Here we go again...

Jack is sick....again!  Can you tell?  He is so easy going that it is sometimes hard to determine there is even a illness unless there is something coming out of somwhere.  He was fine yesterday and went down last night easily.  He woke up crying 2 hours later and we got him back to sleep after some Tylenol for what we thought was teething.  He woke up 1 1/2 hours later crying again.  No other symptoms until this morning.  He has a fever and a bit of a runny nose so we will be staying home from dance today.  I hate that he is sick but I am looking forward to an evening at home.  He seems to be feeling better this afternoon after a long morning nap and another dose of Tylenol. 

Never Again!!!

Saturday afternoon we made a trip to Town Center Mall to get Mark some new glasses.  The newest member of our family is quite the grabber and managed to crack Mark's lenses.  So off we go, ALL of us.  For those of you who don't know me that well, the mall used to be my place of choice.  Any day of the week, morning or night time, crowded or not we would enjoy a nice stroll through the mall with no purpose.  When Mark and I were first married we lived across the street from the mall and would make frequent visits there, sometimes after dinner to walk and talk.  Black Friday was one of my favorite days of the year.  The more crowded the better.  I saw it as a challenge to get that perfect Christmas gift.  My mom and I would be up at 4am.  We'd have so much fun.  However, I feel much differently now.  Saturday was miserable.  It seemed that the more we walked around waiting on Mark's glasses to be ready, the more people poured into that mall.  And maybe it is just me, but they all seemed to look at us like we were a freak show with our 3 kids.  We stopped by Chick-fil-a to get an ice cream and walked the food court at least 3 times looking for somewhere to sit.  Not one free table.  Meanwhile, it was interesting trying to maneuver around groups of 15 teenagers standing in the middle of the walkway completely oblivious to us trying to pass.  We ended up sitting on the floor where we spilled a large cup of water onto the carpet.  Just icing on the cake.  Sidenote: Someone needs to tell these teenage boys that leggings are for girls and they look ridiculous! 

So, lesson learned.  Next time I need to go to the mall, it will be on a weekday morning and my visits will be few and far between. 

Snow

Better late than never, right? Several weeks ago we had about 1/2 inch of snow. Real, honest to goodness snow!! Packable, rollable, throwable, snow! You get the picture. The girls were in and out all day. Play, warm up, drink hot cocoa, play, etc. Annie and I built a tiny snowman. I think she had much bigger aspirations but she enjoyed the tiny one nonetheless. Ella still had the sniffles so she stayed in more than Annie. They both had a snowball fight with Daddy that evening. The snow stayed on the ground for several days but turned to ice after the first day so it was a little harder to play with. I hope we get a bit more this year but not on the weekend. I don't want to drive in it and Mark needs another snow day! The goofy pictures you see are of my silly girls tasting the snow. They said they thought it would taste like sugar. Ha. Surprise! Water!

My little school girl

Annie is doing so well in 1st grade. Her penmanship has come a long way from when she first started kindergarten and couldn't trace a dotted line very well. She was hard at work this morning so I thought I would take a picture of her in motion. Yesterday, her class was studying the southern states and I brought in a King cake and told the class the history and meaning of it during this time of year. They were fascinated by the baby. For those who don't know, the baby is usually placed inside the cake and whoever gets the piece with the baby is obligated to bring the King cake to the next party. Ella, Jack and I also stayed and had lunch with her and her friends. (Jack slept the entire time. - Hooray!) They have had so much fun in class the last few weeks tasting foods from different states including Hershey kisses, Blue Bell ice cream and apples. It will be 2nd grade before we know it. The 100th day of school is this Friday so their class will be celebrating on Monday. Excuse me while I go glue 100 tiny beads onto a poster. :)

Big 7 month old!!!

Jack is now 7 months old. He is getting so big. The last doctor visit showed him to be 16lbs. 15 oz. That is a 2 pound gain since Christmas!! I am now asking the doctor if he is gaining too quickly as opposed to too slowly. He is sitting up very well and has been rolling over both ways for several months. He has recently started sleeping very well in his bed for naps and much longer stretches at night. What a blessing. I can feel two teeth about to break through on the bottom and he bites on EVERYTHING!! He is still a very happy baby and loves loves to eat as you can plainly see. This picture was after he devoured his first biter biscuit. He thought that was so much fun. This morning I had to lower his mattress to the next level because he has been peeking over the rail. Too cute but if he were to pull up on the side of the crib it would be man overboard. Right now he is down for a morning nap and we are about to do a bit more school work. Ella has finished her reading lesson and read the sentence "see me read". I am so proud of her. She has really started to put sounds together lately and is enjoying progressing through the book. I love Thursdays.

But I don't look older!!

As I said, Ella turned 4 this month. We really talked up her birthday a little too early so every day she wanted to know if it was THE DAY. Finally the 15th came and we told her that she was officially a 4 year old and she ran to our room, looked in the mirror and cried "but I don't look any older!!!" She is so funny. She always has something to say.

A Helper I will be......

Annie is always (usually) a good little helper. One day recently she ran into the kitchen and told me that she didn't have a hand towel in the downstairs bathroom but that I shouldn't worry about it because she put one up for me. How funny. A tiny dishrag. And I do mean rag!