terror in a onesie

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A week or so ago we went to a bluegrass music festival here in town. We ended up leaving early because the kids were crazed but the pictures I snatched before we left look like we are having an awesome time.

The best photo of Will and Luke I’ve taken by like 1000%.

Thursday I had Emily for a few hours because of swine flu school closings. The girls had a blast.

Friday we were making up anything we could to fill up a few hours.

Did I mention that by Saturday we’d run out of things to do inside the house?

Yes, Eli’s toes are painted blue. He wanted to and hey, at least I used a boy color.

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See? I do still remember how to post! We’ve had the stomach bug and now we’ve progressed on to the head cold bug. But never fear there are still cute photos of the kids to fill in the gaps between my actual posts.

This is what Liza does in the morning.

This is how Liza watches TV.

Eli’s Easter Haul.

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Liza has discovered dress up:

and dancing on Daddy’s feet:

and strawberry bread:

and the fact that big brother is the best thing since the strawberry bread.

Eli has discovered if he helps cook he gets first dibs on licking cake batter:

and sometimes close is too close to his little sister:

and that it’s true if you leave your food out, bugs will come and eat it:

and his favorite storybook characters live at the Children’s Garden at the Huntsville Botanical Garden.

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From a gas station restroom in Bald Knob, Arkansas:

I knew “politically (in)correct” had become meaningless terms, but this confirms it. What exactly is a politically incorrect novelty? “Look, honey, this condom makes fun of cripples!”

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Ever wonder what we do around here on Saturday morning? I know, how have you gotten on this long without having this knowledge?

Here’s the answer to your burning question: Donuts.

I’ve always meant to fry some biscuits to make donuts and haven’t ever done it. (Is there anything more Southern than this? Maybe frying pickles, that’s the best I can think of.) This morning I got brave and tried it. The results: powdered sugar everywhere. The kids like to dunk their own.

Liza especially loved licking the outer coating of sugar off of the donuts. She was unsure how to proceed after she got all of the sugar off though.

She finally figured it out and ate her fair share.

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Yeah, he acts just as grown up as he looks.

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Today we did some painting since it was way too cold and snowy to go outside. Here are the kids in action:

Click the photo for more painting!

Also, here’s a photo I got of the kids watching tv. They aren’t often that still that close to one another so I had to memorialize it.

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My favorite of the Christmas photos this year. Stephen took it during an extended Lego building session.

Click on the photo for more Christmas pictures.

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We had an unexpected trip to Arkansas this past week due to a death in the family (that’s for a later post), and while we were there Eli and Liza discovered the joys of ponies and make up. Luckily for me it wasn’t all at the same time.

Click on the pony for more photos.

Click on the lipstick for more photos.

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Wednesday morning I discovered the ultimate Liza distraction tool. I stuck her in the bathtub in our bathroom while I was getting ready.

This tub is known around our house as “the big bathtub” because it’s nearly twice the size of the tub in the kid’s bathroom. Liza doesn’t get in the big tub much because it’s hard to chase a slippery 18-month old around a tub the size of a small pond without getting wet yourself or nearly drowning the kid. (See? I did learn something from Eli’s upbringing.)

I didn’t realize, however, it would be so much fun to play with the tub toys with NO water! Who knew?

This morning I took photos.

Those are tub crayons. Good thing they wash off easily.

A moment between the kids. Yes, I art directed Eli into place but once he got there he was way cute all on his own.

This outfit is the bringer of messes. Every time I dress her in it, within 45 minutes there’s a huge mess of some variety that requires a wardrobe change.

One of the many moods of Eli. He was telling me a story about a king, knight, dragon and a fiery game of checkers.

Yeah, I’m totally gah-gah over this kid when he has this expression on his face.

Originally published at Live Granades. Please leave any comments there.

Our trip to the beach.

Stay tuned! I might accidentally post something else next week.

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A while back I read a great tip on Parent Hacks. They suggested to let your kids fingerpaint in the bathtub and then just take a bath. You contain the mess and the kids. The kids get to have a great time, first painting and then a bonus bath. I decided that we’d try it today since they both have a cold and we haven’t left the house in a couple of days. Here’s the evidence:

Also, a few days back Stephen posted about Andrew’s concert and the prepared piano. Here’s the full set of photos I took of him working on the setup.

Originally published at Live Granades. Please leave any comments there.

We’d been talking for a while that we needed to do some cleaning before Christmas. Specifically in Eli’s room so there’s actually room to bring in some new stuff.

So to show him how Mom and Dad can clean up their stuff too, Stephen started pulling books off of bookshelves and chunking them in a pile to go to the used bookstore. Some 60 books later, we have a bit of space on a few shelves around the house. And a whopping pile to trade for other books!

The office was also a bit of a mess. Stephen still had portal gun bits and pieces strewn around for Liza to impale herself on and I had a corner that just seemed to continually expand when I wasn’t actively beating it back. So we spent about 30 minutes last night and here are the results:

Today, I’m going to try and convince Eli to part with a few things as well. If you hear the moaning, it’s Emo Eli trying to part with his toys.

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We were full of the busy yesterday and I managed to get photos of big chunks of it.

First thing was playing with the doll house:

Click the photo to see more pictures.

In the afternoon we were off to hang out with our friends at Hallie and Remy’s house. I made all the girls t-shirts that say “Future Huntsvegas Girl Scout Troop”. They turned out pretty cute, if I do say so myself.

Click the photo to see more pictures.

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Will and Luke came over to visit yesterday. They brought their mom Chrissy and we played outside and very belatedly celebrated Chrissy’s birthday with hot dogs and chili for dinner.

Click the photo to see the rest of the photo set.

Here’s Liza watching “Yo Gabba Gabba!”

Click the photo to see the rest of the photo set.

And finally, Liza and her bubble hat.

Click the photo to see the rest of the photo set.

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The English translation on signs does not necessarily tell the whole story.

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Drink Boss Coffee, or Tommy Lee Jones will cut you.

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Bubbling is preeminent.

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Hello Kitty wants you to be pretty.

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Fruits has power.