This is called a "Lily Sandwich". If you haven't tried one, you've GOTTA! They're very sweet.

MUCH BETTER DAY TODAY! I think the most excitement we've had today was Lily giving her preschool teacher a big booger. I tried to tell her it was a gift of love. I'll take that over yesterday anytime!

I'm Calling It A Night.

It is 9:38 PM. I've learned all sorts of interesting things today from the fact that Silly Putty does not come out of underwear (don't ask), blankets, sheets, and comforters to what to do if a glowstick breaks and sprays directly in one's eyes. I'm calling it. This day is O-V-E-R.

As we were driving to pick up the boys from school today, Lily drops Tinkerbells shoes in the van. You would think this was a national crisis by the sounds of it. I finally had to raise my voice a bit in order to be heard above the wailing and gnashing of teeth coming from the backseat.
"LILY! YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL THE CAR IS STOPPED. I CAN'T REACH THEM WHILE I'M DRIVING!"
I got some silence from the backseat, then a very sad voice said, "Mommy? Why are you mad?"
I explained I wasn't mad, I just wanted her to listen to me.
"I think you should be happy, Mommy"
"I am happy, Lily."
"You're mad. I'm going to share my happy with you."
"Ok, thanks."

Menards/Menerds.

Remember, how I've explained before how Lily has an unusual obsession with Menards? Today she kept asking me for "Menerds." Menerds?? Could NOT for the life of me figure out what the heck she was talking about. Finally, I let her climb up on the kitchen counter and show me what she was talking about. She dug out a little box of candy nerds left over from V-Day.
"OH! You mean nerds? Those are called NERDS."
"Mom, those aren't name nerds. This is menerds" (pointing to the box).
Like I said, the obsession with Menards pops up in mysterious places.

Best Valentine!

Kaylee wins the award for best Valentine this year! She's so crafty, that girl. There was a box of candy hearts inside. As you can tell, Noah thought it was rockin'.

Flowers From Daddy.

A sweet, sweet moment with Daddy and his girl on Valentine's Day.

Stinker.

Miss Lily has started a bad habit of sneaking out of her bed after we tuck her in. We usually find her in the hallway or she'll sneak downstairs and spy on us from the hall. She has now taken to saying when she kisses me goodnight, "Goodnight Mommy, I sure hope I stay in my bed tonight." She is just the perfect picture of innocence. Snort. I sure hope she stays in her bed, too. At least she's hopeful about it.

I've Caught Spring Fever!

I realize it's only February. And it's Iowa. Enough said.

Life With Lily.

On the way to preschool this morning, I had to stomp on my brakes, because the person in front of me had to stomp on THEIR brakes. No need to go into that....but, it was one of those situations where I'm not sure if my brakes actually screeched, but in my head they did!
Me: "Oops, sorry, Lily."
Lily: "WOW! That was a really good trick, Mommy!"
Me: "Well, thanks!"
Lily: "Well, you're welcome!"
She just makes me laugh on a daily basis. Yesterday, she was playing with her brother's matchbox cars. Before you think she was doing something boy-ish, she gave me a 5 minute lecture on which cars were friends who, and had grouped them accordingly. I also heard one car commenting to another car on 'how sparkly they were today'. Nope. Nothing 'boy-ish' there.

The Baby Puppy Adventure.

We lost Baby Puppy yesterday. It was a very sad day. As you can see she is 'one of the family', as I actually agreed to take portraits of her, much to my 3 year olds delight. She follows in the line of much loved animals in our family, starting with "Droopy" who is now 30+ years old and is still going strong , despite probably carrying bacterias and nasty critters. Then we've got "Baby Peeps", who is not doing too bad for his 12 years. He has grown into a very unusual dull shade of gray and has lots of bald spots, but is still very much loved.
We searched this house over and over, upside and down. It was a rough night. We ran a few errands yesterday, but Joe was 99.999% sure baby puppy didn't leave the house. Tonight at the dinner table, I suggested we call Lowe's just in case it showed up there. Joe called and asked the customer service if they "had any pink poodles". He was put on hold and again reaffirmed that he thought it never left the house. Lowe's lady came back on the line and said, "We have a pink poodle...it's REALLY dirty." Joe was stunned and continued to ask some specifics about it because he was still in denial, while I thought to myself, "It's baby puppy! How many pink poodles do you find in a hardware store?!?!" I went right over to get it, wondering what kind of shape it was in, how many carts had rolled over it, how many 2x4's dropped on it...I was expecting the worst. She hands him over and he was just the way we left him. One man's dirt is another 3 year old girl's love, I guess.

I Have An Idea!....Let's Make Mom Cry!

I don't think we've changed much....do you? (Don't answer that question.)

Emily has been distraught by the picture of her and Noah in the previous post, stating that her picture looks scary and not even like her, so I thought I would post these to make up for it. But scroll down and look at the silly one, one last time...it is pretty scary!