Anova

For my birthday, Matt got me a new play toy for the kitchen. A sous vide immersion circulator made by Anova. Sous vide is a relatively new cooking method to make it to the home kitchen - it's quite popular in restaurants, but has been a little too pricey for home use. 

I've heard pretty amazing things about them - especially with regard to cooking steak! We actually were doing amazing at cooking steaks back in Houston, but our outdoor method really doesn't seem to work as well in 30° and the ventilation in this kitchen has a 99% chance of the smoke alarms going off when cooking steak. So when Anova started popping up in my newsfeed, I got interested in the technique and off-handedly mentioned to Matt that it would be fun to play with it. And he always pays attention to these things! :)

Since we were cooking for a crowd, I decided to make a Costco run. They are honestly one of the better sources of beef up here. (I miss you, Texas cattle!) The ribeye packages were all different sizes though, so I went with New York Strip! 

My carnivore child got pretty interested at this point. Shocking...!

Sous Vide literally means "under vacuum" and that is how you cook most foods. The Anova is merely a fancy water heater and circulator. The idea of sous vide cooking is to maintain a set temperature precisely for a set period of time and the piece of food immersed in the water (no floating because it's vacuum sealed!) will slowly reach the same temperature throughout. No overcooking the outside while trying to reach safe temperatures inside!

I used my giant pot I bought in 2014 for the giant recipe of French Onion Soup and clipped the steaks to the side. I am unsure if this was necessary or not - I didn't want to risk blocking the ports on the Anova. And you can see the multitude of thermometers we were double checking the accuracy with - Anova was as awesome as advertised on temperature control!

The one downside is that the meat came out looking a little blah. Obviously you can't sear the meat with sous vide, so it comes out needing a little bit more attention before serving. 

Into the cast iron skillet with you! Just a quick sear on both sides to make them extra scrumptious, but not enough to overcook the outer edges. 

The final result - a perfectly medium rare steak with just the right amount of sear on it. Look at that evenness all the way through! I think maybe next time I might cut off all the extra fat on the side, but that's just a good excuse to do this again! And again...! :)

And to top it all off, Heather and Mom made me a cake for my birthday! And it was Oreo! And it was delicious. Also my mom decided to decorate it with a J33 because she loved BB8 in the new Star Wars. Cute, mom!

Henry was chowing down on the cake! He has a bit of a cold and can't really breath through his nose. Which meant he was scarfing food down, with a pause occasionally to take a deep breath. He finally shoved the empty plate across the table to me and said "What do you want, Henry?" He replied without any hesitation and in a very big-boy voice "More!" This boy loves his cake...!

But don't think Thomas was any less excited about the cake. He finished it and Matt suggested he lick the plate. I don't think that it had ever occurred to Thomas to do this and he was completely on board with this method of frosting recovery. That plate was pretty darn clean when he was done.

Happy birthday to me and thanks to everyone for making it a great birthday! :)

Learning to Skate

After his last round of soccer lessons, Thomas decided that he wanted to try hockey next. I think his best friend at daycare has been taking skating lessons and of course Thomas wants to play hockey like his best buddy!

We took him down to a frozen pond near the house a few weeks ago to try standing on skates and he actually made it up a few times. He didn't make much progress with locomotion, but he seemed pretty impressed by his friend's skating ability! Then his dada took him to a hockey game, so he has been talking about playing hockey nonstop!

Although we have been telling him it's hockey lessons, it's really just learning to skate at his age. But he has to join the US Hockey Association and the program requires full hockey gear, so it's not *that* much of a difference. As a side note, I had no idea so much gear would be required and we have been scrambling the past two days to get all of it when there is a limited supply for tiny kiddos (somehow we managed!).

The coaches had emailed us that a hockey jersey and socks would be provided. We had no clue that hockey socks are full leg covers and apparently we need to get something to help hold them up. Hockey suspenders or garters? We are totally hockey noobs... "/

All geared up and ready to get skating! The only thing he isn't wearing in this photo is his gloves, but he has a helmet, shoulder/chest pads, elbow pads, padded hockey pants, shin guards and his skates. And the jersey is obviously a bit too big, but they were just temporary jerseys today, we'll see if the real one is any smaller...

And he's probably one of the smallest kids in the class! Look at the other #3 who was waiting next to him for class to start! The class is for 3+, but I think the majority of the other kids are 4+ or more. There were several who had obviously taken lessons already and the coaches split the skating rink by ability so none of the crashers would take out the skaters. Whew!

