nice weather equals too much work

It appears that spring has finally arrived in Utah. The weather alternates between being yucky and awesome. When it's nice out we've been out in the back yard pulling weeds and transplanting strawberries and splashing in muddy water. (Okay, only Colin does that last one.) We're trying to get the yard ready to put in a fence, plant grass seed on the east and west sides, plant our garden, etc. Nate has put in a lot of work, and I try to help when the kids will let me. (Although, truth be told sometimes I'd much rather be out playing in the dirt than be in with whiney kids.) We're also thinking more about graduate school for Nate and what is going to be best for our family. I'll let you know once we make a decision. And it looks like Nate will be getting a new calling soon, so that's exciting too. Hmmm, what else is new...I'm going to start training for a marathon. JK. That's not happening. But I am getting excited for some of the fun 5ks this summer. That shows you just how athletic (read pathetic) I am—a 5k is a big deal to me. Colin is hilarious, as always. He cracks me up by "jumping like a horse" and singing songs all around the house. I'm getting things ready to start potty training him soon. We've got the potty and the fun underpants, now we just need some stickers, prizes, and motivation. Oh, and for Colin to decide that he really does want to use the potty. Kate is awesome too. She rolls all over the place—stomach to back, back to stomach, left shoulder, right shoulder—like a crazy woman. She smiles and laughs and chatters away. She loves having something to chew on, be it hand, plastic toy, cloth toy, or mom's arm. She's also had several fussy nights that have made me wonder if she is teething, but her mouth doesn't look like it. She also loves mom best of all, and that makes me happy. I have nothing else to say. On to the pictures.

A rare shot of both children happy at the same time.

I really like this dress on her.

Colin was singing to himself while he was playing with his potato heads. I took a video of him, but since I figured I wouldn't be able to post it, I also took a picture. He was singing I Am a Child of God. It's so sweet to listen to. I can't believe that he knows all the words!

Colin likes pushing the mop around the floor and telling me that he is sweeping. It's one of his new favorite games.

Nate told me that we are not raising a housekeeper, but I don't mind the help.

Kate is awesome. She looks so funny sometime when I take her picture.

Colin wanted a picture taken of him wearing a headband too.

Here's another shot from her little photo shoot.

Colin and I went to the park last Tuesday with some of the other families in our ward for Park Day. (Kate took a nap at home with my mom.) Colin preferred to talk to the moms instead of the kids his age. He makes me laugh.

The bridge was his favorite part.

Well, the bridge and the picnic tables. He kept climbing up there and telling me he was eating a picnic lunch. (We didn't actually have one.)

Kate refused to look at me during her bath. She does love the bath now. I don't know if you can tell from the picture, but she was kicking and splashing with joy.

I got right up in her face in order to demand her attention.

I tried taking some cute pictures of the kids together. It didn't go as planned. Here's the best one.

Colin doesn't mind smiling for the camera when he takes a bath. He's a huge ham.

Kate has discovered the sheep on her exersaucer. She loves to gnaw on it just like her brother did.

Happy silly Fat Face.

Colin bit Kate's leg the other day. I was not pleased. Kate was lying on the floor with Colin near her, and then she started crying. Nate checked her leg and found Colin's teeth marks on it. Grrr. The cows had a hay day with Colin after that.

Colin told me he wanted me to take a picture of him and Kate. Here is what happened. Colin tried to give Kate a kiss.

Then he just let go of her.

And then they both tried to get away from each other.

flair

I'm not a fan of Facebook because I really don't need one more time waster in my life, but I do love me some flair. And since I'm sure most of you have not looked at my pieces of flair before, I am proud to share it with you here. Please to be enjoying it.

deal with it

I like my new camera, really I do. It takes higher quality pictures, and the flash doesn't overexpose every shot like the old camera did. However, it is not as easy to load the pictures and videos onto my computer, hence the reluctance I have been feeling to blog.

And in regards to the title of my post, that's what I have had to tell myself lately. Deal with it. Move on. My babies are conspiring against me when it comes to sleeping. They trade off on who wants to me inconsolable at midnight and who wants the 3:30 am shift. And then when it comes to nap time Colin just refuses to sleep (or stay in his room) and Kate wants to be held the entire time. I've started holding Colin's door shut, so he can't escape, until he gives up and falls asleep. It's fun. It's not anything egregious, and I'm not crying myself to sleep every night over it (because there's no point in going to sleep really), but it is annoying and tiring.

In other news, Kate is getting bigger and cuter every day. She's starting to fit into some bigger clothes, which has been fun for me. I love dressing her up and taking her picture. I thought I was picture crazy when Colin was a baby, but Kate is much more fun. Look at how adorable she was wearing that red headband! So so cute with her pretty blue eyes.

Kate has decided that she likes the exersaucer—as long as she can still see me. It has made making dinner a much more enjoyable experience. (As enjoyable as making dinner can be, I guess.)

Mad Fat Face, but I love it.

The kids together. Kate was done with picture at this point.

Colin loves his blanket. And his dragon. And his train pajamas. I feel like I have seen this picture somewhere before....

Kate was totally working this outfit. I loved it. She looked so sassy and awesome.

I have a feeling I'm going to have another biter on my hands. Kate loves to have anything and everything in her mouth these days.

The weather has been nice the last few days, so we've done a lot of yard work. Nate weeded the beds in the front yard, and we got the east side of the house prepped for grass (which will hopefully go in tomorrow!). 

I knew that Colin was going to want to be outside helping Daddy this spring/summer, so I bought him his own gardening tools for Easter. 

I have no words.

She's almost too big for these striped pajamas. I'll be sad to see them go.

But she's finally big enough for this awesome dress! She wore it to church and to a wedding last week. And she looked spec-TAC-u-lar.

Colin loves to blow kisses on Kate's belly. He thinks he's so funny and always says, "Good job" when he's done. 

I love Colin's pose in this one.

It's surprisingly difficult to get a good picture of the two of them together.

Silly boy.

Another cute outfit. I love these skirts. Thanks for letting us borrow them, Lenna!

Can you see the rash thing on her neck? She's so drooly and fat-faced that she gets a yucky rash type thing in the folds of her neck. It's hard to get at to try and help.

Hannah sent a stick unicorn to go with Colin's stick horse. (Really she sent it on Nate's behalf since he loves unicorns and all other magical creatures.) He loves it already. Huzzah Hannah!

He was trying to ride both of them at the same time.

More fun new clothes. I love this shirt, and it looks great with her fun bow. She got all dolled up to go to Relief Society with me on Wednesday. She was a hit.

I love those eyes of hers. Such a pretty girl.

Colin pushed around the box of diapers while I took pictures of Kate.

This face makes me laugh.

Colin is quite the little nurturer. He loves to feed his animal friends. I convinced him to stop trying to nurse them with his belly and to try giving them a bottle so they can drink juice and water too. He thinks that's a great idea. 

Kate will often roll herself over to where Colin is so she can stare at him and try to grab his face.

This is a picture of Colin "walking to church." Notice how he put on his fancy gold beads before he set out. I have a video of him walking back and forth across the room on his way to church, but I can't get it off of the camera right now.

And lastly, I have finally finished Kate's name for her room. I had these brown chipboard letters that I bought for like ten cents each, and I wanted to mount them on canvas covered with scrapbook paper, but I couldn't find canvas for a price I was willing to pay. And then Michael's had a sale last week and I got the canvas for a dollar each. Awesome! I know the A doesn't show up too well on the brown paper, but I liked it better than the other option, so there you have it. Hooray for me. Now I just need to convince my husband to mount them on the wall...

Nate says to finish now.