Ain't Gonna Paint No More

Today was a stay at home day. We've had several in a row and, frankly, I think I was more bored than the girls. So, instead of trying to accomplish the writing I needed to do, I decided to pull out some paints and ... well ... okay, so I painted my kids.

We received inspiration from one of our favorite books, "Ain't Gonna Paint No More."

Like in the book, things started out small...

But they quickly got out of hand.

Pretty soon I just gave up the paint brushes to the kids and went inside to make dinner. Then things became totally out of control. (Just the way we like it.) 

We couldn't find the top to Allyson's old swimsuit... so we just painted one on.

Even clean-up was fun!

Allyson's prayers tonight were the best when she thanked God for "painting ourselves." I'm thankful we found a way to make a boring day not so boring. :)

My book is FINALLY here!

Okay, so it's a year late. After many tears and "tense" emails with my publisher, I finally drove up to the house to see the UPS man delivering three boxes of my books! He was pretty good-natured about me taking pictures of him.

What Nicole thinks of Buddha

Tonight at dinner:

Nicole: Can you worship God in Cambodia? 


Mom: Yes, you're free to worship God there. But most people don't. Most people there worship Buddha. 


Nicole (rolling eyes): Buddha's a loser.

Allyson Visits the Dentist!

Yesterday was Allyson's first visit to see our beloved dentist, Dr. Knipschild. Dr. K has been my dentist since college and we all love her dearly. This was Allyson's "Happy Visit" where she gets to play with the various equipment and ride in the chair.

At first she was nervous. So big sister sat with her.

Grumpy face!

Then she warmed up when she realized this was like a ride.

Then she decided this was fun! (Notice she no longer needs big sister.)

On to the rest of the equipment.

And here comes Dr. K! 

As if these pictures aren't enough, here's some video of Allyson's first "happy visit" to the dentist. (Hey, what else was I supposed to do?)

Today Allyson went back for her cleaning. She did great through x-rays and everything. Hailey was great with her!

A long time ago, when Nicole was getting her teeth cleaned, she told Hailey she still had "crunchies" and needed to "swish" again. Hailey said that was the perfect word and she still uses "crunchies" with all of her patients now when asking if they need another rinse. Here they are talking about it.

Nicole brought along a poetry book Dr. K gave her a while ago. The kids love it. (Dr. K is known to have gifts for the girls.)

Allyson makes her bed!

Allyson made her bed for the first time the other day. She was SO proud of herself. And she has happily made it every day since (when reminded). This was quite an accomplishment so we are sharing here for everyone to see what a big girl she is now!

Kids Across America Day 3

Sigh. This is embarrassing. A post from July 24, 2012! I'm sure I have videos or meant to write more. But let's just post what I have and I'll try to do better. If not, you'll see what we did today in about three years. :)

So I never did finish the Kids Across America camp posts! This was our third and final day at the camp. And we got to go tubing! Well, the girls and I went tubing. Britt wanted to stay dry.

Nicole's "surf" position

Daddy found a "stick" spider

We also got to spend some time painting nails with the summer staff.

A last look at our beautiful views and lovely room.

Amazing sunset as we left... 

And, since we were so close to the border, we decided to take a quick trip to Arkansas.

Missouri's sign was a little less impressive.

But we all thought this sign was the best. It was at some random gas station in the middle of nowhere. (We honked.)