Before they got on the ice, they practiced sitting down, standing up, kneeling down and standing back up. They are trying to teach them to stand up without using their hands since they will have a stick in their hands when they get to the playing hockey part. 

And the mass of kids moves toward the ice! The coaches told them to get on the ice in single file but it was a bit more chaotic than that... Thomas is just to the right of middle in this picture. He managed to get on the ice and take that first step!

Then he was down. He managed to scoot out of the way of everyone getting on the ice, but that was as far as he made it. One of the helper teenagers ended up pushing him down to the goal line because Thomas was not going to try to stand up just then.

Or at all for the first 15 minutes. A few of the helpers tried to get him to stand up, but he was not at all interested. It was a struggle for me to watch him sitting all alone, I am used to being able to help him and coax him into trying things at tumbling and soccer, but we were on the sidelines for this one. Then Coach Allen got down on the ice next to him and talked to him for awhile.

I don't know what was in the pep talk and Thomas was not very enthused at first, but Coach Allen didn't give up on and he got Thomas up on his feet. Thomas even managed to slowly glide over to us on the side before the Coach backed him up and had him try again (and again!). I'm not sure he liked any part of the lessons at the time, but decided later today that part of the skating lesson was fun. Hopefully he'll get the hang of it in the next few lessons and will start to enjoy all the fun activities they do to get the kids more comfortable on skates. Then Matt and I will probably need to brush up on our skating abilities...!

I'm sure you are all wondering how Henry took his brother's new activity. He honestly didn't see to mind all that much. Nonni came with us as well and the two of them watched from the sidelines for a little while before Henry got a little antsy. Then they wandered around the mall for awhile. Henry likes hanging out with his Nonni, so he didn't seem to mind not being able to fall on the ice like his brother. Ha! 

Clark the Shark and Dino Tails!

Apparently the best presents are the ones that come late! Matt promised me that my best present was still in the mail and it finally arrived last night. And it was more awesome than I could have ever imagined!

That's right - he bought me a remote controlled flying shark!! It didn't come with helium and I may have begged him to go buy helium after dinner so I could play with my fun new toy!

Apparently I saw the shark on an unrelated TV commercial and started laughing hysterically and telling Matt I wanted one. He ordered it that night. It is even more amazing than we expected. It has a tail fin that you can move back and forth, so the shark basically swims around in the air - super realistic sharky action!

The gray "pod" on his belly helps him climb or dive - it has a space to put a little weight in there to offset the helium lift of the balloon. You can add or remove the weight depending on how well the shark is floating. His other fins don't move, but they certainly add to his overall awesomeness. We decided to name our awesome shark "Clark" after one of the kid's favorite books. They both love Clark, though Henry has been calling him a fish.

He's cooler than a fish, Henry!

The kids didn't get left out though - they got these super awesome dinosaur tails from Brittney! She's much handier than I am and made them. I can make a grocery store because it only took some glue & tape - sewing machines are outside my realm of expertise. Speaking of the groceries - I can see why dinosaurs aren't allowed in grocery store, they were knocking all kinds of things off the "shelves"!

But dinosaurs have big appetites and those appetites must be fed! They were both quite entertained about the fact there were dinosaurs in the grocery store - kids are so easily amused! 

Dinosaur #1 came over to investigate the flash I was playing with. He actually wasn't wearing these clothes when we were at Brittney's for lunch, but he wanted his dinosaur pj's as soon as we got home since he had a dinosaur tail to wear with them. Can't argue with that logic!

Don't worry, Clark wasn't the least bit concerned about all of the dinosaurs hanging around, he just swam around the living room having a grand 'ole sharky time. I think watching him swim away is when he looks the coolest. It may not translate as well in a photograph, but trust me, it is hilarious!

I really think you should all buy a remote controlled shark, he brings such joy! Even when he is just hanging out, he moves all over the house thanks to the heater. He likes to rise to the ceiling, dive back down and creep from room to room to keep us on our toes. And amazingly, the dogs haven't freaked out about the addition to the family. Clark is just *that* awesome!

Most awesome Christmas present there is - thanks Matt! I <3 Clark the Shark!!

Playing With Our Presents!

The biggest present I had for the boys, I didn't even get around to giving them on Christmas. Ever since the Texas trip when they had such a blast playing in the fake grocery stores, I have been saving boxes and empty cans to make them their own grocery store!

I don't think Matt had any clue how much I was squirreling away because I was hiding it from the kids. Even he was pretty impressed by the extent of our new grocery store. I made the coffee table the dry goods section, the fireplace was for veggies, bread & canned goods, while the cabinet under the TV was the refrigerated and frozen food section. I even used paint on the inside of the mayo, ketchup and barbecue containers to make them even more realistic. The boys were ecstatic about everything!! 

