Day 83

Chloe decided that the walls needed more Easter cheer, so she set to making a slew of decorations. This one is my favorite, though. Isn't the bunny adorable? She loves raiding my craft room for her supplies, so it's a good thing I always have a ton of card stock available. I like having all those things on hand - from glue and glitter to buttons and bows. The kids also have a large collection of markers, crayons, and colored pencils. Lately Chloe has been wanting to cut everything else, but I keep the scissors out of reach since I still haven't quite gotten over when she cut her own hair a couple of years ago!

We are starting to feel better, and I'm glad I don't have class tonight or I would be miserable. Somehow Bradley is still perfectly healthy (praise God!) and the rest of us are on the mend. Let's hope we stay that way!

Day 82

Sorry, there is just no picture today because I have a fever of 103. Just pretend there is a picture of me and Chloe curled up in a heap of pitiful.

Day 81

Wow. That's just about all I can say. Wow.

Chloe, Mike, and I all have strep. We started feeling a bit run down yesterday (and Chloe ran a fever) - but overnight we were smacked with misery. We all tested positive today, so it looks like we'll have to shield Bradley from the cooties. I need to go back to bed now. What a great way to start the first week back to work after Spring Break. Ugh.

Day 80

Nothing beats capturing the bad dinosaurs and making them clean up their room, huh? Bradley really started getting interested in dinos this summer and we are growing quite a collection of toys and books related to them. We've always like the books in the "How does your Dinosaur..." series and our dinos always seem to do all those very bad things. So, we keep putting them in jail. No wonder they are extinct!

Day 79

Today we went to a bridal shower for my sister's husband's brother's future bride. She'll be Lexi's new Aunt, and Erin helped host the shower. Lexi looked so precious in her springy new outfit. I cannot believe how she is changing recently - looking more like a young lady and less like a little girl. It kills me! She'll be in middle school next year, which is just mind-boggling. I don't know how the years went by so darn quickly! Today she was wearing heels and walking just fine in them and as I watched her I recalled pictures of her trying to toddle around in dress-up shoes. (Those hard plastic pink shoes that every little girl wants, but struggles to walk in.) Here she is looking tweenish, but still just as sweet. Such a blessed girl who brought so much change to her mama. Lexi was the unexpected miracle who really set my sister's life on the right track. We are completely blessed to have this child in our family. I know she will do incredible things as she gets older. I just don't want her doing them so soon!

Day 78

Today Katie came over to do a homework project for her photography class (imagine that!) and needed to use Chloe as her model. She was quite willing to comply. Is it cheating that I didn't take this picture? It WAS taken with my camera, though, so it's not really cheating. Let's stick with that, okay?

In this photo she was playing with depth of field and I think she did a good job - except for the tree that looks like it's coming out of Chloe's head! Hopefully she'll get a good grade because she had to do a lot of work!! I always wanted to take a photography class - maybe some day I'll take a continuing ed class at the junior college. Like, some day when I'm not coaching, teaching, in grad school, chasing a puppy, and wrangling a 4 and 5 year old. Yeah, then.

Day 77

I mentioned that we took Zeke to the vet yesterday because he needed a vaccine and a general check up. Turns out our little guy weighs 86 pounds. Crazy, huh? He is looking great - his heart sounds fine and he's growing at a good pace so he's not straining his bones. The vet said he probably won't be done growing until he's almost 3 years old. He's only 8 months old, folks. That's a lot of growing left to do! The vet also said we could feed him 1/2 puppy food and 1/2 adult food. He gets 4 cups in the morning and 4 in the evening and still acts like he's hungry. How much do you think he'll eat by the time he's full grown? Perhaps we should buy stock in our dog food company?