Hulk Head

For about a week, my water cup hasn't sat square in the cupholder in my car.  I usually just wiggle it around and eventually it would sit correctly.  Today, at a stoplight, I moved my cup and felt around to see what was causing the issue.

Hulk's head.  Who would have thought?

Ignore any other crumbs or dirt you might spot in this photo.  :)

Doing dishes

Liam was washing his hands after school and decided to stay at the sink and help with the dishes.
His sleeves kept getting wet so he decided it would be best to take his shirt off. He's a problem solver!




After dishes, he and Karsten made a smoothie.  He kept his shirt off for the smoothie making so he wouldn't get his shirt dirty.

Pie

Once Liam's big boy bed was put together, we needed a small nightstand to go next to the smaller rocking chair we moved into his room. We found this nightstand in our guest room and it fit perfectly.  My dad built this nightstand when I was little and it has several cool features.  

It has a triangle shaped storage area on the side that can be used to store books - this is great because we always have a tower of books on Liam's night stand.  It also has this pull out platform that he built to extend the space since the top of the stand isn't too big.  

Liam discovered the pull out tonight and said 'We can put the pie here!'  

LOL - sure, I guess we could!  Not sure where he came up with that or why he thought of pie, but I like how he thinks!  

Swimming lessons

It's that time of the year again - swimming lessons!  This year, Scott doesn't have to get into the pool with Liam - he's old enough to be in a class without a parent in the water.

Karsten was excited to get started and eagerly tried everything the teacher said.


I think Karsten can already swim better than me - he definetely does this floating trick better than me!


I was super nervous that Liam would be scared and refuse to get into the water without Scott.  His teacher went over the rules and gave them instructions before they got into the pool and he didn't show any sign of being scared.

When they got in the water, they were in the shallow end, so he could touch the bottom with his feet....but he didn't quite trust that he could, so he held himself up for a minute or so before he tried to touch the bottom.

He did a great job listening to his teacher and following instructions.  He wasn't crazy about going under water (can't blame him!), but he did it!

Checkers

I love playing checkers - I grew up playing checkers a lot with my dad.  The checkerboard my dad made for the boys gets lots of use at our house - they enjoy playing each other and with us.  Liam has also had extra practice playing checkers on my parents phones - he's getting pretty good!

We played checkers on the ipad this afternoon and he almost beat me.  I pointed out a few jumps to him, but he was doing a great job on his own.

Watch out for this one, he's ready to play checkers with you!  

Big Boy Bed

We'd put it off long enough, it was finally time for Liam to get a big boy bed.  We debated about what kind of bed he should have - see, his crib/toddler bed converts to a full bed, but his room wouldn't have much room left with a full bed.  I started to look at other options but we weren't ready to make the change yet. 

But, it was time. We need more storage for this little guy to store all of his treasures and Legos.  His dresser and the small shelf were not cutting it.

It was bittersweet - my baby is growing up and no longer has his toddler bed.

With the new bed, I wasn't sure if there would be room for the rocking chair in his room, how would we rock before bed? I made sure we had photos of how the room looked before the switch.

Liam was way excited - if you saw him last week, he probably told you all about his big boy bed.

Scott had some good helpers to get the bed put together.  They were in charge of finding the right pieces and screws for Scott.

After a while, the helpers lost interest and entertained themselves with the packing material from the box.  The screws and a foam block made an excellent drum.

As soon as the bed was up, the boys were ready to climb up and try it out.  Liam got to check it out first, but as soon as I snapped this photo, Karsten was asking Liam to move so he could climb up too.

The quilt my mom made for him on his forth birthday looks great on the bed.

They're going to have tons of fun on Liam's new bed - they immediately had a stuffed animal party on the bed and then played with their Imaginex guys in the fort under the bed.  Success!

Muffins for Moms

This morning, Karsten's school had Muffins for Mom's. Scott warned me if it was anything like DOnuts for Dads, it would be packed with people, and he was correct!

We got our muffins and tried to find a place to sit.  Let me tell you, finding the perfect spot was not as easy as you might think.  Once he got to chat with his friends, he was a happy guy.  I thought for sure I would get a good smile out of him. Maybe next year!

Thanks Gaga

Gaga sends the boys fun packages all the time.  They usually have a tasty treat, an adorable shirt or book and a pull back car/truck. The boys LOVE these trucks and when they get them out to play, all of the cars come out together.

