Snow Play Day!

We finally got a decent snow! Of course most of it came while Matt was on a short trip up to the North Slope, so I got to shovel the driveway about five times. At least it's a good workout, I nailed it on my fitbit steps for the day both days. Yay!

Once Matt was home, we thought it would be fun to bundle up the boys and take them outside to play. Henry mostly got to watch play time from the stroller, but he still seemed content to hang out. I always worry that they aren't warm enough - so for now I'm going with the assumption that if they aren't crying, they must be fine.  

I looked up snow activities on Pinterest (I know, you're shocked by that...) and they had several cool ideas. The first one I decided to try was snow painting. I bought some spray bottles and let Thomas go crazy. It was a little hard for him to do it with his gloves, but otherwise he loved it!

Matt wrote his T's name in the snow, but Natalie attacked the purple snow before I could get a photo. Apparently everyone loved the snow painting...!

Henry was not impressed by "someone" throwing a snowball at him. Look at his side-eye his throwing at his dada. I would imagine if this happens in a few years, a full blown snowball war would ensue. Better enjoy the lack of counter-attacks now Honey, it's not going to last. 

Haha - Matt looks pretty proud of himself, doesn't he? Nonni brought us these snowball makers last year, but this is the first time we've really gotten to use them. The snow was still a little powdery, but we managed to make a few successful ones. 

Look at the one Natalie is trying to eat, that is a picture perfect snowball! So round and pretty!

Thomas was trying to make snowballs too, but his wouldn't stick together. He kept trying, but when he would pop the tongs open, he would just look all surprised and yell "Uh-oh, snow!!" It was pretty adorable. :)

And you can see the snow paint bottles in the background. I made a pink one and a purple one because those happen to be some of my favorite colors. And Thomas has no objections to pink yet, so I will take advantage of it while I can!

Thomas was super determined to ride his bike even though I told him it was too icy. I lost track of him in the garage for a second and next thing I know he was dragging his tricycle out. His dad ended up pushing him around in the driveway and doing wheelies. Thomas is doing his best to give me a thumbs-up in his snow mitten. 
Also notice the spray bottle in the background. It might have gotten forgotten when we went inside and when the water in it froze, it broke the bottle. Well that didn't last long... Luckily Matt took the other spray bottle inside, so we still have one.

Back inside, I thought we should warm up with hot chocolate - best idea ever! As far as I know, Thomas hasn't had hot chocolate yet and he loved it! The fact that I made it with Ghirardelli chocolate chunks and topped it with whipped cream might have had something to do with that. I love some good hot chocolate, why wouldn't I give my little man the very best?!

Henry isn't quite up to hot chocolate drinking yet, but he did get a warm bottle of milk. He seemed happy enough with that though - as long as Thomas doesn't tell him what he is missing, we'll be good for a few more months. I feel like Henry is going to get to try sweets a bit sooner than his brother - how can I say no to Henry if Thomas (and probably me...) is chowing down on a piece of cake right in front of him. That just seems rude!

Eleven (32.5) Months!

Since the boy's daycare is a federal program, they honor all of the federal holidays. Which means that I got an extra day this weekend to hang out with them - woo! And it just so happened to be monthly picture day - double woo!

They were both in great moods this month! Sometimes they really, really enjoy each other - this photo shoot was luckily one of those times. :)

Of course I needed a second to set up the camera and flash for the photos. Eliza was more than happy to be my test model. This poor girl needs a hair cut so badly. She's starting to look like a muskox. Smells about as good as one too... "/

Eleven whole months! Only one short month away from his first birthday. How on earth did that happen??

He seems pretty excited about it though. Well honestly, he's excited about most things these days. He's usually in a great mood. Of course he still has hanger issues, but that's genetic from his momma, so I don't think he's going to outgrow that. Sorry kiddo!

Look at these two! So adorable loving on each other. Henry kept trying to hug/tackle his brother and they both were giggling away.

Then Thomas got down and was trying to tickle his little brother. Giggles switched to full blown laughs. It's an awesome sound. I love it when they are making each other laugh! They've started doing it in the car on the way home, Thomas is now in the middle facing forward and Henry faces backward, so they can see each other and Henry always tries to poke his big brother with his bottle. Henry always thinks it's hilarious, Thomas finds it funny about 75% of the time... ;)

This is what happens when Thomas sees the camera and wants to smile. Can you make out that he is saying "Cheese!" I think it's his new favorite word. He will carry random toys around and pretend they are cameras. "Cheese, momma! Cheese!"

