Snow! Snow! Snow!

Hooray for the beautiful snow! We finally got some of the glittery sparkly stuff. Kate was too little to enjoy it last year, but was facinated by it this year. She spent alot of time by the window last night watching it fall, and today she got to get out and enjoy it for a little while.

At first she wasn't sure what to do with the stuff. She studied it and poofed it around by grabbing handfuls and clapping her mittens together.

Then she tasted some...

and found snow-eating to be one of her new favorite past-times.

And of course, we had to make a snowman!

A jolly little fellow who sits on our grill peering in the window at us with a cheery smile. :)

We like to peer back at him. :)

And Kate has been running to the window every now and again to check on Mr Snowman and make sure he is OK.

He says he is just fine...its still way too cold to start melting yet.

So he continues to sit there and smile over the great mound of clothes that we peeled off after coming inside...

'These folks sure are silly. All I need out here is a hat and even that is just for style.'

After our fun in the snow we are now content to play in our warm cozy little house...

And feed oop (soup) to our baby. :)

And I'm happy to announce that today is the first day in 2weeks that I have not had to suck out or blow anymore stuffy noses. HOORAY! We are happy to be officially and completely over our colds/coughs. :)

That makes 2 seriously happy punkins.

Sick Days

I really really felt like spending the morning in bed and not getting up until noon this fine freezing cold day.... but a certain young man lying in bed next to me just wouldn't let me. :D

Every time I opened my eyes just a little peek to check on him he'd give me THIS look...

I know you're looking at me Mom. You're gonna get up and play with me aren't you?!?!

How could I possible resist that!

And so I did ...and then the next one wakes up and the party is on. :)

With a grande entrance onto the bed to join us, and an "accidental" foot to the head for Elliott, Miss Kate arrives on the scene.

After kisses of apology are handed out to Elliott

I leave my two little angels to use the bathroom, mentally telling myself that the quicker I can get in and get out the less chance there is of finding a hollering baby or some great disaster to clean up upon return. I'm forever straining my ears to hear any clue as to what might be happening out there. The sound of feet pattering into another room than the current one I left them in is never a good sign, and my mind immediatly begins racing through anything left in reach of disaster in that particular room.

But they just looked happily content today so I thought I had a few minutes of time to myself.

WELL...

I guess I was not quick enough this morning...

cause this is what I found upon my return.

She got into the brown and white sugar bins and stirred a little bit of one into the other just for kicks. Ate alot of brown sugar and made sure to spill plenty all over her PJs and then found a mini chocolate chip bag in the back of the cupboard, which she promptly opened and emptied onto the kitchen floor. The party had officially moved from the bed to the kitchen floor, apparently. :) She was lovin' a healthy breakfast of all-you-can-eat chocolate chips and 2 sides of sugar. That girl moves so fast when she wants to!!! :)

THE LESSON SHE TAUGHT ME AFTERWARDS:

After we fail in doing the right thing...the best thing to do is go and spend some time in the WORD OF GOD.

A short time after I had found her in the previous picture, she was doing this...

Singing in the rocking chair.

Soon that evoloved into looking up verses...

Checking out cross-references...

And then looking it up in the New Translation for further contemplation and meditation.

I can only hope some good came of it. :D

THE PERFORMANCE

(the Christopher Robin outfit was her own doing)

It was another long day in the house of Miss Kate. The house was still filled with the sounds of coughing, snuffling, wheezing and sneezing, and it was going on 6 days since those dreadful sounds had first come to visit. The day seemed to stretch out before Miss Kate as a long and dreary time to pass before another bedtime would come and go.

She stood starring gloomily at her only playmate who was feeling just as miserable as she, so could hardily be considered a great playmate just then.

Ho hum. What to do?

She wanted to feel happy. NOT gloomy.

Suddenly she had and idea...

"Elliott, I've thought of just the thing to cheer us up!" She declared

"Now you just watch what I'm about to do and see if it doesn't brighten up your spirits!"

And with that, she promptly danced a little jig all around the living room. :)

Filled with hoppin' and jumpin' and heel-to-toein' !

When she was finished she stood before Mr. Elliott and inquired of him, "Well, did I brighten your day Sir?".

And this was his reply...

THE END. :)

Happy day to you all! :) And get better soon if your sick! :) HUGS :)

Miss-chievious Kate

Sometimes when she is quiet I find her being very angelic...

Such as when I rushed into the living room after a long period of silence, sure I was going to find disaster, only to find her sitting there on the floor diligently searching through the scriptures...

Other times not so much...

