Reclining high chair

What could be more relaxing than sitting in a reclining chair while eating? I don't know, but neither does William. He decided to take matters into his own hands when wanting to recline, or get down, or get moms attention and make her shout, "No!". Not always sure on this one's motivations. This is one kid who is so thankful he is so cute! - and good at unloading the dishwasher.

Tunnel of fun - playground pictures

Having fun at the park.

Rosi helps mommy grind wheat

1)Rosi is getting excited to start. She loves to help me grind wheat.

2) Shows how she likes to catch fresh ground flour on her finger and then she eats it (really! Notice she has flour on her lip/face).

3)Inevitably she makes a mess with all her "helping" and she is noticing the mess.

4) She is laughing off the mess with mom.

JJ enters a contest

The Lego magazine comes to our home and tells us of vital information about the "lego"ing world. The most recent edition advertised a contest about inventing a new animal for the Lego zoo. JJ created this guy. Was he a moose-zebra or a cow-antelope? Can't remember, I will have to ask JJ about that one. I do love how Lego's help kids to create things and develop ideas. And of course I love my JJ too! He is a very terrific kid and so willing to do so much.

JJ rocks!

This is JJ cleaning up his room. Every morning as part of getting ready for the day the kids make their beds and pick up any random things off of the floor. JJ was having a rocking morning when I took this picture. He was very pleased with how well he made his bed.

It is wonderful to me how much they have grown and become more capable of doing things for themselves. It may still not be important to them to clean, etc but at least they are capable and as they experience the world around them, they can then choose to use these skills they've developed.

Broken pipe, broken wall

I always find it humorous when you have to break one thing to fix another. In this case, Jeff had noticed that the condensation pipe for our house was not working properly (and was strangely loose) and so we decided to get it fixed. We called a friend who does these types of things and he let us know he could fix it for a couple hundred dollars. Jeff and I talked about it and decided that we would give it a go. We probably did not use the best tools for the job which made for a lot of dusty clean-up, but we were able to get it fixed.

What had happened was the bottom of the pipe was broken. Jeff had noticed shortly after we moved in that when the AC ran, instead of water dripping out the pipe, the foundation would just get wet below the pipe. When we opened it up, other than a bit of elbow grease everything was fairly simple. We spent a sum total of $12 and will need to spend about another $10 to finish fixing the wall. So for a grand total of less than $25 dollars we were able to fix this problem! Wahoo! I love that my husband is so willing to work together to fix things in our home. We are both getting more proficient in fixing things and we are saving a whole pile of money too! This is really good because we need that to fix up other things in our house like ceiling fans, broken garage door openers, etc.

Let's go fly a kite

It is a rare day to get good wind for kite flying. When wind comes, it is usually torrential (think of trees blowing sideways) or barely enough to push your hair across your face. We had been waiting for about a month or so to get this weather. It was windy all day and so I called daddy at work to suggest that right after he got home, we grabbed the kids and the kites and tried them out. We have literally had a kite in a package for about 4 years waiting for a good kite day.

JJ is not getting his kite very high, but he is enjoying it all the same.

AnnaLisa and Andrew are figuring out some of the dynamics of kite flying.

They are finally getting some good air with the kites.

Andrew's birthday dinner

Happy Birthday big boy! This is Andrew's birthday dinner. These are all items he wanted for dinner. Fried calamari, artichokes, asparagus, scalloped potatoes, bread, jello and soda. Andrew was delighted with this tasty meal. I made it all from scratch (with the exception of the soda). Making dinner went fairly smoothly other than burning half of the asparagus because even I can get overwhelmed when multi-tasking too many things (eveidentally I should not try to feed two sick toddlers while baking bread and potatoes, cooking asparagus, artichokes and trying to bread calamari - aaack!

We had a nice leasurly dinner as artichokes take a while to work through. Most of us finished dinner in under an hour. Andrew enjoyed himself for an hour and a half. At this point we served chocolate cake and Rocky Road ice cream.

