Newest happenings

 The Kids being super heros....obviously.  They love to dress up and play together.

 

 First day of Kindergarten

 

 

 Soccer time.  It was a rough beginning for his first season, but he got the hang of it.  Although I think he will be more track and field.  He would race any kid that was next to him.

 

 

 NEW THING: NINJA.  He loves dressing up as a ninja.  and he has a lot of COOL ninja moves
 

hanging out watching big brother do all his ninja moves

 

 

 I think she will be my little gardener.  She loves dirt and watering the flowers.

 Paper Airplane flying for FHE.  The Kids had a blast flying paper airplanes. 

 

 

 

LEGO/ COMIC CONVENTION

 

 

 

 

Some recent Family Pics.

Since Lars is almost 2 1/2 we decided we had better get some family pictures.

Our friend did them and we couldn't be more thrilled with them.  They turned out so well!  We absolutely love them. And of course every time we asked Lars to look at the camera he did a GQ pose and said cheese.  He is adorable. 

Befores and Afters

KITCHEN

Before                              After

LIVING ROOM

BEFORE AND DURING

 (LEFT)The dark color is what we are covering up. I can't even describe what color it is really.  Just know it was dark and ugly. We painted it the same color as the light green in the (RIGHT pic)

AFTER

FORMAL DINING ROOM / WE ARE USING IT AS A LIBRARY

The Rust color was on three of the four walls.  Whatever happened to doing a dramatic color on one Accent wall!!......seriously dark rust is not good for a whole room. You can see we painted a blue (same blue as the kitchen) on one wall.  The rust wall(Right Pic) is now a nice off white and displays salon style hung paintings. The tan Wall (left Pic) is now a really light light blue, almost white.  And is  Beautiful!! and Bright!

I couldn't find a picture of the front of the house even though i know i have one.  I'll keep digging.  or just take a new one.   I haven't included any upstairs projects cause we haven't gotten to them yet.  Lars Room is 1st to get done.

I took a video but it was too big.....so watch out for a video so you can see it all complete

Pretty good article

Home Birth has a dramatic rise

I have never linked anything through a blog, but thought this article was worthy of sharing.

I LOVE HOME BIRTH!!

Dancin

Lars and his cousin love to dance.  Whenever we get together we always pull out the music and they start wiggling and dancing.  His cousin definatley moves her hips like a pro and Lars can pull out the snake break dance move like he's been doing it since the pre-existance.

the funniest thing

I was folding some of our white laundry today, when Lars turned over the basket, emptying all contents on the floor. He was playing and rolling in all the clothes. I ran to answer the phone and when I came back he was sitting there and it looked like he picked up something and put it in his mouth. Thinking it was just a piece of cracker he dropped during his snack, I didn't worry about until he got quiet again after wrestling the clothes. So I watched closely and to my astonishment he was picking at his toes and then he put something in his mouth. Sounds gross.......well I hastily checked it out. Come to find out he was picking out the lint from between his toes and eating it! I sure didn't teach him that one.

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Birthday Cake

I had a request for instructions on Corey's Cake.

It was super easy.  I made a 2 layer white cake(Betty Crocker cookbook) and frosted it with chocolate cream cheese frosting (1 cube of cream cheese about 1 cup whipped cream and about 1 cup powdered sugar and 6 tbsp of cocoa.)
Then put around the edges kit kat bars and sprinkle reeces pieces on top .  Tie a ribbon around and Viola!!

For a more peanut butter chocolaty experience, you could make a chocolate cake and frost with a peanut chocolate frosting.  I thought about it......bit didn't have time to hunt down a peanut chocolate frosting recipe.

Super Yummy.  I loved the fact that the cake and frosting were not very sweet at all and then you had the bite of extra sweet reeces pieces............I thought it was well balanced.  You could eat a lot of this cake and not get too sweet-ed out!

Happy Birthday Corey

Here's to a Great B-Day celebrated with family.  

Spending the whole day hanging and watching football with Lars, eating a fantastic Reeces Cake, and visiting with his Bro & Family = Good Birthday

 p.s.  unfortunately this cake was not my idea.  I used the idea off someones website.   Loved it!

I've been Dissed

Well it has finally happened.  It is Saturday, Football Season, and his dad is home to play with.  He woke up from his nap:
1. calling for his dad
2. when he came out of the room he didn't even look at me, but heard the football game on and signed "Touchdown"
3. Ran to the couch to watch the game and control the remote...