The fact that Nonni bought them a super awesome shopping set was a total coincidence! It had a register with play money, shopping basket and the green apron Henry insisted on wearing while shopping. Thomas wanted to be a pilot, but also wanted to shop. Once I explained to him that pilots need to eat as well as fly planes, he decided he could do both!

The little shopping basket had a few good runs before I dug out these larger reusable shopping bags. They were pretty excited about how many groceries they could cram into one bag.

Which of course led to more of a mess on the floor when they were ready to start over on their shopping. I cleaned up for them a few times before I made them start restocking the shelves. They caught on pretty quick where everything was supposed to go. 

Nonni got in on the fun by running the cashier. Thomas got the concept of helping to add things up and handing over money. I think we can put price tags on things soon and really maximize the learning abilities of our grocery store. But for now, we just sorta pretended to check out. 

While they were napping, I made a run to Target to cruise the toy aisle for clearance items. We discovered last year that it is a great time to buy birthday presents for the boys (if I can only remember I bought them...)! Imagine my surprise when I randomly found this plastic shopping cart!!! Matt had banned the metal ones for fear of the damage it would do and they were ridiculously expensive. But a plastic one? That was on sale for $7?!?! Heck yes!

They actually had three there, but I only bought one because the boys need to work on their sharing skills. Of course, Henry got plenty of time to play with it alone before his brother woke up from nap time. He saw it and took off running to go shopping with it. Well worth the $7! After paying for the plastic veggies and bread, it came to a whopping $25 total. Best bang for the buck I got on any of the presents I gave this year! :)

I'll be honest, there were a few tears the first time the shopping cart traded hands, but they did pretty good once we instituted a timer system. They were thrilled about how much food they could cram in there. But the small basket was still the second favorite - it probably feels more like real shopping than the reusable bags. 

But the boys weren't the only ones playing with their new toys. I set up the secondary flash to play with lighting in the living room. It's a pretty big room, so I was trying to see what difference it would make to flash it against the side wall in addition to bouncing off of the ceiling. Thomas was very interested in the second flash.

As was Eliza! Apparently they are used to the flash on the camera, but this was new and exciting!

I also played with the studio lights in the front room. It was pitch black outside when I turned them on and I used them as the only light source to get a few photos. It forced me to use a little bit slower shutter speed than I would have preferred, but I managed to get a few in focus. (Little kids move so fast!)

Henry may or may not have been hitting his momma with the pillow and laughing about it. He's such a little toot sometimes!

As always, Eliza was in the middle of it even though she was nervous about the boys sneaking up on her. She just can't miss out on the action even if she is really terrified on the inside. Love this dog and her crazy idiosyncrasies. Hopefully they were genetic and not picked up from me...

I also love the new lights! Think Matt would notice if I slowly turned the front room into a real studio?!? ;)

Merry Christmas!

This will be our fourth Christmas with a little kiddo (or two!) and the family pajama tradition we started at Thomas' first Christmas is still going strong. The first year was dinosaurs, the next two were Christmas patterns, but this was the best year yet!

Star Wars!!! Everything in stores this year is Star Wars thanks to the new movie and we have all been super excited. Thomas and Henry have never even seen the movies (and won't for a few years), but they know the character names, can hum the music and were super jealous of the Millenium Falcon speaker Matt bought me. (Is Eliza giving us the side-eye in the background again because we didn't get her pajamas??)

The boys helped me decide on the pajamas this year. We went to the store with every intention of getting Christmas themed ones, but they were all kinda lame. And then we found these Darth Vader pj's and the boys kinda flipped out. And when I found the adult sized costumes, it was a done deal. 

I also had every intention of making cinnamon rolls last night to bake this morning, but somehow I lost track of time yesterday amidst all of the fun. So I quick(er) recipes and decided on donut holes. Matt ate way too many, but they just weren't quite what I was expecting. My dad used to make donut holes for us when we were kids and these weren't as good as I remembered. Oh well, next time! On the bright side, I had a Millenium Falcon jamming tunes for me - look at the awesome blue glow coming out the back!

Vader #2 apparently thought I was taking too long to finish breakfast. I think the rebel army would have had much better luck if the real Vader threw temper tantrums when he wasn't getting his way.

I think he was attempting to use the force to get more donut holes. It didn't work. You obviously need more training, son...

Vader #1, on the other hand, was ordering me around. "Stormtrooper, I need milk!" It was kinda hysterical, but also where did this attitude come from? Maybe it came with the outfit...?

