Who are you, again?

It's been windy this spring. Like insane, blow-my-littles away kind of windy, almost every day. And the area our little condo is in is, for some reason, a wind magnet...some days I seriously think our house might blow down.
Besides being really not fun in the allergy department, I think the wind has made us all a little crazy. Well, actually, I KNOW it has....

Yesterday afternoon Pax ran outside for a bit while his Daddy was putting something in the car. Soon after Adam came back in, we heard him outside shouting...

"Hey Wind! WIND! WIND!! STOP BLOWING!! I told you....STOP BLOWING!!"
I think he was trying out the whole Jesus-calming-the-storm thing.
Too bad it didn't work...

But we sure got a laugh out of it!

My Mad Scientist

alternatively titled, The Story of A Colorado Easter Egg.

Springtime in Colorado is always an adventure...you just never know what you're gonna get, weather-wise. Last Saturday, it snowed. It was also the day before Easter, and, since the Daddy was working and there were eggs to be dyed, I decided to call it a Jammie day and break out the dye.
Pax was SO into the dye-making...fascinated by what happened when we dropped those little tablets into the vinegar and they began to bubble. So involved, in fact, that when we forgot to make a yellow and I told him I'd make it while he started dying eggs, he refused. Insisted on sitting on the counter until the yellow was dissolved; just stirring and staring.
He was equally fascinated by the actual coloring of the eggs...which I left mainly to him, with a little help when he needed it. He dyed eggs last year; but it was over in about 3 minutes. This year he SO loved it. Totally fun!
And where was Little Bit during all of this?

she dragged her favorite little green musical chair over to the sliding door, sat down in front of it, watched the snow...and sang over and over, "DaDa, DaDa, DaDa, DaDa....", she knew it was a day Daddy was supposed to be home. And she didn't like it. So she just sat, waiting to be the first one to see him push his bike through the gate.

My sweet little Daddy's girl :)

That's all. No big crazy story, no messes, no drama. Just me n' my babies spending a sweet, snowy, day-before-Easter together.
I love days like this.

B is for....

...bowling!!
Even Little Bit got in on the action...and took over Pax's frames, with Daddy's help. After about 4 frames, Small Son decided the computer was a bit more interesting. Maybe he's going to be an engineer....or CEO of a company, at least. He likes be in control of things :)

I, on the other hand, definitely benefited from the kiddie bumpers...much to my husband's chagrin. What can I say? My bowling skills have gone down-hill since high school. But we had fun! The coolest part? When we walked in, we recognized 3 of our previous youth kids from when we were youth leaders at a church here in Ft. Collins. They immediately recognized us, called us by name...it was so fun to see them all grown up & hear about their lives now...and the sweetest part? One of them comped us everything when we went to pay at the end. The shoes, the game, everything...
it's pretty neat to see that our lives, and the things we do with them, actually DO make a lasting impact on people. Especially because I know those kids made an impact on my life.

It's Official...

I have (another) new hobby. You know, 'cause I just didn't have anything else to do with my time....what can I say? I love color. I love pattern. I love fabric. I love to create. I especially love to create colorful, beautiful things for people that I love. And now...

I love to quilt.

I kinda jumped on the idea while we were at my aunt's house in Tucson last February; this is my first completed quilt...kinda. I made one for my little niece Violet, without a pattern or any idea of what I was doing, which was certainly made with love but perhaps not the prettiest thing...although my sis-in-law was so very sweet about my efforts. I now have a much higher appreciation of all things amazingly quilted, including the hand-quilted beauty that my other aunt made us and which will once again grace our bed as soon as it's warm enough. But THIS little quilt is for the tiny baby girl of another family I love very much...the 3rd daughter of my sweet friend Megan and her crazy African husband Benjie, the ones I went to LA to visit last February. She's due mid-June {but she won't make it that far}. So, Meg-here's a sneak peak :)

{not-so} Wordless Wednesday

they say I'm a (slightly blurry but still cute!) little French princess....

...I think Mama needs to keep the good camera out. Too much cuteness to not be prepared!!

Best cookie-dough sampler in town, hands down.

D-Town

Soooo....we'll be making at least a quick trip to D-town the weekend after Easter. I know this is shameless, and I don't usually ask this kind of thing but...anyone down there interested in booking a photoshoot while we're in town? If you are, let me know...then the kiddos and I could stay longer :) just putting it out there....

B and the...well...the Bee.

