Parent Teacher Conferences

Today we had our Parent Teacher Conferences with DS#2 and DD's teachers. This meant that DH and I put ourselves together long enough to go out and meet people today. All the conferences went well. DH and I consider ourselves very lucky. For DS#3's conferences (since he has three teachers), they tried something new. They called them "student-led" conferences, which meant that DS#2 presented his work and how he was doing in each class. DH and I were a little unsure about this new way of doing things, but in the end, we think it was a good thing. DS#2 read from a script which had some room for personalization. For example, he called himself the "pillar of awesomeness". There were three or four of these going on in the same room at the same time and the teacher circulated the room answering questions. Basically, in all of his classes, DS#2 is doing really well but his teachers all had plans to keep him challenged. What was really nice was that DS#2 was there for that part of the conversation, so he knows what his teachers have planned for him.

DH went to DD's conference by himself so I could stay home and get DS#3 to nap. She is doing well in school too. DH and her teacher talked about how chatty DD is, and her teacher said that it seemed like her entire class was chatty. That seemed okay with her, though, because they apparently do a lot of group work where they discuss certain things. DD has never seemed as driven as her brothers when it comes to school, so DH and I have to remind ourselves that she really is smart and above her level in reading and math.

All of my day was spent with this young man. This is the position that he assumed while watching "Go, Diego, Go" on TV. He had quite a few screaming fits today with the same scenario over and over again. He would want something. Either I wouldn't understand what he was saying or he wouldn't say anything at all, but the result was the same. He would start screaming at the top of his lungs, and I would have to let him do that for a few minutes before I could get him calm enough to figure out what he wanted.*SIGH* The terrible twos are still here!

DS#1 went to school today. He didn't have a fever this morning and he wanted to go to school, so we let him. He made it through the whole day, although he did sit out of soccer practice because the coach knew he had been sick and didn't want to overwork him. He even stayed a little afterwards to make up work in one class that he can't do at home (because we don't have the expensive software that they use). When he got home, though, he had a fever to 102 again! DH and I aren't sure what we're going to do tomorrow, but if he stays home another day we're supposed to get a doctor's note. I just hate to see him sick. I have to go back to work tomorrow. I'm feeling better but definitely not at 100%. Wish us all luck tomorrow!

Good Times Among the Feverish

Since I don't really get sick days I went to work yesterday loaded with ibuprofen. When that wore off I knew it because I started getting so cold that I couldn't get warm, even when I wrapped myself in a blanket straight out of the warmer. Luckily, since I had no child to pick up at school at 4PM (since DS#1 was home sick), I was able to leave early. Upon getting home, I promptly went to bed and spent almost the entire evening there.

Still, I try to look for the positive where I can. DH wasn't feeling too well either, but both of us felt better when DS#3 climbed into bed and said, "Watch TV with Papa". Poor little man had been good for DH yesterday, which DH described on his blog. Unfortunately he was sharing a drink with me yesterday, so it was inevitable that he would come down with the same thing. Today he had a fever to 102 but still doing pretty well. DS#1 used to play pretty well whenever he had a fever, unless he got up to 103.

This is a picture of DS#3 today. I still get a kick out of seeing him clasp his hands together when he watches TV. He's been getting lots of TV time since neither DH and I are not active enough to do anything else. DS#1 stayed home from school today too, and he hasn't been very active either.

Another positive thing happened yesterday. I was feeling okay after taking some ibuprofen, so I started helping DS#2 with his school project. Despite the ibuprofen I would get this intermittently throbbing headache. I'm sure it would have been funny to the bystander, but every so often I would say "Ouch!" but I would still go about my business. In any case, I went on like this while helping DS#2 cut out materials for his project and then I helped him put it together. It probably took us a good 1 1/2 hours or so. During that time, DS#2 talked more to me than he usually talks in a week. He even said, "I talk a lot sometimes" although he immediately admitted that he didn't talk as much as his sister. He went on to talk about how she makes his head ache and so on. Despite the throbbing pain, it was nice to spend a little quality time with DS#2. He really did seem to appreciate my help, and that's all that this mother asks of her children--a little gratitude once in a while.

