Jeremy's workouts

A good way to stay in shape is to carry kids around on your back.



You can do pushups with the extra weight.


Or you can just run around with the extra 70 pounds.

New York Souveniers

Grandma Jane and Auntie Laura had a fantastic trip to New York! Here are some of the fun souvenirs they brought back. Thank you!



Auntie Laura and her favorite kids. They love New York!



Nathan loves socks. (He's kind of like Dobby). He got some NYPD socks and a child size NYPD hat.


Jeremy got an NYPD shirt. I got a new purse! It's a fake something or other.


Aunt Karen got Elizabeth this cute little outfit from Chinatown. As of today, I cannot get Elizabeth to put it on. Hopefully, this will change! She loves to use the fan to cool off her dollies though.

Spring!

The trees are all blooming. Spring must be here! Our cherry tree in the front yard is looking quite pretty. White blossoms on top and pink blossoms on the bottom! Jeremy and Nathan have also been doing a lot of mowing.

Making crayons

We have a TON of old broken crayons. Jeremy and Nathan decided to do a fun project. They cut the crayons into little pieces and melted them in silicone trays. Now, Nathan has multicolored crayons in fun shapes!

It was really cute at preschool today. The teacher was talking about reduce, reuse, and recycle. She asked if anyone knew what that meant. Nathan raised his hand and told her that we were reusing old broken crayons and recycling them into new better crayons! He's right!


Cutting up the old crayons into tiny pieces.


Arranging them into silicone trays. The trays had the shapes of tropical items.


Here are some of the finished products! Palm tree multi-colored crayons and a blue starfish crayon.


The kids are having fun coloring with these!

April videos

 

Cute photo for the day

Elizabeth looking cute in her footie pajamas.

Fun at Riverfront Park

Tami and adorable Evan came to play with us in Riverfront Park! Here we are at the carousel in Riverfront Park. (Nathan did not want to be in the picture.) Neither girl was terribly impressed with riding on speedy horses that go up and down.


If you look to the horse on the far right, you'll see a blurry Nathan head as we zoom by. He said, "This is just like riding a real horse!" (He's never ridden a real horse so I don't know how he knows this.) Elizabeth did NOT want to get on the horse so we sat behind him on the bench.


Elizabeth and Evan ate graham crackers. Here, they saw a park train start moving. They both turned to look.


Elizabeth and Evan are 6 weeks apart. Sometimes they look like twins with their ponytails and expressions.



This metal goat eats garbage. It has a little vacuum inside of it. Nathan had fun putting the garbage up to the mouth and watching it disappear.


Elizabeth and Jeremy going down the slide for the first time. Nathan is right behind them! Later, Elizabeth had fun sliding down on her own.

Ducks in Riverfront Park

These children love ducks. They've both had minor obsessions with ducks. We took them to the park today in downtown Spokane.

Well, there were a lot of ducks running around. They LOVED chasing the ducks around and trying to catch them. I caught a few seconds on video. I also caught a little 4 year old boy quacking...

In case anything is in question, Elizabeth is in the purple coat. Nathan is the one in the Union soldier hat.

Being cute

She loves to show off her cute smile.

Papa Norm and Grandma Jane come to play!

Papa Norm and Grandma Jane came to play. The kids had fun!


Gram is quite the artist!


Nathan scooting along.


Nathan REALLY wanted this picture on the blog. I guess he likes the close up.


Elizabeth blowing bubbles with Papa Norm.

Dance of the Dizzyplum Fairies

More ballet. This performance includes wings and make believe wings.

At least the little fairy didn't get too dizzy and fall over this time. The larger fairy has been working hard on his Port de Bras to make his wings appear realistic.

We're 2/2 with peanut allergies

We found out today that Elizabeth is allergic to peanuts. It was confirmed by her allergist. So her total food allergies at this point are peanuts and sunflower seeds.

I was so hopeful she wouldn't be allergic to peanuts. I didn't eat one peanut product my entire pregnancy or nearly the entire time I was nursing her (I had one peanut butter brownie that entire year). With Nathan, I ate lots of peanut butter while pregnant so I thought maybe that had somehow caused it in him? Therefore, I did the opposite with Elizabeth with high hopes. Nope. She's allergic too.

We gave her an Easter peanut candy on Easter. It was her first try with peanuts. She had no reaction. We were hopeful she would be ok. However, we do know that the first time someone has a food, they will not react as their body has had no exposure.

Then, at preschool on Thursday, snack was a peanut/chocolate granola bar. I made sure Nathan didn't get one, but allowed Elizabeth to have it. After a few bites, she broke out in hives all over her mouth. That's when I knew. It had to be. It was quite discouraging. Thankfully (at this point anyway) the allergy is not anaphylactic. If she has more and more reactions they may get worse, but if we keep her away from them, hopefully any future reaction will just be hives on her mouth.