Love those big blue eyes. And that big ole belly! :)

The photo session went really well, but that doesn't mean there weren't a few moments of exasperation. So I figured for full disclosure, I would share some not-so-perfect photos. 

Henry tried to rip his whole shirt off instead of just his sticker. And Thomas was up and down in the chair so many times that his shirt was pulled up in about half the photos. Henry totally looks like the Hulk in this photo - minus green, of course. 

About to lose the toddler again. I swear he makes himself Jello and just slithers all the way down to the floor. And if I try to pick him up in Jello mode he just flops around. I've learned it's just best to wait it out. 

Thomas likes to wait until Henry is leaning on him to pop up and see if Henry will fall over. Henry's balance has gotten good enough that he doesn't get completely unstable. And a nod to the train in Thomas' hand - that is Olwin. We've been working on toilet training Thomas - he got most of it down right away, but we had troubles with #2 for a while. So I may have resorted to bribery... If he makes it in the potty, he gets a sticker. When he gets enough stickers, he gets a reward train. He just got Olwin right before we took the photos, so he was in a majority of the pictures. 

And I tried to get a photo of all three of us, but it didn't work out. Someone's face was always half out of the frame, if not two someone's... I did manage to get a cute one of Henry and I though! Just more reason to get that 20mm lens. ;)

Henry's First Haircut

I ended up giving Thomas his first hair cut shortly before his first birthday. It was getting so long that it was almost in his eyes. I was super worried about messing it up right before all of his birthday photos, but I think I actually did a pretty good job! 

He wasn't quite sure what I was doing, but he was very interested in the clumps of hair on the table. Since that awesome first haircut, my haircutting skills went waaaaay downhill. I don't know if it was just beginners luck, but I gave up on cutting Thomas' hair a while ago.

Cut to breakfast yesterday and I noticed that Henry really, really needs a hair cut. I knew it was getting long, but this morning he had wings of hair in the back. Yikes! Luckily our Saturday morning breakfast joint is right down the street from the barber.

Look how excited he is for his first haircut! Lehi makes a pretty big event out of the first haircut for his young customers. He took before/after pictures of Henry, saved a lock of hair and made a super official certificate for Henry. The line about him "graduating from babyhood" may have made his momma a little sad, but it is pretty close to true. He's such a big boy!

Look at him playing with toys while his dad gets his hair cut - he looks like a little boy. Sigh... My boys are growing *much* too fast for my liking. :(

No more wings! Lehi managed to get it pretty even all around - impressive considering how much Henry was moving around. He was super curious about the whole ordeal. 

Definitely not a teeny tiny baby anymore. (Still loves those two fingers though!)

First haircut, what a milestone! I get the feeling that they are going to start flying back faster than I can keep track. But for now, I'll take them as they come and enjoy all of the smiles these boys want to share with me. :)

Happy Birthday, Matt!

No auroras for the hubster's birthday... Poor guy! And he ended up having to work late! Awful!

So we ended up celebrating on Saturday instead. I hid his presents around the house and ended up having to play the "Warm/Cold" game with him this morning to find them all. Apparently what I thought were logical hiding spots were only logical to me - ha!

We really don't have enough ways to make coffee in this house. We only have the K-cup machine, french press, percolator, Technivorm, the pour over set-up, Aeropress and the occasional use of instant coffee. That's really not a lot of options. ;)

Obviously, we are a little coffee obsessed. And we've had some trouble lately with the coffee tasting bitter. So when I saw this pretty little Chemex, I thought it would be the perfect gift to try out. Matt loves things that look nice and it is by far the nicest looking coffee method we have. 

Thomas was at his usual post of helping out with the morning coffee. I have no idea why he is rocking the LL Cool J look this morning. Those sweatpants are my least favorite of all his pants and he seems to love them. I guess they are super comfortable so I can't really blame him for that. Also note that he is ready for business in his apron - ready to make cake!

That's right, look at my super duper helper for cake making! I don't actually have any photos of the cake part - he was much more involved in the icing part of the cake. He was super pumped about actually getting to add ingredients!

Then he was on sprinkle duty! I let him pick out the sprinkles, I'm not a fan of the little spheres - they get everywhere. One errant breath and they roll all over the place. But he wanted them, so we got them!

They all ended up in piles of rainbow goodness! Partly my fault for putting such thick icing swirls in the cake, partly Thomas' because he kept dropping them all in the same places. Group effort!

