"Head-Pants-NOW!"

I know some of you can name that movie!

So anyway, I love my Brody. He is sweet and innocent and charming. His dimpled smile makes me melt (unless he is being naughty- then it's just aggravating).

But here's the thing. He has an over-sized head. I still think he is handsome and yummy, but I know he is very blessed in the skull department. We are trying to find a haircut that compliments his head so we grew it out long and then cut it today so we could see which is best. What are your thoughts? Which is better?

I'm Sick of Being Sick!

Welcome to day 5 of me feeling like crap. Right now, my kids are eating popcorn on the couch and watching Olivia, my house looks like someone picked it up and shook it, and I am on the verge of coughing up my last vital organ.

Hello, death's door. Nice to meet you.

Things to Do in New Tazewell, TN

Have you always wanted to go to New Tazewell, Tennessee but didn't know what was available to do there?

Yeah- me neither. I'd never heard of it until we started looking on a map trying to decide what was in between us and Adam's parents. This seemed like a good enough spot so we booked a cabin and spent this last weekend with the fam before Kimball (Adam's brother) goes off to Iraq.

Here are some things you can do if you ever get a chance to go (grandparents are strongly recommended for some of these activities).

Have a bonfire complete with s'mores and Family Home Evening, even though no one really likes s'mores. It's all about traditions I guess.

Read bedtime stories with Nana.
Throw rocks into the lake. I don't mean a few rocks. I mean make Grandpa make 15 or 20 trips from the shore to the dock with as many rocks as he can carry just to throw them in the water.

Have an Easter Egg Hunt.

Try...ummm...log surfing?

Go pedal boating.

Take a nap with Papa.

Play croquet.

Meet your adorable nephew for the first time.
And finally- get sick. Notice the look on my face. That is my attempt to look happy even though my throat felt (and still feels) like acid is burning through my throat flesh and knives are stabbing me in the throat all at the same time. If you're on vacation and you're going to get sick, make sure that one of your kids is sick too so the whole ride home he whines while you already want to throw yourself out of the car and maybe into oncoming traffic. It's the only way to go.

I just realized that we have no good pictures of Faith, Allen, or Kimball (who was the reason for the whole trip). Sorry, guys.

Cute Commercial

Hivey Rash x2

Last week Brody broke out with a horrid bumpy hivey rash. I know hivey isn't a word, but you know what I mean, right? It was all over his body and we could see it spreading. These pictures were taken before it spread to his face and neck too bad. He was crying and scratching and not really understanding what was going on. We gave him some Benadryl and got some professional advice to just keep the Benadryl coming until it went away and let him sleep. Adam and our friend Perry gave him a blessing and he woke up the next morning free and clear and so happy that his itchy rash was gone. We thought it was some fluke.

Then on Thursday morning at 2:30 am, he woke up crying and we went in to see what was wrong. It was dark and we just thought he had had a nightmare so we told him to just go back to sleep. From that time until 6am, he kept waking up and we kept going in, not knowing why he was crying and whining. We weren't very nice some of the times we went in there because we were tired and thought he was just being difficult (it wouldn't be the first time). Adam brought him out at 6 to get him a drink and saw that the rash was back. We are awesome parents, I know. So he was in his bed for 3 1/2 hours, itching and crying because we didn't realize his rash had come back. What's even sadder is that he had been playing in the sandbox and didn't get a bath the night before so he had sand all over his bed and was rolling around on the sand with his itchy skin. Torture. Seriously. Oops, okay?

Brody stayed home from school and the rash was gone after 2 rounds of Benadryl, but I still don't know what is causing it. I am thinking it's something in our back yard, but I don't know what. I am going to have to do some investigating. Poor little guy.

"And to the Pugrik"

Brody's teachers at school told me they were concerned because Brody wasn't saying the pledge of allegiance with the rest of the class. I wasn't too worried- he's three. He's not unpatriotic or a terrorist. He's just three. I worked on it with him at home to see if he knew it and was just afraid of saying out loud at school. He got more comfortable saying the big words and now he says it with the rest of the class. And now he's going to say it to you. I love it.