I thought I wanted winter to end

I thought I wanted winter to end. But then spiders started appearing everywhere in my house. There are two on the ceiling over me right now. And I just discovered an horrifically fat ugly one wedged into a corner on my counter. I can't attempt to kill it because missing is probable, in which case it will either disappear over the edge and become vengeful or fling itself at me in a violent attack. I very nicely asked Blake to come home from work and kill it. Regretfully he is unable. I love that his suggestion to me was to take the kids outside and light the counter on fire; I'm sure to get it that way.

Said

Blake: "How old are you, Rory?"
Rory: "Six. Or maybe seven...or three. But Bash's six. And Mama and Papa are three."

Rory: "Mama, you goin' go put on makeup?"
Britt: "I'm already wearing makeup."
Rory: "Maybe you go put on some more."

Britt: "What did the people shout to Jesus as they waved their branches when he rode into Jerusalem on a donkey on Palm Sunday?"
Rory: "Go to church!"

Spring "Break" and Other Stuff

I should have learned by now that spring break means very little to a stay at home mom of younger than school-aged kiddos. But I suppose I thought that since Blake is a student spring break would be an amazing vacation from routine, filled with awesomeness and adventures. I sort of forgot that Blake still works full time. And interns. And his classes are mostly online anyway which means he didn't even really get a break from school. So basically all that was different was that my normal weekly outings (Bible study and MOPS) were canceled. Which meant we were, well, home. Thankfully my mother in law was on spring break, so we did get a few fun outings in: Walmart, Bookmans, Warner's Nursery (a fish pond and playground!) and Joann Fabric (a store where the babies can actually touch things!). It certainly wasn't a terrible week, it's just that my expectations were grander than reality. The weather was pleasant enough to allow for some more outside play, and we did some crafting and accomplished a couple organizational tasks.

Over the weekend we enjoyed an Easter egg hunt put on by some friends. It was quite breezy and Rory kept grumbling about how cold her hands were. She warmed up as the weather did though and found her niche sitting in the sun drinking cocoa and eating muffins. Bash didn't quite grasp the whole purpose, but he loved wandering through the grass and playing in the dirt. Aurora was so proud when we ate the eggs they found (I love that they use real boiled eggs!); you'd think she laid them herself!

Speaking of Easter, we're really trying to impress on the kiddos the significance of Easter. I don't want to just show up at church when they're high on sugar and try to explain it all then. We bought a few board books a month or so ago and have been reading them with the kiddos, and we've done a couple activities to talk about the cross and Jesus having to die for us. I've found that it's difficult to explain the resurrection to my two year old; she doesn't really understand death, so rising from the dead doesn't mean a whole lot yet. This week we have some special things planned too: Another little Easter egg hunt at home, putting white carnations in red food coloring to represent Jesus taking on our sings (I think this will mean something to Rory), having a picnic lunch out of plastic Easter eggs, making an Easter garden on Friday (which will be dead and brown on Saturday) then making it bloom with flowers Easter morning, a "Son Rise/sunrise" Easter breakfast with a fun new tent and Easter baskets...it should be a great week! We'll keep reading our books and I found a couple animated videos on youtube that tell the Easter story to show them too.

I think it's going to be hunker-down time the rest of the semester. Blake will be pretty slammed with homework all through April. We can't wait for May 2014! We have lots to look forward to though; we had an ultrasound today and little guy is measuring really well (there was some concern that he was too small at his 20 week scan). We're thirty weeks along and have a tentative arrival date of May 31st. I'm not too phased at the thought of having another newborn; things are crazy anyway, so we may as well add to it! I'm not looking forward to nursing a new one right now though; I'll do it though! I'm excited to not be pregnant and to start my diet back up once these crazy hormones calm down enough to allow me to be rational and resist the siren's song of chocolate and pastries... Summer can't come soon enough! I envision sitting on the patio or in the back yard with the new little man while Rory and Bash run and play and get exhausted and make whatever kind of happy memories 3 and 1.5 year olds can make. But I envision lots of things in my mind that turn out a little different in reality (ie Easter egg hunts).

