Super Precious Sleepy Beeper

I was the recipient of an accidental nap today. Hooray! At lunchtime Ephraim was whining because he did not want to eat the lunch I made for him. Usually I let the boys choose, but I had already made macaroni and cheese for lunch.

So I told Ephraim that he was welcome to make his own lunch, at which point he went in his room to pout. Apparently he was tired because this is what I found when I went to check up on him:

Doesn't he look just like a little angel when he is asleep with his hands under his face like that? It almost makes you forget what a little pill he was being just before he fell asleep, huh?

I actually got Amelia down shortly after this and it was only Jacob and Mommy for a while. It was actually pretty nice. We don't get to spend a lot of time alone together, you know?

IPad Baby

Can I just tell you how much I love my iPad? Joe bought it for me shortly after Amelia was born and I use it constantly! I love the convenience of having the internet at my fingertips, not to mention my calendar, recipes, music, reminders, games, etc.

I am not the only one at my house who loves it. Jacob and Ephraim love to play games on the iPad and beg me to let them use it! Their current favorite is Where's My Water?. They also still love to play Plants vs. Zombies and Angry Birds, among others. This weekend I got even more competition for my pad.

Yep! Joe showed Amelia that she could draw with her finger on the iPad, and she was fascinated. I guess it's a good thing that she can't beg me to use it yet!

She has always been drawn to our phones and the iPad. She loves our "shiny boxes".

This is a drawing app that we have. I suppose for Amelia it is a scribbling app.

Isn't it amazing how comfortable and familiar our kids will be with technology? I can't even imagine the kinds of things they will be working with by the time they are older. They will probably laugh at me when I tell them that I had type class in high school and we actually used typewriters. Heck, they probably won't even know what a typewriter is!

Valentine's Day

Happy Valentines Day! We are definitely feeling the love at our house!

Don't you just love all the red, pink and white decorations? I made the banner using my new Cameo, and I think it turned out great! I especially love our cute Valentine's mailboxes.

We had these mailboxes last year, but we have added a mailbox for Amelia. I used my Cameo to cut matching vinyl, which turned out great (I love that machine!). This year I also printed out the little cards for the kids to fill out and put in the mailboxes. We have been having tons of fun with these!

Amelia was dressed in her cute lovey onesie, so I just had to take some pictures.

Don't you just love her little pigtails and all those teeth?! What a cutie.

This girl can stand up and sit down like nobody's business. She is working on figuring out how to cruise around the furniture. Joe says she will be walking by the time she's one, and I am afraid he's right!

We love this girl!


We have also been busy sharing the Valentine's Day love. Look at what I made for Jacob's teacher for Valentine's Day:

It is a pencil bouquet. On the inside are regular pencils with a layer of Valentine's pencils on the outside. We tied a nice red ribbon around them with a heart-shaped note that says, "You're the 'write' teacher for me!". Then I put some nice fake flowers on the top to finish the bouquet. Cute huh? I hope his teacher liked them. I know Jacob was really excited to give them to her. He was really cute about it this morning.

I found a cute glass to put the bouquet in for a "vase". I love how it turned out and I may have to use it again next year.

Here is another Valentine that I may have to make again. Superhero suckers!

We made these for Ephraim's preschool class, since it is pretty small. But I have to say that it would not be hard to do them on a large scale. Especially with the printable from HERE.

Super cute and super easy! We had a few left over, and Jacob gave them to his friends who are not in his class at school.

I have also had a blast making cute cards and cookies. It has been a fun Valentine's day so far, but now I have to go because the kids are in bed and I finally get to spend some time alone with my Honey. Hooray!

In Seach of Snow

It almost snowed here this week. It looked like it was going to snow and a few white flakes came down, but then it stopped. The boys were SO disappointed.

Since they wanted to play in the snow so badly, I drove them up Provo canyon again to find some snow. Mount Timpanogos is all white, but none of the snow stuck in the valley. So I was sure we would find snow up the canyon. I was surprised by just how far up the canyon we had to go, but we did find snow at Vivien Park.

We also found a phone booth that was nearly buried in the snow, thanks to the plow clearing out the parking lot. My boys thought it was great fun to climb up the mountain of snow and play by the phone booth. Of course they had to make a couple of phone calls.

They were kind enough to pose for me, since I thought it was hilarious for them to be standing in a phone booth that was on a snowbank. Ephraim was really hilarious!

This time Miss Amelia was awake when we got to the park, so I bundled her up in her cute little snowsuit.

