Fort

Stevie and Lilly made their own fort with my rocking chair. So cute! He is reading a story to her! When they are sweet with each other it is darling...of course Lilly just turned two and we are entering the "don't touch me" phase! This is why we bought the hated mini van...put one kid in the back and one kid in the middle seat.

Just Like Mom!

This was after a trip to our wonderful swimming pool! The pool is great, but the weather was only in the low 80's and within 20 minutes both kids were blue...literally. Steve and I were kind of enjoying the cooler weather...a break from the sweltering heat...but Stevie and Lilly don't have enough body padding to enjoy cold water. We played hard, got cold, drove home, and jumped into the shower!

Lilly wants to do everything that I do, only natural, and she actually has enough hair to hold the towel. But, we had to work kind of hard to get the towel to stay on Stevie's head. His constant bouncing didn't help either! Oh well, we got the picture!

Play Dough!

These two love play dough. This is Stevie's new table he got for Christmas from his Nana and Papa...and the kids love doing projects on it. Go Nana! Go Nana...it was a perfect gift! Anyway, Stevie is into creating different stuff and then acting something out...like a snake that goes down a slide (that's what he is doing here) and Lilly is into eating it. So, the conversation sounded like this..."Stevie, what an awesome snake...Lilly take the play dough out of your mouth...Stevie that snake loves to slide...Lilly spit it out...Stevie what other animals are you going to make?...Lilly don't put the play dough in your mouth again...Stevie that is an wonderful bird...Lilly if you put it in your mouth again, you won't be able to play any more...Stevie, you just squished your bird and snake together...Lilly that's it you are done...Stevie I have to take your sister and wipe the play dough off and out of her mouth."

Anyway, you can see we had a good time. And really Lilly did get to play for like 20 minutes before I just gave up.

She is so intent on what she is doing. So serious and dang cute!

This kid has an incredible imagination and he loves to use it. I can't wait to read the stories he will create!

It's Begninning To Look A Lot Like Chirstmas!

Stevie helped set up the Christmas tree this year. As you can tell it was a fresh tree...we freshened it up outside in the fresh cold air for a couple of hours to get the dust off! He had fun sliding the branches into the slots. I can't believe I didn't get any pictures of us decorating the thing but Stevie helped Papa with the lights (he even helped Papa wind up the lights when we took the tree down) and Nana and I with the decorations. He loved the ones that Adam had made as a kid and the little Nutcracker characters the best. Lilly helped too. She examined and tasted everything within reach to make sure it was suitable for the tree.

This was the first Christmas home in 3 years and I had a wonderful time going through all the old decorations. It brought back a lot of fond memories.




Antie Samantha got the kids an advent calender this year and to be honest Stevie wasn't very interested in it until I told him there was chocolate inside the little windows. He tried to convince me another day had passed after his nap so he could get two chocolates a day. I never gave in and he never gave up asking!


Lilly loved hers too. She would work at getting the little doors open for a long time. She even got a piece of chocolate out on her own. After that she knew exactly what Stevie was doing when he opened his door and she made sure she was right in the middle of things until I gave in and let her open hers too! (this is where I break into song and sing you..."everything you can do I can do better" they are really getting to be brother and sister and she will not be left out! So cute. I can see Steve's suborn personality coming through...wink wink...because of course it couldn't be mine!!!

Lilly's Ugly Hat

This time I'm not even going to take the time to apologise for not writing or keeping up with this blog. Instead, I'll spend the time posting as many pictures as I can.

So, this is Lilly's winter get-up. Mom and I got the hat for her at TJ Max and I think it is adorable on her. Papa on the other hand thinks it takes away from how cute she is. He is always teasing her to get that "ugly" hat off.

What do you think? I think there is no way to make this kid look anything other than cute cute cute!


Now when Papa tells her to take the hat off, (if it isn't fastened under her chin) she pulls it off and laughs! It is such a game for them!

The Park

These Pictures were taken right as the sun was going down and are hard to see. Plus I had to use my phone camera instead of my fabulous Nikon! But this park was too awesome to not take pictures.

I don't get much one on one time with Stevie these days. Mostly because a baby is a full time job and partly because Dad is deployed. Anyway, we heard about this new park opening up near the zoo and had to check it out. We left Lilly home with Nana and Papa and we headed out. This park was so cool. It has everything. Swings, slides, climbing wall, those spinning chairs like the ones in Santa Fe, hand operated tractor scoops, this big boat like thing that sways back and forth, this hippo that shows the different organs of a body that Stevie is crawling in below, an entire music section where you can play these drum like columns, or a wooden piano like instrument, all kinds of ladders, steps, climbing apparatuses...the list is endless. We had an absolute blast running together though this place. We played chase and tried out all the different toys and all & all had a great time.
This is Stevie in the spinning chair. The first time he did he continued to ask me to spin him faster and faster and faster. He was a blur. But, the second time he didn't want to go so fast. It makes my head spin just thinking about it. I sat in it too and Stevie spun me around by grabbing my leg and running round and round.