Today, despite spending most of the day in bed, I still had to appreciate that I already scheduled this day off. It's not fun spending a vacation day being sick but since I am sick, it's nice to not have to worry about going to work. I'm still able to spend some time with DS#3. It was nice being able to cuddle with him in bed for a while this morning. It was nice being able to take a nap with him this afternoon. Hopefully he's not going to get the full brunt of this illness. DD had a low grade fever yesterday and today but she feels absolutely fine, so she went to school today. DS#2 is so far untouched, and I hope it stays that way.

You Give Me Fever

The fact that I took this picture at DS#2's game today means that DS#1 did not make it to his game, which was scheduled for the same time. DS#2 looks good in his white home uniform and I love seeing him run. Despite the clumsiness of my children (who take after their parents), they look really graceful when they're running at full speed.

Now back to DS#1--he had a fever today up to 104. Unfortunately this brings back some bad memories of when he was 16 months old and he had a febrile seizure. He had taken some ibuprofen about 40 minutes before the 104 temperature was taken. Fortunately his temperature started coming down soon after that. He is questionable for school tomorrow, which is not an easy decision since he has Art and Electronic Media and Survey of Design Technology tomorrow which require a lot of work IN class and are difficult to make up at home. He would have to stay after school to make up the work in those classes. He's starting to feel better this afternoon/evening, as evidenced by his being able to finish his Physics homework and play Facebook games.

I had some body aches this morning and tonight I have a low-grade fever. My nonproductive cough has become productive. DH's cough has also gotten worse. DS#3's cough continues. So far so good with DS#2 and DD. I hope they stay immune to all of this and the rest of us get better soon.

Wiped Out

Today started with a 9AM soccer game. DD's team played the team they tied last week. In this picture, DD seems to be running full speed after that soccer ball. In reality, she wasn't very aggressive today. If the ball was coming towards her, she would get out of its way. This is of course the way to play dodgeball but not the way to play soccer.

As an aside, notice how large her soccer uniform is. Her uniform is a youth medium, which was the smallest size they had. She's usually a small. DS#2 can fit into a youth medium, although he usually likes his clothes a little big--youth large.

We left the boys at home for DD's soccer game. When we got home, DS#2 was playing on the Wii. DS#3 looked very interested so we asked him if he wanted to play too. DS#2 was all for it, but I decided to just give DS#3 a controller that wasn't turned on. He seemed satisfied with that. I definitely see some video game playing in his future.

Earlier this week we had some cooler weather with the recent rains. Sometimes when there's a temperature change like this I'll start to get a cold. I currently have an occasional dry cough. DS#1 has this chronic dry cough that gets worse sometimes, like this week. Today he woke up "not feeling well". He had what sounded like a sinus headache and a low grade fever. DH and I were at DD's soccer game when he called. We told him to take some ibuprofen and get some rest. He felt a little better after a while and still wanted to go to his 1PM game. DS#2 had a game at 1PM also but on the opposite side of town. DH and DS#3 went to DS#2's game and DD and I went to DS#1's game.

DS#1 told his coach about how he was feeling so the coach put him at the goalie position for the first half so he wouldn't have to run so much. Unfortunately his team failed him a little and let the other team score twice in the first half. He did have a few good saves, however, and everyone seemed happy with the way he played. Still, he seemed to be under the weather, so the coach let him sit out most of the second half (he's usually a starter and plays for most of the game). DS#1 is the second one from the left, in the front row of seats in this picture.

He must have started feeling a little better, because the coach put him into the game in the last five minutes. Here you can see him (in the blue) running fast to help defend the goal from his opponent (in the yellow) while DS#1's team's goalie (in bright green) runs back to defend the goal. Unfortunately, at the end of the game he walked up to me and said that he wasn't feeling well at all. He even napped a little in the car on the way home. He didn't even feel like eating out and getting ice cream tonight. That's when we really knew he wasn't feeling well. That boy usually has a very healthy appetite.

