Christmas Joys

Our Christmas festivities kicked off on Christmas eve this year. I've had this gingerbread house mold since 1999 or so and this is the first time we have ever used it. You press in half of the dough, cook it, let the gingerbread cool and let the mold cool completely (it's stoneware) and then press in the other half. I decided to read while it cooled and Logan came out to say hi and had something in his mouth. I asked him what he had and he said "Nothing." I said "I think it's something." He then replied, "It's all in my belly now." I didn't press it, just figured he had a cracker or something. A little while later I go into the kitchen to see if the mold was cool and noticed that the chimney portion is half gone and there are bite marks in it. I asked Ty if he ate it and he said no, and then I asked Logan. He got a little grin on his face and shook his head yes. Luckily I had enough dough to make another chimney. Ty and the kids put the house together with assorted candies we got at the store and it turned out pretty cute.

Then the kids got dressed in their Christmas pajamas and we read The Night Before Christmas. Then we put out a big cookie and milk for Santa.

Once the kids were in bed, Santa and Mrs. Clause got working on the big present to the kids. We got a HUGE tote full of GeoTrax from a friend and Logan is in love with trains. So we worked for about an hour and a half putting together all the tracks and trains. We set it up in our dining room and it turned out really good.

The next morning we opened all the presents in the living room first. Logan would barely glance at one present before opening another. They both loved all their presents. Next Ty told them a story about how he was trying to sleep, but heard noises in the dining room and came to see what it was. He found Santa putting together a special present for the kids. So they came into the dining room and found the train set. Logan was speechless, it was so funny. I thought he'd be jumping up and down and yelling. But he just looked at it all like it wasn't real. Then he played with it ALL DAY! He'd come out and play with some of his other toys for a few minutes, but then go back to the trains. I could hardly get him to eat any food, he just wanted to play. Alex likes the trains too, but was more interested in playing with her barbies or reading her new books.

It was a very nice small family Christmas and we enjoyed playing and relaxing all day.

Halloween

This year for Halloween we had lots of fun. Alex got to go to a pumpkin patch with school and got to pick out a pumpkin and we got one pumpkin from our garden. So Ty got out the sharpie and let the kids draw faces and whatever else they wanted on their pumpkins and he helped them carve their pumpkins. Ty decided to be funny with Logan's and made it with a missing tooth, just like Logan. After several failed attempts, I was able to get a picture of the pumpkins lit up.

This year Alex was "Pinkalicious." There is a cute story behind this... We went to visit our family in Idaho and while there Grandpa Rule gave the kids some presents. One of Alex's was a pretty pink dress-up dress. I wanted her to keep it nice for Halloween so I didn't notice the tags, I thought it was a Fancy Nancy dress. Well in the meantime Alex got this book from the school library called Pinkalicious. It's about a girl who loves the color pink (hmmm sounds familiar). And she eats too many pink cupcakes and wakes up pink. So I go to get her costume and look inside and the tag says Pinkalicious, I about died laughing. It was so perfect. Logan was a Pirate for Halloween. I made him some black pants and tore up an old white shirt and got some cool pirate fabric for a sash. His favorite part was the sword, he especially liked hitting things with it.

On Saturday we went to a party at a friends house where the kids had fun dancing, playing and getting some goodies. Sunday afternoon the downtown area blocks of part of town for "safe trick or treating." Well Logan had other ideas, he didn't get much of a nap and didn't want to go trick or treating. He wanted to stay home with daddy. But we made him go and he threw the most major fit I have ever seen him throw. We loaded him kicking and screaming into the car. And what do you know? Half way there he calmed down and was ready to have fun. The local businesses were handing out candy on the streets and it was crazy how many people showed up. Ty and I have been vigilatly going through the candy, making sure all the "bad" candy (a.k.a. our favorites) is eaten by us :)

Alex Goes to School

As a mom, you have those days where you think "When they go to school, I will do X, Y, Z," and imagine in your head what it will be like. I knew this day was coming, after all I bought her supplies, went clothes shopping and met her teacher. Last night the anxiety hit, right when I was getting ready to go to bed. I worried that something would happen on the bus, or the teacher wouldn't be there to meet her at school, or some other random event would happen. I realized that I like to be in control of situations that deal with my children, which is a good thing, but causes me anxiety when I am not in control. So this morning I had to relax and trust strangers with my beloved daughter. She was way more at ease than I was. She kissed and hugged Logan goodbye and we went outside to take pictures and wait for the bus. When the bus came, she hopped on and said goodbye. She was way more excited than nervous. I proceeded to go inside and cry, not too much though because she acted like such a big girl and wasn't scared at all. Then a few hours later Logan and I went outside and waited for her bus and she got off. She had a great day of school and they made puppets and read a book and she met a few of her classmates. Then we hopped into our car and went to Dairy Queen for lunch. I would have loved to be a fly in her little brain today, to hear what she was thinking and how she felt about her first day of school.

Mt. St. Helens

Last weekend we decided to make the trek to Mt. St. Helens. We took the roads to the eastern lookout which was a beautiful drive and the roads wound back and forth a lot. Luckily none of us gets car sick, but by the end I was ready to be done with those roads. As we were driving up the road to the lookout we noticed the devastation from the blast, there were lots of old trees lying on the ground and they all pointed in the same direction. There are lots of shrubs and flowers growing back and the tallest trees were maybe 15 feet tall, but it was nothing like the forests we saw on the drive up. They were THICK. So I can imagine how devastating the blast was to the area. We got to the lookout that was accurately named Windy Ridge. It was very windy. Then to get a better view you climb up these man made stairs. Logan had to be carried, otherwise we would have been climbing all day long-there were a lot of stairs. It's amazing to see the crater the blast left.

