Today the kids had an eventful, busy, tiring day.  I had a Relief Society meeting in the morning and Brice had to work, so they got to spend the day at Granny and Poppy's.  They played outside to their hearts content.  They were happy and fun and lovable.  Of course, Brice and I weren't there to witness that.  By the time we picked them up and took them home, they were a dirty and exhausted mess.  But we still wanted to have some quality bonding time with them so we attempted to play together in the yard for a little while.  I thought a nice little game of baseball would be fun.

There was a lot of whining and crying as we organized the game, but as loving parents we soldiered on.  Jace hit the ball like a pro (after about five misses) and ran to the fence (which is our only base-- gotta keep it simple) speedy quick!

Then it was Cameron's turn.  He hit the ball (by holding the bat up and having Brice toss the ball onto the bat) and he didn't really want to run to the fence.  That was not stopping Jace from quickly trying to tag (clobber) him, so Brice helped him zoom to the fence.

He was not a big fan of that.  At all.

 So of course he started crying.  Loudly.

Jace was not a big fan of the loud crying.  And also apparently, "Daddy made me fall down!" so he joined in with his own loud crying.

Despite our attempts to get the kids to calm down and carry on with the game, the scene continued to deteriorate. 

What's that?  You'd like a close up of the precious angels?

It was not long before Daddy had had enough,  while I just kept snapping away. I have not had many opportunities for fun pictures, so I decided this was better than nothing.

"That's it, time for bed!" says the dad.

And naturally, the almost 4 year old tries to make a quick getaway.

But the dad is too fast.  And our night ended somewhat dramatically.  

On a brighter note, it's not even 7:30 and my kids have been asleep for an hour and a half. Not too shabby.  Not too shabby. 

*Disclaimer: we're not terrible parents.  We fed our kids and bathed them before we put them to bed.  We even managed to stop most of the crying.

Eating melted cookies is best done without clothes. 

This little boy is a spaz.  But I sure do love him.  Even though sometimes he makes me super crazy.  Like when he argues with everything I tell him.  And when I say no and then he continues to beg and plead forty three more times, each time wearing me down more and more until finally I scream, "FINE!" just to stop the persistent begging.  Anyone have any ideas on how to stop that?  Duck tape, perhaps.  That's all I can think of.  

I tried and tried to get a picture of him smiling at the camera.  But he would do no such thing.  

He is taking an antibiotic for an ear and throat infection and every time I give him his medicine he yells, "Bleg, blah, digusting!" and makes a spitting noise with his mouth.  So guess what Cameron does when he takes his medicine?  "Beh, bah, gusting!" and then he makes a spitting noise with his mouth.  Only he doesn't know how to make just a spitting noise, so he spits for real.  

And this guy would just give me this whining look.  We are ready for real summer, not just this warm one day and cold the next.  Maybe then we can get well and stay well.  And I will see less of this whiny look and more of this happy look.

When the weather goes from abnormally warm to rainy and a little bit chilly, we get sick at our house.  Usually it's just the boys but this time I was included.  So since Easter our house has been a pretty miserable place to be.   But I will admit that Jace and Camers played together a lot.  See what good buddies they are?  They both squeezed onto a chair because Jace wanted to, "Put his arm around his best cuddly buddy."

Ironically enough, after I took this picture he then pushed Cameron off the chair.  I was too busy yelling to get a picture of that. 

On one day it was warm enough to go outside and play.  It was actually like in the lower 60's, but a bit breezy.  Personally, I was freezing and was wearing sweat pants, a hoodie, and snow boots.  But then again I was sick.  Camers kept pestering me to let him jump on the trampoline, which meant I would have to get up and actually stand to supervise.  He is pictured below, most likely thinking this, "Just get up off your lazy butt, woman.  And also, why are you dressed like a freak?"

I did eventually get up.  He had a great time jumping.  He loves to jump, only just not with Jace.  And I don't blame him, as Jace is a bit of a spaz.

And speaking of Jace, what was he doing while Camers was jumping?  Just playing quietly with his toys?  Kicking the soccer ball?  Relaxing on the porch?  No, no.  He was throwing sand out of the sandbox and yelling, "Come here, Camers, I won't hit you!" over and over again.

I would have taken more pictures of him but he kept throwing sand at me whenever I got close.  

Here are some Easter pictures.  The boys got to go to two Easter egg hunts, which they were very happy about.  And they got so much candy that again, the Easter bunny got to reuse some of it for their baskets.  That Easter bunny sure is super cool.  Also, Jace re-found his mask that he got back at the beginning of March and chose to wear it all weekend.  So he is the Masked Man Easter Hunter. I tried to suggest that maybe the mask would impair his hunting skills (I wanted him to get alot of eggs-- I like to help a bunny out), but he said he was, "Pretty fine, Mommy."

Mista Cam did pretty good when it came to hunting eggs, too.  He mostly was happy with just one egg and wanted to open it.  But I encouraged him to continue looking.

After church on Sunday I got some cute pictures of Brice and Jacey-boy.

Cameron was still asleep and missed out on the father/son pictures.  Then we woke him up.  And that pretty much destroyed our chance for a nice family picture.  Oh well.

Then after our big Sunday lunch there was another egg hunt.  Jace had some older competitors in this one, so he was let out a little ealier with Cameron so that it would be fair.  However, the early release was unnecessary I think.  He had no problem keeping up with the big kids.

On this egg hunt Brice was there to help Camers.  And by help I mean drag him around by the arm as fast as he could.

Spring!

(And also some summer)

We have had some really warm spring days, almost like summer.  In fact one day when we were playing outside we were so hot that we just turned the water hose on and started spraying.  Jace was supposed to just be spraying Andy but of course it wasn't long before Camers got a blast in the face.  He was not too happy about that.  And then when I helped him retaliate and got Jace in the face, they were both screaming.  But at least they were cooling off a little, I think.

They are starting to become good little buddies, some of the time.  I love seeing them play together and I love to see how Cameron wants to be just like Jace.  Well, except for that now he runs away from me when it's time to get dressed and yells, "No, no, no!" at me just like Jace.  I don't really like that.  But when they are both being happy and content, I don't have to look very hard to find Cameron doing exactly what Jace is doing.

And it's now the season for popsicles.  They are yummy. . . even if they fall on the ground.  You just have to pick the little pieces of grass and dirt off.  Good as new.

Jace decided he wanted to write a letter to the Easter Bunny.  So I did some words and he did some words.  Can you make out what he wants?