"Almost Jake... almost."

Ever since she turned one and noticed that her finger would fit inside her nose, Evie is constantly bringing me her "boogies". Nice, right? At least I'm not finding them wiped across the car window or something. Every time we are in the car I hear from the backseat, "Mom, I got a boogie for you." To which I always reply, "Evie! Get your finger out of your nose!!" Today was no exception, only her brother chimed in with this sage advice, "Evie, you can pick your friends and you can pick your friends' nose, but you can't pick your nose. So knock it off!"

Circus Time!

Here are a few pictures of our wonderful night at the circus! It was so much fun and the kids were beyond excited. Evie did very good for being up so late, the show ended at 10:00 pm, the last 10 minutes she would lay her head on my shoulder and start to drift off then jerk her eyes open and pop up so she didn't miss anything! They have the coolest aunt and uncle ever, Josh bought them each a souvenir. A light-up sword for Jake and a light-up, twirling wand for Evie. (I'm wondering how long the batteries will last...) The next day Jake came to me and said with a very serious face, "Mom, I don't know if that was the greatest show on earth, but it was a really good show." My child is very literal, and won't believe that statement until he has seen every show on earth.

Elephant Parade

We had another great adventure with Mima Kim today! We went into Salt Lake and saw the circus parade and then went to the Discovery Gateway for some fun activities. The kids got popcorn and cotton-candy, balloons and balloon animals, and coloring books. We are going to the circus on Friday and they can hardly wait. Evie was so funny, I don't think she blinked during the parade for fear of missing something.

This make me happy?

We have a 1:00 church block, which as anyone with small children knows, is hard. It throws off our schedule every week, as that is right when we are usually having lunch and naps. By the time we get home at 4:00 my whole family is convinced they are going to die of hunger and are just generally ornery. Evie in particular had a really hard time yesterday, too many days with too much going on and no time for naps. We came home and I threw some spaghetti together for a quick meal while she sat in her chair and whined for food. When we dished it up and set it in front of her she dove straight in and was busily chowing down when I asked if she wanted some cheese. (Mizithra, have you had this? It is soooo good on spaghetti!) She looked at me as I stirred some into her bowl and handed it back to her and then asked in a sweet little voice, "Oh... this make me happy?" So there you have it, the secret to happiness is cheese, and lots of it!

When Dad helps out...

Last night was awful, there is no other word for it. Evie and Jake both woke up with growing pains, Jake didn't wake all the way up and was settled back to bed pretty quickly. But Evie, she woke up screaming at about 3 a.m. with a sopping wet diaper and Brian changed her and brought her into bed with us. She would only settle if she was laying with her arm wrapped around my neck and her forehead pressed to mine, not exactly comfortable. Every 10 minutes or so she would start to cry and ask for breakfast, and we would tell her we would eat in the morning. After about an hour of this she started screaming unconsolably that her legs hurt. So we got her some Tylenol and tried to get her to relax, which she did for about 5 minutes and then was screaming for food. Brian, bless his heart, took her out to the kitchen and started feeding her some cereal. But by now I was fully awake so I came out a took over so he could get some sleep before work. Evie finally crashed at about 6 a.m., so Brian let us sleep in this morning and got Jake ready and took him to school for me. (Best-Dad-Ever award!) But I think he was still pretty tired, when I went to pick Jake up from school as he was getting in the car I noticed something looked off about his clothes...

I asked Jake, "Why is your shirt on backwards?" He looked down and said, "Huh. I didn't realize it was." We all need more sleep.

We're back!

I have felt so out of the loop for the last 2 weeks, we were switching our service provider and to make a long story short it took 3 weeks to hook up our new service after we had already cancelled our old service. I won't whine too much about it because it was a good reminder that there is a world out there beyond blogging and email, I can't believe how much knitting I got done. And my laundry is totally caught up (yes, I am bragging about that!) But I missed keeping up with all you out there in blogland and am so glad to be able to email again. We have been crazy busy of course, after one week of school Jake came home with strep which he promptly gave to Evie. They both got on antibiotics quickly and healed physically, but oh my goodness... the whining, the Whining! It has been non-stop for more than a week. Why is it so much harder to heal emotionally from illness? I'm thinking it is my turn to take to my bed for a few days, but then the laundry would be out of control again and I'm pretty sure my family would be reduced to sucking on bullion cubes for food... I guess I'll just have to suck it up and try for more patience.

I just thought this was a great picture that Jake took of Evie doing her best impression of a lounge singer. I love that they play together so well, she is still having a hard time adjusting to the fact that Jake is gone in the morning. Every 5 minutes it's, "Jake at scool? Wif his teachur? Ohhhh.... he be home soon."

Camping with the fam...

We went camping with my family over Labor Day weekend. It was a lot of fun to hang out with Mima and Pa Dave, Josh and Elena and their dog Sparrow, and Caite. Kaleb and Liz came up for one night and brought their cute little puppy, Pandora, with them. Evie was in 7th heaven playing with the dogs. I will say though, that there is nothing like having to hike down the road to a campground outhouse every 15 minutes or so to highlight the fact that someone is sitting on your bladder. It made me very, very grateful for indoor plumbing and a toilet that is 5 feet from my bed in the middle of the night.