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!

Allie, What Have You Done??

I only really glossed the surface of the amount of spoiling the boys got when we were staying with the Thurmonds in October. Allie bought them scaled monster trucks, bigger monster trucks that made noise and zoomed around, then didn't let us leave without giving them tons of hot wheels, books and all kinds of random toys. When I protested that none of this was going to fit into my luggage, she gave me a bigger bag.

You are out of control, Allie... 

And we all loved it!

Even with all that, she told me to just leave the bigger monster trucks and she would ship them to us. She kept texting me to say she was going to send the package any day now, but she found something else she wanted to include. Then today, this *giant* box showed up on our doorstop. I was so confused about not having ordered anything from this company, that Matt had to make me look at the shipping label (from Katy, TX) to convince me it was probably from Allie and safe to open.

Hahahahahaha - of course it was from Allie! And you can clearly see that Thomas knows exactly who is was from. The photo doesn't even do his reaction justice - he was jumping up and down screaming with excitement!

In this package of awesome were their monster trucks, of course. But also, the Hot Wheels tracks we had been playing with - plus a brand new set! More hot wheels. Micro Hot Wheels. Construction trucks that also made noise and moved around. And giant horns...

Guess what was the favorite off the bat?? At least with two of the boys, anyhow. :)

Henry soon claimed both of these and was running around making all kinds of noise. Thus the title of "Allie, What Have You Done??". I actually should be relieved, the box she reused for shipping all this had an invoice still in it for a *dozen* green horns. It made two horns seem downright reasonable!

And what kind of parties are going on at the Thurmond house??

Once Matt and I got the tracks set up, the boys were happy to drop the horns and play with all of their cars. Thomas was telling his dad all about the tracks and how they worked because he quite clearly had not forgotten about them at all in the last few weeks!

We ended up doing car "trials" running pairs of cars down the tracks to see which the best cars were. There were a few clear duds (I'm looking at you, bubble car!), but most of the car shaped ones did pretty well. You can see the winner in this race has already hurtled off the end of the ramp in this shot.

As a side note, you can see Henry holding a Hot Wheels trailer in his hand. Thomas found it in the box and was telling Matt how the trailer was pulled by a truck and tried to hook it up to TowMater. When he couldn't get the two to cooperate, he informed us it wasn't working and we needed to go back to Allie's house to return it. I feel like this was Allie's plan all along...

The micro cars were by far Matt's favorite of the shipment though. These things are tiny, but wicked fast. They are completely unpredictable in the direction they will head because of our floor tiles and we all ended up chasing them around. I caught one and was trying to get a photo of it, but apparently I was taking too long and my eldest stole it from me. (It's tough being the only one who cares about documenting things!)

Despite the title (and the horns!), we loved the package Allie! We still would rather have you come for a visit, but the boys are happy with this for now...

Miss you all and hopefully see you soon! :)

Snowy Saturday!

It actually snowed this week and it didn't melt away, so today was party time in the yard!

The boys asked to go outside as soon as we finished breakfast and I automatically responded with "in a little while" before it occurred to me there was no reason to wait. (It's habit, I'm usually doing something...) So I pulled out their winter garb and started putting it on them - they got pretty excited once the coats came off the hangers!

Thomas had his snow flinger in hand and was ready to be out the door before I had finished getting Henry suited up. The snow was unfortunately super powdery, so he ended up using the flinger as a horn instead. I have no idea why they designed the flinger to also be a horn that sounds like an angry goose, but they did and he loves it. 

Henry was walking around saying "shovel" with a big grin on his face, but didn't actually use the shovel. He did block his brother from trying to steal it though. So, a typical morning around here. :)

Henry did move on to a broom at some point. I leave the garage door open when we are playing outside and most of the tools become fair game. I have no idea why he thought sweeping the snow was a good idea, it is quite possibly the least effective snow moving device we have. But of course Thomas immediately wanted it as well...

After playing for a few minutes with them, I started working on clearing the driveway. Powdery snow is a dream to shovel from the driveway until you drive over it. Car tires compress the powdery snow into thick, hard snow that likes to stick to the driveway. So in order to shovel easily, you have to break up the hard, crusty snow first. Fun!

