It's The Thought That Counts

Right?

You see, my lovely daughter had a great idea this morning while I was still asleep. "Let's put the dishes in the dishwasher away and then make mommy breakfast." Nate was game, so he helped.

So sweet.

Only, the dishwasher had dirty dishes in it. Yeah. Now not such a great idea anymore. Good thing is they only started putting just a couple away before they decided to make me breakfast.

But they put my cereal in a bowl from the dishwasher. Also no longer a good idea.

I suppose its good that I nearly clean my dishes before putting them in the dishwasher for fear of having clean dishes come out with food still stuck on them.

Still, it was pretty sweet of my kids to try to help out and make me breakfast.

Toy Story 3

Ray and I took the kids to see Toy Story 3 yesterday. We've been meaning to take them for a while, but opening weekend happened to be the weekend before my psych final and I would be meeting with my study group to, well.....study. Then, after my test, we were preparing for our vacation and left a couple of days after my final. We have been postponing the movie for a month now and we've finally had an opportunity to go see it.

I have to say, this movie is probably one of the BEST movies I have seen in a very long time. It was so well written, so hilarious and nudged your emotions a little, too. I can't wait to see this movie again (on video of course. not going to pay a fortune to see it in the movies again!). During a part where I was getting a little teary-eyed, I turned to look at Grace who was swiping tears from her eyes. That was the first time I have ever seen her cry for a show/movie before. It was so cute.

In other news, the other evening, Nate woke up in the middle of the night crying that his head hurt. I wasn't sure what that was about since he has never had a headache before, let alone neither him nor Grace has ever awoken from sleep because of a headache. While he was awake, he said something felt funny in his mouth, so I took a look and lo' and behold, his bottom two teeth (the middle ones) are loose!! Grace didn't loose those 2 teeth until she was after she was 5 years old. He is 8 months younger than she was when she lost them. Weird thing is when I helped him brush his teeth in the morning, I never noticed they were loose. My only guess is that maybe the carrots he ate at dinner helped loosen them some? On top of that, I also noticed a couple of days ago that he is getting in his top 6 year old molars! I must have counted his teeth like 20 times to make sure I counted right. He currently had 20 teeth, and he is getting in the 6th tooth on each side on top, which technically aren't supposed to come in until 6 or 7 years old. Grace was between 6 and 7 when hers came in. I remember we had to wait to see the orthodontist until those came in and I had tried to see the orthodontist over a year ago with her old dentist. Anyway, I guess it's ok for them to come in a little early, but its just strange to have 4 teeth coming in early at once. Anyway, I'm thinking it's all these teeth that are coming in that's causing Nate's headaches. He's only complained about them once more, so I'm thinking it's not anything else that's really causing them.

Poor Nate......4 teeth at one time must be rough.

Fevers

I don't get fevers hardly at all. Although I have had a few more recently than in the past, I think I can count on one hand how many times I have had a fever since Grace was born (but if you include the fever I had WHILE I was in labor- no, that is NOT good-, then I might need to go to the second hand, but actually, I think I can still stay on that first hand). Ok. Tangent. Sorry. Anyway, that's always been my thing, well, one of two things I can use to gauge how sick I am. I don't get fevers and I don't, well, throw up. If one of those two things occurs, then I am pretty sick.

Anyway, people are different. Some people get fevers easily. Some for no reason (ah, I think I finally see where I was going with this.....funny that even I didn't know). Nate, who got sick when I got sick our first day in NC, seems to have a fever for no reason. We both still have our colds, so perhaps his body is just fighting hard against something else. I can usually tell when my kids have a fever just by looking at them, and I say usually because there was a rare time where Grace had strep throat and never once complained about her throat (surprisingly) nor did she look or act sick. The only way I knew she had a fever was when I was dressing her for her swimming lesson and touched her, I swear I have never felt a person that hot before. Her temp was over 104 and I just jumped in the car and drove straight to the pediatrician's office (after giving her Tylenol, of course). Grace still never complained about her throat, even though the doctor said her throat looked "like a mess." That's about the only time my kids didn't look sick and have a fever.

Sorry, yet another tangent. So this morning.....I look at Nate and I can just tell, something is off. I do my usual back-of-the-hand-then-my-chin-to-his-forehead-fever-test (works every time, but I still can't get an actual number yet). I knew my poor boy had a fever and my thermometer confirmed it- it was a little over 102. I immediately made him rest, gave him some water and some Ibuprofen (Advil). I had to battle his fever with Tylenol, as well.

Still, he has no complaints. Nothing seems to be wrong. But it's still so sad to see your kid sick. They always look so sad.


You know, come to think of it, I never did check his throat..............

Trip Pics, Part One

First we went to visit my friend in Georgia. While we were there, we went to the Georgia Aquarium. We took a lot of pics of the fish and sharks, etc, but I just can't post them all. I honestly can't just choose which ones to post because they are all similar. Instead, I just decided on a few pics of us.

Some pics from the Georgia Aquarium:

Then we headed north to North Carolina to our cabin in the mountains. We stopped along the way in western North Carolina to see some waterfalls before headed to our cabin in more central North Carolina.

Heading north!

Still in Georgia (near state line). Tallulah Gorge, GA

Bridal Veil Falls, NC

Dry Falls, NC

Dry Falls, NC

Ray and I actually took a pic in this
exact spot on our honeymoon.

We thought it would be great to take a pic

with the kids in the same spot

Dry Falls, NC

Dry Falls, NC

Dry Falls, NC

Walking under Dry Falls

Under Dry Falls

The river the Dry Falls flows into

Finally, our cabin in Newland/Linville, NC

Porch View

Mountain view from porch

More views from porch

More views from porchView of the back of the cabin

Another view of the back of the cabin

Side of the cabin

Living Room

Dining Area

Dining Area/Kitchen

Kitchen

Laundry

Desk Area in Living Room (near stairway)

Master Bedroom w/ king bed

Second Bedroom w/ 2 twin beds

Nate playing in yard

Nate on the hammock in the yard

Grace in the yard

Grace on the hammock

Grace and Nate playing around on the hammock
(I never saw the kids playing on the hammock,
or in the yard, the first day because I was in
bed sick with a fever)

Grace on the porch

Grace and Nate on the porch swing

On the last morning we decided to take
some family pics on the porch and in the yard.
It was around 62 degrees- Nice, eh?

In order to get the kids to cooperate with picture

taking, we usually tell them to take a serious
picture first and then we can take a silly pic.
Here are our silly family pics :)