The Simple Things

Paper towel roll, whoopi cushion, and bubble wrap, need I say more?

Happy Christmas!

We are definitly having a white Christmas this year! The kids have been playing in the snow almost every day. I enjoy watching them from inside! Hope you all have a wonderful Holiday!

Cello Concert

Bekah had a cello concert on Thursday at school. She did a wonderful job!
Here are the 2nd year students playing a few songs.
Here is what Jonah thought of the band which also had it's concert that night. Guess it was too loud for him!

Piano Recital

Bekah had her first piano Recital on Saturday. She did a wonderful job! She played a duet with her teacher and then a piece by herself. Her teacher also teaches flute and Jonah was excited about the flutes for some reason. He would say, "isn't that flute beautiful!". We went out to eat afterward to the Salad Company. The kids had so much fun going to get their own food. They also have gelato there, which I had never heard of. It was really good! It is kind of like ice cream and they have tons of flavors.

One Year (Blog) Anniversary

Happy Anniversary to the Blog!!

I've been blogging for one year exactly and it has been great. I love it!! Last year at this time I was struggling to come up with a name and load pics. It's been awesome to keep track of what my kids are doing (things I would have forgotten if I hadn't blogged about it) and keep in touch with people. Here's to many more years of blogging!!

Environmental Show

On Saturday I love to listen to NPR while I am doing chores around the house. I usually catch Car Talk, Wait Wait don't Tell Me!, Weekend America and Marketplace Money. Yesterday they were doing some special reports about the environment and what we can do to help and improve. Yesterday Marketplace Money was all about how we as a society consume and how we have become a wasteful society. I thought it was interesting and they talked about some unique things that people were doing to be less wasteful. You can listen online or download it to an Ipod. I am always looking for ways to recyle and consume less or buy things used.

A FAST Runner!

It's no secret that Bekah struggles with school, especially math (so did I!). So when she comes home excited about something that happened in school I am so happy. Today she said she was the second fastest girl in her class, and finished their race in the top 5! She was excited! She has always liked P.E. (very unlike me, but I did have the meanest P.E. teacher in the world, according to me). Now I just have to nurture this talent and interest. It's just a little hard when I'm not so athletic. But I sure will try!

More Pumpkin Patch Pics

I had so many pictures I had to add more. Here is Sam with his favorite thing, trains!
These go carts were so much fun. They were too big for Jonah so I rode with him on my lap! The Giant Hay Bale! It's really the simple things that are so much fun! The kids would have gone just to play on this!

The Pumpkin Patch

They had tons of these wooden things to put your face in. The kids had to try every one and always wanted a picture.

Look out!! A scary Giant!

These trikes were so fun and I loved the little bridge. There were a couple of traffic jams getting through the bridge though.

Our Jack-O-Lanterns

We carved our pumpkins on Tuesday, right before Halloween. These were the pumpkins we got at the pumpkin patch. Bekah's is the biggest one. Jonah drew his face on his pumpkin, but I helped him carve it. Sam had no interest in this activity, which surprised me! It is after all a little messy and involves an element of danger (just pumpkin carving knives, but still!).

Happy Halloween!

A wizarding duel! Hermione and Harry dueling it out. I guess they do fight once in a while.
Don't you love Bekah's hair? I found a crimper at goodwill and it worked well to curl that straight hair of hers. My mom was nice enough to knit their scarves. I made the ties and Jonah's robe and Bekah's skirt. the rest I found at the store.
What a cutie! I was really happy with the costumes this year.
Sam was going to be a Dalmatian puppy, but I put the costume on him the other day and he hated it! He has been obsessed with Thomas the train so he went as an engineer at the last minute. Luckily, we had the hat, and the overalls. My mom let us borrow the bandana. Pretty cute, I thought.
Sam couldn't keep his hands out of the candy! He caught on pretty fast when we went to a couple of houses that people were giving him candy! What a great thing!

