First Quarter Birthdays

Last weekend we got together for the first quarter birthdays (January, February, March)! We celebrated Katie, Jojo and Amelia's day of birth. It was a fun time with laughter, chatting, wrestling and lots and lots and lots of cake!

Katie and Andy. We had taco salads...notice Andy's lack of salad.


Jojo and Joey.


Amelia and Cooper. Oh, and Spot.


Lynnli and Bompa.


David, Andy and Katie.


Courtney and Mom.

What Do You Do...

...with your play car you made at pre-school?



You try to run over your sister, of course!







(Notice the absolute glee on Cooper's face). For those of you concerned about Amelia, she only suffered a small cardboard cut. I'm sure Cooper's car insurance will cover her medical bills.

Happy Valentine's Day!

There was a lot of love around our place yesterday....

Making pizzas with Katie Call.




Cuddling with Sassy and Dog-tay. (I suggested Dante, and Cooper changed it because "he's a dog, so it should be Dog-tay).


Watching TV in a plank position.


Crashed from the sugar high.


Thanks to Katie Call for babysitting my children while I worked. I'm sure Cooper will go to bed earlier next time, now that you know the proper way to rub his back. Also, thank you to my kids (Nana) for the beautiful flowers!

A T-Rex Named Sue

Last weekend I took the kids to the Idaho Falls museum. Sue, the most complete t-rex skeleton (90%) was visiting from......CHICAGO!! Yes, she came straight from the Field Museum itself! We got there rather early and already the crowds were forming. After paying our admission we walked into the room and there Sue was in all her glory.

Cooper stared.

Amelia stared.

I stared.

Suddenly I was in Chicago. I could hear the early summer rainstorm pelting the windows with raindrops. I could see Sue standing majestically in the open air two-story lobby greeting each person as they walked in. I could taste the deep dish pizza I'd had for lunch. I could see the mummy exhibit on my right, and another exhibit I didn't care about and therefore can't remember on my left. I remember the view from the second story--Lake Michigan choppy and gray but smoothing as the storm moved past. The skyline of the city stretched along the shore with the evening lights just beginning to wink on. I could---

Cooper: WOW! Sue is HUGE!! She can't step on me, right?
Amelia: (In a very exasperated tone) No, Cooper, she died a long time ago, those are bones.

And I'm back.

The kids really loved the museum. I believe Cooper's new favorite word that day was, in fact, museum. He used it close to 137 times. When we settled in the car with our souvenir dinosaur drinking straws I asked what they loved the best and this is what I got:

Cooper: I loved Sue, and all the stuff I could touch. The stuff had pictures of hands on it so I knew I could touch it and not go to jail (perhaps my warning to not touch anything was a bit strong). I also like the hand sanitizer you gave us after we left, it makes my hands smell good.

Amelia: I loved all of it. I liked getting my picture standing in front of Sue, but I was a little scared she'd get me. She's a little spooky.

All good comments. What did I like best? Well, Sue brought back fabulous memories from my trip to a city I miss so much.......and I'm pretty sure as I left Sue whispered Chicago missed me, too.

Amelia and Cooper in front of Sue. Amelia kept looking nervously over her shoulder.


Sue, all the way from Chicago. Cooper believes she came on a "bone truck".




Cooper was so happy there were things he could touch!


They also enjoyed the Idaho History room!




Me with Sue in Chicago.

Better Than Nothing!

We finally got some snow last week! Amelia and Cooper were dying to go play, so we suited up in our unused snow gear and headed to a small snowpile in our yard.

Sometimes they played very well together:


Sometimes Cooper "accidentally" pushed Amelia down before she was ready.


In retaliation, sometimes Amelia would hurry and "accidentally" go down without Cooper.


Most of the time Cooper didn't mind.


Sometimes Cooper is mischievous.


For the most part, they had fun!

What We've Been Up To

We've had an awfully busy week and a half. Here's some of the things we've done:

We started our first day of school:


We had a cinnamon roll the size of our head for breakfast:


We took bubble baths:


We rocked pink cowgirl boots:


We did headstands on chairs:


We made and ate Valentine's day cake:




We watched Matthew:


And the crowning moment:

WE HAD KATIE CALL VISIT!!!

She took us out to dinner and it was......an experience!! I don't normally take the kids to a nice, sit-down restaurant because it gets a little crazy. It was no different with Katie along, but it was fun! Some of the comments made were:

Amelia: "She brings the food to our table? Oh wow!"

Cooper was inquiring about the time and temperature of the oven and our waitress said she didn't cook the pizza, but it would be warm. Cooper said, "You warm up the pizza for me?! You are SO NICE!"

Cooper had a tummyache, so I rushed him to the bathroom to see if we could fix it. We came back and Katie asked "Do you feel better?"

Cooper: "Yes, I burped a few times and--" I caught him and slapped my hand over his mouth before he could say, " and foofeded really loud!"

Some snow had fallen while we were in the restuarant, and Katie used her sleeve to scrape it off the windows. When she got back in Cooper said, "Katie, you were awesome out there!"

In the restaurant:




The next morning Katie helped Amelia look pretty for school:


We loved having Katie here and were sad to see her go! As Cooper said, "I seem to kind of like her."

Mama, I wish...

Cooper was playing a video game on the computer while I was talking to my sister on the phone. He asked me for help and I told him I didn't know how to play the video game. He asked to speak to Katie so I handed the phone over. I heard Katie ask him how he was and he said,

"I wish my mama was a gamer. Can you get Andy up here? He's a gamer."


Number 213 on my list of things to improve on as a mother: become a gamer.