Brothers

I'm always caught off-guard by how much these two look alike.

Funny Jack!

Kelly and family were headed to the Wallawas this morning. The car was all packed and ready to go. Kelly had to stop by on the way out of town and pick up Jack and Ava's snow pants that they left here ages ago.
As Ed pulled into our driveway he told Kelly, "Hurry, so we can get on the road. . ."
And from the backseat, little Jack pipes up, "Yep. . .none of that chit-chat in there!"
. . .just like his daddy! :)

A word with Sara. . .

Sara is getting near three now and her vocabulary is definitely growing! She is constantly cracking us up, and even though the words are never as precious on paper, I think they are still sweet:
We were in the car and Ben was screaming his head off so we told everyone to be quiet, cause really, why add to the chaos?
Finally Sara piped up, "Ben, he is. . ."and searching for the right word, ". . .he's a loud-ee!"
We smile, "Yes he is - but you are doing a really good job Sara! You have been really quiet!"
"Yesss!" she says slowly, pointing her little finger, "you're right!"

After naps one afternoon, she came and snuggled up with me as we waited for all the siblings to wake up.
She pressed her fat cheek up against mine, pulled my neck close to her and whispered, "I missed you at naptime! . . .did you miss me?"

We went to Costco the other day and it was cloudy and the fog started closing in and Sara began to holler loudly out the window, "Sunshine. . .Where ARE you???. . .SUNSHINE!!!"
And in a little while the clouds break, "Ah, there's the sun! MOM LOOK!!! The SUN!"

And later as we merged into traffic, a car came up alongside of us. From the backseat I heard a loud and fast inhale of breath,
"Ooo, scary-bad-guys!!!!"

Aunt Julie's

On Sunday we had a shower to welcome Isabelle, my newest 2nd cousin! I've posted more pics from that day on my mom's blog.

It was at my Aunt Julie's house and she has the coolest picture display on her fridge. Any picture ever sent to her of my cousins or our children is pinned up on this fridge. We always tell her we need to buy her a second fridge so she has more room!

Two great ladies!
I love watching my mom and her mom together. That's where it all started!

The Sick Bay

Yucky!
Yes, the girls came down with the stomach flu, which is apparently what Will had when we were on vacation. Kayte was tucked into the fetal position for about 4 whole days. Sara fared a little better, but still took a while to recover.
I am so thankful that Joe and I and little Ben were spared. The house has been Lysol-ed and deep-cleaned and every piece of cotton and down in this house has been washed in hot water. It is so nice to be out from quarantine!

Hurrah!

Ben turned 10 months (last week :)

I thought for Ben's 10 month summary, more pictures were necessary to capture all that is Ben at this age.
First of all, I'm completely shocked that he has already hit this mark and just yesterday I bought the last of the formula I will probably ever buy. Another milestone behind us. . .my baby is almost a toddler and that's it! Too fast!!!

Ben does not like sitting for lunch. He cries through lunch, then I put him on the floor to explore and he scrambles over to the floor beneath his highchair and eats up the lunch that he had thrown there. I don't understand this little game, but whatever, as long as he's eating, who am I to complain?

And the thing I love about Ben! He is well-versed in the art of sound-effects already! Here he is shooting a gun and making the corresponding spitting noises. So talented!

He has taken to carrying his sock around in his teeth - yes, just like a little puppy. Running around on all fours with it hanging from his mouth. He also likes to throw it under a chair or his crib, crouch low and crawl under to retrieve it. He will do that little game again and again.
He's been teething lately and trying to bite me, or anything else he can sink his teeth in. Will tells him firmly that this is not allowed. And he has been hanging onto an ear infection for a month. We are on our second round of antibiotics. We had a check-up at 10 months and he weighed in at 20 lbs. 12. Slightly down in percentile, but to me, 20 lbs before 1 year is still nice and healthy!
The doctor was a little concerned that he may have amblyopia, which is lazy eye in his left eye. She was having a difficult time screening him because, well, he just wasn't paying much attention to her (a critical part of the screening process). So we are taking him to Spokane this month to get them looked at. I'm 99.9% sure he doesn't have it, since I've been 'screening' him a lot since we got the news. But even if he is just a teeny bit off, it is worth looking into, as it may affect his hand-eye coordination. (Yes, there are more serious consequences possible, of course, but the hand-eye thing caught our eye as it is slightly important for such things as basketball :)
Otherwise, Ben is healthy and happy and there is no sign of the heart murmur we heard nine months ago, which is a relief. He is sleeping the same and eating much the same as a month ago.
He certainly is becoming a bigger and bigger, more active part of our family and he is becoming so much fun! We thank God for his little happy self!

Highs & Lows

At lunchtime we have started playing a game that our Aunt Nettie and Grandma Jan taught the kids one summer. It is called Highs & Lows. Everyone has to say a High point from their day at school and then a Low point. You are allowed to have just a High, if you like, but you are not allowed to have only a Low. The answers are sometimes very insightful :)
Even Sara participates, but her High and Low tend to be the same thing and never vary from day to day. It seems to involve Jack and a puppy, but I'm not quite sure what it is exactly!
Sometimes we do it again at dinner so Joe doesn't miss out!

My Will

At the end of the long first day at Disneyland, we were standing in line for the Matterhorn, Will's favorite ride, just about to get on. Everyone was happy and excited, but then Will suddenly got very quiet and pulled me down to him so he could whisper in my ear.
"Mom, I'm not having very much fun."
"You're not?"
"No. . ." says he. "I feel like I'm dreaming. . .and I don't like to feel like that!"
"Mmm. . ." says I. "Well, when I get that feeling, sometimes I just pinch myself." and I gave him a good pinch.
"Hey!" he laughs. "Or. . .I could just hit myself in the face!" and he gives himself a slap.
"See!" says I. "Is that better?"
He nods, and off we go all happy again, convinced that it is all real. . .and not just a dream!

A New Toy

This is a Nutcracker music box that the great-grandparents recently bought. It plays nine Nutcracker songs and switches into three different scenes of spinning ballerinas. Beautiful!
Kayte couldn't take her eyes off it!

Meeting the Greats!

Kayte and Will know all about their great-grandparents down in California, but they couldn't remember meeting them. We spent Sunday visiting with them and catching up a little.

Great-grandpa Joe & Great-grandma Pat!

Kayte brought her doll that they bought her several years ago for Christmas. She calls it her California doll.

Nope, this isn't Ben!
This is Will from our last visit to CA and the grandparents house, almost 5 years ago!

More pics!

I love this photo, so Disney!

Kayte bangin' pots in Goofy's Kitchen.

Will was really looking forward to meeting McQueen. Wish he talked though!

Waiting in line for the park to open on the first day! Kids had a good view from there!

Day 2

In our vacation package, we got vouchers for a breakfast buffet in Goofy's Kitchen. It was a gorgeous buffet with any breakfast item you could think of, along with pizza and shrimp. When Will returned to the table with only a small bowl of granola having completely ignored the pudding with cookies and gummy worms, I knew we were in trouble. Next thing I know, he is throwing up into that same granola bowl and all over his clothes and the floor! Joe and Ann headed back to the hotel with a very sad-looking bud, and the rest of us headed back to Disneyland for Day 2 of fun a little bummed out. . .

Group photo taken about 1/2 an hour before 'the incident'. Poor little guy must have felt pretty awful almost the whole time and didn't eat more than a couple fruit snacks the entire 4 day trip. But he was so cheerful, we didn't hardly notice how sick he really was.

During breakfast, we met Prince Phillip. Later we saw Mulan, Baloo, Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, Mickey, Pluto, and Goofy.

While we were waiting for Will and Joe and Ann to meet back up with us, we took Kayte on the Submarine. She had been asking about it the whole day before. It was worth the wait!

Will took a 15 minute nap after breakfast and then was ready to head back to the fun! I was so glad to see them again, I was worried they were going to miss out on the whole day! But after that bumpy start he seemed just fine and besides a small break at dinner, we went strong until about 11 o'clock that night!

Ridin' the rides

We recently watched the Sword and the Stone - the kids gave it their best shot!

I still remember the Mr. Toad ride from when I was a kid! Will was not a fan!

Riding on the boat through the belly of the whale.