He had a fever to 101.9 tonight, so he's a maybe for the soccer game tomorrow. His main complaint is that he is just "wiped out". He doesn't have any other symptoms of the flu, so I'm sure this is all allergy-related. I'm feeling a bit tired myself this evening. I have more of a runny nose than he does, but I'm feeling very worn out too. Let's hope that my whole family stays healthy or gets better by Monday.

My Family Invades A Hair Salon

On Wednesday, I was getting my hair cut at Bangz Hair Salon and talking to my hair stylist E (who is also the owner) about how I had told my boys that they need to get their hair cut this week. E has a new hair stylist on staff that needs more experience, so he offered to have her cut the boys' hair for $10 apiece. This is about the same price we pay at Supercuts where they usually get their hair cut, so I made appointments for the boys for today. It looked like my whole family invading the hair salon! Here DS#3 is entertaining himself on one of the hairdryer seats.

As I've mentioned in previous blog posts, DD is going to dress up as a doctor for Halloween. Today I brought her one of the disposable stethoscopes we use at work. She also had her hair cut today, but her stylist has a bit more experience and didn't take very long at all to cut her hair. This meant, of course, that I had to keep her busy and entertained or she would keep bothering her baby brother.

Of course, DS#3 was intrigued by this new "toy". At first he put it on with the earpieces actually in his ears. Since DD was tapping on the bell piece so she could hear the tapping with her earpiece in place, he also started tapping on the bell piece. Then he decided to put the earpieces on his waist instead, but he was still tapping on that bell piece. Pretty soon he was just swinging the whole stethoscope and at one point caused the bell piece to come apart. I was able to easily put it back together again, much to DD's relief.

This new hair stylist took about 45 minutes to wash and cut each boy's hair, so we still had some time to kill. The owner brought this huge book of tractors in to show DS#3. Naturally, DS#3 was immediately intrigued. He and DD looked through that book for a little while. I had to laugh when DS#3 saw an open field in one of the tractor photos and yelled, "Sock A Feel" (translated: "soccer field"). The owner laughed and said, "You need to take him out more." The poor boy only sees soccer fields! :)

Pretty much the rest of the time DD and DS#3 were playing on these hair stylist type chairs. DD kept pumping the chairs up and letting them down and then she kept wanting to spin them. DS#3 wanted to sit in one of the chairs with her and then later he insisted on spinning the chair. Of course the way he spun the chair was to walk around the chair while holding on to it instead of standing in one spot and just using his hands to spin the chair. When he stopped for a second we could see that he was a little unstable as if he was dizzy. When he started walking around, he looked like he was going to fall to one side. Luckily he was able to steady himself. When the boys were done, I kidded with the owner and his staff that they would finally be able to have some peace and quiet.

Laying On The Floor

I took this photo yesterday. DS#2 and DD had just gotten home from school and they were looking for snacks. DS#3, who had been snacking on raisins before they got home, went into the pantry, as if to look for a snack too. Before I realized it, he was on the floor in the pantry, just as you see in this photo. He had taken a 1 1/2 to 2 hour nap, but I asked him if he was still tired. He didn't respond, but after a few minutes or so he got up on his own and went to play.

DH took this photo today. After DD finished practicing her piano lesson, he found DS#3 underneath the piano. He's done this before, but the last time was a few months ago. I also found him laying on the kitchen floor a short period of time before this photo was taken. He didn't take a nap today, so today we thought that maybe he was tired. He's been omitting his afternoon nap every so often and DH and I can't help but think that this is how it affects him.