Fall Break

Last week was Fall break for Bekah. We did lots of things to keep us busy!
Monday- Cleaned the house and mowed the lawn, my first time bagging leaves, since Alan is gone right now. I had never bagged leaves before, I love it! I do like to mow the lawn when it is nice outside and it feels so good to get it done!
Tuesday-I didn't tell the kids where we were going, I just bundled them up in sweatshirts and coats and we left. As soon as we saw a pumpkin shaped sign Bekah knew where we were going! The Pumpkin Patch! It was such a gorgeous day that we soon took off the coats and the sweatshirts. There was so much to do there. Little "haunted" houses to go through, trikes and bikes to ride, animals to see, slides and a life-size candyland game! Then we went on the hayrack ride to the pumpkin patch. Sam held onto my hand the whole time, he was a little afraid. There were scarecrows and storybook characters all along the way. The kids had fun choosing a pumpkin. Bekah went for the biggest one she could fit in her bag, Jonah went for the dirtiest, and Sam went for the closest one to him. One highlight for Jonah was seeing two combines in action on the way home!
Wednesday-We went to the children's museum with one of Bekah's school friends. She came home with us and spent the afternoon at our house. We love the children's museum. The boys are so into Thomas the train right now and they spend a lot of time playing with Thomas there.
Thursday-We went shopping at Target. The kids had fun looking at all the Halloween stuff and of course the toys! Jonah now understands about Christmas and is telling me everything he wants for Christmas! A kid can dream can't he? Bekah is becoming quite the bargain shopper and really looking at and comparing prices, on the things she is interested in anyway!
Friday-I got to have a little fun making cards! The kids went over to Grandma and Grandpa's house at night so that I could go get groceries and run a fews errands. They got to have supper and carve pumpkins.
Saturday- We stayed home all day, I love that! We did go to the park in the late afternoon though. Bekah and I played soccer and the boys dug in the sand. Jonah lost his shovel because he buried it and we could not find it again! He cried all the way home about that silly shovel!

The Pumpkin Run

Earlier this month Bekah ran in the pumkin run. It is a mile long cross country style run for elementary age kids (and their parents, although you won't see me in there!). There were tons of kids there!
Go Bekah Go!! She's a pretty good runner, it seems easy for her. She must have gotten that from her dad, it's definitly not from me! Aside from the run, she is motivated to participate in these runs to get the cool t-shirt!

Priceless

I started Bekah on piano lessons teaching her myself about 3 years ago. It was not going well, but I have not wanted to pay for a teacher since we are still in school. I finally decided I couldn't take it anymore, we were both unhappy dealing with each other and it was a big battle every day. She has had two lessons now with a "real" piano teacher. She hasn't really wanted to go, but last night after practicing for the alotted time she came and asked me, "can I practice some more?". After recovering from shock, I said "Of course you can practice some more!!!". Totally worth the money!

Two Cute Things

We pulled up to the fabric store the other day, just me and the boys. Jonah recognized where we were and said, "You go in and I'll just stay in the car." It was so matter of fact, I just had to laugh. Needless to say he was forced to come in with me.

Today we went to the zoo. As we were paying for tickets for the train Jonah says, "Mom, I've decided to be happy." I don't know if that was because we were going to ride the train or just in general. Probably because of the train.

Yummy Pizza

Ingredients:
Pizza crust-store bought or homemade
1 cup cooked chicken, cut into bite size pieces
1/4 cup prepared pesto
1 large tomato, diced
1/2 cup black beans
1-2 cup mozzarella, shredded

Bake the pizza crust for about 5-10 minutes. Top the prebaked pizza crust with pesto, chicken, tomato, black beans and mozzarella. Bake for 10-15 minutes at 350.

So good! Whenever we have this I feel like I could eat and eat and eat! Two of my kids will eat this, two out of three ain't bad!

Getcha Head in the Game!

Some shots of my boys playing basketball in the backyard. And to think, I almost got rid of the basketball hoop! No one even looked at it before Sam came along.

Show and Tell

In case you didn't know, I love to make cards. Here are some cards that I made this summer. Come see more! I have posted many of the cards I made this summer on my other blog. Here is the link, Parts and Pieces. You can also get there by clicking on Rachel's Crafts under blogs I read, on the lefthand side of this blog. There will be more cards to come, I'm sure!

Sam's Birthday Party

Sam had a Curious George Birthday. He is our "little monkey". I was pretty happy with this cake. I had my heart set on yellow frosting but when I was about to add the food coloring on Sunday I realized that I had no yellow food coloring! I had every other color, just not yellow. I called around and finally found someone who had some. Cake decorating never goes smoothly at my house! Here are Sam's presents from us that he got to open on Saturday, his real birthday. I spent a total of 7 dollars. It was a garage sale birthday for Sam. That big present was brand new though (still from a garage sale). It was a little sand and water toy with canals and boats, it's pretty fun. There will be no sand in it though! He also got a few books and a stuffed, furry soccer ball.
Here he is opening presents from family. We had a family birthday party on Sunday evening. The cousins had so much fun running around in the backyard it was hard to call then over to open presents!
Here is Sam trying out his new soccer ball!

"Mario" Cookies

Lately Jonah has been repeating everything from commercials, which isn't a good thing all the time! He has been talking a lot lately about "Mario" cookies. He has seen pictures and a commercial on TV. We try to tell him they are called Oreo cookies. Well, the other day he saw the Oreo cookies commercial again and got it. He said "OH, OREO cookies!". But the next day he was back to calling them "Mario" cookies again. I think it is adorable. I also think we might need to buy some "Mario" cookies so we can really teach him what they are!

