two-day-apart cousins 5th birthdays

Samuel and his cousin Grace were born only two days apart in 2011. Grace was born in Rapid City on January 30 and Samuel was born in Gburg, Nebraska on February 1. We didn't even meet each other until they were a few months old when we came up to visit on a whim. But since we've been back, they've celebrated their third, fourth, and now fifth birthdays together (not sure what we did for number two...).

On Saturday January 30th we all headed out to the ranch to celebrate together. We had lunch and then went outside into the relative cold to hit a pinata that Jesse bought because Grace had begged for one. Grampa came up with a pretty ingenious way to suspend the thing...

Grace was so pleased. Of course they all were.

A tractor, a pinata, and a family. It was a good day.

Here's Grace's first go. 

A video after several turns worth of pounding.

Little Sarah was particularly cute. She'd go up to it, smile, and then tap it real gently.

Ezra was not so gentle. Wham!

Samuel can throw a ball pretty well and thus hit the pinata pretty darn hard.

Samuel cracked me up because he kept yelling out "Hi-yah! Hi-yah!"




Evie smacked it pretty good too.

But Noah is ten, nearly eleven, and therefore wailed on the thing. Evie was the resident cheerleader. She's not even seen many cheerleaders in action but she just naturally does it I guess. She literally sounded exactly like one - cheering, clapping, jumping.

"Hold on to your butts."



Go Ezzie!

Sarah would tap it and then turn around to smile for everyone. Evie's is in high form.

The candy is coming out!

Pile of cousins - and soon to add two more (one from Shari and Jesse and one from Nathan and Ana).

Good job birthday boy.

Samuel is getting old enough to handle little Legos.

Grace got some earphones and other things.

A Curious George book. He and Ezra just love those.

And the Cars track he wanted most of all.

napping Ezra

I went to get Ezra up from his nap a few weeks ago and he was still snoozing away. 

Usually when I go in there he's awake already so this was a rare treat. He was so cute and sweet...as opposed to loud and naughty.

And then he woke up and made me remember why I like nap time so much... 

Aw, but still so cute. 

He's still a thumb sucker - gotta have an afghan blanket to do it though. In fact, Ezra was freaking out yesterday that Evie was wearing the blue afghan sweater Gramma K crocheted her that he used to drag around with him. He sort of forgot about it so I washed it and returned it to her closet. 

This was a couple weeks later on Samuel's birthday. He must have been extra worn out that day.  

Noah on companionship

At the end of January we were at the library with some friends when I noticed Noah was somewhat engrossed in a weird looking book cover. I had him put it down when I realized it was an illustration of toddler zombies. The zombies really freaked him out, even if they were just a drawing. He was so frightened that night and since daddy wasn't home (youth group) I let him spend the night with Evie on her floor. 

Terry in the mirror kinda freaks me out...like he shouldn't be there.

I could not convince Noah that the zombie children merely resembled the altered, ugly penguins from the Penguins From Madagascar movie - they really did. No help mom.

So he slept on Evie's floor for a week and a half before we insisted he go back downstairs to his room. He needed to overcome his fear, plus I was tired of her room being a mess.

He loved it there though. He kept saying how he missed "companionship" and has been begging to sleep up there some more. He's got such a tender heart. Maybe someday Noah.

the littles' hiding spot

Several weeks ago the littles were playing hide and seek or some such game that required them to find small spaces to fit into - maybe it was just to prove that they could fit into little places. This spot is on the edge of the dining room squashed between the hutch and the stairs. Samuel just turned five and is getting almost too big for this space. He and Ezra were in there together but I couldn't get a picture of it.

You can see that small shadowy space to the left of the hutch (yep, that's a nice build in that came with the house).

Ezra was actually the first one to hide in there. At two and a half he has plenty of room. 

Happy face Ezra...

Sad face Ezra... This pictures amuses me. :)

babysitting the cousins

During the second week of January we ended up babysitting our nieces Grace and Sarah since Shari had a potentially serious medical issue come up. When they dropped them off, Sarah, who is just over two years old, walked over to the stairs, sat down, and avoided eye contact with anyone all the while making this sourpuss face. She always makes this face - it cracks me up. Terry and I laughed and he even took her picture. "Not impressed Uncle Terry."

It was a last minute sort of deal so we adjusted our pizza movie night plans. I made an extra pizza and the kids had to sit upstairs at the table to eat and wait to watch a movie until afterwards (as opposed to sitting on the couch while watching like we usually do). Shari ended up being absolutely fine and they picked the girls up just before bedtime. 

I hadn't noticed initially, but when I looked closer, Sarah is totally making that face again below...

Yeah... HA!

flying turtles at the lake

Two weeks ago at the end of January we had a two day stretch of beautiful unseasonably warm weather. The first day, the kids and I went for a run to the park down the road. The next day we went to Canyon Lake Park to walk and roll.

Noah and Evie wheeled around on their flying turtles, Samuel rode his Strider, and I pushed Ezra in the stroller. We live on a little bit of a hill so they don't play with them as much as they used to (or when we had an unfinished dungeon). When Noah was little he used to roll around Gburg so much that his sides got sore from the motion of the thing.

This portion of the sidewalk is new and very smooth so the kids were excited to roll down it. It used to be steeper. The first time Evie went down it on the Strider bike, she totally wiped out. 

This is a video of them flying down the hill. 

We stopped at the biggest playground in the park along with like 20 other kids since it was so nice out.

Awww, Evie teeter tottered with Ezra.

Big homeschooled kids on the slide...

One woman who looked like Zooey Deschanel brought her son and ferret to the park. It was cute and intriguing...

We finished our time off by swinging maniacally on the tire swing. This was my favorite playground activity as a child. My dad used to swing us so violently I thought we would all fall off and die. We never did. 

when daddy's not home...

A couple weeks ago Terry had to leave us to go to Denver :( But at least it was just a day and a half.

When daddy's not home...the kids don't smile as much...

When Daddy's not home, Ezra is extra snuggly...

When daddy's not home you eat enormous pizzas while grocery shopping at SAMs, because, well, we all deserve a pick me up (or down, depending on how the pizza really makes you feel)... 

When daddy's not home you read and watch Star Wars at the same time... 

When daddy's not home, mommy has to take over the silly activities...

world's best cookies

My mom used to have a go-to cookie recipe when we were little. I remember she added wheat germ to it. But then she found the motherload recipe - Mrs. Field's Chocolate Chip Cookies. We were smitten with them and never made another kind. She even upgraded her Kitchen Aid mixer in order to better handle the massive amount of cookie dough this recipe makes. Thankfully she gave me my very own Kitchen Aid mixer for a wedding gift and I can carry on her tradition of delicious cookies. 

I'll even go so far as to share the recipe if you want. Just facebook me :D

silly littles

I have some silly kids, especially those littles, Samuel and Ezra. 

We were at a stoplight a couple weeks ago and I turned around to see Samuel hiding under his blanket.

Peek-a-boo! I love my Sah-muel.

Rub a dub dub, two boys in a tub.

Here is a short video of the sillies waiting for daddy to come home one night and working their ab muscles. Ezra does whatever everyone else does.