outdoors n stuff

The weather has been nice enough lately for us to play outside. Huzzah! Unfortunately, we have also been too sick to enjoy the nice weather far too often. We're on the mend now, and hopefully the weather will continue to cooperate because the kids have loved going outside.

I think Colin was getting ready to go outside here. He was very proud of how handsome he looked and wanted his picture taken.

The tools have emerged! I think they were buried under the snow all winter.

I took about 50 pictures of Kate just trying to get her to look at me. This is like the only one where she did. Her eyes looked so pretty out in the sunshine.

Kate really liked the mud. It was not so fun to get off of her.

She got really upset when her shoes got stuck in the mud and she couldn't move. Ha.

Kate won't leave bows in her hair. I tried to tell her how pretty she looked, but she still wanted to take the flower out and look at it for herself.

What a good little mother she is! I think she's inherited my natural mothering instincts. Headbutt that baby back to sleep, Kate! Do it!

I love her, even though she is kind of crazy.

Easiest fort ever. We throw the kids in the crib and cover it with blankets. They get so excited! They peek through the bars and giggle nonstop.

Another hairdo attempt. She must not like it, because she ran away from the camera.

Papa Sam came by the other day and played with the kids for a few minutes.

Colin didn't get the concept of soccer. He got upset that the big boys kept taking the ball from him.

As a reward for Colin filling up his potty chart we took the kids to the white-trash bouncy house place in town. It was filled with super creepy, overweight older kids (like including 13 to 14-year-olds) that made it slightly less fun. But we still managed to have a good time. Just before we left we found an abandoned slide where our family played all alone. Kate was hilarious. I'd heft her up to Nate, and he'd drop her down the slide. She went down all by herself, giggling like mad. Colin just jumped by himself at the bottom. It was fun.

This is Colin doing a summersault. I think.

Aww, she's so cute.

And she lovers her accessories.

This face cracks me up.

Surveying her handiwork after dumping the puzzles on the floor.

New car seats arrived! Huzzah! Kate wouldn't get out of them while they were in the living room.

I put the boxes in the kids' room and let them have at it. Colin decided his was a house, and then a cave, and then a bad tiger cave. I'm so glad a simple box can bring such joy to a 2-year-old.

Kate loves to climb up the back of Colin's bed. It used to bother me, because I thought she'd fall and get hurt. Then I wished she'd fall and get hurt so she'd stop. But it hasn't happened yet so I just let her do as she pleases.

Both kids think they are hilarious when they steal my spot. Nice pose, Colin.

You too, Kate. The white patch on the wall is from where Nate repaired the hole I made with Colin's head.

Another nice day outside. Colin was pretending to be Johnny Appleseed. He would sprinkle the dirt seeds into the hole, then pat pat pat the soft black bed so the new baby trees could grow.

He also liked to throw dirt clods.

I had the camera out and Colin wanted to take a picture. I let him take a picture of Nate. He did a pretty good job. It helps when you have handsome subject matter.

Sam brought this headlamp home from Iowa for Colin. Colin doesn't quite grasp the concept of leaving it on his head, but he loves to play with it in the dark. Say! In the dark? Here in the dark? Would you, could you, in the dark? (We've been reading a lot of Green Eggs and Ham.)

Nate doesn't like her outfit. I do. It works for her. And she's so pretty.

Sunday we all stayed in our pjs. I brought out my fuzzy socks to warm my feet, and Kate thought they were for her. So I let her put them on, and it was a good decision. Look how ridiculous and awesome she is!

The kids both have double ear infections right now. They started antibiotics today. I'm finally getting over my cold (after a few days flat in bed, thanks pregnancy), and Nate is all better. Yay! Things are looking up. Hopefully we'll get to visit our family in Iowa this week without too many complications or crying babies. :)

potty champion!

Colin is potty training/potty trained. This week I decided that since I'm finally feeling better it was time to bite the bullet and just let the kid use the toilet. The first day was hard—he was super constipated and so we had a few meltdowns and accidents. But since then he's been almost perfect. He's stayed dry at night and during nap time. He's still learning to tell me that he needs to poop (usually I just catch him when he looks like he's concentrating too hard on something). He cheerfully tells me when he needs to pee. He's enjoyed putting stickers on his chart and earning a few fun prizes (trip to the milkshake store with dad, running amok at the white trash bouncy house place). He loves his Toy Story underpants. I'm really proud of him, and I'm so so so thankful that he was ready for this and is doing so well. I don't regret trying out potty training four or five months ago, because that got all of the fear and basic teaching and stuff out of the way. This time he wasn't worried about sitting on the big potty or any of that. Wonderful. Kate sits on the little potty chair when Colin has to go, and she claps when he's done. She also likes to wash her hands and get an M&M for a prize. Now if I could just convince her to keep her hands out of the toilet....

tom hanks baby

2 months of pictures

Since all of my pictures are stored on my mac, and since I haven't been well enough to sit up at the computer for any amount of time over the last 7 weeks or so, I haven't been able to post pictures for a while. Also, I haven't really taken many pictures over the last 7 weeks or so. But today I made myself load a few pictures every time I got up, and eventually they were done! And now I can type to my heart's content while I lie in my bed. So here are some pictures from late December/early January and then this last week.

Colin loves the tent aunt Hannah gave him for Christmas. This is him the day after Christmas. It was hard to convince him to come out of there.


Kate loves to put things on and take things off. Here she is sporting a new apron and chef's hat. These last few weeks she sneaks into my bedroom, climbs into the bins of laundry, and pulls anything she can over her head as a shirt. It's awesome. (Until she gets stuck in something and needs to be rescued.)


I wanted to do something nice for my older nieces for Christmas, so I (semi) planned a Fancy Grown-Up Dinner for them. Things did not go as planned due to morning sickness, Nate sickness, and a general lack of enthusiasm on my part. However, somehow I got food on the table and the girls had a good time. Here are the girls enjoying their salads and appetizers. (We did not make them eat all alone. Sam, Tia, Hannah and I joined them.)


I made the girls pose for a few princess pictures since they were all fancied up.


Kaylee showed us all the skills she learned in her 4-H Princess Club.



It looks like Hannah could use a few lessons from Princess Club.


That's much better.


And even one picture of me and the girls! (Yes, I went home and puked after this.)


And now we come to January 1st. This is Hannah and Colin saying good-bye to each other. There were like 5 pictures of them wrestling and laughing like this.


And now we skip ahead 4 weeks. This is a picture Colin took when he climbed on my bed and asked if he could take a picture.


Then we took this shot together. Not bad considering I just held the camera up and hoped for the best. (I'm glad none of me is in it. My head is right next to him on the pillow, but bedrest is not a good look for me.)


Welcome to February!

Happy, stripe-ed children sitting in the recliner to watch a show with mom. There has been a lot of that at our house the last few months, unfortunately. Kate doesn't really watch the show. She prefers to scamper around and get into mischief. She was really excited to sit in the chair with Colin though.


Kate was so hilarious trying to walk in Colin's boots that I made an effort to get out of bed and take a picture.


This is from just a few days ago. The kids loved playing in this box. They were so happy to have something to climb in slash destroy without consequences. Kate was being especially cute while talking on the phone and sitting in the box.


Her hair needs help.



Granny came over on Sunday to bring valentines for the kids. She was really excited about this shirt, can you tell?


Kate loved her new shirt and beads. The beads broke after about 2 minutes, but she loves them anyway.



Yesterday I was trying to take pictures of the kids and they weren't cooperating. Colin decided to lay down because that's what Kate was doing.


Kate was really mad at me for trying to fix her hair. Really mad. Taking pictures distracted her though.


This is her pouting. Like an ostrich.


One cheeser smile, one meltdown.


Later in the afternoon they played Legos nicely together. I was kind of shocked.



For pictures of cute Kate today, please see the following post.

Kate has been so fun to be around lately. She is starting to talk, and apparently she likes that. She can say mama, yes, nana, daddy, papa, bubba, hi, bye, boo, and various animal noises. She tries to say more, but I can't interpret the rest yet. She signs please, thank you, help, more, and all done. She loves to dance, play with her stuffed animals, read books, climb into ridiculous things, put on hats and accessories, and do anything that Colin is doing. She eats like a horse, but she is still a skinny little thing. Her smile lights up her entire face, and her eyes are still the most beautiful I've ever seen. Her hair is a fabulous mullet.

Colin has discovered he loves shows. As much as I wish he had no interest in the TV, alas, he does. And sometimes you just have to do what you have to do, and I have had to let him watch movies. He has been introduced to more than just the Toy Story trilogy now, and he loves Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and the Lion King. Mostly we just watch the songs from each, although he also likes the "bad tiger cave" part from Aladdin. He also loves the songs in Enchanted, which he calls the "Giselle show." He still has more energy than his little body can contain. He loves to play "run" and "rawr," both of which consist of running around the house at full speed. He also enjoys looking for Scar and/or Belle, which also consists of running around the house at full speed. His imagination is incredible. It's fun to watch him play with the kitchen set or his blocks or trucks because he does so many things with them. I've been trying to think of some new learning activities to do with him because he already knows so much! Any suggestions? He already knows the alphabet and the sounds each letter makes. He knows numbers. He knows animals. He knows shapes. He knows colors. Maybe it's time to start microbiology, European history, and philosophy? (I sure hope not, because I don't know those things.) Any suggestions on new ways to make old things fun again and not a chore? I'm not very good at the kid craft thing.

And as for me and my never-ending nausea, thankfully I am slowly getting better. I still feel terrible, but at least I can get up and function without throwing up everything I eat. Around dinner time I either have to retreat to my bed or puke. This is more how my previous pregnancies were, and I'm thankful to get to this point! This I can handle! Only 26-ish more weeks to go. Huzzah! I'm really enjoying playing with the kids (even though playing mostly consists of lying on the floor next to them) and doing little things like getting them dressed and feeding them snacks. I'm still getting a lot of help from my mom, mother-in-law, and wonderful Nate. Without them my house would be piled high with toys, dirty dishes, dirty clothes, etc, and we would have no food to eat. I told Nate that I'm really looking forward to cooking dinner again someday, and hopefully that someday will be soon. (He hopes so too.) We've had a lot of help from neighbors in the ward too, and I'm looking forward to being able to give back and pay it forward soon.

ridiculous

It's ridiculous how adorable she is with her hair pulled back!

the prayer of the two year old

Me (prompting Colin): And please bless the prophet and apostles...
Colin: Bless the prophet and apostles. And conference. And the general.