Help for Mommy

I had some help tonight with the dishes.

Spring is Here

Little Girl Sweaters on Little Boys

I finally finished the sweaters for Christy's little girls. They turned out wonderful. I hope Christy will take a picture and send it to me. (Christy- I know you are lurking on here and hopefully you will really do this). I am sadly lacking on the girl department in this house so I had to make due with my little boys as models. I know these would be much cuter on little girls wearing pigtails and a little dress- red maybe. So here are the pictures. Alma was horrified at this photo shoot but the boys didn't seem to care.

Lazy Days

I am having one of those days you dream about when you choose to become a lady of leisure. (I had my life so well planned out- but where I ask where is the leisure?) Those days that never seem to happen with out serious reprisal. I am doing nothing. NOTHING. It is heaven. It isn't that there is nothing to do I am choosing to actively ignore it and enjoy myself. My children have survived- barely. I let them take as long a bath as they wanted this morning so I could sit and read my book and in hopes the smell of syrup that has been hanging on Beckett all week would finally go away. Everyone who picks him up to kiss him then looks at me and says wow he really smells like syrup. And I keep washing him and try not to worry about the genetic disease that makes you urine smell like syrup aptly named maple syrup urine disease. I think we are safe as I am unaware of any Amish or Mennonite ancestry in our families, and it makes your urine smell not your face. And as I keep racing over the other symptoms in my head- Beckett has none of them unless I am a hopelessly delusional mother and Beckett is severely mental retarded and I just haven't noticed. I do bathe my children- this one just really smells. And thank goodness when I gave him a big cuddle and kiss at nap time he smelled of baby and no more maple syrup- apparently he needed an hour long bath.

Anyways- back to my lazy delightful day. Just lounging on the couch reading while the boys roll around each other or Coen pretends to rescue the prince. There is a prince in our house who is always in peril of some sort and Coen his savior- but the princesses do just fine. Princess mostly only dance in our house- they are bright enough not to get stuck behind the wood stove 8 times a day unlike the mental challenged princes. When I asked Coen if he wanted to go outside today he looked at me with his sad face and said the snow was broken. When I looked confused he pointed out the window to the sunny spring backyard and said "See snow all gone- It got broken." Some how he still managed to have little fun outside. While this is all going on I was still in my pajamas reading a book- which I just finished. I tell you a dream day. Here are my cute kids.

This is the best I could get out of Coen- Anyone with ideas on how to get a two year old to cooperate with picture taking. Kayli? Your kids always look cute.

I thought this made Beckett look debonair and rakish with the one raised eyebrow. Alma thought he looked like he had a lazy eye. On further inspection Alma may have a point. Maybe he does have MSUD.

Happy St Patricks Day

So I had a wonderful bit of news on my St Patricks Eve. Due to many different circumstances I have the opportunity to travel to Ireland with the NU choir. I am going mainly to provide a companion for Marika in case she has any health problems and also to provide health care for the choir. I am incredibly lucky (I must be Irish!).

I am not thinking about leaving the boys (especially Beckett). So I have two weeks to pack, get the boys ready, wean the baby (or should I bring the breast pump?) and see if I even have enough clothes for the trip. ACCKKKK!!!!

And I have been waiting and waiting to post this video. We love it. What isn't to love- three of my favorite guys singing a moving song.

Basketball Dreams

We spent the afternoon watching our niece and nephew's city league basketball games. Those of you who know me know how I love kids sports games. (except baseball- who likes baseball?) It was great watching the boys teams. David won 50-21. He played great. The teams were evenly matched size and age wise- if not skill level. The other team had one really great player (I love it when the great player is the chubby geeky kid with glasses!). It was fun to watch. The other team would have been okay except they were missing the key skill of shooting the ball.

Now the girls game was a whole other story. The team Jessica played was HUGE. Our team came up to their shoulders. And they were talented. We think they must be from Union Hill and they must have been a good year older than our team. Their closest game this season they won by 30 points. Our team was very proficient at several skills: passing the ball to our teammates faces, rolling on the ground, and dribbling in the corner. It was a little depressing to watch. We did only lose by 28(I think- they stopped keeping score half way through the second half). Jessica and Margret (Anna and Jessica's friend) made our teams only 2 baskets.

Over all there were many more tears during the girls game. (Note there were tears during the boys game- just more for the girls.) Coen and Beckett loved being there- except for the buzzer- that was scary for both of my boys. Over all the crowd was friendly and cheered on all the participants and the refs were good at teaching while calling the game. All that you would hope a kids game to be.

Oh Where For Art my Andrea?

This week I saw a woman standing in front of the library with red spiky hair and holding a baby wrapped up in a bright orange sling and I almost said out loud "Oh look Andrea came to story time with us!". I was so excited until I remembered that Andrea lives in Utah and this was some other woman with red spiky hair.