Candy Land!!

Jane had an art show at her amazing school just a few nights ago and I was so amazed and proud of my sweet girl and all the hard work I could tell she had put into this wonderful show.

The pictures of the art show are coming... but I had to throw this one in of Jane-haha!! My sweet girl was super bored one day and I was desperate to find someway to keep her entertained for a few moments. Jane loves make-up but I only let her wear it on occasions such as Halloween. So, a thought struck me that I could allow Jane, just this once, to apply her own make-up...just for kicks and giggles... Well, this is what she came up with. And she was super proud of her work, too...can't ya tell?!!

Jane's art show had a theme of "Candyland" so all of the art that the kids did for the show was based around that theme. Jane made the little flower bowl in the top cubby and the ice cream in the bottom cubby :)
We passed by cupcake crossing...
Here's Jane's gingerbread house...so cute!
All the kids helped make this candy castle. It was amazing:) You can also see the gumdrops...too cute!
Jane's lollypop was very cool.
And here is Jane's little game piece. It is currently hanging out our fridge :)!!
Oh, and globby. He was made out of pudding finger paintings.
Boy, I cannot believe Jane is getting so big. Why does that have to happen so fast? She is such a talented young lady...with a SUPER proud mama!!

St. Patty's Day

We love St. patty's Day at our house!! So naturally we celebrated with our usual traditions, reminding me heartbreakingly of Utah and my family there. However, we still had a blast :) We ate corned beef and cabbage soup...our favorite St. Patty's Day dinner!! Since I sprained my ankle the day before, Ryan had to do most of the work making it. Luckily, it is a super easy meal and Ryan did a great job...it was delicious!!
The kids were less than impressed with the traditional Irish dish...and ended up eating mostly cheese and apples instead. His face says it all...
This is our third year in a row making our leprechaun traps. Though, this was Beckham's first time and he had fun decorating it!!

He had a bit of help but it ended up looking super cute:)
Jane worked extra hard to make her trap extra sparkly and beautiful!! She learned in school this year that Leprechauns are mischief makers and love to sneak into little kids' rooms and steal toys, rip pages out of books and just make a big mess. Naturally, Jane was very concerned about this!!! I told her the more beautiful her trap was, the more inviting it would seem to the leprechauns and the more likely we would be to catch one before it had a chance to make any sort of mess or steal her toys....needless to say, her trap looked AMAZING!!

Here are the traps that both the kids set up outside their rooms to catch any sneaky leprechaun who might try to enter. I thought this looked so darling:) Traps safely set while both sweet kiddos lay fast asleep in their beds!!
Ryan was in charge of getting the St. Patty's Day goodies that would be left behind in the traps the next day to indicate that a leprechaun HAD been trapped but "sneakily" escaped, leaving behind his treasures. I usually get some chocolate gold coins and call it good... but Ryan saw that the St. Patty's day stuff was 50% off and went crazy!! In the morning, the kids had candy, glow sticks, light up pens, sticker books, and necklaces. They about died when they saw the closed traps and the goodies kept the kids 100% entertained all morning until church and even through sacrament meeting!!

Another fabulous St. Patty's Day!!

Michief...ah the Mischief...

Beckham is two...so very two. And he is ALL boy!! I can't turn my back on him for more than 5 seconds without him getting into something that he shouldn't be )

This little ditty took him a bit longer than 5 seconds... and it WAS a doozy!! Beckham LOVES to wash his hands...and he can get carried away with the amount of times he does it in a session:)

Caught red handed!! And do you see his face? That was the result of the mess he made with dinner!!
He sure had a blast though...
The very next day, I got to walk into a glittery mess all over Jane's school book and craft table!! And believe it or not, this happened twice in one day. That could be my fault more than his...but that is up for debate:)
Beckham may make mischief, constantly, but I love that he is curious, inquisitive, adventurous and SMART SMART SMART!! In fact, he reminds me of his daddy... and that is a very good thing!! I love my boys!!

Is This Unusual?

So, I feel like my children get sick more than your average child. Although, I am sure every parent feels like that every now and then. HOWEVER, I am not joking or exaggerating when I say...my kids get sick often!! And they never get just a little sick...it's always A LOT sick!!

Example: EVERY SINGLE TIME, without fail, that either of my kids have gotten a cold, it has turned into a vicious croup cough. For this alone we can attribute at least 5 or 6 Emergency Room visits in the middle of the night... and an innumerable amount of steroid shots to open up their airways enabling them to breath...YUCK!!

Jane has had the swine flu...the most scary and horrendous 7 days of my life. On a completely separate occasion, Jane had a case of the flu that lasted 5 days...5 days of throwing up!!

Since we have been here in Delaware my kids have each had hand, foot, mouth disease 2 times each!! I didn't even think that was possible...I was under the impression that once you got this disease you were immune to it...sort of like the chicken pox. I am here to tell you that is untrue!

For nearly the whole month of February, Jane and Beckham just switched off getting yet another terrible case of croup. Beckham had it 2 times and the poor little dude has just had some sort of stomach bug today, resulting in a day of throwing up. JOY!!

Well, a little ranting and raving HAS actually made me feel a little better. Here's to the coming of spring and summer and with it...less sickness!!

I had him in "Stitches"...

Well, Ryan is home!!! And it has been SO WONDERFUL having him home:) The kids have really loved having good ol' CRAZY fun daddy home!!

One of the first things Ryan had to do when he got home, was go to a doc appointment to get some moles removed. NOT FUN!! There were three on his back and the butcher...I mean, doctor Ryan goes to for that really does not have a gentle touch. He creates gaping holes, and Ryan comes home with stitches everywhere. Double yuck!!!

One day Ryan gently asked me if I would remove the stitches for him so he could avoid going to another Doc apt. I was unsure why he would want me doing such a thing seeing as how I get faint at the sight of a bandaid being removed?! I said I could try but was not making any guarantees.

