More Yellowstone Pictures

Quick Trip to Yellowstone

Last Sunday we took a drive with my parents to Yellowstone to spend the day. Even with all the snow they still have it was a beautiful day, as you can see the boys enjoyed their first day wearing shorts! And with shorts comes scratched up knees...like Owens, OUCH! We drove up to Old Faithful Geiser, it's the only road open right now, and got to see quite a few animals out enjoying the day, as well. It was a great day and we can't wait for summer to fully get here for more fun outside...finally!

Earth!, Updated

I was premature in posting a picture last night. I was just so glad to get the wallpapering aspect complete. Anyway here's the project finished. Except we'll probably put a coat of polyurethane on the frame right before we leave town next.

I also came to understand that I made a big mistake in this project. I took out a wall outlet (so the map would be flush) and falsely believed I was okay to just clip the wires and wrap the loose ends in electrical tape to be safe. What I didn't realize was that, like a string of old Christmas lights, this outlet was part of a line of outlets. So when I clipped those wires, I broke the circuit, and now the fixture and outlet in the next room don't work. To correct this, I've got to wire the whole room over again or reconnect those loose ends from the outlet. And to do that I'll have to go through the wall, behind the map. So I'm going to try and bust open the box from the other side in the pink room, cause, well, we're going to repaint that room anyway so who cares if I have to do some wall repair there.

Anyway we're talking about a length-of-the-room long strip of corkboard for the wall opposite this one. We'll see what we decide. Other projects in the meantime.

Earth!

We are midway through Project #2 in the boys' room. Earth. (Picture is blurry because it's 11:30PM and the room is dark and the boys are asleep; the camera flashed but didn't focus). This map is about ten feet wide by a little over six feet tall. Came in three panels. There were lots of "little jobs" that had to be done to get it up. Removing a socket, filling the hole where it was at, applying primer, and then lining up each panel perfectly. Also measuring and marking where everything was supposed to go. It should have been simple math but turned out to get a little more complicated.

The next step is to put a frame around the edges (mostly to keep the boys from picking it off the wall). Then we'll paint the remainder of the wall. Green. Then we'll be done with the project. Next up (not necessarily in this order)-- an electric train set that circles the room (maybe tunnels through into the next? Not sure yet), a touchscreen built into the wall (Sesame Street's website has educational games), and who knows what we'll do with the other walls. We've toyed with a few ideas. Suggestions welcome.

Also, the boys have the planets all memorized now.

Space!

The project took a lot longer than planned, but we're fairly pleased with the (semi) final result. We used about three times as much paint as we had expected to get the ceiling navy blue, and about triple the anticipated time for that part alone. We replaced the fixture with one more spherical and "sun-like", and put in a bug bulb that burns yellow instead of white. Then we took some string and chalk and measured out the orbits of each of the planets. We included Pluto even though it got voted out of the planet club. It came in the set. Anyway the orbits aren't perfect because they aren't perfectly circular but I wasn't about to try and get it THAT accurate. After we drew the scale orbits (which, by the way, are 100 million km per inch, e.g. Pluto sits 59 inches from the "sun", which means Pluto's orbit is about 5.9 billion km away). It got tricky with the four inner planets because they're all within about four inches of the lamp. After the planets we added ten constellations but again, were limited with a rectangular flat ceiling and had to improvise since we didn't have the sky. It's pretty accurate. Then we tossed in the glow in the dark stars cause, well, we wanted more glowy stuff.

Now for the rest of the room...

One more time!

We had yet another winter snowstorm this past Saturday! We didn't mind it so much this time though. We got about 6 inches that morning and it was the most perfect snowman snow I've ever seen so of course we had to get outside and make us one last snowman for the year. As you can see, Nick and I were only in sweatshirts and we were still pretty hot from being outside and playing so it was nice, plus just a few days later it was completely gone! Spring here we come!

Back from the dead

I wish that I could say that after three full weeks of being miserably sick that we're all doing great now...but I can't. Although we're all feeling leaps and bounds better than we have been Jack was sent home from daycare today yet again. I couldn't even tell you how many days Nick and I have taken off work in the last month and it's really killing us. Today they called Nick saying Jack had been throwing up and that he couldn't be there anymore, so Nick picks him up and he's acting completely normal but sure enough a few hours later he started throwing up again. It's weird because, like I said, he's completely normal except that he's throwing up. He's been playing all day and happy like nothing was wrong, so frustrating! But amidst all of this there have been some fun things going on that I haven't been able to get up on the blog until now.

First and foremost, Owen and Jack turned 3 last week! Happy Birthday! Thank you so much to all of you who sent cards and gifts for them, they were seriously so excited about everything! Wednesday's are busy days for us just because Nick and I both work all day so we were bummed that we couldn't do a whole lot for their birthday. We woke them up that morning singing happy birthday to them with a cupcake and candles to blow out- can't you see how thrilled they were!





Once they got to the eating part they perked up quite a bit.





