Livvy is taking a surprise second nap today.  She must be as exhausted as I am.  Or perhaps the gloom is getting to her, too.

To be fair the sun actually is out right now.  It peeked out about an hour ago and is doing its best to melt the ice.  

However word on the street is that there will still be no school again tomorrow.

Also I've been listening to that song "Say Something" by someone who I can't remember and Christina Aguilara (probably totally spelled wrong) over and over again. It is haunting but I like it.  Maybe that's why I feel like I'm in love with black and white pictures lately.  They match this gloomy winter weather we've been having.

And on that note, a random picture of Cam that I like.

Also did you know Google has an auto enhance feature that will try to enhance your photos sometimes when you upload them to blogger?

I only discovered this because I make my black and white photos look like they are and when I uploaded them they would look different.  And I would get mad.

So finally I turned to Google to figure out why.  And I found that out and went and turned it off.  And problem solved.

Google caused my problem. . . and Google solved it. . .  Google is taking over. . .

And now what should I make for dinner?  Oh dinner.  How I hate that you come around every night.

Jace has been loving the days of no school.  And when he has to make them up he won't know the difference so he probably won't even care.

I've tried to keep him busy, but. . . 

Sometimes I fail.  But not always.  And sometimes he even entertains himself.

Like by playing chess against himself.

With his own rules.

Also today he listened to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone for an hour and a half.  I finally just caved and let him, since he has been pestering me about it since he got his Harry Potter video game for his birthday.

I just want him to love it as much as me.  And I'm afraid that if he's too little he won't listen and won't understand.  But I was pretty impressed.  He mostly listened and he seemed to comprehend what was going on.  And it kept him entertained for an HOUR AND A HALF.  Did I mention that part?  I used the book on CD because the guy who reads it is amazing and it's so good that way.  Better than what I could do.  I thought I would get some stuff done while he was listening (Cam and Liv were napping) but instead I sat and listened with him.  

I love Harry Potter.  Not like dress up and be crazy love, but definitely squirt some over the last lines in the first chapter love.  About the Boy Who Lived.

Since I made that snow day movie I think we've had like four other snow days.  We had one on Monday.

Then Tuesday the kids were sent home early in fear of the coming ice storm.

And now today is Wednesday and we are iced in.  The prospect of school tomorrow is not looking good.

When are they going to make all these days up?

Anyway here is where I found Livvy the other day when I realized she was not at my feet in the kitchen.

She likes to climb up on Cameron's bed, which she can only do if someone pulls the spare mattress out for her.

And when I say, "WHAT are you doing in here?" she gives me the above look.

And then tries to eat one of the treasures she has found on Cam's bed.

She does the sticking out her tongue thing when she's concentrating just like Jace.

She attempts to get off the bed and then yells at me like it's my fault that she can't.

So I help her get down to the second mattress.

And she toys with the idea of stepping off.

And then when she finally does, she's so proud of herself she can hardly stand it.

And we play this game about fifteen times.

We have had soooo many snow and ice days.  It's been a little bit ridiculous.

Please hurry up and get here spring.

Liv and I don't know how much more we can take.

They love her so much.

Sometimes so much it brings her to tears.

Time for a Cam Spam photo shoot.  No pretty head bands.  Or cute hats.  Or leggings.  

Just Cam being the Spam.

And yes I took these pictures because I feel guilty that I take so many of Liv.

Also whoever coined the term "terrible twos" obviously never met a three year old.

Here is what I will hear from Cam on a daily basis.

"I hate you.  But I still love you."

"I hate Livvy.  But I still love her."

"I can do it by myself."

"I caaaaaaaaaaaan't do it."

"You're mean mean mean."

"You're the bestest."  (Which he usually says while I'm waiting for him to finish pooping so I can wipe his butt.)

"Can you find my angry bird?"

"FIND MY ANGRY BIRD!"

This angry bird is going to be the death of me.  Cam is always losing it.  And he is always throwing fits when he can't find it.  And I can choose to either listen to the rage or look for it.  I usually cave after ten minutes of the fit.  I'm weak.