As you look out onto the lake near the bottom of the volcano, you see this pile of dead trees at the far end of the lake:

As I was staring at the volcano I noticed there was a white spot that looked whiter than the snow on the volcano and realized it was smoke coming out. I didn't realize it would still smoke. Luckily we brought our bigger lens for the camera and I got a good picture of the smoke rising from the volcano:

As we were leaving Logan and I had a cute conversation in the parking lot. He has seen volcanoes on Little Einsteins and those volcanoes have hot lava spewing from them. So we are walking to the car and he says in an upset voice:

"I want to see the volcano."

"It's right there." I say pointing to it.

"But I want to see it." he says.

"It's right here." I say pointing again.

"But I want to see it." he says again, this time getting more agitated that I don't understand.

So I stop and say."Do you see the mountain with the snow on it? That is the volcano, but it isn't erupting now. If there was lava, it wouldn't be safe for us to be this close."

"Oh." was his reply.

It was so cute. He thought we were going to see a volcano spewing lava like in his shows. He was terribly disappointed.

It was a very fun activity to spend the day doing and the kids enjoyed getting out and seeing something new. Next time I think we will go the opposite way to the visitors center and see what it is like.

Trip to Utah

Soon after Logan's birthday we flew to Utah for a few days to visit family. While Ty was golfing, the kids, grandma Rule and I went shopping for birthday presents at Build A Bear. Logan picked out a green dragon, which was no surprise, he is fascinated with dragons and dinosaurs right now. I asked him what the dragon's name was and he said "dragon." I said "How about Firebreath?" (the dragon has fake flames coming out of it's mouth). He said, "No, Swimmin Breath." (because the dragon had on swimming trunks!). So Swimmin Breath it is. Alex's pick was no surprise either since her favorite color is pink. She picked out a pink bear. I had to convince her to pick out something for the bear to wear that wasn't pink too.

Here are the finsihed products:

After that we went to Chuck E Cheese where we had a blast playing with Aunts and a cousin. Logan especially liked riding on the monster truck. Alex had fun playing the games.

After a little rest at Grandma's house we went to Thanksgiving Point's Farm Country to see the animals and have a horse ride. There were all sorts of animals to feed and see. Logan wouldn't get his fingers too close to the goats, he ended up throwing the food at them. But he did surprise me and actually got on a horse for a ride. Alex got to ride a horse too and she had a great time. She also got to milk the cow which was pretty cool.

The rest of the trip was lots of fun too, we spent time with Ty's family playing games and catching up. Ty's brother had just bought a house and it was neat to see their new place. The trip ended with a huge surprise. The day we were to fly out, we woke up to SNOW, in late May! It wasn't just a dusting of snow, it ended up being around 3" of snow. Luckily we weren't flying out until the afternoon and it warmed up and all melted by that time. The kids went out and made a small snowman with with Grandma and caught snowflakes on their tongues.

Logan's Birthday

This past Sunday was Logan's 3rd birthday. It's hard to believe that 3 years ago I had a newborn and was living in New Mexico. That seems like a lifetime ago, but I remember it like it was yesterday. I remember being amazed at how small he was and how much he looked like Tyson. He's still a little guy, but is full of life and wit.

We started out the day by letting Logan pick out a box of cereal for breakfast and he chose Cookie Crisp. We then got all packed up and went fishing to a small lake about an hour from our house. It was stocked with trout and had nice beaches to sit on so it was great for fishing with kids. For a long time we didn't catch anything, then someone told us what he was using and we switched and we started catching fish. It also started to get cloudy and rain and that helped bring the fish into the shallower water too. We let the kids help us reel in the fish and they were excited every time the poles started wiggling. All together we caught six fish. Alex didn't want to hold on to the stringer because the fish were still wiggling, but we got her too.

The kids and I had just made cupcakes a couple of weeks before Logan's birthday, so I wanted to do something different for his birthday "cake." I decided to make him a big birthday cookie instead. He loved it!! Logan got a Geo Trax train from us, KNEX from his aunt and uncle and some balls from one of his Grandmas. He loved the train and played with it all night.

Catching up

It's been two months since my last post and a lot has happened. We've been busy with yard work, playdates and everything inbetween. It was raining on Easter so the kids had a mini egg hunt in our living room. They got some easter candy and a small toy in their baskets. Logan got a dinosaur flashlight that roars and lights when you pull a trigger. Alex got a Ken doll to go with her Barbies.

Then came the magical time of our tulips. Last fall we planted around 75 bulbs around our yard. Most of them were tulips and all but a couple came up. We bought a 50 pack of these red and yellow ones that came up and had huge heads on them and on some of them the petals fell out so it looked like a lions mane. We also planted some that looked like peonies and they were pretty too.

The kids and I went to the Tulip Festival at the Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm. They plant over 40 acres of tulips and daffodils and it is quite a sight to see them all in bloom. Some of the fields were planted the same color, but most of them were all mixed up to create an amazing array of color. They had a childrens area where the kids could play and a cow train that took them on a little ride.