Eating a snow goodie before church

T prepping the car for church

Just a cute pic

Pomelo hat and pomelo peephole

just a cute pic

W likes to re decorate a lot.  And carry around her flowers

E playing with his favorite toy.  He spends a lot of time with this thing.  His face is blurry because he was moving his hipsso much from all the excitement

valentine from mom

prepping Valentine dessert

W made houses and pathways to each house for each family member.  The dots are "bicho footprints" like the footprints she made in the snow

Percy and diesel are added to the collection

Have you tried pomelo?  terrible stuff with the skin on, absolutely fabulous completely peeled.  We ate two as a family for dessert the other night.  Apparently it is a Chinese new year tradition.  They had them majorly on sale pretty much anywhere we went shopping.  Costco was full of them, along with yellow and red flowers by the dozen. 

E thinks sheets flapping above him is hysterical.  I was making the beds after washing the sheets and he was laughing hysterically.  It was really cute.  He also is getting his pincer grasp skill.  What?! Already?!  That's how I've felt with all of his milestones.  Opening doors, cruising, smiling, crawling, change of the next size up wardrobes, etc. 

T takes fixing the garage door very seriously.  He isn't a fan of being cold, but he was outside in the garage with Papa for a good hour helping him fix the garage door.  He knew to look for the "number 15 open end wrench".  When he came in from helping he informed me without cueing that "the garage door is beeping and that means it needs more work".  yes.  It is still very broken.  That mommy!

W loves eating snow.  She spent about a half an hour before and after church eating snow.  I taught her to only eat clean snow and good thing.  I think she ate all the clean snow in the yard.

She has a good memory.  I like to list off for them all the errands we are doing.  They don't complain because they know when it ends. I had a lot one day.  I think 6 or 7... anyway.  She remembered them all and I only told her once.

One of the errands was finding valentine paper.  We spotted a craft involving buttons.  She was totally ready to put that craft in the cart.  She loves it.

T loves to make us laugh.  Anything that gets us laughing, he tries again to see if he can get us going again.  So I get asked if babies have necks a bunch because it made me laugh the first time he asked.

We've been growing a bean sprout.  It is getting really tall.  It's very exciting!  Today was a brief break in the weather, so we went outside.  W used sticks and planted them all over the yard.  Tomorrow we are going to check our experiments to see if they grow roots and grow into a cherry or pine tree.  T planted the really big branches that fell off the pines.  E was disinterested.  He was experimenting with gravel.  He can easily get those things in his mouth and he likes practicing his pincer grip on them, but didn't want to crawl off the blanket into them.  Hah!

T "didn't like cleaning off the blanket".  E was getting a whole bunch of dirt on the blanket and he wasn't too excited about it.

W noticed Papa's parking spot was not flat, so they decided to find a steamroller type rock to flatten it out.  They tested out it's steamroller capabilities by rolling the rocks down the driveway.  T picked the boulders and W found some to fit in her palm.

T is "building a garage for papa's truck.  It is right next to Mommy's garage".  This project idea started after he started working on the garage with Papa. 

E LOVES watching his siblings ride their bikes.  We went to the ramp park and he was in the backpack.  When they started riding, he pushed himself up so he could see around me and smiled, fascinated, while they were riding.

We had some friends over Thursday.  We taught them to play duck duck goose.  It took them about 15 tries to get the concept barely.  Then T decided to change it up and call everyone goose.  That was his favorite part!  Everyone chasing him!

T read all of Green Eggs and Ham to me by memory.  It warmed my heart and was so fun to have him read to me!

I love how the weather warmed to 50 degrees.  It feels heavenly.  My mom found a park we can walk to.  I love this idea.  W does not.  I said we were going to that park.  She wanted to take the car because it was too far.  Very true when it is cold.  But once we got going, we had a fabulous time together just enjoying the warmth and break in the downpour.  It was so nice, they even stayed outside for another half an hour after we got home playing instead of complaining of the cold.  It was great.  And T went right to sleep at 8 and didn't hit W the rest of the night.  Aaahhh!  Outside play!

Valentines day was bigger than I expected.  I was trying to keep it simple.  But Papa got a little crazy as usual.  The big kids were excited since school ended on Wednesday.  They were told they were going to have a party.  They kept asking which day was Friday and if it was Friday yet.

