February 28 - A Day at the Mall

We went to the mall today.  Nora walked around like she owned that joint.

While the kids were waiting for lunch, Andlie took some time to draw.

After lunch, we hit the carousel!  Andlie rode all by herself across the carousel from Daddy & Haze!  And Nora was giggling and squealing with excitement every time one of them came by & she could wave and have them wave back!  It was the most magical thing she's ever experienced!

For dinner, Andlie made herself a peanut butter sandwich.  Seriously, how is she this old?  She's growing up into such a wonderful young lady!

February 27 - 2nd Tooth

Today when I agreed to let Haze play the iPad, he gave me a thumbs up and a smile & said, "You got it, Mom."  Except this time another finger snuck out with the thumb.  I laughed inside for a good hour.

 

 After he finished playing his beloved iPad, he ate some Starbursts.  But not before he made them "little beds so they can have a little sleep."   And earlier in the day he told me, "Mom, I love you.  Thank you for being my friend."

Tonight, Andlie lost her 2nd tooth!  What?!  And I did it!  What?!  I tied some floss around it & RIPPED it out!  (But not before psyching myself up in my head and silently counting to 3 one hundred times...)

When it came out, Andlie sat silent for 2 seconds & then started crying & said, "Owwww!  That hurt!!!"  And then the blood.  There was a lot.  But me & Bryan stayed calm.  (Not with our eyes though.)  After it finally stopped bleeding, we snapped some pics.  She's growing up so fast!!

February 26 - Pinkalicious

Everyone looked so cute this morning.  You know what that means!  Everyone say it with me: "Photo shoot!!!"

This afternoon while I was cleaning up, it got very quiet.  I said, "Haze, where is Nora?"  "I don't know."  So I looked in the living room & round her eating the avocados that we had just bought.  Like an apple.  She was eating the avocado like an apple.  Her face was covered in green, she had the avocado in her chubby little hand, the skin was in pieces in a pile to the side of her (thumbs up for knowing not to chew those bad boys), and she had a look of contentment & pride on her face.  She got mad at me when I took it away, but refused to eat it when I peeled it & cut it up on her plate.  Independence runs deep in our blood.

Daddy came home from work with surprise hats for the kids!  M-i-c-k-e-y, M-o-u-s-e!  Mickey Mouse!  Makes me want to go to Disneyland right now.

Tonight, me & Andlie went on a Mommy/Daughter Date to the theater!  We saw, "Pinkalicious: The Musical!"  It was about a girl who loves pink so much that she only ate pink food and turned pink!  So she had to be brave and eat only green foods to get back to normal.  Andlie giggled a lot.  It was so fun to be with her.  She makes me so happy!

February 25 - Mischief

Nora is feeling better.  Still a snotty nose, but better enough to be up to her old ways.  Actually, now that I think of it, she never really took a break from her "ways."  She's pretty much happy & curious all the time.  Except when we're not doing what she wants. 

Aaaaaanyway, today little Miss pulled out almost the entire box of wipes.  Don't worry though, once she saw me putting them all away, she helped.

After she had her fun upstairs, we went downstairs to play.  She re-discovered the jumpin' toy and had a great time bouncing that little booty all around that toy.

 

And finally, we have the shower.  She played in the shower while Mommy was cleaning.  She had a great time just roaming around in there and thought it was pretty neat that she was in such a neat cave.

Then I went to Activity Days.  And I came back to this cute sticky note from Andlie.  I'm glad she knows that her Mommy loves her!  (I doubt she [or any of the other kids] will ever be able to know how much.)

February 24 - "You got it, Mom!"

Hazey does thumbs up often.  Usually when he is getting his way.  Even if he's sad and I mention something he likes, he'll give me this cute grin and some thumbs up and say, "You got it, Mom!"