Nick picked them up to take them out to lunch later that day and they decided they wanted to eat hamburgers in Dad's new car (which they love) and they wanted Dad to sit in the back and them to sit in the front. They're so funny when they give such specific instructions to us. After that I got off work for a bit and we took them to their favorite park that they affectionately refer to as "barf park". (Last summer Owen got violently ill while at that park and threw up more than Nick's ever seen, so he says)



They love to climb up this rock wall and they have a really tall "super slide" that the boys like. After that it was back to work and daycare, kind of a bummer but I think they still had some fun.

I'm SICK of this...

Our family has literally been sick for weeks. We are so miserable right now, probably me the most since I have three boys to take care of plus myself. We've been to the doctor but nothing has been helping and I don't know how much more I can take, not that I really have much of a choice though. It's amazing how much medicine the four of us has consumed in the past few weeks. Everyone at my work, Nick's work and daycare are sick, as well, so it seems there's no end in sight. To make it worse we've been so busy! My grandma died last week so we were busy preparing for and having the funeral, we had family in town, my work is having this huge Medicaid audit that we've been working on, we've been trying to buy a house, and we've both had to take time off of work to stay home with the boys. Way too much! One bit of exciting news though.....my sister's pregnant! Yay! We're so excited for them. I'm especially excited to finally be an aunt that's remembered! I adore my little nieces and nephew in Oregon but we don't get to see them nearly enough to have them really remember who I am! Jessi only lives about 20 minutes away from us right now so we get to be with them quite often. So there's our update, not too exciting for the most part; we just really hope we're all better by next week so we can celebrate Jack and Owen turning 3! Keep your fingers crossed for us!

I'm in LoVe

Although I have the biggest sweet tooth I've never enjoyed Hershey kisses much, the exception being their seasonal candy cane kisses. Well, my co-worker, Christine, and I have taken it upon ourselves to always keep the office candy dish full and the other day she brought in the most delicious kisses I've ever had!

If you're a cheesecake fan you've got to try them!

OCD?

Yummy Fun!

I was super excited to walk into daycare last week to see a sign up sheet for Valentine treats! I had been looking for a good reason to make a bunch of cupcakes but not necessarily eat them all...and I would have if I hadn't take then somewhere. Wednesday night I invited Ellie over to help make and decorate the yummy treats, didn't we do an awesome job? Now, I'm not normally a great baker but these turned out seriously perfect. I took a bunch into work with me, also, and everyone commented on how great they were! Jack and Owen wanted to help out, too, but mostly with the eating part- they take after their mamma.

The other thing my co-workers swooned over were my handsome little boys! I hadn't been at work very long when I heard the all familiar voice of Jack calling out for me. When I looked around I saw him with a huge smile on his face holding tulips to give me. So sweet!

I hope everyone had a great holiday and I must say I was impressed (and excited) to see that so many of you updated your blogs! Yay!

The RIDICULOUS weather in Idaho

Yesterday was absolutely beautiful! I even foolishly wondered if it were possible that the snow was done for the year. The boys were so excited because I've been telling them all winter that once all the snow was gone we could start playing at the park again and all that was ledt were the big piles of frozen snow left over from plowing parking lots. This morning I walked out the door to go to work at 7:45 and just had to smile because it was so nice outside I didn't even need to take my coat. Fast forward to 1 pm when I got off work.....




WHAT????? I am so angry and disappointed! Where did this come from and why oh why does Idaho have to be like this? I assure you it'll be this way until April TWO MORE MONTHS! And to make it even worse, I have an eye infection which means I am stuck wearing glasses for a while. So all the snow's doing is sticking to my glasses and blurring everything. Nice. I hope all you with nicer weather will enjoy it for me!

No David!

For Christmas Jack and Owen's cousins gave them a couple "David" books and they've quickly became their favorite bedtime books to read. They're so funny with their books. We read the same ones over and over so many times that they can now recited most of them to us! They especially love to tell us what David's doing wrong in each of the pictures...too bad it hasn't helped them to have better behavior themselves! The other funny thing they do now is when they're playing downstairs they tell me (and each other) that they're going to David's house to play, which is usually by the front or back door. How funny is that?
Thanks Ava and Eliza for the fun books!

BIG Helpers

I forgot I had these pictures. A couple weeks ago we were getting ready for bed and the boys decided they wanted to do everything. They picked out their jammies, their diapers (yes, they have an incredible preference as to which Mickey Mouse diaper they wear) and even decided they were going to change each other....diaper and all! They were pretty cute helping each other out and it gives me great hope that since they'll be older when we finally have another baby that they'll be just as excited to help out!

They still don't like each other all the time, but what siblings do? I can't say it enough but they are growing up so fast that I can't even imagine what it'll be like just a year from now. They started going to daycare in the mornings and have loved it, which makes me so happy that they don't hate being there. They get to make fun crafts, make some friends, and it's about the only time they get out of the house since it's so cold here!

