Coen's 2nd Birthday

We had a great day!  It started out with donuts for breakfast & inflatable letters spelling out Happy Birthday.  Reagan spent the whole morning telling Coen all the different things it said.  They were a big hit!  Then they helped me make Coen's nomie cake.  I let them lick the bowl and I still haven't got all the chocolate out of Coen's hair.  It was a team effort, but eventually they got both candles blown out.

We had some friends come over for dinner.  We had breakfast, since his other favorite food- tomato soup or corn dogs- just didn't feel appropriate to feed guests.  Both of the kids that came over are younger than Coen.  He and Reagan just love talking baby talk to them, barking at them, having them fetch things and telling them that they are so cute.  I can't believe I didn't get pictures with all of them.

Coen really didn't have any idea what was going on, but he did have fun opening presents.  Reagn enjoyed helping him!  She didn't get to open as many as she wanted to, but who does?  This is the one shot I got of him looking at me.

He and Reagan are having great "fun" fighting over this today.  Yippee!  Thanks Oma & Opa & Nanie & Poppy for the presents.  We saved you some frosty the nomie cake, so come and get it while it's fresh!

Totally Bored!

Poor kids!  They have the most boring parents in the world!

We've been trying to get ready for the baby, so the kids have had to occupy themselves a lot while we paint and rearrange.  Nick finished painting the living room and I have finished about half of the boys room.  Hopefully I'll be able to finish it today.  They've had to invent this game where they each get a gift bag over their head and then run around.  Coen runs into things all the time.  He thinks it's hysterical!  Reagan is more cautious and peeks often.

Reagan actually ate an entire piece of pizza without me once telling her to eat.  It was a journal entry dinner.  Coen ate most of his- with lots of reminders to eat, but at least they enjoyed themselves.

We've finally moved Reagan into the play room.  We bought a bed from friends who were moving.  Reagan now tells people she sleeps in Jack's bed, which gets us weird looks.  One day it will be Reagan's bed.  The first night that the kids were separated I stood in the living room and listened.  Coen started calling for me, then Wall-e, and then Reagan.  As soon as he said Reagan, she was out of her door and running to his.  I caught her and sent her back to bed.  She kept saying, but he needs me.  It was sweet.  

Here it is.  We finally bought a couch.  So now when you come visit, you don't have to sit on the floor.  Congratulations!  We did this for you!

Price

We were excited to see Tati & Kenzie while we were in Price.  Reagan had so much fun with her cousins!!!  When you put these 3 very strong willed girls together there are usually lots of fireworks, but they played really well together.  In this picture they had just finished dressing Reagan up as Ariel (with a bed skirt they found in the attic and the earrings from the tree) and were parading her around the house.

Here they are decorating cookies for Santa.  (Those are potatoes in the picture not cookies.)  Santa ate them all except 2 small bites and drank all the water Reagan insisted that he wanted.  She was right, he just guzzled it down!

Stacey and Kim gladly doing their job as quality control experts.  By the way, while in Price we made 5 batches of popcorn balls (about 100 total) and they were all eaten before we left.  I didn't get even one.

Nanie bought the girls a Cinderella puzzle to do.  They worked really hard and got it done in just an hour or two.  Man, were they proud of themselves! 

Poppy had a birthday while we were there (apparently only his 39th), so we were lucky enough to celebrate with him.  He hooked a toboggan up behind his tractor and spent the morning taking all the grandkids on rides.  I'll post pictures of that when I get them from Nanie.  In his honor I am about to tell you his new favorite story.  

We went to church in Price with Nanie & Poppy the Sunday before Christmas.  As Reagan and I are entering the chapel she starts saying, fairly quietly, "I hate this place."  As we get closer to our seats (which of course were at the very front) she got progressively louder until she is yelling "Get me out of here!  I hate this place!"  I just dropped off the diaper bag, grabbed Nanie's car keys and we kept right on walking out the door with her still yelling "Get me out of here!  I hate this place!"  We had the whole place laughing.  I promise, I do take her to church!  This was not some scary place she'd never been to before.  While we were in the car waiting for her to calm down, I found that she wanted to show Hailey her church, not Nanie & Poppy's.  We did finally make it into church, but not in time for the sacrament and the rest of our time there was pretty uneventful, thank goodness.

