Lovely and not so Lovely

Not Lovely:
While at our friend's house, the kids were upstairs playing by themselves.  Their kids are all older and I didn't think too much about baby proof issues.  Jayden came downstairs and told me Sidney had written on her face with a marker.  Turns out, it wasn't a marker.  It was nail polish.  (He later admitted he had helped her put it on, thinking it was just make-up.  But I did catch her in the act herself as well, and she also painted her fingernails.)

Lovely: 
And while that was not lovely to clean up, at least we had just enjoyed one of these delicious, mouthwatering treats.  The best part is I melted a peanut butter cup inside.  I'm a genius.

Random Kid Stuff

At bedtime Jayden has been climbing into Sidney's crib to give her a hug and kiss goodnight.  At first she teases him and hides under her blanket, giggling and squealing.  Jayden says, "No games tonight, Sidney!  No games!"  And he smothers her with hugs.  She hugs him back and when we tell him it's time to get out, they hug each other a little tighter and Sidney says, "My brother, my brother."  It's hard to pull them apart sometimes, but I sure am glad they love each other so much.

Jayden's great idea for when Sidney has a stinky diaper.

We had a bunch of fun drawing with chalk on each other's faces.

Lately they've been pretending to be a dog {Jayden} and a cat {Sidney}.  Barking, meowing, crawling on all fours, and my favorite, Sidney licking me.  They also feed each other treats.  I didn't have time to get any decent pictures on the way out the door to church, but Jayden had Sidney lay down on the floor and was dropping crackers into her mouth.  They thought that was hilarious.

Greenest Day Ever

St. Patrick's Day is a big deal for us.  Jayden's favorite color is still green and throughout the past year he has been asking when his favorite holiday is coming up.  Finally, a couple weeks ago when he asked he said, "FINALLY!  I've been waiting for like a YEAR!"  He remembered everything we did last year and in keeping with tradition we did them again and also added a few things.  Everything sort of ended up with a rainbow theme.  Approximately 100 pictures to follow.

We started the morning with green oatmeal, milk, and muffins.

I made Sidney's oatmeal pink, knowing she would get mad about green.  The green muffins she dealt with.

Then we went to the lake for a "green-nic."  It was about 70 degrees yesterday, perfect for a green-nic and playing outside. 

 Sidney's busy eating green grapes.

 I told Jayden to give me a normal smile, but he said he was.

 The kids were throwing leaves into the lake, but they were calling them Leprechauns.  Sidney was so excited when they landed in the water and here she's saying, "I did it!!"

As we were sitting by the lake our friends happened to show up so we spent the next hour or more playing with them.  These are our friends who moved here the same time we did and from day one their little girl and Jayden have just not gotten along.  Who knows why, but for the first time in two years, they were playing together perfectly, so we had to grab a few pictures in case it never happens again.  We figure they'll probably grow up and get married.

 Marcus was looking at me with the funniest face.  Like how dare you take my picture!

At home the kids went on a scavenger hunt to find a treasure of Skittles and a new Don't Eat the Leprechaun game.  (Have you played Don't Eat Pete with your kids yet?  My kids love it, and it's really easy to make.  Actually you just have print it off and have bite sized candy or crackers or something. Google it.)  So we played a Leprechaun version.

I bought the kids these green accessories you'll see below.  I couldn't pass them up when I saw them, and figured they would have a lot of fun with them and we'll be able to use them again next year.  Totally worth the pictures.  We set up the tripod and had a picture shoot.  When the kids discovered there's a timer on the camera they became obsessed and we spent about an hour taking pictures of each other.  It was really fun.  We couldn't get the wig on Sidney, but I will one day and I already know it will be funny.

 When I put the wig on Jayden said, "Mom, you look like you have Kiron's hair, except it's green!"  If you know Kiron, you'll know what I'm talking about, otherwise, check out my previous post here.

We had a Rainbow Dinner.  I really stretched this one, but coming up with a green or rainbow or Irish dinner is really hard, and I didn't really want to make corned beef and cabbage, whatever that is.  So we had a rainbow of salads, and every salad had green in it.  As we sat down to eat I felt like I was at a church potluck, so I might have to come up with something different next year.  But the kids ate really well, and sometimes that's all I want.  The fruit salad has "clouds" in it too.

Sidney started dishing herself some fruit and I was so busy taking pictures of it, I didn't pay attention to the huge pile that was forming on her plate.

