An update in pictures. They speak for themselves. Enjoy!

It's okay...I was a little sad there were no more pictures either!
To end on a happier note, click me!

Just a little update...

In March, we got tired of the cold weather. Carter kept asking if it was warm enough to go camping yet. Because it was not, he decided to camp inside. He came up with the props all on his own. If you are tired of the weather and would like to camp inside too all you need is:

-Laundry basket, turned upside down

-Skewers

-folding chairs

and anything edible that can be skewed on the skewer like:

-apples

-nibs

-chewy Chips Ahoy

Have Fun!!!

 A little about Carter: He is almost 4 years old!! His current obsession is dinosaurs. He likes to roar like a "sharptooth" and stomp around the house, eating Kya's treats off the kitchen floor that she drops during mealtime. He refers to himself as "the dinosaur" and asks me stuff like: "Mom, can "the dinosaur" have some ice cream?" Current movie obsession is Ice Age (the 3rd one)...go figure. He LOVES Kya, and she loves him back. He can get her to babble, smile, and laugh more than anyone else. Lately, he asks for chicken nuggets and cheddar cheese for breakfast, is controlling his emotions much better, and cracks me up with the funny things he says and does.

This past Sunday, as I dropped Carter off in the Primary room, he went to where his class sits and sat down. His new teachers came in and asked if that was where the Sunbeams sat. I said yes. then Carter replied, "Mom, I am not a sunbeam!" I asked him what he was then, and he said, "I'm a boy!" as if I didn't have a clue! So glad he can keep me in check!

Miss Anna is turning out to be quite the drama queen. She is also very good at being bossy, spelling and sounding out new words, mumbling and talkingveryfasttogetouteverythingsheneedstosaybeforesomeoneelsestartstalkingandsheforgets! Whew!

She has finally conquered her fear of her new bike and is riding almost like a pro. She loves to cut out creations with her scissors and glue them back onto paper. She is so proud she can jump off the monkey bars onto the trampoline and often tells me that Carter gets everything he wants!!! And then stomps off to her room in a fit of tears. To try and get what she wants, she will now pout and whimper making puppy dog eyes at me, holding her "paws" under her chin! I must confess, it works!

 Lil Kya loo loo is 6 1/2 months old and still not sleeping through the night! But...she goes to sleep by herself! Major success! She can go to bed around 8ish, and wakes up around 3-4 am, then goes back to bed until 6:30-7....not bad. She plays on the floor with her toys and will keep herself entertained for quite awhile. She hates being on her tummy, so is far from learning to crawl. She babbles all the time, gurgles her spit, recently said, "da da" and just figured out how to get her treats from her hand into her mouth!! She loves to shake, throw, and drop her toys, and grabs anything in reach! Bathtime is a favorite, as well as being carried all over the house by mom! She does not like strangers.

She also has a ridge down the middle of her forehead, where the two different plates in the forehead merged. When they fuse prematurely, it forms a ridge. It is called metopic synostosis. Kya has a very mild form, but the more severe cases need surgery. She had to have a CT scan so the doctor could make sure there were no other problems with the way her skull was forming, and to make sure there was no brain growth restrictions. Right now, we are just watching it. It could get worse, or it could stay the same. At some point in time, she will require cosmetic surgery to fix the ridge, if we choose. I happen to have an aunt who is a P.A. in Boise, and her boss specializes in surgeries specifically for kids with synostosis. They want to have a look at her scan, just to make sure everything looks ok. Hopefully radiology will give us a copy. We were pretty nervous about her scan, preparing for possible surgery. It would make me sick just thinking about my little babe having such major work done, so at this point, we are VERY grateful to not have to go through that!

My attempts to take a self portrait with the little bugaroo!!

I was struggling....mostly because she wanted the camera!!! She loves shiny stuff!!

Yeah....it was quitting time....

Such a sweetie!! I LOVE LOVE LOVE to kiss her cheeks and listen to her babble! I really do have the best kiddos, and though being a mom is hard work, exhausting, frustrating to say the least, I am grateful Heavenly Father sent me the ones He did.

They are smart, spunky, sassy, stubborn, goofy, grumpy....

yup....fit right in!!!

Today...

Anna has been coughing like crazy. Carter is finally getting over strep throat and I think Kya might have an ear infection. I built a lego "ice cream truck" for Carter, but after he inspected it, he told me it was a van instead. He is very particular about how his lego creations need to be built. Sometimes he wants a door on it, sometimes he doesn't...and it needs a roof, but with this piece and NOT that one, thank you! He called me "normal" this afternoon and asked me if the word normal was bad or not. I told him it was okay to call someone normal. Sometimes he picks up words from television cartoons, and uses them in the funniest ways that make no sense. Sometimes he uses the bad words in the right context, and we have to have a little chat about those ones. Nowadays, even the Disney channel can defile a child's mind. There's this new cartoon called "Jake and the Neverland Pirates" and we all love that one. Anna has built animals, planes, playgrounds, and other such things out of legos. She is very creative. She always gets her hands on the pieces Carter wants. And then she keeps them for an unbearably long time while Carter usually waits for his turn. Sometimes he just grabs what he needs anyways, and then we have issues to deal with. Sometimes it gives me a headache, especially when, at the same time, Kya is in the bouncy chair crying because the toys dangling in front of her tick her off. I am not sure the exact reason she gets so mad in the bouncy chair, but she does! She grips the cute little plastic elephants with crinkly ears and pulls so hard that the friendly animals come flying at her little forehead. Yeah...issues today.

Anna got Kya to laugh today in the swing. It was a lovely sound to my aching head. As I stood there at the stove wondering what my life was reduced to, frying a grilled cheese sandwich for Carter for lunch and at the same time making Corn Flakes for Anna because her bolony sandwich tasted too dry, watching the clock as the hands got nearer to the time I could put all the kids down for naps and maybe have a short one myself, telling the kids to stop running up and down the hall and to stay in their chairs, please, so we can have lunch, and then Anna is back out of her chair and suddenly I hear Kya laughing. Anna is back in her chair, and I urge her again to get back out of that chair and make her laugh again. Sure enough, there is that blessed sound again. The cheese sandwich is done and the corn flakes are getting soggy, but I decide to try with the babe, and she does it again! I needed that, so so needed that moment today.

And so today I decided that it wouldn't matter to me how many issues I had to deal with, because that's just the dusty stuff. Everyday, I get to look at the sweetest baby, who woke up three times this afternoon before I could get her settled down for a reasonable nap, and I could never be angry because as soon as she sees me, I get a big smile from her, and her eyes are full of joy and she smells so heavenly as I pick her up and snuggle her onto my shoulder...

And today, I won't let the dusty stuff get in the way of Carter's silliness, and the random facts he tells me about life from his perspective that always makes me smile to myself or laugh outloud...and even when he is running away from me as I am trying to get him dressed after his bath, and he won't listen, and then gets mad because he wanted to get dressed himself, but it is too late now, and he is REALLY peeved at me and morphes into tantrum-mode, and I feel my patience slipping away and my head pounding harder from the intense noise from his war cry....it's just dust. And it can be brushed off. And after Carter took a timeout in his room, and we had a good talk about using our words and manners, and he is smiling at me with his red little cheeks and dimples and blue-grey eyes...and I am in wonder that such a perfect little guy was created, and he is mine, and I wouldn't trade him for any other boy in the world, even the ones who are well behaved and can already read and count to 100, because he can't, but he tells me secrets and does amazing flips and totally laughs at all the funny parts when we watch cartoons or movies. And I can laugh with him, and we both look at each other and know exactly why.

Today, I am surrounded with dust. It never goes away. Dust from the tears Anna cries when I brush her snarles out, and from her whining because she can't have a fruit snack before lunch and she is NOT wearing those pants because they make her underwear bunch all up, and I tell her, quite exasperated, that she doesn't like to wear ANY of her pants, but she tells me adamently that she likes to wear her leggings, in which I have to remind her are two sizes too small. But apparently they don't bunch her panties up. Dust, and I am just ignoring it for now.

Because I think it is awesome that Anna's favorite character in Scooby Doo is Velma. And she likes her because she is the one who solves all the mysteries. And when I watch Anna play Wii bowling, it makes me laugh at her intensity with which she swings the control as she is biting her lip trying to concentrate on getting a strike or spare. She is never satisfied unless she gets the one or the other! And she has amazing eyelashes. And she almost always remembers to cough into her elbow when she coughs, and for some reason that makes me feel very proud.

"I should've stolen every moment, now there's a page with not enough on it, where we belong. I guess I'll never understand it, why do we take it all for granted, until it's gone...cuz then it's gone. Love who you love. With all that you have, and don't waste the time to fly so fast. Love who you love, and say that you do. Hold on as tight as they'll let you.

Give all you got like it's your last day, your heart and soul before it's too late, and pull em in, so close enough that they can feel it, with every single breath that you're breathing, breathe it in. Again and again!

Love who you love."

(thanks Rascal Flatts. If you want to listen to the song it's on my playlist called "Love who you Love")

I know who I love, even when life is covered in dust bunnies. But it's nice to be reminded every once in awhile, you know? Especially when my head aches so....