Ye ought to wash one another's feet...

The other day I was nursing Brighton upstairs while the kids played a complicated game involving fire fighters and something else, probably a princess.  Faith sat down beside me with her fire hat still on and started brushing my hair.  I told her how sweet I thought that was, and she said that she could be my fire fighter servant.  Who doesn't need one of those??

She then propped my feet up on some pillows, and started massaging them!  What a sweetheart, right?  She left the room and reappeared with a damp washcloth and proceeded to wash my feet.  It made me think of the woman who washed Jesus' feet, and how he washed his friends' feet, and I felt a lot of tenderness and love for my sweet daughter, and told her so.

Jace saw what was going on and ran and got a washcloth himself.  It was sopping wet, so I asked Kate if she'd wring it out.  She did, and Jace began to wash my feet, and then Faith's.

I was counting my lucky stars that I have such great kids as I took Jace's washcloth back into the bathroom to wring it out all the way.  Then I noticed the puddles on the bathroom floor.  They led, you guessed it, to the toilet.

Lunch with Jan

 Aunt Jan lives very close to us, and recently we've started having lunch together!  Why haven't we done this sooner?  She is such a generous and sweet hostess!  We all love her cooking and her stories about her childhood.  I sure love this lady :)

Sloppy Joes and Lemonade.  Kate said it was the best thing she's ever eaten.

Jace usually prefers bird watching to eating when we are at Jan's.

May Days

 May was such a fun month!  It has finally warmed up, family came to visit, and school is almost out! Hallelujah!  Here is a smattering of what we did in May:

Kate had "Crazy Hair Day" at school.

Faith got me these sunglasses for Mother's Day.

Mike used his good looks to get the family some tots at Sonic.

The kids jumped on the tramp with cousins.

(And I played with the new camera I got from Mike for Mother's Day :))

Spent time with family.

Cupcakes disappeared.

As did teeth.

And chins.

Sorry Kev, I think Greg wins the disappearing chin contest.  My favorite thing about this picture is that while we were taking it, a lady in an Eyebrow Salon (yes, they exist) was watching the whole ordeal unbeknownst to us.  The giggling tipped us off, though.

Brighton tried on accessories at Build-a-Bear.

Jace tried to keep his pants up while running through the mall.

Brighton started sitting up!

The "kids" rode the thrill rides in the mall.

Faith and Jace finished up their gymnastics classes.

Faith had various adventures in baking and photography.

We went to the zoo.

Is anyone looking for a good sitter?

Because I know one!

Brighton - 6 months

Dinner Questions

I haven't blogged in so long because every time I want to, I feel like I should catch up on everything that's happened since I last blogged, which overwhelms me, so I don't.  But my children are growing up undocumented, so I'm just going to sum all that time up with, "The kids have grown, and I had a baby girl."  There.  Done.

Last night during dinner I picked a question from our "Dinner Questions" and read it to the kids:

If you could be called any name you choose, what would it be?

Jace: "Two."

Faith: "I would like to be called Princess Emerald."

Kate: "Lacey.  No, Ribbon.  No, Silk. Well...  maybe just Lacey."

Princess Emerald

Things I want to remember

FAITH
Kate has had a rather emotional afternoon (mostly because I asked her to clean her room). Faith tends to try and make up for any lack of enthusiasm in the family, so she stuck with her to try and cheer her up. I overheard her talking to Kate about inventing robots to clean their rooms and lots of offers to help clean, go get her blanky for her, or let Kate play with her toys. Kate continued to wail and moan in despair, so Faith offered her the greatest and most exciting possession she has: her birthday. She is so sweet.

KATE
We were at a fundraiser dinner the other night and Kate was having far too much fun. She was chasing all the older boys around, tackling them and teasing to no end. When we got home, we had a little chat about being ladylike and not playing so rough. I asked her not to chase and tackle boys any more. She began to sob in devastation. I asked why she was so sad. She looked up at me with tears streaming down her face and said, "But Mom, that's my one talent! Waaaahhhh!" There was no holding back my laughter. I still chuckle when I think of it. :)

JACE
We were at my mom's house yesterday. I was in the kitchen getting lunch ready, and I saw Jace go into the living room where the toys are. I continued in the kitchen for a bit until Jace walked back in. He was covered in green marker. I didn't realize that he had sneaked a marker into the living room! I looked around by the toys, but it seemed that he had only colored on himself. I took the marker and gave him a little lecture, and that was it. As we were about to leave, I walked by the other part of the living room, and saw, to my horror, that my parents' large upholstered ottoman was now covered with green dry erase marker on one side. Now, you would think that a marker that erases so easily would be cinch to get out of fabric. You would be wrong. I tried everything, and nothing worked. I told a carpet cleaner what had happened and all he could do was give me his condolences. So beware, readers, of the dry erase marker! I want to remember this, not because I'm proud of it or plan to be eternally mad at myself and Jace, but because I hope someday I will think it's funny. It will probably be a while, though.

A Rant

I hate smoke detectors. Yes, I know they probably save lives and all that, but I'm not thinking rationally now. I'm too sleep deprived. Plus, I have many good reasons to hate them. Here they are:

1. They only start chirping in the middle of the night. When day breaks, people wake up and are more alert, they become mysteriously silent.

2. They have an uncanny ability to throw their chirp to any part of the house you are not in. However, this is only if you are looking for the offending chirper. If you do not seek it, it will sound like it is right above you.

3. When you think you have found the chirper, it will vary it's frequency of chirps. Anywhere from 5 minutes to 3 hours may lapse between the chirps of a smoke detector you are watching. However, if you are not looking for the detector, it will chirp every 10 seconds.

4. Replacing the battery in the detector may or may not stop the chirping. Detaching the detector most definitely will not stop it, but rather increases the volume and raises the pitch. Wrapping the detector in towels and clothing does nothing to dampen the sound of the stupid, maddening chirping.

5. Males (and Faith) do not register the sound of the chirping (at least in my household). 6 year olds are too short to help, and so you alone are tortured with the task of making the chirping stop.


The happy part to all this is that I was awake enough at 2 AM to clean out my fridge and do some indexing. I can't wait to do it all again tonight!