What a parent will do...

To try and get their baby to laugh!!

Please excuse my annoying baby talk (in my sick, raspy, alto chain-smoker voice)

Please also excuse Lily's CONSTANT high pitched baby talk.

But the end result is a giggling Kate.  We hear this little laugh from this happy baby a lot at our house, and I am absolutely in love with it.  I am even more smitten with her than the day she was born.  She is such a fun little person to be around!

Last week Matt was in Globe teaching, and this week he goes back to Payson.  Between him being gone and working, Dr's appointments/church stuff/prior commitments & obligations, and all 3 girls being sick it was a pretty stressful week.  To top it all off at the end of the week I finally caught the bug the girls had.

Last week, before I got hit by the train that is this awful cold, we decided to paint the rocks that the girls collected while we were camping.

The girls had been couped up inside due to being sick for a week and so I wanted to try and do something fun for them, so I made a batch of cookies and got out some of my painting stuff for them.

Since they weren't feeling well, they apparently also weren't feeling very photogenic...

They loved painting and had a blast...

...but of course, as is the scenario 75% of the time that I try and do something really fun, the end result was still fit throwing.

I guess that when your kids are sick and miserable a mom just can't seem to catch a break.  When Matt came down after sleeping (he usually gets up just in time for dinner), he asked, "Why do you even bother?!"  Because the girls were both crying, and to be completely honest, this time around I had to agree with the sentiment!  Moral of the story, when the kids are sick and whiny, let them be sick and whiny in front of the TV or with their coloring books.  Though they had a great time for most of it, I probably should have saved it for a happier day.  Bottom line: I am not super mom.  I need to accept that and not feel guilty for letting my kids watch movies all day when they are sick.  I don't like to let them do it, and I do try and get them to play and we read some books, but a lot of the day is spent in front of the TV, to be honest I don't like to waste a fun activity when they are just going to be miserable no matter what. 

Yeah, I know, I am not winning any parenting awards based on this post.  When you have 3 kids who all need you every second, and for whom you have to keep medicine schedules and feed, whilst each of them INSISTS upon touching you in some way from the second their eyes open to the second they close, it can get a little tricky.  I wish that I could say that when they are sick, I spend the whole day reading books to them and feeding them homemade soup, made with vegetables from my garden, while sitting in a tent made of sheets that we pretend is their fairy princess castle, snuggling them all day, and not feeling grossed out by their sweaty, snotty heads leaving a damp puddle on my lap, and not feeling irritated by the migraine that is developing from listening to the constant whines and moans, but that's just not true.

Wait a sec...this is MY blog I can say whatever I want right?  OK, forget what I said before...We painted rocks, the kids were angels, I not only made cookies, but a scrumptious organic dinner (definitely NOT cold cereal), then we snuggled all together (and I LOVED every second of being smothered by 3 sweaty/snotty/feverish bodies) , we sung hymns and read scriptures in the 3 story princess castle I built out of a gum wrapper and a paper clip.