Look how proud he is of his cake decorating! So adorable! For the record, Matt loved his cake. I may have forgot to take photos of him enjoying it because I was too busy wolfing down my slice - whoops!

Happy Birthday, Matt! We love you whole bunches!

Ice Fishing

Sam and his daughter invited us to go ice fishing with them this weekend. We debated on it and decided that it might be best to leave the baby at home for this one, so I stayed with Henry while Matt and Thomas got to go have some serious Alaskan fun. In the end, it ended up being warm enough they didn't even use the fishing tent, so it was a really pleasant day for the fishers! 

Sam took some photos for me with his cell phone so I felt included via being tagged in photos on Facebook. The first few looked like Thomas was more interested in watching his dad fish than actually fishing... The scenery is pretty awesome too, I might add!

But then Matt caught this huge "monster" of a trout - he's mimicking a pose of Brittney when she actually did catch a monster salmon this year. Somehow it is not quite as impressive with a 9" fish. (Or whatever the actual size was - it was legal, that much I know!)

Then Thomas started to get into the fishing once he realized what was going on. I've caught a impressive total of one fish since we moved here, Thomas has now bested my record by several fish. Oh well, if I am going to lose to someone at least it's one I completely adore. ;)

Look how proud he is of his fish! He was even reeling in his own fish. I think Matt helped him at the very end, but he did most of the work himself. What an accomplishment! :)

Thomas and Abby with their haul! They both had fun, stayed warm and had fun snacks. Sounds like a pretty awesome day in the life of a little kid!

And the best part - dinner! Matt gutted and cleaned the fish like a true pro (thanks youtube!), then panfried them with a recipe that was really, really good. Turns out that the larger trout don't actually taste as good as the size they were catching. Nothing to make you feel like a true Alaskan that catching and cooking your own food. Well, I would assume so, the only one I caught we released... But I can claim my son's fish by proxy, right? ;)

Auroras

For those of you that don't know, my husband is a serious night owl. It is super rare that he is in bed before midnight any day of the week. One benefit I have noticed from his awful sleep schedule is that he is usually up when the auroras come out to play. Like this morning, he just happened to do his nightly aurora check (I'm not exaggerating). They were just barely visible from the driveway, so he woke me up and told me. 

I was not interested and went back to sleep. A few minutes later, my phone rings. Matt really thinks I should come outside. Fine...! But I'm just going out and then coming back in. Until I saw them - holy cow! They were the brightest I have seen since the one good show we got last year (and there was no good photos of that one!). So I went back in to get the camera and start taking some photos to share with you all. :)

I ended up giving up and going back to sleep after a long while, but the lights kept dancing and dancing. Matt took over photographer duties after I went back to bed, so most of these are from him - I take credit for the camera settings though! I think he finally gave up at 3am, all I know is that the memory card was full of shot after shot of awesome auroras.

Here are my favorite ones, enjoy!

Pretty awesome, huh? And to be that awesome in a neighborhood and with an incredibly bright moon is super uncommon! So the best (most likely!) show of the year just happened to show up right on my birthday... That's a pretty good birthday present in my book. :)

Pinterest Attempts

We didn't go out for breakfast today, so that meant that it was a pjs morning! This is a thing, right? Most of you don't change out of your pjs on the weekend if you are staying home? I'm going to assume you all have said yes and reassured me that we are normal. Thanks for that!

After we ate, we ended up skyping with Matt's parents. Sometimes we randomly call them just to see if they are actually there. They've done it to me several times since my account automatically logs in when we turn the TV on. We didn't have anywhere to be (see "pj morning" above), so the kiddos were happy to entertain their grandparents. 

You decide, brotherly love or brotherly attack?? I honestly think it started out as Thomas trying to use his fire truck as a bumper car into Henry's elephant, but Henry was all about the hugs. Thomas didn't really try to get away, so I am assuming he enjoyed the hug too. :)

We've gotten a little bit of snow recently with the cold weather, so Matt decided to go ski for a few hours (trying to make that season pass worth it!). I wasn't feeling up to going out in the cold today (it happens!), but didn't want to resort to watching a movie just yet. Luckily for me, I had an idea the other day to look up toddler activities on Pinterest. Holy moly - there are so many ideas on that website! While Pinterst can be a huge time sink for me (humor section, I am looking at you!), it really worked out well for this particular idea hunt!