I would never trade Lilly for the world but days like this is when I miss our times together. He is an amazingly fun kid to hang out with. He would find something new to try and go running off toward it...get half way there and turn back to me and yell, "Com'on Mom, lets try this one!" There were several other kids his age at the park too, and usually he will make a new friend and they will play...but this night it was all about the two of us. He wanted me to do everything he was doing and visa versa. We had a wonderful time and I can't wait to go again!

Pumpkins!

Every year I run into the problem of what to do with the pumpkins after they have served their purpose at Halloween. This year the kids were so sick and we were getting ready for our trip to Santa Fe that we didn't even carve ours. So they had been sitting on the kitchen floor for 3 weeks and we finally made the decision to do something with them besides throw them in the compost. I am one of those weird ones that don't like pumpkin pie so we decided to bake these, make the pumpkin mush that you need to bake with and turn them into cookies. They were awesome! Of course anything is good with chocolate chips in it! So this is Papa and Stevie cutting into the first of the 3 we cooked and mushed.

Stevie told me after Papa made the first major cut into the pumpkin that Papa was cutting up Lilly's pumpkin. Stevie wasn't ready to say good bye to his yet! And besides it made a great stool!

Of course I couldn't resist throwing this picture in. She is so cute!

Feeding the Birds!

This is one of Stevie's favorite activities. He loves to chase the birds back into the water. We have actually received a couple of dirty looks from people who think that it is cruel to chase the birds so we try and go to an uncrowded area. Oh for crying out loud....it doesn't hurt the birds...just gives them a little excitement. We had a ton of old bread with us from the house. One sack had old bagels Nana had made. She makes the best bagels ever!!! But we didn't get this batch eaten. A rarity...believe me! Anyway, the bagels were so hard that the birds couldn't break them apart. I couldn't even break them into pieces. The poor birds had to let them soak first and then enjoy them. Nana and I were dieing laughing, watching the birds try and peck those hard bagels.




A lot of people go feed the birds in the summer but not many go once it gets cold. So, we had a ton of birds come right up to us. Stevie even fed a few from right out of his hands. It was a nice afternoon!

Leaves!

I am admittedly the worst blogger ever!! I know. I am so sorry especially to my poor husband who doesn't get to see his kids. I should be better at this and I'm going to try hard and do better! I promise! So these pictures were taken back at the end of September! I know! I know! The leaves had just started to fall off...due to the snow the week before. So we dressed all up in warm clothes and went outside to discover it was 65 degrees. Stevie was a little hot and eventually stripped off some (not all) of his winter clothes and enjoyed the afternoon! He was still at the point where the snow outfit was still NEW and EXCITING! Now that it is cold everyday...it has lost some of its novelty!

We raked up a pile of leaves and had a blast just playing in them. Stevie even helped me to rake them!




I love this last picture because Stevie is explaining to Lilly what she is playing with. He really is a sweet brother. She was interested until Stevie stopped paying attention to her and then she wanted out. I thought she would really go for being in the middle of such a cool sounding and textured kind of place but she started to cry. Oh well maybe next year!

Shopping Cart

I'm sorry these last couple of entries are out of order. These pictures are from out trip down to see Nana Great. We were going to leave on a Thursday night after a volleyball game. I was all pumped up and wired because it was a big game and we lost. Nana was tired but I assured her I could drive to Salt Lake and we could stay over night at my wonderful aunt Dorothy's house. We got all packed and at the last minute decided we should sleep here and leave in the morning. Probably a wise choice, after the adrenaline wore off from my game I was exhausted and the drive would have been grooling. So we set the alarm from 4:30 and left at 5am. Nana drove the whole what to Salt Lake...thank God, Lilly had been up all night and I was so dang tired. Anyway when we got to Salt Lake we stopped at "Grand" aunt Dorothy's work, and dragged her to a McDonald's so Stevie could run around a little bit. We had a nice visit and then got back on the road. We decided that it would be better if we didn't arrive at Nana Great's house empty handed and tried to make a quick stop at a grocery store. Easier said than done. We looked and looked for a store and it took us about 30 minutes to find one. I bet we drove right by several that were maybe one street over but it took us forever to find one on the street we were on!

We finally found a Smiths and picked up some goodies. Stevie insisted on riding in one of these carts and Lilly is stable enough so we put her in too. They were so cute together. Stevie made sure she didn't fall out and they had a great time. If you can, blow up this first image and look at Lilly's face. She had the biggest grin on her face!!! TOO CUTE!




We made it to Nana Great's house and had a wonderful visit. I just wish we lived closer. Go figure, I seem to live too far away from a ton of close friends and especially family!

!!!!!!SNOW!!!!!!!

