Sunday, September 28, 2008

Secret Indredient Noodles

Tab loves Kung Fu Panda. He thought it was the greatest. For a while there he insisted that he WAS Po. One of the biggest things he picked up from it was that Po's dad makes Secret Ingredient Soup and Noodles. Somehow they got combined into being Secret Ingredient Noodles. So one night as I was getting ready to make dinner, Tab asked if he could help me make dinner and if we could make Secret Ingredient Noodles. So of course I gave in. He was a big helper. We made some yummy homemade spaghetti sauce (because store bought sauce is gross) and some noodles. When I put Tab's food in front of him, he started doing this... just like in the movie.
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Daddy decided to play along.
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And of course, we had to get Benton in on the action. Jason is holding the poor kids arms down for the picture because he kept trying to eat his noodle.
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And finally a picture of Tab's plate. He scarfed his food. The garlic bread is one large piece cut in half. I tell you this because he ate that piece and another entire piece. For the next several days he asked for garlic/cheese bread for his snack. Silly kid.
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And yes, the sauce is on the side. He doesn't like to contaminate his noodles...ever. He is the same way with rice. We're working on it.

Saturday, September 27, 2008

A Family of Climbers

If you didn't already know this, Jason and I really enjoy rock climbing. Living in Missouri puts us in dry straits, but we survive. The school as a climbing wall for bouldering. Bouldering wasn't really our cup of tea when we first moved here. Jason has really taken to it as he usually visits the wall once a week. I, well, I'm still working on it. Every once in a while when I'm feeling desperate, Jason and I will take the boys with us and we'll climb for a bit. Jason far outshines me.
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Tab is starting to show more and more interest in climbing but always gets upset and insists that he can't do it without some climbing shoes. So this last time we let him put on one of our old pairs and what do you know, he just complained that they were too big. Apparently he needs his own shoes. The stinker. I think we'll wait to buy him some until he isn't going to be going through an $80 pair of climbing shoes every 6 months to a year.
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Benton on the other hand... I think that he was born a climber.
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See, look, evidence...
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Thursday, September 25, 2008

My Recipe Box

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Last Thanksgiving, Jason, the boys and I drove out to my parent's house for Thanksgiving. While we were there Jason started a project with my dad. It was a recipe box to replace the crappy broken plastic one that I had been using. Well, I recently started to grown out of that crappy plastic box and so Jason finished my box! Almost a year later... To his credit, all it was waiting for was for me to pick out some hardware that I like. I had a really hard time doing this online, and so I finally settled for just whatever they had at Home Depot and it turned out great. I couldn't be happier with my box. It is sturdy and pretty and gives me plenty of room to grow! What do you think? Aren't you jealous?
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Wednesday, September 24, 2008

The Reader

Tab loves to "read". It is one of my favorite things when I am worried because it has been a little too quiet for a little too long, so I go in to check on Tab to find this.
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This book in particular is his favorite to read. It is Shel Silverstein's "Where the Sidewalk Ends". We bought it for Benton for his birthday and read it at bed time to the boys and Tab has become obsessed with poems like these now. I think it the past month we have read this book 3 times.
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Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Dutch Oven Cooking

We spent friday night out at 1000 Hills with a bunch of friends. We decided to do a little dutch oven cooking and smores of course. Like the dufuss that I am, I didn't actually take any pictures of the dutch ovens. I made a yummy peach cobbler. Thanks to my friend Devri for the great recipe!

Poor little Benton was forced to spend much of the time in his highchair that was strapped to the picnic table.
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Tab carried a bundle of about 5 or so sticks around most of the night. When Jason was packing up, Tab tried to snead them all into the bed of the truck. He was upset that we made him pick just 1 stick to bring home. He had a hard time with this, I mean every stick is SOOOO different. He was deterred from sticks for just long enough to play with the marshmallow roasters.
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Which of course means that he enjoyed himself a few smores. Speaking of smores, I learned the most brilliant smore making technique that day. It is genious. I just don't know why I didn't think of it before. Instead of using a plain chocolate bar, use a Reeces cup. Holy yum batman.
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The most important event of the evening consisted of Jason burning his anatomy scrubs. There is a long story behind why they are bright pink. I will leave that for him to defend his manhood. And don't let him get off by telling you real men wear pink.
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There they are burning away. Jason is thrilled to be done with anatomy.
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Monday, September 22, 2008

Doing what I do best!