Happy & thankful that he's feeling better.  No swollen eyes.  No runny nose.  Eating much better.  Smiling.  Happy.  That's my boy.  This picture shows one of his happy places - the Hot Wheels isle at Target.  His other happy place is at Riverwoods playing the truck video game.  He's an easy one to please.

February 23 - Darn Sickies

Poor Nora.  She is getting a little better each day, but she's still sick.  She hates having a stuffy/runny nose.  It annoys her.  Like Mother like daughter.  She had kind of a rough/sad day today.  But we're thankful that she's getting better.

Andlie is on the fast track to losing her second tooth!  Today I tied some floss around it so we could wiggle it really good & get it ready to pull.  And then I wouldn't take it off when she asked so she was stuck walking around with it hanging out her mouth.  She said, "Mom!  I look like that dragon on, 'Kung Fu Panda!!!'"  I love her sense of humor.

February 22 - Getting Better

Nora had a much better night last night.  She went to bed at 8:30 and then was up at 9:15, which made us nervous that we were in for a long night again.  But, Bryan had the idea to keep her in her room.  Because when we got her out of her bed, she took control of our entire house & lives and made us stay up for forever.  So....Bryan soothed her in her room.  

After about 20 minutes, I got the idea to play baby lullabies on the iPad for her.  I slunk in her room and passed the iPad to Bryan.  And by slunk I mean crawled on the floor and scootched the iPad along the way and then crawled back out so Nora wouldn't see me.  And then I left to go get food for us.  I put on mismatched shoes (because I didn't want to turn any lights on) and used Bryan's dirty hoodie (because I didn't want to go to the coat closet near her room) and went out the back door.  We weren't screwing around tonight.  We were determined to get some sleep.

When I came back, Nora was quietly sleeping in her bed (with the iPad).  Three cheers!  She only woke up one more time at 11:45 which is when I gave her some medicine, sucked her nose (which she LOATHES) and gave her a drink.  And then she slept until 8:45 in the morning!  Praises!!

It was totally worth it because she was much, much happier today.  Still pretty sick with a nasty cold (runny nose, cough, sore throat), but no barky, croupy cough or wheezing, so we'll take it!  

We ditched church today to get some rest.  And because all 3 kids have a pretty decent cold.  We spent the day playing and just relaxing.  Haze played cash register with me for a long time.  He kept buying his Hotwheels cars.  And Andlie & Daddy spent most of the afternoon playing Uno.  It was a nice Sunday.

February 21 - Croup for Nora

Nora woke up at 2:30 am with a really croupy cough.  It freaked us both out.  And then she never went back to sleep.  She was up for the day at 2:30 am.  Holy twilight zone.  Although she never really got too sad (unless we tried to put her to sleep) and just toddled around the dark house picking up a book to read every once in a while and taking a sip of water when she needed one.  Like a queen in her castle.  

We took her to the doctor as soon as it opened.  Weird breathing freaks me out every since Hazey's hospital stay.

Andlie & Hazey loved the fishies.

Always a fan of the tissue paper on the doctor's table.

One steroid shot and a croup diagnosis later, we left.  For the first real sickness she's had, it was a doozy.  She had a rough day.  She was sad and mad and it was hard.  Because she also chose today to learn how to throw fits.  If we weren't doing what she wanted, she'd arch her back until we set her down and then roll around crying on the floor.

The latter half of the day was a bit better.  She pulled some yarn apart, emptied a box of nursing pads, pulled out all of her diapers, and dumped cottage cheese on the floor.  But who cares?  Not me.  You can do what you want when you're sick.

Ended the day with a trip out of the house for all of us.  Andlie spotted the BYU hat & posed for a quick picture to match the writing she left on the easel: "BYU smells like garbage."

Daddy passed his feelings about BYU along to Andlie.  And she is sure to let everyone know.  She always asks everyone, "Who is your team?"  And is sure to let BYU fans (including her teacher) know that BYU smells like garbage.  (Because "BYU smells like poo" has been banned.  We got a little carried away at our house.)

