Valentine's and other times

Our dishwasher started making an awful noise, so I quit using it.  Never a good idea to keep trying to use something broken and risk making it worse, right?  But I'm lazy, I don't like doing dishes, and how hard can it be?  In my limited experience, most things aren't that hard and are doable with the right tools and a little bit of practice.  Plus, there is Google!  So why not look at a few schematics and see if I can fix it myself?  #howhardcanitbe #stubbornwysswomen

You know you have a long-suffering husband when you text him this picture and all he says is, "did you shut off the breaker?"  hehe.    

 I found a missing sippy cup straw down in the bowels of the dishwasher, but it didn't fix the noise.  Bummer.  So we had a repair guy come out; he unscrewed one more layer and found a 1cm square piece of plastic in the chopper.  I was kicking myself for having to pay for a service call- I was so close!!  Oh well.  He also recommended a hard water detergent booster that is rocking my dish washing.
Valentine's Day was fun this year.  The girls were super excited.  I'm not sure why.  (Cecily was excited to go to the dentist... odd child.)  I went all out with food, starting with heart shaped chocolate chip pancakes with strawberries and grapefruit juice (it's pink!) for breakfast.

 My funny valentine.

 Lunch was heart shaped PBJ, heart jello jigglers, and kool-aid.  Then Grandma came to 'keep an eye on' the younger two while Cecily and I went to the dentist.  I have cavities.  Woot.  Cecily is very concerned about my teeth and doesn't want me to drink pop anymore...  she got a "beautiful" new toothbrush that she was happy about.
We spent the afternoon delivering some Valentines- Emmy was soooooo excited.  She was positively giddy and practically danced up to the doors with the flowers.

 We had mini heart pizzas for supper, red jello, chocolate covered strawberries, "fancy"-ish cheeses, and heart cookies for supper... good times.

 Life is good when you have roses and a brand new burette! (Eeeee! So excited!)

Silly squishy got herself tangled in the doll carseat.

I took the girls to lap-sit at the library, and then we went to the grade school and signed Cecily up for kindergarten.  Craziness.
Cecily on the left (a little distorted because it's a picture of a picture), Cadence on the right. I think they're sisters, although Cadence is a bit bigger overall.    

 On Saturday we got to watch the Beutel kids.  My girls had so much fun and were very sad when they went home.

Also on Saturday, the doorbell rang and two handsome young men asked to borrow a tie.  So of course I invited them in to look over the options.  Ha.  O man.  I laughed about it all day.  My cousins are the best.  #doyouhavewysses  

 It's been so nice out!  Who ever heard of playing in the sandbox in February?

Since the dishwasher was out of commission, I made them help dry dishes.  It wasn't a total disaster.

 "Oh those skele-ty bones!"  I don't remember that one in the hymn books....  also, Cadence is peeking around the corner.

 Spending an afternoon swinging!

 The girls and I went swimming Wednesday morning.  My mom joined us so it was much less stressful for me this time.  Cecily is pretty confident in the water, Emmy pushes her boundaries and then gets scared, and Cadence likes to sit in the shallows and splash.
No idea...

 Why would you want to be able to walk without stepping on toys?

We went to school this morning... it's so early for us night owls.  The Koch girls came for supper tonight.  They spent the evening solving mysteries and playing hide and seek.  My girls were sad to see them go.  And then I put them to bed early, the indignity!
Blessings.

Now is the winter of our discontent

If only it was a winter, and not this weird quasi-winter.  I would prefer snow and cold to the grey bleakness.  

They've been pretty happy to play inside, I believe 'Anna' is serving tea.

This little squishy looves puffs.  And anything else I will let her eat.  

They are always busy with something.  And they mix up words and phrases.  They have yet to call that stapler a stapler. And 'lequee' 'kwiweed' 'kwiwi' 'kiwi'! 

Cadence is sitting, but not moving yet.  Somehow she still manages to get into things. 