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In the morning, when the boys wake up any time before 7, I get up and get them breakfast and head back to bed. When Tab is finished he usually comes and wakes me up for the day. On rare occasion, he climbs into bed with me and snuggles. On even rarer occasions, he falls back asleep with me for a few minutes. Jason just happened to catch one of those rare occasions. Let me just tell you that when he wants to, this boy gives the best snuggles in the world.

Sunday, September 21, 2008

A little Father and Son time

Lat week Jason decided that he and Tab needed a little Father/Son time. So after church, I put Benton down for a nap and Jason and Tab headed out for a "nature walk". Tab was thrilled. Here they are, all excited to head out.
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Tab knows that when you go on a "hike", you need a walking stick. So he found himself one in short order.
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They went out behind the Thompson Campus Center (aka the Gym) where they have a little trail that swings by a glorified pond.
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Tab had a blast splashing in the water.
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Apparently Tab was a pretty good trooper walking most of the way by himself.
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But Jason did have to carry him for the last bit as he was pooped. See how pooped he was. They were less than 5 minutes from home and he crashed before getting home.
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He just needed a little rest after their grand adventure.
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Tab still talks about his little trip with daddy when we go to the gym and he sees the trail. He is sure to mention that that is the trail with the water that daddy took him to.

Saturday, September 20, 2008

We Just love Kirksville

This weekend there were so many events in the community that it was so hard to choose what to do.

The boys and I headed to the town square this morning for the Red Barn Arts and Crafts Festival. It was a blast. I was kicking myself for having forgot the camera. But you'll just have to picture it. They close off the roads on the town square and vendors come and set up booths and sell their wares. All of this is on top of the usual farmer's market that is on the square every Saturday. We walked around and picked up a few things. I just love handmade and rustic looking Christmas ornaments so I picked up a cute star painted with a Santa and let Tab pick one out for himself. He of course picked a tractor. I also got Jason a sign for his office door that states, "All stressed out, with no one to choke". I thought it was corny but fitting.

Later in the day we headed over to the dorms where they had some of those huge blow up play sets with the slides and all. Unfortunately, they were just taking those down when we got there. Tab was still able to enjoy a free snow cone and cotton candy. Oddly enough, Benton did NOT like the cotton candy. I'm starting to worry that he is not my child, for no child of mine could ever pass up cotton candy.

Immediately after the snow cones we went to The Norman Magic Experience. Another fabulous thing about Truman University, where this was held, is that tickets cost Jason and I $3 a piece and the kids were free and students got in free also. If we had been at BYU, students would have been paying $7, we would have been paying $10-12 and Tab never would have been free.
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Norman NG (pronounced "ing") was amazing. He was such a great entertainer. Tab was enthralled with it all. I don't think that he fully grasped all of the things that he was doing, but like I said he was a great showman, so he was entertained nonetheless. He clapped a lot. (After the show he told me that he doesn't like clapping anymore.) He particularly liked when he opened a book and dropped a bowling ball out of it. He also really liked when he was hitting playing cards with a hockey stick. Benton enjoyed climbing on the seats and being able to sit on daddy's lap for a very short amount of time. Jason was a sport and took Benton out and put him to sleep and came back to finish the show with us.
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Tab was so excited to go up and meet the magician after the show.
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It was a really great night. I'm so glad that we live in such a great little town that has so many fun events for us to be able to take advantage of.

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Walking

I've been meaning to post this for a little while. Benton is full on walking. He chooses to walk about 50% of the time now and is increasing that each day. Sometimes I just want to push him over. Why can't he stop growing. Can someone please explain God's logic. Really, why must my babies keep growing. I need them to stay small.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Bowling

After a few days of just hanging out around the house, we decided that we HAD to get out. So Alissa and her bunch joined us at one of the local bowling alleys for some fun. We all shared ONE lane in order to get some package deal. It was interested. We had a lot of fun and a few laughs. My biggest memories from this were Anna getting a gutter ball with the bumpers up. Don't ask me how she did it. It was also amused by Tab trying to roll the ball and swinging it up too high and smacking himself in the head. I know I shouldn't laugh when my kid hurts himself, but I just can't help myself.
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We had quite the challenge to keep the boys away from the buttons. They reset frames a time or two.
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Tab and I had fun
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Poor Benton didn't get why he couldn't crawl out onto the lane. He just got passed from person to person while we bowled.
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Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Blueberry Picking

