Favorite Fictional Characters

Our elementary school does a LOT of dress-up days. The whole week of Dr. Seuss's birthday had dress-up themes, the whole week of the book fair had dress-up themes, holidays are dress-up days, kindergartners dress up for the Q and U wedding, first graders dress up for Clown Day, plenty of spirit days sprinkled in here and there. These photos are from "dress-as-your-favorite-fictional-character-day" from the week of the book fair. Ben is Mario (that makes sense since Mario Kart has pretty much taken over our lives since Christmas). Emma is Hermione Granger (since she loves all things Harry Potter, she came up with the ensemble all on her own...I'm not entirely sure how one of Ben's church shirts and a fuzzy glove with the fingers cut off fit in, but she was happy with it).

Lydia and Mom

We spend a lot of time together, me and Lydi. Emma and Ben are off to school, Josh goes to preschool three days a week, Afton sleeps a lot (and even when she's awake, she's not much for conversation). Lydia's most popular requests during our time together are, "Can I do stamps?", "Will you read to me?", "Can I have a snack?", and "Will you take a picture of me?"

Lydia is quick to share her hugs and kisses. She's very affectionate and gets very excited about things, often giving a gasp of surprise to punctuate her delight. "*Gasp!* My slippers were under the couch!" She likes a good joke and has a great belly laugh. One of my favorite things about her is her low, often raspy voice, it sounds so cute coming out of her little self.

She has no idea she's only two years old. In her mind she is in every way an equal with Emma, Ben, and Josh...heck, or with me and Scott for that matter. I've heard her all too often reprimand the other kids in an awfully familiar manner, "You have a choice. You can stop that right this minute or be in time out."

Emma and Afton

[It's taking me so long to post photos...these are about a month and a half old.]

It's great having a helpful and loving nine-year-old like Emma around. Her favorite thing to do these days is hold Afton (or sit on the floor by her to sing her little songs). I don't mind, not one bit. I'm all for encouraging such a strong sisterly affection, not to mention she's old enough to actually be really good at it. She can get her to sleep, she can soothe her fussing when I'm tied up. Go sisters.

For the Mothers

My Mom's birthday was in February.

She and my Dad have long been fans of doing the crossword puzzle together everyday. And they love each other like crazy. She deserves a pillow!

Scott's Mom's birthday was in early March.

She has many chickens in her kitchen. Once Austin and Katina tie the knot in July, she'll have a total of 12 chicks. She deserves a kitchen towel set!

Valentine's Day was about a month ago, but in case you hadn't noticed, The Real Cruze Family is a little behind the times. These are the tulips brought to me by two handsome men in my life, Scott and Ben.

These are to help me think warm thoughts. We got spoiled over the weekend with gorgeous weather: sunny and in the 70s. Perfect. Then yesterday and today have been full of rainy 40s. Yuck!

He can fly...well, not really

Josh undertook the ambitious project of making himself wings. He carefully cut them out of an old cereal box and colored on one side thoroughly with the rainbow crayon. I helped him tape them on to his arms. He flapped around the house for awhile, having a good time. Then as I was doing dishes I heard him jump off the couch and then mumble, "Mmm, rats." I turned to see a slightly confused and dejected look on his face as he looked from the couch to where he stood to his wings, then around that circuit again. I asked if he was trying to fly for real. He explained, "Yeah, I mean, I knew probably I couldn't...but I thought maybe it would work...since I have these wings..." The photo is from before his failed flight. See how hopeful he is?

So, about a month ago it snowed...

It was actually a pretty good little accumulation (for Tennessee...stop laughing, Utah). The kids missed two and a half days of school for it. I didn't even take any photos of the kids themselves in the snow...they were all over the neighborhood with all their friends. And it was cold, so the little girls and I stayed in and got the hot chocolate ready. It was really nice, wet, packable snow. These shots are from day three, the aftermath: our Frosty, the battlefield (hard to tell, but there are four different forts in the field next to our house), and footprints on the deck.

Ta-da! Snow, a month late.

Afton = Growing

This baby's getting big!

2 months old