who are their parents? (eye roll)

 Will's turn with the chalk nub

Lauren's turn

We're raising really patient, gracious children over here.

2014 :: week 4

Sunday evening I was exhausted. I've been having trouble sleeping lately, but am trying my best not to take naps so I will be tired at night. After we ate dinner all I wanted to do was go to bed (at 6:30 pm). Lauren and I snuggled on the couch for a bit as we tried to pass the time away before we could go to bed. She really likes to snuggle with my lower legs. I don't get it, but I'm not going to stop her.

Anthony worked on our hallway project for awhile Monday. We are putting up a simple board and batten and hooks so we have a place to hang our coats. Hopefully we will have "finished product" pictures soon.

Tuesday evening was our monthly relief society meeting. It was a "spa night" where the ladies could come and pamper themselves. We started out the evening with some Tai Chi stretches. I've been on the planning committee since we moved into the ward over two years ago, but I was recently called to be the committee chair.

Wednesday we attended the Little Oaks Family Storytime at our library. The kids got really into the "Going on a Bear Hunt," song.

 

I mentioned Lauren's crazy hair before. Still crazy, but this is a more accurate representation of what she looks like when she makes contact with our couch, or any fabric for that matter. Another wave of cold weather passed through the area this week and it is dry. In the meantime we've been lathering the kids up with lotion and chapstick. Lauren's hair sticks up in every direction a good third of the day.

Two of the preschool teachers at Will's school organized a scavenger hunt at the pet store Friday morning. Will and Lauren were excited to go because, 1) they love the pet store and 2) there is just something cool about seeing people outside of where you usually see them. At the end of the hunt they ended up at the fish tanks where they picked out 2 beta fish for their classrooms. Will's class picked a baby beta that he is excited to "watch grow up to be huge."

Lauren got invited to a birthday party Saturday morning and it caused a bit of confusion. Lauren was confused because she couldn't understand why we had to leave the present we brought with the birthday girl. Will was confused that Lauren got invited to something without him. The party was "fairy" themed and it was really cute watching the kids dance around with their wings and slippers.

2014 :: week 3

We came across a sweater vest when we were perusing the clearance racks at Target last week. I decided it would be fun for Will and Anthony to match, so I persuaded him to wear one to church too. Some pipes in our church building burst last week rendering it temporarily unusable, so we were sent to a different building for Sacrament Meeting only. I could get used to 1 hour and 10 minutes of church.

Monday afternoon we were all going a bit stir-crazy. Lots of whining. Finally, I couldn't take it anymore and I told the kids we were going outside. It had been awhile since we got the bikes out and they were a bit rusty, so the bike riding didn't last long. They were more excited about sidewalk chalk and Will was excited to show me the B-Y-U he drew on the driveway with the Y much larger than the B and U.

Tuesday afternoon I watched my friend's kids for a few hours. You would think it would be more work to have additional children in the home, but on that day it was the exact opposite. My kids were significantly better behaved. Lauren wouldn't leave Megan's side, which was heaven for me because she likes to follow me around the house crying, "Hold you!' until I pick her up.

Will had his 4 year check-up Wednesday afternoon. He received a clean bill of health and is meeting  all the appropriate milestones, for which we are grateful. When I asked him what his favorite part of the appointment he said it was the machine giving his arm a bear hug, which is what the nurse told him when she checked his blood pressure.

Thursday afternoon we headed to the Wonderscope Children's Museum. Our membership ends at the end of the month so we are trying to squeeze in a few last trips. In the final room of the museum is a structure made of clear tubes that pumps air. You can feed scarves into the machine and watch them burst out the other end. Lauren was absolutely delighted about it.

Friday I finally got around to washing our car. Our car is white, but lately it has been appearing gray due to the nice layer of dirt, salt and grime it has acquired over the past few months.

Anthony showed Lauren how to fill a toy up with water and squirt it out. She immediately started shooting Will. She was very pleased with herself.