Or the wasp, to be more accurate. The kiddos were outside on our little porch playing happily last week, as I ran around trying to get stuff together to go to the park. I listened as I ran, of course; and soon I heard the Big Brother telling Little Sis "No, B! (yes, he calls her B, too) Don't touch it! Leave it alone!!" this was shortly followed by Little Sis crying, which soon escalated to her screaming...so I hurried outside to see what was going on, fully expecting it to be the typical sibling, she-touched-my-bicycle-he-moved-my-hand-away kind of thing. What I saw, however, was Pax stomping aggressively on something on the ground. "What's that?" I asked "It's a BEE! I told her not to touch it, Mama!" he insisted, still stomping on the bee (a wasp, actually, on closer inspection); at which point I think I mumbled something incoherent about being a good big brother and grabbed my screaming daughter, rushing her upstairs to where, among other things, I knew we had some benedryl. I looked at her tiny hand (not easy, when she was still screaming in pain and trying to pull away!) and at first didn't even see where she'd been stung...but I DID see the stinger still in her hand. Apparently she thought the black-and-yellow striped bug was pretty, and picked it up for a closer inspection. Not a good idea, just FYI...poor baby. I had to dig the stinger out with tweezers before I could even get her to calm down or make sure she wasn't blowing up like a balloon...I was pretty sure she was breathing fine, because I was pretty sure my hearing wouldn't be by the time I got her calmed down. It felt like it took forever to get the stinger out. I washed her little hand, finally seeing the actual sting on her pointer finger; gave her a little benedryl just to be on the safe side...and took her down stairs to watch her finger and hand slowly swell up 3 times bigger than usual. Seriously. It was crazy. I also called the nurse at our pediatrician's office, just to be on the safe side...pretty much she told me I'd done the right thing, to keep an eye on her, and if she started having trouble breathing to take her straight to the emergency room. Just what every mother wants to hear. At least with Adam working at the hospital I wouldn't have to worry about him meeting us there! Finally, after all that, I called Adam at the lab. Mostly because my adrenaline was still pumping like mad and I wanted him to know what we'd been doing with our morning.

Once B had calmed down, Pax crept over to us where we snuggled on the couch. "Can I give her a kiss now, Mama? Is she calming down?" he asked me, snuggling up to my leg. After I told him he could and that she was ok, he gave her a very sweet little kiss and she cuddled up with him...they really are little buddies already. I love it! I attempted to get a picture with my point & shoot of her hand to show Adam; it didn't turn out very well but she wasn't up for a photo shoot. Can't say I blame her!You can see the red mark where she got stung; this is only about 1/3 swollen. Her whole little hand swelled up too. Pax was so sweet and worried about her...I told him how proud I was of him that he'd been trying to protect his baby sister, telling her not to touch the bee and stomping on it afterwords. We talk a LOT about how, since he's the big brother, he needs to be especially nice to litter kids and look out for them....amazing how many bigger boys we've meet lately that just aren't nice at.all. to smaller kiddos. Adam and I want him to learn to be a protector of the smaller and weaker people he meets in life-gentleman may be an old-fashioned word, and I don't in any way want to take away my son's rough-and-tumble boy-ness, but that's kinda the idea. The gentleman part, I mean. But seeing him take action to protect his sister was pretty neat. I hope they always have that kind of relationship.

....and I'm super happy to say that little miss is NOT allergic to wasps! Sadly, however, a few days later we learned she IS allergic to peanuts. Just like Pax was at this age; although her reaction wasn't as severe. Can you see the red hives all over her face? It was another benedryl-and-watch-closely situation, only Daddy was home that time. Didn't seem to bother her in the least, other than being a little itchy-but I'm very thankful for benedryl!As much as I love learning new things about my children, I think I'd like a little break now....

Spring Fever

As my little family drove to our chiropractor appointment today, I spied the first blossoming tree of spring...beautiful white blossoms covering a giant tree on a road we don't usually drive down. "Look, Pax! Look at the flowers on that tree! Aren't they beautiful??" {I do this a lot. I notice random little things and point them out to him...he, in turn, has become super observant and now points out every firetruck, "policeoffice car", "ambilace", semi-truck, and-of course-"TRAIN!!" that he sees. but I digress.} "Awww.....it's so CUTE!" my 3 1/2 year old responded from the back seat. At which point I started to silently crack up. Then, after a few beats of silence... "Actually, I didn't see it, Mama. I just didn't see it." At which point I lost it completely. Thanks for affirming me, big boy. And for your honesty.

Wordless Wednesday

Small Son about 14 months old...D-town.

Sugar B about 14 months old...Ft. Fun.