I'll post more Christmas pictures as I get them.  We hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas too!

Good Morning Snow

This is what we woke up to.  It only took Nick about an hour to shovel the driveway so he could go to work.  It will probably only take another hour of shoveling when he gets home to get back into the garage.  If you look really close you can see the top of Reagan's head by the garage door.

Standing snow angels

I've fallen and I can't get up!!!  But I have all this lovely snow to eat, yeah!!!  We had to come in shortly after this when Coen did a face plant in the mountain and couldn't handle the icicles forming on his face. 

Reagan was trying to climb the mountain.

This used to be a grill.

Yesterday we woke up at 7:30 to snow.  It snowed all day and this is what we saw when we woke up today.  Apparently we are breaking lots of snow fall records (32 inches in 24 hours).  Reagan was determined to make Frosty the Snowman, but she couldn't make it up the hill to a level spot.  She is now making a snowman out of diapers in the living room. 

Global Warming

I haven't written or posted anything in a million years. I skipped writing about Thanksgiving, because I didn't personally take any pictures and therefore had nothing to show for our wonderful time in Dillon with some of my favorite people in the whole world. Thanks Papa & GG for letting us invade your home. We thoroughly enjoyed it!!!

In the past few days we have gone from reasonable, seasonable, lovely 35-45 degree weather to a high of 8 with a windchill of -15 over night. So I've been thinking a lot about global warming and how grateful I am that it has been occurring so that this arctic blast we are feeling has us at a mere -15 and not -50. It has had me thinking about a little thought Nick had a few years ago that he put down on paper. It made me laugh, so I thought I'd share it with all of you. Here's to Global Warming!


I suppose the general, heart-wrenching truth about global warming has you so spellbound that you keep your eyes glued to the front lawn with the splendid prospect of having beachfront property at any moment. I know I do! The first thing I do every morning is crawl over my sleeping wife to glance out the window. Any day the polar ice caps will melt and send the pleasure of the ocean to my doorstep. In fact, I bought a house with these specifics in mind.
“So, how many bedrooms are you looking for?” my realtor asked me.
“That seems to matter little. What I need is a home with a rubber grate at the entrance to the doorway so I won’t track in too much sand. What do you have for me there” I replied.
She glanced down at her papers and said, without looking up, “How about three bedrooms. And maybe one and three-quarter bathrooms?”
“Perfect!” I said. “But only if it has a shed where I can keep a boogie board, some sun-block, and a metal detector.” When I explained my little scheme she only questioned whether or not I knew Lex Luthor. I don’t.
But the beach seems a long time coming. I was about to give up hope until I got a proverbial slap on the back your ex-VP and mine, Al Gore. It won’t be long now and soon enough my job will be washed underneath the roaring Eastern Idaho surf. Only it will no longer be Eastern but Western Idaho and my closest Pacific neighbor will be Tibet.
Though I am sure to be soaking in the beach-rays by the oncoming equinox, I have the time to ponder some other various “warming” issues. Like, with all the concern over warming and its effects, why can’t I find a toaster that makes good toast? And, why can’t our consumer scientists find a happy medium between the microwave and the conventional oven. What we need is an unconventional oven that does not make a piece of pizza soggy but can do the job in less than five minutes. I bet these things are being considered already because it makes no sense for our capitalist economy to wait a moment longer. I just hope the developmental labs are in nice safe places like Topeka and not Tillamook.
One thing I will be sad to part with upon the wave’s arrival is the higher boiling points afforded us highlanders. Once we are at sea level the entire air pressure schematic will be thrown for a loop and nobody will know how long they should cook their spaghetti noodles for. This will also apply to tortellini.
According to the official Global Warming mantra, the earth has skyrocketed an astonishing 8-10 degrees in the past 1,000 years! Think of it. Instead of the normal –10 degree weather our forefathers suffered through in the winter you are now enjoying a comfortable –2! But any degree now the scales will tip and pour out the delicious smell of seaweed and yield the sweet caress of sand in your trunks. While I wait for that great day I will spend my time getting in touch with the local sand and sailboat vendors. I need to get in while the price is low.