When we woke up I told them to look for some surprises.  Aunt b's valentine's were in the bathroom and mine to them were on the kitchen table.  They had their valentines from their teacher they had been saving and the valentines they had prepared for friends, teacher and neighbors.  With all that, W said "hearts, hearts everywhere!!"  W wasn't too happy with T for choosing a shirt that didn't have a heart on it.  I told her he didn't have a heart shirt and maybe a red shirt would do.  And then she wasn't too happy he wanted a blue shirt.  T told W that he wanted a blue heart shirt.  She accepted that answer from him.

W saw a heart decoration craft she wanted to buy at Target.  I made her put it back and got to work thinking of what we had to create the same idea.  For Valentines day, W picked out the buttons and created the craft except for the gluing.  turned out pretty cute and close to what was at target.

T went with Papa to help get the van fixed.  That was my gift for today. Hubby fixing my mistakes.  I took the car to get the oil changed at Jiffy Lube and they stripped the bolt.  Now my car leaks copious amounts of oil all the time.  Kia won't fix and we don't know if Jiffy lube will.  Hopefully.  The manager wasn't there to say yes or no.  Then, when he was gone, the garage door opener finally went kerplunk. I told our neighbor to lift the door and unhook the lines.  Apparently that makes it so you can't get the tension on the wires even.  Oopps.  Mommy!  So the boys worked on that a bunch today.

W wasn't eating dinner even though snack was four hours previous.  She told me she wanted a heart dinner.  So I took the pot roast, potatoes and carrots, cut them up and shaped the bites into concentric hearts on her plate.  Much better.  Then I cut the yellow tomatoes in half and made a heart of those and put the jelly on in a heart shape.  Much better.  She gobbled up dinner. 

Then!  The moment they were waiting for!  The treats!  But wait!  Papa had brought something home.  And this is where it gets to be too much.  He got them a percy and a diesel.  T was so distracted and excited about it he skipped dessert.  Strawberries they had covered in chocolate together.  he could barely stand it. 

This gift came from what I thought was a very good discussion earlier in the week.  Not so. I told J about how W had come up with a plan for how to get Percy.  I told her I would talk to papa about it.  We talked about how much it would take for her to earn a percy or she could paint the wooden train like percy (her own idea) to solve the problem.  He agreed to those.  But then, he didn't stick to it.  When you meet my spoiled rotten kids as teenagers, let it be known it is all papa's fault.  Grrrrr.

joy school starts up again

W made books today.  I have no idea where she gets these ideas.  This is so not me so it absolutely amazes me.  She made counting books.  She drew blueberries and apples in different quantities and then had me write the quantity at the the bottom of the page.  The apples had long stems because they were "really ripe".  T got excited about making books and made Papa lots of scriptures.  Lots of paper with one scribble in the middle, but a very big stack of folded paper.  I see where he is going.  He also took w's first book and called it E's book because it was so small.

T made a try square with his paper and scissors instead of books.

She finished her third huge coloring page today.  She likes to slowly work on a page a little each day.  She also has been working on organizing anything that has color in rainbow patterns.  The play dough containers are placed in rainbow, the crayon boxes are organized by color and then the box is organized by rainbow pattern.  I didn't notice and accidentally put it out of order.  Oops.

W asked me so nicely the other day about this plan she had.  She says to me: " Mom.  I have a plan.  How about we go to Target tomorrow and see how much money Percy is.  Then we can check to see if we have enough money and get Percy.  How about that plan, Mom.  We can do that tomorrow.  What do you think?"  So now the asking of stuff begins.  I so just want to give it to her purely for the cuteness and sweetness of the tone of voice.  But I think I need to think of a way for her to earn it or sell some of her toys.

I don't know why I buy toys other than trains.  So dumb of me.  They usually somehow get played with as trains.  Thomas is real.  Today they tipped the easel on it's side to make it a train.  They used their take apart train to make "tracks" (deep lines) in the carpet.  T made a track that had a perpendicular turn.  Then he got concerned about how the "train" was going to make the turn.  It was too sharp of a turn for the vehicle to fit.  He was very concerned about it.  He kept asking W how that was going to work.  She kept saying "I don't know" like I-don't-know-nor-do-I-care-so-you-figure-it-out. tone of voice.  T also made a garage and was trying to figure out how to turn the vehicle and get the garage door up.

He was concerned about that because I might have broke our garage door.  Ok.  I did.  I was trying to fix it by pulled too hard and it came off the line.  Oops.  T has been very helpful trying to fix it by pushing the button and checking to see if E is staying in the living room not crying for me.  He did a great job pushing the button for us.

