February 24—Photo Flashback (A Shower, Some Beads & Cupcakes)

So, I haven’t been very good at posting lately except for the weekly scavenger hunt.  I was going to post a rant about IBS, PVC, GERD and all the other acronyms that have decided to plague me. And although I love to listen to and laugh at a good rant I wasn’t so sure everyone else did.  So, in lieu of my rant here are some photos from this past week.

On Saturday I ventured north to go to a baby shower for my SIL Shanna.  Yes—they are having a baby boy!  We were all so surprised and excited to find out they were expecting and even though Shanna said no shower we decided to spoil her anyway. 

Shanna looks barely pregnant and so cute.  Jake tries to hide those smiles, but I knew when he put on the baby blue baby backpack that he just might be a little tiny bit excited about this new little baby coming to rock his world.  Congratulations—can’t wait to meet my new little nephew.

On Monday we awoke to a glorious snowy President’s Day and two little boys without any school to entertain them for the day.  After a late breakfast we loaded all the sleds and snow clothes into the car and headed over the mountain to Nora’s cabin.  We spent the day sledding down the biggest sled run ever, eating treats, and just relaxing.  It was a fabulous day and might need a repeat before all the snow melts.

After a few days away from home we spent Tuesday doing laundry and hanging out at home.  Wesley has been into everything lately and been nicknamed the whirling dervish—he is very fast and quiet.  Anyway due to his new obsession with climbing on things he needs lots of supervised playtime or the house looks like a tornado hit it.  Miles thought he would like the beads and so we spent a good part of the morning stacking beads.

Since discovering I am gluten intolerant I’ve had a hard time finding new and yummy recipes so this week I decided to some new recipes from the Gluten Free Goddess.  Here is my favorite—stuffed peppers.  So tasty, so good, and so full of flavor.  Miles was not a fan, but Wes liked the filling and Ian asked for seconds!

Today Miles and I spent the morning making cupcakes for the Blue & Gold banquet.  Miles is a great helper, but when I went to give him a sample he ate the frosting handed me the cake and said, “I don’t like this part, it is yucky.” (no, it wasn’t gluten free, just the regular good gooey cake mix) What child of mine doesn’t like cake?  Now I do love frosting, but it is about the combination of cake and frosting.  Maybe his taste buds will figure it out as he gets older.

Scavenger Hunt Sunday- February 20 (Chocolate, a Few Fridge Magnets & Some Very Tiny Clothes)

1.  Chocolate

Went to a baby shower for my SIL this weekend and there were lots of chocolate covered yummies.  The top photo is chocolate cinnamon bears—sooo…yummy and the bottom is chocolate covered pretzel rods.  I think you could cover just about anything in chocolate and I would love it.

2.  Numbers

Wes decided to stick all of his letter and number magnets of the fridge the other day.  So glad he had found a toy to play with—lately his schedule consists of climbing on the counter, finding the laptop, emptying any drawer that opens and trying to climb into the fish tank.

3.  Canned Food

Bottled these peaches from our tree this past fall.  They are a breakfast favorite at our house.

4.  Music

Just the standard piano keyboard shot.  Check out that dust!  I bought this piano about 7 years ago when I decided to start teaching piano.  It was paid for with money I had saved up from babysitting when I was a teenager. I love the tone it has and the feel of the keys.

5.  Stack

Cleaned out the closets a few days ago and passed a bunch of little baby clothes onto my SIL.  I love having little ones around the house, but giving away those baby clothes reminds me that we are moving out of the baby stage and have so many fun memories to create with the boys as they get older.

 

Check out the other entries and “Ramblings and Photos.”

Scavenger Hunt Sunday (on Tuesday)—Cotton Balls, a Mean Green Fighting Machine, & Some Really Cute Booties

Thought I was too late to link up, but just made it.  Here are my shots for this week.

1.  Shadows

Our living room windows face south and in the winter we get this great sunlight for most of the day when it is not overcast.  On this day the boys had the tinkers out and I loved how the heart that Miles made in pre-school and then taped on the window showed up as a cute heart shaped shadow.