The boys quickly learned that protection is critical when their Dadda is flying the quadcopter. I'm not judging, I was wishing my hard hat wasn't way out in the garage...!

Finally time to finish up with the Christmas stockings. This year "Santa" didn't wrap anything in the stockings and managed to jam pack these giant things. When Grannie was here, I requested smaller ones because they would be easier to fill up. Henry's strap broke when I tried to hang it up because it weighed too much. Obviously I need to be forced to cut back on stocking stuffers...!

Same as last year, the boys were super excited for snacks, silverware and bath stuff. Stockings are so easy at this age! 

Their favorite gift from the night before was definitely this indoor hockey set Aunt Theresa sent them. And two Vaders running around playing hockey was pretty ridiculously adorable.

Also, Vaders playing music was pretty adorable. Pretty much everything they did today was ridiculously adorable!

Even stealing chips! Matt was handing Henry chips to snack on, but when his Dadda looked away, Henry stuck his hand in the bag and fished out his own. And didn't look the least bit guilty about it!

Heather and Mom did the cooking for Christmas dinner - a Tex-Mex bonanza of food! So nice not to have to cook on occasion!

The Elam's even came over to hang out! We figured Thomas was safe to be around since he had been on his eye drops for 24 hours. He was pretty excited to have his favorite play mate over! We got the bounce house right when Abby broke her arm, so she hadn't had a chance to jump on it yet. They all piled on to ride the house up when I turned it on. 

They had so much fun on it! The boys had a little bit of trouble climbing up the ramp in their footed pajamas, but the kids figured out how to get everyone up with a little teamwork. Their adorableness kills me sometimes! :)

Merry Christmas everybody! Hope you all had a great day as well! 

Christmas Eve

As I've mentioned before, Christmas Eve is really the bigger deal in my family. And this year, my parents even braved the Alaskan cold & darkness to come up for Christmas. So fun!

No one except the boys and I put Christmas sprinkles on Grandmom's waffles at breakfast this morning. And here I thought Matt would use any excuse to enjoy sprinkles. His loss!

The Hydens were planning on coming over like they have the past two years. Except this guy just had to wake up with a case of pink eye this morning and everyone knows how contagious that is...

There was a case of pink eye reported in Henry's classroom last week and it somehow managed to jump brothers. Poor Thomas! On the bright side, they will now let you talk to the triage nurse to confirm the symptoms, so we didn't have to visit the doctor for Christmas Eve. Whew!

And since it's such a special day, I might have been spoiling the boys just a little bit. I can neither confirm nor deny that they have eggnog in those sippy cups.

The Hoyt side of the family did their Christmas celebration a day early as well, so we skyped with them so they could open their presents from us and the boys could open their gifts they got in the mail. So much excitement all around! 

Aunt Jo sent the boys a super cool sticker set. It has several backgrounds and sticker sets for each one, plus the stickers are removable, so you can use it over and over again! Here Thomas is commenting on how Henry is not putting his train stickers on properly. It does look like there was a bit of a derailment...

I had to run to Target this morning to get Thomas' prescription and it wasn't quite ready for pick-up. Since I had 15 minutes to kill, I may have bought a few too many extra items. Like the aforementioned eggnog and these Christmas window clings. They were already on sale! 

Finally it was the best part of the day - dinner time! I tried to get a cute family photo, but Matt kept making faces at the camera. I told him to be serious for one photo and this hand on the chin pose is what I got in return. Whatever, I'll take it.

Also note the kids are getting impatient to eat and already have their silverware in their mouth. :)

The traditional Christmas Eve dinner - French Onion Soup and fondue! I used the F-Street soup recipe again with a few tweaks this year. I think it is getting super close to the restaurant's version. Next year it will be perfect, I just know it!

Mom requested a family photo in front of the Christmas tree. Between my dad and my hubby, this was the only serious photo I got. Luckily, everyone is looking at the camera!

Present opening time! We decided to let the boys open all of theirs first so they would have some entertainment while the rest of us opened ours. They loved all of their presents, but the dress up clothes were my personal favorites! I love dress up time!

Nonni and Grandpa got them a Firefighter and Pilot outfit. So adorable! I think I may have squealed a little bit when they put the outfits on.

Nonni was pretty excited about some of her gifts as well! 

I got several cool photography gifts - Heather got me a studio light set and Matt got me another flash (a Yongnuo). I was playing with them in the corner and Henry was very interested in the super bright light that kept going off. Thanks for the awesome present you guys, I can't wait to really play with them!

