Spring ain't sprung

Well, I would be lying if I said that today's snowfall didn't make me a little sad. I have been waiting for the change of seasons, and just when I thought it was here (yesterday it was 50 degrees) it began to snow, and snow, and snow. It snowed all day. But I'm not all disappointment, for I will be in TEXAS in only three days time!!

I found this comparison amusing, and I thought you all might as well.

Outside mine and Jeremy's condo in Casper:



Outside Andrew and Charlotte's house in Tyler:

Eight legs; eleven eyes

At Jack's bidding, I often draw Oswald on the Doodle Pro. Hmmm, could it be that some of you have never heard of Oswald the Octopus? This is Oswald:



He is a friendly Octopus voiced by Fred Savage, but this is not important.

After having seen me draw Oswald (see image)...


...Jack felt he was up for the challenge. Here is a video of Jack drawing Oswald the Octopus (after he attempts tracing his hand).


Note: I have seen him draw Oswald better and I have seen him draw Oswald much much worse.

Hiya, Daddy!

These are just a couple of videos from Easter.

Hippity, hoppity

Yesterday it snowed all morning and all afternoon. The snow didn't stick, but how bizarre it was shopping for Eastery things with snow falling all around. I was out shopping, trying to find a sweater to go with the Easter dress my mom bought for Evie. Everywhere I went I saw short sleeved dresses, but nary a sweater was found. Casper is a very stubborn city. It wants it to be spring and will not accept the fact that winter is still upon us.

Today it was not snowing, but it was about 40 degrees, and pretty windy. Thankfully, the sun was out so we were still able to take Jack out to the little play area for his first egg hunt! Jeremy went out ahead of time to hide the eggs. With the wind blowing so wildly, several of the eggs were tossed to new hiding places. At first Jack just wanted to play with the eggs, but he quickly caught on to the game. He seemed so excited, searching and searching for more eggs to put in his basket.






(Daddy and Evie cheering on the little egg hunter)

Oh yeah, I almost forgot:


(Evie is always sticking her tongue out.)







We had a very good Easter. I really look forward to teaching my kids what Easter is really all about, but for now, the dressing up and the egg hunts are pretty fun, but mostly cute.




In Christ Alone
by Stuart Townsend

In Christ alone my hope is found,
He is my light, my strength, my song;
this Cornerstone, this solid Ground,
firm through the fiercest drought and storm.
What heights of love, what depths of peace,
when fears are stilled, when strivings cease!
My Comforter, my All in All,
here in the love of Christ I stand.

In Christ alone! who took on flesh
Fullness of God in helpless babe!
This gift of love and righteousness
Scorned by the ones he came to save:
Till on that cross as Jesus died,
The wrath of God was satisfied -
For every sin on Him was laid;
Here in the death of Christ I live.

There in the ground His body lay
Light of the world by darkness slain:
Then bursting forth in glorious Day
Up from the grave he rose again!
And as He stands in victory
Sin's curse has lost its grip on me,
For I am His and He is mine -
Bought with the precious blood of Christ.

No guilt in life, no fear in death,
This is the power of Christ in me;
From life's first cry to final breath.
Jesus commands my destiny.
No power of hell, no scheme of man,
Can ever pluck me from His hand;
Till He returns or calls me home,
Here in the power of Christ I'll stand.

A mop, no more.

Eat it, sucker!

Kudos to Hannah who bought me this book for Christmas. She knew that Jack was a very picky eater and she thought it may help me out. Basically, it is a cookbook with recipes that incorporate different types of purees-- containing all sorts of healthy stuff-- carrots, spinach, blueberries, wheat germ, cauliflower...

At first I just did some pretty simple stuff that seemed to work well enough. A puree of sweet potatoes and carrots added to boxed Macaroni and Cheese. Jack didn't blink at it-- he ate it right up. The other day I made a strawberry smoothie with avocado, which the author calls "Breakfast Ice Cream". Now Jack keeps asking for what he calls "purple ice cream." Now I've been pureeing like crazy! The other day I made double baked potatoes with cauliflower and cucumber and chicken tenders with wheat germ, carrots and sweet potatoes. And I just made the most surprisingly delicious recipe yet. Brownies with wheat germ, spinach and blueberries.

