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Our crew is excited to have the weekend here. We're all feeling great and happy to have friend and neighbor, Langston, over for a sleepover with the boys. It definitely called for some balloons so I gave Lucas the task of blowing them up!

Kaila has been all about showing us her tiny tushy big girl unders today. She's so proud of her new found achievement of being potty trained. We can't all help celebrate with every flush! I wonder when we can ween her off the tootsie roll potty prize for #2's?!

winter x games inspired

Owen was surprised by dad just before his birthday with a practice snow board and helmet, which meant Lucas got one too. Here's the future generation of winter x games atheletes!

he is really 6!

It's so wild to believe Owen turned six this week, we knew it would happen but wow what a blink. To an amazing son and big brother, "happy 6th birthday!" Even though the usual specially planned extras for school and daycare didn't quite make an appearance this year due to a serious sick bug that struck our house, he was sweet as ever about it. What perfect timing last weekend for some needed snow for the second annual tubing event and snow boarding practice! Gotta love a kid whose birthday dinner is Chinese over any thing else! He's graduted from vegetable fried rice to Mongolian beef and boy did he devour that food; it was like he had just turned 15 instead of 6. At the same time Lucas polished off 8 chicken nuggets. All Aaron and I could do was sit back and do the math for projected groceries. Yikes! Luckily for the moment Kaila off set the intake with her bird-like consumption!

highlights on a low day

Sick day number three this week. Monday was dedicated to the hacking, draining, yet ever sassy Kai. Tuesday evening Aaron held down the fort as the flu hit me violently. I barely got the troops off in each of their directions Wednesday morning; sorry Mandy for my 1 minute drop off of crazy that morning and for the germs we passed to your home. Wednesday evening the nasty bug hit Lucas, boy does that tough guy try to fight off the inevitable output. Yet he was the sweetest little sickie today. We hopefully are on the mend as well as the kids at daycare that we've exposed and we're praying it doesn't strike others. Lysol and Pine Sol have made quite the appearance today, although my fear is the 2% of germs it doesn't kill are the ones that got us as last weekend when I thought I sterilized everything. Needless to say we've had brighter days and brighter weeks but despite it all, a few highlights found giggles, fairy twirls, and tootsie roll prizes!

Here's the artistic fancy pants in yet another summer dress from my wonderful friend with amazing hand-me-downs. And yes, the picture tells it all; Kaila prefers to paint her nails over the newly opened pack of water color pictures she received from Christmas!

As the boys spend their time in books, puzzles, and on the computer, Kaila (in her second summer dress of the day) demanded she handle this potty training thing on her own. Shortly after telling me she needed self time and closed the door, she emerged to claim the big tootsie roll prize, showed the boys her "did it" twirl and said, as she wiped her still draining nose, "time for a picture mom." Of course I obliged.

Aquaphor to the rescue

Sore, chaffed faces left Lucas and Kaila wavering between wiping the draining gu or running from it. Thankfully Owen got a reprieve from the germs and spend the afternoon with best bud, Gabe. It was a good thing as today's theme for Kaila was weeping and whining. After hearing of Owens play date Lucas felt left out, until minutes later he discovered that a house of toys were waiting only for his command. Quiet indoor day for us.

a long winters nap...

...is what we all needed this weekend, but instead "the junk" settled in and interrupted our need for rest. Kaila and Lucas are fighting something awful and a congested cough has caught Kaila completely off guard. Instead of actually coughing she's resorted to looking wide-eyed at us and covering her mouth tight with one hand to ward it off. Since she can't clear her throat and wouldn't succumb to the cough, she spend Friday and Saturday with only a whisper of a voice. So sad but so cute too. Lucas decided that only "papa socks" would make him feel better and Owen shared a special sucker with Kaila to perk her up a touch.

Here I go again

It seems I'm terribly neglectful of this old blog of mine but with so many fun memories to capture and a far away Nana and Papa, longing for more updates to add smiles to their already relaxed and tanned faces, I think I'll take a shot this year, or at least this month, to update more reqularly.

Here's to a new year and to three smiling faces, taken on January 1, 2012. No pj's for Kaila..yes, that is a summer top she's modeling.