It seems Matt always figures out what presents I have bought him just by touching the box (does he have psychic powers?!?), so this year I mailed his big present to Heather and she kept it safe until today. He was super surprised by the super awesome Quadcopter I got him! The boys seemed pretty excited as well, it's been awhile since Dada has had a working helicopter to play with!

What a fun day we had - fun, food and time with family. Merry Christmas (Eve) to all & to all a goodnight! :)

Ice Fishing

Matt & Thomas went with Sam & Abby to go ice fishing back in January, but Henry & I stayed home. Sam decided to go again this weekend and this time everyone from both families got to go! I was pretty excited, the photos Sam kept sending last time made it look like a blast!

We went back up to Finger Lake and it looked like it was nice & frozen. That being said, we still weren't quite up to driving the cars on the ice. So we packed up the gear and kids to walk over to their favorite fishing spot. (I don't know what was wrong with the side of the lake we were on, but it was a fun walk anyhow!)

I can't say that I have ever walked across a frozen lake before. It was quite a weird feeling to see the bottom slowly disappearing the further out you walked. There were so many bubbles trapped under the ice - big ones, small ones and what looked like a stream of bubbles. How fast do lakes freeze??

And the cracks - these cracks were all over the place. Once you got past the initial "This whole thing is going to fall apart and I am going to fall in very cold water", there was an amazing beauty to the networks of cracks. 

Henry was not too sure about this whole wagon ride across a frozen lake either. Or he was wondering why we were going for a walk when it was 19° outside. Or maybe because the bag of extra clothing was sitting on top of him. So many options for why he has that concerned look on his face! :)

Aside from the 19°, it was really a gorgeous Sunday. The sun was out and shining bright and the scenery around the lake was pretty hard to top. Also note the tire prints - just because we didn't drive on the ice doesn't mean everyone refrained. There were also people riding bikes with studded tires, a side by side and a few ice skaters. An awesomely Alaskan collection!

Matt and Sam got to work drilling holes in the ice with the hand auger. Once you have a hole drilled, you can check the thickness of the ice - Caitlin assured me that 18" was plenty thick. It certainly sounds impressive!

The boys made it look so easy drilling holes, that I wanted to drill one too. It is not as easy as they made it look... I got through the ice with some help from Cait, but it took us way longer than it took the guys! At some point I realized that my hole was going down crooked which obviously makes it harder, but there was no fixing it by that point.

I thought the ice holes looked so cool with the bobber hanging out waiting for a fish to bite. I was convinced that since my hole took so much effort it would obviously yield the largest fish. Logical, right? :)

Thomas was pretty happy sitting in his chair waiting for a fish to reel in. He actually did reel in a few! There were plenty of fishing to be caught, just not as many that were large enough to keep...

This girl was on fire for catching some fish! She caught the biggest fish of the day. From my hole! I told you! I am scientist and I said it, so therefore it is "Science!" Or something like that... :)

Henry was the one who I was most worried about before we got there. I pretty much assumed I would be chasing him all across the lake once he got bored. Not at all what happened! He took a few steps when we first go to our fishing hole and fell over. Obviously he has enough layers that he wasn't hurt, so I picked him up and let him try again. A few more steps and back on the ice. After that, he decided he was happy as could be to just hang out in the wagon. I would pull him along behind me if I moved and he was as happy as happy could be. Much easier than I thought!

Of course, it was cold out, so we had the tent set up off to the side with a little heater running so the kids could warm up if they got cold. The kids and I took a warm up / snack break about once they started complaining about being cold. The clear & dark water took on a very greenish cast when the sunlight wasn't hitting it and I don't think the kids had any appreciation for how cool that was. They just wanted their graham crackers!

Warmed up and ready for more fun! See the cool tent in the background? There was one family we walked by that had a double tent. I think I wouldn't have even needed a jacket if we had stayed in the tent to fish! (That's totally what you are supposed to do - that's why there is no bottom to the tent.)

Thomas caught another fish and I actually managed to get a photo of it. Apparently people were more interested in me watching kids and checking on bobbers than taking photos. My response to this was "You can only eat a fish once, a photo lasts forever!"

It's like people have no appreciation for the memories I capture on their behalf... That's fine, I will appreciate them enough for all of us - ha! 

Speaking of capturing memories, I figured I should get a photo of the fish "camp". See all the activity? And I was amazed that Ellie and Molly (the pups) didn't try to eat any of the fish we caught. Now the baby shrimp we bought for bait - that had to be kept out of their reach at all times! 

