What do these items have in common?

ball
book
duck
train
fire truck
bus
car
clothes hanger
apple chunk
pencil
sock
pacifier

Scroll down for the answer....










Answer: all found under my couch the other night.

I really hope that someone out there guessed the right answer. That will make me feel better. Maybe I'm not the only one who has had this experience...

Washing My Car

Cat had been begging to wear her swimsuit ever since I got her a new one for this year. My car was covered in pollen. So, on the last day of Spring Break (yes, it was over a week ago), with Eliza happily taking a nap, Jack, Cat and I got to work. We get out Cat's old swimsuit from last year (yes, I know you can tell from the pictures that it's not a great fit anymore) and the kids were so happy and entertained for almost an hour. And, although my car wasn't sparkling clean afterwards (I'm still not great at washing cars. It really is a science.), at least it wasn't yellow anymore. Here is the progression of the kids' activities during the car-washing session.

Washing the car is fun to do, fun to do, to do, to do...

C: I can make swirlies!
J: My pants are wet.

C: Look how far my swirlies go!
J: Really wet.

C: Playing in the bucket is fun to do, fun to do, to do, to do...
J: That's better.

C: Washing the rags is fun to do, fun to do, to do, to do...
J: Let's see if I can get these wet pants off.

C: Washing Jack's pants is fun to do, fun to do, to do, to do...
J: Oops, lost a shoe. And, that looks fun!

C: Bubbles!
J: Washing the clothes is fun to do, fun to do, to do, to do...

Welcome to the Family, Uncle Ben!

It's official, Cat, Jack, and Eliza have all the uncles they'll ever have now!

We are so excited that Uncle Ben joined our family last weekend. Although, it almost didn't happen. Right up until the last minute, there was another girl trying to win Ben's heart over, working very hard to convince him that she deserved to marry him instead. How can you resist a lifetime of this?

Or this?

But in the end, Ben chose Suz over Cat. Probably better. (And yes, Cat really was jealous that Ben was marrying Suz instead of her. Luckily, she doesn't hold a grudge.)

Here I am at the reception with Jack and his Uncle Andy. We had a blast hanging out with Andy and wish we could see him more often. But living 3000 miles apart makes it difficult.

Cat asked me when she could wear her halo about every five minutes that day. She HATED that she had to wait until the reception to put it on. But, then, of course it only stayed on for about 30 minutes before she realized how much it was cramping her running/playing/jumping style.

The whole clan, after being out in the 90 degree weather a little too long:

A few things I wish I had pictures of:

• The interesting colors of nail polish Cat was considering once Grammy told her that she could get her toenails AND fingernails painted at the nail salon.
• Jack begging for food from other people at the pizzeria the day before the reception. (Believe it or not, it took a while for 20 people's food to arrive.)
  
• Cat riding a skateboard during the reception, in her brand new pink dress.
  
• Jack swiping berries from the refreshment table at the reception. (This was really the perfect reception for him--outside in the grass with an unlimited supply of berries, punch, and cotton candy. Yes, you read that right.)

We had a wonderful time and look forward to lots more fun with the new uncle!

PS> I didn't take any of these pictures. THANK YOU to Sarah, Stephanie, and Suz for sharing your photos!

School Easter Egg Hunt

The Friday before Cat's spring break, her class had an Easter Egg hunt. Her teacher told the class that each child could find 5 eggs for their basket. I'm proud of my eager little beaver, err, bunny. See her running so fast? She was the first one done. AND, she even counted to five correctly. (Turns out, the excitement of an Eater Egg hunt makes many 4 and 5 year olds forget how to count to five.)



Cat's teacher hid a few extras for younger siblings. But Jack didn't care at all about the Easter Eggs. Why would you want a plastic toy with candy inside when there's mulch to play with?

All done!

General Conference is coming up!

I try to keep this blog about the kids, but this post is a little more about me...

I LOVE General Conference. It just gives me a boost. I love seeing and hearing the leaders of our Church. I love being immersed in the Spirit. I feel renewed, and reminded of the things I need to be doing. But of course, it can be challenging to get as much out of Conference as I'd like to with little ones to keep happy and content and quiet. We've tried lots of things, and I don't have any great secrets, but this year I'm adding a new technique to the mix.


For several months, I've ripped out the pages from The Friend magazine that I thought would be useful for future FHEs or stay-quiet-activities, including the coloring pages. So I decided to laminate all of the coloring pages and a few of the simple activity pages, and I'll give a couple at a time to Cat during each session of General Conference along with a bunch of dry erase markers. Hopefully this will help her be happy and quiet (if not exactly reverent) so that I can listen and enjoy Conference a little more.

The trick will be policing Jack when it comes to the dry erase markers. Because this is what he did last time he got one in his hand, and Cat wouldn't let him have enough coloring space on the white board by the computer.

(Side note: Notice the awesome crown molding that Ben recently finished putting up! We love it! And, yes, that is the wall we just painted a couple of months ago.)

1 Month Old!

I can't believe it's been a month already. As weird as it sounds, it is hard to remember what it was like before Eliza was born.

Cat and Jack are adjusting wonderfully to life with their baby sis. We are very proud of Jack, especially, for doing much less throwing things at Eliza. We let him "hold" her for the first time last week and he had the biggest smile on his face. He loves holding her now and we just have to make sure he doesn't try to do it on his own!

Our Favorite Things (or, current obsessions)

Jack: anything that makes a variation of the sound, "vroom." This includes helicopters, busses, trucks, and tractors, but his favorites are trains and cars. He recently discovered "Thomas the Train" and now asks for "choo choo" about 300 times a day, and loves it when I sing him one of the songs from the video we have. Those songs have become his lullabies of choice at naptime and bedtime too.

He loves to zoom around our house, mostly on our tile hallway/motor speedway on his knees, with a toy car/train/tractor/truck/helicopter/bus in each hand. He's logged so many miles on some of them recently, that apparently they needed to be laundered. This is what I found in our dirty clothes hamper this morning:


Cat: The Sound of Music. I first started playing the CD for her in the car a few weeks ago because I thought she'd like "My Favorite Things," and she was hooked immediately. I was really proud of her that as soon as she heard Julie Andrews' voice, she said, "That's Mary Poppins!" Atta girl!

Last week I let her watch the first half of the movie, and she loved it too. She now asks to watch it several times a day, and she's learning the songs. This was the kids tonight after dinner and baths:

(Yes, of course she's wearing a leotard and tutu. What else would you sleep in??)

To view Cat's debut in the part of Maria, click here.