wii games

The kids got a wii for Christmas and I have been waiting for the wii fit. It's been out of stock everywhere in the valley since before Christmas. I've been trying for the last couple days to get a video of Andrew bowling to post but I'm haivng difficulty so I'll post this for now and keep trying. He frequently throws the ball backward and even when it goes forward it really doesn't resemble bowling, but it's fun to watch him. Nathan is reallly good at Lego Star Wars, but he's about the only one who likes that game so he often plays it alone. Bowling and cow racing are fun. We had a conversion done so that we have all the original old Nintendo games- Tetris was my favorite so that is cool to be able to play it again. We finally got a fit on Sunday (the more about our busy weekend). It is kinda cool - it tells you your weight, BMI and posture. According to the wii, I have near perfect posture- but I already kinda knew that. Andew and Paul are both skewed the same way, Nathans isn't too bad. We have been doing the ski jumping which is a lot of fun. Nathan crashes about half the time. Some of which I think might be on purpose since Andrew laughs his head off when he does. I might have missed a calling in life - altough I'm terrified of heights so maybe not.

Lost tooth

Our weekend has been packed - fun, but packed. We started yesterday with a trip to the aquarium. It won't compare to the aquariums in the big cities on the ocean, but it's a great size for my kids attention span. They are adding a new exhibit the end of this month so we'll go back. We're just glad we made it. When we tried to visit a few weeks ago, it closed early for a fund raising event. Then we tried miserably to go this week and I managed to get us there four minutes after it closed. Saturday we made it.

After the aquarium we went to a birthday party at the ice rink down the street. Ice Skating isn't my thing - apparnetly it's not Adnrews either, but Nathan did very well. We've tried skating before and I dreaded going this time. I was hoping to sit and watch, but I was pretty sure Andrew wouldn't let that happen. Why didn't any one tell me that when you have kids you'll do things you despise just to get them to try it? Any way he didnt want to try too long and so we both sat and did crafts while Nathan skated the afternoon away. Daddy was excited to know he did so well- he enjoyes it. Maybe they can go bond together and Andrew and I'll go paint.

My brother is in town as well so we had dinner with him for the birthday of his we missed a couple weeks ago. And this morning Nathan lost his tooth!
There is more, but it will have to wait for later this week.

Another date

Paul and I had another date night. My parents took the kids again and we headed off for a movie this time. We saw Taken. It was pretty good, very action packed. I was so in the mood for a comedy and wanted to see Marley and Me, but it wasn't playing anymore so my next choice was a chick flick that I knew Paul wouldn't go for - and he didn't. But Taken was a good choice. We don't go to movies often. I actually can't remember the last one we wento and it was soooo crowded. We saw a couple who I would assume had to be retired - and for the life of me I don't know why they would go at 7:30 on a Friday night- I'd go to the matinee in the middle of the week. We are having a busy day but it should provide lots of fun pictures for the family to view once I get them posted. hugs - Chel

We've had beautiful sunsets and sunrises lately and the last couple nights I've paused by window and night to enjoy the view. The skys have been crystal clear and the moon really bright. It makes shadows and reflections in the snow on the field and looks so serene. I've been really busy with work the last few days, but grateful I have a job. The economy keeps hitting closer to home. I've had family members and dear friends loose their jobs in the last couple weeks. Sometimes I think I'd like to work a little less, but I can't imagine doing that now with the economy and I'm still young and healthy and can work. And even with as much as I do, I think I have a pretty good balance. I'm lucky I like what I do too. Work has been a little challeging, but exciting lately because I'm learning so much with this new position and I really enjoy that.

p.s. Nathan STILL has his tooth - it boggles my mind eveyday, but it's still there.

I'm still new to blogging and I find many things about it odd, intrestingly odd, but odd none the less. I studied sociology in college and I love watching people interact and connect. But it still amazes me sometimes how much people seem to crave interactions/connections with others. I started reading blogs because some of the people have awesome ideas that make your life happier and easier as far as decorating or crafts or tips to use with parenting (check out the "Special Times" post on 320 Sycamore). I noticed early on that there are a lot of nice, encouraging people out there and its nice to see all the good people and things in the world. Then there are the people you "meet" that have stories that break your heart. There is a family in Kansas with an 8 month old baby they found out has cancer. Lots of bloggers have links to their blog to follow and encourage them. I can't quite figure out how to get the picture to link on the side of my page but I do have a link to their blog - The Macs. But here is a picture of their angel - Cora I copied from their website. It was a day she was sleeping in the hospital near the beginning of her treatment. I hope all the prayers for her pull her and her family through.

I also finished a cross stitch project last night. It's a Lizzie Kate pattern - I love their stuff and Hand in Heart designs. I saw an adorable ground hog cross stitch on another blog the other day and left a comment to the poster to inquire who published it so I could try to find the pattern. I've never seen a ground hog pattern and it would be a cute decoration for spring. Since it's out of print the publisher allows reproduction so she just sent the pattern to me in a link (if your intrested it's in the comment on my Mon post). I went to her post to leave a thank you note and notice she is from Amsterdam. How cool is that when you can meet and connect with people half way around the world. Ithink I'm going to start a St. Patricks day cross stitch first so I can have it done by them and then go onto the ground hog since it's past this year.

And to finish - we have another family birthday- Happy Birthday Lee.

last toothy grin and Valentines decor

I was shocked that Nathan's tooth was still in when he came home so I took what I'm sure will be one last picture of him with teeth. The kids love hamming it up for the camera so we got some silly ones of both of them as well.

I tried to take the kids to "Fit Kids" yesterday but it filled up by the time we got there so we came home and changed out the winter decor for Valentines. I made the LOVE sign - it was an earlier post and the little heart on the front door. It was actually a Christmas ornament I knew I could re-pourpose and the heart plaque I made as well. It was fun. I don't know if you can see it well, but the heart is sparkly.

Paul took Nathan to Cub Scouts so I took Andrew to a free kids concert over at Wheeler Farm. He was so tired when we came home he went straight to bed with no problems. I went in to check on him and he had fallen asleep with his pen in one hand and his bible open. It looks like he was studying.

a weekend of entertaining and cooking

We had my parents over for my Dads birthday saturday. It was a nice visit, we don't see them as much as we want to and they are they live the closest to us. We had black bean soup for dinner. I need to post the recipe for this later. I get asked for it alot and it's super easy. My four year old even likes it (but he likes everything). Then yesterday we had a group of friends over for the superbowl. I don't think I even got to watch five minutes of the game, I spent too much time visiting~ but it was a good visit too. At least Paul saved it on the dvr so I can watch all the commercials and see what the fuss is that people will be talking about. Seems a bit backwards to record a show to fastforward through so you can catch the commercials, but superbowl commercials are almost always good. They should be for what is spent on them. Wouldn't it be nice though to see a company post a note that rather than spending their budget on commercials they donated it to charity.

We had chili last night so I'll post the recipe for that as well. I get requests for it too, and the carmel popcorn and Shepards dip. My friend Shannon gave me both those recipes. I was thinking I need to make something beside Shepards dip since I've made it the last couple get togethers, but people love it so much I don't know that I'll get out of making it.

Nathan is becoming so grown up. I caught him yesterday in the corner with a group of the older kids teaching them how to play some of the games we have. He still says he wants to be a vet, but I could see him being a teacher of some sort. He is very patient and loves explaining things to others.

He still has his teeth, but they are so loose they don't even hang straight down, they kinda push out. I'm sure if he sneezed they'd be gone.

I started a new class at church called the Truth project, I'll post more about it later.
~have a happy Monday!