February 20 - Busy Friday

For sharing time at school today, the theme was "Maps."  Andlie chose to make a picture of all of the states she's been to.  She wrote everything by herself!  (Except I helped with the state spelling.)

While Andlie was at school, we read Haze's current favorite, favorite book!  Twice.  And then a couple more times after that.

After school during lunch, Andlie wanted me to snap a picture of the spaghetti in her "tooth hole."

And while all of that was happening, I had enough time (surprisingly) to make my first batch of homemade bread!  It was delicious and totally worth the work & time.

Finished the night off with a little coloring.  It was Nora's first time doing it by herself!  She was pretty proud that she could get color on the page by herself.

And I had to include my artwork for the day: A St. Patrick's Day decoration made of my babies' hand prints.  Shout out to Bryan for helping with Nora's print.  She loves to squish the paint and giggle and make us giggle swear.  But it came out cute so it's worth it.

February 19 - Cutest Outfit

Oh my.  I loved her outfit today.  Those eyes!  Cute little leggings.  And I love how her toes are always flexed.  She's always thinking of the next thing to discover or break apart.  And she loves sitting on things like a big kid (especially things where her feet dangle.)  She cried when I tried to take her off the counter.  She's the most loveable little ball of smiles.

Homeboy was feeling a little better today so we packed his bag & headed to the park for lunch & playing with friends.  The sunshine was good for all of us!

And then we went to Smith's to get some food.  Hazey tried on the glasses all by himself.  I asked him if I could take his pic & he said, "Let me make a crazy face!"  He's really been in to that during picture time lately.  (See above picture.)  I love my little boy!

February 18 - Happy

 Yesterday sucked.  It was a hard day.  Haze was sick, Haze had hives, our neighbor passed away.  It was just a rough one.  So there was nothing else I could do besides laugh & take a picture when I found Nora's clean sheets (just washed yesterday) covered in pee this morning.

Since yesterday was so rough, I decided to take Hazey to his happy place today - Riverwoods to play the monster truck video game.  And he loved every second.  It make me happy!

And little Andlie has just been a ray of sunshine the past couple days.  I mean, she always is, but she has been such a sparkle for me lately!  Yesterday, we giggled so much while running errands - just me & her.  And then in the car we danced like no one was watching and giggled some more.  I came home from running errand smiling & happy!

Well today was no different.  She burst out of school so excited to show me her cereal necklace.  "Mom, I didn't even eat one cereal and this has ONE HUNDRED cereals!!!!"  Ray of sunshine.  Definitely.   What a little blessing in our lives.

 

And what better way to end a day than checking on kids and then the tiny baby and staring at her and thanking Heavenly Father over & over for the beautiful babies that are yours.  (Still so in LOVE with Nora's cowlick.  It is always sticking straight up.)

 

February 17 - Hives Again

 Poor Haze.  He just can't catch a break.  He started getting swollen, red eyes again this morning.  This was the first symptom last time he broke out in hives (about a month ago).  Gave him some Benadryl & made a doctor's appointment.  By the time we got there, the swelling was gone and the doctor told me he had a virus, to give him Benadryl as needed, and get in to see an Allergist.  So that's what we'll do.  Thankfully, the swelling didn't progress.

Nora Jane.  That girl is just happy.  I hope that trait stays with her always.  Today while I was stressing about Hazey, I heard her saying, "Hi....Hi.....Hi....."  When I found her, she had managed to get the bath time finger puppet on her hands and she was waving at herself while she was saying, "Hi."  Cute little stink.

So, we desperately needed to get out of the house.  We all put warm coats on and out we went.  When we got back, Hazey had a rash on his cheeks and nose and he was starting to get hives on his hands and legs where the wind had been blowing on him.  His hands were also starting to swell.  I gave him Benadryl & a warm bath and everything disappeared.  We're starting to wonder if maybe he's allergic to the cold like his great uncle, Weston and his second cousin, Kacie.