2014 :: week 2

Sunday we were "snowed in," and spent most of the relatively quiet day inside. Church was cancelled and our wonderful neighbor who usually clears our driveway for us was out of town, so it fell to us to clean our own driveway. We lead such hard lives. We all bundled up and headed outside for a bit. If I remember correctly it was about 5 degrees and the air was very dry. Lauren only lasted 2 minutes before I took her back in. Will lasted ten minutes longer. Anthony and I had fun shoveling for about half an hour before we went in too.

Is it sad that on January 6th I'd already been to the gym half as many times as I went during the entire month of December?

Tuesday afternoon we visited the Johnson County Museum. It had been quite awhile since we had last been there, so it was an above average visit. Lauren loves babies and had a blast lining them up and giving them their "medicine," or lotion as it know to the rest of the world. She has eczema and we use medicated lotion on her, thus she thinks ALL lotion is medicine.

Wednesday evening we had the missionaries over for dinner. Lauren is becoming quite a ham and could not sit still while they were shared a message with us.

Will likes to line up his sea creatures and play school with them. On this day the octopus was the teacher and they sang the following song: "How many friends are here today? Here to learn, here to play. How many friends are here today? Let's all count them." Then he counts the students. It is fun to see what he remembers doing at school.

The kids love dancing. When it is too cold to go out and play we try to burn some of their excess energy by getting our dance on.

Saturday I filled up our gas tank. I was able to save about $5 using our Hy-Vee fuel saver rewards card. When you purchase certain grocery items you earn varying amounts off per gallon. I don't usually pay much attention to the fuel-saver items in the ad, but this week we actually needed several things that had rewards so it was nice to get the extra savings.

2014 :: week 1

I'm not really sure how long I will keep up the photo a day posts. Sometimes I wonder how I will be able to do this once the kids are older and doing more of their own things. Will the photos I take at that point be a very accurate measure of what our family is doing? But that is still pretty far down the line. I suppose because I don't have an "end date" in mind right now I wonder when that will be. Will I really take a picture each day for the rest of my life? In the meantime, I enjoy looking back at these posts and seeing what we were doing last year at the same time, or two years ago at some points, so I will keep taking pictures and posting. For now.

Sunday was Anthony's birthday. My birthday present to him was turning off my alarm and sleeping in while he got up with the kids and got them ready for church so he could see how much he is capable of. Not really. In my sleepy state I forgot it was his birthday and felt a bit guilty when I realized what I had done. After church we feasted on steak, mashed potatoes, and asparagus per his request. Then we washed that down with a Jello No-bake Cheesecake.

Monday morning we went to the Sealife Aquarium with Jill. Will earned the trip for a month of wearing his eye patch, but agreed to wait an extra 2 weeks before going so Jill could come too. Will had a blast showing off his knowledge and Lauren was good for the first five minutes, so the trip went just as I predicted.

We had a pretty quiet New Years Eve. We ate an early dinner and then went to our friends' home for a few hours. We clearly stayed too late, because Lauren could hardly handle life by the time we got home.

The kids were really excited to take down our Christmas decorations New Year's Day. As much as anything I think they were excited about a mom and dad sanctioned chance to touch the ornaments. It was kind of sad to put the stuff away, but as usual it is always kind of nice to have a clean house as we start the new year.

Our Christmas gift to ourselves was a new headboard and bed frame, thanks to a great Black Friday sale. We finally got around to putting it together this week. Anthony and Will did a great job assembling all the bed. I love how it looks, and feel a greater sense of urgency to paint our room.

The kids got some things that glow in the dark for Christmas they enjoy playing with. Will is playing with the light saber he got from Nana and Papa, and Lauren is holding a star night light.

Saturday we bought some lumber for a new house project. The kids were super excited to be at Home Depot until I made them get in a cart. Thank goodness there was popcorn and a Little Builder's workshop to entertain the kids for the twenty minutes we were there.