Mish-mash

I thought I'd just throw a post up (not literally of course!) since its been so long and I've gotten way behind on stuff I intended to post. This is a lot of random pics of the kids doing the sorts of things they do when its freezing outside and we're shut indoors.

The #1 activity would have to be doing laps around the kitchen/dining/liv rm. loop. They like to put an oven mitt (yes I actually have 4) on each hand and do the laps waving like they're in some kind of parade every time they pass by me.

Since we had so many snow flurries during Nov.-Jan. the snowplow was seen often. It inspired them (which actually translates into me doing the actual work per their request) to slap together a cardboard "snowplow".

They got alot of mileage out of it and pretty much trashed it. I thought the video I was posting at the end was the "snowplow video" but found out otherwise after it was loaded and I didn't have time to redo. I'll probably post it later sometime for some entertainment for the 3 little musketeers that we miss in Portland. Then you can see what little imaginations can think up to make cardboard snowplows more exciting. :D

Both kids love to sing and have "bible readings" and since Kate is the leader around here Tay-O innocently follows her example. I came upon him one day all by himself by the head covering drawer in the living room singing away.

He's also into pushing dolly strollers around " The loop" with purses hanging from his shoulder or the stroller handle and often he talks on the phone at the same time. Anything that fits nicely up to the ear becomes a phone for him and he repeatedly says "Hi" into it and sometimes mumbles bits of this or that.

My Daughter wannabe. :D

When we explained one night (after a bible reading about sons and daughters) that Kate was our daughter and Elliott was our son Kate was very adamant that she wanted to be the son and Elliott could be the daughter. She has finally resigned herself to being a daughter but still lets us know that she'd rather be a son.

It is so nice when the kids get along and play well together. Some days I feel like they're constantly going at each other until I'm exhausted. Other times when they're being really quiet together and I rush to check on them I come upon them like this or something(meaning they are actually sharing happily without being commanded to do so!). So wonderful!!! :)

Having a "slumber party" on the living rm floor.

Kate likes to mother Tay-O which he doesn't usually enjoy. But sometimes when he is feeling unusually cooperative he will allow her to hold him on her lap and read him stories which just makes her day. :)

He let her read him several on this particular morning and I had time to dig the camera up and fire away.

He actually seems to be enjoying himself.

Kate is my most efficient helper these days though Tay-O is most often right there wanting to help in some way too. I think their favorite things are baking, unloading the dishwasher, helping with the laundry, or setting the table, but Kate loves to wipe and scrub and did an amazing job helping me with the kitchen floor the other day. Her comment as she was diligently scrubbing (which I happen to catch on video) was "This is hard work to do when I'm tired" followed shortly by "I bet Daddy's gonna be really happy that the floor is all cleaned when he comes home". She is also great at helping to tidy up the house as she knows where most everything goes...it just depends on how cooperative she is feeling that particular day. Yesterday when I was tidying up her comment was, "why is the house a disaster, mommy?". It actually WASN'T but apparently I say that way too often before picking up the clutter. :)

She got this beloved "Wormie" for Valentines Day and was trying her hand at photography. She took these next 2 all by herself.

We've been sick yet again for the past week with influenza and the day she first came down with it she told me she was going to go up and lay down (which is so NOT her) and when I went up to check on her I found she had tucked herself into bed with her beloved Wormie and promptly zonked out.

She spent alot of time laying in random spots curled up with a blanket and Wormie.

Elliott was the sickest of us all...

Not that excited about dinner time. :(

Thankfully we are all mostly better. Elliott and I both have a bit of a drip to our noses still but we're all feeling pretty good and actually went out to the park for awhile it the semi-warm sunshine this afternoon.

So here is the video I thought was the snowplow one but it is actually Tay-O practicing on the Wii Fit. :D This IS one of the things we do when trapped in the house so I guess it fits in here after all. Enjoy!

Elliott's 9 mos. pics

Somewhere along the way, in the midst of my business, what with sewing, cleaning, feeding small (and large) persons, having company, traveling, gardening, and keeping up with life in general, I took a few minutes to snap a few pics of Elliott...even though I really didn't have time. Last Sun. he was being his jolly self and so I plunked him down on the sofa and turned it toward the abundance of windows in our living room and snapped a few shots. I know I keep posting more pics of Elliott and less of Kate, but it just so happens that he is still young enough not to run from the camera and is full of irrisistable cuteness, while Miss Kate, on the other hand, is quite fast at whatever she happens to be doing and isn't always in the most cooperative mood. She is full of mischiefs and when she is being her happy self I'm usually busy with her and if I grab the camera she becomes very aware of it so its hard to capture the real her and those authentic smiles and such. Therefore, Elliott, being the much easier of the 2 subjects to photograph becomes overly photographed. :) I'll have to start writing down some of the funny things she says/does as she is finally getting to that stage now. Enjoy.

A most mischievious look on his face as he prepares to bail off the couch.

Umm... hello there. You talkin' to us?