My Mid-Twenties

I may be one of the few adults who love their birthday! Maybe it's something I should give up, though- they never seem to turn out the way I expect them to. Take this year, for example. I honestly didn't expect much to begin with but then Nick surprised me with a quick trip to Las Vegas since we were already in St. George for Christmas! I was so excited! A night away from the kids, in Vegas nonetheless, was going to b great! Okay, so the drive took an hour longer than it should have because of construction but we were soon at our hotel and ready to go. The hotel, itself, was great. We had stayed there the year before on our way to California so we already knew we'd like it. We walked around the hotel for a while and soon we were headed out for dinner. This brings us to the first huge disappointment. I had never had a bad meal in Vegas before so we were pretty confident we could go just about anywhere and have a great meal. Wrong! We were at a pretty nice newer hotel and I could barely swallow three bites of mine. The hotel did have an awesome aquarium, though, so that was fun. We then head back to our hotel to plan out the rest of our night. Oh the plans we had, we were in Vegas after all. Did I mention how amazing the bed was in our room? It was so amazing, in fact, that we were both out of it by about 9:30 that night. Great huh? We drive all that way and spend the $$$ to be in bed before 10pm!

We made up for it by getting up at 5am for $1 bowling.

I assure you, though, that Vegas does indeed sleep- do you see anyone else bowling at 5am?

All in all it really was an enjoyable birthday, how often do we get a night to ourselves? And I mean an entire night of uninterrupted sleep- NEVER! So thanks for the surprise Nick, I really did love it, especially since it was with you! I love you!
I am now 24 and feel both old and young. 5 years ago seems like a lifetime ago, it's amazing how much has changed in my life and everything I've gone through in that time period. I wonder if I'll feel the same way about the next 5 years. I can't imagine where my life will be by then. I hope I will continue to learn and live not only with my family but as an individual, as well. And hopefully our family will have grown some by that time! Fingers crossed! You can't so no forever Nick! Here's to birthdays!

What happened to Christmas?

Christmas, for me, is that magical day that I get totally excited for at least 6 weeks in advance. I absolutely love it and seriously don't remember EVER having a bad Christmas. Of course there were those teenage years where it was so un-cool having to spend so much time with your family and not hanging out with friends but even then I couldn't help having fun and making lasting memories. That all came to a screeching halt this year, however. Throwing up Christmas Eve and Christmas day and having Owen join me made this Christmas quite memorable...in the worst way possible. So when I woke up the day after Christmas, finally feeling better, I felt pretty bummed I had missed Christmas entirely! I'm especially bummed because I don't even have many pictures to remember the good parts of the holiday! I was able to get a few on my fun new camera, though!

Jack was so sweet to his mommy and kept giving me kisses.

One of their favorite gifts was a drill just like daddy's!

Owen loves his safety glasses!

Valuable Lessons

If you ask Jack or Owen what they want to eat for any particular meal they normally have one of two responses 1. NOODLES! and 2. PANCAKES! I went with noodles for dinner last night. I spent most of the meal trying to teach them to eat their spaghetti over their bowl so that the noodles didn't get all over them and the table...and do you see any noodles on the table by Owen? No! Jack on the other hand...failed, if only I had taken a picture of that one.

Our Little Home

Even though I'm still in the process of getting Christmas stuff up I thought I'd get some pictures posted of our new place while it's somewhat clean! The dishes in the sink are even clean! Here's the inside of our front door, pretty exciting stuff...
Here's the front room...not quite sure where to hang up our stockings though. Last year I finally bought cute hangers for them but now I have no place to put them. Overall we're pretty happy with where we are (except for the heating bills we haven't had to pay until now!) and it's kinda nice not having such a huge place to clean up!
As you can see, Owen tried to get into every picture I took, if only he would smile. Off from the front room is the dining area/kitchen and that door leads to our 5x5 ft concrete slab a.k.a. the backyard.
Not a great shot but this was taken from the front door so you can kinda see the layout of the house.
And here's Jack and Owen's "space room" that is hardly done. It's harder to make a cute room when you have to stick with stark white walls.
So there's more rooms in the house but that's the end of the clean ones :) they're not very important anyways. And even though we no longer have a guest room we have awesome couches to sleep on if anyone wants to come visit!

Sunday afternoon out

We've been wanting to get some family pictures done for a while now and it's getting colder every day so we thought we'd go have a nice day out and take some finally. Not sure if they'll make the Christmas card but they're not bad! This is Owen's usual face, can you feel the love?




I think the beginning of winter in Idaho is especially ugly with nothing on the trees and all the color fading away. Maybe when we get some snow we'll get some better shots....except then we'll all be in coats and hats.

The Many Faces of...

Who knew these two little guys could have so many different moods! I think having 2 two year olds is about as close as I'm ever gonna get to having a girl! One minute they're happy and laughing about everything and the next minute one of them is screaming and stomping his feet while the other is sobbing and pounding his fists into the floor. It's hard to find the joy in parenting at these moments. But when I get moments like these pictures somehow it doesn't matter anymore. And YES I've gotten their hair cut since these were taken!

When's Halloween?

Well.....I decided to take the easy route for Halloween this year- ready made costumes! I'm so glad they love them but now they won't take them off!