Aunt Sarah's visit!!

My Aunt Sarah, my mom's sister, came in today to visit & help out while Daddy's gone. We got to pick her up at "the big airport" & the boys were so excited to meet her in the airport & take her back to our house. She's been FABULOUS at helping out & playing with the boys. We'll miss her so much when she leaves. Here are a couple of video clips of the "alligators" that keep coming out of the swamp to "chomp, chomp" the boys up. If you can't understand what they're saying, they keep telling the alligator, "Go back to the swamp, Alligator!". Then, they call it back for more chomping.

Little Smarty Pants

So, lately William has been into pretending to read & how things are spelled. When we do bedtime books, he has to "read" the book to me & Daniel before I get to read it. A little time-consuming, but pretty darn cute. He's been pretty good at telling me what words start with for a while now, but the letter that comes next has eluded him, mainly due to his penchant for not listening to whatever it is I'm trying to explain to him (home-schooling would never work for us!). So, when I ask him what "Palen" starts with, he says "P!", but when I stress the "A" sound & ask what comes after the P, he doesn't usually come up with it. Some of it must have been sticking, however, (he always listens to WAY more than I think he does!) because today, he was having pizza for lunch & when I told him that, he said, "Mommy, Pizza is spelled p-e-s-e." Now, I know that's not quite right, but phonetically, it's not too bad a job. E makes both a long "e" sound and the "eh" sound of short e sounds kind of like the end of pizza.

Now, if I could just get him to pick his toys up on a regular basis........

With a corncob pipe.....

From Snowmen

Here is the finished product!! L->R, they are, Mommy, William, Daniel, and Daddy. Daniel insisted this morning that he didn't want to go out in the snow again, so William & I waited until he was asleep & out we went. It was mid-40's & everything is melting, so it was perfect snowman-building weather. I didn't even need a coat--just gloves to keep my paws warm. We used our new snowman kit from our friends Calvin, Alayna, Ms. Dawn, and Mr. Ryan. William was so excited to put the hats, scarves, and faces/buttons on!!

We built William first:

From Snowmen

Then added Mommy & Daniel:

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We were out of hats & out of big-sized eyes, so Daddy was going to get the shaft (Sorry, Dad!), but Allie, our neighbor, came out to play & insisted we had to have the whole family, so she built Daddy (or "Mr. Scott" to her) all by her lonesome:

From Snowmen

Then, she decided we had to have a "little bean", so here he is standing next to Mommy. Since he's not born yet, he didn't need a face--go figure!

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And, here's just some random snow cuteness:

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Snowdays!

We finally got enough snow to build a snowman, and wouldn't you know it--it refused to stick together. Allie and Maddie, our neighbors, tried for almost an hour to get a pile up so we could at least have a snow "pile" to decorate, but no dice. Maybe tomorrow, it will be wet enough to build a valid snowman. The kids had fun playing in it anyway. Here are a few random snaps from the past two days. The ones with the dark sky are from yesterday--we got several inches on Monday night & then it snowed off & on all day Tuesday & until 3 AM or so this morning! Today, the sun was out, but it never got out of the 20's, so it didn't melt enough to make for sticky snow :-( And, thank goondess for my neighbor again (see Sunday's post!)--she shoveled her driveway AND mine 2 days in a row. Both of our hubbie's are gone & she refused to let my pregnant self help.

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Maddie & Allie hamming it up:

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Snow angels:

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Random snow shots:

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Cool snowblower machine one of our neighbors had. Of course, it fascinated the boys!:

From Snowday

And, just to give you an idea of how MUCH snow we actually got, here is a shot of the sidewalk after the snowblower was done:

From Snowday

William had a blast sliding face-first down all the snow banks & Daniel alternated between being very happy and being cold & miserable (as you can see from his snaps!). William seemed to have more fun today when the snow was deeper & he could spend all morning diving through it, while Daniel liked it better when the snow went "cranch, cranch" (otherwise known as "crunch, crunch") and he could walk on it. Stepping into it & sinking down was not for him!

My poor neighbor!

So, my neighbor had quite a weekend! She watches my kiddos one weekend a month for me while Scott is out of town so I can keep working my job at St. Elizabeth's in Belleville, where this little guy will be born. After we scheduled this weekend, her husband found out he had to go out of town on a work trip, so she'd have all four kids (her 2 and my 2) by herself. Now, she's got two girls, Allie (almost 7) and Madison (4 1/2), and they're very well-behaved. But, combine them with the Palen boys & there is no telling what might happen! Mikki went upstairs yesterday & when she came back down, this is what she found:

From doggie bed

Of course, her girls had to jump right in for a photo-op, too, so here is Allie:

From doggie bed

And, Madison:

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And, just for good measure, one of all four kiddos watching some TV:

From doggie bed

And then to top it off, after she had them all day yesterday, she had them again today, but Sundays are usually very light, so I'm back at her house by noon. Today, we finished up right on schedule, but I was having a lot of Braxton-Hicks contractions & thought I might have been leaking a little amniotic fluid, so I went up to Labor & Delivery to have it checked out. SIX HOURS, 2 IV bags of saline, and one shot of a contraction-stopping drug later, I finally got sent home. Nothing to worry about & I kept trying to tell the doctor that I've had contractions throughout my two prior pregnancies, but he took the cautious route (which I guess I should be grateful for!) & kept me there all afternoon. My neighbor was a saint & even managed to get my two kids fed dinner, so all I had to do was put them to bed when I got home. Thank God for great neighbors!!!!

And so it begins......

Yesterday, William & I were watching Disney's The Fox and the Hound together. I don't know if you're familiar with this movie, but it's about a fox kitten and a basset hound puppy who get to be friends & grow up together. The song that plays throughout the movie is "We're the Best of Friends" and William loves the song. I asked him who his best friend was & he said, "Daniel!" Of course my heart melted!

Then, this morning, we're all home sick with nasty colds (see Tuesdays post!) & the boys are cranky. Daniel had a toy William wanted & he wouldn't give it to him, so William looked right at him & said, "You're NOT my best friend ANYmore!" and Daniel immediately starts yelling, "Yes, I am!" It's pretty funny in hindsight, but all I could think was "and so it begins....." How do they know exactly what buttons to push & how to be so mean at 4?!?

Daniel's "sick" day

Daniel woke up this morning VERY cranky. He came down with a cold yesterday & was just miserable last night & it showed this morning. Here he is laying on the couch demanding juice--maybe he's got more of his father in him than I was giving him credit for?????? The Palen men definitely don't do well with being sick!!

 

And, here's a quick video of him feeling MUCH better at snack time as he counts "eggs", otherwise known as yogurt-covered raisins.