And I can just hear my little mini food processor rejoicing at his new found purpose.

All this to say a very public thank you to Hannah (... and Jordan?) for my newest recipe book. It really appeals to my sneaky nature. I plan on buying the author's other book soon.

If you're lame and don't care about my sneaky cooking, maybe these new pictures of sweet little Evie will appease you:

Toothbrush attacks!

Based on the comments on my last blog, I'm going to assume that's it ok for me to post another video. This is something I've been wanting to post for a while-- mainly for Andrew and Andrea, who are well acquainted (or at least Andrew is) with the song Jack is singing in the video. It's a song we sing to him every night when we brush his teeth, but it's much better when he sings it. I'll post the lyrics at the bottom for those of you who are unfamiliar with it.





"The Toothbrush Tango"
from Blues Clues

The time has come
to make our teeth shine bright
We do it every night
To wash away the apple and the mango
(or whatever else you had to eat)
We do the toothbrush tango

We start with paste,
But just a little
We brush the sides
and then the middles
We clean the backs*
The tops and bottoms
Doin' the toothbrush tango
Brush all around, and round
Don't forget to
RINSE AND SPIT!

(Jeremy has substituted this with "toothbrush attacks" so that's what Jack sings)

God has papers too.

When I was younger my Mom used to sing a song from Music Machine to me and my siblings to help fight impatience (Who am I kidding, she still does.)

Have patience
Have patience
Don't be in such a hurry
When you get impatient
You only start to worry
Remember, remember
that God is patient too
And think of all the times when others
Have to wait on you


Well, I guess it really carried over to my parenting style, but I sing this to Jack anytime he is having a hard time waiting for me to bring him his food, or his milk, or whatever. Well, this morning I was making Jack some special Valentines Day Malt-O-Meal (pink sprinkles on top in the shape of a heart.) He was impatiently whining so I said "hold on, Jack. It's almost done." To my surprise he started singing the song! Normally he won't perform for me when I try filming him, but he agreed to sing the Patience song for the camera. Then as soon as I finished filming him, he wanted to pray for his food, so I hit record again.

Disclaimer: Many of you may find the following videos boring. I am, more than anything, posting them for family members that do not get to witness the everyday goings on of my children.





In case you can't tell, he mumbles thanks for Daddy, Mommy and Evie and then says "Amen" at the end. It's funny b/c with the rush of trying to get food on the table and Jack and Evie in their highchairs, and appeasing Evie while we eat, we often forget to pray for the food-- but Jack always reminds us. He holds out his hands (to be held) and says "pray."

The hard thing about being a mom is trying to decide between what other people may agree is adorable and what others may find completely boring. I think this next video can go either way, but I'm posting it anyway! Evie just starting eating soft little food, like crackers and fruit and veggie puffs. I think it is so cute when babies eat, just awkwardly smacking their gums. So...like it or don't.

The sound of silence.

I know that I haven't blogged in a while, but I do have excuses. Good excuses too, I think. Jeremy has been gone a lot for work and Jack has been having some sleeping problems. So I've basically either been busy taking care of the kids by myself, or else extremely exhausted because of my lack of sleep.

Since we got back from our Texas trip at the beginning of January, Jack has been really struggling with going to bed-- for naps and at night time. He switched to a toddler bed a while back and was doing fine, but when we went to Texas he slept in a room with Jeremy. He also had an ear infection around that time, so when we got home, we kind of assumed his sleeping problems were a result of the pain in his ear.