E is getting very skilled at crawling.  And he is down to one nap.  He just randomly did this Sunday.  It has been three days and has only had one nap in the middle of the day without grumpiness or waking up early or at night.  Weird.  That was the easiest nap transition ever!  I guess I shouldn't hold my breath since it has only been three days.  His papa also gave him his baby treats from christmas and amazingly he has his pincer grasp starting.  It won't be too long until he has that skill down.  Either he is picking up these skills faster and younger or I'm just so enjoying him being a baby that I feel like he is growing up too fast.

E's top teeth came in Feb 5th.  He also totally muscles himself into a pulling position, but then cries because he's not sure how to get down except totally falling over.

I haven't been clogging for some time due to nap schedule and such, but today I gave it a go.  I wasn't too excited about him flopping around on the floor, so I brought the play pen.  Turned out to be a great idea.  I usually let them ride their bikes around, but I can't get them because the garage door is still very broken.  Instead of riding around to get energy out, they pushed E around.  Everyone thought that was hysterically fun.  Works for me!  T and W also were being very cute and pulling each other around using the baby rings I got out for E.

After clogging, T and W wanted to dance with me.  I was just up there having fun, but one of the other kids, three years old, barely, totally showed me up on the dances.  He put his song on and started the moves.  And he is amazingly good.  Whatever.  I'll just follow him when I dance.

Go olympians!  I love watching!  When do the curling events start?! While watching the snow boarders, we saw a guy at the top of the jumping mountain thing knitting of all things.  Really??! You are so bored you knit while on TV??!!  Random

T asked me today "do babies have necks?"  At first I answered yes, but then started laughing pretty hard.  It's a very valid question.

We tried going to the park today.  That should have been a no go.  I put all sorts of clothes on them. It was really sunny, so that means very cold.  Even with snow pants, we only lasted a half hour outside.  Silly me going to all that effort.

We started with joy school again this week.  We have been learning about trees.  I've had an absolute blast with it.  I told the other moms I couldn't get excited about the joy school curriculum, so I made up the stuff based on a theme of my own creating.  We read books about trees, played snacky squirrel, a huge hit.  We wrote names, practiced reading tree on the board, writing their names on their dot to dots, putting ripped paper on trees according to the tree (summer, spring, etc), singing songs about trees, finding tree parts in the yard, freezing leaves, playing hide and seek outside, eating leaves for snack, talking about animals that live in trees, etc.  It was so, so fun!  I'm glad we are doing joy school again.

Papa got them a color wheel.  It is referred to around here often.  T informed me that on the ipad that yellow and black make brown, not yellow, red and blue like the color wheel says.  I had to explain there are more ways than one to make brown.

We went to the beach and then that night it snowed.  It was a really bad day to go to the beach.  The wind was piercing and freezing.  I even had them in their snow pants, but it didn't matter.  They walked down to the water and just stared.  Not about to play in the sand.  Really bad idea, mom.  So we took quick pics and left!  Just as we had made observations of the daffodils growing in our yard that spring is coming.  That's ok.  There is always a snow to freeze the flowers.  At least they are not blooming yet.  W tells anyone that listens that spring is on the way.  That means that she will soon be able to run outside barefoot and eat watermelon.

I've also been trying to explain to her why we buy the produce we do.  I usually get stuff in season because it isn't as expensive.  A guest brought us strawberries, something she always want, but I'm not ever very excited to buy tasteless strawberries for a high price.  I think W picks up on it more than I realize because she informed our guest that "strawberries are ripe in the spring".  Our guest said she wasn't sure if W wanted any because they weren't good enough, but my smart guest said they probably were growing in an area that is warmer like spring and they would taste ok. W agreed because she pretty much ate almost all of them.

E loves, loves, loves to pull himself up to stand.  He can do it best on his toy table top thing.  As soon as I put him on the floor, he beelines it over to his toy and pulls himself up.  He keeps trying on other pieces of furniture, but it just is too hard still.

