Spring silliness

I know you all love Carriese stories, so here's today's. I was taking her into preschool this morning and she could only find two gloves that didn't match. So she's wearing them, and I'm not wearing any, as she hops out of the car. She grabs my hand in the parking lot (one of our rules) but with BOTH her gloved hands and tells me, "here. I'll keep you warm since you didn't have the sense to wear your gloves."

I don't know where she's ever heard that before. *whistles and looks around, almost innocently*

And Liam is saying "goodness gracious" but I can NOT for the life of me figure out how to spell it his way to capture the true essence of its cuteness. You'll just have to try it out in your imaginations.

And this has nothing to do with the kids, but for those of you (us!) who are jonesing for spring:
http://www.procreo.jp/labo/flower_garden.swf Just click your mouse around on the black screen, or click, hold, and drag it. Thanks to Don & Judy for passing it along through email! It's fun AND addicting, but much needed since who knows when we'll see any of the real thing here in Ohio. I heard my first killdeer of the Spring yesterday, though, and am so glad they're back. I've really missed them!

Have a great week! Love you all!

Happy Easter 2008

Happy Easter snuggles from Dada to Mama. Weeee!

And just what do you think you're doing with that camera, Dada?

Look at that concentration. He's unwrapping a Hershey Kiss.

Putting small change into his piggy bank. Mom thought he looked like he understood all the denominations. At any rate, he knew just where to put it! Hehe. Practicing fine motor coordination. *clink* *clink* ;)

Easter smooches

Dada took this one because he liked the mirror image. Neat! There's one a few weeks ago of Liam like this.

Grandmama and Carrie with the new bug house. Last summer she kept finding bugs and putting them in tupperware... we're all hoping this works out better for all parties involved. =P

Mouthful of candy...

...and there's the sugar kicking in!

The cup says "Drama Queen". I thought it was appropriate ;)

Liam with his duckie Easter basket and his "wa-doh can" which we keep telling him is a watering can, not a bat! =/

She'd been asking for flip flops and just happened to find some in her Easter basket!

Care Bear went right to work on her velvet art.

Licking the last of the icing from his bowl. See cinnamon roll in his right hand. This one was Grandmama's favorite. Hehe! Such a boy!

A weekend with Share Bear

Share Bear came to stay with us this weekend. He travels to different homes each weekend and visits the kids who are in Miss Linda's preschool class. We wrote in his journal and took him on outings and made sure to keep his teeth clean and shiny! Plus, Dada came home on Friday after 3 whole weeks in Atlanta! Boy, had we missed him!

Here's the kids squashing their Dada in big welcome home hugs!

I got to go to the Y with Carrie for her swimming lessons! Her Mama and Dada found goggles and a shower cap for me so my fur wouldn't get wet and stinky if someone splashed me. I think her polka- dot swimsuit is so cute!

Here we are at the Y. She did everything her teacher, Miss Holly, said to do. And she even jumped in at the end of her class! I think she's a brave, fun girl.

Share Bear helped eat macaroni and cheese at Barry's Bagels. He also helped spill some... oopsie!

Carrie did a great job brushing Share Bear's teeth! Look at that concentration.

I really like book time. That one had Cookie Monster in it and it made me giggle!

Weekend update

I know it's blurry - may have been too close. This is Carrie, mid-change. Kinda looks like those old fashioned nuns. Hehe.

Resident artist at work. She's been drawing like crazy lately, and her drawings are getting very impressive. Perhaps you'll find one in your mailbox soon!

Kinda looks like she has that blue pencil in her eye, doesn't it? It wasn't, I promise! I'd been buried behind my computer and looked up to see her sticking those in there and it cracked me up. Thought you'd all get a kick out of her supplies...

Liam the Marshmallow, ready to go out to play. Isn't he just so cute? This was the last Tuesday snow but it was Wednesday that we went out...

It's snowing again. Care Bear's first swim lesson was this morning and of course we have blizzardish conditions. Thankfully most of it is drifting instead of just coming straight down, so we braved it and headed to the Y since it's only about 7 minutes from here. She tried EVERYTHING her teacher, Miss Holly, wanted her to do, including jumping in at the end of the class. I was so proud! Most of you know how she can be such a mule once she gets something in her head. All last night and early this morning it was, "I'm so excited! YAY! Swimming! I can't wait!" and then once we got her coat and were struggling into it, the story changed to "I don't wanna go! I'm scared! I don't want you to watch. I DO want you to watch. I'm not doing it. I'm not going."

"We're going."