Tagged

SO, I was tagged forever ago and have been trying to avoid doing it, but my conscience won't let me, so here goes. Kim had two on her blog, one was 7 quirky things about me and one was Man Tag. I'm going to do both and then be done for a long time. I'm pretty sure I'm not quirky, just weird. I had a hard time coming up with 7 so you get a pet peeve and some personal flaws mixed in with the so called quirky. Here goes:

7 Quirky Things

1. Nick says I'm very methodical about the way the groceries need to be placed on the conveyor belt in order to have them packed properly.
2. It drives me up the wall when people leave the shower curtain open.
3. I steal Nicks clothes for pajamas.
4. I don't look at or touch chicken unless it's cooked & even then sometimes I can't eat it.
5. I don't follow college basketball at ALL until March Madness and then when one of my teams lose I consider it a personal offense and hold a grudge forever. I'm not sure Gonzaga will ever make it back into my good graces.
6. When I read, I pull out my eyebrows.  I don't know why.
7. I have perhaps an unhealthy love of cold cereal. I eat it all the time, especially when I'm pregnant.

Man Tag

What is your husband's name? Nick
How long have you been married? Almost 7 years
How long did you date? 3 months engaged for 2
How old is he? 29
Who eats more sweets? Me, definitely
Who said "I love you" first? Nick, September 16, 2001
Who is taller? Nick of course
Who can sing the best? Nick, I think, since people never ask me to sing for them. Well, except Reagan sometimes wants me to sing The Ants Go Marching…
Who is smarter? Nick hands down! (Lovely man that he is, he disagrees)
Who pays the bills? Me, if I die, he’s in big trouble!
Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Nick
Who mows the lawn? Nick- he enjoys yard work
Who cooks dinner? Me- I’m usually, ok always, too hungry to wait
Who drives? Nick- He’s deaf remember…if I want conversation he’s got to drive.
Who kissed who first? Nick kissed me. He’s a real go getter! Lucky me!
Who asked who out first? Tricky… I asked him to my Jr. Prom, but we didn’t really date then. After his mission, he asked me out- after making sure it was ok with my brother.
Who wears the pants? I don’t think we’re a pants wearing couple, I’d say we both wear shorts.

Thinking about the answers to this tag made me realize that I sure got lucky. Nick always washes the big dishes and takes out the trash. He loves being home with us & I love watching him play hide-n-seek, airplane, or caterpillar with the kids. I'm so lucky to have him and to know that whatever happens in the world, our family is safe in the eternities. Thanks for making me so happy! I love you Nick!

Ooh, Ooh This Is Halloween!!!

Here we are, all set to go out.  Nick took the kids around the neighborhood while I answered the door.  Then we switched and I took them to a friends house who was giving out the full sized candy bars.  Coen walked extra slow so everyone could admire him.  We went to a few houses by her and they all had crazy cool decorations, so I kept saying "just one more house" and finally Reagan said "I'm good mama, I don't want any more.  I have enough Halloween."  So we came home and they had a great time helping pass out candy.  Coen LOVES suckers!  

Here's Reagan practicing dressing up.  She carries these flower and butterfly hair elastics around the house like a bouquet and plays tea party with them and takes them to bed and in the car and sometimes in the bath with her.  They are soooo cool and quite unhygienic by now.  We lost only one pumpkin to those evil pumpkin smashing vandals who I'm sure took candy from us first.  We did have a couple of 30 year olds come trick or treating.  

Rocky Road!