First Steps!

I was in the kitchen last night when Tone' brought Luke in saying that he "really wants mama". So he set Luke down on his chubby little feet and gradually let go and Luke stood there for a while and suddenly took a step! And then another....and another!
His First Three Steps!


And then he raised his chunky arms and hands into the air with a huge smile on his face. I think he was just as excited as we were.
He was still beaming a few minutes later....
And he was still raising his hands into the air. It looked like he was saying, "Hallelujah, I can walk!".

Global Warming, eh?

That's funny, I can't remember ever having a full week of snow on the floor of Portland before, but here we are, stuck in our little purple house with snow drifts all around us. Global warming isn't the point of this post though, as much fun as that would be I would probably just end up offending some with my unPortland thinking on the subject. (The only global warming this earth is going to see will be from the hand of God) Oops, I guess I just voiced my opinion on the matter, oh well, we'll see what comments I get. :)

Moving on....
We have continued to bake cookies as I am really trying this year to bake a variety so I can take them around to our wonderful neighbors. It is something I want to do every year and every year I never get around to it. This year I at least have been making a concerted effort, however, I didn't realize how much time and effort it takes to make lots of different cookies, especially with a "helpful" two year old and a baby who won't nap.


Tone' helped on Sunday by being in charge of the boys. Daddies are very helpful in that way:)We ended up with around 4 dozen sugar cookies and two dozen oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.
Not exactly what I was hoping to accomplish, but the sugar cookies took a bit longer to decorate than I expected. I plan on making some Foldover Apricot cookies and some ginger snaps and hopefully something chocolaty and then I may actually fulfill a lifelong goal of delivering a plate of cookies to neighbors! Oh, how I hope it happens!!!


Tone' was feeling a little cooped up so he went outside and shoveled pathways and put chains on the car. This picture was taken Sunday before the next round of snow came down. At one point we all took a cookie break and went outside to play. Lukas wasn't too sure about it all. He just sat there sucking on his hood string watching Nikolas run around like a goofball.

Nik figured out that it is pretty funny to throw snowballs at mama and daddy.
Where's White Thunder?

Tone' named his little white car, "White Thunder" a while back, right now it looks more like a "White Cloud".
Two wheel drive pick-ups aren't very handy in the snow. It has just been sitting there for the last week as Tone' has been taking the van leaving me cooped up in the house. I haven't started to pull my hair out, yet. I do love snow and i am loving the time to be at home, baking cookies and cleaning the house, but can I just say, "THIS SURE IS CUTTING INTO MY CHRISTMAS SHOPPING!!!".

Tone' and I even piled everyone into the van this evening and somehow maneuvered out of our driveway, (it was hairy for a while there) and headed to the mall. Unfortunately we only had time for one store as the mall decided to close early:( Not only that, but on the way we must have hit a snow bank a wee bit too hard and cracked, punctured, broke the fuel line or something associated with gas as we started smelling gas on the freeway and all the way back home:(( Then we kind of bumped the house a bit as we were barrelling into our driveway and knocked a shingle loose and put some lovely purple on my lovely green van. (I won't say who was driving so as to spare the guilty party) This just adds to the cost of this week of snow here in Portland, Oregon as a tiny little crack on my windshield couldn't handle the freezing temperatures and decided to form a nice long crack alllllllll the way across.
I'm ready to just stay put now for the long hall until we get back to our regularly scheduled driving conditions.
Hope you all are staying safe and not experiencing any frozen pipes or stuck cars or anything else that results from abnormal Oregon weather.

Merry Christmas!

Snow Much Fun

On the first snow day we went into "have fun" mode and I whipped out our train shaped cookie cutters to make some sugar cookies. Nikolas was very excited to be helping, but especially because the cookies were shaped like trains!

It was a little messy, but not too much and the food coloring washed out of everything and everyone easily.

Here's the Nikolas Express!

Mmmmm, tasting his own creation. There is nothing quite like enjoying something you have made with your own hands.

Then it was time to head outside to enjoy the first snow of the season, and the first time that Nik has old enough to really have fun in it. Simply put; he loved it!

Apparently his scooter is 3 wheel drive as he rode it all over the street running into snow banks and curbs and screeching with delight.

Boys aren't supposed to screech, are they? Well, maybe under a certain age is okay.....

Zoom, Zoom!!!

Even though the snow is cutting into our Christmas shopping and other errands, we are having fun enjoying the rare Oregon snow storm.

Nikolas, You Had It Coming

This picture just cracks me up. I love how I am just oblivious to what is going on between them and I love how Luke seems to know just what he is doing. Nikolas has no idea what he is up against. Lukas is 11 months old and only weighs two pounds less than Nik. Nikolas is constantly harrassing Luke so I don't feel sorry in the least for him.

