WWF...Little Guy Style

Just a regular day full of "Cars" tattoos, fire pants, and a little WWF. And "bad guy" faces.

A Growing Boy

I forget sometimes that Caleb is so big...he always seems small next to Liam. And then I see him next to other little ones, like his cousin, Avery, and realize how big he's gotten. So strange to think how much he has changed in such a relatively short amount of time.

My Next Attempt at Craftiness

So, I had this brilliant idea that this year I wasn't going to buy any presents for the boys, but make everything instead...using things I already had. Countless trips to Joann Fabrics and who knows how much money later, I ended up with these:

The first few faces turned out pretty rough, but by the time I was finished and had refined the face making process, I was too tired to go back and remake the earlier ones. It's all about evolution, I suppose. After I finished them, the other homemade projects I had in mind fell by the wayside me and the toy section at Target became great friends (not that we weren't already). Merry Christmas, boys!

My Friend, Santa

Last year, Liam was very insistent about going to see Santa in order to say "super hi to my friend, Santa". This year, the visit to see Santa was more about crying and complaining, and whining and dragging his feet throughout the morning. Ah, the three year old. :) But, we made it. Santa was a little distracted, Liam didn't want to sit on his lap, and Caleb was yelling everything in his emphatic voice so dear Santa had no idea what he was saying and probably assumed that Caleb thought he was hard of hearing. Good times.

Happy Thanksgiving

I'm thankful. For many things. I often forget that when I get caught up in the day to day harried feelings (or the melee, as I like to call it) of raising two small, very energetic, boys. So, I'm always grateful when this time of year rolls around and I am "forced" to think about my blessings. :) So, as I frantically ran around the kitchen, trying to time everything of my first Thanksgiving meal just right, constant interruptions from two toddlers, I thought about what I was grateful for. (Caution: touchy-feely expressions of gratitude ahead...potentially not for the weak of stomach).

First off, I was grateful for a mother who taught me how to cook. As my own boys take an interest in "helping" me cook, I am amazed at how much patience my mother must have had to let us all help her, and sometimes cook on our own as we were growing up. Kudos to you, mom. I'm trying to follow your example. Come to think of it, a lot of the things I thought about that I was grateful for were a result of my mom: sewing (I may not be great at it, but I can whip up a pair of crazy-print elastic waist pants for little boys in no time), crocheting (okay, so my mom taught me to knit, but the desire to create all things yarn related came from her), etc. Maybe I should save some of this for a Mother's Day card, or post, or something...hmm...

I'm also thankful to my mom and sisters who put up with my constant "recipe phone calls": "I need your (insert favorite family food name here) recipe. And Karen, the pie crust with Butter Flavored Shortening worked out delightfully. :)

Other things I am grateful for:

-Andrew, for a zillion reasons, but most recently for the fact that he has done all the dishes this whole Thanksgiving weekend!

-Liam and Caleb, who test my patience and give unconditional love...especially when I'm mad or sad.

-the fact that Caleb sounds like a miniature Arnold with his deep voice and rounded vowels "We bahk to we haus, mom" (Translation: "we're home")

-Andrew's job

-Our family's health

-Our wonderful home

-Good friends

-Times when my sewing machine works

-Electricity

-Modern plumbing

-The grocery store

-The Schwan man

The list goes on, but I'll wrap it up for now. And now, just because it's a virtual impossibility for me to post without including a picture of some sort, here is the latest from our most recent trek with the boys...they both hiked about a mile and half with no help, and at least a third of that was pretty hard uphill stuff. Andrew couldn't be more proud. :)

So, Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

I'm liking the brunette look... :)

Glad I decided to get a good wig.

The costumes

Here are a few more photos of the actual costume pieces. I have to admit, I'd pretty proud of the work I did, and while I may never sew Halloween costumes again ;-) I was very happy with the way these turned out.

