Too Hot to Handle or Mom's Bad Judgement

Remember when......a few weeks ago I decided to take my kiddos to the sprinkler park with some friends. We were set to meet them around 11 and I thought we probably wouldn't stay too long. The weather was looking like it was going to rain any minute...cloudy and nasty. I had my kiddos in their bathing suits and couldn't find the sun stick so I made the worst judgement call EVER!! I thought "it's really cloudy and we will be out an hour or less...Dallin has a swim shirt on...Kate doesn't burn..we'll be fine"
Boy was I ever W..R..O..N..G. Right when we got there, the clouds cleared up and the sun was out and HOT. We had such a great time we ended up staying for 3 hours! I thought the kids looked a little pink, but I didn't think they were severely burnt or anything. I got them home and rubbed aloe all over the burnt parts. They were a little crispy, but I wasn't yet too worried.
Then later...it happened. I looked over at Dallin and realized he had a giant blister on top of his ear. The picture is blurry but it was really big and looked liked melted plastic or cheese. I almost screamed. It was pretty nasty looking and TALL! I checked and found one on the other ear too. I found out what to do and set about treating them. I was pretty freaked. Kate kept complaining about her sunburn, but hers didn't LOOK as bad so I kind of told her to suck it up. Getting ready for bed, I felt terrible when I discovered GIANT blisters on both of her tiny shoulders. Both kids ended up with mild heat exhaustion and had the runs for several days.
Can we say major mommmy guilt? I felt so terrible. Really really really bad. I treated both kids 4 times a day and had them stay in the house and naked and as still as possible for 2 days. Then we stayed inside for about a week after that. Kate ended up popping her blisters the second day by jumping on my bed....hmmmm. They really enjoyed the "sick days" and being pampered. We ended up with no scarring and no infections and I definitely learned a lesson. I will never EVER do that again. My poor little crispy critters! Sorry guys!

A Boy and His Dog

Macy is our dog. She is now 8 months old. And although she was supposed to be maybe 20 pounds....she has settled into a healthy 30 pound baby. I love her dearly, but I would be lying if I said that I felt that way every minute of every day. She eats things she shouldn't, barks incessantly at her shadow, darts out the door and visits the neighbors, roughhouses a little too much....and yes....in the course of potty training our house smells of puppy pee (mmmmm....yet another reason why we never have guests). But one of the things I love the very MOST about Macy is that she gets along so well with Dallin.
The two of them play together ALL the time and although I am frequently scolding at least one of them for playing too rough I love to see them play. Dallin will explore in the yard for hours and Macy is right there exploring with him. She takes an active role in his creeping and crawling sessions by bringing him her ball....repeatedly and following him around the track. Fortunately, Dallin thinks is it HILARIOUS when she runs around all crazy when he is doing his sessions so everyone is well pleased. They splash through puddles together, walk through my garden together (naughty naughty), and play in the mud together. They will run in the yard for hours....Dallin just throwing his head back and laughing his sweet giggly laugh. Every time I see them being so cute together it really warms my heart. I guess it really is true that there is nothing like a boy and his dog.

Professional Sibling Pictures 2010

After a harrowing day at the portrait studio, we have our picture proofs presented here for your viewing pleasure. All I can say is that our photographer (Miss Lisa at JC Penny studios) is a miracle worker because my children were on their WORST behavior and yet she still turned out some good shots. I was soooo frustrated with them by the end. Really, it was like those people with the wild out of control children that you watch and think "oh my land! I would NEVER...." Yep that was us. Kids wouldn't do anything that Miss Lisa asked, wouldn't smile, were being silly, rolling on the ground, playing with the props, wouldn't look at the camera.....and when it was time to ORDER there was the added bonus of them running around the studio, riding the props around the studio, stacking and jumping off the furniture, screaming and crying.....oh yes....we are THAT awesome. Fortunately, we take really NICE pictures and usually purchase PLENTY of them....so they keep having us back. And Miss Lisa, God bless her, is always patient and loving to our family no matter what. Hope you enjoy the pictures! I am sure after the memory of today is gone, I will think they are great too :)

PICTURES WE ORDEREDMy favorite plain clothes picture...this is the one for the relatives folks :) My favorite motorcycle picture....we ordered several of these :) They look so cute! This was funny and cute but they were going so crazy that they wouldn't look at the camera and kept falling over and "galloping" away before we could get a shot. Really love this shot, but did not order a bunch of them since it is just the back of Kate's head
PICTURES WE DID NOT ORDERTough call on this one, but the one we did order was similar and we liked it betterDid not order this one as a single, but DID order it as part of an enhancement. Really liked that Dallin brought his Teddy Bear and had him in the saddle bags here. Ok....it totally looks like she is licking him. EwwwwCute picture, and I liked how he was pulling his glasses down, but his thumb was in front of Kate's face. Dallin looks like his snotty little sister is torturing him in this one....she probably wasYes....this was the ONLY expression we could get out of Kate for the first SEVERAL shots. This was probably when Dallin was yelling "Ewwww Grooooosss" and I was saying something encouraging like "You better hug her RIGHT NOW! I don't care how gross it is!" Did not order this as a single, but as part of an enhancementBlink much? Did not order as an individual, but as part of an enhancement
ENHANCEMENTS (pictures you have seen with cool special effects) THAT WE ORDEREDAlthough we did not order any of these shots individually, we DID order this collage. These shots really balanced each other and looked cute in this layout. Yep, we got the poster. It was so cute (and we had a coupon for a KILLER price). It has their names on it and the date. It has Christopher and I as the producers and Miss Lisa as the director. LOL
ENHANCEMENTS (pictures you have seen with cool special effects)WE DID NOT ORDERI liked how they added the grass here....but not enough to order it. Cool effects again....like the butterflies, but not enough for the pricetagI liked this one too, but not as much as the enhancements we ordered.

They're So Cute When They're Sleeping

I love this picture....for many reasons. First, Kate falls asleep on the couch every single day so this is a regular scene around the house. But also because Kate can't stand Macy touching her or her blankets when she is sitting on the couch and awake. LOL I love how Macy waits until she is asleep and cuddles up with her right away. Even though they pick on each other all the time, they really do love each other. I have caught Macy cuddled up with Kate so many times (when Kate is unconscious of course). LOL It makes me laugh every time I see it.

Just Dance!

So the other day, I got the game Just Dance by trading on old games at Gamestop. I was really excited to get it to compete against some of my friends and get a little exercise by dancing. I love to dance! Surprisingly, the kids think it is great(even though they have to spend TV tokens to play it)! Kate loves to dance anyways and isn't big on having to hold the controller while she does it. Dallin really caught on quickly that he was supposed to follow the on-screen dancer....he even figured out how to tell who was winning in a competition. And yes....he DID beat my high score once on "Who Let the Dogs Out". He scored over 7000!!! He has some moves!
I got this video of him gettin all down and funky to "I Like to Move It Move It!". It was so funny! He didn't know I was filming and it was hard to contain some of my laughter. I sure love my little guy! GO DALLIN!