Nikolas, you better start being nicer to your "little" brother!

Where's the Hose?

We let Lukas try feeding himself with a spoon and it was a pretty hilarious event.

He actually did pretty well and, surprisingly, yogurt even found its way into his mouth.
Woohoo, look at me! I'm using a spoon!
All right, forget the spoon, I'm gonna lick the bowl instead.
Where's the baby?!
There he is!
If only my tongue were just a little bit longer.
And the final product.
I asked Tone' if he wanted to clean the boy and his words were, "Where's the hose?"
He ended up taking a rare bath after this episode.

Domestically Disabled No More

I am continually amazed at how domesticated I am becoming. I think everyone would agree that I was domestically disabled about 2.5 years ago. Then suddenly, I began morphing into a cooking, baking, gardening, crockpotting, couponing mama, and now I will never be the same.

My first inspiration was my sister, who has always amazed me with her ability to whip a meal together with hardly any notice, and that she handmakes birthday and other cards for about 40 people a month, (she's currently making 150 cards for Christmas).

My sister-in-law, Karen, also amazes me with how she can figure out how to put Pergo flooring in all by herself, or take mismatched fabric remnants and an old window shutter and create a beautiful headboard for their bed. I still get excited when I change the lightbulbs and replace batteries in toys all by myself. Seriously, I'm tool illiterate.

Though my mom hasn't been around since I have had babies, I look back on my life growing up with her and think about the things that were memorable and want to replicate some of those things with my own children. She had a huge garden every year, which I had the pleasure of hoeing. Alot. I do have fun memories of it as well, though, like snapping peas together and digging for potatoes. I remember watching her dance around the pressure cooker as it was steaming its little top off and wondering if it was going to blow up on us. It didn't. So this fall I learned how to can pumpkin with a friend and I felt a little bit closer to mom. I also planted my very first garden EVER, and it did pretty well. I learned alot too.

I have also been blessed with a group of friends who have had to endure my dinner mishaps while I learn the ins and outs of cooking. (now Kate, was that butter, flour, milk then wait till it boils? or is there another step in there? I'll never remember.) Through rock hard biscuits and WAY too cheesy broccoli, they have all been very gracious and understanding.

Then there is Angela, my couponing partner in crime (well, sometimes I feel like a criminal depending on the cashier) who introduced me to printable coupons and got excited with me after my first time of getting cereal for FREE! We're both a little nutty about couponing, thankfully we have a saving money blog for me to post my grocery scores or you would be wading through pictures of my Walmart or Walgreen's trips.

And my Sherwi, as Nik calls her, who has slowly been switching me to the dark side, I mean, the organic side, of eating. So far I buy my milk from happy goats, my eggs from happy chickens, my beef from happy cows and my honey from happy bees. In other words, the animals get to run around in fresh air, which, if I were an animal, would be nice. Though, I don't know about the bees being happy, they always are buzzing around their hives sounding rather, well, ticked off.

There have been many, many others of you all who have inspired me to embrace being a wife and mother and all that that entails. It will be interesting to see just where this whole homemaking lifestyle takes me. Hopefully, once in a while, it will still take me up a rock or two, because I still think about rock climbing pretty much every day, but I have no regrets. Someday I will be putting a meal in the crockpot as my boys and I take off for the crags where we will learn about gravity and friction and all the other many things that God's creation can teach us.
You were right George, "It is a Wonderful Life" :)

Red Light, Green Light

Somehow, Nikolas learned that red means stop and green means go, I really don't know where he figured this out as I certainly haven't taught him.
Tone' and I learned this as we were in the car and I was approaching a stoplight. From out of nowwhere we heard a little voice in the back saying, "Red. Means. Stop, Mama."

Great, now I have a backseat driver.

It has continued since then and now every single stoplight and sometimes at stop signs I hear, "Red. Stop." or "Green. Go." depending on the color of the light.

It is pretty cute, and I probably need an extra set of eyes while I am driving. And now we can play the game, "Red Light, Green Light"!!

Can I Have One? Please!!!

A sixteen year old willing to help with my children, that is.

My niece, Alex, came home with me Sunday before last after our weekend at the cabin and stayed with us until Wednesday afternoon. I just have one word to describe having her here with me: bliss.

I can't believe how much easier it is to have someone else around during the day to help with kids. I got so much done!!!

I was able to go grocery shopping, BY MYSELF!

For all you who don't have little babies anymore, grocery shopping by myself is a big deal. Really.

Even going to the park, which isn't too stressful of a thing to do, was way more fun as Alex helped corral NIk and even tried teaching him to pump on the swing.

Nikolas climbing up everything, this boy has no fear.
Just slipping in a cute Lukas shot:)

Nikolas absolutely loves having Alex around, whom he calls Alec.
Alex tolerates him very well, much better than mama does.