Thumbs Up

Today, Grandma was going to be going home to Colorado, so we had a relaxed trip to the mall for lunch. While I was indulging in some retail therapy, DS#3 got hungry so DH and his mom went ahead and fed him some Chik-Fil-A chicken nuggets. He was already done by the time I got there and he was eating some of the fruit from his kid's meal. DH and I then bought some gyros. We were surprised, but DS#3 asked to take a bite out of DH's gyro. After he took a bite, I asked him if he liked it, and I held my thumb up. To my surprise, he held up his thumb too. He was so stinkin' cute that I had to get a picture. Of course at first he only gave me a cheesy smile and no thumb action. After some coaxing, he obliged. :)

It was a rainy day today, so we walked around the mall for a bit. We saw this in one of the store windows. DS#3 was fascinated, of course, and here you can see that he is trying to see through the tiny gap between the glass panes of the window. If I had prompted him, he probably would have held up his thumb here again. ;-)

Grandma made it home okay tonight. Tonight we also went to an open house at DS#1's high school. Because of the rain, soccer practices were cancelled, so the kids got to stay home with DS#1 and watch a movie. DH and I were pretty happy with all of DS#1's teachers and again we felt privileged for our son to be able to go to what basically amounts to a private school with public school money. Thumbs up all around for today. :)

Special Times With Grandma

Yesterday I was at work all day and night and DH was gone with DS#1 all day at an away soccer game 2 1/2 hours away. That meant that Grandma stayed with the younger kids all day. The kids got to invite a couple of friends over apiece, so apparently it got very chaotic. Meanwhile, DS#3 didn't nap and fought each diaper change. He threw fits when Grandma couldn't figure out what he was trying to say. DH and I have trouble with that too, but we're used to the fits and we send friends home when things get too chaotic.

Poor Grandma worked hard yesterday, so DH took her out for lunch today and then dinner. For lunch it was just DH, his mom, and DS#3. I was out cold! I had gotten some sleep last night, so I had some energy to go to the gym with DH but then I had to lay down. I didn't nap for that long, but I still really needed that sleep.

For dinner, we went to DH's favorite restaurant, El Mirasol, which is also one of Grandma's favorites when she comes to visit us. We all had a nice time and then after dinner we went to Baskin-Robbins. We were trying to make Grandma feel a little special on her last night with us.

I think this picture shows what will probably be one of Grandma's special memories of this trip. She was reading one of DS#3's library books. She enjoyed reading this book and he really enjoyed being read to. In this picture he is even pointing something out in the book. He's recently been saying, "That's funny!" and he even seems to be telling jokes. He'll say something and then laugh, which of course makes anyone listening laugh too. He enjoyed a few laughs with Grandma while reading this book.

Tomorrow Grandma goes home. We hope to see her again very soon, and hopefully we'll get to see Grandpa next time too. I never grew up around my grandparents but I really want my kids (and DH agrees) to know both sets of grandparents.

First Fall Games

Since last week's games were cancelled due to rain, we played our first soccer games of the season today instead (not counting the tournament at the end of August). First up was DD with her soccer game at 9AM. I have to giggle at this picture of DD on the sidelines. With playing 8v8, they had one sub and DD was chosen to be the first one to sit out. I think she was just grimacing because of how bright it was and not because she was unhappy. She was pretty excited for her first game today. DH and I would catch her glancing at us during the game and when she saw us looking at her, she would break out in a smile.

I caught DD at just the right time with this photo. I would suggest clicking on the picture to make it bigger so you can really see her scrunched-up face. At first, she seemed a bit hesitant when she was playing defense. Thankfully she seemed to get a bit more aggressive when she played offense later. Maybe that was just her getting warmed up, but she was running hard during the last part of the game. Her team is made up of 7-year-olds (U8) and they were playing a team of 8-year-olds (U9). We were prepared for her team to lose badly because of the age and size differences, but they ended up with 2-2 tie.

DS#2's game was in San Marcos at 1PM, which is about an hour away. This required only a short stop at home after DD's game before leaving for DS#2's game. DH and Grandma went with DS#2 while I stayed at home (sort of) with DS#1, DS#3, and DD. Unfortunately, DS#2's team played short because of illnesses, but they also tied their game 1-1. I thought this was a cool picture because of how DS#2's arms look like they're all bent backwards. In reality, he was apparently moving very fast and this is just what he looked like in a moment of time.

Back home, I left the house before DH so I could get a birthday present for DD's friend M. She was invited to her friend's birthday party. Thankfully, M has a really wonderful family. They let me drop off DD at noon for the 1PM party so I could go home and get DS#3 to take a nap. DS#1 ended up going to "hang out" at a friend's house until about 4PM and DS#3 ended up taking a three hour nap. I picked up DD from her friend M's house on the way to church shortly before 5PM. M's family not only shuttled her back and forth to the party but they also bought a stuffed animal for her and M to stuff (a la Build A Bear) at the party place. They were incredibly generous!

Because we went to church, we missed the first half of DS#1's game. Luckily, they won 1-0 despite some significant illnesses on their team. The other team apparently had some illnesses as well. If today was any indication, this is going to be a rough flu season for our area. One player on DS#1's team had to be lead away after the first half because he was gagging and vomiting. Another player is going to be a "maybe" for the game tomorrow because of the same thing. This is so unfortunate because DS#1's team is actually pretty good this year and would probably be likely to win lots of games. Thankfully they won this one.

Tomorrow I'm working again. DH will be traveling to Laredo, which is about 2 1/2 hours away, for DS#1's game. Grandma is staying home with the younger kids. It's just another typical weekend day during the Fall soccer season.

Friends Game Night

Recently, DS#2 has been begging to have a "Family Game Night". In the past, this has meant playing board games together, ordering pizza, and generally having family time. This week we decided to have "Family Game Night" tonight. This afternoon, when DS#2 was playing with his friend E from across the street, he asked if he could have E over for our "Family Game Night". My first thought was to say "no" since it's "FAMILY Game Night", however, DH and I love E and his brother L, who is good friends with DD. In fact, at that very moment, L was outside playing with DD. I went ahead and said "yes". Of course that meant that DD would want to ask to have L over too. I told her "yes" too.

I should have known what was going to happen. We had the pizza along with some sausage from DS#1's school athletics fundraiser, then DS#2 paired up with E and DD paired up with L. The former pair played the Wii and my new Toy Story Mania game (see left). The latter pair put on black capes and pretended to be "supervillains".

First of all, DH joked that other kids want to be "superheroes" but his kids want to be "supervilliains". Second, that meant that we were having a "Friends Game Night" instead of a "Family Game Night". That part didn't bother DH and I because, as I already stated, we love E and his brother L. The part that bothered us was the fact that after we sent the brothers home close to 8PM, DS#2 still wanted to have the "Family" part of "Family Game Night". It was time for his little sister and brother to go to bed and time for him to get ready for bed! Grrrrr!

Awesomer Than Awesome

"Awesomer than awesome" is DD's new phrase to describe herself. Apparently, when DD came out of her piano lesson this afternoon, she proclaimed that she was "awesomer than awesome"! Her teacher said that DD is so much fun to have that she could have her every day. Then she said that DD is her first student to "pass" that particular piece (that we practiced this past week and that she played during her lesson) in the first week. She said that she and DD were having fun going back and forth saying, "I'm awesome" until finally DD said, "I'm awesomer than awesome!" DD, of course, kept saying this phrase all evening. Thank goodness she was at soccer practice for an hour and a half when I didn't have to hear her say this phrase! ;) I'm hoping that this experience means that she'll keep taking piano lessons for a while longer. :)

In other news, my mother-in-law arrived today for a visit. DH and I are glad that DS#3, who can be a little shy around people he doesn't know, seems to be talking quite a bit around Grandma. She was bonding with him while watching one of his Thomas the Tank Engine videos. She also stayed with him while I picked up the other kids at soccer because I gave him his bath early and he asked to go to bed. He didn't end up actually sleeping, of course, but she did get to hear him say the "Our Father" before going to bed. I'll have to video tape him doing that some time soon, because it is SO adorable to hear him "trespasses" and "deliver us from evil".