Here are the promised pictures of our adventures in the snow. Stevie stayed out the entire day and I think would have slept in his new snow suit if I would have let him. This beautiful snow suit is from our friends in Savannah GA, Jennifer and Nathaniel. They didn't need such a warm suit for the south so they gave it to us. And it is so nice. Stevie didn't get cold all day. The gloves are from me from last winter and the boots are from Wendy and Brenden, friends of ours here in Idaho Falls. I was sure the boots would be too small but Stevie swears they still fit. We will see for how long. He is growing. Anyway, we woke up to about 3 to 4 inches of snow and it snowed/rained all day.



This is Stevie's snow suit from when he was a baby and I can't remember who gave us the cute hat that Lilly is wearing. She loved the snow and was fascinated by her brother playing in it!



This is the sled that Papa uses to feed the sheep hay in the winter. He put a blanket in the bottom and Stevie pulled Lilly, until he jerked too hard and she started to cry.

This is Stevie and I trying to build a snow man. We got it all put together but the ground wasn't level and the snowman crumbled. We also made a few snow angels...well I should say that I made a snow angle, Stevie didn't like it because when he lied down on his back to do it, snow fell in his face. So, maybe next time.

Lilly, watching from the window. If you look closely you can see Papa in the reflection taking Lilly's picture. He looks almost ghostly!

Eating snow! I told him to be careful and only eat the white stuff. This snow storm was the perfect stuff to eat. Really wet and heavy. Yumm!!

I think Stevie played in the snow this morning for about 2 hours. He had a ball!

"Kids say the darndest things"

I need to post on here some the comments Stevie has made recently. He is so stinkin' funny sometimes and I want to share with you how clever he is sometimes.... So....

1. Nana, Lilly, Stevie and I drove down to Nana Great's house last weekend for a visit. It is a very long drive, 8 hours, and about 7 hours into it Stevie says to us, "my butt is getting flat!" It made both of us crack up. A good "pick me up" 7 hours into a long and fairly boring drive. The visit was great. Stevie loves his Nana Great and literally jumped into her arms upon arrival.

2. Nana, Lilly, Stevie and I went gleaning potatoes...for all you non-Idaho-ians out there that is picking up potatoes after the farmers have harvested all they want. If you go right after the farmers are done you can get some yummy ones that either fell out of the trucks or just got missed. Anyway we passed some friends and neighbors of ours taking a walk as we were pulling out of our street. We pulled over to visit a minute and Stevie leans forward in his seat and tells them, "I'm a tater picker, a bike rider, and a stealer!" And yes he did call himself a "tater picker" I don't' know where he got it but it was dang funny. And we aren't sure what he is stealing to call himself a stealer. But it made us all giggly.

3. Saturday morning Stevie comes into my room and whispers, "Mom, is it Christmas, is it your birthday, is Santa coming?" I asked why and he said, "because it snowed!" We had got about 4 inches of snow in the night and it snowed/rained all day long. I will post the pictures soon!

I know there have been a few other comments here and there, but it's late and this all I can remember. I will post them as they come.

Oh Stevie

This was too funny. After church last weekend, we had two of our friends Jo and Sandy come to the house for coffee. They are avid bird watchers just like Nana and they were talking about a new bird they had spotted. Stevie listens to their conversation for a minute and then walks into the kitchen, grabs the bird book, runs back to the living room, sits down, opens the book and starts telling us all about birds. I can't believe this kids memory because he was actually turning to the correct page and telling us about the bird on it. He told us about owls, starlings, grackles, black birds, ducks, hawks and more. It was incredible and funny. He was so serious about what he was saying. We were all amazed...and rightly so sense he is so talented! :)




The animation and the tone he was using was just like how Nana talks to him about the birds. This summer, Stevie and Nana would get up before the rest of us, have breakfast together, and talk about birds. I know that Stevie really misses the time with her now that she and he are in school. But he remembered a lot of what she taught him!

Steve's book for Stevie and Lilly

Ok!!! I finally got this book on my Blog. I have been trying to get this organized for a while now and today everything fell into place. This is mostly for my wonderful mother-in-law, Karen because she has been waiting to see these pictures for a long time!

This is the book Steve made for his kids to help them get through this long and aweful deployment. Steve is quite the artits and Stevie loves this book. It is an on going book because, if you didn't notice, I'm the only one not in it. So Steve has promised to add a few pages. It is in a scrap book, so he can add as many pages as he wants. I know Stevie and the rest of us would be thrilled to get a new page...hint, hint, hint!

I think if you double click on the images, you can see an enlagred picture and will be able to read the words.

I love this book and was so proud of Steve for making it. It was really hard for hin to get started on the drawings becuase it made the delployment real. It made leaving his kid real and that sucked and still sucks. So, way to go Steve for creating something that will be a keep-sake in our family forever (and 2 days...inside joke!) I can't wait to see the new pages that he is going to add!