Thomas was so adorable waiting for a his bobber to move. He was sitting in his little chair swinging his legs back and forth. He was much more patient with fishing that I would have imagined. And several times he had to point out to me that my bobber was moving. So I'm not as good of a fisherman as my three year old son. I can live with that. ;)

Even Henry got a chance to help reel one in! Matt probably did a good bit of the work, but Henry at least got to help and be part of the action. This one was a little too small to keep, but he was saying "fish!" for the rest of the day. 

Abby posing with her super big trout! She was super excited to catch a fish and bonk it on the head, but when it came time to hold one up for a photo, she was suddenly afraid of the fish! After Matt and Cait both held the fish, she was convinced to hold it, but not to smile for a photo. I figured her looking at the fish was better than the grimace she managed on some of the other shots. 

The total haul! And the best part is that Sam, Cait & Abby don't really eat fish, so we got all of them! I love having friends who like to fish, but don't eat them. So much fish for me! I mean, for me and the boys... 

We decided to call it a day when the sun started to set. The sun may not get very high in the winter, but it's amazing how much colder it gets when it drops out of sight (at 3:42 pm). Or you know, when the wind picks up a little... Brrr!

I judge how successful an outing is by how fast the boys fall asleep in the car. These two were out before we made it back to the highway! Also note the snowman cookie peeking out of the cupholder. Henry took a few bites before deciding sleep was more important, so the snowman is probably smiling because he got a reprieve. :)

And I even had time tonight to make the Christmas poundcake I had on my to-do list. (Doesn't everyone have cake baking on their list?) Merry Christmas to the coworkers!

Holiday Train

It's that time of year again - the Alaska Railroad Holiday Train! I completely spaced out on buying tickets, but they amazingly had tickets left when I finally remembered. Remembering was due to us going over railroad tracks in the car one day and Thomas telling me from the backseat, "Momma, I really like riding on trains!" Oh no - I didn't buy tickets for the Holiday Train!!!

I think we lucked out because they ran it for three weekends this year! And we got tickets on the very last train. Whew! Henry was much more excited this year - he was mesmerized by the view out of the window while we were still in the city. Especially anyone walking their dog on the coastal trail!

The Holiday train is jam packed full of activities for kids and parents to do in the three hour journey. One of these was a coloring contest! They apologized up front about the crayon situation, but since we were the last train, there weren't a lot of crayons left. We only had gray, orange, blue and black crayons. Matt set to work on a half colored / half grayscale masterpiece. (We ended up getting fifth place - the nice part of being last was they were trying to give away all of their prizes! And the winners clearly had waaaaaay more crayons available.)

In my last minute packing spree, I did manage to pack two of the santa claus hats. Henry would wear it for a split second and then rip it off his head. So much for a serene photo of my youngest in a santa claus hat. 

He was more than happy to let Matt wear the hat and bat at the ball. Maybe Henry is part cat...?

Thomas was a sport about wearing his though! He got so many compliment on how cute he looked with it on. :)

Awwww - Henry wore it long enough to take a photo with me. And 2 of the 3 of us are kinda smiling. This must be a new record! Like my green scarf? Thomas picked out the color so I would be festive too!

Then the balloon artist came by! He wasn't the *best* balloon artist I've ever seen, but Henry didn't seem to care about the accuracy of his masterpiece, he knew it was a Minion and he loved it!

The girl across the aisle from us asked for a candy cane and this is what she got. And somehow, that made Thomas want one too. I tried to get him to ask for a Rudolph or a Snowman, but he was insistent he wanted a candy cane. Ok... He also seemed happy with it. Man, I wish I was a kid again and everything was exciting no matter how wonky it is.

Also, the poor girl across the aisle from us popped her balloon later on the ride. She was devastated and cried. It was so sad. We asked Thomas if he wanted to give her his balloon and he was all "No way!" There may have been some cajoling involved, but he eventually decided he didn't need his balloon and gave it to her. She was so happy! I asked him that night if it made him happy to give her the balloon and cheer her up and he said yes. Maybe 3 isn't too young to understand giving is an amazing feeling. Either way, I was super proud of him!

Cookie time! I made a few train cookies yesterday just for the train ride and Thomas thought they looked great. Surprisingly, Henry didn't even finish his. Maybe he overdid it yesterday...? 

Santa finally came through our train car and Thomas was not the least bit interested in having his photo taken with the jolly old guy. Henry didn't know what was happening until it was too late. He was very concerned about this guy who sat next to him. After giving him a long look, he decided that was enough and was about to lose it when Santa moved on to the next table. Oh well, so much for the cute photo of the boys in their hats with Santa.