Toy Story Mania

We got Toy Story Mania for the Wii yesterday. I'm not usually the type to care that much about video games or getting a game the first day it's out, but this one really excited me. It's very similar to the attraction at Disney-MGM in Florida that was very popular when we were there in January of this year. The whole family loved it and everyone else did too, judging from the long lines. It's a classic shoot 'em up arcade type game. The Disney attraction was available in 3D and so is this video game (although you don't have to view the video game in 3D).

I didn't get to play yesterday because there was soccer practice for the kids plus I was preparing a lecture to give to the residents at work this morning. Playing it tonight was a reward for me for doing a good job with the lecture. ;) Actually, for the first time, my hands didn't get icy right before I had to give the lecture, and I didn't panic when the projector wouldn't work. I gave the lecture entirely from my notes, and I even got a couple of compliments from another staff member afterwards, as well as one of the residents. I felt almost comfortable giving the lecture for probably the first time ever.

But, this post is about this cool game. It was everything that I hoped that it would be. Even though the whole point of most of the video game is to shoot at things, I was surprisingly entertained. I think my right arm will be sore tomorrow based on all of the shaking, twisting, and other contortions I had to do, but it was SO fun! Oh, and the picture above is of DD wearing the available 3D glasses that I didn't bother wearing. I didn't need them and I wanted to be able to view the screen in full without those silly glasses obstructing my view or making my head ache from looking at the 3D image.

In short, if you're thinking of getting this game (I'm talking to YOU, CB!), then get it. I can't wait to come home tomorrow and play it again. :)

Layout Per Day Again

As promised, I want to post some pages that I've done recently. I'm working on a lecture that I've giving tomorrow, so I'm not doing much else tonight. I'm going to post in somewhat random order so I apologize ahead of time. I didn't do much scrapping this summer at all! That's why I'm trying to do a page a day for September.


These are a couple of pages I did in June and August. The top one is of DS#3's love for buses. That has been surpassed somewhat by his love for trains. The second one is about DS#3 falling asleep while in the stroller. He was in that stroller quite a bit during our trip to DC.



These next two use pictures from our trip to Colorado in 2003 when the boys were very small, DD was a baby, and DS#3 wasn't even an apple in DH's eye.

These are absolutely adorable photos of DS#3 falling asleep in a semi-standing position on the bottom step of our stairs. He was getting sick plus he had an exhausting morning and needed a nap.


These two are some pictures from our trip to Disney in September of 2007. This was our first stay at the Polynesian Resort and we had a fabulous time.


The above two pages showcase pictures of a 2 1/2 year old DS#2. Isn't the just the cutest?

This one shows DS#1 making funny faces with his friend when they were both about 7 years old. I miss my little DS#1!

This one shows DS#1 and DS#2 making funny faces. I think that was just the age where they would have a funny face every time I pulled out the camera!

This layout shows DH and DS#1 practicing their Bo Staff form from their karate class in the backyard so they wouldn't beat up any of our inside furniture. Look how intense (and little) DS#1 looks!

DH took all of these pictures of our neighbors and neighborhood back in September of 2002 when we got our first digital camera. We've been all digital now for about three or four years. I can't ever go back to film--digital is so much more convenient!

Finally, this layout shows DS#1 in February of this year when he was starting to really become fascinated with trains. He is currently quite obsessed with trains and he'll hardly go anywhere without them.

I have one more page I've done this month, but that is on the other computer, so I won't post it here. I'm proud of myself for getting all of these (except the top two above) done this month. Wish me luck for being able to get one page a day done for the rest of the month!

Nerf Gun Wars and Other Fun Weekend Photos

Did I already mention how we had so much fun this past weekend? Here's more evidence. The boys here are using the desk chairs as both their vehicles and their shields. That was some Nerf Gun War!

I took this picture on Sunday morning. My sister has a two story entryway, and somehow one of the suction cup-type darts got stuck up where the ceiling meets the wall. They were all trying to shoot down that dart and that entertained them for most of the morning. At one point they used some bean bags and one got stuck above the door, but DS#1 could reach that one by standing on a chair. They got a second suction cup dart stuck up there too, but that one ended up falling off on its own. In the end, they never were able to shoot that dart down.

Speaking of Nerf Gun Wars, this is a picture of the girls with their Nerf guns. I just think the look on my niece A's face is just hilarious! She's the one in the middle. DD also made me laugh. She really wanted to point that gun at me while I was taking the picture. Also, notice how her right hip is sort of thrown to one side? She is such a poser that I have to laugh!

This is what DS#3 was doing all weekend. He was playing with my nephew's old trains. DS#2 and my nephew N helped build the tracks. They even seemed to be having more fun than DS#3 at one point. You can also see DS#1 in the background. He brought his laptop partly so he could do his World Geography homework. After he finished, however, he was playing games and checking his Facebook page. That's what DS#1 was doing all weekend. ;)

My sister has this Jelly Belly dispenser on her counter. This is a close-up of DS#3 getting some jelly beans out of that dispenser. He loves jelly beans and kept asking for more. He actually only had three toddler handfuls before he decided on his own that he had enough. I love how I can see his fine motor skills at work here.

This photo is one of my favorites, of course because all of the kids are in the picture. I didn't get to grow up very close to my cousins because we lived so far away. It's wonderful that not only do my kids get to play with their cousins, they also get along so well with them.

C's 40th Bday Party

As I stated in my last blog post, we were at my sister C's house this weekend. Her DH wanted to do something special for her upcoming 40th birthday. At first he had this big surprise block party planned, but when she got wind of it, she emphatically told him that she did NOT want a big party. So yesterday was the scaled down version. This is the food spread, mostly from P.F. Chang's, but also some desserts courtesy of La Madeleine and my mom. All of my family was there, but also C's in-laws came to town for this, and one couple they are close to also attended.

The birthday cake was a fruit tart from La Madeleine. My sister M had a "4" candle but no "0", so they joked about C turning "4". I love this picture of C blowing out her candle because of how the kids are so intensely focused on the candle, even DS#3. I also love how I can tell that DS#1 is talking to his little brother to focus on the birthday candle. Just before this, DS#3 had been laying in my lap after he asked for his "turp toth" (burp cloth), a sure sign that he was tired, even after his three hour afternoon nap.

C got a Michael's gift card from her friends, very appropriate for this scrapbooker. She got some nice hoop earrings from her in-laws. My sister M gave her a Coach bag that she bought at the Coach outlet store near here last week. I got her a house cleaning by the lady that clean's M's house. The big present, however, came from her DH. This is the look on her face when her DH surprised her with a 4-day cruise for the two of them!

This is C's reaction to the present. She was SO surprised and so happy about the present! Her kids immediately asked if they were going on the cruise too, and then when they were told they weren't, they asked who was going to take care of them. C's DH had already asked my sister M and my parents to help him out with that. You did good, J!

After that was over, the kids just played and played. They will need a few days of early bedtimes to make up for their lack of sleep this weekend! They all had Nerf guns and they were running around the house shooting at each other, sometimes getting some innocent (adult) bystanders. At one point, their friend K got a Nerf gun and started running after and shooting the kids! DS#1 didn't even have a gun, so he started just throwing the Nerf darts at people. They kept the rest of us sufficiently entertained.

One more fun thing happened. C's DH had this picture of himself at age 12 or 13 on his laptop. He was VERY thin, almost sickly looking, and in the picture, he was posing like a muscle man and sucking in his gut, or what was supposed to be his gut. I don't think you can get a good look at that picture in this picture, but that's what is on the laptop. He got my nephew N to post like that. N is also very thin. The girls got wind of that and wanted to pose too, so I snapped this fun picture of all of them posing.

I'll try to post a few more pics in the coming days. We all really have so much fun visiting my family. I wish we lived closer to each other. I was talking to C this morning about how we both don't have any close female friends. My sisters are my best friends. I love that! Happy Birthday, C!