news: that means she's got some new virus.

So today, she still has a low grade temp and now I feel like maybe I'm getting a cold too. Ugh!! But before I sound like I am complaining too much, I am thankful for many things. I'm thankful that I suspected it might be shingles and went to the doctor as soon as I saw the first spot (the earlier you get on meds, the more effective they are to decrease your rash). I am thankful for antibiotics for my kids!! They really do work wonders. I'm thankful that Ben hasn't had to go out of the country at all during this time -- and I'm thankful that he is so great at putting the kids to bed :) I'm thankful that with all this illness going around, Lila has only missed one day of school (at the end of January). Normally I go help one afternoon at school, but during the time I was suffering from shingles -- there was testing at school, so no volunteers were allowed on campus. Thankful :) I'm thankful I can be a stay-at-home mom. While it's difficult to be "mom" and be sick, it would be so much harder to have to be mom, be sick and go to work somewhere else! And finally, I'm thankful that though we are setting some kind of record for consecutive days of illness, it has all been pretty minor in the scheme of things. We have been blessed with three healthy kiddos whose bodies can fight off infection.

So even though I'm sick of being sick, I find myself being thankful. And ready for spring to come and stay! :) As for the rest of what we've been doing this past month, I hope to get some pictures up soon!

Remember November?

Hi, it's me, Piper. Mommy has been kind of busy lately, so I thought I'd help her out with her blog. I mean, how hard is typing? You just bang on the keyboard (something I'm really good at!), so I'm going to put up a post for her. Shh! She thinks I'm sleeping :) Since I only have time for one post, I want to share about when my future college roommate, Rebecca, came to visit me back in November! She traveled on an airplane to come see me all the way from North Carolina.

So of course, like any good hostess, I showed her where all the toys were as soon as she got here.

And I was more than happy to share them with her.

We didn't waste any time being shy.

Rebecca brought her Mommy along. She was really nice and read us stories.

The next day Lila and Wyatt thought we would be able to play with the toys easier if they were out of the box.

I know I'm partial to short and dark-headed, but isn't she cute?!

We both have December birthdays... only 2 weeks apart!

Of course Lila read her stories just like she does for me.

It was nice later that day, so we went outside to take some pictures.

Well, Mommy wanted to take pictures, but I was really interested in what was over there...

And, hmm... what's this?

Rebecca was willing to snuggle with her Mommy.

Then she looked right at the camera and smiled so nice!

So I thought I could do that too! :)

Then because we don't get to see her very often, Mommy took one more.

The next morning we played with some toys again before church.

Yep, Lila surprised me with a hug attack. Sometimes I wish she wouldn't pick me up and squeeze me to show her love, but usually it feels nice... for a couple minutes anyway.

Rebecca wasn't so sure about Lila this morning. I think maybe she forgot where she was in the middle of the night? Or maybe she was just worried that she was going to be picked up next.

I sat next to her to reassure her.

Then I offered her another toy.

She still kept a close eye out for Lila though - and a possible hug attack like I got earlier.

Then our mommies got us ready for church. Doesn't Rebecca look so pretty in her dress?

Here we are together, each sporting a hair bow. For some reason, our mommies kept saying things like "aww" and "they're so cute" and "isn't that so sweet" when we played together. 

Here we are all together. Mommy wouldn't have posted this picture... something about her hair being pulled back in a ponytail but you can't tell, and then she's wearing her Sunday School teacher t-shirt...but lucky for you, I'M the one doing this post. I mean, I don't get any choice about all the pictures she puts up of me, do I? 

So I say we need one that shows all of us together.

Rebecca, if you're reading this, I hope we can get together again soon! 

Now that we are walking (I've almost got the hang of it), I bet we could really have some fun! 

And maybe if you were here, Mommy would say "that's so cute" when I play with the toilet paper.