Last Tuesday we were on our way to the grocery store when Emmy threw up all over her carseat and herself.  boo.  So we turned around and went home.  Poor girl.  It was so terrible.  I made her wait and quick changed, got gloves and towels, and unloaded the other two before I cleaned her up.  I stripped her down in the garage too... the indignity.  She got a bath and went to bed... thankfully Cadence fell asleep... and I got the truly awful job of cleaning up the carseat. 
I am convinced that car seats are a subtle form of population control.  Who needs a one-child policy when you can have a list of confusing recommendations that vary by brand that don't necessarily match the actual laws in each state (which also vary greatly)?! Lets also make them next to impossible to clean, never mind that they are supposed to contain small children who are never dirty, messy, or ill at inopportune moment.  Who would want to deal with that hassle more than once?? Either that, or carseat designers are all childless.  It wasn't freezing, thankfully, so I disassembled it outside. I had the straps soaking in a bucket, the pads in the wash, and the plastic base in two pieces in the shower.  Terrible, horrible, no good, very bad, day.  
I'm not sure I have ever been more thankful for nitrile gloves.
She threw up a couple more times and then seemed fine... I got groceries after Bob got home that night instead of getting to go to sewing club. [insert pity party here]  
It hit me Wednesday right before bed.  *sigh*  Cecily got it at 1 am.  I was kicking myself for not having her sleep on the floor...  I heard her and jumped out of bed, only to be hit by a wave of dizziness and nausea so bad I couldn't move.  Poor Bob. He got me a bucket and got Cecily into the shower.... I managed to recover enough to get the top bunk cleaned up and put her back to sleep on the floor with a bucket.  We took turns throwing up for a few more hours... but she's old enough to use a bucket!  There was great rejoicing!  (or something).  
We spent the next day eating crackers and working our way through a 2-liter bottle of 7-Up.  And washing sheets.  She bounced back faster than I did.  Bob stayed home to take care of us and got rewarded with a milder form Thursday.  When we're sick we get to watch a lot of cartoons:      

 They were feeling better.  I was still feeling pretty wiped out and just plain off so I canceled Chemistry for Friday.  Sad day.  

 My Squishy.

The wild berry yogurt puffs are apparently a little too sour for her.  Hehe.  Her faces were so great, though! 

Grace and Eden came over Saturday evening, and a good time was had by all.  Cadence was soooo excited to watch them all. 

Silly girls.   

 The older two got to go play with Hanna and Eva one afternoon.  They had a great time.  Cadence and I hardly knew what to do with ourselves.  
Did you know the big girls have Barbies in their room??

I can sit all by myself!! 

They love to cut things with their scissors so we tried paper snowflakes.  Emmy mostly just ripped paper.  Cecily's first attempt didn't go so well, and she was not very happy. 

 Second try was the charm though!

We got real snow the next day!  You're welcome... haha.   

I promise I don't make them shovel anything. 

I have sled pulling help!  Woohoo! 

I guess pulling all of them is my exercise for the day. 

 Cadence was really not so sure about this white stuff.

Then we went inside for marshmallows... and cocoa.   

It was sunnier the next day and we went out in the snow again... they tried to collect all the sparkly snow.
It's time for valentines! That is a valentine horse, if you were wondering.  

Friday we went to Co-op.  We discussed how to chemically dispose of bodies, and they even laughed at my 'chemistry is a party' joke (every one is tripping on acid and dropping the base!).  It was a good day.  We stayed for their annual soup lunch- much better than we would have gotten at home! Cecily was soooo excited to stay for lunch.  Counting down the days excited.  (She's also counting down the days to her dentist appointment... because she gets a new toothbrush.  Ha.)
Saturday morning the girls and I went to Mary's and decorated cookies and made cards.  Then we came home and played outside with no coats on.  Crazy.  Cadence doesn't know what to make of the weather either.

They loved it and wanted to eat their snack on the porch. 

And then Bob helped them find the last remaining snow...  she was giggling maniacally on her way to throw it at me.  She missed.  Hehe.    

I'm turning into my aunt Rita.  These cute little boys hats were on clearance and I just had to get them for Jack and Gideon.  Cadence was pleased as punch to model for me.   

 Jake was home and Bob wanted to play games... so we spur of the moment invited everyone for pizza.  The girls were super excited.  They didn't end up playing any nerdy games and I even got to play (and won!) this random game (Sushi-go?  Something like that).  Little Jack is getting so big!  He wanted to go home to bed at this point, poor buddy.  

I woke up feeling off this morning.  Of course, being me, I'll just get ready- I'm sure I'll feel better after I drink a glass of water.  I'll feel better after I eat breakfast.  I'll feel better after I get the girls ready.  I thought better of forcing myself out the door... carrying kids around church while you're lightheaded is really not a good idea.  So another Sunday at home.  *sigh*  I feel like we've missed so much church due to quasi- illnesses this winter. Or recovering from illness.  This too shall pass, right?  Blessings.