My artistic vision was crushed... Maybe next year!

Henry was pretty happy with the candy canes Santa left behind though. This boy looooves candy canes! He chews them up pretty quick, which is great! Thomas licks them for awhile, gets everything sticky and then hands it off to me because he is done.

Thank you for this slobbered on candy cane. I will cherish it until you look away. Blech!

Then came the craft bags! He managed to string all the beads onto the pipe cleaner but it was just a teensy bit short to fit around his wrist like the ones they do at daycare. I made it up to him by making him a candy cane one. Stringing beads on pipe cleaner is actually quite calming!

Finally, the magician made an appearance in our car. The boys have shown no interest in the magician up until now and they surprised us when they both wanted to watch the show. Obviously, Henry was not nearly as impressed as his brother was...

He was more than happy to play with his Minion balloon again though. Matt was using the air vents on the side of the car to make it float up the window and called it a Minion rocket. Henry then moved it through the air making rocket noises. And the best part was there were no meltdowns - we made it home with no tears! Now that is a present I can get behind!

Now I can't wait for next year - maybe then I can get them to take a cute photo with Santa. A girl can always dream, right?? :)

Inservice Day

Daycare was closed today for an inservice day - the school district was closed for that inservice training, so the daycare followed suit. It wasn't our Friday off, but I needed to burn a vacation day anyhow, so I got to hang out with the kids all day while Matt had to go to work. Poor Matt!

First things first, donuts for breakfast! We may or may not have been sending photos of the awesome donuts to Matt. We would have taken him one, but we picked the donut store (1 of 2 in town...) closer to home and we had a ton of errands to run. Next time, honey! Also, Henry is usually the one chowing down, but Thomas wolfed this donut down in record time and then asked for another one.

Why not, it's inservice day!!

When we were out running errands, we saw Christmas trees and decorations everywhere! This reminded Thomas that his momma still hadn't found his play tree like she had promised... Luckily, I had a pretty good idea of where it was hiding and we put it up right after we got home. 

Nonni made this tree for him two years ago after I saw the idea online. She and Thomas cut out the tree and ornaments while I was at work and Thomas had a blast playing with it. Up until now, he was more interested in pulling ornaments off, but this year he was super excited about decorating the tree. 

Unfortunately for Thomas, Henry is the age where pulling everything off is more exciting. Luckily, Thomas didn't seem too upset that his little brother kept running off with the ornaments. :)

And just like last time, Eliza is right in the middle of things even though she really doesn't want to be. She never learns! Or she just wants to be near her momma who happens to mostly be near the small people most of the day...

Also note, Matt hung the extra bookshelves! I think four of them looks much better than two. Thank you Pinterest for the Ikea spice rack / bookshelf idea!

On to more Christmas crafts! I bought this snowman activity set last year and Matt, Thomas & I each made one (or more). I don't have any photos of them, but I will try to find them - there was even a zombie snowman! This year mine was similar to last year, Thomas was trying to match his exactly to the photo on the box and Henry's didn't get much more decorated than what it currently is. It actually got undecorated by Thomas and I think only the eye was left. Oh well...

I gave Thomas his letters to put on the snowman and he dutifully decorated it. He just got a little mixed up on the order... But look how proud he is of his creation!

When they went down for a nap, I made cookies for us to decorate this afternoon. We ran out of time this morning and I figured it would be more efficient to bake them while they snoozed. They didn't seem to mind that I started without them since it was decorating time as soon as they got up! (Henry missed the memo on the fact we were decorating the cookies and decided to just start eating them...)

I finally got him to stop eating his cookies and told him we were going to use the icing and the candies to decorate them. I thought he was on board and went over to get pictures of Thomas. Henry proceeded to just eat the candies out of the bowl.

As a side note - this is why all of the cookies I share with people are not the same ones decorated by the boys. I love you all too much to share so many germs...

Henry finally decided to add icing! You can see he tried to put sprinkles on the bare cookie and his brother told him he was doing it wrong. Also, I love the expression on his face - he is concentrating hard on that green icing!

Thomas was having a blast pouring waaaay too much icing on his cookies. Apparently I was watching Henry very closely and my oldest took advantage of that. 

Ugh, what a sticky, sticky mess! And how did he manage to make gray? This boy excels at making gray no matter what colors I give him. It's like he has a genetic predisposition to the color.

Wait...

Maybe he got that from me...?

Once I took all the cookies away to dry, Henry was more than happy to entertain himself by pouring the sprinkles and candies from one tiny bowl to another. He probably thought he was "cooking"!