Well, his ear healed and he was giving us just as much trouble, if not more. He started resisting any form of bedtime, and was waking up crying at all hours of the night. He then started becoming very crafty with his methods of getting us to come back to his room. He would either cry out "pray!", making us think he wanted us to pray for him, but when we went back there, he didn't want that at all, he just wanted us to take him out of his room. Then he would say things like "hug", "water", "itch" (he has very dry skin so I'm often relieving the itch with some Aveeno lotion). Well, he then started with a pretty brilliant strategy: turning his light on. The problem with the light is that we would HAVE to go turn it off, b/c we knew he wouldn't go to sleep with it on. We tried hugging him and praying for him and laying him back down-- we then tried speaking harshly to him "don't turn your light on!" and then disciplining him for turning his light on. Any kind of attention we gave only made him cry for us more. Then he started chucking his blanket, pillow, monkey and sippy cup of water over his gate. We didn't know what to do about this either b/c we didn't think he would go to sleep without all of his stuff. Well, he is crafty, but his father is even craftier. Jeremy came up with the idea of unhooking the light switch in his room. We had already thought of taking his light bulbs out, but he has the great big florescent light bulbs in his room and it would be quite a hassle. Then we thought of just turning off the breaker in his room, but that would mean losing access to all electricity in his room, and we need that for his night light and his cd player. So, last night was our first night with this new approach, and Jack got really angry when he realized he couldn't turn his light on-- he chucked all his stuff out of his room and cried for a long time, but eventually he gave up and went to sleep.

Game, set, match.

I later went in his room and put his stuff back in his bed, and put his blanket back on him-- and I also played a white noise CD on repeat (thought it may help him sleep better). He slept until 5:00-- woke up crying and we let him cry for a while without going to him. He fell back asleep and slept until 7:30! When Evie woke up a little after 7, I went to get her and saw that all of Jack's stuff was outside of his room. So I went and put it all back and put his blanket back on him. He woke up happy and much more rested than he has been for a while. Then the greatest part of all... tonight when Jeremy and I laid him down to sleep for the night, he sat with us, let us read books to him, let us pray with him, and he laid down smiling-- and did not cry once. So I think the whole "jack sleeping issue" has been resolved-- and not a minute too soon. I was getting close to my wit's end. It got so difficult that there were nights when I was so exhausted and frustrated that I would just sit and cry.

Jeremy is my hero.



This lack of blogging means that I haven't posted a video that I have been meaning to post for a while. It's of Evie... growling.



It's dangerous waiting to post videos of kids when they're Evie's age b/c they learn things so quickly-- so she's really not even the same as she was in this video. I think she's even moved past her growling phase.

Also, she now has two teeth-- they are kind of growing in unfortunate places -- well, I mean they are in her mouth (Man, that would be very unfortunate if they were growing somewhere else, like on her shoulder). But she has the front lower right tooth, and she's now getting the front upper right tooth. She's going to look like she got into a bar fight if she doesn't hurry up and get the other ones soon. Jack always grew his teeth very evenly. Always two (or more) at a time. He had as many teeth as Evie has the day he turned 3 months old-- and Evie's 7 1/2 months now.

I guess I can add a few pictures. I took these pictures today. Jack refused to take off his ski cap when he went to nursery this morning (I've had to refer to toboggans as "ski caps" here b/c apparently these crazy people refer to sleds as "toboggans." Crazy, I know!) As you can see, Jack's long hair has started producing some pretty impressive hat head.






Ok, so sorry about all the rambling up there. I'm done now, I swear.

Have a good day.

All you need is vuv.

In my last post, I told you all about Jack's obsession with the book "Goodnight Moon." When talking about his habit of reading through the book I said "it quickly became one of our favorite things he does." Well, now it has gotten to the point where... I wouldn't say I'm annoyed with him for reading the book, but I certainly wouldn't mind throwing it out of a window every once in a while. Jack doesn't understand the meaning of the word "moderation." Really, Jack doesn't understand the meaning of a lot of four syllable words, but especially the word "moderation." He "reads" it over and over again, then wants us to read it. And he certainly doesn't need the book-- he carries "Goodnight Moon" around in his head, reciting it as we walk down the hall, reciting it as I give him a bath, reciting it as we go through the store. Then today I pulled up my blog and he saw the little video window and said "'night mooon... again!" So I played it for him. As soon as it was over... "again!" I played that video for him at least ten times. Sometimes he just sat and watched it smiling. Other times he recited along with it. So, I guess you could say, I'm up to my ears in Goodnight Moon. Someone told me "it's just a phase." I thought "well, of course." Then it made me laugh as I imagined Jack walking around town as a twenty-three year old man, shouting out lines from "Goodnight Moon." Then it made me sad, and a little concerned.