So now we'll be carrying Epi-pens galore! Right now, it's not a big deal. I keep 3 or 4 in my purse at all times and the kids are with me at all times. When they head off to school, I suppose I'll send a few with both kids. When they get to school, they'll get to eat lunch together every day at the allergy table! I'm not sure they'll appreciate that as they get older, but hopefully they can look out for each other and inject each other with epi-pens if needed. There is one plus.

Nathan's been doing really well with practicing with his practice epi-pen. He takes off the lid, sticks it on his leg, waits for it to click when he's pressing hard enough and counts to 10. So it's good he's figuring it out. I hope when he gets older, he'll be able to recognize if he's having a reaction and give himself the epi-pen. He doesn't remember ever having a reaction because we are so careful with food.

At least Elizabeth's new diagnosis doesn't really change our lives any at this point. I remember how much of a HUGE change it was with Nathan when we found out about all his allergies. Although now I have to worry about 2 kids having reactions instead of just the one. I guess my worries double.

Lookalikes

I always have to smile when I see couples who "look alike" when I'm out and about. Whether their clothes are a similar style, or they wear similar glasses, or just simply look like each other in terms of height/weight/way they walk. I tend to notice this amongst older couples especially.

Well, I think it's started with us. Yesterday, I got dressed for a day at the dentist (Laura) and some play at the park. As I was packing lunches in the kitchen, Jeremy went to get dressed. He hadn't noticed what I was wearing.

He came up dressed exactly the same as me. Red Cougar shirt and jeans. We had to laugh. The only difference is that it's still not warm out enough for me to wear the shirt without a long sleeve shirt underneath. Otherwise, look at this ridiculousness.

Unless Jeremy shrinks a LOT with age, I think at least we'll always look different in terms of height. Now everything else....who knows?

Favorite Part of the Day

Tonight I asked the kids what their favorite part of the day was. Here were their responses.

Nathan: "My favorite part of the day was running dental office laps!"

Elizabeth: "I liked picking the flowers."


To make better sense of these responses...
Our fabulous Auntie Laura cleaned our teeth at her office today. It has a fantastic setup that's kind of like a maze for kids. They ran around and around. Nathan ran 7 laps and said he won Bloomsday. After Laura cleaned our teeth, we all went and played at Discovery Park. That's a really fun park!

This afternoon when we got home, we picked wildflowers in our back forty and along the bridal trails. We have some pretty little yellow and purple flowers coming up. This was Elizabeth's favorite part.

Cute vocabulary words

Jeremy was flossing Elizabeth's teeth tonight. Here's something cute she said while he was flossing.

"That kind of hurts. You need to be more gentle."

We didn't know she knew the word "gentle" or how to use it in context. Funny!

Lilac

The girls in this house like to wear lilac colored coats in the springtime! Purple is our color (again, it's unfortunate it's a Husky color). It's lucky that my best color is also Elizabeth's best color.

Well, perhaps it is not luck. It might very well be genetics! Pasty skin and blue eyes seem to compliment lilac very well.

Easter

I don't have many Easter pictures. Papa Ray Easter Bunny showed up tonight. Then as I was taking pictures, the camera memory card just stopped working. All the pictures on it are just gone. Luckily, I'd posted pictures of the Easter egg hunt and dyeing eggs on the blog already. Everything else is just just gone (like the ones I took of Elizabeth in her cute Easter dress this morning before church). I was rather upset. The cute ballet video is also gone but at least it's on the blog! I really hope there is a way to get it back on my hard drive.

I put in a new card and caught a few pictures with Papa Ray Easter Bunny. The cute pictures I had of him walking in with Bunny ears and the baskets are gone. Easter Bunny Kim made some GREAT Easter baskets. She is so creative at that kind of stuff! The kids had fun playing with Papa Ray. They LOVED their new stuffed bunnies. Elizabeth now has butterfly wings and pom poms and Nathan has a microphone. They have some fun squishy balls too! Thanks Easter Bunnies.

Auntie Laura was over this afternoon too! She told us all about her trip to New York.

Easter Egg Hunt

The kids went on a GREAT Easter egg hunt today put on by a friend. We happen to live in a neighborhood where all houses are on an acre so there was lots of room in her yard for a big hunt. The weather cooperated which was quite shocking actually! The sun was shining and it was about 45 degrees. It was chilly, but with the sun out, it wasn't too bad.

There were about 25 kids and 400 eggs! It was nice because each kid got up to 16 eggs filled with candy. Elizabeth got to be the first kid inside the hunt since she was the littlest. That was nice. I just helped her grab the ones closest to the fence before all the big kids rushed in. She did like that a lot! Nathan went all out running to find his eggs. Here are some photos of the fun event!




Nathan waiting patiently with his empty Easter basket.



Elizabeth waiting (not nearly as patiently)


Listening to the directions and a message about Easter.



Elizabeth grabbing a few eggs.



Nathan checking out the candy in his eggs!

They didn't just find eggs. Elizabeth also got to drive a car.

