Circus and Nephew

The Grand Finale- the human cannonball!
The circus- getting ready to shoot the human cannonball. My pictures did not turn out well. I took in one of the girl's cameras and the lighting obviously was not ideal.
What a cutie pants!

We had another blessed and wonderful weekend. Currently, we are battling an unfortunate circumstance but I know that God is going to work it all out. Just having that peace was enough to make the weekend great. Saturday evening, we enjoyed Cracker Barrell with our best friends before going to the circus. We had the pleasure of keeping my nephew Saturday and Sunday. He absolutely loved the animals and the clowns at the circus. He was a perfect angel for us all weekend (given his age). The girls were so well behaved and kind to him, which made me extremely proud. Sunday, our preacher started a new series of messages regarding tithes and offerings to God. Then we visited with my grandparents and returned my nephew. Sweet Pea asked if we could pay my sister so we could keep him. She thought $5 would be enough! We are looking forward to the week and hopefully will get to spend more time with my nephew soon.

Wonderful Weekend

I had the best weekend ever! We planned this trip several months ago and it was so worth it. The kids want to make this a yearly tradition. Our girls' birthdays are three weeks apart and my best friend's birthday, as well as her two children have birthdays within several days of each other. To celebrate this year, we went to the Wilderness Waterpark. We enjoyed the best company in the world, great food (because I didn't cook it), lots of playing in the water, and we did some shopping.

The girls added to their Webkinz collections and Sweet Pea added more pigs to her collection. We had to add the Webkinz to their accounts as soon as we got home. They could not wait!

In other news, Bailey had his "air bubbles" removed today. He is sleepy but is moving around really well. He has been jumping up and down on furniture and climbed the stairs. I promise that I have tried to keep him rather still but it is not working.

Pumpkin Pie celebrates her birthday tomorrow. She is such a diva! She finally picked out part of her birthday outfit this weekend- a mauve twirl skirt from Pampolina. Now we have to find a sweater and shoes to go along with it. It was so much easier when she would go into Gymboree and get an outfit with all of the coordinating accessories! She has a new piano teacher this year and seems to be excelling. She doesn't seem to mind practicing near as much as she used to.


The Christmas Oinking Pig

Sweet Pea's Webkinz

Pumpkin Pie's Webkinz (her volleyball team is named the cardinals)

Our view: I convinced my best friend to go down that waterslide with me. Ohhh that memory will stick with me forever- her facial expression was absolutely priceless.

The birthday cake- yummy!

The Aquarium

We took the girls to the aquarium today. We also planned to go to Dollywood, since the rain was supposed to end around 1:00. However, I ended up being miserable at the aquarium and we had to head back home afterward because I was literally puking my guts out the whole way home. Shout out to the Pilot station for the sturdy baggage that assisted with the long trip home. I've held down a little bit of food for the past hour so I think it is passing. I feel miserable though about the girls not getting to do more. We had also planned to shop for Pumpkin Pie's birthday outfit. I guess it will have to be put off for another day. Enjoy the pictures!

It happened

We woke up at 7:00 a.m. with Pumpkin Pie running a fever of 102. She says she feels fine other than a sore throat and congestion. She is eating fine and playing fine, even though she is confined to her room with a limited number of things to do. I guess we will be seeing the doctor for a third time in a week and a half. I'm afraid our doctor is going to think we are horrible with our kids getting so sick. I promise they are washing their hands frequently and I am going through sanitizing things often. I limit what they can touch and do and am keeping them confined to one area throughout their sickness. What am I doing wrong!

When will it end??!!

These are totally random but they fit the way that I have felt for the past two weeks.
Sweet Pea had the flu last week and on Monday, 20 of the 29 kids in her class were absent due to illness. Now, Pumpkin Pie has a sore throat and is complaining of not feeling well. Matt and I took turns staying home with Sweet Pea this past week. Of course she wanted to run wild when her fever went down and was clingy and lethargic when it was up. How did I entertain her you ask...we colored. I thought she did an awesome job on the Little Mermaid picture and she even took the picture of it by herself. She may have some artsy skills in her after all. It sure isn't genetic though.
I have the cutest dog in the world. This is now his favorite place to sleep and get away from Sweet Pea. He is under my bed on top of my summer shoe box.
We had the water bottle out this week to fix one of the kids hair. Matt decided to spray Bailey with it and Bailey thought it was a wonderful game. He kept trying to lick the bottle and he would push Matt's hand with his paw to get Matt to spray more water for him. I have a video but it is a little lengthy, so I will spare you.
Matt fried ham a week ago and this piece came out of the skillet like this. Can you see the smiley face?! I promise that we did not make this up.

Matt found the M&M in his recent snack attack and thought it looked like a heart. He had to share it with me, which was sweet since I LOVE M&M's. They are just so cute (and yummy).
Many of you may know the struggle I have had with Pumpkin Pie's hair. She has some wild hair that has this wavy, kinky thing going on. So I decided that I would be hair stylist for a day. I permed my daughter's hair! I used big rollers on it and didn't leave it on as long as the box said but she likes it and it has been way more manageable in the mornings when she is getting ready for school.

Another piece of ham...Sweet Pea thought that this one looked like a heart.

We have been very busy recently, between school, homework, music lessons, work, sanitizing the whole house every day to try to prevent sickness, doctor's appointments, etc... I will be glad to have a shorter week this week. I am off Thursday and Friday and am planning some activities with the girls (since they will be out of school). Next Friday, we are going to a water park for the girl's birthday's. We will also be celebrating birthday's with one of my best friend's and both of the girl's best friends. We are very excited! We also have the circus coming up and Disney on Ice coming up. I am currently searching for birthday outfits for the girl's birthday pictures and am really looking forward to those. It has been forever since I have taken any pictures of the girls (beyond everyday pictures). Let's pray that Pumpkin Pie doesn't get "sick, sick" and the rest of us can stay healthy. We have way too many fun things planned to get sick now.
Oh, and being the wonderful mom that I am-I have helped Sweet Pea extend her vocabulary. She recently learned the word "imbecile" and knows the meaning. I am just joking about the wonderful mom part!

Air bubbles

This story is a little embarrassing so be prepared.

We recently cut Bailey's hair again (to keep it short but allow it to get a little longer before Winter). Normally, I could handle questions from my kids without panicking. I guess I wasn't prepared this time. Sweet Pea happened to notice a set of private parts that boy dogs carry around. When asked what they were, I freaked at how to explain this to a young child (which is not the typical me...it could be the illness my body was apparently trying to fight off). I responded, "Those are air bubbles. He just needs to poot." She bought the answer but I have a feeling that I should prepare because the question is sure to arise again when he poots and the "air bubbles" don't go away.

I guess it had to get us...

Thought I would share a cute picture of Bailey snuggling with his favorite toy- the Mickey Mouse rattle.

So, I guess I could have expected that I would get sick. I see kids all day long and they carry in germs but I really tried to avoid it. I have them put GermX on their hands when they come in and I have sanitized my office several times in the past couple of weeks. Sunday morning, it started out as a migraine. Today, I have laid in bed all day long with a low grade fever. I am going stir crazy because I haven't felt like sitting up. I hope that I feel well enough to work tomorrow. I don't think I can stand another day laying in bed! I feel so lazy...
Pray that the rest of the family doesn't get this junk.