St Patricks Day

We had some friends over this morning to play/hang out. And seeing as it is St. Patrick's day, we of course ate lots of green food, wore green clothes, and listened to Irish music on Pandora. I don't know much about St. Patrick, but from the little I dug up on Wikipedia, he sounds like quite the man. Here are some photos from our crazy morning:

The Kids:



Kerri and Henry Whitworth

Laurel trying to avoid being pinched:

Reading List

I have always loved to read. As a child I remember devouring book after book in a cozy corner of the house.
Now that we have children, I love to read with my kids. Here are a few of my childhood favorites that I am planning to pick up from the library this week:



Once their attention span is a bit longer, I look forward to introducing them to some of my other childhood favorites like these:





Have any children's books you love? I'd love to hear your recommendations!

World map wall paper

Grandma spent the morning applying World Map wall paper to Will's room. I think it looks great and am excited that our 4 year-old can start learning about world geography. Beats staring at a blank wall during time out :-)
John grew up with a similar map in his room and is quite the geography buff if I do say so myself.

Happy 29th Birthday, John

We love you so much. And I promise that your dinner will look better than the cake that the kids and I made for you today. We can't wait to see you--the kids are nice and snotty and ready to plant some juicy ones on you :-)

I've been a little busy trying to get the laundry done...has anyone seen Joy?

Sweetest thing I heard all day:

Jane: "Mommy, I want to be a doctor so I can fix Baby Joy"
Our kids are so sweet to their little sister!

Joy has had a rough week...nasty diaper rash/infection, possible UTI and then hives last night after I tried giving her some yogurt. I was trying to give her some natural probiotics to help with the infection, but it was obviously a bad idea as her system wasn't ready to handle the dairy yet. She is one sensitive girl. In an attempt to try and help avoid more diaper rashes, the doctor suggested switching to cloth diapers. I have always been a fan of the convenience of disposables, but I'm going to have to get over this if it means helping Joy. Hope it works!
Here is Joy in her new cloth diapers:

It seemed like a good idea at the time

I had to make a same-day doctors appointment for Joy yesterday afternoon. Poor thing has a diaper rash that just won't quit. It got so bad that she couldn't sleep, so the doctor took a look and prescribed us something that will hopefully heal the poor baby's hiney quickly. Will and Jane were such helpful and compliant siblings that I decided to let them pick out a treat while we were waiting at the pharmacy for Joy's prescription to be filled.
Will chose Reeses Peanut Butter cups and Jane chose a cheerleading baton. Seemed like reasonable choices at the time but when we got home I quickly realized that the baton would not work well as an indoor toy. The thing weighs a lot and HURTS when it is thrown into the air and comes down on ones head. Thankfully, we avoided too much damage to the house or ourselves, but from now on the baton throwing will occur outside or in a vacant/padded room.
I had to snap a few pictures of Jane with the baton, because she was soooo excited and enthusiastic. Future Husky Cheerleader perhaps?? I can't look at these pictures without laughing out loud to myself.