Boys on the Train

We rode the train at the zoo the other day. The boys love the train. They love to wave at the animals all around the zoo and yell in the tunnel. They yell "All Aboard" with the conductor and get excited when the whistle blows. I always think of my Grandma when we go on the train. My grandparents used to take my brother and me to the zoo and we would always ride on the train. My Grandma loved to yell in the tunnel! She was a funny lady, a true child at heart!

The Last Days of the Crib

We often find Sam wrapped up in a blanket, sleeping on the floor. He has been able to climb out of his crib for a while now. On this night, like every other night that he does this, I scooped him up and put him in the crib. I felt something hard down by his foot and unwrapped the blanket to see what it was. He had gotten one of Jonah's dress shoes from the closet and put it on! You will also notice the Thomas the Train book in his bed. He has refused to go to bed without it recently. If he doesn't have it he'll just cry and say "Thomas" over and over.
Yesterday I took the crib down. We have a bed frame that I got at a garage sale for 10 dollars, but decided to just put the mattress on the floor for now. He did a great job taking a nap on the bed and eventually ended up on the bed last night after running around for a while. A pretty smooth transition, I guess he was just ready now that he is two.

Happy Birthday Sam!

Here are a few things about Sam:

• He likes to jump off of the couch. He thinks this is so funny.
• Loves Balls! Spends lots of time trying to make baskets outside.
• Has a new love for trains, especially Thomas the train. Loves to ride the train at the zoo. Says "All Aboard", and "Toot, Toot!".
• Loves to sit in a lap and read a book. You pretty much have to read to him when he brings you a book, he climbs right up and settles down in your lap.
• Repeats everything we say. It is especially cute to hear him say, "peas", and "tank u".
• Loves to dig! Jonah helped him with this one!
• Sam is sneaky and ornery. He is always off doing something or figuring something out. Watch out when he's too Quiet!
• He loves locks and keys and buckles. He has his own keys and tries to unlock everything!
• Loves to put shoes on , it doesn't matter who's shoes.
• Climbs out of his crib, a lot!
• He can find a cough drop anywhere in the house, he loves them!
• Helps himself to Juice and snacks.
• He helped me invent the Duct Tape method of babyproofing. When I get sick of keeping him out of something, I just tape it shut! It has worked on the medicine cabinet and the refrigerator and other lesser cabinets.
• Sings the Bop, Bop, Bop song from High School Musical.
• He keeps us busy and on our toes, Happy Birthday Sammy!
  

The Nebraska State Fair

Alan and I headed off to the State Fair yesterday. We got to go without the kids! Bekah was able to go with her Grandparents so she didn't miss out on any fun. My parents were nice enough to take the kids for the afternoon. I don't feel like the boys missed out on any of the fun, what is more fun than a visit to Grandma's house! Especially when Grandma makes Mickey Mouse waffles and takes you to the park.

It was a beautiful day, not too hot. We saw lots of exhibits that we don't normally see with the kids. Two highlights for us were the photos and the quilts. There were some amazing photos! Very inspiring. The quilts were fantastic and were displayed a lot better than in past years. Things that we usually see with the kids like the petting zoo, birthing pavilion and the park we skipped out on this year. Don't get me wrong, I love animals, but we have spent the majority of our time there in years past. Oh yeah and we got to go through all the RVs on display. I guess I've had a narrow view of the RV, but these were really nice inside. They even had a large screen tv in one and were showing the husker game. That one was pretty crowded!

As fun as it was to see the exhibits, we go the the Fair for on thing, TO EAT! Here is what we had;

1. Cheese on a stick (a classic favorite)


2. Indian Taco (more food for the money)


3. Pineapple whip in a waffle cone (so refreshing)


4. Grater Taters (spiral cut potatoes, fried of course!)


5. Cheese on a Stick (savoring every bite!)

Yes the food is expensive, but so worth the splurge. We really are thrifty so we feel perfectly ok with spending a little once a year on food we love. One thing we can't quite buy at the fair is lemonade. It is so good, but it really is hard to put the money down for it. We bring our own water and focus on the food! Hey, we don't go to the Midway to play games or ride rides, we just eat!

It was so nice to not worry about losing kids or temper tantrums. Mostly it was good just spending time together on a beautiful day.

Quote of the Day

"Dull women have immaculate homes"
And I might add, NO CHILDREN!

Swimming with Sophie

When we visited Chicago in July, the kids took a dip in the pool. Cousin Sophie was just getting used to the water. She was darling in her little pink swimming suit!


Sam loved playing in the water table, the pool was too cold for him I guess. This was a pretty cool toy!
Sophie loves to walk. She is 9 months old in this picture. Bekah just adores her!