Thursday, February 26, 2015

"Valentime's" Day


For Valentine's Day we decided to do something a little different. We were going to go cross country skiing, but then all of the snow melted. Not that I'm complaining, but seriously, when does that happen in Idaho in February? Anyway, since cross country skiing was out, we decided to go play racquetball and go out to lunch. It was so much fun!


Then that night, the two older kids got to stay up late with us and make pretzels. We originally were only going to let Ellie stay up, but when Nathan heard that Ellie was up he started crying from his bed. Sam went in to see what the matter was, and he said through big crocodile tears "I just want to stay up and help you in the kitchen." We couldn't resist that! So he got to stay up too.

We started out wanting to make heart-shaped pretzels, but we only made two of those and then resorted to pretzel bites. Much easier, and much yummier!

The recipe we use is so quick and easy! 30 minutes from start to finish.


Then on Sunday we made our traditional heart-shaped pizza for dinner. Delicious!



Happy late "Valentime" to you!

Friday, February 20, 2015

Sickie-Nathan


It's funny how kids can be acting totally normal one minute, and the next throwing up.


A few weeks ago we were having a normal day. I made play dough with the kids, and they were having tons of fun making various things. Ellie helped Nathan make this hand print, and I think this picture captures their attitudes about it perfectly. Nathan was intrigued by it, and Ellie was a proud big sister. 

Then all of a sudden, Nathan threw up out of nowhere... It was strange. But "don't worry about the play dough, Mom! I moved it out of the way!" -Ellie

So I moved him to the couch with a bowl so he could rest and tell me if he needed to throw up again.


Ellie went into "Mommy mode" and started speaking to him in the funniest baby voice. She ran to get stories to read to him, and kept saying "I'll stay right here, Nathan, so you know where I am if you need to throw up." Nathan was loving the extra attention from his big sister.



While the little guy was sick we spend lots of time doing puzzles,



reading stories,


and neglecting chores... As you can tell by the laundry in this picture. Yikes!

Thursday, February 19, 2015

Nicknames


Nicknames are funny things. They often make no sense to others, and I'm sure those who hear them in passing in public think "She named her child what?" However they come about, I think they are kind of fun, and definitely something I don't want to forget.

Ellie is "Bellie." Bellie came from Sam's epic bedtime stories. Every night he tells the kids stories about "Beavie," (Evie, my sister) "Bellie," "Jathan," and "Nonah." Sam is a dang good storyteller. I think he could make some pretty great children's books out of them.



This little guy is "Nay-Nay." Before he could say "Naphan," which is what he calls himself now, he called himself "Nay-Nay." And it kinda stuck. Funny story: We were singing Old MacDonald Had a Farm the other day in the car, and when we got to the horse and sang "a neigh neigh here, and a neigh neigh there" Ellie yelled out "Hey, I didn't know Nathan was in this song!"


And this little dude is "Donut" and "Jonah-Fett." Nathan used to say both "donut" and "Jonah" as "Donah." We started out calling him "Donah," which just morphed into "Donut." And now our nearly-one-year-old responds to the name of a delicious pastry... 

The credit for Jonah-Fett goes to Uncle Tucker. Obviously he doesn't particularly look like Boba Fett, but it just fits our round little man, don't you think?


 
Images by Freepik