Does he like football or what

The last 3 months

 In Sept. we went camping to Mammoth Cave.  It was beautiful and a much needed vacation, and packed with a few unexpected thrills.
Corey's parents came up and stayed the afternoon with us. As they only lived about a half hour away they decided that their own beds were more comfortable than tenting it.
Lars did great and loved exploring everywhere. There is no fear in this kid.  Because of his adventurous spirit we found the tiniest little tick on his arm when we went home. It was so small I wasn't sure it was even a tick. But it would come off his arm.  Lars was so brave because we stuck a match to his arm to get it out and sure enough it's legs started wiggling...........good thing we got it.  We were able to get it out without incident and Lars did great through the whole procedure.
During the night we also had a few suprises.  Knowing that Lars thinks it is play time whenever he gets on our bed, i worried a bit about him sleeping on the air mattress with us. We brought extra blankets just in case.  We put him to sleep at his regular time on the air mattress, and later when corey and i decided to turn in, he woke up and decided he wanted to play. It took us about 1 1/2 -2 hours to get him back asleep again. This time i made him a little bed with all the blankets we brought and that seemed to work. He slept the rest of the night................However, We did not.  About 2 or 3 in the morning i woke up to some howling outside the tent.  It seemed far enough away, but being a bit of a light sleeper due to parentage, I struggled to go back to sleep.  Well, while I was dozing, the howling started again and this time it was super super close. It even woke corey up. We could hear creatures crawling outside our tent and hoped it wasn't the wolves that close but perhaps a deer.  For about 1 hour the very close wolf would howl and a couple farther away would respond. After a while it finally died down and it seemed they were gone, although I think it unnerved us a little bit so it was hard to go back to sleep. Corey also decided he really needed to use the restroom.....Convenient timing i know, but when you gotta go you gotta go!!....He was waiting at the door contemplating if he should go or not, when i mentioned that he should yell or something so i know if he is getting attacked or not.........and he said it wasn't himself he was worrying about it was his unprotected family.........I laughed because we were perfectly fine in the tent and if it had been me, i would have been terrified to go out there for fear of a wolf attack. Needless to say all went well and the wolves had disappeared, and we ended up only sleeping about 3 hours between Lars and the Wolves.  But it was a great trip.  Just nice to get away from home once in a while.

'

This is Lars' Toy Box.  he dumps all his toys out and gets inside and saysChoo-Choo and sign Train. He will just sit inside it with a bood and read.  It is quite cute 

And most recently Halloween

We were the Super Family and I made some monster cupcakes for the ward cupcake walk.  They were fun to make and looked awesome

the happenings of late

I apologize for the posts being few and far between, and while I don't know who actually looks at this blog, I will try to be better about updating it.
This last month we went to a Civil War Train. To celebrate by Father-in-Laws Birthday, we went up to Lebanon Oh, about 45 minutes from us, where they have restored an old train, and do themed train rides throughout the year. Since he Loves the Civil War part of our history we chose that theme.  We got on the train and took a 30 minute ride on a very hot 90+ degree weather day, with people in full Civil War costume.............they looked hot,

The Lebanon Train does 2 civil war train a year, one is  a reinactment and the other is a visit to a camp of the soldiers.  We meant to go to the reinactment, but ended up at the other one.  It ended up being good though.  They had permission to blow the cannon..............it was crazy loud. They also shot off a pistol, which startled the crowd. 

Here is the family in front of the cannon.  Luke is wearing a hat and Terry is wearing hats and coat of the soldiers.  And you can't see Lars but he is strapped to my back fast asleep.

On another note....we went to our first Cinci Reds Baseball Game. It was fun and as we were looking for our seat we met up with the mascot......I can't remember what he is called. Lars was a little nervous about him, he couldn't keep his eyes off him. On our way to the Stadium(we parked across the river) we had to walk over a bridge to get to the stadium. We got to cross over one of the first Suspension Bridges built in the US.  The man who built it later designed and started the building of the Brooklyn Bridge. He passed away before the Brooklyn Bridge was completed and his son finished construction as an invalid from his bed, with his wife relaying his instruction to his contractor.  It is quite an interesting story, and  David McCullough wrote a biography of the Roeblings and the construction of the bridge.  Although, the bridge over the Ohio River is much smaller than the Brooklyn Bridge, it is neat to see his inspiration for the Brooklyn Bridge.  

Milestones......Hooray

With a few previous attempts with no real commitment, Last week marked the "real" start to my potty training Lars.
Perhaps my previous attempts just got him used to sitting on his potty, but he never actually went potty. Recently I was reading in Baby Whisperer to put him on his potty right when he wakes up and then 20 minutes after he eats . So I bought a book "Pete's Potty" which we read whenever he is in the bathroom and I tried it and Voilla!! He went potty in his little boy potty. A few days later with no other incidents in the potty, he went poo.....I was sooo thrilled. Today he has done both, and we have had a dry diaper all day. It is so motivating to see this progress and to think he might be out of diapers soon.
I'm still giving myself a couple of months to make sure he is good and trained. My goal is when Lars enters Nursery he will be in big boy undies. My mom has had great advice with it as she had us all potty trained between 1 and 1 1/2 year old. She put on a timer so every 45 minutes we were put on the potty. If we didn't go then she put us back on 15-20 minutes later. That way she was catching most of it and apparently we got the idea becaue it worked. She says that a couple of weeks of that and we knew what to do. Obviously night time is a little trickier because you have to wake them up so they learn to know when they are sleeping that they have to go. However, seeing as Lars is still in a crib we will work on the night time training a little later.
Hooray for Lars

Also, while he was going potty this morning he did the sign for ball and dog (they are in his potty book) which he has never done before.
He is funny, his first sign was duck and probably his second word has been Quack or Duck (he says them both even though they sound almost similar). he also does the food signs.....please, more, all done)
His first word was Hi.........and it is his favorite still. He has to say hi and wave to everyone that walks by us, whether at the grocery store, the pool, the park, everywhere. In the grocery store I talk to more people cause he is saying Hi to them. Such a social Kid.

