The Last Day Of 31

Tomorrow I will be 32, which makes today the last day of 31 for me. I took it easy for the most part. I spent the morning in bed watching movies with Kurstin & Robben (everyone else was at the boys' track meet). Robben took 2 nice naps, and feels much better today than he has the past couple of days. He has only taken one breathing treatment and the coughing has really been minimal. He played around in my room for a while and discovered a foam paint brush, which he proceeded to bite a chunk out of. I decided to take a picture of it, along with a few other things he has chewed up. I think its funny, because I always say he's like Sunnie, the baby on A Series Of Unfortunate Events, who is notorious for biting everything (including the kitchen table).

The foam paint brush... the rest of it was found all over my room (luckily)

Robben's crib... thankfully I know someone who can refinish it :)

Our soap comes individually wrapped. This is a bar he chewed when it was still in the wrapper. Don't worry, I don't make him bite soap as discipline for using bad words... though he does have his fair share of inappropriate language :)

Lookin' like a big boy.

Notice my slipper... it has a dust mop on the bottom... I like to multi-task!!!

After the movies, Todd brought Elissa home and I had the girls shower and get pretty for some pictures. It is so absolutely beautiful in the country at this time of year. Spring is trying to make its debut, so the fields and trees are covered in blossoms. I've been scouting out some good locations to take pictures of the kids for the next edition of the Hiester Holiday Herald. I'm trying to get one out for Easter (if you are not already on my mailing list, and would like to be, email me your address at toddandmarianne@aol.com). Since the big kids were still at the track meet, I just took the 3 smaller ones to the corner of Ashlan & Academy, where the field is full of yellow and white flowers, and there are several trees with pink blossoms all over. As we pulled up, another car stopped and got out to take some pictures... so I'm not the only one who sees the beauty here! We got out into the grass and off to a rocky start. Elissa was being a sourpuss because she wasn't able to find a shoe to match the one she was wearing, so ended up going with only half of a pair. I told her it wouldn't matter, because her feet wouldn't make the photos anyway (of course, I had to take one of her shoeless foot). And anywhere you find flowers in spring, you can be sure to find bees. So the girls were kind of afraid to wade through the tall grass. Luckily they got over that and made their way into the flowers. And Robben was rather cantankerous. I guess he figured having pneumonia was a good enough reason to protest taking pictures in grass, and he staked his claim. I was actually kind of surprised. He's usually so into having his picture taken. (Whenever the doctor shines the light to look in his eyes, he strikes a pose and smiles... I'm not kidding, you can even ask her) Anyway, here are a few of the shots we did get.

Elissa's feet

Todd and I have decided that since nobody is feeling super great, it would be more of a chore to try to go out of town for my birthday. He had thought about going to Pismo and staying at the Lighthouse Suites, which we did last year and it works out great for us cuz we get a two-bedroom suite. We also like getting a little rustic cabin up at Shaver, and I've been wanting to take the kids ice-skating in Yosemite. But with everyone sick, its just too much of a hassle. So instead, Todd and I are going to go out to dinner tonight and then he's going to treat me to a shopping spree (can't argue with that). Then tomorrow, we're going to make a picnic and take the whole fam up the hill (next to our house) and enjoy another warm, sunny day. I'll be sure to take pictures up there, it really is beautiful. Plus, I get to go see Lyndsay next week, so that can be my out-of-town trip :) We all really look forward to getting away, but its just the beginning of "birthday season" in our family, so I'm sure we'll get to do something special really soon. I'll let you know how it all turns out...