W and T wanted to dance like I do after clogging.  We danced on the stage.  Before that though, W informed me that we could stay home and dance because we have dancing shoes, dancing wood (the masonite sheet I have behind the piano), but we don't have music.  But then she corrected herself and said we do have music because E could play it on his table.  True and very creative, W!

waaay too cold

Telling us about all the hitches and missing hitches he is seeing on the passing cars

W's first mini book.  2 apples and 5 blueberries

T's "try square"

Consulting the color wheel while in the mail truck

W's book creations

rub a dub dub three kids in a tub

W's finished pics

I think this is the first time she's done her name with me just telling her the letters, not seeing them.  She was still frustrated with it because "it isn't good"  Too much like me

"pantalones!"  She bit off the bottom of the bell pepper so she could stick her fingers through and make pants for her fingers

Dedo with shorts on now because it is spring and warmer now

territories defined

chef cooking

floating market in Thailand

floating market wares

THE papaya salad

protest site campsite

protest site

protestors

udon flowers near a temple

carp at thai chinese cultural center

what's with the duck??  we don't know either

budda in the roots

Always needs to be in the upright position

headband for t made by W

painstaking care of copying the rainbow on the play dough box

A blue watch.  This pic is for Grandma, since I made fun of her that she still owns and wears a watch.  All three kids are fascinated by it

Startled look.  He was very surprised that his face got wet when he leaned into the stream of water

E is really starting to pick up speed.  He can cross the room in about 2 minutes.  We can see him coming and move stuff in time, though.  I still forget sometimes that he can follow me.  He tries to crawl on his toes so it slows him down a bit.  He could probably crawl faster, but he doesn't like the rug burn he gets on his knees and shins.  If I put pants on, he stops trying.  He also doesn't like hardware floors.

So this is where W and T set up shop.  They are now playing in the hall and in the kitchen where E is not to excited to follow them.  They also play on top of the desk I moved into their playroom to avoid E.  T always says "this toy is too small for E" even if it isn't.  This means T doesn't want E to touch it. 

The desk has holes to allow cords to go inside of it to stay out of sight.  T and W thought it was great fun to put their toys in it.  Until they discovered one of the holes doesn't allow for access again until Papa comes home.  T was very, very sad when W put his meow meow down the hole.  He kept talking about how sad that was for him at dinner to Papa.

T, W and Mommy are very glad to have Papa home to play wild with T and W.  They get worn out and love to play all these flips and wild games with him.

W worked on her Barbie coloring book for about an hour today.  She got out her 96 color crayon set with all the shades of pinks, reds and purples.  She put it on the easel tray, clipped in her picture and went to town.  With two of them.  Then when she was done, she put them up on the fridge and replaced her other works. 

T really wanted to pretend her easel was a mail truck.  So he kept moving it around the house while she was working on her project.  I thought it was so cute how they played this so nicely.  T would tell her when he wanted to move his mail truck, or W would ask him to move it to another place with more light.

They also put their bus and dump truck on "cement blocks" with their toys to work on it.  In the hall of course where E couldn't disrupt the fixing.  And they made cakes with their sneaky snacky squirrel logs, acorns and letters.

T has started pointing out flat bed trucks and hitches on cars when we drive around town.  The flat beds because of his toys and the hitches because Papa's truck has a hitch.

Papa brought home three flashlights.  Well, more like rapid fire strobe lights.  Two have Hello Kitty heads and one is an angry bird head.  T called it E's "angry chicken" one.  I laughed and W asked why so I told her it says angry bird on the box.  The next morning I asked where E's angry chicken was (he really loves to chew it), W told me in not so uncertain terms that is an angry bird, not an angry chicken because that is what it says on the box.  She has an amazing memory for what I teach her.  Watch out, Mom.

There are cute things they do on a regular basis.  W usually gets us a paper towel and divides it into three pieces for all of us at the table every time she needs one.  T usually likes to mix up E's food and feed it to him.  E takes it from him better than from me.

I'm trying to figure out how to raise a boy.  I'm sure I'll be scratching my head for much of my life, but today seemed successful.  I didn't feel like going outside and soaking all of us, so we played balloon bash.  I hit T with a helium partially deflated balloon and he hit back laughing for about a half hour.  Then we threw soft items such as stuffed animals and pillows at each other over the couch for another half hour.  He seemed to feel so, so much better and did much better the rest of the afternoon after hitting objects in an appropriate manner.  But W just sat and watched and didn't get why this was so fun.  Then she was needy the rest of the afternoon because I had ignored her all that time.  Heaven forbid.

Some more random T sentences that are often repeated: "Look!  I can walk on my nails!" and he is walking on his tip toes.  "James is at Target.  Gordon is at Target.  Fiery Flynn was at Target but Papa got the last one".  He has Thomas and Fiery Flynn in his train collection and knows where the rest are.  I think he got this from a discussion we had once of where those particular Thomas and Fiery Flynn came from.  W will say that they came from either Walmart or Target.

