Forster is 3!!!

Forster turned 3 on Friday!!  Although he doesn't believe it - if you tell him he's 3 he will adamantly assert that he is ONE.  I think he means number one, which he is also.  We doted on him all day and followed him around with a camera, trying to capture his 3-ness.  I don't think it's possible to catch it all, but we got a nice composite.  We love him so much it's reeediculous!!!

Good morning!!!

Mommy, see??

Cheeeese!

Oh, that giggle...

He's a constant blur.

His favorite part of the mini-zoo.

Oh, the hansomeness...!

Singing Happy Brithday WITH Papa and Nana.

Concentrating on the gift unwrapping. 

ghosts of Christmas past...

There is a upside to NEVER cleaning out your e.mail.  I was looking for an address and stumbled on this gem on an e.mail sent by Jared back in 2007.  It was in response to a questionnaire Mom Paget had sent out about the upcoming Christmas festivities.  I'm seriously guffawing over here, merci 5 years after the fact :)

1. From when to when are you off work and/or school?

I'm off of school forever.  Work - Probably more after christmas than before.
2. From when to when do you plan to be in Atlanta?

I live here and can't leave my job - so most of the time.
3. If travelling here, by car or air?

Hmmm....
4. Would yo like to exchange homemade gifts this year? Are you all arranging a name exchange? Actually - we have a great idea for a homeade gift (that won't make people ill).
5. Sarah suggested we plan some activities. Any suggestions? (I will compile a list for you to rate - some with children, and some after bed time.)

Gifts, food, sleigh rides, fireplaces, pumpkin cookies, bells, bows, washing our hands after we flush. 6. Are you willing to do family projects?

What is a family project?  Is this like when we all clean out the attic together or something?
7. What times of day do you anticipate (by Dec.) your child/children will be free to do a scheduled activity?

What?
8. Any menu suggestions?

Banana Bread, Cheese Selection, pigs in blankets, tamales, sushi, holiday nog, chestnuts, quail.
9. Any requirements for sleeping?

First I require a good meal before bedtime.  We call this meal dinner 2.  Then I require a good toothbrushing and yawn.  After that i need to have a bed heated (or cooled) to exactly 78 degrees.  Light is not acceptable in the room - nor are any other individuals outside of my wife.  The bed should be firm, but in the case of Reva being there, soft is acceptable.  There should be a warm blanket on the bed (preferably down) that is one size larger than the bed (ei queen bed = king comforter).  There should be a fan that is capable of blowing at the level of the mattress.  There should be no noise pollution from inside or outside the house.  I require 2 pillows, one very fluffy and one flat and light. 
Either that or church pew.

summer!

We got a fence so the kids could roam around the backyard without me standing guard at the door, making sure they weren't wandering off.  I was so excited!  I made this tent for them out of 2 dollar store broom sticks, a thrift store sheet and some ribbon:

But then suddenly Forster was terrified of the backyard and wouldn't go out there.  Ugh.  Today, however, I solved that problem.  Behold, the Slip n' Slide!

 I really didn't want to get my hopes up or pressure him, so I didn't even bother changing his clothes.  He didn't mind, and his diaper got HUGE! :)

They paused for lunch....

 ... and then I tried to join in on the fun for my 365 project.

  I discovered our yard is REALLY bumpy.  And I am also not 12 any more.  But I did get my picture:

 Forster played so hard he didn't want to stop.  When I mentioned a nap, he laid down on the slide, munched an apple and informed me he would take his nap right there.

 We tried turning off the water, so he's here asking "Where my water?!?!"  We just had to turn it back on when he is that polite and impassioned.

 Of course, Solei had serious skillz:

 I finally tricked Forster inside for a nap and Solei is out there reading in the tent.  She's been out there reading for 45 minutes.  What kind of 5 year old would do that?  CAN do that?

Probably quite a few, but we're just lucky to have gotten her all to ourselves :)  Oh, and yesterday we got our annual passes to Circus World!  It is going to be an awesome summer!!

Forster Race Video

http://youtu.be/Xc7W06PRzIk

 Jared found Solei a bike at a garage sale last weekend - with training wheels - for a cool 5 bucks!  This girl is in LOVE.

I was trying to take pictures with my cool new remote but Forster got in the way.  I'm thrilled, I love this face!!

The other day, I was getting him out of the car when he started crying. "Mommy, I hurt a elbow!"  and he held it up for me to see.    "Oh, no!"  I said.  "You hurt your elbow?"