Mondays are my new favorite day of the week- Blake's off (except for a couple hours of class)! We do most of our errands on Mondays and try to accomplish anything crucial for the week. Today MOPS was doing a fundraiser at a frozen yogurt place so we went with my mother in law. Rory had a ball picking out flavors and toppings! Marisa took us to Chick Fila (I know I'm spelling that wrong) for dinner- I love that place! We actually went inside for the first time and the babies got to play on the little playground. It was so clean and everyone was so nice! Unfortunately, both kiddos climbed to the top of the play set (quite brave of our cautious Rorykins) but weren't keen on coming down, Rory because she was scared of the slide and Bashy because he was having too much fun playing in an airplane thing. We had to send Marisa partway up after Bashy. Rory ended up going down the slide and was very proud of herself. They had such a good time! Hooray for not being a germ-a-phobe mom!

Bathtub painting is a favorite activity.

We only do it right before bath time, of course!

Sebastian has been quite attached to Papa lately and cries whenever he leaves for work. My His blankie provides some comfort.

Crafting with contact paper! I covered their creation with more contact paper and cut crosses out of them to hang in the window. They turned out...okay. But hey, the kids had fun!

Barefoot, wearing a crown, singing to her baby doll.

She's quite nurturing and girly; one day last week every part of her outfit was a different shade of pink! She examined herself in the mirror, nodded in a satisfied manner and declared that she looked gorgeous! She did :)

They really are the best of buddies.

It's impossible to get enough of this cheesy boy.

Me: "Look, an Easter egg! Come put it in the basket!" Rory: "No, my hands are cold! You do it!"

He liked to throw the eggs into the basket as hard as he could. They ended up quite cracked. Any potential projectile is a ball in his mind, and he LOVES balls.

Oh, sweet boy!

Bashy loves hanging out in the car with Papa

Another Week in the Bowen House

This past week was pretty busy. The kiddos were relatively healthy so we got to resume normal activities like Bible study and MOPS. We celebrated my mother in law's birthday (I made German chocolate cake not quite from scratch but pretty close!) and we (Blake, that is) did lots of homework. We also got to go to the eye doctor for the first time in years. I HATE going to the optometrist; the worst part is when he shoots poofs of air into my eyes. This nice man didn't shoot air, but he did drop-things which wasn't stupendous either. I always feel like I'm contradicting myself when he asks, "Which is better, number one or number two?" And so on. It seems the optometrist always peers at me skeptically and I assume I must be making mistakes and am going to screw up my prescription and won't see properly for the next two years. I'd rather go to just about any other kind of appointment than an eye one. But like I said, this optometrist was pleasant and unassuming and didn't make me feel like I was nuts. And the reward was picking out new glasses- I LOVE shopping for glasses! They're such a fun way to make a subtle but daring statement, especially since I wear contacts most of the time. I adore my new frames and it only took about ten minutes to pick them out (the advantage of a small practice with less inventory than a larger place).

We ate lots of delicious food this week, thanks to our Thai add on pack with our Bountiful Basket. One night I made green curry from scratch and we had lemon grass ice tea and Thai pineapple fried rice!

Rory constantly cracks us up with her funny jokes and declarations. She is sooo cautious but always gets ridiculously overjoyed with herself when she succeeds at something 'cary. She dislikes her food touching: "I can't eat the egg- there's toast on it!" and is scornful of snow. She wants to select her own outfits and dress herself.

Bashy is adding words to his vocabulary and we think his talking is going to take off pretty soon; he's experimenting with sounds and mimicking us much more. He is such a goof ball and is so physical: kicking and flailing when he's mad and snuggling and giving spontaneous hugs and nuzzles when he's happy, which is most of the time. He has tons of dragon teeth which he enjoys displaying with cheesy grins. He's full of wonder and curiosity and is so stinkin' cute.

Blake and I took a weekend long class to become members of the Coconino County Community Emergency Response Team (it's affiliated with the emergency management office and the county sheriff). Blake will get trained to teach the courses we took and will help out with it more. I took the class so that it's something we can do together instead of something he has to be apart from the family to participate in. It was nice to have a kiddo-break (even if it did mean sitting in a classroom) and we got to do fun things like use fire extinguishers to put out fires and participate in disaster scenarios.

These babies love their Papa!

Smile!

Oh, that boy! I just want to smoosh his little cheeks!

Enjoying a warm afternoon

Such a cutie-boy

A disadvantage to being a scrawny kid

Cheeese!

This wall is a lot higher in Rory's mind

But she did it!