Oh, you wanted us to smile...sure.

Giving Miss Kate his usual look of adoration.

(preparing to touch foreheads and rub noses)

The joy of playing tug-of-war with mommy! :)

Wishing mommy would just hand over the toy instead of dangling it above his head and making it do weird things.

Meeting "Bear"

After giving some Eskimo kisses...

a little pinching...

a little pulling...

a little poking...

"hey, his hair is standing on end just like mine"

and they became fast friends! ;)

Uh, Hello up there...

Yeah, me an' Bear are just chillin on the sofa...

Okay, all this picture taking is embarassing.

But at least I got my good buddy here to keep me company.

Yeah, me an' Bear are best buds.

Naptime

(He was getting really sleeping by this time)

Snugglebuddies

Okay Mom, I'm asleep now. (insert fake snoring sounds)

TOP 5

Here is how a 2 yr old feeds an 8 month old.

Notice she enjoys the food almost as much as he does. :D

Backyard and Bathroom changes

I had a hard time digging up any pics of this area that actually show what it really looked like before today. Here are the only 2 I could find for BEFORE.

We had decided on this area to put in a garden as it is the most out of the way spot in the yard to do so without messing up the very symetrical landscape and gets the best sun. So today I finally got a chance to have at it (after spending the morning at the doctors for another ear infection for the Little Man) and knowing that it was probably my last chance to do so I REALLY went at it! After spending pretty much from 1:30ish to 9:30ish going full steam with only 2 breaks of 15-20 min. I actually got somewhere!!! The kids were terrific for me, and Kate actually had some fresh dirt to play in for the first time in her life. :D She loved using my little hand shovel and told me several times, "I gettin duhty. Its otay. It fun to be duhty sometimes." ( she always nods her head in affirmative while telling me these bits of observations.) She fluctuated between taking care of Elliott and playing in the dirt with me, or fetching things for me.

I guess I had about 5 yrs worth of gardening energy stored up and I pretty much used it all up in one afternoon/evening. :D I feel like a Mr. Bendy now. My limbs sort of stay in the same stiff positions until I work at rearranging them again...and then it seems I can almost hear my joints creaking and popping. So I dug up and replanted several plants that were originally there, prepped an area of lawn just outside the gate to put down new "sod", dug up slabs of lawn from the area I was trying to turn into garden and relaid them in their new home, removed all the excess lawn, and then used a hand cultivator to till up my new garden plot.

I forgot how heavy a roll of lawn with 6 in of dirt attached to it is. I could barely grunt them suckers into the utility wagon. But then again, thats not sayin' much... I'm pretty out of shape. :D

And I must admit that while I was "tilling" up the little 5ft -8ft plot of earth by hand the words off one of my fitness dvds kept running through my head..."if you feel like your gonna die...you can catch your breath for 5 seconds, but no longer..." :) I also came to a much clearer understanding of why horses were our ancestors most beloved animals. I feel like I just had a near death experience and gained an inch per Bicep tilling up a little garden plot. But then, I'm sure my ancestors would consider me a sissy for the way I feel after what they would have considered an easy days work. :D

So now that I'm done whining... here's the finished work. Yea!!!

Oh, and this is my hand cultivator, for any of you who were wondering what that might be. :)

You simply plunge it into the earth and give it twist and repeat, repeat,repeat, repeat, repeat....

(Note: I had to actually measure the plot to figure how much stuff I needed to go around the edges and its actually 5 1/2ft by 14+ft. Just shows how poorly I am at guesstimating. :D )

Well that was the backyard change and here's the bathroom change.

See, I have this basket that is full of about an inch and a half of pebbles with candles nestled into them and a few larger rocks on top of that that sits atop the toilet in our bthrm. The weight of the rocks keeps it from ever sliding around and falling off... most of the time.

Kate recently discovered this facinating bit of entertainment and likes to rearrange it to her liking every now and then.

Several times I have come in to find the candles all in a row on the countertop with a large smooth rock on the center of each candle...last time she had added one small pebble to each as well for some variety...

And then she removed all the large rocks and attempted to bring the basket of pebbles down to play with them. Unfortunately, they are fairly heavy as I mentioned, and as I was dressing Elliott for bed I heard a roaring avalanche of cascading pebbles and a gasp. 2 seconds later Kate came scurrying out of the bathroom shaking a little and looking slightly terrified. I don't know why she was so scared other than the fact that she knew she shouldn't have been playing with them and they made such a horrificly loud noise. Then she stood there peering at the disastrous scene before her with a terribly distressed look on her face.

I thought the real-pebble floor added a nice touch to my bathroom decor, except they had a painfully low comfort level when being walked on.

At least she helped me pick them all up...

actually she thoroughly enjoyed that part. :)

And then she did this as many times as I would allow.

(kneeling on the toilet seat by candle light singing "Happy Birthday to you" before blowing then all out. :) Weird. :)

Well, I'm off to a hot shower and my bed, which has been screaming my name for the last couple of hours. :D