First thing we decided to attempt were frozen balloon decorations. We had the balloons laying around and we certainly had the cold temperatures. I decided to just stick them out in the snow, but since the snow is pretty darn thin, the orange one rolled off into some hard grass and popped. Thomas retold me the story of the "orange one popped!" all afternoon... Now just to let them freeze and see what they look like!

We also found several ideas for quiet activities. We certainly have a bunch of loud activities around the house... But I was more looking for things to pull out and occupy the little guy while trying to prep dinner or related times where I just need a quick distraction that doesn't require my oversight. 

I wasn't sure he'd be all that excited about sticking pipe cleaners in a container, but he loved it! He was so serious about it too, he had to make sure they were all the way in before attempting the next one The pipe cleaners were a little flimsy, so I just twisted them in half to make them a little easier to work with. If I'm totally honest, I found playing with them a little soothing myself. :)

When it was Thomas' turn to nap, I thought I would try letting Henry paint. I trimmed a piece of paper to fit on his tray table and put little dots of paint on there to give him a go at finger painting.

He wasn't too sure about it. He scratched at the paint, then poked at his fingers, then looked at me a little confused. After a little while, I figured he had enough and went to get a rag to clean him up.

Which is, of course, when my finger sucking baby decided it was past time to stick his favorite fingers in his mouth! I probably should have seen that coming. I tried to stop him before they made it in, but I failed - and that or the taste made him start crying. All in all, not the most successful activity. But he calmed down pretty quick and forgave me...

And while not specifically mentioned on Pinterest, I saw a pair of little kid scissors when we were buying art supplies and thought Thomas might want to give them a go. He was so excited to cut things with them! For some reason though, he decided to try with his left hand. He has almost no left handed preference these days, so I was pretty surprised. But he did a great job in cutting the paper and not himself. (Also note his trusty cell phone in case anyone needs to call him...)

Thanks to Pinterest for a crafty day with the guys and only one tiny incident. ;)

Extended Christmas!

Christmas may only come once a year, but that doesn't mean it only lasts a day. Especially since we live far, far away from all of our relatives. My aunt and uncle that live in Oklahoma send us Christmas presents every year, without fail. This year was obviously no exception, but the present for Thomas came separately, so he got to have another chance at opening a present!

Look at this awesome tool bench they sent him! He was sooooo excited and his dad couldn't get it put together fast enough for the little guy. He already has assorted toy tools and a tool box, so this was a nice addition to the collection. I think the only thing he is lacking is a tool belt - I'll try to remember that for his birthday... "/

I'll go ahead and admit that his favorite part *might* have been the toy cell phone. He was so concerned that it wasn't working and that we needed to go find batteries for it. We finally convinced him that it was for pretend and he seemed to accept that. Once that was resolved, he was happy to move on to playing with the vise, putting screws in the table and moving gears around. Whew - crisis averted!

Of course he was slightly distracted by all the photos momma was taking because I got a new play toy...

That's not technically it... But it looks just like it! My early birthday present from Matt was a new flash - the same version as the one I was renting and fell in love with. And since I had two for a day, I was playing with using one off camera to see how well it worked (perfectly!) and how big of a difference it made in lighting to have two (moderate...). I'm pretty excited about being able to control the lighting more in the house. Especially if it means more cute photos of the boys! :)

And thanks for the awesome Christmas presents, Aunt Barbie and Uncle Ralph! As always, we appreciate you thinking of us! I'm still working on teaching Thomas to write thank you cards, so when we get around to mailing it, don't be surprised if it looks suspiciously like random scribbles... ;)

Happy Blue Year!

Sometimes you move to a place far away and everything you got used to having around isn't available. You make do, find substitutes for most things, but some things just can't be fully replaced. Like ice cream. We have found a few flavors we like (thank you, Tilamook!), but they just aren't Blue Bell Ice Cream. We accepted that and told each other how much we missed our Blue Bell every time we had a pie or cobbler that really needed a scoop of homemade vanilla.

Until one awesome day when Brittney and I made the discovery that they would indeed ship Blue Bell up here straight from the factory in Brenham! What?!?!? Of course we had to order four half gallons, but that just means one each for Brittney, Duncan, Matt and I. Of course it was pricey, but it's overnight shipping to Alaska - we're kinda used to that.

We made the decision to order it for each other for Christmas!

Until I call to place the order and they warn us that USPS has warned them they can't guarantee overnight delivery for Christmas. I don't mind paying out the nose for my Texas ice cream, I do mind paying that much for ice cream soup. So we made the decision to play it safe and order it for New Years instead!