2.  Bright White

Kept trying to find things around the house that were “bright” white.  I soon began to realize there is very little white in my house!  So I went for the cotton balls—towels and toilet paper were my other choices.  I love how this shot turned out with the little wisp of cotton coming out of the bowl.

3.  Pattern

These towels are on my washer and dryer and I love the colors and the cute retro flower pattern.

4.  Strong

I asked Miles which superhero was the strongest.  He said the Incredible Hulk and then offered to pose for this picture.  Look at those muscles.

5.  Warmth

These cute slippers showed up in the mail a few days ago for the boys.  My cute MIL made them each a pair for Valentine’s Day.  Miles got red, Ian got blue, and baby Wes got yellow.  Wes loves them and keeps bringing then to me to put them on him.

Check out all the other great entries over at “Ramblings and Photos.”

 

 

February 6--Scavenger Hunt Sunday (A Glass House, Some Hangurbers & a Few Army Ants)

1.  Water

My kids love to soak in the tub and those little toes breaking the surface of the water were so cute I just had to snap a photo.

2.  Quote

Dropped my little boy off at his friends house and saw this cute flag—went back home for the camera and got this shot.

3.  Window

I couldn’t get any good shots of our windows at home so I took my camera and went on a window hunt. After driving around somewhat aimlessly I saw a sign for a glass house. Really, there was a sign that said “Glass House” with arrows pointing which way to go! I just about did a happy dance—lots of windows in a glass house right? It turned out the glass house was an information center for the community I had been driving around.  The nice lady at the desk told me to take as many photos as I wanted and to be sure to check out the south side of the building where there was this beautiful copper siding on the building.   There were lots and lots of windows, but my favorite shot ended up being of the copper wall (thank you desk lady).  I love the color of the worn copper and the lines in both the window and the building.

4.  Activity

Saturday at our house means $1.00 burgers, or hangurbers as Miles says, from Ab’s.

5.  Magazine

Page 25 of our latest Kids National Geographic.

February 2—While Daddy’s Home the Boys will Play

Every year at this time Dave realizes he has a whole bunch of vacation time that needs to be used up.  Now we would love to cruise the Caribbean or backpack through Tibet, but our budget limits most of his vacation time to being my personal errand runner and carpool driver.  I don’t know if it was the vacation he imagined, but I have spent a glorious week not running to the store, letting Dave take Ian to school, taking uninterrupted showers, going to the gym, and today I went out to just take some pictures for an hour. 

The kids have enjoyed sitting by daddy at lunch, playing Angry Birds on his iPhone, reading books with him, going to the store with him, watching “Mighty Machines” with him and enjoying all the goodies he brings home from the store that don’t ever make it into the cart when mommy does the shopping.

Here is Wes enjoying the BBQ potato chips that daddy brought home.  Good stuff.

More January 29—“The Dinewood Derby” or “You can help with the fun stuff”

Last Saturday was the annual Cub Scout Pinewood Derby.  This derby was for everyone, not just the scouts.  Dave and Ian decided to bang out a car and see how they would do.  Dave spent the week drilling holes for weight, sanding axels, rubbing graphite on the wheels, and spray painting.  Ian offered up advice and helped with the “fun stuff.”

On the day of the race our USU “Big Blue” race car took 1st in the children under 8 category and made a fair showing in the all-around category. 

Miles was fascinated with the whole thing and began making plans for next year.  He has decided he will win the “Dinewood Derby” with his tractor race car next year. 

January 29—Some Old Tractors, a Couple of Chickens and Lots of Photos

So, this past Saturday, before the subzero temperatures set in, I decided to take the kids over to Wheeler Farm to chase the animals and climb on the tractors.  Here are the many photos from our day at the farm.

These old tractors had so much personality.  This one looks like it has its own face with those funny headlights for eyes.

It was so muddy and Wes wanted nothing to do with the stroller so needless to say we all had two inches of mud on our shoes by the time we left.

Look at these cute boys.  I think they might even like hanging out with each other a little bit.

Oh, and look at who lost his two front teeth!  After some rough housing at the church and the help of daddy’s pliers Ian is now sporting a new smile.

Miles thought he could catch a chicken.  He probably scared them so bad that they won’t lay any eggs for weeks.

Even the blue eyes baby thought the tractors were cool!