Halloween 2009

Well, after lots of sewing and much bribery convincing the boys that no, they did not want to be bats, our little hobbits made their debut. They loved carrying swords, and LOVED all the free candy from trick or treating. We tried to let their hair grow out as shaggy as we could in such a short amount of time to complete the look (of course, haircuts this week all around...), and here was the result:

We went down in to the creek to do a little woodsy photo shoot...unfortunately, none of the photos turned out as great as I would have liked, but we managed to capture the mood of the costumes, I think. Andrew went as Aragorn, and I went as Arwen. We didn't get any pictures that really capture my dress (and I didn't have time to put the dark hair on for this impromptu photo shoot), but that's okay...it's really all about the boys anyway, right? :)

Pumpkin Patch

Took a little trip to the P-patch with the kiddos. They had a great time in the Hay Maze, on the tractor-driven hayride, but mostly in the Corn Pit. The corn pit, for those who have never seen one, is like a ball pit (at McDonald's or Chuck E. Cheese or wherever), but instead of balls, it is full of dried corn kernels. Seriously. Five kabillion tiny corn kernels. They had a blast!

And Farmer JT (our tractor/hay-ride driver) had a little song with hand motions to keep kids sitting that I think I will have to use at home as well:

This is the hammer (Fist pounding on palm of other hand)

This is the nail (Pointer Finger tapping in the palm of other hand)

When the tractor is a'rollin (Lasso motion in the air above your head)

Keep your bottom on the bale. Thanks, Farmer JT!

And thanks to Ashley for the great photos!

Backpacking Copper Lake - August

Okay, so I'm a little late in posting photos from my backpacking trip in late August. I went with Rob Lee and Rob Harrill (I made up fun nicknames for them during the trip - they loved that) to Copper Lake in the Alpine Lakes Wildnerness, about an hour or so Northeast of Seattle. It was about 3.5 miles to the lake and nearly killed us. For some more fun, we hiked another 4 miles that day to Big Heart Lake (after dropping off the heavy packs at Copper). Total round trip ended up being about 14 miles. It was a great trip, we walked around four lakes total, several waterfalls and had a great time - except for the ever present mosquitoes of course. Each time I do these trips I wonder how I ever talk myself into them, but a few months go by and I want to do one again.

New Inspiration

So, I used to cook. Well, I mean, I used to like to cook. I still do, I have simply found that since my children won't eat "real" food (and by real, I mean anything that isn't finger food, or dipped in syrup), cooking holds a little less appeal for me. Making two separate dinners for grown-ups and kids is not my idea of a good time. Now, I'm sure there are people who are thinking (Andrew probably included), "Why are you making the kids separate food? You put the food in front of them and if they are hungry enough they will eat it. You've done this to yourself by caving and giving them kid food in the first place..." blah, blah, blah. Until you've walked a mile with my kids...please don't judge. I personally cannot take the whine and meltdowns that come with them being hungry, so I feed them what they will eat, try to get a little nutrition in them, and cope, recognizing that there was much I would not eat as a child, and I have come to love all of it. But I digress...

So, you can only make scrambled eggs, pancakes, french toast, pasta, chicken nuggets, and peanut butter and honey sandwiches so many times before you lose all sense of what tastes good and what you like to cook. But I have been inspired...

I have several friends who write food blogs, and after reading a couple of them (particularly Mindika's Moments - can't wait to try the rainbow cupcakes, and Chemistry Cooking - thanks, Amy, for the SuperCook link), I have again felt inspired to cook. Not sure how it will go, but so far two bites of broccoli (covered in homemade cheese sauce) made it into Liam's body (not happily, of course, but it's a start, right?). And maybe I can rediscover my love of cooking and rejuvenate my relationship with food. Let's hope.

Thinking about it...

(It's just a ponytail, by the way...)

A Wicked Good Time

Last Saturday Andrew and I went to see Wicked at the Paramount Theater with some friends. We went out to dinner before hand and then walked over to the theater (or should I say "jogged", practically). It was such a fun evening and I am so grateful to our babysitter that night who succeeded in getting the kids to sleep - yea, Melissa!