The Cookies 'n Cream was Matt's choice. Brittney went for Homemade Vanilla, Duncan had to go with his second choice of Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough (his first choice was a seasonal one they didn't have), and I went with Homemade Vanilla with Strawberries. The plan was to have dinner and each dig into our buckets. 

Unfortunately, the little guys have been trading illnesses back and forth. For some reason, neither of the Hydens were interested in stomach bugs, so they didn't come get their ice cream. Matt and I decided we would be good friends and not eat their ice cream. Ha! Did you think I was going to say we waited for them? No way... There's friendship and then there is Blue Bell! We had already waited two days for New Years!

Does this look like the face of a man that can't believe how much money his wife just told him they spent shipping Blue Bell ice cream to Alaska? No! This is the face of a man that might have been shocked for just a second, but that has decided that this half gallon of ice cream is amazing. Maybe not quite $35 amazing (per half gallon...), but amazing none the less.

For the record, I'd do it again. Not saying we would make a regular occurrence out of it, but for four Texans who talk about Blue Bell most of the year, I think it was a great idea to treat ourselves!

Matt was even nice enough to share his flavor choice with Thomas. Who suddenly didn't want ice cream!? It took some serious convincing him to even get him to try it. And as soon as he did (of course) he wolfed it down and started asking for more... Ha!

Henry didn't get in on the ice cream action this time. Don't worry, he got to try Blue Bell back when he went to Texas in September. He mostly made a huge mess with it, then screamed for more. I didn't really feel like getting screamed at, so he'll just have to wait to get any.

Instead, Henry got to play with Thomas' old walking toy. We've been trying to cycle through his old toys - which Thomas isn't a huge fan of. But he seems to concede that this is a toy he doesn't need anymore and has let Henry monopolize it. Though Thomas does occasionally run over and steal the toy phone from it. 

He looks so proud of himself! He's all "I got this mom!". He's done a really good job of standing up with it. He's just started pulling himself on rare occasions (of course in the super slippery tub), so I have to help him stand up because the toy tends to roll away on him. 

But after standing for a while and practicing letting go, he starts to get concerned. I don't know if he starts feeling unsteady, but he starts to make whining noises, then switches into short nervous cries about the fact he's still standing. Ha!

Of course, he eventually lets go and falls backwards. But this time he seemed to be just as upset about being back on the ground than standing up. Though honestly it's hard to tell. Henry seems to be going through a phase where screaming is his favorite trick. I don't know if he is testing out his vocal cords, but there are many times when Thomas and I are both covering our ears because Henry is shrieking at full volume. Might need to invest in ear plugs if we don't move past this stage soon...

And we wouldn't be good Southerners if we didn't have our traditional Black Eyed Peas. We certainly can't complain about all the fun we had in 2014 and can't wait to see what's headed our way in 2015.

Happy New Year to all of you - hope you have an amazing year as well!

The Wide Angle Lens

I've been playing with the wide angle lens off and on over the holidays. 

I rented it to see how it would do indoors and most of the photos from Christmas Eve were taken with it. In close quarters, sometimes its hard to get everything you want in the frame of a picture. This 14-24mm lens got great reviews - it's apparently hard to get really wide angles without having noticeable distortion on the edges.

But the lens is a beast! I wasn't expecting it to be so big. The lens in the front is my 35mm lens I use most of the time in the house for a size comparison - and the photo is a little misleading because the 35mm is in the front. Anyhow, just trust me - it's huge.

I don't plan on buying this lens, it's about $2000... But I have been eyeing a fixed (non-zoom) lens instead. They sell a few different versions, but not a 14mm. So I was curious if a 20mm gave *that* much more room in the frame. So I figured a few test shots would be the best way of deciding!

While everyone was busy painting / playing during our watercolor session yesterday, I decided to take some rest shots. This first one was with my 35mm. I was sitting across the table from Matt, but scooted a little further down the bench. That was about the closest I could get to the action and still be able to get everyone in the frame.

From the same spot, I took a photo with the zoom set on 20mm. (The smallest fixed lens I've found.)

And a final photo zoomed all the way out to 14mm. This is not how I would usually compose a photo (so much extra space!), but it works to show the full range of focal lengths.

I really like the option of having a wider lens to use indoors. Along with the flash, of course! (I love the flash so much!) But I think that the 20mm is more than adequate for what I would be using it for. I guess I have one more lens to add to the photography wish list. :)