Speaking of sprinkles. This is normal, right? Everyone has a giant box of sprinkles in their cupboard? Please tell me it's not just me...

My cookies! These are the cookies for sharing! Ok, well not these *particular* ones. I did take a dozen over to a friend's house and the plan was to take the remainder to work. But we *may* have eaten them all. In my defense, there was a moose and a bear and a deer and Texas (always at least one!) and dancing gingerbread men! How am I supposed to resist??

But I did my decorating all alone... Henry was in bed snoozing and the other two were at Thomas' first hockey game! Since he seems interested in playing, Matt decided to take him to a game. It was a late night for him, but between the hockey and the stadium food, he had a blast! 

The game was over about 2 hours after his usual bedtime and even then he didn't want to leave! A super nice lady even gave him one of the practice hockey pucks. He was grinning from ear to ear when he got home - he's definitely turning into a true Alaskan!

But don't worry, Henry didn't feel too left out. He helped me do the cookie delivery (mostly to distract him about big brother going somewhere with dada), then I let him pick what he wanted for dinner. Pizza and breadsticks! That and a little alone time with momma made him a happy camper.

What a fun day this inservice turned out to be! And it's only the start of a fun-filled weekend! :)

Super (Wildthang) Weekend

The boys have really been into their superhero capes lately. The best photos I previously got of them running around in their capes they were wearing capes and undies/diaper, so I decided to be a nice mom and not post them online. Though I will be saving them for future use. You know, just in case. ;)

This morning, Thomas wanted his cape on after breakfast and decided that Henry would obviously want his cape as well. Matt made the boys an emblem for them to wear on their chest like the real Superman, but with "their" letters. Henry (of course), refused to leave his alone on his chest, so I moved it to his cape instead. Sh(hhhh) seems appropriate! ;)

Thomas was ready to run around and be a Super! Doesn't he just look like he is ready to save the day?!

Henry finally decided to leave his "H" alone enough that I decided to move it to the proper spot. Both boys were off and running circles around the living room!

But being a superhero is hard work! Thomas had to take a short break to recoup...

And back to it! I just loved this pose, he looks like he is ready to take off! Henry is definitely the ever loyal sidekick - though we might need to upgrade his cape. I doubt a half-size cape will look as impressive flapping in the wind. ;)

I didn't get left out this time - I even got my own superhero emblem! Super mom! Woooo!

It was at this point I looked over at the stockings and realized that Matt drawing us stuff is kinda a thing at this point. When Matt and I first got married, I didn't have a stocking. I think I bought this generic green one and was bummed it wasn't more personalized like Matt's awesome stocking. When I woke up the next morning, Matt had taped my name on it.

11 years later and the paper has held in there like a champ! Matt's mom even made me an awesome Moab stocking, but I just can't seem to give up my simple Matt-decorated stocking. :)

My superheroes!

As a side note - do you think real superheroes make funny faces when people try to take their pictures? :)

Thomas was very insistent that I build a tunnel this morning and I really thought that he was talking about the new hot wheels cars. I finally figured out that he was referring to the awesome couch tunnels I built last year and I hadn't redone in a while. We had been watching videos the night before of him playing in the tunnels and he had apparently wanted to relive all the fun!

Henry never got a chance to play in the tunnels before because he wasn't mobile yet. He was super excited about the couch cushion tunnels! The two of them went back and forth giggling multiple times. The fun only ended when Matt tried to crawl through the tunnels and ended knocking over *ever* *single* cushion. 

It's good to know I have't lost my awesome tunnel building abilities. Supermom, indeed! :)

As a side note, the deer meat Matt dropped off for processing last month was finally ready for pick-up yesterday. So we might have eaten way too much deer meat this weekend... We had several different things made and there is no clear favorite among the polish sausage, breakfast sausage, hotdogs or ground meat. No favorite because they were all amazing! 

As another side note, the "Wildthang" in the title is a nod to a Lightroom filter. They had pre-Christmas sale on Lightroom presets from Digital Photography School and since it was so incredibly cheap, I decided to buy them. I've never really played with presets in Lightroom before, but it is enlightening to see how different photos can look with different adjustments. And I apparently trend to the light side of editing and it was fun to play with heavier editing options. There was a slight yellow-greenish cast to the Wildthang, but I couldn't quite determine which tweaks were causing them. (I didn't use it on the final photo because I thought my captured color was quite awesome, thank you very much.) Anyhow, I am still undecided on how much I think I will use the preset filters, but for $10 it is fun to play with them!