It was sad to see her go, Nik will still, a week later, look at me and ask, "Alec here?"
Awww, sorry Nik, not right now. She'll be back sometime though.

Pleeeeeeaaaaase come back sometime soon, Alex:)

Why, Mama?

Why?

That is a question I haven't been expecting to hear quite yet from my child, but it has started becoming common. The first time Nikolas asked me, "Why Mama?", I was a little shocked and unsure of what to say. I think the question was referring to my command of, "Don't climb the bookcase!" To which Nik said, "Why Mama?". My reply: "Um, because it will fall on top of you and squish you like a bug, remember daddy's dresser?"
I thought the question was just a fluke. Two year old boys aren't actually interested in why they shouldn't do something, are they? Surprisingly I have continued to hear the question over and over and over again.

Yesterdays whys were to these statements:
"Don't touch the stove buttons" Why mama?
"Stop dragging your brother" Why mama?
"Stay out of the street " Why mama?

Todays whys :

"let's put your underwear on" Why mama?
"Baby is crying" Why mama?
"time to get into the car" Why mama?

Really? Am I really going to have to start explaining every detail of our lives to him? Maybe he is just wanting me to talk to him more......I don't know, but now I actually need to think about why I do things and why I tell him to do things, 'cause he is going to ask.

Weekend at the Cabin

Last weekend I left Nikolas with Tone', picked up my friend Sheri, and headed to my dad's cabin in White Salmon, Washington for a scrapbooking weekend with my sister and niece.

This was the view when we woke up the next morning. It was beautiful with the fog drifting across the lake and the sun shining down.

Here is my very special friend, Sheri, who started out as my high school leader in our church youth group and has become one of those friends you can call at 4 am after puking your brains out and ask them to come over to take care of your babies when they wake up. Yep, that happened, and she came over and even brought me this disgusting vinegar concoction to help my stomache. Thanks Sheri:)

And here is my wonderful sister, Kellie, who stepped into the good type of motherly role after our mom died. I always thought that my mom would come and stay with me for a couple of weeks after I had babies, but she passed away 11 months before Nikolas was born. Thankfully Kellie stepped in and she stayed with me and cooked, cleaned, shopped and generally took great care of me. Thanks sis! I would be lost without you.

And here is my niece Alexandra, who is becoming more and more of an adult and friend. She is a selfless servant who rarely complains (at least not around me). She came and took care of Lukas the whole weekend so I could get some scrapbooking done. Bless you Alex!
And this is the project that I actually completed while I was there!!! It's a recipe box to hold all the many crockpot recipes I have begun to accumulate lately. Are you impressed? I sure am:) I would like to say I came up with this on my own, but that would be lying. It was a kit.

Sunday morning Kellie and I took turns taking the kayak out for spin on the lake. It is so incredibly quiet there with only the ducks and geese making their little slurping noise while looking for bugs.
Here is Kellie in the kayak. I have the same picture of me, but since most people ask us if we are twins, I figured it would be redundant to post it too.
Did you know my amazingly talented husband, Tone', made this kayak??!! He did, and I have no idea how. I just know that he spent countless hours in the garage one year building it. I'd love for him to build another one, but then I would be a garage widow, so I'm good with just taking turns with the one we have.
I love this picture. The lone kayak, the early morning fog, the rays of sun shining down.....
it all makes me think of what it would have looked like a couple hundred years ago when the Native Americans lived here.
Except that this lake is here because of 20th century dam building, so it wouldn't have looked like this at all...... but let's just pretend.

Thomas and Friends

Nikolas is currently fascinated with trains of all sorts, but especially Thomas the Tank Engine. So on Saturday morning we all went to the Columbia Gorge Model Railroad Show in NE Portland where not only were there many different model trains, but there was also a Thomas the Tank Engine train!

It was perfect for a little train enthusiast and the rest of us had fun too. There was a basketball court size model train track with about 20 people sitting in their engineer booths making sure all the trains didn't crash into each other.
They had put countless hours into the whole thing and half of it replicated the Columbia Gorge, complete with Crown Point, and the other half looked like downtown Portland in the 1950's or so. There was even a little tiny drive- in movie screen that was playing "I Love Lucy"!

This guy kept popping out of the woodwork to fix stuck trains.
Isn't he great?!

Nik tried his hand at engineering his own train,
notice all the other Thomas fans.
(Jodi, I am so sorry, I totally should have called you guys!)

Someone wasn't very pleased with leaving Thomas behind. In fact, he was a wreck pretty much the whole rest of the day, saying, "Go see Thomas Train, go see Thomas Train!" in a very sad voice.
Was it worth it? Hmm, well, I suppose it's debatable, but I will say, "yes". My little boy had a memorable time with his daddy looking at trains and even though he probably won't remember this day in the future, daddy and mama will, and we will forget about the problems it caused the rest of the day and remember the excitement and the little voice yelling, "THOMAS!" whenever he saw the Thomas train go by.