For his birthday Andrew received his own leather bound scriptures in dark green! He wanted the large print version (I think because that is what mommy and daddy have). He also received a set of legos, several cards, a pack of dinosaur cards from Grandma and Grandpa Williams, and got to chat with Grandma and Grandpa Park via skype for about half an hour.

Andrew is excited about getting baptized in a couple of weeks. Yesterday I came down stairs and found him reading in the bible about Jesus Christ getting baptized by John. He was disappointed that there was so little information in the bible about it.

I thank God for Andrew and his wonderful attitude. He is very full of energy and is a bright spot in our lives.

I try to take the kids to one of the many parks that suround our home. We have three parks within two blocks of our home and probably about a dozen within a mile. This one happens to be right next to the kids' elementary school. JJ forgot class snack at home one morning, so we ran it to him in school, and then went to the park next door.

This particular piece of playground equipement is a motorcycle with a side car. They have fun on it, but rarely do all three get on at the same time. William climbed in between the two seats, and I just had to get a shot of it.

My sister's baby shower

Well, this is the only baby shower I have ever thrown. Many things turned out well, some things could have been improved, and I had a few mistakes that I would change for next time. In this picture I have a picture of the diaper cake that I made. Very easy, would love to do that again.

My nephew was born on Friday and is very cute. It is hard to remember how tiny they are when they are born. I came home from visiting the hospital and my "babies" were giants. Congratulations Kathy and Jordan!

AnnaLisa's going hippie!

In third grade AnnaLisa gets to participate in a presentation on music through the ages. This represents music for the last 150 or so years. They were suppose to dress up like any era of music. AnnaLisa told me 10 minutes before we were suppose to leave. So I went to my closet and created a costume. She had the necklace and undershirt everything else is mine. I had many friends who dressed like this in high school, so I don't know if she was representing the 60's or 80's, but she thought it was terrific.

She did a great job during the presentation. Afterward we went to McDonalds and bought ice cream cones all around (for Daddy, Mommy, and her). It was a fun evening.

yes, he is cleaning up

William is actually cleaning up the legos here. He tends to love putting things away (he is a whiz with emptying the dishwasher). When I first saw him doing this I cringed as he has not been away from the "mouthing everything" stage for too long. Then I realized he was cleaning up the legos! Way to go William.

ice cream anyone?

I came along this situation and realized it needed a picture and blog entry. One of the babies(Rosi ?) decided it was time for ice cream. They got the bowl out of the cupboard, the scoop out of the dishwasher and planted it right next to the refrigerator. I grabbed the camera when a big brother (Andrew) came swooping through, so I think it just adds to the whole story!

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

This is a book that the CIO of Jeff's job gave to Jeff to read. This has come in the midst of our discussions about conflict. It is a rather interesting book, easy read with very good principles taught. Jeff read it two weeks ago when he stayed home sick from work. When he was finished, he asked me to read it. It was truly delightful and we enjoyed discussing it. He has since returned it to be passed on to the next member of his office (his direct boss, whom he is hoping will glean a few points of wisdom), so unfortunately I can not directly quote from it, however there were a few things that really resonated with myself and my husband. In a functioning team:

1. You must feel listened to, regardless of the end choice made. For myself, I don't usually care if the out come is what I suggested, if my (and other members of the team) points are listened to, valued, and then a decision is made.
2. You must be willing to be vulnerable in order to contribute. This does not mean that other people need to attack you, it means that if you are holding back for any reason, then you will not be as successful as you would be otherwise, and your team also will not be as successful.
3. You need to value the success of the team, over yourself (whether it is personal value or personal limitation). You must be able to put the team's needs above your own.

Ready to shop

MaggieMae has outdone herself in getting ready for a shopping spree. She has "heart bear" all ready with her purse and hat. She loves to run around the house making laps through the kitchen, hallway and entryway. If she wants to get "food" she has a whole kitchen center in the game room (formal dining). She loves to push this cart around. My personal favorite in this ensemble is the pink see through skirt that is covering her pj bottoms!