They were playing panda.  W was mommy panda and T was papa panda.  T said, "Where is baby panda?  It has to pop out of your tummy, mommy panda."  So W played along, put the stuffed animal against her belly button and then brought it away from her stomach saying "Pop out of the tummy baby panda!"

I now have to read books word for word.  We are in the books memorized stage.  I'm going to have to randomly skip words if I want to ever shorten book reading before bed again and not have them catch me.  W "read" the very hungry caterpillar book to me the other day.  And they read Green Eggs and Ham and The Cat in the Hat to each other.  It was cute to hear them read to each other. 

T likes to make "funny faces" with Meow Meow.  He squishes her face in until it is all distorted then pretend talks  to E. It makes us all laugh, including T.

W went to town making rainbows "just like on the box" the play dough came in.  That means she used all the colors.  And of course play dough never stays on the table top.  I was sweeping up the floor later and she exclaimed in such a excited voice: "Oh Mom!  Your pile is so BEAUTIFUL!"  referring to my dust pile.

My favorite part of today was playing indoor snowball fight with the sheets.  I wadded up the sheets and T would run by as I threw the sheet at him.  Then it would go "splat" and flatten out on him or W and they would laugh hysterically.

E really likes to talk.  Loudly.  He also likes yelling.  He is pretty happy about it all, but T and W don't like his loudness so much.  But then we all love him when he sucks his fingers and snuggles up

Grandma leaves again, so sad!

Chef.  He used his pocket to gather onion, avocado and lemon from the fridge to make guacamole

 

T took this picture of W and I in matching purple shirts.  He told us to be still and smile



W used the triangle and circle magnets to make hairbows.  I'm always amazed at what she can create with what she has

One of many "scroll" pictures I took.  Who taught her those were scrolls?  Must be her great great grandma giving her lessons somehow.  It isn't me

All babies need a picture next to the dishwasher.  They have all loved it

T and W love to play grocery shopping.  I'm not a huge fan of this game either because it creates a huge mess very quickly in all the rooms in the house, but they sure have a blast.  They "select an item", a phrase from an ipad game, put it in their cart, which is a box or a deflated balloon, and then they run through the house and deposit the toy in their room.  They keep picking things like blocks, beads, magnets, you know.  Lots of little things. Clean up takes forever these days, but oh well.  They are running in the house, which is good.  only in the pacific northwest winters, right?

We walked like Grandma and walked like Mommy today.  This is something J invented over Christmas.  They stand on our feet and walk fast or slow around the house. 

It was sunny today, so I got this great idea to wash the car.  There was a long line because everyone agreed with me, so I decided to use the self wash area.  Did a bad job, but oh well.  I pulled into a bay where someone had left some time on, so I got down to business.  Apparently everyone in the car was having a grand old time laughing at the wild mommy car wash.  I heard nothing.

Have I mentioned how T and W think that the ATM is so, so funny?  They laugh hysterically at the card getting eaten by the machine and how the bills come in or get eaten.  I don't know why this is so, so funny.  So if you are ever feeling down, go to an ATM machine.  It will make your day.

E is getting slightly better at crawling, but really a lot better at pulling up and cruising.  He pulled himself up on a toy today and walked around it.  I guess it is because of his breakfast of champions.  He keeps waking up at like 3 or 4 in the morning hungry.  I'm tired of it.  I guess I need to feed him more.  I've been feeding him purees more often during the day and a bigger quantity.  Yeah.  No wonder.  I have no idea how he has been so happy, but feeding him until he stops opening his mouth for more results in five solid food feedings of twice as much.  Each sitting is 2 ounces of formula, the appropriate amount of rice cereal to mix with the milk and half of a container of produce pureed of second foods, plus breast milk from both or one side.  That's a lot of food.  He doesn't spit up ever.  I'm always amazed at how much my kids can pack it down when they don't look like overweight kids.  I guess that's how much they need.

T likes to skate.  He takes the ramps off of his flatbed truck and scoots up and down the hall on "the ice". 

It still amazes me how skills in kids turn on.  It seems sudden.  E continues to cry while he crawls, but he can do it if properly motivated by a ball.

W and T randomly started writing letters.  W started it.  I guess capital H, I and T are easiest to do.  W wrote those ones out and asked if they spelled anything.  Yep.  HIT.  But she also wrote F A A T along with some other letters so we read FAT together.  T liked the letters T, V, U, O and lower case E.  It was really fun to be part of their writing moment.