"Yes," he sniffed.  "Please kiss?"   Who could resist that??  After a good long smooch, he stopped crying and sighed "Oh, thank you mommy!!"

It just happened again while I was typing this - he smacked himself in the face with a rubber band :(  Just substitute face for elbow and it's the same conversation.  He is challenging in ways I could never have imagined, but he makes it so, so worth it.  Man, before he came along, I thought Solei was overly affectionate.  Then Forster took her record and blasted it into outer space!

Mommy Olympics

In the spirit of cooperation and love and all that, I'm going to blog the Young Women's activity we did last night because it was total awesomesauce.  We got the initial idea from one of our YW who had done something similar in her ward in Utah, and then we crafted it into a very casual and laid-back Wisconsin version.  

Mommy Olympics!

Shockingly, I didn't get any pictures, but I was too busy with the stopwatch.  We picked some mom-type things we do every day and turned them into some minute-to-win-it-ish games.  We put the girl's names up on the chalkboard along with times and let healthy competitive aggression take over.  After we finished, the Young Men had finished up their scouting activity and wanted to join in, so we let them try to beat our times.  Mostly, they didn't :)  Go girls!  So here were the games we came up with:

1.  Diaper Dash

 Items needed:  2 newborn-sized diapers, one doll

We put one diaper on the doll and put the other one next to it.  Then we timed the girls taking the diaper off the doll and putting the other one on.  To add to the excitement, we used a mouse doll and cut a slit in the back of the diapers for the mouse's tail.  It took a few extra aggravating seconds to get the tail in and out.

2.Vacuum Race

Items needed: vacuum, 5 lb sack of flour or sugar, obstacles

Holding the 5 lb. sack, the girls had to race from one side of the room to the other, while pushing a plugged-in but not on) vacuum around an obstacle course of chairs.  The tangling of the cord led to some hilarious rain wrecks.

3. Om Nom Nom

Items needed:  dry breakfast cereal (we used Rice Chex), baby spoon, blindfold, chairs

Because the leaders were inflicting this on the girls, we participated in this one.  We sat across from one of the girls, who was blindfolded and handed her a bowl of 5 Rice Chex with a small baby spoon.  When we said "go," they had to try and feed the leader as fast as they could.  We had an extra helper who put an extra piece of cereal in the bowl if they dropped one so everyone did 5.  This one was fantastic!  Although people started cheating in very creative ways - it was all in good fun so no one minded :)

4. Dress-up Disaster

Items needed:  Polly Pockets with full outfits

We gave the girls a Polly Pocket doll and a Polly pocket shirt, pants and shoes.  Have you ever tried to dress those things??  SO annoying!  It took the most time of any activity and produced the most anger.

5.  Dishes

Items needed: dinner plate, dark colored crayon

We didn't actually get around to this one, but we tested it and it worked.  We took a dark colored crayon and drew fool-y scribbles on the plate, and then the girls were supposed to wash it ALL off as fast as possible.  We didn't do the drawing in advance because we were afraid the crayon could stain the dishes, but when we drew then washed, it came off.  And drawing didn't take much time at all.

We tallied up the numbers and had a quick award ceremony where Jenna handed the girls medals and made them stand on chairs while I played the WORST renditions of Pomp and Circumstance and the Star-Spangled Banner ever heard.  Then we ate sweets.  Easy peasy.  Let me know if you try these!

Easterly.

When I was a kid, every Easter my brothers got outfitted for new Sunday clothes - ties, suits, shirts, the works.  And as the only girl, she went all out searching for an Easter dress with accessories to math.  Hats, shoes, I was certainly a vision at least once a year.  And then after church, before the egg hunt, there was the posing.  The picture of my mom's hard work.  It's really neat to have those pictures to look back on, and as a mom now - I am in even more awe of her.  That was NOT an easy task, and not a cheap one either, but she made it happen.

I would love to carry on the tradition.  But my kiddos are still so young that the outfits don't always last through church, and they are not the most camera-friendly. So this year's attempt was.. well, at least it was better than last year when they ended up rolling around the driveway.  I think Forster was crying.  Also, I still haven't bought an Easter dress on my own for Solei, since my wonderful mom has dress-hunting skills.  And dresses with SLEEVES.  Do you know how hard it is to find dresses for little girls with sleeves on them??  In fact, last year she found a whole bunch in one place and bought up a ton for the next few years as well.  But there weren't any in her current size with sleeves, so she got one with a lovely black jacket to go over it.

Then last week, I lost my head and decided to add sleeves onto it.  It was a mad, crazy idea given my poor sewing skills, but I had to try.  If it turned out too terrible, there was always the jacket!

