Sunday chills

Sunday is almost over.  Sad.

We mostly hunkered down at home in order to avoid slipping around on the ice that fell over Southern MN late this morning. I did do a quick run to the grocery store, where it quickly became obvious that my fever has persisted into a fourth day -- pretty sure I had only one more layer to strip off before the manager would have booted me from the store. Eeeek!  That is not okay.
While I was shopping and trying hard to not spread germs to innocent bystanders, Tanner took the boys to the Federated gym for some quality energy burning. Thank goodness! Those poor little boys have been going bonkers at home lately.  We all miss the fresh air.

Unfortunately as the day wore on, Tanner started showing symptoms of strep or whatever actual illness has been stirring up trouble in my body the last few days.  We all feel so sad for him!  He's now drinking some generic Airborne and playing Fruit Ninja on the iPad.  All good signs.  We made a huge orange salad tonight. What was in it? Oranges, oranges, and more oranges. I think there were 6 total.  Well...and some banana slices on top, mostly because the poor banana looked lonely on the counter.  Among the mix were blood oranges. We love them - the boys love their messy staining juice, and Tanner and I love the flavor. Blood oranges are packed with more vitamin C and antioxidants than your standard naval orange, and they're also on sale at HyVee right now :)

Miles spent quite a bit of time working on a new lego project this afternoon.  We didn't realize just how good he has gotten at following the booklet of instructions...it was clear that I was hovering too much at first (surprise surprise), and he was more interested in my company than my assistance. Hey....some day I know the "company" part will also fall by the wayside, so I'll take it while get gettin' is good! 

The mining truck comes in three batches, assembling each section individually and then combining them at the end.  Daddy took over keeping Miles company part way through phase II, mostly because he's better than mama at running interference with Weston (note the blur in the right corner)....

The boys are snoozing and we're ready for bed ourselves. Ummmm, wait a minute. Tanner just started swinging his Momentus Swing Trainer (you'll have to use your imagination because I am too lazy to take a picture). Rest assured it's a golf thing, and let's take it as a sign that he hasn't fallen too ill yet.

Good night!

Enough already!

Weston has battled strep throat three times this winter.  His latest bout was shared with me.  We've had enough!  Yesterday the doozas and toothbrushes were sterilized and towels and sheets washed. Today it was the dogs and teddy. They prefer to air dry, though...

Strep, strep, go away!

What doin'?

That's Weston's best line.... What doin'? Well, that and "tooty butt". Unfortunately.  Aside from trying to clean up the vocabulary of a certain 2 year old and his instigating big brother (or maybe it's the other way around?), we have been having fun staying inside where it's warm!

Miles is intrigued by the fluctuating temps in MN.  He is always curious to know the current temperature and acts giddy when we report that it's not even zero degrees. Needless to say, he's been extra giddy lately! Uffdah. I think we topped out at 4 degrees this afternoon, but the real-feel temp was still in the teens below zero. On the way to school this morning, I told Miles that it was supposed to be 1 degree by lunch time. He replied with, "Yeah, it might be one degree outside but with the wind it is going to feel MUCH colder!" We just might have a future meteorologist in the family :)   

Poor Weston Charles is battling strep throat again. The little guy just can't seem to get rid of that bug. We can see the train coming a day or two before the wreck happens -- fortunately his symptoms have been the same with each episode -- and we got him in to the doctor early again. Although we are sad for him, it sure is nice to have the extra snuggle and play time at home during the day. He is in good spirits and causing no less mischief. 

Westy brought a new adventure to our lives last weekend when he started sporting underwear!

He loves it. Even turned down some cute dinosaur cartoon undies and opted for tighty whities so he could be like Miles. So far so good! The accidents have been few and far between. We're very proud of him. Miles is taking great pleasure in rewarding his little brother with stickers and stamps after each successful potty session. Whatever works to keep them both happy, right?!

On to some pictures. We made silly smiley faces with apples, peanut butter, and marshmallows. They were delicious! And silly!

Weston wasn't in the mood for a smile, though. He decided to just lick the peanut butter and be done.

 When we're not eating, we're usually playing school....

...or watching funny videos on the iPad (notice Westy's arm around daddy...love it...).

Miles has a new interest in playing games on his white board -- usually Pictionary or Hangman. He suckered me into a game of Hangman the other night and this is how it ended:

Long story, but in his defense he didn't really know what he was spelling :)  I hit a rough patch in guessing the 4th letter. I tried "K" thinking maybe it was PORK, even though I am quite certain Miles does not know how to spell such a delicious food product. So assuming Miles did not have a specific letter in mind, and for personal entertainment (Tanner was gone and I had nobody to laugh with over the possibility), I guessed "N". When Miles told me that was correct, I had to scramble to explain why I was laughing so hard... When I told him I was just so proud of him for being able to spell words and play a game like Hangman, the sweet little boy said, "Yes! Are you proud that I know how to spell 'pouring'?" Whew! You betcha! But maybe we should stick to playing Pictionary. It's been good clean fun so far....