Updates

After 3 years Carolina is finally finished (for now, says her Dr.) with her patch!! She's been a trooper having to wear it every day, but she is so happy to have it done with.

The first night she ever wore her patch. She was barely two and quite pitiful (I promise, I am pregnant in this picture :).

The home-made ice cream debacle.

Heading off to Kindergarten registration. Sniff. Sniff. I have so many mixed feelings regarding her going off to the big world of public school. I will miss so much having her around all day, but I have a feeling she's going to love school. Fingers crossed.

Grandma came for a short visit. Too short. :) We didn't tell the kids she was coming to visit, and their reaction to her walking up the stairs that morning was precious. They love to have her visit.

Helping Cash look like a triceratops.

Easter morn. I love how serious their faces became when the threats of Easter candy being taken away if they didn't stand still began.

Haircuts

You know life is pretty exciting when you devote an entire post to haircuts.

Before.

After. Much needed for little Cash.

I decided to be brave and give Carolina a ponytail haircut. Some friends in my ward had done it with their girls, so I went for it. Basically you put their hair in a ponytail and cut it all off about an inch or so from the ponytail holder. It just adds a bunch of layers in the back, and gives it an a-line look. The layers are kind of hard to see in the pictures, and her hair is still a little silly from us putting curlers in it on Sunday. I think it looks good, and she looks much better with shorter hair.

Happenings

The kids and I are finally feeling better. Here's little Lina falling asleep in the middle of the day with a fever. We haven't been that sick in a long time, and I'm glad it's behind us. I'm pretty sure the lady who was hacking up a lung on the plane got us sick. My dad quoted a study that said a person who coughs on a plane can spread their germs up to 8 or so rows ahead of them and 3 rows behind them. Keep that in mind next time you're on a plane and hear someone who's sick. :)

Lina's favorite little friend, Henry (in orange), is moving away. :( Fortunately, they're not too far away so we'll still see each other.

Carolina has been obsessed with her little "pet shop" that she has created. She gets so angry when I say her stuffed animals aren't real. I'm starting to think she really believes they're alive.

Animal nap time.

Time for a hair cut.

Carolina brought me this phone that she created. It just made me smile. It says, "Time" on the front, since mine has a clock on the front.

You can tell her mommy's phone isn't very fancy, since it's a flip phone and it doesn't even have the internet.

Cash wanted his picture taken using "the phone". He always answers pretend phones and yells, "HELLO DOCTOR!".

Carolina started taking swim lessons a few weeks ago. She loves them. I'm not convinced she'll actually learn to swim, but here's to hoping.

Carolina has recently declared herself a vegetarian. We were follow a turkey truck the other day and she said she never wanted to eat an animal again. Except for hot dogs. Oh, and chicken fingers.

Good times

Another successful trip to Utah has occurred, and we had a wonderful time. The flights out were relatively stress free, which is nice. It's always so fun to surprise Carolina with an early morning wake up call that lets her know we're heading to Grandma's house. She gets so excited. The kids just love being at Grandma's house (my dad always wonders why it isn't referred to as his house), and my parents are so good to spend time with my kids and give them lots of attention. They are also so good to John and me and give us lots of parenting breaks. John and I were able to go to SLC for a few nights, which was a lot of fun. While there we mastered the downtown transist system and felt like true locals.

We're now home and recovering. I'm trying to reprogram the children to the rules of normal life, which is proving difficult since they are both sick. Cash always seems to get the worst of it, and he is pretty pitiful when he's sick. I'm trying to be patient.

For some reason I didn't take many pictures this go around, but here's some of them.

Back in Cash's happier times, which seems so long ago. I think he looks particularly handsome in this picture.

Carolina thinks I am the coolest mom because I have trophies from when I was 13. Once in a while I'll hear her tell people out here, "My mommy has lots of trophies in Utah." Yes, twenty years ago I was pretty awesome.

Gingerbread house completed successfully.

Nightime reading with Grams.

The highlight of the trip was probably getting to stick their head out of the roof while going through the festival of lights.

Santa's note and cookies.

Patiently waiting to open presents.

Carolina is a bit of a hypochondriac. She used this cane for several days because she thought she'd broken her leg. My parents have lots of supplies to perpetuate the myth.

Carolina's second Christmas that she prepared for us. She picked out and wrapped two presents for each of us. She's pretty thoughtful.