Crump Park

Crump Park is a restored 1860 living historical 150-acre farm of Dr. John Mosby Sheppard. The grounds include a farmhouse, farm outbuildings, animals, a working farm and an orientation center. It is an amazing property and something I wish I'd heard of earlier. We went here on Saturday and our fun Easter outing turned into a wet, cold marshy outing that only lasted 30 minutes - there is so much to do and see at this place, but we cut our visit short due to the windy awful weather. They had baby lambs and I really wanted the kids to see them so we ran around and played with them for a minute, herded them into their gated area, took some pictures, fed the ducks, and went home to get warm. I thought it was supposed to be spring. I'm starting to get impatient with this unpredictable weather.

Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden

Now that we're finally on the mend from the RSV disaster - we've been busy this week trying to get out and about. On Tuesday we went to the Botanical Gardens for a cold cold play date. The weather here just can't make up it's mind - one day it's 70 and 2 days later it's 50 with chilly wind and rain. I don't think we're going to get truly pleasant temperatures to stay until May. Anyway below are some pictures of that outing. The Gardens are so beautiful right now as spring is starting to creep in - and it's something the kids as well as myself really enjoy.

Fun in the Bath

They love to splash

booger bubble

booger on his cheek

Bubble Hat's

Sometimes it feels like being a mom get's monotonous and boring and sometimes you feel burned out, tired, and you wonder if your days have much meaning - well it's moments like these above that make it all worth it, when they come up to you and give you a hug for no reason and say, "Mommy, I love you." It's the moments when they find pure exhilaration in splashing in a bath together, the moments when your baby girl just wants to hold your hand and have you read her a book. It's the giggles, the simple apologies, the hugs and the kisses. I love being a mom, even when sometimes I feel like I have no identity other than a mom (it's hidden, but it's there, it's who I am, the experiences that I've had, my strengths, my talents, and my faith in the gospel that makes me the mom that I am). Sometimes I need that reminder : ) Go MOMS!

Easter Egg Hunt

Our apartment complex had their first annual Easter egg hunt - we took the kids and they had a great time - it was their first time out of the house all week (due to being sick) Here they are sitting with the Easter bunny. When they first saw him their eyes just lit up - it was very exciting for them - Talen didn't want to get down from his lap and he gave him a big snuggle before he got down. It was really cute.

There were way too many kids and not enough eggs during the hunt - Kendal and Talen only got 3 eggs each - and Talen was pretty miffed - there were much older kids competing for eggs and my kiddies just didn't stand a chance - I think we'll do our own easter egg hunt for them so theirs no competition.

Sitting down to check out the winnings

Sharing... sort of

cute pic

playing at the park afterwards

my little sweetie

Two little Spring bunnies

RSV

For those of you out there who don't know what RSV stands for, it stands for Really Sucky Virus (As I'm sure some of you have already experienced) Both Talen and Kendal got diagnosed this week with RSV - it seems it's been a popular diagnosis lately among friends. Well I can honestly say I'm not sure I've ever been so emotionally and physically drained in a long time. Taking care of two irritable, miserable, toddlers is not my favorite thing.

They sent me home with a Nebulizer to open up their airways, and today we went in for a checkup and they discovered that Kendal also now has an ear infection (Talen got diagnosed with an ear infection on monday and then they suspected he had RSV and an ear infection on Tuesday) - needless to say this week hasn't been one of my favorite's. After 3 trips to the doctor's office, 3 trips to the pharmacy, round the clock nebulizer treatments, cranky kiddos, a few vomit spills, lot's of interuptions at night, tons of antibiotics (some of which I've had to force down Talen due to the unpleasant taste), becoming sick myself, and having to be cooped up inside because for 1) we don't want to get anyone else sick and for 2) we don't want to catch anything else with our immune systems already weak - I'd have to say it's been one of the worst weeks ever.

