Swing into Spring

Three more weeks til daylight savings and a little over four until spring.  The count down is on... Lucky for us, we have had a few random days of park going weather.  This particular day was a late morning walk and picnic at the park.  I can almost smell the spring air and as Josh and I paid close attention to the different kinds of trees and plants on our walk, we think we may have even seen buds forming on a Cleveland Pear tree! 

I don't know why everyone wasn't at the park that day, but we enjoyed having it to ourselves and the kids relished on the simple joys of swinging.  

Jacob wasn't his happy usual self that day, we later found out his ear infection came back...

Joshie's Playgroup

A few weeks back I blogged about Kyle's playgroup, so I felt the desire to talk a bit about the 'original playgroup' that started oh-so-many friendships! We all met about 3 years ago when we were all new moms to one kid each... Wow, how quickly those days came and went and if we only knew how easy those days really were back then!

Well, here we are again, not as quiet as we used to be and not everyone can make it these days as it is quite common to have a sick child from our pool of multiple siblings! We have had a few of our friends move away and a couple of are missing because they were out of town. But this particular day we got to meet up with one of our friends that was in town for a few days... What a blessing it was to see her and her kids!


This group of lovely ladies and their kids have provided us with more than we could have ever imagined. The moms are so gracious and giving, willing to help out whenever anything is needed. They have hearts of gold and I have learned so much from their kindness. Their kids have become my kids favorite people to be around and our get togethers have given them wonderful opportunities to teach them about friends.

You can tell that our group has mostly boys!

I am able to get good birthday gift ideas as they play with their friend's toys!  I told you Josh is really into pirates, he went straight for the pirate ship and swords.

Kyle likes to figure things out.  I think that is why he climbs on everything... He spent a long time figuring out how this toy works.  He is definately in the 'cause and effect' stage!

And Jacob, one of the youngest of the group (for now...) loves to just sit and watch!

This particular playdate was a 'Potty Party'- aka a free promo from Huggies Pull ups, and Kyle is doing the potty dance with his friend Marissa!  Wouldn't that be great if the potty dance really worked and he became potty trained soon?!

7 Months

Poor little guy has had a rough month of sickness, but that hasn't stopped the sparkle in his eye or his determination to talk and crawl. Today he managed to get on his hands and knees by himself... His battle crawl is quickly progressing!

This little guy loves to mimic. I put a clean diaper on him, swaddled him tightly in his blanket and proceed to nurse him, when I suddenly got the hiccups. My body jolted as the reflex took over and as I looked down at Jacob, I could see his emerging smile as he kept his sucking grip. His eyes, wide open at that point, turned to me and then he released his suck to let out a belly laugh and then he attempted his rendition of the hiccup. This pattern continued many times over, until he decided it was a game and that he would show off the newest sounds that he could make... several "ahh squeals", "raspberries" and "gurgles" later his focus went back to nursing and falling asleep. Charming like his daddy!

Valentine Kisses

Joshua's class is having a late Valentine's exchange party, so we spent the evening making some crunchy kisses for his friends.  The credit for these cute little treats goes to Trish Kuffner from "The Arts and Crafts Busy Book".  They turned out great and tasted yummy! 

They are made using the basic Rice Krispies Treat recipe+ 1/4 cup cocoa

Josh practiced writing his letters, spelled out everyone's name and helped me cut the foil

You add the cocoa in after the butter has melted

Watching the marshmellows melt is the fun part

We shaped the treats with a funnel sprayed with Pam, wrapped them in foil and added the the name tags.

Aren't they cute!  In case you are wondering what that one says, it is for his classmate named 'Roman'. 

Nose in the books

It has been awhile since I have posted, but I promise it is for good cause.  My every free minute (very limited these days) have been spent catching up on the books I have been meaning to read or recently found at the library.  I seem to be in this mode where I want to be able to make certain aspects of my life more efficient (like cooking, cleaning and meal planning).  I also am feeling the excitement of starting a 'real' schedule of homeschooling this coming year for Josh's Pre-K year, not that I am following a curriculm to a T, but learning all about the different options out there is encourageing and very insightful!  The wheels are churning in my head on how I invision it and I also see the wheels turning in Joshua's head as we casually impliment learning concepts in everyday conversations and tasks.   My everyday attempts at enriching my hobbies (like photography) are little bit unfruitful, but I still enjoy reading about it- I just wish that info would stick in my head long enough to get to us it with my camera first hand!  The days don't seem long enough to learn all that is desired, I wish I thought that way when I was in school and before I had kids... Things would have been a lot easier!  For now, I get to thirst for knowledge and learn as I go.

Ahoy, Mates!

What do you get when you mix a big box that has been sitting around our office for a couple weeks, cold windy weather outside and an imaginative 3 year old that asks a million questions every day (many of them revolving around the theme of pirates)?   Well, you can take a look at the pictures to see for yourself.  I got asked if Iwould play Captain Hook and Peter Pan all day long and no matter what my excuse was, I was sure to hear it again in a matter of minutes!  So instead of dodging the question one more time or coming up with excuses like "Daddy will play with you when he gets home from work" or "I need to unload the dish washer" or "girls don't usually play swords"...  I decided to go all out and help him make a 'Pirate Ship' so we could really play Peter Pan!  We had a lot of fun imaginative play... 

Kyle was more interested in undoing all the decor or tumbling over the boat!

Josh was even determined to get Jacob involved

Joshua is really into pirates right now, this is how we found him sleeping the other day! 

Kyle's play group

A few of my high school friends and I reconnected about 2 1/2 years ago at a baby shower for our mutual friend Kristy... Her baby was born shortly after the shower, and the other 3 of of us found out we were pregos too!  Our babies were born within a couple days or weeks from each other and they were all boys, so we knew we had to keep this connection going.  Ever since they were newborns, we have met up about once a month to let them interact and to let us mommies talk about parenting issues and high school memories.  Fun times!

Eating and playing is what they do best!

Oh, there is the other one! These 4 are quite the group...

 

Our newest addition to the group- baby Olivia... We are so excited to have a girl in our group!  Since the group was established (the 4 + Joshie), we have had 2 new additions (Jacob + Olivia) and another boy is on the way, we are growing fast!

Kristy, the original prego, with Jack, there must have been something in the punch at her babyshower!

The 'real' snow day

After my previous post about a 'snow day', we actually got a lot more snow that lasted for a few days.  Yes, you may be laughing inside thinking, "Big deal it is WINTER",  but you have to remember that we live in New Mexico and don't get very much snow in the city... So when we do get it, we get really excited about this stuff!!!

Joshua played hooky from preschool to have snowball fights with Hannah (with that look, who do you think won?)!

Kyle had fun chasing Hannah during the snowball fight and just wanted his mittens OFF!

And Jacob was cute as can be watching the snow fall above him... He reminded me of one of those Snowbabies Christmas figurines!

Guess who is sitting up?

Well, my guess is that you guessed right... Jacob!!  He's been doing this for a little while, but here he is really showing off his new skill: