What was your favorite part of the day?

Tonight at dinner, Jeremy asked the kids what their favorite part of the day was.

Nathan: "Playing frisbee at the park." (Sorry Auntie Laura. It was 60 and sunny here today.)

Elizabeth: "Mine was cutting up the chicken for dinner! Mama, your favorite part was when you woke me up from my nap because I was in a good mood."

She is awfully cute and soft when I wake her up from her naps. And she's FINALLY usually in a good mood. That only took 3 years.

Sharing the Brown Chair?????

During the afternoon, the kids watch a TV show while I exercise. I got off the treadmill today, walked out into the living room and my mouth dropped. They were SHARING the brown chair. Sharing! Usually, it's a big fight. We'll see if this ever happens again. 

A Good Ice Experiment

The kids like to bring in dirty, sandy ice from outside. Then, they put it in the sink and run hot water on top to watch it melt.

Snuggles

Elizabeth likes to snuggle with Daddy when she is home. Here she is after her nap. She's so soft and snuggly then in her jammies. However, I'm always saddened when I look at the photos and notice how big she really is. She seems so tiny when you're holding her, but in reality, she's getting bigger and bigger every day. Almost 3! 

Ground Beef Experiment

We've always wondered if buying less expensive higher fat beef is really a better deal. Or, are you just paying for a bunch of fat? Is buying the lower fat meat better because you get more meat even though you're paying more? Or is it not worth the cost. 

We decided to do an experiment. We bought a pound of 27% fat ground beef and a pound of 20% fat ground beef. The beef with more fat was .30 less. 

Here are the boys cooking up both pounds of meat. 

It looks like the pan with more fat has less meat (the one on the right) but Jeremy says it was about the same amount of meat, the camera just didn't capture it. So the amount of meat is about the same. 

Here is the fat that was sucked out. The cup on the right was the beef with more fat. It looks like a tiny bit more fat was sucked out. Not much though. 

So our conclusion was that you get about the same amount of meat whether you buy 27% or 20%. You suck out a little bit more fat with the 27%. 

We should really do this experiment with the 27% and the 3%. Then, we'd probably see a big difference. You'd think since you pay more for the 3%, you'd get more meat so it's worth the cost?  This was not seen with with the 20% however.  I guess we'll have to experiment. 

First Haircut!

Elizabeth had her first big girl haircut today! Her hair was getting a bit straggly. We bought some lollipops to try to keep her from moving around (since she doesn't like people messing with her hair). It worked REALLY well. 

Nathan was very impressed with the sharks and squids on the apron. 

Watching in the mirror. 

Finished hair. She wouldn't smile for me, but it looks much better! 

Pony Potty

Look Gram, Elizabeth spent a LOT of time today having all her ponies sit on the little potty. If you click the picture to make it big you can clearly see the green pony pottying. She thought this game was fantastic. The ponies all took their turns. Some of them used good potty manners. Others did not. 

Reading

Nathan loves to read to Elizabeth. On easy books, he pretty much has the memorized. On longer stories, he does a good job summarizing! He's reading to Elizabeth more and more. 

Well, guess who copies Nathan?  She pretty much has the easy books memorized too. Here she is reading to Dad in her tent. She had just about every word right! 

January Videos

 

Farm Show!

We went to the farm show this weekend here in Pasco. Nathan thought it had just as many tractors as the farm show in Spokane, so he was happy. He had to have his picture taken on pretty much EVERY tractor, sprayer, combine, swather, backhoe, etc. Elizabeth was not a big fan of the huge tractors. Climbing to the top of those big machines freaked her out. She liked the little ones. 

Papa Norm and Gram came down to take us to the show. 

Nathan in a big John Deere

Standing in the tire of a Case combine. Nathan is too big now! 

The only way to get Elizabeth to the top of this big sprayer was to make sure Papa came too! 

Posing with Gram

Can you see Nathan all the way up in that big sprayer? 

A small Kubota. 

If Papa bought this swather, he'd sure have some helpers when hay comes around! 

Moving down the list of tractors he sat in...here's Nathan in the New Holland. 

Elizabeth liked this little Kubota. It was only a few steps up! 

Winter Videos

 

A January visit

Due to a shift change, poor Jeremy is in the middle of working TEN days straight. It's hard on him and it's hard on us too. I took the kids up to Royal for a few days (Nathan is still on Christmas break from preschool) so that we could have some time with other people. We didn't play outside at all. It was so cold! However, we made it home to Pasco just in time before it started snowing. 

The kids like to make playdough with Gram. 

This time, they made a dark purple. Nathan's choice. 

Nathan hanging out with Aunt Laura and Pippa. Nathan had a lot of fun playing with Pippa!

Cutting up apples with Papa Norm. Nathan LOVE to run the apple peeler. They used up the last of the fresh apples for the year and made an apple cobbler!

I'm not sure what this face is all about. 

Marble Fun

Jeremy still has to build the marble towers for Nathan, but Nathan sure has fun once it is set up!

Painting

The kids got some fun bath paints for Christmas. They paint the tub AND they paint each other. 

Elizabeth wanted to be Pinkie Pie (a My Little Pony) so Nathan painted her pink. 

She didn't like the taste of the paint. 

Nathan wanted to be the green pony Emerald Ray. It's a boy pony.