Valentine's Day, Two Vests, and Pie

It is so hard for me to come up with titles for my posts because they tend to never have a theme. Maybe if I blogged more often I could stay on a single topic and be more clever.

We were all sick for weeks here at the Dye home. Sarah started it right before Erica's birthday, then Justin got it, then Henry, Erica, and I got it the same day. Then Sarah got it again and Justin would get a little better but then a lot worse. Fever, aches, coughs, boogers. Justin passed out, I got a full blown sinus infection, we went through boxes of tissues, bottles of cough syrup and pain relievers. I put my new ear thermometer to good use and the vaporizer was running constantly. We missed many days of school and work, the house got very messy and I did nine loads of laundry in one day to catch up.

But I think we're all better except for me. Sinus infections are slow clearing.

In the middle of all that was Valentine's Day. It's becoming a bigger deal around here as the years go on. Now that Sarah and Henry are both in school, I've got two kids making class Valentines and Sarah made her first Valentine box.

I'm going to brag for a minute and claim title of best Valentine box maker in elementary school. If we had a contest, I won it. I made a giant pill bottle, a fridge, and a computer. All award winning. Plus some other boxes that were just a decorated doughnut hole clamshell container and the like. Each year we'd pull out the construction paper and paper doilies and stickers and work on our boxes for hours. So I was really excited for Sarah to make one this year. Unfortunately the brainstorming conversation went like this:

Me: We can take this oatmeal container and put gray paper on it and make it look like a castle turret with a princess in a window and decorate it with hearts. Or...or...OR make it look like a giant tootsie roll!
Sarah: Or we could just put some hearts on it.
Me: (Strained smile, head tilt) You don't want to make it into something fun?
Sarah: I want to make it into a box to put Valentine's in.

I, of course, relented. If it's not fun for her to be unnecessarily clever then we'll leave it at that. For now.

Everyone had been sick with fevers and colds for days but Sarah and Henry recovered long enough to go to school Friday for their class parties. (Or I may have just filled them with a bunch of Motrin and sent them on their way as they were sick again later.)

Henry's class made these adorable puppy bags.

You can imagine Erica's obsession.

That afternoon Sarah came home with her loot. Brings back memories of sorting through my own Valentines.

Saturday I was feeling sick again but we managed to go out for our traditional taco dinner at an authentic Mexican restaurant. (There were a lot of college kids there. Groups of 3, girls in sweats, boys in track pants, all "hanging out." Do college kids date any more? Do they get dressed?)

Sunday I had planned to take cookies to some single elderly ladies in my neighborhood but I decided they wouldn't appreciate the sick germs that came with them so I didn't. We did have a steak dinner with asparagus and it was delicious. (Henry loves asparagus. Can you tell?)

Sarah set the table.

We had homemade Oreos for dessert.

Then I gave the kids their Valentines. I put some treats and small gifts into big paper hearts that I sewed together.

And then the next day Sarah threw up, Henry was running a fever again and my sinuses were under so much pressure it made my whole upper jaw ache like all my teeth had cavities. So fun.

Erica won't wear the doll carrier I made her for Christmas or her Cinderella apron I made for her birthday. Want to know what she will wear? Henry's new church vest.


Henry, on the other hand, won't try on his new church vest but will wear this blue one that he found in his closet. It's size 18 months.

And February's pie of the month was a German chocolate pie with pecan frosting. It was good but probably not Thanksgiving-dessert-table-good. And it just made me wish I was eating my mom's German chocolate cake.

Goals for the week: Wean Erica from her highchair completely and clean it and put it away, work on my Relief Society lesson coming up in March, assess which shrubs survived a winter of kids sledding on them, and make sure everyone has something nice to wear to Nate's wedding next week. And some still surviving birthday balloons may be mysteriously murdered in the night. (That may be the best sentence I've ever written.)

Erica Turns 2

I can't believe my baby is two! Well, actually I can because she talks all.the.time and she is great at pouting and is beginning to throw fits so 2 sounds about right.

Her birthday was Friday and Justin had the day off because he already worked like 55 hours thus far this week and he wasn't feeling well.

We started the morning off with breakfast and presents.

I made this Cinderella inspired apron for her. This is the most she's worn it. {{sigh}}

 She got a toy mixer, some more play food, Gossie book and...

 Sarah and Henry made a puppy house for Puppy.