Jayden helped me make the rainbow cupcakes while Sidney took her nap. While we were standing there he said, "Mom, remember when I was 4?"  Like it was so long ago.  And I said, "Were those the good old days?"  Later he came and sat down by me and said something, I forget what, and then he said, "Yeah, those were the good old days."

It was such a good day yesterday.  I wish every day could be that good.

Sidneyisms

I know this won't sound nearly as funny as it was, but we haven't laughed this hard in a while.  Josh was laying on the couch and I was sitting next to him.  Sidney came into the room and stood there by us for a minute.  Then she crossed the room and squatted down in front of the fireplace.  She looked at us and said, "Watch.  You."  And then just sat there squatting, staring at us with a little smirk on her face because we were laughing so hard.

Jaydenisms

Tonight Jayden was running around and around the kitchen table.  As he was running, he was panting out the following:  "Mom....if I run around the table like this is this exercise?....If I burn 100 calories can I get a trophy?....How about lots and lots of trophies?.....I want to exercise a lot 'cause I don't want to get fat.....Some people don't exercise so they're fat and they get big bellies and stuff...."

Jaydenisms

I love it when Jayden dishes himself a bowl of ice cream when I've fallen asleep on the couch on a Sunday afternoon.  Sneaky, sneaky.  (But it could have been because he woke me up to ask for a snack and I didn't want to get up so I said, "I don't care, get some crackers or something."  I'm really good at this parenting thing sometimes.)

Josh was out of town over the weekend.  As we were getting ready for bed the first night Jayden asked me, "Well, if Dad's not here, who's going to sleep with you?"  Nobody!  He came back a minute later.  "Mom, I have a great idea.  I know who can sleep with you."  Pretending not to know his reply I asked who.  "I can sleep with you so you don't have to be alone."  How thoughtful.  I couldn't say no to his big, excited grin even though I knew I would regret it in the middle of the night with a knee in my spine and an elbow in my face.  I couldn't help but smile when I went to bed later to find him completely sprawled out smack in the middle of the bed.  He's really thoughtful.  Always coming up with sweet ideas like this and his latest thing this week has been writing lots and lots of letters to me and Josh.  He wrote Josh some letters to ask him how his trip was going and even though he wasn't gone long enough for us to mail them, they were waiting right by the front door for him when he got home.

Fleeting Moments

Whenever I look through pictures after I take them there are always favorites that pop out to me.  But then when I look through them again a few weeks later I realize there are so many more good ones than I thought and I'm so glad we have the ability to take a million gazillion photos.  I love to be able to capture little every day moments.  And although in a thousand years they'll be buried in the earth and turned to dust or floating around in cyberspace or whatever, for now, I know it's important to capture these fleeting moments because I look back and wonder when the heck did Sidney get that tall and I forget how frustrated I was a few minutes before the picture was taken because Sidney was screaming for 20 minutes because she didn't get to wear the sweater she wanted.  And even though I sometimes feel like my life is boring and I feel so small in such a big world, in the eternal scheme of things, these little trips to the park and such are some of the most significant moments in my little corner of the world.  I must be feeling really nostalgic because I registered Jayden for Kindergarten this week and oh my heck, he's so grown up he'll be leaving for a mission in just 14 years, I'm not ready for this! And I really miss my out of town husband.  And I'm listening to sappy country music.  And every time I look at pictures from just a month ago I can't believe that the kids can change even just a little in such a short time.  And so on.....

 

 The look on her face cracks me up.

 At Jayden's favorite park, because it's green.

At Sidney's favorite park, because it's pink.  This girl probably bleeds pink.

Jayden says he doesn't like the pink park.  I don't believe him.

 Watching a rainstorm from the front door. Really, how is her hair a mile long?

Hiking

We've been doing a lot of hiking lately.  The kids love it and it's been so nice to be able to get out and enjoy the weather.

 Little Diva.  She realized the other day she was the only one without sunglasses.  Every time we got in the car and all of ours went on she would say, "Glasses?  My glasses?"  So how could we pass these up when we saw them?  And did I mention spoiled?  Josh couldn't resist getting her 2 pair, both pink of course because she's obsessed.  He's wrapped around her finger.  All of her fingers, actually.  He totally loves his little girl.

See?

 And I totally love her too.

The kids love collecting rocks and we add about 20 extra minutes to each hike for them to stop and put their little treasures in their pockets.