I think Henry is on his fifth or sixth tool by now. Matt had joined us at this point and found him a more size appropriate one (which of course, Thomas tried to steal). Also Matt pulled out the adult-sized square shovel and made easy work of the compressed snow. Apparently trying to get it up with the metal edge of the snow shovel is not the best way. Who knew? Not me, apparently. 

When I finished my half of the driveway (Matt started helping halfway down so we weren't running into each other), I wandered into the cul-de-sac to take photos. I think it's so pretty when the houses and trees are covered in white snow. It's less exciting when the snow has been there awhile or the edges of the roads are brown snow from the plows. So I wanted to get pretty photos while I could!

We kept getting clouds rolling through the area, so the mountains were super foggy in the background. It was very ethereal and just so pretty looking after all the yuckiness of the past two weeks. Also, I kept trying to get photos of Natalie and she kept avoiding me. This is the best I got as she was slinking away from me 

But once the work was done - it was play time again! We bought Thomas skis a few weeks ago while REI was having their big sale and we hadn't had any snow yet to try them out. He has been super excited about being able to ski with Matt, but we wanted to get him comfortable with being on the skis before we took him to the real slopes. 

He couldn't quite figure out how to make them go on his own, so Matt had him hold on to the broomstick and walked him down the hill. He needs a little work on his form, but he seemed to think it was fun to ski down the "hill". 

Matt eventually got him to stay upright without help and then pulled him across the yard with the broom. 

The snow really isn't deep enough to build him an incline to practice on, but it was a good start at learning how to stand on the skis and how fun it is to glide across the snow. Both Thomas and Matt were having a great time.

But someone was having the worst time ever:

Henry was so upset the other day when we bought the skis and boots. Thomas wore the boots at the dinner table and Henry kept pointing at Thomas, "Boot?" and then pointing at his feet. He's no fool...

Well that little bit of upset was nothing compared to when Thomas was on the skis in the yard and Henry could only watch. He was devastated! This is quite literally the worst moment in his life.

Thomas didn't seem to be fazed by the hysterical sobs of his little brother, but when he was done practicing, we asked him if Henry could borrow his ski gear to try it out. And he didn't have a problem with it. (Sometimes they are great at sharing!)

The tears dried up so fast once Henry realized it was his turn! Of course, he wasn't really able to hold on to the broom like his big brother did. In his defense, he has little hands and big mittens and it's hard for him to do anything with them on. 

Matt ended up just guiding him down the hill. Henry really didn't get the concept of the proper skiing stance. Oh well, he can wait another year for his turn at skiing with Matt. I know Thomas will love having alone time with his dada, especially with such a fun activity!

Also, I love it when the kids find one of their costumes or dress up clothes and put them on without any encouragement. We were hanging out in the living room and suddenly there was a rocket ship running around the house. And then the rocket ship got distracted by the lit-up Christmas Tree.

Rocket ships are adorable, aren't they?? Also, Henry likes the tree much more than he did last year.

Hahaha - I can't not post it again. I will love this photo for ever and ever. 

I finally got a photo of Natalie! I was worried she was going to feel left out with all the Eliza photos I posted, but she was in no mood to be photographed. She ran away from me outside and when I got her in my sights inside, she either ran at me so I couldn't focus on her or she just ran away. I finally managed to get her to sit still long enough by holding a dog treat just above my lens and snapped a photo or two while she longingly stared at it. 

And she has gotten so gray! I knew her muzzle was going white, but the top of her head is all speckled in white now. I refuse to believe our fur baby is getting old. It's not allowed to happen!

She's still gorgeous. :)

Cross Section Cake

I've never done a "thin" layer cake or the super popular rainbow cake. I did a four layer cake one time with four 9" rounds versus the usual cut two 9" rounds in half. That cake was a bit on the unsteady side...

But I had an idea that needed a bright multi-colored, multi-layered cake, so I went off of the rainbow cake ideas I found online. 

