Happy Birthday, Jack! (& more)

Today is my nephew Jack's first birthday. I don't get to see him in person, so I need to give him a blog shout-out. I am so crazy about this kid--you have no idea! Well, if you have a niece or nephew, you probably do have an idea. It's a different kind of affection than I was ready for. I'm sure it comes from the fact that I love my brother and sis-in-law so much (I know--"aaaahh!"), but really, it KILLS me that we live an hour away from Jack. I want to see him all the time. It doesn't help that he is the happiest, most fun, a-stinkin-dorable kiddo. We love you, Buddy!

And onto other adorable babies in my life, I have to tell you that I'm also in a love-fest season with my Syd. She is just becoming the sweetest, most mellow baby. I know it's risky to publicly acknowledge your out-of-control adoration for your own child, because others find it slightly annoying and begin to think you are blind to the child's faults, but she's not even 6 months, so I'm going to go ahead and tell you she's perfect. Kidding! But she's awesome.
PS: Tanner, we stole your hat last March. We'll bring it to you when we see you in January.

Here she is checking out the ads with Daddy.

When I say "Sydney girl! Look at Mommy!" this is what I get:

This was our countdown activity a couple nights ago. It was "get crazy hair." Well, Trent just got a haircut, so his was too short to do anything very wild, and he was skeptical of the "temporary" nature of the blue spray, so only Carson and I ventured. Carson thought it was a blast! He wanted more, but I started getting high from the fumes of the aerosol, so we called it good. I wish Sydney was looking at the camera. My wig from college days (holla to Kellianne!) looked fab on her bald head.

We have no pictures from the last 2 days (making cookies and looking at old Christmas pictures--thanks for the idea, Lindsey!) because I have been SO SICK! Oy. I haven't puked that much in a LONG time. I was totally out of commission from Thursday afternoon until Friday morning. Carson and Sydney both puked just once, but Carson's was in the middle of the night all over his blankets and sheets and then onto the carpet and bathroom rug. Sweet! But neither kid seems to have what I had. Trent had to take over helping with the countdown and taking care of the kids, then my mom came over--even in SNOW--to help me yesterday. We're all feeling much better thank you.

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This morning I was working on some beading--have I mentioned I have ACADD (Arts & Crafts Attention Deficit Disorder)? Carson wanted to be more involved than I was comfortable with, so I ran to Michael's before the snow came and got him some of his own beads. Hee! It was fun watching him try. He has TYOADN (Three-Year-Old Attention Deficit Normalcy) so it only lasted for a few minutes, but he's come back to the cookie sheet of beads a couple times this morning. Trent pointed out it is good for his fine motor skills. :)