Playing in the Sunshine

The last several days have been sunny, which I'm LOVING. I put the kids outside while I was fixing dinner a few days ago and walked out a five minutes later to find this:

They were fully clothed before I sent them out there, I swear. A plastic bin with 2 inches of water is definitely enough to swim in according to my kids!

Today we went for a walk in Noble Woods, which is just a few blocks from our house. We collected sticks and pine cones on our walk and the kids threw them in the stream. If you look closely you can see a few teeny tiny baby pine cones in Lydia's hand--they were pretty adorable.

Despite Luke trying to dive in the stream a few times, we all arrived home dry, happy, and

fully clothed. It was a nice walk.

On a completely different topic, does anyone out there have dust mite allergies? Have you used the covers you put over the mattress and pillows to cut down on allergens? Are they worth the money or is it a big crock? Just wondering.

I'm Livin' the Good Life!!!

Lately I've found myself becoming very easily and quickly frustrated with a few things in life, namely my body's desire to recognize every microscopic particle floating in the Oregon air as an allergen, and Lydia's newest "developmental stage" (at least I hope it's a stage.) She seems bent on ignoring us or doing the exact opposite of whatever it is we ask her to do, and she has to do everything "all on my own," even if that involves lots of screaming and crying because she can't do it. Nothing major, but annoying nonetheless. Thinking about this today, I realized that I do have some great perks in my life that few others are able to enjoy on a regular basis.

Perk #1--My Personal Restroom Attendant

Yes, that's right folks, this Charlie Brown look-alike will come running when he hears the bathroom door open and stand with his hand on the lever, awaiting the okay to flush your waste away. While waiting for you to finish your business, he also will turn the water faucet on and adjust the temperature and flow, allowing you to get those hands clean even faster than you were ever able to before you had your own personal bathroom helper!

Perk #2--My English Language Efficiency/Inefficiency Expert
This lovely lady has coined a few key phrases in our house that are ingenious combinations of words. The two most commonly used are "sugarman"(cinnamon and sugar) as in "Mom, would you please prefer to get me some toast with butter and sugarman?", and "hanitizer" (hand sanitizer), as in "Mom, I want hanitizer instead of washing my hands."

On the flip side, sometimes she gets stuck on a phrase and repeats it 10-15 times, such as "Mom, I need....I need.....I need......um......I need......" you get the picture. However, tonight (right after the soon-to-follow pee story) I very much appreciated her repetitiveness when I put her to bed. I told her, as I do every night, that she is my favorite Lydia, to which she responded, "Mom, you are my favorite, and Dad is my favorite, and Luke is my favorite.....we are all my favorite."

So, in the grand scheme of things, who cares if I can't wear contacts or makeup for a few months, or if I have to clean up pee off the floor twice in one day because someone decided to hold it and cry/throw a fit when I set them on the potty. I've got two crazy kids who give me something to laugh about every day, and a husband who is pretty stinkin' awesome if I do say so myself. I get to stay home with my kids and do basically whatever we want to do, except my one night a week when I get to go to play Nurse Ashley in the ER and poke people's veins, which I love. Yep, when it all boils down I'm definitely livin' the good life.