He is an adorable wild child.

In case anyone was dying of curiosity here is what was we settled on for Jace's hundred day of school shirt.  Not too shabby.  And really easy.  The button are hot glued on so I'm pretty sure the shirt isn't washable but that's okay.  We'll just hang it up somewhere and treasure it always.

He painted a slingshot on the back too.  Because he came home from school the day I did it and said, "Hey I was supposed to help."  And I said, "You did help.  You picked out the buttons."  

But that wasn't good enough for him.  I felt kinda bad, but not bad enough to allow him and the hot glue gun to be anywhere near each other while the gun was on.  Accident waiting to happen.

So then he painted the slingshot and felt satisfied. 

And here's the desperate conversation I had with him when he came home after school.

"So how was your day?"

"Good."

"Did you have tons of fun?"

"Yeah."

"Did everyone have cool shirts?"

"Yeah."

"Well what kind?"

"Just cool ones."

"Did they like your shirt."

"Yeah."

"Well did anyone say anything about it?" (I know, geez what a crazy mom fishing for compliments about a kindergarten shirt)

"I don't know."

"Did your teachers like it?"

"Yeah?"

"Well what did they say?"

"MOOOOM."

What?  So I liked the shirt.  I wanted to know if every one else liked it.  I'm only human.  Unfortunately Jace gives me nothing to go on, so for all I know he could have worn his coat the whole day.  I was just mostly proud of myself for using something other than beads.

I have like thousands of beads from a project I did when I was teaching.  And so whenever Jace has an assignment to decorate something creative (snowman, christmas tree, cut out of himself, poster) I always just pull out the beads and we Elmer's glue some on in no particular order.  But I pulled out the big guns with buttons this time.  So there. 

Also today he came home from school and said, "Why do we never do anything fun after school?"

And I said, "Because I have to cook dinner and clean up the house and get everything ready for tomorrow.  Maybe if you clean up the house for me then we can do something fun while dinner is cooking."

And surprisingly enough he DID clean up the house.  So we made brownies.  Fun.

And Cam Spam only joined us for the spoon licking part because I caved.  While Jace was cleaning up Cam was definitely not helping and perhaps even making more of a mess.  So we told him that if he didn't help he couldn't make brownies with us.  

Of course when the time came to make the brownies he had a melt down and threw a huge fit because I stuck to my threat.  He was in his room sobbing until we were done.  So I let him come out and lick a spoon.  Because I felt sorry for him.  And because he was yelling things like, "You're not letting me help and THAT'S RUDE!"

Which is pretty funny.

It's the January slump time again.

But January is almost over, hooray!  

I know it's probably bad to wish away time, but I tend to always want to wish away January.  Because it's cloudy more than it's sunny.  And it's been really cold and wet and cold and dreary and cold.

So for a bit of a pick me up the other day I took some pictures of who else?  Livvy Liv.  And I tried putting her hair in pig tails, which is really cute.  Even though I don't actually know how to a) part hair or b) get a squirmy little girl to sit still while I try to part her hair.

So it will take some practice, but we'll get there.

And earlier that day Cameron was supposed to be settling in for a nap and I had the camera out.  So I put a ball down Livvy's pajamas to see what that would get me.

Then just for fun I stuck on a hat.  And took these two, very over-edited pictures.  Which didn't start over edited.  But ended up that way because I was most likely procrastinating doing the dishes.

And also Cam Spam made an appearance from his bed where I thought he was napping.  So as punishment I made him wear the hat.  But he didn't mind.

And Liv loves to try and get in the washer when I'm switching laundry.  Even though it stinks in there.

And here is my view laying on my back while Liv tries to climb through my knees.

Also Jace's 100th day of school is Wednesday.  And I need to make a shirt for him.  That has 100 things on it.  Pinterest has a lot of ideas.  They mostly all seem like a lot of work.

And another also is I went to a parent/teacher conference for him today.  I'm so glad to announce that he is loving school and doing well and not really getting into that much trouble anymore.  If you don't count today when he kept pulling a girls loose sweater thread during carpet time, until he made a hole.  Whoops.