I finally got my new camera after losing the old one. Hence the pictures on my blog. And we got a new surplus laptop from work so the Rocket Scientist and I have been busy updating software and such so we can actually use the new camera. We went outside and took some pictures of the kids just for fun.
Early Saturday Morning Love'ns
While Grandma was here, Handsome Face wasn't feeling too well. He fell asleep one day on the couch and we noticed that some clothing wasn't quite right. He looks for the tag to put in the back when getting dressed and this pair just happened to have a tag in the back and the front.
Cute Girl got watermelon seeds in Primary last spring. Here she displays the fruit of her labors (or her parents').
We made fun Autumn trees a few weeks ago. The colored leaves on my fridge are the only ones in the neighborhood since it's still 86 degrees outside. The trees don't lose their leaves here until Christmas.
Last night at dinner Handsome Face said, "Look, Mom! I'm making a smile at you!"
So Cute Girl made a funny face.
Before dinner Handsome Face was pushing a cranky Cute Girl in his Tonka truck. Funny enough, she was cranky because he wouldn't share his Tonka truck.
But she's not too cranky to smile for the camera.
Handsome Face spends a lot of time in this corner of the family room. He's piling books and pillows with his truck. He calls this and other related games "making a truck job."
A week ago the Rocket Scientist had Friday off so we spent the morning at the pool with neighborhood friends. We ate lunch there and then came home for baths and naps. Cute Girl doesn't nap anymore but she's usually pretty good to play and let everyone else sleep. We didn't wake up until 4 o'clock and the house was pretty quiet, which made me nervous. But when we went downstairs we found this:
She had fallen asleep in the middle of coloring and the colored pencil was still in her hand. I guess all the quiet and the swimming added up to naptime for her too.
I think one of the most frustrating things about being a mother is when you're having a horrible day and it is mostly (if not all) your fault. A close second to this is when you're having a hellish day and you're doing everything right. Because seriously, what on earth are you supposed to change to make the day better?!
We were greeted this morning with some sunshiny faces. My children were dressed and Cute Girl had done her chores and I actually made breakfast.
Then Handsome Face played with some play dough while I cleaned up the kitchen.
Cute Girl helped with the dishes.
After playing kitchen in the pretend kitchen upstairs (so boring by the way), I left my children to their activities in order to start on my to-do list. Things quickly spiraled downhill. After two hours of tantrums and fights and time-outs we finally had lunch and everyone calmed down. Oh I hated those few hours.
And now we're here. Cute Girl practiced some sewing,
while I finished this banner. It was supposed to be a project that Cute Girl and I could make together for the Fourth but then my children took to their sickbeds for a week. She did help man the sewing machine and trimmed some edges.
My children have been hit with sickness again. I've diagnosed it as viral tonsillitis. We're waiting for the lab results (which should have come today) to rule out strep throat completely. Cute Girl is going on a week of sore throat; Handsome Face is behind by a few days.
My boy is great. You can't even tell that he's sick other than the fact that he constantly clamors for all of the sick bed treats. I asked him this morning if his throat hurt and he replied, "My throat not hurt. My throat fine." I love that kid.
Cute Girl is completely different. While most of the time she is content to just quietly lay on some flat surface, she also refuses any of the home treatments that would help her. She's just miserable. Her tonsils are so swollen and covered in grossness that I can't even see the back of her throat. I had to call my paramedic father at eleven at night just to make sure her airway wouldn't close. I wasn't going to sleep otherwise. That girl won't drink anything, won't eat anything, won't take her Tylenol, and just generally tries to thwart me.
I can't wait for this to be over. I'm sick of listening to PBS cartoons all day long and being quarantined to my house. I will be overjoyed to put away all of the thermometers, sippy cups, essential oils, Tylenol bottles, flashlights, and tongue depressors that litter my house. I can't wait until all of the lemonade, Kool-Aid, root beer, popsicles, and ice cream (that are supposed to be enticing Cute Girl but are really just making Handsome Face a glutton) are gone.
Cute Girl turned five last week. She was so excited. We started out with her favorite breakfast sandwiches for breakfast. We let her open one present that morning from G'ma and G'pa Crapo so she'd have her new sparkly church dress to wear.
The dress ended up being too short to wear without leggings so she got to open a second present to find a new skirt. She finally wore the sparkly dress to church today.
That evening we had her birthday dinner - sausage and bean soup, fruit salad, and bread and butter. Then we had cheesecake with blackberry sauce and opened presents. She was very spoiled.
"Did you know that sitting on the computer is NOT cleaning OR cooking which you need to be doing?"
This is what Cute Girl has just asked me as I finished putting up the last two posts.
We decorated our Easter eggs Saturday evening. The kids had a great time using all of the different techniques we came up with it. My personal favorite is the green egg wrapped in rubber bands.
... has two humps.
Really, she does. There's two throw pillows under there. And the yellow broom in the back is the tail.
Cute Girl just had to make a gingerbread house this year. But with Thanksgiving at our house, then Uncle John's wedding, then an early departure for Christmas, we just couldn't get it done. So we went the easy route and bought a kit at the store and put it together at Grandma Shoaf's house. 