Rosi at play

Rosi was in the playroom. This room has a kitchenette with sink, refrigerator, microwave, cupboards, and a stove that makes noise and lights up when a pan is placed on it. With a full set of play kitchen utensils, child sized table with chairs tucked in, and play food in a shopping cart, Rosi is set up to have lots of fun. The flooring is a thick brown shag carpet which would not work for a regular kitchen, but is enjoyable to walk around barefoot while playing. It has one area that is covered with a “car carpet” which her three year old sister enjoys playing on, but has yet to capture Rosi's imagination. The room has many windows which let in a lot of natural lighting, as well as a dining room chandelier which sheds limited lighting. Next to the kitchenette there are two tall bookshelves that are filled with book on many different reading levels with the Rosi level books on the bottom shelf. On the second shelf there are about a dozen wooden puzzles. These puzzles are at a variety of developmental levels. There is a red adult sized rocking chair that Rosi enjoys sitting in even though she has not figured out how to consistently rock the chair and usually gets frustrated after two or three attempts.

Rosi's auburn shoulder length hair is pulled up in two pig tails. She is average height for an 18 month old girl. She has gross motor skills such as walking and climbing stairs that are fairly average as well. She does not yet talk usually communicating through grunts, chucklings, and shrieks. She has strong facial expressions showing her pleasure and frustration. Rosi and dad walk into the playroom and dad pushes the little red shopping cart full of plastic food and other kitchen playware towards her. Rosi takes her sippy cup filled with water and sticks it into the front of the cart next to the side so there is plenty of room for her dolly. She puts her dolly in legs first, front side down, getting her legs through the leg holes. She then tries to climb into the back of the tiny cart. Her dad grabs her to keep her safe and the cart from breaking as it falls over when she tries to climb in. Rosi finds a cake platter in the cart spillage and decides to put it in oven. She then decides she needs a lid and takes upside down bowl and puts it on the platter. She closes door. She opens pokes with hand wearing oven mitt. Not able to pick it up, she throws oven mitt down and pulls it out with her hand. She puts it on the table. Then she notices a broken rubber band on floor and puts it on the cake platter under the bowl. She tries to climb into chair which is too close to fit. She pushes into chair and chair is tipping backward. Father moves chair back so she can be safe. She sits down, arranges her plate in front of her and looks to dad as she clasps her hands. He smiles and prays for her finishing with a singsong “amen”. She lights up, laughs, takes the orange plastic flipper and with her other hand lifts the bowl. She pokes the rubber band a few times and places the bowl inverted back on top of the cake platter. She repeats this pattern a half dozen times prompting dad when he needs it to do his “assigned” part. Dad is continually chatting with her as she plays. She quietly ignores him until she needs him to say the prayer for her, then she looks at him with hands clasped. At one point dad distracts her and steals the rubber band under the bowl. She unknowingly lifts the bowl and does not find the rubber band. She looks in the bowl which is still inverted that she is palming in her hand. She then starts to look around the table and floor. When she is not looking dad replaces rubber band under the bowl. She looks again and finding it and her face lights up, she gives a deep throated chuckle and starts repeating the routine again. She hops down and starts investigating the overturned shopping cart. She finds a plastic slotted spoon. She decides to replace the flipper with this slotted spoon, throwing the flipper back into the shopping cart. She starts playing again repeating the same routine using the slotted spoon to poke the bowl and rubber band. She notices the cupboard door open in the kitchenette. She immediately hops down and closes it. She goes back into the same routine this time stabbing the bowl, and in turn the rubber band, with the slotted spoon. This routine goes on a few times and dad switches out the slotted spoon for a broken slotted spoon that is “handle only”. She picks it up to use it and she is visibly confused. She is resistant to continuing playing her game. She starts grunting to show her frustration and confusion. Dad smiles and returns the whole slotted spoon to her. She picks up both and quizzically rubs them together as if trying to make them into one. Then she throws the broken one at the cart and returns to play. A few minutes later the phone rings startling her and she starts to cry hysterically and reaches for dad. He calms her down quickly while jumping up to answer the phone.