She actually wasn't too happy about me sitting her in the snow and walking away. I had a hard time getting a smile from her. I like the picture below because you can see all the teeth she has grown in the past few weeks.

I may not have gotten a smile, but I did get a wave. Or maybe this is just a request for me to come and pick her up!

The boys had fun playing on the park equipment as well. Apparently it was much more fun to play in the park because there was snow at the end of the slide and the slide was wet and slippery.

The boys' snowpants were soaked when it was time to go. Good thing I thought to pack a garbage bag to put their suits, boots and coats in!

The scenery in the canyon was lovely. I enjoyed the way the snow highlighted the layers of rock.

There was only one thing that I regret about this little outing. Today I could not find my headset for my phone! The last time I am sure I had it was driving up the canyon and I haven't seen it since. I use my headset constantly, and it is really nice to be able to talk on the phone and have my hands free to do other things. I have nightmares about my beautiful Jawbone headset falling out of my pocket into the snow, never to be seen again. *sigh*

Hopefully it is just misplaced in my home somewhere, but in the meantime it sure has inspired me to start my spring cleaning a little early!

No Stitches!

It was a regular Tuesday. After picking Jacob up for school we had a quick lunch and then headed to the library for Story-time. We like to go to Storytime on the same day and time as the Esplins so the kids can hang out together (and of course so Karyn and I can chat).

After we were done at the library we decided to swap kids, which we do regularly. So Jacob and Micah went to play at the Esplins, and Clara and Ephraim played at our house. They have so much fun playing together, and it is actually easier to have a friend because then the boys are not asking me what they should do. They just play!

We had a fun playdate, and I headed to Karyn's house to pick up Jacob and drop off Clara. Apparently I got there just moments after Jacob's head met up with Karyn's coffee table. The kids were spinning around, Jacob tripped and whacked the side of his face by his eye. Karyn felt really bad about it, but these things just happen with kids! Jacob is pretty hysterical when it comes to getting hurt, but we got him calmed down and headed home.

When we got home and showed the cut to Joe, he said we should probably have it looked at. So we had to wait until 6 pm to get an after-hours doctor appointment. Jacob DID NOT want to go to the doctor, and we kept reassuring him it would be ok.

Jacob chose me to go to the doctor's office with him. When they called us back I was practically dragging Jacob by the arm. He did not want to get up on the table so the nurse could look at him. I had to lift him up and set him there and then sit next to him. The doctor came and looked at it. He said the cut was pretty deep, but it was far enough from his eye that they wouldn't have to stitch it.

Good thing he didn't have to have stitches because they would have had to sedate him for that! As it was he screamed the entire time the doctor was holding the cut and gluing it together. The nurse had to hold his head still, and I was holding on to his arms. It was quite the adventure, let me tell you!

I sure am glad he didn't have to get stitches! His cut will heal in no time!

And I am pretty sure that he will not be physically (or mentally) scarred for life.

I think it is pretty cool that they can just glue the cut shut. We have to put Neosporin on it after 5 days to help the glue come off and that's it!

I was supposed to go to a book group meeting that night, but after all of our trauma I ended up missing it. Instead we had a little FHE lesson (which we do on Tuesday because Joe works on Monday) and then we went out for ice cream. When we got the kids in bed, all Joe and I wanted to do was relax for a little while.

Phew! What a night!

Super Day at the Park

The boys have been dying to go to the park. We haven't really had any snow, but the weather has been a bit chilly. Today the weather was finally nice, so we decided to take a trip to the park in the afternoon.

I admit that I had ulterior motives. I needed some pictures for the scavenger hunt that I regularly participate in, and I figured the park would be a better place for pictures than our house.

First I took some pictures of Amelia in a hat that I crocheted. Isn't she a cutie?

The best part was that when I set her down under the tree or in the leaves she did not crawl away because she didn't want to touch the leaves or pine needles. She would put her hands down and then immediately pick them back up again!

So I actually got her to sit still for a little while. I love her grin with those two little bottom teeth!

Jacob finally agreed to pose for me in his superman cape. He would wear it for me earlier in the week, and we actually got into a little argument about it. He was being a grouch and hurt my feelings by telling me that he didn't like the cape that I made him so I told him he could give it back to me and I would give it to a little boy that would appreciate it more. Oh the drama (on both of our parts). Of course Jacob didn't really mean it, he just didn't want to pose for me. So we worked it all out and here are the resulting pictures.