 While Henry was at school, we went to Costco and Macey's and Erica got to pick out balloons. She chose Minnie of course.

 And daddy made her a birthday smoothie.

 While Erica took a nap, I worked on her puppy cake. She's been asking for a puppy cake ever since I showed her ideas on Pinterest. While I was baking the cakes she kept asking, "Puppy cake ready?"

 So she was very surprised when I brought her down from her nap with the completed cake. She wouldn't stop touching it.

 She destroyed the eyes that I went through 4 marshmallows to get right. (The nose is a Dove chocolate, the mouth melted chocolate chocolate chips, caramel frosting, and white cake)

 Two of my most bestest creations.

Every year until their 5th birthday, I write my kids a book about them using pictures of them from the last few months as the illustrations. Hers was "Princess Erica Loves to Play." Henry had it memorized so he was "reading" it to her.

 After a pizza dinner, she opened up a few more presents from Justin's parents. They watched over Skype. Nadine is at their new house in Arkansas, Corey was on a layover in Dallas. They sent her some  Minnie Mouse pajamas and she is wearing both of the pajama shirts.

 Then we sang happy birthday. Erica even sang to herself.

 Here are her 2-year pictures. These are the "outtakes" that capture her personality.

 And here are my favorite pictures and my favorite things about her.

1. I think she may be a genius. She only said like 6 words at 18 months but now she always speaks in phrases and sentences and says 3 or 4 new words or phrases every day. Her favorites right now are "That's good" "I'm sorry" "Thank you mommy." "Just kidding" "Oh my goodness" and "I'm okay". If she's not a genius, then she's at least a slightly better speaker than my other two at this age.

 2. She loves to hang out with me. She'll sit on my lap and sing and talk and squish my face for like an hour. It usually turns into being really silly but she is so content to just be with me.

 3. She is so loving. She mugs on stuffed animals and dolls and about has a heart attack if she can't kiss all the stuffed animals in the toy aisle. She just wants to cuddle and love soft things.  

4. She's pretty easy going compared to my other kids. (If you know my other kids, take that for what it's worth.) She doesn't put up a fight about going to bed so we'll see how long that lasts.

5. She is my constant reminder that God is good and blesses us with more than we deserve.

(And then she was done with the whole photo shoot thing.)

Mad Skills

I made a up a new rule that the kids can only play the kindle or watch TV from 5-6 on school days to force encourage them to find other things to do. Sarah asked me to teach her to play "that game where you play all by yourself and put cards in order" so I taught her to play solitaire. 

 And then I showed her the app at 5.

It seems like Henry is always building robots or rockets or machines out of something. Today it was mega blocks. This was a jet pack.

 Erica has mad cute skills.

 I love this age. She's hilarious.

Henry is showing me another of his creations. I think this was a car.

 And Sarah is building everyone in the family their own Lincoln log house.

Getting Henry to cooperate for a haircut is a delicate undertaking. You have to bring up the subject in just the right manner. One must offer just the right reward with the right amount of enthusiasm. Too much eagerness tips him off at our desperation and he knows he's got us and will shut down and refuse. Too casual and he'll just ignore us.

Doesn't work: Henry, it's time for haircut! You can have an ice cream cone when we're done!

Works: Henry, let's make a deal. You cut dad's hair with the clippers and then he gets to cut your hair. And if you hold super still like a superhero the whole time, you can choose what kind of ice cream you get and you can pick from caramel or chocolate syrup and sprinkles. But whatever, I don't really care.


He took the bait.

 In return, dad got to cut his.

 I just love the faces he pulls.

And you gotta be quick. Once he gets itchy or uncomfortable, he'll panic and then it takes mega bribes and distractions to keep him still.

 Erica is developing her dressing up skills. She picked out this lovely outfit herself.

Sooo cute, even with a mouth full of apple.

 Henry is all about making "hideouts" around the house which are really small spaces that he fills with pillows and his favorite toys.

 Erica spies the neighbor's snowman and is kissing it. Any time she sees something she likes, "I kiss it." It's pretty sweet while she's toddler.

This is Erica's favorite song right now.

Who needs a sledding hill when you've got our backyard? Or a sled for that matter?

And finally, mad snowman making skills. Sarah made this Saturday night. The head is molded by a pail, in case you can't tell. His name is Bucket Head.