In the midst of his current obsession, he has found time to say other things-- one of which: "I vuv you!" For a while I could get him to repeat after me and say "I"..."LOVE"..."YOU!" But, when he says it now he just rushes and says "I vuv you, Mommy", or "I vuv you, Daddy" or "I vuv you, Evie"... these are usually accompanied by him kissing the receiver's cheek.

Zzzz! It's cold here.

According to weather.com:

9°F
Feels Like
-10°F

Jackamo's latest obsession

You will not find anything Jack is more obsessed with than the book, "Goodnight Moon." Jeremy and I have been reading "Goodnight Moon" to Jack since he was, oh, about this old:



Within the past few weeks, Jack began reciting the whole book. When we realized what he was doing, it quickly became one of our favorite things he does. I really wish we had taped it earlier because now it has become so second nature for him that he rushes through it as fast as he can.

Well, here is the video. Please to be enjoying it.

I may as well.

Merry Christmas.

"It's got scallions!"

Well everyone, it's official: I'm a grown-up. (As though the husband and two children weren't enough of a tip-off.) This year I was forced to cook Thanksgiving dinner all by myself. And no, I don't mean that Jeremy told me "make a turkey or beat it!" We were unable to go to Texas for Thanksgiving, so the cooking duties fell upon me. Amy... the girl who's duties of Thanksgivings past include opening cans, writing names on plastic cups, putting ice in plastic cups, and of course-- "preparing" the cranberry sauce. (Speaking of which, I was very angry when I realized that of all the food I made for this year's feast, I forgot the cranberry sauce-- clearly the easiest thing of all.)

While the food certainly wasn't the best we've ever had, I was proud of myself and Jeremy was nice enough to act enthusiastic about the dry turkey and poorly made gravy.

Oh yeah, and kudos to Jeremy on his first adventure in turkey-carving.



Of course, Evie can't speak yet and Jack hasn't gotten very good at it yet, but if they could speak I would imagine these are the things they would say they are most thankful for.

Evie: My big brother.


Jack: Mr. Potato Head.


You can't imagine Jack's enthusiasm when we pointed out the Mr. Potato Head float in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. After he gave the on-screen Mr. Potato Head a kiss, he went and grabbed his Mr. Potato Head's pieces and tried to attach them to the floating Mr. Potato Head.

The Vindictive State

Not counting the year and a half I spent in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, I lived in Texas my whole life. So it's not surprising to me that Texas is a little angry with me for moving to Wyoming. September marked an entire year of absence between me and the great state. When we journeyed back in October, I started feeling like some force was acting against me and Jeremy. I guess it all started with Jack getting ill-- which meant two fairly sleepless nights for me and Jeremy. The day before we flew back home we were to attend a wedding of one of my dearest friends. Well, because of a combination of problems (Sick/tired Jack, a pretty bad traffic jam, another but even more hellish traffic jam, a rainstorm, foul directions from googlemaps, a near wardrobe catastrophe) we ended up being TWO AND A HALF hours late for a wedding. Now, I know I'm not the most punctual duck in the pond, but this really takes the cake and throws it out the window.

Well, a week ago, I returned to Texas for a wedding of another dear friend. In addition to an extremely exhausting journey that I was making on three hours sleep, the airline lost my luggage, adding about an hour of waiting time in the baggage claim terminal. My mother then tries to take me home but because of traffic we didn't end up getting to her house until 9 o'clock, when I had originally figured we'd be there around 5. Well, I still hadn't gotten my luggage on Saturday, the day of the wedding, so I was on a mad hunt for clothes to wear to the wedding-- trying to make it to the church early so I could help. Well, the rest of the weekend was great until I rode back to Dallas with my sister. Traffic... unfortunately timed exit... franticly trying to make my flight... but it was too late. I whispered "OK, Texas, I'm sorry I moved to Wyoming!" The clouds parted and they put me on standby for the next flight back to Denver which was way underbooked.