T takes his chef job very seriously.  He is also E's personal chef and E LOVES it!  T mixed in all the stuff I made for E in his bowl and ran over to feed it to him himself since E was in a conumption in his hated high chair.  T gives E very large scoops, but I guess E likes it that way.  It comes in fast enough.

My mom was reading how vinegar can work like round up.  I will let you know how the experiment goes.  T sprayed a ton of weeds around the house.  He used up two spray bottles worth.  He didn't particularly like the fact that I only wanted him to spray in certain areas where there were no other plants I wanted to live around, but after he got over that, he did a number on them weeds.  Which somehow think that spring is around the corner since they are about to go to seed, but we are completely covered in fleece lined clothing at the moment.

It was sunny today, so we went the park.  The fabulous park!!  T was in the lead of exploring different pathways while riding Fiery Flynn, his name for his bike.  W didn't particularly like the kid at the playground calling her bike "Henry" some other name.  There was another kid bundled up to the eyes showing only at the park.  He was very friendly.  W and T were wary.  Finally I told T to ask how old he was, and W got up the guts.  I told T it was another boy to play with and he didn't "want to play with ANYONE!".  Ok, ok.

They practiced pumping on the swings, now that they are 4, but didn't like it too much, so they reverted to swinging on their stomachs and winding the swings up to spin around instead.  E loved his swing and how high and wild he could go.  He has a deep growly laugh sometimes that makes us all smile. 

W had a blast on the magna doodle drawing "scrolls".  She did not learn that from me, so I was impressed.  And they look really quite cool, too!

We played "experiment" by picking out an experiment to do from the experiment book.  W chose one that has a girl doing it.  that was the basis of why she wanted to do the experiment.  It's one that requires soaking beans overnight.  Whoops.   Boring today, good tomorrow.  So T and I did the leaf freezing one.

He keeps working on his cruising skills, determined to walk, just like his silly siblings.

They invented another game of crazy balloon.  They hit the helium balloons down to prevent them from floating up to the ceiling.  When they get tired, they capture it and put it in their play oven or something.

T has a blast trying to match rubber foot prints casted from real animal foot prints in the area to the drawn ones on a poster.  It was really fun!  Then they fought over who got to look through the telescope and told me to keep E away from them figuring out the puzzle.  We ended our park visitor center reading a book on how butterflies grow.  Sunshine cheers us up so!

T did the cutest thing ever today.  He just randomly made W's bed for her this morning.  It so cheered me up to see him being so kind and cute!

E's top teeth are almost in.

W told me Grandma knows how to make patterns.  This was shortly after she left and we were playing with the beads she had left.  It's true.  That is stuff Grandma and Aunt B do better

The rest of the year....

This picture makes T laugh every time.  "Oh Uncle Ryan is holding me upside down on my head!"

Pushing Uncle Ryan.  They played outside doing this for many hours, barefoot.

cute T

E, Uncle Ryan and the cruiser

eating toes is so silly, Aunt Krissa

Bulldozer helping W pick up her beads

E was sleeping.  Not too bad a pic with the timer set on the couch

Visiting grandma Wilma

Playing in the dirt with Grandma Wilma

The sun felt fabulous!

E enjoying his new toy from Grandma An.  No other baby has chewed this!!

Another thing we did for hours.  Swinging through the leaf pile in the sun with Grandpa and Papa

W's turn!

Higher!

Playing in the leaf pile.  A result of odd weather in cali

cute T with cute E in Grandma's arms in the background

Checking to see if the rope is doing it's job.  Bulldozer is very close by

Grandma Kim giving E a deep bath

E's spa bath in Grandma's sink.  The light is actually a battery lantern.  I didn't know it, but it was the beginning of the end.  E was taking a bath at 10 at night because he threw up all over

E playing in the water

Ooooo! Light!

T played this with Grandpa for about an hour.  Putting sand in the top and filling up the bucket to pour more down.  Another kid came to play and asked T if he could play with it.  T politely responded "no you may not."

W did go on this train ride but was very, very sick without me realizing how sick she was until later

After we got better and recovering very slowly. 

On the hammock in colder weather, but still just as fun

T didn't have much energy, but enough to smile

very still spa time.

"I don't know why everyone is having such a problem.  I was better in 24 hours!"

