My little Lane Face

As the previous post mentioned, we made a trip to Costco today. We left with everything on our list plus one. That's pretty good for us. This extra item was a big, fancy kite. (not that fance, like $10 fancy). While we don't often have enough wind to justify having a kite, it does happen on occasion. In fact, tomorrow is supposed to be cooler with some good wind. Please pray for wind! So all day today I hear about this kite and we need to get it out of the garage and fly it. I often wonder why I torture myself with buying these things. But back to the story. At bedtime, once again Lane asks about the kite. And once again I said, "when the sunshine wakes up and after school." And here's why I love my little Lane Face.

"When the sunshine wakes up, he's going to find our house and blow wind out of his mouth onto our trees so we can fly our kite!"

Oh how I pray for wind tomorrow for my sweet little Smith faces. And hope that you have lovely weather where ever you are.

More reasons

For winning mother of the year...

Nora's BIRHTDAY was over a week ago and I'm just barely getting around to posting a shout out for that! Good grief. In honor of her and her birthday, I made brownies for us to enjoy...without her. What a nice and thoughtful mom. But don't you worry about her. She quite enjoyed the gift bag full of tissue paper - all for her to rip, shred and even taste. Now that's really all a one year old wants anyway. But Grandma Diane pulled through, showed up mom and dad, and actually bought Nora a gift. You can see that she was grateful that someone cared about her. Time out. I did do something for her. I painted her fingers and toes. *no pictures of those. Its very true that I do not take the greatest pictures* Anyway, we decided that the painted toes were cute. The painted fingers, kinda creepy.

Happy Birthday, Nora! We love your face!

(So mean! To show it to her and then take it away. There was a point...we let her try to help blow out the candle. That makes it okay, right?)

On another note. I realize that as Nora is getting older and is beginning to notice when she is being left out, I have to rethink a lot of our habits. Like Costco. Who doesn't love to wander around Costco and taste all the yummy samples? When we went this morning. I gave a particular sample to Lane and Kyle but not to Nora. The entire time the were enjoying said treats, Nora was constantly trying to grab at them and complaining that she didn't have one. This scenario can only get worse. I guess it means no more Costco samples, no more pretzels at the mall. And sadly for Lane, no more "oval sandwiches" (translation - cheeseburgers) at Wendy's. I have no idea why he ever started calling them that. Since everyone knows their buns are circles and their meat, infamous squares. And worse...no more 25 cent ice cream cones through the McD's drive thru. We only do that when dad is traveling, anyway. We'll just have to find another tradition. No, I'm not whining or complaining about these things. Of course I am hoping that it will help shed a few pounds. I'm only sad at all the repeated "but I want to!" and "sorry, we can't do that anymore." Even more, the possible "Nora, Nora, Nora!" (Translation - Marsha, Marsha, Marsha!" *SIGH*

Why I should win mother of the year

If its time for voting, here is why I feel I qualify...

I always make sure my children are fed well balanced, nutritious and regular meals.

And that they get sufficient sleep so as to be properly rested and full of energy.

As well as giving them plenty of freedom to explore, discover and develop their minds.

(See that face? Now that's love!)

Need I say more when these pictures tell so much on their own? How can I not at least be in the running for such praise and prestige?

Happy Happy Birthday, Husband (daddy) Dear

Its true...he's 35 today!

So here's a shout out to him!
From his babes: We think he's a pretty good dad. We like having him around so he can build train tracks for us and kick soccer balls with us. Teach us how to build awesome towers and use tools. He even lets us do yard chores with him! We're glad that he likes to spend all of his non working time with us (even though mom thinks he deserves a break now and then). Happy Birthday dad, we love you!
From his wife: Thanks for being such a good husband. I feel spoiled and well taken care of everyday. Love you!

Because I think they're cute...

Because I miss living somewhere else and because we don't have any other pictures of just the 2 of us...sad, I know!

Birthday...

So here is my festering trouble...

Nora turns 1 on Sunday and we have yet to find much that she can eat. We're up to sweet potatoes and carrots. Squash, peas, and any fruit were are a HUGE bust. If we don't find something else of a different color soon she might turn orange! Which might not be too bad since its my favorite color...but maybe not for a baby...
Anyway, so her birthday is on Sunday and I feel sad that she won't be able to have a cake. I know that she doesn't care since she doesn't know any better. But when she's older and she sees all of the "its your first birthday" pictures. She won't have one of her all covered in the traditional, right of passage, birthday cake.
So...what do I do instead? What would be a fun, memorable activity that doesn't involve food? I'm not sure yet. Any suggestions out there?

How do we have fun around here?

Albuterol 4 times a day X2!

Kyle decided to join Nora in having Asthma. And boy did he join in full force. Truthfully, I have been suspecting that this was the case for quite a while now, it just took him getting really sick for us to believe it, I guess. Poor kid! When we took him to the doctor on Tuesday his oxygen reading was 92%. At 89% they put kiddos in the hospital. Luckily, we already own a nebulizer machine and an abundant amount of Albuterol, so we got started right away with the treatments. And since Nora is on her way to getting sick, we decided to treat her as well, before she catches up with her brother!
Kyle is on antibiotics (for his double ear infections) and steroids (for his lungs). So much fun! We took him to the doctor yesterday and again today for oxygen reads. He was at 98% this morning. Thank goodness for steroids and Albuterol! And I am so grateful that my kids are so cooperative with the treatments. Kyle just sits there the whole 10 minutes and never complains. He's such a good boy and so cute about all of it.
I had an appointment for him to see the allergist this morning for some testing, but with all he has going on and the meds...the tests wouldn't work. So we'll have to wait until he's cleared up. Hopefully he'll be up and running around (while breathing happily) soon. Now is the time for Nora to catch up!

Does this sounds like a 2 year old?

Yesterday when we were at the doctor, waiting in the exam room, Nora grabbed onto Kyle's shirt for support. Kyle yells, "Dr, Scharff needs to see my back!" I say, "Why Kyle? What's wrong with your back?" He replies, "Nora touched me on my back! Dr. Scharff needs to see it!"

Back to my tree

(I'm going to eat this one right here!)

Nora likes it too!