Goofy dragon baby

Pretty stripey-dotty girl

Budding percussionist

Giddy up! After she dressed herself in Bash's shorts, an inside our shirt, one sock, 2 sandals (on the wrong feet), and a lopsided crown :)

A Good Day

Today was good. It was not productive. It didn't include any out of the ordinary adventures. But it was good.
-A friend that I don't know very well from MOPS remembered that I was looking for a popup play tent for the babies for Easter. She saw one at a thrift shop and let me know about it. My mother in law was able to swing by and pick it up; I think it will be great!
-Bashy napped for all of fifteen minutes in his crib before starting to wail, which is unusual for him. I decided to heed the words of a favorite poem on motherhood and snuggled him with his favorite blankie in the rocker for a good hour while he slept; I read a little and chatted with my mom and sister on the phone but mostly just enjoyed the precious moments with my sweetie boy- he's getting big so fast!
-Rory and I had a milestone in our mother-daughter relationship today: She confided in me for the first time! I'm glad we had a speaker at MOPS this morning who reminded us to enjoy these days; I had a freshly made latte and great plans of sitting down for a few minutes after Rory went down for her nap. I was about to take her into her room when looked at me and said, "Let's go snuggle on your bed, just for a couple minutes, how 'bout dat?" I allowed my coffee a fleeting thought but told her I would love to snuggle. We burrowed in under the covers; Rory kept turning over and grinning at me. Instead of getting antsy after a few minutes like she usually does, Rory surprised me by beginning to talk. *Although she's perfectly fine when taken to Sunday School or MOPS leadership meetings or just about any other time, she HATES being in her class during MOPS itself (like clings-to-the-doorjamb-shrieking kind of hates)* So as we were snuggling she began to tell me all about what she likes and doesn't like about MOPS: She likes the activites (snack and singing and crafts and movies and whatnot- she kept rattling things off), but said that in her class the kids are loud. She went on to describe why she likes being in the nursery class with Bash instead of her class, and then described why Sunday School is okay even though it can be loud too. She talked and talked and talked, and other than asking a few clarifying questions I just listened to her. When she was done I told her how Jesus made some kids louder and crazier than others but that he loves the loud ones too and she'll eventually learn to be a good friend to them. But I also told her that I understand why she doesn't like her class. We've always known that Aurora doesn't like chaos; in loud and crazy situations she's usually on the periphery, with a look of alarm on her face. So, her revelations today did not surprise me. But I thought it was so precious that she needed to talk to me about it, to tell me how she was feeling under the security of warm blankies. I hope that was the first of many such conversations we'll have over the years, and I hope I always have the sense to let my coffee grow cold. It can be microwaved, but a squandered opportunity like that with my daughter cannot be made up for.

A Sicky Boy and a Birthday

The last week was pretty much consumed by a serious illness our sweet Sebashy came down with; two trips to the ER and lots of consultations with his doctor resulted in him being diagnosed with RSV and pneumonia. He was so sick; if the pediatrics unit hadn't been completely full he would have been admitted; we were spared being sent to a hospital in Phoenix only because Blake is an EMT and the doctor was comfortable with him monitoring Bash. He was tragically miserable all week, but is doing soooo much better now! He's making up for lost time by being extra mischievous, playful, and cute.

It was by 27th birthday yesterday! I loooove birthdays; I think you're supposed to outgrow that, but I haven't. My book club had a little party for me, which was grand, and we threw me a bingo party last night! Since I love occasions where prizes are won, bingo seemed like a fabulous party plan. It turned out to be a ton of fun! We had stayed home from church in the morning because Bash is still recovering, so Blake and Rory brought home doughnuts for breakfast. It was such a great day!

I came downstairs after being out of the room for only a couple minutes to find the kiddos had opened the stepladder by the sink and were joyfully playing away.

I wasn't too pleased with them, seeing as there were knives and such within reach...

Enjoying sister-free car time!

Poor sad Bashy getting a breathing treatment

Sillies

We went to a princess carnival party thing!

We wisely determined that face painting should be hand painting for Rory.

We had a taco salad buffet for my birthday dinner!

A sweet friend volunteered to make my amazing flourless mint chocolate torte.

The beginning of the bingo festivities

It was pretty intense!

My father in law never won; every time he put a marker on his board a baby ate it.

My winning card! No prizes for me though :)

Cutie Bash helped Papa do some calling.

He just loves balloons!

Mama-son