T the next morning dead asleep in Grandma's arms at 10 am in the morning.  Very, very unusual.

E standing independently the first time.  Just needed a wake board to properly motivate E

How is this not absolutely adorable?

Or this one?

More fish going potty in the spa

The hideout revealed!

Food is coming!

A common sight.  T knows just how to help E

Helping grandma cook

More quiet activities.  This day I only let them have fluids.  1 ounce every 45 minutes to keep it all down.  Keep reading, Grandma!

I'm so cute!

Uncle Ryan riding wild in the wagon.  Go Uncle Ryan.  No one else will do your job right

T using the truck to add to the burn pile

Dumping the load

After Christmas, we spent a day with Grandma An and Grandpa.  It was absolutely fabulous.  I have no idea how warm it was, but to me it felt like spring.  We really enjoyed eating oranges fresh picked by W for lunch.  T totally choked down on BBQ potato chips, too.  Mommy decided to let grandmas rule and the kids totally loved it.

the orange tree was at grandma Anderson's house.  We enjoyed catching up with everyone.  after lunch we walked over to visit Grandma Wilma.  It was about 5 blocks away, one way.  T got a tractor and semi truck for Christmas.  He is slightly attached.  When we were getting ready to leave to visit the other grandmas, t asked if he could bring his truck home.  J asked him why and he said, because I really like it.  So that means he carried it on the walk to grandma Wilma's.  He also played in the dirt with it and helped w pick up all the beads she dropped on the sidewalk.  W loved getting her beads so that is what she carried over.  She was shaking it a little too much and they escaped.  But at least she had a brother to help her.

J stayed with E while he was sleeping at Grandma Anderson's.  I went back to feed him and left the two older kids with Cathy with Grandma Wilma.  t opened the door for Cathy so
she could push grandma Wilma's wheel chair through.  They also built a garden with the tractor.

After visiting with grandma Wilma, we went back and Paul and j pushed the older kids on the tire swing through the leaf pile.  For like, maybe two hours.  They kicked the pile up every time it got low.  W and T loved it!  The rest of us sat in the sun and chatted.  Then we ate the hickory farms package for dinneer.  a perfect day.

Friday we were back up at my mom's.  She brought us to her friends house to jump on the tramp and look at the horse.  That afternoon we met up with  aunt b at the Placerville park.

Saturday was the start of the end of fun.  We planned to go to the park and ride the mini train.  We did just that and T had a great time.  However, unknown to me, W had the stomach flu.  We figured it out about halfway through the outing.  Poor thing!  We were so far away from home and she wasn't doing so well.  But I had no idea.  Just before we got on the train, she said she had to spit.  She is by prone to motion sickness and was playing fairly normally, so I thought it was a one time deal, like when she had gotten off the hammock earlier in the week.  But then, it kept going.  She wanted to go on the train so bad I really didn't think she was sick, but after we got off, she crashed and completely fell asleep.  After that we went home and none of us really emerged from the house for five days while we all cycled through it.

Some funny and not so funny parts.  Tucker commented on how his poop melted.  That about sums it up.  They kept asking why they were sick.  I told them a flu bug made them sick.  Whoops.  That brought on all sorts of discussions about how bugs crawled into their tummies.  Whitney threw up three days and each time t would comment on how she ate a bug.  Then she would cry some more.  That's how I knew they were never deathly I'll because t would always have just enough energy to tease her at some part of the day and w would scream and react.  Although one day I was a little concerned about t because he slept until noon.  Very, very uncharactoristic for him.  I kept checking to see if he was alive.  He also asked to go to bed a couple of times and would just sit around.

Toward the end uncle r gave them wagon rides since they really didn't have energy to play but were bored of movies and books.  They had to get outside!  Grandpa took them in the spa and they would mostly just sit and stare.  But I was glad my mama could take care of us.  I'm certain it will be quite some time before we get invited back.  It will take a bit to recover from an entire week of sick house guests that kindly shared their germs and screaming children.

Even though I felt like I wasted 7 beautiful sunny days with family, we did manage to get in lots of spa time, looking at stars in the hammock, reading books in the hammock, drawing with sidewalk chalk, collecting pine cones, playing with truck and tractor,  making a crane, drawing, doing dot to dots, playing make spaghetti with play dough and swinging on the porch swing.  We'll come back again.  W has asked every day since coming back home from Grandma's when spring is coming.  Too bad she has to wait until summer to go barefoot here.