It was a bit of a disaster honestly. I didn't get enough batter in the first three 9" cake pans (you were supposed to divide it into six pans, but I only have four and only three will fit in the oven), so some of the layers turned out too thin - the purple one tore while getting it out of the pan. And then I was trying to save time, so I used my fourth 9" pan to get ready for round two, but when I flipped the cake out, realized I had used an 8" pan instead. Argh!

I was left with the option of trying to cut all the layers down to 8", accept I would only have four layers or bake another cake. I went with the third option as it seemed less stressful. So while four of the layers are Vanilla Buttermilk from scratch, the other four are white cake mix. Thankfully, no one seemed to notice...!

I went with cream cheese icing and made a batch and a half for this giant cake. And I had enough to crumb coat the cake, but no more. I usually don't even bother to crumb coat cake because I am that lazy of a cake decorator, but it seemed like a good idea with the super colorful layers. Also once you have a crumb coat layer on, it's much easier to straighten the cake up - look how crooked it was in picture #1!

Thankfully, Matt hadn't made it home yet, so he stopped to get me more cream cheese for the "pretty" icing layer. I say that in quotation marks because I never intended for this cake to look pretty. I wanted it to be a dull gray with darker gray accents. Unfortunately, the black icing dye I have turned the icing purple. The photo makes it look less purple than it was in real life. I ended up just giving up and using it anyhow. I was hoping it would turn more gray and less purple-y overnight. (It did!)

In googling, purple is a common problem when trying to dye icing black. Apparently, the easiest way to get black is to start with chocolate icing - which is less helpful when all you want is a light gray. But I did try the chocolate icing trick for the lettering on the top I wanted to be black.

Which worked like a champ! And my writing actually looks like an adult wrote it this time - wooo! But I should probably explain why this cake is an intentional gray / boring cake. (And since I was calling it a boring cake, I liked the rough look on the icing. Easy peasy!)

Dom is a coworker who is retiring today. He's been with the company and my present group forever and they sent out an email asking for stories to "roast" him with at a retirement party. I have only been in the group a few months, so I don't have much to help with. But just a few weeks ago, I was showing Dom and my team lead our technical work before a larger review to the partners for approval. I had several geologic cross sections showing where we would like to land our wells and as is my usual method, I colored the sand layers yellow and the shale layers gray. Of course, there is usually more shale volumetrically, so imagine a little bit of yellow and a lot of gray.

After giving me a thumbs up on the technical work, Dom pipes up and asks if I really like gray. I was a bit confused until he explained to me that "Gray is boring" and therefore my cross sections needed to be livened up a little. I conceded to his suggestion and presented cross sections the next day that would have made an unicorn wince. So I decided to "roast" him for the one thing we had joked about (I may have sent him a cartoon of an Unicorn farting a rainbow in an email asking if he liked the new sections better.) And I figured it would be best to make the cake so boring on the outside and tell the story for the rest of the group before cutting a psychedelic piece out for the "wow" factor. 

But Dom's favorite cake is actually chocolate, so I made him my favorite chocolate cupcakes as well. Plus the dinosaurs - I will use this dinosaur mold to make fun dinosaurs as many times as I possible can! 

In full discosure, I volunteered to bringing cake without realized there were 40 people invited. So the cupcakes were a necessary addition to not start a riot. "/

I didn't take my camera in to get a picture of the cake and by the time I did get a photo of it, it had been quite thoroughly attacked by hungry coworkers. However, photo quality aside, the cake was a huge hit! Everyone got a good laugh out of the story and the "cross-section cake" was pretty darn impressive in it's own right. Who knew harassing someone with a cake could make so many people happy? :)

As a side note to those that have seen rainbow cakes and are wondering why the blue layer is missing - blue is generally a "bad" color. It either means a water-bearing layer (not what we want!) or in our group it can mean ankerite cemented sandstones - which are also bad because they make drilling incredibly challenging. And since I wanted this cake to be a geologically "positive" cake, I nixed the blue and went with all of the colors that are our "good" zones. Except the purple - that represents the shale layer between our two productive zones. This probably makes no sense to a non-geologist, but everyone in the meeting appreciated the level of detail in the color scheme!