Viral Outbreak, Mother's Day, Sticker Time, and Around the House

DISCLAIMER: This is a giant catch up blog post. If you dislike lots of adorable pictures filled with irresistible children STOP and read no further.

We recently enjoyed an outbreak of a viral rash. One day Miles woke up with a high fever. Two days later the fever broke and then later that night his whole body broke out into a gruesome rash and the fever came back. I rushed him to the hospital ER with visions of scarlet fever dancing in my head...nope it was hand, foot, mouth disease compliments of our less hygienic ward members in nursery. One week later Miles was fine.

 Unfortunately the day after I found my two little guys snuggled like this (note the foot underneath Ian's face) Ian woke up with a rash all around his mouth, on his hands, and...you guessed it his feet. I am proud to say that Matt, Liam, and myself managed to stay clear of this unholy plague.

 One thing I've really come to love about Texas is the rain. I grew up with rainstorms that always lasted less than ten minutes if it rained hard and if it rained all day it came down as a drizzle. Texas pours for hours, sometimes days. It's absolutely stunning. I tried taking a picture of the rain a couple hours into this storm so those non-Texans can see everything is BIGGER in Texas, even the rainstorms.

 Our house has greatly benefited from the sticker chart system. The boys can earn stickers for cleaning their room, eating a meal that they hate, or helping me with chores around the house. Every sticker represented a lot of hard physical or psychological labor for Liam and Ian. After earning twenty-eight stickers they got a toy they had selected at the beginning of the chore chart.

 Liam had wanted "grey wings" which turned out to be a Star Wars Imperial Shuttle.

 Ian, my cat child, wanted a Godzilla toy. His current obsession.

 As past blog posts can testify, Liam has always been a costume nut. He has long since indoctrinated his younger brothers into the fine art of \costuming. In this picture you see Ian as Dash from the Incredibles, Liam is Wallace, and he's dressed Miles as Gromit who is wearing The Wrong Trousers. (If you've seen Wallace and Gromit this will make sense and be hilarious...if not just know it's pretty funny.)

 Our cat Azrael is a fairly nice cat and all of the boys are extremely attached to her. I walked in the other day and found that Azrael had, of her own free will and choice, climbed into Miles lap and gone to sleep. What could be cuter than kittens and babies? Well toddlers and cats anyway.

 Mother's day was a lovely experience for me. Despite the two younger children staying home with Matt due to the previously mentioned viral outbreak, I had a great time with Liam. Liam dressed in his suit, put on cologne and styled his hair so that he could be my "mother's day church date". Liam and I went to church together in style. I am the primary chorister and so I took great pleasure in the primary children's performance in sacrament meeting. When I came home I found Matt had made a gourmet meal for me.

 He also had a lovely card and had put the little boys hand prints on the back of it.

 Liam had filled out this survey for me which is pretty funny, in primary.

 Ian had made me this lovely card in preschool and a ceramic heart necklace with his thumb print in it that I love. His answers are equally adorable.

 Last of all, many of you know that Matt is an avid gardener. He's gotten our boys equally excited about gardening. Last fall the boys all picked out random seed packets and planted them along the side of the house. Much to their delight we have spinach, carrots, turnips, and pumpkins all flourishing in our vegetable garden. I don't know why they look so grim in this picture, they were all grins when they brought in their spoils. I assume they just don't want their picture taken.

All in all, I'm happy to report that the Sanderson family is thriving, healthy, and happy.