A surprise visit

The top picture is of Ella in Time Out. She refused to sit on her bum for Time Out, so protested by sitting in Time Out on her head. I didn't help her push up into the headstand, nor did I help her stay there - she did it all by herself. I guess she got my gymnastics genes. I was having a very hard time not laughing at her, even though she was screaming mad the whole time.

The other picture is our kitchen, and it's new grayish-purple paint. I really like how it turned out a lot.

Thursday night, my mother called me up to tell me that her jury duty had been cancelled (I didn't even know she had jury duty), and that they wanted to make the thirteen-hour drive to Salt Lake to see the grandkids, since she had all this time to spare. I told them to come on down. So, Friday they came with my oldest bro Barton and stayed until Monday morning. It was a short and sweet visit, and we were thrilled to have them - especially the kids. We didn't tell them that they were coming, so Lear and Ella got a big surprise when they showed up on our doorstep.

Finally, another Lear story. You all know Lear loves Transformers. He also loves to save the Transformer boxes. He had one in particular that he's been saving since Thanksgiving. He's been keeping his collection in it, but it was getting very ratty and ugly, so Cory and I secretly threw it out when we did our de-cluttering of the house a week or so ago. When Lear noticed, he was MAD! He threw one of his rare fits, and demanded that we dig through the dumpster to retrieve it - we told him that it was too late, and that it was already at the recycling center. We finally pacified him by showing him that he could arrange them to display on a newly-empty bookcase that we had relocated to his room. He kept telling me that he couldn't wait until someone came to visit so he could show them his Transformers on the shelf. Now, if you enter his room, he will stand next to the bookcase, wordlessly gesturing toward the bookcase (one arm extended, palm up and fingers together) and waiting expectantly for your admiration. 

Lear quote: "Mom, why do we have those short spiky things on our eyes?"

         Mom: "Do you mean eyelashes?"

Ella quote: Mom: "Ella, stand at the window and wave bye-bye to Grandma, Grandpa, and Barton."

         Ella: "No, I don't want to!"

        Mom: "Lear is at the window and waving goodbye."

Ella: "I wan' go to da winnow an' wave bye-bye, too!"