The long awaited moment arrived - it finally snowed! We had gotten a few small dusting of snow already, but nothing of substance. This promised to actually leave a few inches of snow on the ground and we were all super excited! We bundled Tommy up in his new puffy jacket and took him outside to see what he thought of it. And he apparently loved it!
Actually, it's hard to say who was most excited - Tommy or his dad. :)
Work threw a Halloween party downstairs in the atrium and invited all of the family members to attend. So Matt went and got Thomas from daycare and met us up there for the party. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it was pretty fun - though we did decide it was a little too chilly to go on the hayride around downtown. Maybe next year!
They had a play are for the smaller kids since most of the games were for older kids. Tommy loved the spinning art and even impressed the ladies running it with his awesome marker skills. Then he played with the Legos and Mr. Potato Head until his mom and dad got hungry and decided it was time to eat.
And since we love the zoo, we decided to go there as well. Though apparently we weren't the only ones with that idea - it was packed! Duncan ended up having to drop the rest of us off because there was nowhere to park. But since it was a little chilly outside, we didn't end up staying too long. Though Tommy certainly seemed to enjoy the animals and just walking around looking at all the fun costumes.
All in all, I'd say it was a successful Halloween, even though we didn't get much candy. Lucky for Matt, that stuff goes on sale the day after Halloween. :)
Thomas technically was around last Halloween, but I'm pretty sure he slept while we walked around the neighborhood with friends. This year we thought he might be old enough to get some fun out of the event - plus his daycare and my work were both having Halloween parties. Yay for indoor activities when it's super cold outside! I had no idea what to dress him up as, but Matt's mom made him a skunk costume and mailed it up here. It got here just in time and fit perfectly!
The daycare party was the weekend before Halloween and we thought it would be a good test run for the big day. And of course, Tommy had no clue what was going on or why he was supposed to walk up to random people with his bag to get candy. So he didn't get very much candy - unfortunate for the parents who were going to eat it for him...
But since the daycare went all out, there were things for him to do besides get candy. He really liked the pumpkin crafts, wasn't too sure about the temporary tattoos... And he loved looking at all of the big cut outs they had made for the occasion. All-in-all, I'd call it a win!
The night before Halloween - we were in a bit of a panic as we hadn't decorated pumpkins yet! We figured the adults could do it after dinner, but Tommy had limited time between daycare and dinner, so we put him to work as soon as he got home. He really got into the finger painting - that boy takes his art very seriously.
Tommy's pumpkin will have to dry for the full effect, but he seemed pretty excited about just smearing paint all over it He started out with a very nice pointillism technique, but that soon turned to full on smears of paint. Matt tried to keep adding new colors so the whole pumpkin wasn't gray, but apparently Tommy likes gray...
Then after dinner, the adults finally got in on the action. And we had a blast - though the pumpkins up here are kinda weird. They are super stringy - like spaghetti squash. We couldn't ever get it all out, we just got tired of scraping. The bowl of pumpkin guts looked like a bowl of shredded cheese. Though I doubt it would taste as good.
The finished pumpkins! (In order - Tommy's, Brittney's, Matt's and mine)
Not bad for a bunch of procrastinators, huh? :)
Baby!
That's right, we are expecting another kiddo here in the Hoyt household, expected to arrive in late February! As you all know, I didn't want to know the gender of the first baby while Matt did, so we compromised and he found out and had to keep it a secret. Since he was such a good sport this time, I decided we could do it his way this time and find out what we were having.
But since I didn't really want to know, I wanted to find out a fun way. Matt was still en route to Alaska when I had to go in for the anatomy ultrasound, so I had the ultrasound tech write the gender in a sealed envelope. Weeks went by as I pondered how to do it. I had read years ago about people getting cakes made to find out the gender. It seems so trendy now, but I still kept circling around to it. Trendy or not, I love cakes, so why not do it that way?
Brittney offered to make it, but I wanted her to be surprised too! The only solution was to order a cake. That's right. I *paid* for a cake... I'm so ashamed! But look how nice the cake turned out!
The cake shop did a great job - there was no way of seeing the cake color through that icing! All that was left to do was to cut the cake and find out if Tommy is having a little brother or little sister! The suspense was killing all of us!
Well except Tommy, he was much more interested in his Ritz crackers. :)
After much debate on methods and timing, Matt and I decided to tackle it together so neither one of us would get the edge on seeing what color the cake was:
It was at this point Tommy got interested. We had already tried asking him if would prefer a little brother or sister, but he had no opinion on the matter as of yet.
And the verdict is...
A baby boy! That's right - two little guys!
I think my first words upon seeing the color were "Uh-oh!" I'm going to be totally outnumbered now! But considering how much I love my little guy that I already have, I can only imagine how much more love I have to give to a second baby boy. I might end up pulling my hair out at some point, but I think having one boy makes having two seem not that much harder. Any of you with multiple boys calling me crazy right now...? :)
After trying his brother's cake, even Tommy seemed to get excited! He's going to love having a little brother to play with! And I so ready to love both my boys - though I still have to wait a few more months to meet the second little guy. Oh well - can't rush a good thing, right?