Before we left for dinner, Andrew went to go run an errand for me and when he returned, he said he had a surprise for me. Flowers and a Wizard of Oz themed journal, in honor of our night out. So sweet! You're the best, hon!

Loved the show, again! Andrew suffered through it for me (although I did see him laugh out loud a couple of times...I'm on to you, babe). So, although it was very much a "girl musical", I think he enjoyed it for the most part. :)

And Speaking of Caleb...

So, I always tell the boys not to throw stuff all over the floor. And I am forever telling Caleb that he shouldn't step, or stand, on everything that's on the floor...the DVD cases, books, toys, etc. "Things will break and be gone forever, or you might slip and hurt yourself," I say. "Always better the step on solid ground, Caleb." (I'm sure there's a gospel parallel here somewhere, but I digress...) Does he listen? Of course not. He's two.

So, they were playing in their room the other day, and when I went upstairs, they had strewn pretty much everything around their room, including Liam's super-slippery sleeping bag (you know the kind), which happened to be laying on top of a slick-covered board book. Caleb was throwing the ball, jumping around, landing and running over everything on the floor, naturally. Up goes the ball, up goes Caleb after it, down comes Caleb on to the sleeping bag/book death trap, out fly Caleb's feet and down comes his face on the edge of the window seat in their room. *sigh* Screaming ensues, and when he stands up his cheek bone is already purple and swollen. Poor guy. The cautious and sometimes slightly accusatory looks that I have gotten in various public places (particularly when the children are throwing a fit and making scenes in public) have been an absolutely delightful after effect of the whole traumatic experience.

The best part is that he only cried for a minute or two, and then jumped up and started throwing the ball again. My little tank. :) The sad face he put on today while I took the picture makes him look even more pitiful...

In other boys misbehaving news...today Liam went into a timeout and was in his room for some time...quietly...uh oh. When I went up to have a mom-boy heart-to-heart (ha ha), I was greeted by the following (the explanation of which was that he wanted to color a picture for me...on his arm). Good thing I buy washable markers. :)

Bad Mommy

Well, bad mommy let Caleb's birthday come and go without so much as a post. Sorry, K-Bob. :( So! Caleb turned 2 last Monday (the 7th), and we celebrated on Sunday night with Chocolate Cake and ice cream. As soon as he blew out the candles, he started licking the cake (before it was cut). The boys love chocolate as much as their dad. :)

He is currently displaying all of the classic 2-year-old behaviors: Obstinance, arguing with everything, "No", asserting the opposite of ANYTHING you say, "mine", etc.

He is also displaying some delightful things that are adorable and loveable and (somewhat!) make up for the terrible twos. My personal favorite is that he has taken to calling me "my pretty mommy". And telling me I'm "like a princess" anytime I am wearing makeup or a skirt or dress. (Of course, he also says he's "like a princess" anytime he holds a towel, or cloth or anything the looks like it could be a skirt, in front of him). Love him!

The Work Of An Afternoon...

Okay, so maybe a couple of afternoons...and mornings...and evenings... anyway, the point is that after two long days, we finished it. Go team Griffard! The boys are super excited, and they even managed to stay out of the way (for the most part, ha ha) while we were working on it. I, for one, am very proud of us, if I do say so myself. :)

Now if I could just get going on those darn Halloween costumes... :)

The Company Picnic

Now that we are corporate working, two kids, SUV-driving, home owning adults, we did what grown-ups do...we went to The Company Picnic. Amazon put on a company event up in North Bend for all employees and their families. Complete with free t-shirts, kites for the kids, food (a great selection of BBQ foods, sides, and desserts), rock climbing wall, broom ball tournament, bouncy house, bouncy obstacle course, and bouncy sprinkler run for the kids, paddle boats, arts & crafts booths, pony rides, hayrides, motorcycle show, and an honest to goodness Cher impersonator. It just doesn't get any better. :) The boys had a blast flying kites and running through sprinklers, and Liam did the bumper paddle boats all by himself without a single meltdown! Caleb mostly just wanted to run through the sprinklers. It was a lot of fun, and we can't wait until next year's event!