Spring Break

Don't laugh, yes I'm a little behind on the blogging.

Our Spring Break started out truly spectacular.  Katherine got the Friday off before the week-long break.  My dad, CowPapa, just happened to call that Friday morning asking about stopping by.  Well, it had been on my mind for a while to nail down a weekday when Katherine was out of school but public schools in the area were still in session and I had a helper.  I wanted to take the kids to Chuck E. Cheese, but without all the crowds, and braving it on my own made it unappealing.  I've been there before on a Sunday afternoon and I'm pretty sure I'd rather lick the Wal-Mart shopping cart handles instead of braving that chaos again.

But low and behold, CowPapa was ready to spend time with all 3 kiddos (he misses seeing Katherine a lot because he usually stops by when she's in school), AND he was willing to brave a potentially crowded Chuck E. Cheese.

Our blessing was that we had a GRRREEEAAAT time!  I think there were maybe 15 people in there for an hour and a half.  Can I hear an Amen sister?

The kids had fun hopping from one bright and shiny entertainment box to another.

Side note: the food there isn't bad either.  I'm just sayin'.

So Friday kicked off our Spectacular Spring Break Extravaganza!!!  That's what I felt like anyway.  I had all these grandiose plans of ALL the fun things we'd accomplish that week.  I miss her being gone all day, so I was really looking forward to spending lots of time with her.

Oh little did I know.

Friday night we continued the Spectacular Spring Break Extravaganza with a camping party in Nathan's room.  Each kid got out their tent and we set them up in his room.

Do you remember how fun it was to sleep somewhere different, even if it was in your own house?  I do.  I just love that they thought camping in Nathan's bedroom was the funnest thing EV-ER.

It did take them a while to get to sleep, but I'm sure them sleeping together in the same tent had a little something to do with that.

 They even opted to eat their snack near the tents.

 Can anybody spot the photogenic differences between the two?

Mr. 'I could care less'

Miss 'Always make the effort'

 They had so much fun goofing off and just being silly, it was hard to impose any type of curfew.  Although, 10pm was starting to push it for this tired mom.  Something finally worked and they feel asleep in each other's arms.  Sniff, sniff.  I just love my babies.

 

 

We were off to such a Spectacular Spring Break Extravaganza!  YES!

I forgot what we did Saturday, probably spent some much-needed time with Daddy.

Sunday was church and the usual.

And then it started.  The never-ending reign of sickness-terror our house endured.

It started with me on Monday, then spread to Brandon, then quickly to Katherine and Nathan and then we loved spending soooo much time with each other we just kept sharing cooties and germs and who knows what else until we painfully endured, although not very gracefully, 3 weeks of putrid, disgusting and frustrating sicknesses.  It was a marvelous concoction of throwing up coupled with it's equally undesirable hind-end companion, double ear infections, fevers, body aches, and a little known (to us) yet very common - adenovirus.  We had about 4-5 days of breaks in between all that 3-weeks of yuck, thinking each time maybe it was all over.  But it wasn't.  We endured 3 full weeks of it and poor Jim somehow managed to avoid it all.

Mr. leave-the-Gatorade-by-the-front-door opted to still come home to all us sickos Every. Single. Night.  What a sport.

So that was the ending to our Spectacular Spring Break Extravaganza.  Thank goodness we crammed lots of fun stuff in the first couple of days.

The usual chaos

Brandon has taken a liking to ripping paper.  So, I pulled out an old phone book (does anybody still use those?) and gave the kids free reign to start ripping.  What happened amidst the ripping is our "usual chaos."

I love to watch this video and notice the mommy-growth I've experienced.  The wrestling in the background while totally ignoring the words coming out of my mouth seemed to not phase me one bit.  I was pretty sure no one would get seriously hurt, because if they did I could so pull out the, "Well that's what happens when you play rough, guys," comment.  And my focus was more on the videoing process while keeping little curious fingers away from the lens.

Ahhh, siblings.  Just a couple more months and there will be a 3rd little booger in the wrestling mess.

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Sweet Siblings

These two make my heart melt.

When they play together, they're both so happy and genuinely excited to see each other.

Sometimes, I ask her to play with him so I can have just 5 minutes to finish up something I'm doing, and she is AWESOME.

She's figured out that he likes to watch her do cartwheels and handstands.  So she does them over and over again, and he giggles and giggles.

I hope and pray their relationship stays so precious.

   

They've got a good track record in the sweet sibling department.

A Sweet Sibling Sight

Katherine and Brandon reading a book on the IPad.

A short update

I've been pretty good about still taking pictures with 3 little ones running around, but posting them is another story. So, here goes. The short version of some cute pics I've taken...

Somebody enjoys his baths and is a natural-born wiggle worm.

Sometimes, it's easy to feel like a dog-eat-dog world out there. (Brandon with court-side tickets to the dog wash show).
Learnin' from the pros how to handle breakfast and color-time.


They adore each other. I wish I could spend a whole post explaining how these two interact because it's precious. His face lights up when she's around.
Through just observing me, she's picked up on soothing him with her soft voice and caressing him gently.
She is such a big helper with him. Whether it's fetching something I've forgotten, calming him down when he's gotten fussy (which isn't that often), holding him on the couch and trying to burp him or picking out his play clothes for the day, she is eager to help with whatever he needs.

I hope and pray that their relationship stays this special. He does too. :)