We miss you.....

I am going to get a bit sentimental here, which is something I usually shy away from, especially in front of the whole world. However, 10 days ago marks our departure from the city we thought to stay in for a long time. We miss you NYC. 10 days ago we packed up the truck, headed to church to bless our baby boy and then drove out of the city. NYC is the first place Corey and I lived as newlyweds. Our honeymoon was driving a Uhaul from Utah to Manhattan, with a slight detour to Kentucky, to begin our life together. And it is the place(literally......we had a home birth) where our son was born. Some of the wonderful things we will remember from our time in the Big Apple
1. Corey received his masters degree in Fine Arts from the New York Academy of Art
2. I should have won an award for all the frequent flyer miles I racked up in the first 3 years, traveling 3-5 days each week, but didn't. What I did get was some arm muscles in my right arm from lugging my suitcase down into the subway then up onto the street and then on the m60 bus to LaGuardia.....woohoo!!
3. Went on our first and only (so far) helicopter ride
4. Went to some broadway shows on and off broadway
5. we were introduced by some great friends Ethopian food and loved it . (suprisingly Corey really enjoyed the food even though he dislikes the lentils I cook........whatup!)
6. New York Pizza and Bagels..........need I say more
7. The authentic "NY Deli" where you get the best sandwiches in the world
8. Walking everywhere! As much as I enjoy driving, I love that NY is so pedestrian friendly.
9. I miss my fruit and vegetable guy on the corner
10. Central Park......Corey and I used to go out every sunday in summer to a secluded spot and just read and nap in the afternoon sun eating fruit I picked up from my much missed fruit and vegetable guy.
11. Going to the grocery store with basket in hand and leaving because it got too heavy to carry.........and that was what we ate for the next few days. I get serious overstimulation when i enter the gargantuan grocery stores here
12. Running with a great partner (Jill) around Central Park
13. I just miss the energy of well educated ambitious people cramming manhattan with a purpose in mind and working their hearts out for more of something!.......I'm not talking tourists
14. I miss the birds outside my window.........it was always great to hear among the sirens and whizzing of cars the sounds of birds chirrping.
15. I miss the quiet of the city streets when everyone left for holidays...........it is so fun to walk around when the streets are empty and everything has an abandoned feel to it.
16. Corey misses Ultimate Frisbee.
17. Game Nights and Knitting Night .........wonderful friends getting together
18. Last but not least........WE MISS OUR NEW YORK FRIENDS!!

New York..........you are a wonderful part of our lives and maybe one day we will be able to retire to your busy streets and enjoy your energy again when we are old.

a Little Late to the Party

I was late getting started, however, you can't say I lack for team spirit......Team Edward that is!! Hahaha.
(Secrets to be told......if there is a team Carlisle I would be on it. He is way hotter to me, even though he is only a secondary character.)
A couple of months ago, Corey's boss, shocked that we had not seen Twilight, lent us the movie. I watched it while Corey was at work. Not having read the books, (I went through my vampire stage many many years ago) but knowing there was a lot of hubub about how great they are, I kept an open mind. I thought the movie was entertaining enough, albeit the characters seemed fairly shallow and the plot somewhat slow.
As the day went on I just kept thinking about the characters and little things from the movie, and decided that I needed to see it again. I ended up watching it about 5 times in a week. So then while Corey was working late one Friday night, on my way out of the grocery store I saw one of those red box video rentals and decided to rent New Moon. By now I was a complete fan! I was planning on keeping it only one night but we ended up watching it a couple of times and returning it 3 days later.
So Corey's Boss, the reason for my love of Twilight and Corey's "it's o.k" of Twilight, insisted we all go to Eclipse together. Corey was the only guy (what a good sport). For my birthday Corey's co-workers got me a Team Edward t-shirt. The plan was that the other girls and I would all wear them, but ya............who in this picture is wearing their's.................YEP!! only MOI!! The movie was great! I ended up reading the 3rd and 4th books so I am up to date on the happenings of Twilght!

Camping

After a 5 year hiatus from camping, partly due to living in NYC, we finally went camping. We got to cumberland falls in 96 degree 90% humidity weather. It was HOT!!. But look how beautiful.

Cumberland falls is the only place that has a moonbow, seen only on a full moon, with clear skies. Well we had the full moon and clear skies, until about 5 in the afternoon of the full moon, and then everything clouded over and the rain came...............so no moonbow. but we saw some beautiful falls and some beautiful hiking. It wasn't hiking in utah but it was great to get out into nature again.

Lars loved it. He would be outside 24/7 if i would let him. he did great and got dirty and played in the mud and gravel, had fun swimming in a lake and hiking in the backpack.

All in all a very successful trip.