This afternoon, the boys were playing together so well in the dining room.  We were smiling listening to the story they had imagined and were acting out.  Scott and I weren't clear on the details today, but the superheros were helping the cars make a journey to the bat cave.

Happy Valentine's Day

It has been a busy few weeks for all of us, so we were very excited when this weekend finally arrived.  When I got home from work these beautiful flowers were waiting for me - aren't they pretty?!  Scott and Liam picked them out for me while Karsten was at a play date.  

On Saturday morning, I was going to mix up some sugar cookies so the dough could chill while we ran a few errands.  I forgot that we were out of flour, and my sous chef was ready to go.  So, plan B was rosemary spiced nuts.  They are quite addicting, we had to hide them in the pantry so we would stop munching on them!

We had to run a few errands including Costco and picking up our lobster (or lobserd if you ask Liam). After much deliberation, we chose a lobster to be our dinner.

Scott picked up some flour while he was running errands earlier in the day, and I mixed up the dough before we headed out for errands.  I have previously had no luck at all with sugar cookies, the dough was always too sticky and either stuck to the counter, rolling pin or cutter.  This time I used my Grandma's recipe, followed it to a T and made sure it had plenty of time to chill.

I'm happy to report that I've finally mastered sugar cookies.  I discovered that we like them thicker so they're softer and not crunchy, but they all tasted good and the boys had fun cutting them out.

We made a lot of cut out cookies when I was little, and I always enjoyed it.  The huge tin of cookie cutters that my mom gave me reminds me of all the holidays where we made cookies - I think we'll have to do this a lot more often!

And, the most fun part is the frosting and sprinkles!

And you have to eat one to make sure it's good!

The end result - not too bad!

Then, it was time to cook our lobserd.  He wasn't moving too much in the box, but when Scott put him on a tray, he quickly scurried backwards trying to get away.

The boys wanted to watch him moving around but didn't want to get tooo close that he might snap at them.  We reminded him that the rubber bands kept his claws closed, but they didn't want to chance it.

Into the steam bath he goes!

This is our third annual Valentine's dinner together - we have lobster (lobserd) and steak.  Who needs a fancy restaurant, we can make a delicious meal too!  And by we, you all know that I really mean Scott...right?

We had our Valentine's dinner on Saturday night so we wouldn't be rushed tonight (a school night for everyone except Scott).  Since we haven't had a snow day this year which means we haven't had snow day cinnamon rolls, Scott thought they would be a great way to start Valentine's Day.  Who am I to disagree with such a fantastic idea!

After breakfast, we headed to church and since the boys were so well behaved, they got to open their gifts after church rather than waiting until dinner.  They had already shaken the boxes and ID'd them as Legos, so some of the mystery was gone.

They each got the same Lego car and a book.

Karsten just asked me about the Captain Underpants books, so the decision for him was easy. If they get him into reading, that works fine for me.

Scott got to open his presents too - the boys decorated frames for his office.  He's a tough one to shop for, but I got him a World Series Shot class for his collection and he gets to pick out something else since I didn't know exactly what he wanted.  He's already started shopping!

Scott made me books of all of my blog posts from January 2014 - June 2015.  He said he could have completed 2015 if I would have been caught up.  OOPS, guess I need to go back and do those posts!

I love seeing all of these books all lined up on the shelves - it's so fun to look back and remember all of the fun moments (big and little) that we share together.

I hope you had a wonderful Valentine's day with your loved ones.  

Wordless Wednesday - My Funny Valentine

Google Cardboard

Scott has been talking about Google Cardboard, how cool it looked and how some schools were using it in classrooms.  I wasn't convinced, something called Cardboard did not seem hi-tech, it sounded more like one of Google's April Fools Jokes.

When I got one in the mail at work from a vendor, I brought it home so we could try it out and see what it was all about.  I'll have to admit that Scott was right - it's pretty darn cool.  You put your phone in the googles, and using a special app with the goggles, you're off on a virtual reality adventure.  In this app, the boys were exploring Neptune.

When my parents were over, Scott showed Chuck how it worked, he was pretty impressed as well.  I've also heard that if you add headphones to hear the sounds from the app, it's an even more 'real' experience.  

Pretty cool - you should definetely check it out!