Like when I fell asleep reading her stories on the bed after a long night with a sick baby and jumped awake to find this disaster...(this is the messiest, gooiest, ooiest stuff to clean up) I did not take a picture of her before cleaning her up because there wasn't time. I didn't want her to get it anywhere more than she already had. She appeared to think is was furniture polish, and was using her lovely slimy white hands to spread it and a washcloth to polish. Unfortunately for her, her "night-night" was also covered in it so she had to take her nap without it. (It was finally clean 1 scrubbing, 1 soaking, and 2 washings later.) I had to wash her hands 6 times just to get rid of the pretty white gloves. I 'm counting my blessings that she kept the majority of it on the wipeable surfaces as it is a super royal pain to get out of materials/clothes/carpet. The alarm clock still has goop in all the cracks and crevices. :)

And there was the time I walked into her room to get her up one morning (after thinking she was sure sleeping a long time) and found her completely NAKED. She loves to undo zippers snaps and such so she stripped off her jammies and then removed her diaper as well. She tried to fold it neatly up just like mommy does and then set it on the dresser to be thrown away... and yes, she also peed in the bed afterwards. ...I thought I was actually caught up on the laundry for a minute, but I knew that couldn't be possible. :D

Sometimes she actually plays nicely with her cousins.

...And SHARES!!!

More often she likes to boss and annoy them...at least the littler ones don't know the difference. :)

Helping push Little Sprout in the walker... even though she doesn't need any help.

And then moving her chair right up against the walker so Little Sprout couldn't go anywhere...

every time Little Sprout backed up and started in another direction Miss Kate promptly moved her chair in front of her again.

But alas! Little Sprout is still smiling after all that so Miss Kate decided to try a different tactic...Ruffy in the face!

Playing and plotting mischief with Elliott

Hey, Elliott, see how dirty Fletch is. I bet we could get him nice and clean if we washed him in the toilet.

Don'tcha think so?!

Oh, hi mom, we weren't doing anything naughty, we're just sittin here doing nothin.

Mom turns around for a second:

_Fling_

Fletch the Puppy is sent flying through the air by Kate and smacks Elliott in the face.

Mom whips back around. "Kate did you just hit Elliott in the face with Fletch?"

Kate sits there smiling innocently, but saying nothing.

Something tells me by the look on his face that the answer is 'YES'.

They move down to the floor and the "playing" continues...

"Hey, Elliott, would you like me to teach you something?

You would?! Okay!"

"Did you know these are your eyes?"

*Poke* *Poke*

"And if you lift up your head a bit more *PUSH*

I'll show you where your mouth is." :)

Don't worry folks its all good. I'm pretty tough you know. :)

Miss Kate is a typical girl in that she loves to try on shoes and clothes ...usually ones that are way too big or way too small. :D Notice she has both of her legs in one pant leg of Elliotts jeans.

Miss Kate has become very helpful in entertaining Elliott these days...although I can't leave her alone with him or he gets a lot of stuff in the face. Often she covers him completely with a blanket as though that might make him go away for a while. Usually she set a book on his face or makes sure her toy "accidentally" hits him. The other day she had a thermometer up his nose. He never made a peep about it even though his eyes were all red and watery. (Have you ever tried sticking a thermometer up your nose? It ain't pleasant!) I did it back to her so she could see how it felt. :]

They often play together on the bed in the morning and evenings as I get ready for the day or night.

....Here sits Elliott feeling very bored...but wait...someone is coming in the door over there. Elliott can take it from here...

The suspense is killing me....

Oh goody, its Kate!

I don't like to take my eyes off of her when she's around cause you never know what might happen. I know she looks very innocent...

But she can get pretty wild sometimes.

Personally, I find her very exciting to watch! She does backflips...

"Hey, Elliott are you watching me!"

...and sommersaults!

And she tells me secrets....Psst!

I think she's really funny! :D

Oh, and I love to rock in the rocking chair with her...

...As long as she doesn't rock me out.

She rocks me violently ...BACK...and FORTH...

(or FORTH...and BACK according to the pictures.)

And I like it!!!

We also like to sing while we're rocking, her and I. It's just so cozy and relaxing. :) It always calms everyone down when Mommy is having a rough day.

It makes us very happy. And sometimes Kate even tells me stories

Even better...sometimes we all get to sit in the chair with Daddy and read stories!!! Kate doesn't let me see the scary parts. She says I might get nightmares.

Boy I sure am getting sleepy. I think it's time for a nap in my favorite chair. Good bye ya'all!

XOXO from Elliot (oh, and from Mommy and Kate too probably) :)