Never has a DVD been so loved!

My mom owns the Care Bears Movie, but ever since Kate sat for the flick over a month ago, it has been in Kate's hands. She brought it home with her that day, slept with it that night and has every night since. She talks to it as she goes to sleep. She pets it. She carries it around with her ALL DAY, EVERY DAY! She opens the case every hour or so and spins the DVD around lovingly, sometimes with a giggle. She begs to watch it daily (and because my patience is lacking, she often gets her way). Some kids have a blanket, some a teddy bear; mine has a DVD (and two blankets, a few teddy bears, apparently her coat in bed with her tonight, and a plethora of other security items).

Ella turns 3!

Rachel, Bryant, and Ella, some dear friends from New York were in Utah last week and invited us to Ella's three-year-old birthday celebration. It was so great to see our friends and catch up a bit. James and Kate were excited to go to a birthday party and enjoyed picking out small presents for Ella and wrapping them in Care Bears' wrapping paper (Kate's obsession of the month -- see previous post). The party was at a mall with a fantastic carousel in the food court area. Both James and Kate decided the zebra was a best choice for the ride, but luckily, after one ride on the zebra we were able to convince James that the chicken (rooster?) was also really, really cool. For the remaining rides, Kate insisted on the zebra and James on the chicken. Luckily, there were plenty of other choices to keep the other kids happy too. Here are a couple of pictures of James and Kate and one of the beautiful Birthday Girl! (And, no it wasn't cold inside. Kate just refused to take her coat off for a very long time.)

Up close with Swoop at the gymnastics meet

Each time we go to a U of U sports event, Kate looks for "The Bird." At a basketball game last month Swoop came right into out section (which is saying a lot since we were only a few rows from the VERY BACK of the arena). I was standing up, holding Kate, making a total fool of myself trying to get him to come right to us. Swoop clearly signaled that he was coming. Unfortunately, Swoop was coming too close for James. James started crying/screaming and Swoop changed his mind about visiting Kate and her crazy mom. Kate was devastated.

Well, luckily, we had another chance. Last Thursday evening Ben and I took James and Kate to a gymnastics meet. They watched for a bit and seemed interested, but there was too much down time between rotations to keep them in their seats, so we headed out. On our way to the outer doors we ran right into Swoop! He was giving kids "five" (photo number one) and posing for pictures (hug and happy girl in photo number two). James stayed a comfortable 5 feet from Swoop at all times, but watched the scene with interest. A few minutes later, James was in line for a drink at a drinking fountain and didn't know that Swoop had come back. Suddenly, Swoop was right in front of James and, although pausing for a brief moment of panic, James put out his hand to give Swoop five. (Unfortunately, I missed the photo op.) (Note: Kate's relationship with Swoop began some months ago. See: here.)

Sick, but still dancin'!

We've had sick kids for two weeks now. There's a mean cold going around. James was first and then Kate came down with it just as things started looking up for James. I took James to the doctor who told me that while James was definitely sick, there was nothing he could do to help him. With kids' cold medicines off the market now (and apparently not effective anyhow), warm honey and lemon water was the best advice we could get. We call it the "special drink." Neither Kate nor James are big fans, but will drink a bit. (Any home remedy ideas out there?) Kate feels she's in need of extra TLC, including the comfort of two pacifiers.



Ben stayed home with the kids today. While you can see from the photos of Kate that she's quite miserable, Ben found a way to get them both laughing. We thought we'd share the source of their laughter with all of you. Enjoy the short video clip below:

Don't send a lame eCard. Try JibJab Sendables!

On the way . . .

We wanted to share a little secret we've been keeping. The giant head and little hand you can see in the picture above belong to a little boy we're waiting to meet in early August. When we told Kate there was a baby in Mom's tummy, she started lifting up my shirt to find it. Ben asked James where the new baby would sleep. Here's their conversation:

Ben: Where will the baby sleep?
James: Baby sleep James' bed.
Ben: Then where will James sleep?
James: James sleep Mommy's bed.
Ben: Where will Mommy sleep?
James: Mommy sleep Kate's bed.
Ben: Then where will Kate sleep?
James: . . . Kate sleep on top Baby.