Waiting for the Matterhorn. It had been broken down all day and it was due to open in 30 minutes so we got some popcorn, camped out and talked about the day!
I was thrilled to find out that the kids were tall enough to go on all the roller coasters, we did Thunder Mountain too, and my favorite, Space Mountain! The Haunted House was closed, which was a real bummer, and so was Small World. But we'll get 'em next time!
One of our favorite rides was over at California Adventure. It was called Soarin' and if you are headed down anytime soon, you should definitely check that one out. Joe and I also went on California Screamin' with Jim and Heather, which was built like one of those old-fashioned long white roller coasters but ramped up 100 times! That made me feel like a grown-up again :)

Disneyland: Day 1

We made it! Everyone woke up tired, but healthy and very excited!

Exploring Disneyland! We started with the Pirates of the Caribbean, I thought it was a pretty mild start, but it turned out to be so real, it was scary ;) Kayte wasn't quite used to Disneyland and all the 'real' stuff and so every ride she was waiting for something scary to jump out at her. We soon found our way to the Peter Pan ride which was absolutely her very favorite and incidentally, had one of the longest lines :)

Kayte and Will both loved this tree house, I don't know how many times they went through it, but at least 4!

Kayte loved the princess castle, and we all loved the sun and 80 degree weather!

The Big Surprise!

So, we have been planning a trip to Disneyland for about a year now, and on and off we have been talking and getting the kids excited about it. Well, three weeks ago we bought the tickets and decided to make the big day a surprise. It was much easier to keep it secret than you might expect - I even had to pack with them in the house!
We decided a long time ago to go when Ben was weaned and Sara was too young to feel left out, and this turned out to be the perfect window of time!

The morning we left, I snuck Sara and Ben over to Kelly's and then Joe and I went downstairs where the kids were cleaning up their room. We sat down with them and said "what do you think about heading to Disneyland today? would that be fun?"
They totally didn't believe us until Joe and I started running around and loading up suitcases! It took us 5 minutes to get in the car and off we went!

Will started to get very very carsick on our way to Spokane. We barely made it to the gas station where he promptly tossed his cookies!
This pic is taken about 1/2 an hour later. He was white as a ghost! I've never seen someone so colorless!

But he perked up a little and we got on a little plane to Portland.

This was the first plane ride "as big kids", Kayte said.
They loved it!
And Will made it all the way to Portland before he threw up again - hoorah!
At that point, of course, I was seriously concerned that he had the real flu bug. I prayed and prayed that it wasn't, and that my poor boy would be ok to head to Disneyland the next morning. He slept our whole three hour layover and almost the two hour plane ride to CA.
When we hit the ground, he was off and running and jumping and back to his normal self! I was so thankful!!!
We met Gma and Gpa Casebolt at the hotel, and Jim and Heather too.
Ann stayed with the sleeping kids so Joe and I could head to the poolside bar for a nice glass of wine! I definitely needed to relax after such a wild day!

Technical Difficulties

Sorry it has been a while since my last post! I'm dying to tell you all about our trip - what an adventure! But my Picasa is giving me trouble and the story is much better with pictures, so I will have to wait until my computer-expert husband returns home and helps me out!

New news coming soon. . .

Out with Will

Will accompanied me to the mall today in search of a gift for his teacher whose birthday is tomorrow. . .nothing like the last minute!

I love gift-shopping with him because he is extremely thoughtful, even at his young age. And well, he is just fun to be around - he's funny!

Here was our conversation on the way there:

"Oops!" says I, "The gas light is on!"

"What does that mean?" says Will.

"It means we need to get some gas," says I. "I'll have to ask daddy to get some when he goes out tonite."

"Why don't we just go get it?" says he.

"Well, it's kind of a boy job." says I.

"Why's that?" he asks.

"Well, it is daddy's job to protect me, cause I'm his girl, and that means he will protect me from the cold and snow by filling up my gas tank for me." I explain.

He ponders this for a moment then says quietly, "Well. . .I remember when he left the door open, a long long time ago."

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"He left the door open and you got cold." he says. "But that was a long long time ago, before Ben and Sara were born."

Mmm. . .I sure hope Joe has made up for that, because it seems like my son has been holding a grudge on my behalf for the last three years!