Anyway, that was long and drawn out and I don't even think it fully conveys the frustration those two trips afforded, but the pleasure they afforded was far greater.


Well, significant milestones occurred today in the lives of my children.

1)For Jack's afternoon nap, he fell asleep on his own in his toddler bed. Then tonight after I read him his night-night book, he said "Car! Car!" and ran to his toddler bed and pulled the blanket up over himself. I said "all right, but if you get out you'll have to sleep in your crib." And that was it. He's now sleeping peacefully in his car-bed.

2) Evie began SCOOCHING today! Unreal. Just a little earlier than Jack, but I wasn't even thinking that crawling may be close for her. Anyhow, she effectively scooched at least two feet earlier today. I think she may have scooched further had the book she wanted been further from her. Anyhow, it was pretty neat.

Oh, dang.

My kids are growing up.

With that I'll say: Enjoy a few pictures and a video. Especially the pictures... but ESPECIALLY the video.



(In this picture, Jack was using Jeremy as a Mr. Potato Head substitute.)






(Notice after the first roll-over Jack's scamp battle cry: "Taaaaaa!!!!" )

Deliberately duplicated

I haven't had any time to blog lately, but I thought it was high-time I posted something. Here are some side-by-side pictures of Jack and Evie, in which they are both four months old.





*Jack's eyes are still blue in this picture, I think the darkness has to do with the fact that it was taken when I still used a film camera-- and also, it seems his eyes were a darker blue than Evie's are.

**It's interesting seeing how much the colors on the blanket have faded in two years.

It's not everyday that your young man turns 2, is it?

Jack's birthday was yesterday. I don't know if I'm supposed to think that is weird b/c "it seems like only yesterday that we brought him home from the hospital", but it doesn't. To me he seems exactly the age he should be. Anyhow, we had the good fortune of celebrating his birthday with our family and friends in Tyler last week. Yesterday we didn't do too much. We were going to have cake and let him open presents, but Jeremy actually didn't get home from work until after Jack went to bed (fortunately, Jack is still at the age where he doesn't understand the significance of birthdays.) So he opened several of his presents today. I feel I should mention his new favorite toy, a "trike" that Johnnie and Tammy bought him. He was very sad to part with it when he went to bed.


*Notice the little thing sticking out of Jack's right ear-- that's Mr. Potato Head's ear.

I haven't really had time to blog about it, but we had an amazing time visiting family and friends in Texas. For those of you who don't know, I hadn't been back to Texas for over a year-- and more significantly, hadn't seen either of my brothers in that time. Ridiculous, really. It's crazy how short a week feels when I'm there. I would have to stay at least a month to feel like I really got to see everyone enough. When I'm with you guys, it makes me ache to think that is what I'm missing, but it also makes me value that time so much more. Y'all are truly the salt of the earth.

As Andrew mentioned in the Allen Girls blog, the most significant part of the trip was several people meeting Evie for the first time, and us meeting Alexa for the first time. Also for the three elder cousins to be reunited! I really can't explain the intense cuteness when all of those kids are in the room. It's not healthy.









Gosh, I have so much more to mention-- seeing the Gunter Clan, our INSANE trip to Pidge's wedding... but I hear Evie needing me, so I must go.


All right Jack, send us off with a song.

Driving Ms. Evie

She laughs!

Today Evie had her first laugh! Oh man, there is nothing quite like that sound. I grabbed the camera and caught her laughing a little bit, but nothing ever compares to the first one.

Alphamabet

Jack sings the alphabet song... sort of.



Note: The very expensive universal remote that Jack is holding in this video, was thrown, by him, (the day after I filmed this) into our kitchen sink which was, regrettably, filled with water.

Jack can't admit he's getting old

Jack 15 months ago:



Jack yesterday: