Mooncrawling

Hope y'all don't mind some ABC crackers.....

Ben and Jerry's free ice cream day! Yum... except Lily ended up stealing Ben's ice cream instead of eating her own.

Skyler's been doing his rocking for a while now and he's just starting to crawl a little more. Although, I help him learn the crawling skills I am not looking forward to his mobility. It is always a sad day when they figure out they can basically do whatever they want. But for now he's in what I call the "mooncrawling" stage because he usually just pushes himself backwards when he's "crawling." He knows how to crawl with style. :)

This week has been the week of projects. Ben installed a new microwave over the stove for my parents. We've also been working on some landscaping around their yard. It's been wonderful to be outside. Skyler's been really sick (double ear infection, sinus infection, and teething) and so he's been almost inconsolable. I have to take care of him mostly by myself since he's a mama's boy. The one thing that makes him calm down is being outside. But since we've had a little bit of rain I just have to stand next to the window a bunch. Poor little man. Other than that life is pretty bright over here. And not to rub it in or anything but it's going to get up to 80 this week. OK.... maybe that is rubbing it in. MWAHAHAHAHAHA.

The Quote of the Day for Us

As everyone who reads this blog knows Lily can be quite the hand full. Today has been no different. Heather asked Lily to bring me Skyler's clothes. Well she didn't, so the whole family goes looking for the missing clothes. Heather sees them and as she picks them up she says, "I have the eyes of a bloodhound's nose."

Sadly to say this seemed a lot funnier at the time, but I still get a petty good chuckle when I think about it.

Oh, the Joys of Life

What are those things called that you use to squeeze the mucus out of babies' noses with? I call them snotsuckers because I can never remember. Anyway, Lily was using a snotsucker as a pen and was writing a bunch of notes to us.

Is there anything better than little guys in baby ties?! And, yes, I realized I put his clip on on even though his shirt is unbuttoned at the top. That's what happens when babies start outgrowing their clothes...

When I go into the bathroom to do my hair/makeup Lily will often follow me and and close the door behind her. She'll pull herself up onto the toilet and start going through my stack of baby magazines or play in the sink (or brush her teeth for 20 minutes, which seems to be the favorite). We just love our girl time. The other day she was really fascinated in my makeup. So I let her put a some lip gloss on (which ended up being all licked off because it was peppermint flavored) and then I let her put on her own blush. She looked great with it all over her chin. You can't really see too much in this picture... but let me tell you she was a little beauty queen.

The best swimsuit in the history of swimsuits. Bless you Old Navy for creating a swimsuit with little tulle tutus.

Thank you tree in the front yard for making me miserable. I'm just praying that I have allergies. We've all had colds and my parents are getting over their bronchitis, but just today my mom was diagnosed with walking pneumonia. Hopefully we'll all make it through this wedding season alive.... if not bless the person who ends up being responsible for my children. You're going to need all the help you can get.

Just for Ben's mom--

Day 2 - Bird/Build Day!!!!!

Unfortunately, on day 2 of vacation Lily of course woke up sick -- really sick. So we switched around our days in hopes that she would get better soon, so on Tuesday we just stayed home with our activities. Although I know they say to let sick children rest and everything but Lily just wanted to be outside running around, with her little nose running the whole time. So outside we stayed for a good portion of the day because it was 75 degrees! YUM!

Notice how he only has one sock on. It seems like every time I take him out of his crib he has taken off one of his socks. I would think it was weird but Lily went through a phase like this when she would always pull up her left pant leg. Poor kids can't help that being bizarre is in their genes.

Time to make bird-feeders!!!

Although we hung all four of our pine cones on Tuesday none of them are still hanging from the trees because of squirrels. That's alright. I don't discriminate. In fact, I'd rather see squirrels around than birds.

"Hey Ben, do you think you could just whip out a bird house for me?" *gets wood and whips out a bird house* "thanks." Being married to a handyman is the BEST. :]

Ben and my dad helped a family in our ward move a couple of weeks ago and so they gave Ben their grill since they didn't want it anymore. He was happier than a kid on Christmas Day.

Well, yesterday Skyler and Ben woke up pretty sick. And this morning I woke up sick. I just laugh that we haven't really been sick this winter but the week we declare to be vacation week we all get it. Haha. So our activities will be delayed until we're all feeling better. The good news is that our first daffodil bloomed yesterday! Yay for spring coming!

Day 1 - Water Day!!!!

Today we started our "family vacation!" Since we don't really have an income we're attempting to do this as cheaply as possible. Most days will be free (besides gas) but every now and then we'll spend very little. Each day has a theme and hopefully something we can teach Lily... so in a way this is more of a week long field trip than a vacation. Today was water day. We went to the lake and washed the car (keep in mind our activities aren't thrilling but they're fun for an almost 2 year-old....)

I like this picture... it somehow looks religious to me... although it is a seagull and not a dove... :(

How I love these ugly ducks... if they're ducks. I always thought they looked like turkey ducks.

Can I tell you how much I love my double stroller. Bless the person who invented these. We passed about 2.5 billion dogs during the 2 mile walk and Lily had so much fun saying "bark bark" back to the dogs. And of course she also quacked back at the ducks.

So today I was almost killed by a goose. You can tell these birds are all a little too used to people giving them bread that when it saw mine it literally flew out of the water and in between me and Ben (we were only about two feet apart) and tried to get my bread before it landed back in the water on the other side of the bridge. And in this split second of the "attack" I was thinking, "I can't believe this is how I'm going to die!!!! I have children to raise!!!" Now I look back at that and sigh at how incredibly stupid I am. So much for my dream of being a superhero.... you never realize just how scared you can get until a goose comes flyin' at ya.

I love how Lily runs with her whole body.

Always loving her daddy!

Skyler didn't enjoy just sitting around watching us wash the car so he hung out with me. This week is going to have some amazing weather- all 60's!!!! As we were washing the car it was evaporating off immediately. Warm weather, I love you. Never leave me again.

After all this Lily helped Papa and me rake leaves, pine cones, and these spiky little balls in the backyard to get ready for tomorrow!

Peas, Please!!!

Me and my sous chef, Lily, made chocolate-chocolate chip cookies. She's an amazing helper! She pulls up her chair every time I cook or do dishes so she can help. Not only is she covered in flour but as I always say she is just covered in cuteness!!!

What would childhood be like without licking beaters???

Don't I look like a supermodel when it's first thing in the morning???

He only wishes he had a 'fro. Dream on, Hubby.

One of the my favorite moments so far! It was so cute when she wanted to feed him his peas. Sure half of the time she'd turn the spoon wrong and the food would drop in my lap but it was 100% worth it! *A side story about peas: I was feeding Sky when I was home alone one night and so I had Lily sit next to me with milk and one of the cookies we made. Even with that cookie in hand she kept getting jealous that I was feeding Skyler. "Do you want some peas instead of your cookie?" She nodded. "Say please." "Pweese!!!" And we continued like that for the rest of the night until the peas were gone. It was pretty awesome that not only did she eat the peas instead of her cookie but she was begging for them. MWAHAHA. VICTORY!!!!

Well this upcoming week our little family is going on a family vacation. We're staying in Raleigh but we're going to do fun and free things everyday!!! It's just so frustrating waiting for a job that we decided that "life is not just to be endured but also enjoyed." So next week is going to be a blast! Or so I hope....

Here's reason number 32948342304 why I'm a bad mom. I secretly can't wait to find that baby food that just makes babies gag. Well today I found Skyler's -- corn. Every time I stuck it in his mouth he'd either gag or blow it all out of his mouth. The awesome part was that I had just finished showering when I fed him and I had it ALL OVER myself. I guess that's payback for my evilness.

Now that Lily's in the vocab growth spurt we're trying to get her to say all sorts of words. Lately she's been fascinated with her colors. But the other day my dad asked her if she could say "supercalifragilisticexplialidocious" and she just looked at him and thought for a second, and then said, "yeah." Priceless.

I've continued to have some weird medical issues, one of which is extremely low blood pressure. I have constantly been told that I shouldn't even be able to walk with how low it is. When I was in labor with Skyler I hit my all-time low of 60/17. Anyway, that's beside the point. Let's just say I haven't been able to function normally and so Ben's been taking on some of my responsibilities with the babes. And here's how I know I have one of those winner hubbies:

Ben: Heather, just go upstairs and lie down. I'll take care of the kids. Don't worry about it.

Me: No, that's not fair to you.

Ben: When was the last time I did something for you?

Me: Ummm... all the time.

Ben: Well clearly I'm not doing enough.

Yeah I think I overmarried. Poor kid is stuck with me forever.