Mama's Outa Shape

Oh I know, some of you are probably thinking, "Whatever, you are so skinny you can't possibly be out of shape.". Well let me assure you, I may have been blessed with skinny genes from my mother, but I am in no way, shape or form, fit. In fact, I tested my theory out today and went for my first bike ride in a year and a half. It was totally impromptu as Tone' and I and the boys were outside working around the house in this gorgeous fall weather when I looked at my bike and said, "Oh how I would love to go for a bike ride....". To which my wonderful husband said, "Well, what are you waiting for, GO." Normally I would have replied something like, "No, I need to go to the store if I am going to do anything." or "No, the house needs to be cleaned" or any other number of excuses. This time, though, I surprised myself and said, "okay, here's Lukas." and off I went. (After I put my helmet on of course) The further I rode the more I realized how incredibly long it has been since I peddled my mountain bike. Here's why:

1) within a mile my quads and calves were burning

2) I remembered too late why one shouldn't open their mouth wide while biking, (bugs make me gag)

3) within a mile and a half I realized my back side is much larger than my bike seat (my seat must have shrunk since I last used it)

4) I biked the two miles in the same time as I used to RUN two miles in college, how sad is that?! In my defense: I was having to figure out all my gears again as I kept getting the hard and easy gears mixed up. (just another excuse)

So, it is blaringly obvious that I need to actually start working out, in some way. My friend Jodi
and her sister are planning on doing a triathalon sprint in April, I believe, and I opened my mouth upon hearing this and said, "Oh, I want to do it too!". Well Jodi, I think it is time we started using that elyptical of yours. And SOON!

Baby, It's Cold Inside

As in, 48 degrees cold. Inside our house! Thursday evening we were getting everyone ready for bed when we noticed the house was beginning to become very chilly, which was weird since the furnace was running. We checked the temperature and even though it was set at 70 the actual temperature was dropping down below 60.

UhOh.

Not only would that stink normally, but Lukas had a cold and Nikolas was just coming down with one. So we bundled them in fleece feetie pajamas and tucked them into bed knowing there were probably going to be two extra little bodies in bed with us at some point during the night.

There were. Nikolas woke up at midnight screaming that his leg itched and he wanted lotion, yes, lotion, he's weird. I think it is just a ploy to get me out of bed and then to get to come into our bed. Well then, Nik's screaming woke up Luke and by then the house was freezing cold and so I brought him into bed as well. Unfortunately our bed is a full. Four people, regardless of their sizes, do not fit into a full size bed. Let me tell you. So Tone' got the boot. He went and slept in Nik's bed and the little boys slept fitfully with mama. Yeah, all you who felt sorry for Tone'. He got to burrow into the covers all night while I was dealing with two crying, kicking, turning, stuffed up little boys, one of which wanted to nurse during the night. Have you ever nursed in the middle of the night in 48 degree weather? Not fun.

Good news now though, we have heat once again! I promptly called the furnace repair man and was given the, "he'll be there between 12 and 5" line. Thanks. So I waited, and waited, and waited and at promptly 5 o'clock he arrived. Thanks again. Well, apparently our furnace was overworked and shut itself down. Did you know that you are supposed to clean your furnace filters periodically? Yeah, you are.

We have never cleaned them. Oops. That could be why my nose is always stuffed up at night when the furnace is on. Hmmm, coincidence? I don't think so. Tone' came home and cleaned them, so I am hoping that will help the situation, and hopefully our furnace will keep working now.

Typical Day

Thought I would let you all in on a typical day in our household during the day. Today I looked out the window and decided we needed to rake some leaves. So I put Lukas on my back in the Ergo Carrier and started raking. Nikolas immediately jumped on his trike and started riding through my pile of leaves and spreading them everywhere. I didn't mind though as I love being outside so the more leaf raking the better.
Awwww, the finished product. I'm sure tomorrow it will look just like the before picture though.
We also went to Albertsons where they paid me $7.28 to shop there. You can read more about this score here.

Then it was on to home where I needed to start dinner but little Lukas just wouldn't let me put him down without him screaming and trying to climb up my leg. So for sanity and safety's sake i put him in the Ergo and he promptly fell asleep. He was there sleeping for half an hour until Tone' came home and was able to help me get him into his crib. The poor little man is having a rough time of teething right now as he has 4 teeth coming in on top and he only just got two more on bottom. Needless to say he hasn't been sleeping much, which means mama hasn't either. After 2 1/2 years of having babies, though, I have gotten used to it and can function on little sleep. Though I don't think my brain operates at full capacity most of the time.