Another Tooth, and a Funky Hair Do

Caleb cut tooth #2 yesterday, again on the top. He is so cute, I just had to get a picture. He is so wiggly and active that it's hard to get him to be still long enough. And as soon as I pull the camera out he gets right up in my lap to play with the fun new toy. You can see the first one quite well on the left (his right), and the second one popped through right next to it, but is hard to see.

Now for something compeletly different...

I tried a new hair do for Emily on Saturday night when she had wet hair. I twisted sections up tight and wound them around themselves, like little buns (I've heard them called "Shrek Ears"). I saw somewhere that when they dry and you take them out, you get nice, soft ringlet-type curls. Here she is on Saturday night...

We had fun laughing about how silly she looked. She said it was kind of uncomfortable to sleep on, but was excited to get it all taken out on Sunday morning. Let's just say we were shocked at how it turned out...

Can you say tight and frizzy??!?!? Not what we were expecting. Emily was a good sport and we had a good laugh about it, then put it up into a ponytail. Even that was almost impossible because her hair was about 3-4 times its normal thickness! Lesson learned indeed!

Valentine's Day

Here is our {Valentine's Day} recap for the year 2009.

The kids get to have Valentine's Tea at school. They're supposed to dress up in their nicest clothes (which is pretty ridiculous for the middle of winter!) and they get to learn all about manners and etiquette. They absolutely love it. Emily had her outfit all planned out for at least a week!

Here is how I did Emily's hair for school on the 13th. I got the idea from a blog I ran into (hair4myprincess.blogspot.com). Pretty cute, eh?!! Emily was thrilled with it and said all the kids at school thought it was so neat. I call that a success!



Here is Josh before he left for school. There is a very excited boy underneath that "I'm way to cool for this boring stuff" exterior of his.


I gave the kids a "heart attack" on their doors on the morning of Valentine's Day. Each heart says something we (Jared and I) love about them. There was one heart that had a longer note that they were soooo excited to read. I just never know what it's going to be that thrills them! That's Rachel down there in the bottom of the picture. She thought the hearts did not belong on doors and spent most of the morning pulling them off!

Last, but not least, this is my V-day project. I LOVE how it turned out! I did a digital scrapbook layout (6"x6"), printed it at Inkley's, trimmed around the edge a bit, mod podged it to a 6"x6" ceramic tile, then added the ribbon with the little heart charm. Total cost was probably $2.50 - most of the expense being in the ribbon and charm. I'm already thinking up St. Patrick's Day and Easter ideas!

One for the Books

This has been an absolutely crazy, mind-boggling, frustrating day. I don't think I've had a day quite like this before, so I had to get it recorded. It is definitely one for the books!

• To start, Caleb kept me up most of the night fussing - stuffy nose and teething. We had a LONG night on the couch together.
• One child, who shall remain nameless, drove me to the brink of insanity because she takes forever to do what should take 10 minutes tops (I'm sure my sleep deprivation played into all this - I know I'm not completely blameless). I hate having to constantly nag about getting things done!
• While I took 5 minutes to brush my teeth, put some make-up on, and throw my hair in a pony-tail, Rachel got into Josh's lunch sack and helped herself to his sandwich! So, as I screamed out orders (and slammed a few doors), I cleaned up that mess, pulled the gob of sandwich out of Caleb's mouth before he choked, quickly made another sandwich, got Caleb dressed, and rushed everyone into the van to go to school.
• As we attempted to leave for school, the van decided not to start. I tried over and over. The radio worked, the lights worked, but it wouldn't turn on. So I asked Emily to say a prayer, which she happily (thankfully) agreed to, tried again, and no luck. I asked Josh to say a prayer, tried again, and still no luck. So I said a prayer, tried again, and IT STARTED!!! Hallelujah! I'm so thankful prayers are answered! Amazingly I got the kids to school in time.
• I still needed to run to Wal-Mart, but was worried about turning the van off. So I called Jared to be on rescue stand-by. While we were in Wal-Mart, Rachel kept taking shoes and socks off and throwing them out of the cart (not unusual for her). Caleb started to get cranky, so it was time to go. We purchased our items, left the store, and...wait a minute...Rachel was missing a shoe! I buckled the kids in, locked the doors, and ran back in to find her shoe sitting in the line we checked out in. I swear I'm going to glue them to her feet!
• It was finally time to head home, but wait...the van wouldn't start - AGAIN! I was ready to sit and bang my head into the steering wheel by this point. I know that's futile, but that's where I was at! I remembered the little miracle we had earlier, so I tried the prayer again, and IT STARTED!! Whoever doesn't believe in miracles obviously hasn't lived my life!

It's 1:00 p.m. - I'm exhausted, both kids are sleeping, and I am ready for a nap myself. I hope this day ends better than it started!

Blueberry Babe

What do you get when you combine Rachel with blueberry pancakes?

A great big - but very cute - mess to clean up!!

Update: The Streak Ends

OK, so I think Emily was maybe pulling out the drama today. I really don't think she was "sick," at least not enough to come home from church. She was bouncing around the house all afternoon like nothing was wrong. In fact, she had more energy today than I've seen in a long time!

Dr. Mom's diagnosis: she has a cold and the stuffy nose was bugging her; she has asthma that gets aggravated with colds and all the bad air we've had lately.

I guess I'm too nice and shouldn't give in to every complaint! Especially when the complaints come early in the morning!

As far as I'm concerned, the streak hasn't ended. We're on 11 days and counting!

The Streak Ends

I brought Emily home from Church today because she doesn't feel well. There go my thoughts of all illnesses leaving with January.

I was starting to feel a little giddy when we made it to 10 days with no one being sick. That was yesterday. I guess I didn't knock on wood hard enough or long enough.

Are you starting to see why I dislike winter so much??!!?!

I want SPRING,
I want SUNSHINE,
WARMER WEATHER,
CLEANER AIR!!

First Tooth!

Caleb is 8 months old today and has reached yet another milestone. Yesterday he cut his first tooth!! Yea Caleb!! Hopefully he'll get back to sleeping like he used to!

I have mentioned on more than one occasion that Caleb is our most different baby. He is so skinny compared to what our other kids were. He has a darker shade of hair. He thinks he needs to be held constantly still!!

Even with teeth his differences show. This first tooth that popped in came on TOP, not the bottom. I've never had a baby do that! I didn't know any baby did that! So here's to being different!

I'll spare you all a picture of the lovely new tooth, since all you'd see is slobbery gums anyway, and since he won't let me get anywhere near his mouth. Here's a picture of a deliciously cute boy who absolutely loves his feet!

Celebrations

Our family likes to celebrate the seemingly small things in life. For example, we celebrate our house's birthday, our first date, the day we got engaged, school milestones, etc. It just makes life more memorable.

Here are some things I've been celebrating:

• We're on day 6 of no one being sick!!!! And yes, I'm knocking on all the wood I can find
• Jared has not hit the 65 hour mark at work...yet!
• Caleb (just about 8 months) is crawling and pulling himself up to things. {I'm still trying to convince myself to celebrate this one!}
• Caleb slept through the night for the third time in over 6 weeks!
• Emily earned a spot to run with the principal at school yesterday.
• Rachel has finally started answering questions with YES instead of using NO for everything.
• Josh doesn't have to read programmed reading for school anymore! {In my opinion, he never needed it. He's been a great reader since Kindergarten.}
• Spring is almost here! I don't believe a word of what that groundhog says!