Doesn't he make a great superhero? I just love these pictures, and don't even mind that I had to lay down on the ground to get them!

Count your blessings

Last night I thought it would just be an ordinary night working at the public library, but it turned out to be anything but ordinary!

First was the picture message that I got from Jeanette. The picture was of Samantha's x-ray, showing her broken collar bone! Poor thing! She fell off a kitchen bench and landed wrong. Can you imagine having a broken collar bone at 2 years old? My little niece is in a brace/sling thingy now and can't move her left arm very much. How miserable!

Jeanette had to go shopping last night to buy shirts and pajamas that button up, because they are the only kind that they can really get on and off their little girl without hurting her.

Next I got a text message from Brenda, telling me that she was at the ER because their son had a seizure. Little Ty is the same age as Ephraim, and I couldn't believe that he went to the hospital last night in an ambulance! I can only imagine how scary the situation must be for their family.

They were hoping that the seizures happened because he got a high fever, but he had more seizures this morning. So now they are going to have to run some tests and see if they can figure out what is going on. My heart breaks for Ty and I sure hope everything turns out o.k.

I also found out that Melinda had her father admitted to the ER last night as well. He recently had knee replacement surgery and is having complications from that.

Holy cow! Aside from all that, I have several friends who are facing other challenges in their lives right now. When I think about it all, it is a bit overwhelming.

I have to admit that for the past two days I have been a bit grouchy and short-tempered. When the kids misbehaved, I found myself being less patient with them and not treating them as kindly as I should. After the events of the last 24 hours, I have taken a step back and realized how blessed I really am. It really put my life in perspective.

My children are healthy and happy. I have a wonderful husband who loves me and my children. We have a roof over our heads and sufficient income to meet our needs. We have families that love and support us. We truly are blessed!

Right now I wish I could do more to help my friends and family. We are praying for them and offering our assistance, while counting our many blessings.

Amelia's Little Fingers

This weekend we got a random and fun visit from my parents. They were on their way home from Boise and decided when they were equidistant from our house and their house that they would rather come to our house. And really, can you blame them?

Look at this cute girl!

Of course I forgot to take pictures of Grandma and Grandpa when they were here. We were just having too much fun! They came on Sunday night, stayed Monday and then left on Tuesday morning. It was a quick trip, but we had a good time visiting with them and the kids loved to see them.

These pictures were actually taken by my dad. I asked him to take a picture of Amelia's little hand for me.

You see, whenever I feed Amelia she always plays with the cuff on her opposite sleeve. So with each little hand she is fingering her other sleeve, which I think is so cute.

It is amazing to me how different each child is from the get-go. Amelia does things that neither of her brothers ever really did. It is obvious that our kids had their own unique spirits and personalities before they ever came to earth to be part of our family. I sure am glad that we have the three little spirits that we do. They are the biggest blessing in our life!

Amelia at 10 Months

Amelia has been ten months old for a little while, but I have had a hard time getting her picture due to the cold she has had and the teeth she is cutting.

Today I finally decided she was probably feeling well enough for me to give it a shot. What a difference a month makes! I could NOT get her to sit down on the couch! For some reason she thought that sitting on the black fabric on the couch was scary and it made her cry. I only managed one picture of her up on the couch, and you can see that she doesn't really look happy.

Then she kept trying to crawl off the edge and I gave up on the couch. I tried to sit her down on the floor, but she would not hold still on the floor either. She insisted on standing up, so I had to figure out how to make it work. I finally got some shots that I really like!

If I cut the pictures off just right, you almost can't tell that she is hanging onto our little car garage/ramp for support.

Love this next shot where she is only holding on with one hand.

It was a lot of work, but I love these pictures and think they were well worth it. I tried to get shots of her with her 10-months-old sign, but she was having none of it. These pictures totally crack me up.

Ah well! At least I will always remember that at 10 months old miss Amelia was getting three teeth and did not want to hold still for anything!

Rainbow Fish Preschool

For our second day of preschool this week we had the letter F. So we talked about the rainbow fish and read tons of books about him.

It was mostly just Ephraim and Clara, and I love how well they play together. They also enjoyed the rainbow fish crackers that I had for them.

I think the craft turned out pretty well. I used my new Cameo to cut out the fish scales, so it was a lot easier on me than cutting out a bunch of stuff by hand. I can already tell I am going to love that machine!

Here is Ephraim's rainbow fish. Pretty nice, huh?