We went. And she sat and shivered along the edge between each activity, but she did GREAT! So if you call to talk to the little miss, be sure to tell her you heard she obeyed her teacher and how proud you are, please. She really did awesome. Can't wait for next week!

And the roads were worse on the way home. Glad we're not going anywhere else today. Wish all the snow would stay in Montana where it belongs =P

Have a good weekend! It's sunny somewhere...

Prayer requests

This post, once again, doesn't have anything to do with Care Bear or Liam the Destroyer. However, some of you were diligent in praying for healing for Manoj's mom and for that I thank you. I have two other requests for you to turn your praying energies towards:

One of the babies I got to snuggle in our church nursery passed away last week. Elias was 7 months old, constantly smiling and snuggling, with big kissable cheeks like Liam had when he was that age. He'd been feeling lethargic so his parents took him into the ER. After a transfer to another hospital, a brain tumor was found in Elias. Surgery was scheduled for two days from then. The next night it was decided that a stint (or stent? I forget, forgive me) needed to be put in to relieve some of the pressure. That surgery went fine, but on the way back to his room he coded and the doctors couldn't get him back. His parents are Kele and Frankie and everyone is just broken hearted for them. Seven months old. They were just getting to the good stuff! Elias truly did bless everyone around him. He loved to snuggle and was usually either smiling or sleeping up against someone's shoulder. He even kissed me once in the way that babies gnaw on your cheek and shoulder if you're lucky enough to be the one snuggling them. Please pray for his family. It happened so fast and is just beyond imagining...

And this blog came to me in an email: www.forleslie.blogspot.com I haven't met them, but from what I've read they could desperately use your prayers too. Please pray for healing and continued peace for Leslie and her family. Some people have such obstacles to overcome and we can truly be part of the overcoming by lifting them up! Thanks for being part of the process.

Supposed to get more snow here, but I'm not even going to think about it. I planted seeds in 100 peat pots (they're tiny, no worries) today so we will be watching for tiny green things in the next few weeks. Maybe then Spring will get the picture and show up here, instead of just in the Pacific Northwest! ;) Stay warm, stay safe, keep praying! Thanks, guys!

And thanks to Grandma Barb for all the playtime for the kids and the free time for me. Hope Pap's truck isn't as bad as it sounds! =( Have a great weekend, everyone!

March madness

He looks like he's thinking, "okay, where's the party?"

My handsome Liam. And don't ask why he had his mittens and hat on inside the house. I have no idea.

Carrie before school on Monday. I tried to get one of her facing me so you could see the purple bunny rabbit barrette in her hair, but as you can see she was rather uncooperative. Still a cute picture of her being busy though. She'd just discovered the new magnets on the fridge (thanks, Nanama!) and was distracting herself until we could leave for school.

March came in like a lamb yesterday at least. It was 55 and all of the snow melted except the plowed icebergs. This morning there was some ice and a little dusting of snow, so she made it to school two days in a row. Tonight it has been sleet and freezing rain and everything is covered in snow again w/ 1-2 or 3-5 more inches of snow to come, depending where you check. We've already cancelled moms' group for tomorrow morning and I'm interested to see if school will start on time... perhaps Rita and I will end up watching Cary Grant in something if I do take Dee to school... hmmm....

She just finished her last round of eyedrops- she went and got pinkeye last week and missed school on Friday so we could pay Dr. Jon a visit. She doodled all over the crinkly exam paper and he was delighted- he took it home as Saturday was his birthday and said he'd put it up on his fridge! How sweet! We just love him. He'll get to see Bing next week, I think. Hehe.

They're both down now. Think they're wearing Grandma Barb out. Carrie keeps doodling in Grandma Barb's Sudoku book and is really trying hard to figure out where the numbers go. It's pretty funny. And Pa Pa's birthday is on the 6th, so I asked Carrie what she thinks we should get him. This was right after I told her he's always wanted to be a duck since they can walk, swim, AND fly. So naturally, she said we ought to get him a duck! =/ Hmmm, how about plan B?

Can someone please tell me where our chubby, fat boy went? I haven't seen him around for awhile. Just look at these pictures! =( *sigh*

It was warm enough on Monday for him to do this. He'd lost his pants since they weren't tight enough around his waist anyways, so he was running around and doing gymnastics all over the house, laughing hysterically the whole time. Can you say Cabin Fever?

Someone has turned into a complete and utter ham. He mugs for the camera even more than she does anymore. He was chomping away on this spoon with it pressed up against his nose and made all of us crack up. Such a nut!