Good Things

1. Space heaters. Phil brought home this sweet surprise for me yesterday after a quick trip to Walmart. I had been asking for one for a long time because our bathroom is usually f-r-e-e-z-i-n-g and was so excited to see him walk in the door with this! It makes it so much easier to go into the bathroom before bed to wash my face and brush my teeth, and makes my 5:30 workout wakeups a little bit better. It even oscillates and has a remote control! I don't even have to leave it on very long to enjoy it... I just turn it on when I get to my sink and let that yummy warm air blow on my backside. Heaven.

2. Ma Chère Finery. I've been meaning to share my friend Katie's website on here for ages. She's the one who made that adorable flight suit onesie for Emmett a while back. Her site is: www.macherefinery.com and she makes the most wonderful, one-of-a-kind items. She uses the most unique fabrics and her work is just gorgeous. Katie is absolutely amazing herself. Not only is she totally beautiful (she was Miss America 2002) and one of the nicest people you'll ever meet, she has a gorgeous singing voice, AND she is an excellent speaker, AND she acts, AND she's a mom of two, AND she does lots of volunteer work and performs all over the country, AND to top it all of, she now has her own clothing and accessories line! Whew! As for me, today... I did some laundry, changed about 8 diapers, cleaned my bathroom, and watched a DVR'ed TV show. :) Um, yeah.

3. Flower buds. I'm so excited to see them working their way up through the soil! I'm just hoping they don't freeze before they grow tall and bloom. Maybe I should put my space heater out there next to them.

4. Shoes and a great deal. Almost nothing makes me as excited as finding Nine West wedges for $30 at TJ Maxx that look very similar to $165 shoes at J. Crew. Score!!

5. Bike riding. Okay, seeing my big boy expertly steer and ride his bike up and down the sidewalk and feel so proud of himself makes me just as happy as a great deal on shoes.

6. Kite flying. Is there anything better than flying a kite on a gorgeous sunny day with your Daddy and favorite dog? Not to Jackson!

Farewell, Fevers!

Everyone's finally feeling better around here... hooray! Both boys had fevers (at times very high fevers) almost all last week. They had no other symptoms except for stuffy/runny noses. I have no idea what they were fighting, but I'm sure glad it's gone! I peeked into their mouths the other day and noticed that Emmett's bottom two teeth have just poked through and Jackson is getting his back molars, so maybe that's what the fevers were all about. Here are a few "cooped-up-inside-the-house" pictures from last week...

In other news...

Phil got home safely from Tucson very late Monday night. It is great to have him home. We all miss him so much when he's gone!

Emmett took five steps on his own last Thursday! He cruises around holding onto furniture and pushing things like crazy, but won't let go and walk on his own unless someone is sitting on the floor with him. He walked to Phil and me both several times that day!

We were able to go to church this morning now that everyone is feeling better. Phil and I were about 15 minutes late getting into the service because both of our boys were freaking out a little after we dropped them off in their respective nursery rooms. Emmett was crying as soon as Phil handed him over to the nursery lady, and he gradually got more and more upset! I finally went in and sat on the floor with him for a little bit. We played with some toys for a few minutes, and then, thankfully, he calmed down and I was able to sneak out. The nursery lady said that he started to get a little upset again later but was immediately happy when she started feeding him Cheerios. Little piglet! Jackson usually loves going to church, but today for some reason he didn't even want to set foot in the room. I walked in there with him for a minute, but then I could see that that wasn't helping the situation. So I told him goodbye and that I would see him later and left. He started crying and laid down by the door! One of the younger nursery ladies sat down with him and was able to talk him into joining the group. When we came to get him over an hour later, he wasn't even waiting at the door like most of the kiddos. We had to flag him down to get him to come out! Needless to say, we're very thankful to have such wonderful, patient nursery workers at our church. Hopefully things get better with the boys and the ladies don't dread us coming every week! Here is Jackson "cheesing" before church...

Both boys got haircuts this evening. This was Emmett's first real haircut from Dad. I've cut his bangs and the hair around his ears before, though. He's got pretty good baby hair, so I didn't want Phil to use the clippers and cut it too short. Look at the concentration on Phil's face...

Poor Jackson basically got scalped! Phil accidentally had the clippers on the wrong setting when he clipped the back of J's hair. It's really short. Thankfully, it grows pretty quickly (and the bald patches are gone!).

Hope you had a great weekend!

Week in Review

Phil has been gone this week, so it's been just Mom and the boys for a few days. We've been quite the homebodies... we haven't been out of the house (except for walks) since Thursday! Emmett has some sort of bug right now... he's incredibly stuffed up, doesn't want to eat, has had some bowel issues and terrible diaper rash, and has had a fever off and on for two days. And just today Jackson had a little fever, too. Yuck! Of course, this is all extra fun when Daddy's gone. :)

We went to a friend's house for dinner on Wednesday night and I took some pictures of the boys together before we left. Can you count how many times E has his tongue out in these pics?

Today we went for a walk to the park and I had to snap some pics of the boys in the stroller together. How cute is this?

I had to take these quickly before E pulled off his hat. He loves to pull it off and try to put it back on again... over and over. Here he is just about to take it off...

And here's two cute pre-illness pictures...

Sorry I haven't had any really interesting blogs lately! We must be in some kind of late-winter slump... we haven't done much of anything exciting and blog-worthy lately. We are all going to Florida in two weeks, so maybe we're just subconsciously gearing-up for all of the excitement we'll experience there!

Learnin' 'Em Early

How nice will it be when this happens for real?

I'm sure the novelty will wear off quickly!

Sunshine-y Day

We have the craziest winter/spring weather here. One day it will be 60 degrees and sunny, and the next day it snows (and melts quickly). Yuck! Our town is known as "The City of Sunshine", but it has not lived up to that name this winter. I feel like it has been overcast and 40 degrees for the past three months. Double yuck! Those 60 degree days are such teases... we are SOOO ready for summer and warmer weather!

Anyway... last Sunday was a beautiful day, and even though Phil and I had a very late Saturday night and weren't quite ourselves on Sunday, we managed to get out with the boys to enjoy the sunshine (at least for a little while!). Jackson had his first real ride on his "bike" and I snapped some pictures.

Emmett loves riding in this little car. It seems like just the other day that he was tiny enough to carry in the Bjorn while I pushed Jackson in this car. Where does the time go?? *sniff*

Phil did a "wheely" a few times by tipping the car back a little bit. Emmett liked it, but got a really scared look on his face... a more scared version of this one...

Here's J saying one of his favorite phrases... "Go DAT way!"

He can pedal really well, but hasn't quite gotten the steering down yet.

And here's a cute video of the boys interacting with each other. Jackson loves to go into Emmett's room right after E wakes up. He turns on the light and yells, "Hi, Emmett!" and then does things to make Emmett laugh. I'll hear them in there just cracking up at each other. I love it! Of course, as soon as either of them sees the camera, they usually stop whatever they're doing. That's why I was standing outside of the room for a little bit. This one is a little bit long and might only be enjoyed by grandparents or close relatives. :)