We went to the YMCA last week for 5 days straight - I was determined to start going back so that I could start to get back in shape and I was very excited about it - and what a coincidence they both start showing sick symptoms on day 4 - my theory- they got it from the Y. 3 months ago when we went to the Y last - they both got sick after only going for 1 week. It took a month to get over the colds and it took me two months to finally work up the appetite to start going to work out again - and what do you know they get sick AGAIN. What do we learn from this - if our kids are sick respect everyone else, sacrifice your life and leave your kids home -

I will probably be cancelling my membership at the Y - I'll be out of shape to avoid having miserable children. (It's a sad realization)

The good news: Talen is on his way out of it - he's been much more himself today, full of energy and dying to go outside and play - so hopefully soon this will all be over. We finally got out a little this evening and played. Our apartment complex had an easter egg hunt and we took the kids and they really enjoyed it. It's amazing how healing it is to just be outside, to feel the wind, to see other people, and to just play a little.

Miserable Kendal - this has pretty much been her permanent facial expression for the past 5 days
Watching cartoons during nebulizer treatment - each treatment takes 25 minutes per child, and we've been doing it every 4 hours, which equals about 4 hours of cartoons a day (it's the only way to get them to hold still - the doctor even recommended it) That's a whole lot of PBS in one week.
We can't actually do them both at the same time - but for the purpose of the pictues I wanted to get a picture of the both of them with their little nose masks on - poor babies

"Talen and Mommy - show us your sick faces" He's much better at facial expressions than me :)
This one of his worst days(Sunday - we left after Sacrament meeting because he slept on the bench,which hasn't happend since he was an infant) and asked him to smile for me for the picture - this was the best he could do - I think it's pretty good.
One of the better moments this week

St. Patrick's Day

This year for St. Patrick's Day we decided to have some fun...

so we put on the best green shirts we could find, drew shamrocks on our cheeks and on our hands with a green marker (I wanted to do the whole face paint thing but I didn't have any paint - and the celebrating st. patrick's day thing was pretty spontaneous), made shamrock shaped sugar cookies with green frosting and green sprinkles (mmmmm yum), listened to Irish music all day, and ran around the house doing Riverdance moves... It was AWESOME!

It might not sound that awesome to most people - but to a mom who just cleans and picks up toys, and cooks and disciplines all day - it was a nice change from the norm. Anyway maybe we'll make it a tradition - We'll call it the "St. Patrick's Day - dance - around - the - house - doing - nothing but - being - silly- day". Sometimes you just need those kind of days. I told Talen that we were going to make St. Patrick's day cookies and all day, until we finally made them, he kept saying "mommy, we are going to make patrick's cookies?" I thought that was really cute - and apparently I need to go to art school because he kept calling all of my perfectly drawn shamrocks butterflies. Geez!

The Richmond Aviation Museum

We've been trying to plan a family activity once a week on Saturday's where we take the kids somewhere fun - and last week we went to the aviation museum - the kids had a blast - if you haven't been - you should go - it makes a great little outing for little ones who love airplanes.

Not for the faint of Heart

If you get grossed out easily then these pictures are not for you - Last Saturday Talen had 4 bloody noses in less than 24 hours - It was completely awful - but we made it through - I'm just glad that they stopped - he had the first two while sleeping about 2 hours apart and then he had one at church that morning, and another one when we got home from church - It was very traumatic for him - I think he was pretty disturbed by it - Finally on the fourth bloody nose the initial shock factor was over and so we took pictures. Poor little Dude. Hopefully they won't be coming back. If anyone has experience with little dudes or dudettes that get bloody noses we are open to any advice or expertise that experience has taught you :)

It's been a while

A lot has happened in the past little while - I'm so sorry to have not kept up on the blog - my two brother's and my sister-in-law and my little adorable nephew came to visit a couple of weeks ago and we had a great time together - so hopefully after today I'll keeping up more regularly again - below are some pictures from their visit as well as a really cute scrapbook.



Ward Hoedown - dressed to impress (Cory (youngest) Carlie (middle)Cameron (oldest) Bethany (Cameron's wife)


Talen, Kendal, and Kashton (Brother's cute baby boy)


Cameron and Cory Hatching (Children's museum)


Cory and Kashton (Children's Museum) You kids are so handsome!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook