Annie sent this picture to her Grandpa to find out how much he'd pay her to read it
😂. Island of the Blue Dolphins has always been a favorite of his, and he told her a week ago that if she read it, he'd pay her $2 -- I snagged the book in Spanish after she read a short version of it in Spanish class, and Annie wanted to find out if there was a foreign language bonus for this title 
😀 And there is --$3.50, if she reads it then recaps it in Spanish for him -- he doesn't understand much in Spanish, but like all of us, he's a sucker for listening to her speak a ton of Spanish.
January 12th
The difference between my two girls illustrated by Crazy Hair Day:
Annie:
"Hey, Anns, how do you want me to do your hair," I ask. "Just a ponytail, I'm not interested in doing anything for crazy hair day, it's uncomfortable and dumb."
Ellie:
"Mooooooooom," she laments, "these crazy pigtails, yarn braid, and stuffed animal attached to my headband aren't ENOUGH yet." Me, out of ideas, sighing, "We could just shave your head." Her eyes lighting up, "Hey, yeah! That's a great idea!" Me, "I was being facetious!"
January 5th
January 4th
January 3rd
I love this stage of our lives -- the kids spend LONGER out playing in the snow than it took to get them dressed in their snow gear
Never once in six years have we missed the bus. Until today. When there's 6 inches of snow. Of course.
January 2nd
Owen and Annie playing cards. Owen, "Give me TEN cards, Annie!" Annie, "Bug, you win by getting rid of all your cards, so you don't want to start with ten." Owen, thinking for a second, "OK, give me NO cards," pauses for a second, "HA! I WON! I beat you, Annie!"
Owen during 'high-low' at dinner:
"My high was that I wore my pajamas ALL DAY LONG."
I hear ya, kid.
Annie has been working on a loose tooth all day -- at one point, I gave it a tug, and could feel it slip down and now it is literally dangling down to where she can't close her mouth because her tooth is too low. But heaven help us, we're both too chicken to just yank it the rest of the way out . . .
We've tried, but we both chicken out from just yanking it the rest of the way . . .20 minutes later: Phew, got it! We had to really pull it out of there, and it had one corner that was as tall above the gum line as it was below the tooth -- no wonder it was holding on so tight!
January 1st
Isaac pouting about how he's unable to go to Church this morning -- he stomps around grumpily while muttering, "I can't go to Church, my ankle is broken." He twisted it swimming the other day, but can't be convinced it's not broken -- despite all the grumpy stomping seeming to be evidence to the contrary
The problem we're having this morning is that Ellie is legitimately sick, and thus staying home at Grandma and Grandpa's house while the rest of the us go to Church -- the boys are busily concocting reasons they too should be left at Grandma's house during Church
December 31st
December 30th
While helping me get all the clean clothes into my room to start sorting them, Ellie asked me a hypothetical question. "Mom, if you could have three wishes, what would your first one be?" Thinking I was kinda clever, or mostly just thinking about the giant pile of laundry now on my bed, I said, "That all clothes would magically clean, sort, and put themselves away."
She nodded and then said a little sadly, "Hmmm. I thought maybe it'd be something like me not having my disease anymore . . ."
Ummmm. Mothering fail.
I promptly changed my wish and said that none of my kids would have allergies or celiac anymore -- which frankly, would ease stress and work in my life WAY than my silly laundry wish
I don't know what I was thinking . . . She's especially excited because if I get my wish, then we could get a puppy too. Just need to find us a magic lamp now . . .
December 27th
Ellie came sneaking into my room at nearly 10PM with a perfectly normal request -- asking if I could wiggle her loose tooth for her. I obliged, and after about 30 seconds stopped and said, "OK there. Now go to bed." She thought for a second and then said, "Mom, your hands smelled like gluten." DANG IT. I totally had just been eating crackers -- I told her to go and rinse and spit, but it was definitely a first for us where I cross contaminated gluten with one of my kids because I stuck my gluten-y hands in their actual mouth.
All that time and effort spent meticulously ensuring no cross contamination occurs in the kitchen these last several years, and apparently I don't think twice about sticking my gluten-y hands in her mouth
December 25th
December 24th
December 23rd
December 22nd
December 21st
After less than five hours of broken sleep due to sick kids, all I can think this morning (in my most whiny internal voice), "I have to make them breakfast AND pack lunches?!?"
:-)December 19th
December 18th
December 17th
December 16th
December 13th
December 11th
December 10th
November 24th
November 23rd
November 21st
November 19th
November 16th
November 15th
November 13th
November 7th
Two cute kids in recovery -- two not so stellar results
:-(. We will have to wait for Isaac's biopsy results to come back for more details on him, but it definitely wasn't clear either, but Ellie's scope was visibly horrible and the worst she's ever had. This means both kids are losing foods again, and I am dreading the conversation, with Ellie especially. She already struggles so much with being 'different' with her gluten/tree nut free diet, but she's going to be so upset losing dairy again :-(. I feel overwhelmed and scared about another round of diet changes and having some of my kids on drastically different diets from one another, something we haven't really had to do before, other than keep Ellie off nuts. I know we can do this, we've done huge diet restrictions before, it's just after the good news on Annie and Owen's scopes last time, I don't think I was emotionally prepared for big steps backward with these two :-(
November 6th
Owen just composed a new song, with matching dance that involved lots of hip gyrations, that went, "It's black sock day! It's black sock day! Woo hoo, black sock day!" Who knew Sunday dress was so exciting??
November 2nd
November 16th
November 15th
November 13th
November 7th
Two cute kids in recovery -- two not so stellar results
:-(. We will have to wait for Isaac's biopsy results to come back for more details on him, but it definitely wasn't clear either, but Ellie's scope was visibly horrible and the worst she's ever had. This means both kids are losing foods again, and I am dreading the conversation, with Ellie especially. She already struggles so much with being 'different' with her gluten/tree nut free diet, but she's going to be so upset losing dairy again :-(. I feel overwhelmed and scared about another round of diet changes and having some of my kids on drastically different diets from one another, something we haven't really had to do before, other than keep Ellie off nuts. I know we can do this, we've done huge diet restrictions before, it's just after the good news on Annie and Owen's scopes last time, I don't think I was emotionally prepared for big steps backward with these two :-(
November 6th
Owen just composed a new song, with matching dance that involved lots of hip gyrations, that went, "It's black sock day! It's black sock day! Woo hoo, black sock day!" Who knew Sunday dress was so exciting??
November 2nd