Natalie seems pretty pumped about the second baby news as well, though maybe because Tommy was dropping cake for her to enjoy with him. Of course, she's just tall enough he can whack her from the high chair... Think she would be embarrassed if she knew she had icing on her head? ;)
(Belly shot courtesy of Brittney - as are most of these photos! I wouldn't have taken one, but she figured you would all want to see the growing belly. At least I was wearing a cute shirt!)
What to do on a snowy Sunday morning??
Of course the snow didn't last very long this morning, but it made me not want to leave the house at all for any reason. Plus snowy weather seems like the perfect time to bake things. Luckily I had started a batch of bagels the night before!
Not the easiest baked good I have ever made, but they were ridiculously good! Everyone gave them a thumbs up and we are already debating what flavors to try adding to the basic recipe first. My vote is for cinnamon raisin!
I ended up using a bit of a combination of the Fine Cooking and Cook's Illustrated recipes, so I don't know which one to link to. Maybe I'll figure out next time I make them and try to post the Jen-version. Finding the high protein bread flour was the toughest part - you get creative when King Arthur wants $20 to ship you a bag of their Sir Lancelot high-protein flour. Luckily with some vital wheat gluten, I think I managed to make it happen. :)
I have a confession to make, I haven't been editing my photos. Well, not very much anyhow. I used the software that came with the camera, but it's pretty basic. I just didn't have the time to mess with it or the desire to buy the software.
Well it turns out we have a photography club at work up here and they just happened to be demo'ing Lightroom - Theresa's favorite photo software. So a free lunch and a chance to play with Lightroom? Why not??
And I loved it! I just made a few minor tweaks in some old photos of Thomas and they look so much better. I'm sure it's in the eye if the beholder, but they just look like warmer, more flattering photos of the kiddo I love. :)
Plus since Matt brought our computer, I might a really have a way to play with my photos and website again - woowoo!
The big day finally arrived – Matt’s here! I had been diligently tracking his progress on the SPOT locator all morning and then it wasn’t updating. The last update was when he was on the north side of Anchorage, so I showed Duncan and asked what time he thought they would get here. He recommended going outside pronto. Good thing he did – I just our coats on and walked outside to see them pull around the corner. After a mad scramble to get our “Welcome Home” signs held up, Matt finally got to hug Tommy and I after 8 weeks apart.
Tommy just stared at his dad. He didn’t run from him (like he did to me after only two weeks apart!), he didn’t smile or cry, he just stared at his daddy. All while holding his new favorite broom of course. Then, we let the dogs out of the car – they immediately freaked out and ran all over the yard in excitement – which only elicited long looks from Tommy as well. I think the poor guy was trying to take it all in!
Once his dad picked him up and started playing with him, it all seemed to come back to him:
“Oh right – this is the fun parent! I have missed him!!”
Matt's on his way up here, currently somewhere in the middle of nowhere, British Columbia. He should be here on Sunday - so excited!!!
I was planning on forgetting the house hunt and let him deal with it after the disappointing first trip out looking at houses with the realtor two weeks ago. But I figured I could go out one more time with Ed and see some more houses. If nothing else, I can cross some off the list. And hopefully not fall in love with the one house the relocation people won't let me buy. (Stupid fake stucco!)
Anyhow, I'm not exactly excited to go in case you can't tell, so I needed something fun at the beginning of the day to get me through. Thomas decided that wouldn't be sleeping in (5:20 wake-up time?!?), so I decided we would go out for breakfast before dropping him off at daycare. He's been a bit hit or miss in restaurants lately, so I figured IHOP would have an understanding crowd at 8am on a Friday.
But he did awesome! He colored, stared at other kids, waved bye out the window at people and polished off a silver dollar pancake breakfast! I was pretty glad I opted to get him his own meal. What a big boy he's getting to be!
I heard a rumor (via Brittney) that work will occasionally give us "Sun days" when the weather is particularly nice. Especially if its been a bad stretch - which it has been...
Well guess what happened today??
Sun Day!!!
We decided to go rescue Tommy from daycare and all four of us went to go get frozen yogurt. Tommy was more excited about the waffle come pieces than the yogurt - until he realized I had chocolate... Then he shoved his bowl out if the way to try to steal mine. :)
Last time we went, someone got chocolate stains all over their pants... Figured the vanilla would be easier to clean up. There's practical, then there's what delicious. Can't deny he's my kid! ;)
For her last weekend, I thought it would be best to go back to Girdwood and introduce her to the Bake Shop as well. We had a slight detour on the way because I wanted to find the Crow Pass trailhead that we had started our backpacking trip on 5 years ago. It was much further off the main road than I remembered, but it was definitely the same trailhead I recall. Though with a brand new bear warning sign - yikes!
After the obligatory yumminess of the Bake Shop, we took Tommy back to his favorite park to blow off some steam. During a quick ice cream break, Heather decided she would rather go to the Wildlife Conservation Center than up the Alyeska tram (easy choice with the cloud cover). And it was a great choice, we made it just in time to see them feed the brown bears - which were way closer than I would have expected!
We managed to say goodbye to all the awesome wildlife in time to get Heather back to the airport in time to tell her goodbye. It was hard saying goodbye again and knowing we won't see the family for at least a few months. But it was great to get so much quality time in with both of them. I know that I certainly appreciated the help getting Thomas up here and easing him into a new daycare. And hopefully he appreciated it as well - I'm sure he did, that boy is definitely a people person!