Well, the day arrived and as it turns out, Ryan had planned all along to actually have me attempt this impossible task! He asked me in the morning, and I again said I would try but wasn't promising any actual results. The evening came, the kids were all snug in their beds. I rushed to the couch, escaping into a blanket, and turned on the tv. I put on my best "Super Sleepy" face, hoping this would thwart his plan. It didn't... In fact, he came into the room ready to roll, supplies in hand.

Ryan gave me some quick instructions and away we went. Not to anyone's surprise (Ryan might have been a little surprised) at the first sight of the stitched I was about to man-handle, I got faint, dizzy, breathing short, fast paced breaths. Again, I attempted to get Ryan to give up and call the doctors office because there was little chance I was going to make it through this with my consciousness.

Ryan was annoyingly persistent. Somehow I mucked my way through the first set of stitches and managed to have them out without me fully knowing how. At this point, the room was spinning and I felt the world growing dim. Ryan...stunned...began to laugh near hysterically at my reaction. I thought, for sure, my ordeal would be over. There would be no way Ryan would expect me to get through the next two sets of stitches coherently...

I was wrong again. "I didn't think you would have actually been able to do it! Now I know you can do the others, too!"Ryan announced happily. Cursed by my own dumb luck!! After several minutes of deep breaths and my head between my knees, Ryan handed me the tools and away we went...AGAIN!!! The second the tweezers touched the stitch....my breathing got short and quick. Ryan laughed again...the audacity!! Forcing myself to breath deeply, I miraculously managed to do the other two with more ease than even the first.

I was proud of myself for doing it...however, I felt fainter than ever. I sunk into the chair I was sitting on, closed my eyes as the room spun, and forced myself to breath deeply to help control the nausea. I was careful not to allow even a glance at the removed thread sitting on the table next to me, which instantly made me sick. Ryan helped transfer me to the couch where I laid...unable to move...for a good fifteen minutes...breathing deeply the whole time.

Ridiculous....I know! But the bottom line is...those darn stitches are GONE!!! All thanks to me! It should be of little consequence how gracefully it was done...Right? :)

A Taste of Home!!

I am now almost done with my third week of being minus a husband...and we are all so excited to have him home on Friday night:) Last weekend, however, I got a well needed break from being alone when my sweet brother, Bryan, sister-in-law, Wendy, and their darling baby, Jack came to visit me from New York. My brother Matthew and his fam from Maryland were going to come but couldn't make it. We missed having them! But the day ended up being a blast. It was so nice to have family around, just hanging out! My kids loved the extra attention, too!!

We had a pizza party!! We all went grocery shopping on base which was a bit of an adventure... But, when we got home, Wendy made some home made pizza dough and helped my kids make their very own pizza. This is going to be a new family tradition for the Dicks. My kids loved it!!
Jane loves her Aunt Wendy so much:)

Pizza chef, Jane!!
Bryan was very sweet with Beckham...who undoubtedly was in great need of some "guy time"! They played with choo choo trains...Beckham's favorite:)
Jack loved joined in the fun as well:) He was such a smiley, happy boy the whole time!!
Soon everyone was joining in the pizza making fun!!
The cute Harper fam!! I wish I had gotten a picture of Bryan's unusually LARGE pizza. He made the pizza for his family and piled it SUPER DUPER high...Wendy and I had a good laugh about it. However, their pizza turned out really great!
We ended the night with more playing, singing and dancing!! Here is everyone playing Hungry Hippos (Bryan's request-ha)! That day was definitely the highlight of my time away from Ryan. So Thank you so so much Bryan and Wendy for being so thoughtful and sweet. You guys are the BEST!!
I had to throw this picture in of Jane going to school on cowboy day:) I think she looked DARLING!!
And here is one of Beckham with that wonderful smile- he has the BEST smile:)

Taking on New York...

...with two strollers...I have never gotten so many strange looks in my life. But we had A TON of fun!! After watching Bryan and Wendy's sweet dogs, we had the opportunity to drive them home and spend the holiday in New York. We got there late Sunday night and had fun just lounging around Bryan and Wendy's beautiful apartment. The kids loved the huge tub they got a bath in.
Here is the beautiful sunrise we got to enjoy the next morning!! This picture doesn't do it justice.
We took Time Square by storm!! We were slightly "gung-ho" however. We got there about a half and hour before any of the GOOD stores were open and had to wait around in the freezing cold....haha.
We went to the Hershey's store!! The kids had such a wonderful time there...chocolate, chocolate everywhere...who wouldn't love it?
Their favorite part was helping a worker start the "chocolate machine" which would fill our buckets with chocolate bars!! Yay!!

Here are the kids with their hard earned spoils :)
Next, we went to the M&M store. It was huge, and so fun!! Jane loved the M&M man...Beckham was scared of him.
M&M's, M&M's everywhere...who wouldn't love it?
Of course, we had to hit the Disney store! Jane thought the princess castle was amazing.
These mirrors were so cool. You waved a magic wand of the specific princess you wanted to see and they would magically appear. I literally had to tear Jane away from this to give the other little kids a turn :)
The kids spent a good, long time in this little coloring station.
Next, we went to the Toys R Us store. Three stories of pure delight!! Here we are riding on the three story ferris wheel located right in the middle of the store.

Beckham loved the Dino...until it roared. Then he ran away from it...
Ryan in Willy Wonka land...
Lastly, we went to the Top of the Rockefeller building. It was cold...but so beautiful!
Beckham was way too fearless...he tried to squeeze through the plates of glass several times. Needless to say, I was a nervous wreck the whole time.
Can't beat that view though!
What an amazing little New York adventure we had. Living on the East coast definitely has its benefits!!