Every summer growing up we used to go pick blueberries at a place called Blueberry Hill. The picking was the best part because we literally gorged ourselves on blueberries. So we took the kids and headed over. Their berries are too die for. The only problem with this trip was that it was HOT HOT HOT and it didn't really agree with the kids. And so they fussed a little and the owners/workers aren't very tolerant of noise while you pick. Kind of weird huh. We'll just leave it at they are known for their berries and that is IT. We were able to snap a few pictures though.
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Before they were completely roasting, they did enjoy the picking.
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Monday, September 15, 2008

Play Group

When we visited my parent's, we attended the play group that the church has there. It was a blast. They had it at this little park that had a creek. The kids put on their swimsuits and went for it. They had so much fun.

Every time I think of this play group, I can't help but remember the utter mortification I felt. I was talking to my sister and another lady when Tab came up and told me that he had to go to the bathroom. So I tell him, "ok, hold on just a minute". I'm thinking ok he didn't seem urgent, he can hold it for a minute while I finish up this conversation. I had my back to Tab and my sister points and yells at me to look. I turn around and Tab had his trunks around his thighs and was holding his "ahem" and peeing on the rocks right there on the side of the creek. There were a bunch of people from my parent's ward there and a bunch that I didn't know and I just gasped and said whose kid is that and turned around, bright red. I of course turned back around and yelled at him to stop, but really, how to you get a kid to stop mid stream? We had to have a talk about where it is ok to pee outside. (In case you are wondering, he thought it was ok because earlier I had him pee in the wooded area near the park and unfortunatley we had let him do it at my parent's house, since they live in the middle of nowhere. Yeah, that had to stop.)

Unfortunately, I didn't get too many great pictures. But here is Tab. They were taking turns catching "fish" with some little butterfly nets.
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Abbie
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Sunday, September 14, 2008

4th of July

What, the 4th of July was over 2 months ago. Whatever. I'm just still trying to catch up from summer. It is kind of hard with my computer still at Best Buy (A long, crappy story).

Anyway. We spend Independence Day at my parent's house this summer. My sister, Alissa and her family and my brother, Adam and his family were also there. It was great. We went to a place in Lancaster called Long's Park. They have a Symphony that comes and plays patriotic music until it gets dark and then they play the 1812 Overture, accompanied by cannons, while the fireworks are starting. It is such an amazing display each time I have seen it.

We had a blast. We made dinner and packed it with us, along with a few games and blankets and such. We spent a bit of time playing Boggle, which is our favorite game to play with Matt and Alissa around. We always get our butts royally kicked.
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Of course, watching the fireworks was the best part. Tab wasn't sleeping, he was just closing his eyes because of the flash.
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My poor mom had the job of trying to keep Benton asleep while the fireworks were going off. Definetly not the easiest job. But as you can tell, she was successful.
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You can clearly tell that Adam, Mika and Gabi enjoyed the show.
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Alissa and Lucas
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Matt and Miles... the poor kid did NOT like the sound.
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Jarom and Abbie. After a while I started to get the feeling that Alissa's kids just don't handle loud noices well. She must not yell as much as me because Tab enjoyed the "Boom Lights".
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Tab was totally engrossed in watching the show.
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We couldn't even get his to look away to get a decent picture.
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Saturday, September 13, 2008

What is summer for, but to play?

We spent quite a bit of time at various parks while we were visiting my parent's house this summer and here at home.

It was so cute to see my neice, Gabi playing at the park. I guess that they don't have parks like this in Bulgaria, where she and my brother, Adam and his wife, Mika lived up until this summer. She really enjoyed running around and playing.
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Benton was finally getting old enough and mobile enough to crawl around in the tunnels at the playground. He thought it was pretty fun. There was a lot of giggling.
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Anna, Miles and Tab had fun trying to get this guy wiggling.
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I think that the adults had more fun playing on this contraption than the kids, although sadly they were much better at it than us. I think we finally decided that it must just be that we weigh too much and the "things" just weren't meant to turn with that much weight on them. It really wasn't that we were being shown up by 4 and 6 year olds. Ok, fine, maybe we were.
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I just loved this picture of Anna. Just look at the concentration and determination in her face. Go, Anna, Go.
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