Nathan got to slide.

A very talented girl made balloon animals. Nathan loved his dog!

The best family photo we could get. Here are some interesting points.
1. Elizabeth is not crying. She was just talking. Loudly.
2. It looks like Nathan has 2 nametags. One says Nathan and the other that says "Thomas" is really just on his coat.
3. In the sun (with no wind), I was actually warm enough to take off my big coat. I didn't need to have my coat on AGAIN for our family photos. Our last 2 family photos were Christmas and the Pumpkin Patch and I had on my big coat in both photos. Ridiculous! However, the wind did pick up a few minutes after the photo and I did have to put it back on. Sad. 7 months of wearing a heavy winter coat.
4. Nathan had grapes for a snack. Elizabeth had a muffin, cupcake and cookie. Well, that's just life for Nathan. He'll never be overweight!

Dyeing Easter Eggs

We had fun dyeing Easter eggs today. I forgot to boil a bunch of eggs (oops) so the kids only had 6 to dye. Don't worry, I'm boiling more tonight so they can dye more tomorrow. It was a good practice session. Nathan had fun. He used that little metal thing to dip the eggs in the dye so he didn't actually have to touch the eggs. We had him practice touching a few and he didn't get any hives from the outside of the egg so it's probably ok.


Elizabeth showing off her yellow egg.


Nathan showing off his purple egg. (I'm not sure why we used Husky colored dye today. It was not intentional. I promise!)


Elizabeth being the boss and thinking she knows all about dyeing eggs.


Well, she isn't a very good boss. The boss dipped her hands in the dye and got a purple hand.


Stirring the egg.


Nathan was much more serious about getting his eggs to look nice!

Dinnertime Discussions

As I was preparing dinner, I overheard this funny conversation. Elizabeth was holding some kind of mirror with princesses on it.

Elizabeth: Hey, two princesses!
Nathan: Actually there are three princesses.
Elizabeth: Oh....
Nathan: I'm allergic to princesses.
Elizabeth: I'm allergic to sunbutter.
Nathan: I'm also allergic to milk, eggs, peanuts, and tree nuts.


I'm very glad they can both verbalize what they're allergic to. The next step will be teaching them (Nathan especially) exactly what foods he can't eat and how to tell what foods to avoid.

The Ballet

Due to popular demand, here is part of the ballet in real time. 20 seconds of a quality show.

Fruit

It's a good thing we went to the dentist today. The kids have been eating glass fruit!

The dentist visit went SHOCKINGLY well today.

Nathan has always hated going to the dentist. He would cry, scream, and not let the people or dentist touch him. He had to be held down. Last year, he had to have cavities filled and a crown done. The dentist had to put him under general anesthesia because he would have been too out of control with just laughing gas. (Mommmy and Daddy loved that $1000 anesthesia bill and I was so scared of him not waking up). We didn't take him to the dentist for nearly a year and switched dentists. Our hope was that he would get a little more mature and that a new place might not be as scary.

It worked! Today, he laid back in the chair and let them polish, floss and even x-ray his teeth. He had no problems letting the dentist come and look in his mouth. No cavities. All the work last year has held up well. Nathan especially liked the TV in the ceiling. A movie was playing called "Hop." He thought that was pretty funny since his stuffed rabbit is named "Hoppy" and he was holding his hoppy in his lap to help him feel brave.

Elizabeth also did FABULOUSLY! I laid back on the chair with her. Since Mommy was right there holding her, she had no problems. She let the girl do everything. She got polished, checked, and flossed. Not one fuss. The dentist came and checked her out. The assistant said she never sees a barely 2 year old do so well. Good job Elizabeth! No cavities or any problems. Thank goodness!

It was our first positive experience at the dentist. It made our day!

Just riding on the Firebolt

Elizabeth and Nathan like to ride around on a broom. It's really cute!

Yes, I realize they are in their underwear again. They really don't run around in their underwear all day! They just tend to do the funniest things at home before bathtime when I've got the camera within easy reach.

That would be a fun party

Mom and Laura are in New York this week on vacation!

Laura called and told Nathan and Elizabeth that some of New York reminds her of Sesame Street. There are little stores and houses that look like the ones on Sesame Street.

Today, we were skyping with Papa Norm back in Royal City. Elizabeth kept wanting to talk to Gram, but I had to tell her Gram was visiting that big place that's kind of like Sesame Street.

Later, I asked Elizabeth where Gram was.

She said, "Well.....Gram's at Cookie Monster's birthday party." It was pretty funny!

Overhead Conversations

We've been cleaning and donating a LOT of old baby gear to Goodwill. Here's a funny conversation I heard while Nathan and Elizabeth were cleaning out the dusty baby bathtub.

Nathan: Can you believe we used to take baths in this tub Elizabeth?

Elizabeth: In the sink!

Nathan: This tub used to make us clean. Now we're making IT clean.

Elizabeth: That's funny.