Not too bad, right?  As long as you stand a few feet away.  Maybe there's hope for dresses yet!  I'm lucky that no matter how crazy my projects look, Solei is always willing to wear them :)

Now, to the pictures.

Due to a misunderstanding and me being insane, I sewed baskets for them this year AGAIN.  The contents were the important part, right?  Kudos to Jared who stayed up late on Saturday night with me, sewing snaps onto them.  Yes, I'm insane.

Forster.  Nothing fancy, what with him being rough on clothes.  He also got blood on his shirt during church (nose AGAIN, blah!) so I wasn't too heartbroken about not getting him a fancy Gucci suit or something for the occasion.

Solei requested I curl her hair.  Having a girl rocks.

Here are all my attempts at a memorable Easter picture.

Here was the winner - no shoes, pacifier in - whatever, I can see both their wonderful faces.  Besides, if they looked perfect I wouldn't recognize them :)

And here's Solei showing off the reason for the day.  Just kidding - although they GORGED themselves on sweets and loved it.  The real reason lies in a talk Solei gave yesterday in Primary.  Jared was wonderful enough to record her doing it later and added pictures.  When she wrote the talk, she had the Gospel Art book on her lap and used it as a guide - and Jared added those to it.  Awesome!  Hope you were able to enjoy a wonderful Easter!  Enjoy!!!

The Superstar Club

We made sandwich sushi in Iowa with Elisabeth and Miriam!  Oh yeah!  Uh, don't write that, okay?  No don't write that, Mommy!  No, don't write that!  That's all I want to say!  Okay, stop writing mom.  BACKSPACE!  

(this post was told by Solei and transcribed by Mom.  Obviously.)

We love love

Back in February my mom came to visit us to cheer up our winter.  YAY!  And shock of all shocks, I had my camera handy!

 Solei made a phone thingy.  Can you hear me now?!

 Mom helped us make Valentines.  I really like the feel of a handmade Valentine - not that they were all that fancy, but I like Solei sitting down and making something for her friends.  I snagged the idea off Pinterest - hearts that you fold up into envelopes.

 Jared and Forster supervised.

 Solei decorated and addressed, Mom wrote the "Happy Vatentine's Day" and I folded.

 Cute, huh?

 I kind of hate the major influx of candy at holidays, so we played it cool by decorating a piece of sugar-free bubble gum and slipped it inside.

Then they took a well deserved rest.

 Another marvelous thing about Mom's trip was how much time she spent tickling, wrestling and loving on Forster.  If you've spent any time with him you know the way to his heart is touch and play, and Mom gave it to him in spades.  He walked around in a happy daze for a week and for the next week every time he woke up from a nap, he stood up and begged for Gamma.  She needs to visit again ASAP!

 I miss her too!

And one more random picture - I walked in on Solei reading Calvin and Hobbes to Forster and he was riveted!  He'll even sit down and read it to himself now, yelling "Oh no!" and pointing to Calvin's wagon riding disasters.  These kids are too dang fabulous!  I MISS YOU MOM.

march madness

So the last few months have been an insane ride.  There has been a pretty nasty storm brewing at Jared's work and he has been looking and interviewing everywhere like a madman.  Honestly, one big frustrating part (for me) was that we just moved here 2 years ago, and at that time the company seemed stable, but it has been bought and sold a few times since then and things have changed dramatically.  Ugh.

Anywho, our biggest preference was to head back to Atlanta.  We do dislike moving and selling houses - although our last 7 years would dispute that claim - but we were more than willing to do it to get out of the crazy situation and back to my band, family and the familiar.  But after a few offers, a LOT of prayers, Jared accepted a job in Madison.  The commute isn't good, and we are staying in Wisconsin, both things we don't really dig, but we are trying to follow the Spirit on this one.

One tender mercy was the fact that this was the mildest winter we've experienced since we moved here.  A good portion of the time there has been no snow at all!  I know this was a blessing just for me.  I've been a wreck, but not feeling like I'm trapped in a white tomb for 4 months has been seriously uplifting.

So now it is VERY March (for Colorado weather) - very windy but without a speck of snow.  Solei begged to go outside with the kite yesterday and Jared humored her.  As I watched them walk across the street, I felt very thankful for our home.  We live on a lovely street right across from a park with huge soccer fields.  It may not be my ideal place to live... far from it... but in the few sunny months, it's wonderful for the kids.  As I went snap happy, I felt deeply grateful for our bit of real estate, and also keenly aware of the love our Heavenly Father has for our little family.