If she's gonna stay up late...

... at least she's reading!

Footprints

I live in the land of endless rain and clouds. Well, it seems like that right now. It rains a lot in the winter and in January/February it feels like it will never be sunny again. This morning I woke up to sunshine and blue skies! I thought I was dreaming! I was excited to get out of bed this morning and enjoy the sunshine. My kids were also excited. I put them in play clothes, handed them a shovel and a bucket and put them outside. I told them that I haven't planted my flowers yet so they were free to dig as much as they want. They had so much fun! It was wonderful. I thought I would take advantage of the quiet time to get some work done. Tyler yelled to me from the other room, "Mom! You have to see this!" He had already shown me several things that I "had to see" outside so I took my time getting to him. When I turned to leave my room he was standing in the hall. "Mom! You should see the cool footprints I made all over the house with my dirty shoes!" My response: "Ahhhhhh!!! Don't move! Stay exactly where you are!" His response to my response: Keep walking and getting dirt everywhere. Finally I scooped him up and carried him back outside. Apparently he had no idea that this was a bad idea. I calmly explained to him that this was why we take our shoes off before we come in the house. Dirt on carpet makes mommy upset. He looked so sad to have made me upset. I quickly forgave him and he promised to never do that again. He even offered to help me vacuum it up. I told him that I appreciated the offer, but please just stay in the kitchen and don't get dirt on anything else. Did I mention that he was wearing cleats? A whole lot of mud and dirt can collect on the bottom of those spiky shoes!

This picture doesn't show the dirt very well but I had to get the other stuff up right away before it got ground into the carpet!

A Note for Daddy

We made chocolate ice cream yesterday. It was pretty good. Not really worth the mess and hassle, but the kids had fun and loved eating ice cream that they helped make. Ben had to work last night and Tyler wanted him to try some of the ice cream when he got home. He decided to write him a letter and tape it to the front door so he would see it when he got home. This is what his letter said:

We MaD Is cReM          (we made ice cream
you caN Hav suM            you can have some
DoNt eet it ol                    don't eat it all)
love Tyler
and Nicole

As you can see, Tyler knows his father well.

My Latest Scrapbooking Pages

Every year I make scrapbook pages for my mom for her birthday. I feel really bad about it, but this year I only did 4 pages for each child. I know. I'm terrible. Even worse, they are all from the end of the year. Oh well. Here's what they look like: