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Monday, January 27, 2014

Meanwhile, in FRIGID Minnesota...

Okay folks, if you know me at all, you know that I do NOT like the cold (you may be asking why I live in MN, but I don't have an answer for you other than I have yet to convince my entire family to move somewhere warm with me).  Anyway, it's been a particularly cold winter here in Minnesota.  I'm talking, negative double digits with wind chills in the negative forties and fifties some days.  I'm mean, come on-even for the heartiest Minnesotans, that is COLD.  So we've been doing a lot of staying in, staying warm, and going a little stir crazy.  Anyway, I'm not trying to complain too much, so I wanted to discuss some fun things to do with your kids to stay busy while living in arctic conditions. 

1.  Have an indoor 'campout'.  This is one of my kids favorite things to do.  Not only do they love tents and blanket forts, but they also adore turning the lights out and using their flashlights.  We usually bring in play food and pretend to eat and sleep in the tent.  It can keep my kids entertained for quite a while:)

2. Baking with your kids. Depending on your kid's ages, this can be a really fun activity to do when it's cold outside (and who doesn't love warm cookies on a cold day, right?).  My kids love to help measure, pour ingredients, and mix everything together.  They are also very willing taste testers:)  Our favorite things to bake are cookies, muffins, and banana bread. 

3. Indoor Obstacle Course.  This activity tends to work better if you have a large open space in your house, but if not, you can make one on a smaller scale.  For preschool aged kids, finding small things to jump over, crawl under/through, and weave in and out all work great (think hula hoops, jump rope lines, small boxes, etc.)  It doesn't have to be glamorous for the kids to really enjoy it and get out some energy.

4. Beach Party. Get out the swim suits, beach towels, and some beach toys.  Fruit and yogurt smoothies are a fun treat to keep you thinking of warm weather, and some beach tunes are a must!  If you're feeling up to it, let the kids 'swim' in the tub. 

5. Carpet Roadway. Set up tape-roads on your carpet.  A woman at church did this for all the boys in the nursery a few weeks ago and I thought it was such a great idea for kids who love to drive around trucks, tractors and the like.  Using masking tape, you can draw out roads and intersections for the cars to drive on.  The kids thought it was pretty cool to drive along it.  (Smaller children may be more interested in pulling up the tape than actually driving cars along it, so be warned!). 

6. Art projects.  My kids really like to be creative and helping them complete an art project is a great way to do that.  Pinterest is a great resource for all sorts of toddler/preschool/school aged crafts.  Something as simple as coloring and cutting out pictures, painting, using stickers, or making shapes can be really fun.  (This time of year snowman and snowflake creations are fun).

My kids aren't school-aged yet, but for those days off from school, here are a few ideas for older children: have the kids write a play and act it out as a family, watch home-movies from when they were little (or when you were little!), play a board game (January is the perfect month for monopoly), start a jigsaw puzzle, create a scavenger hunt for the kids to complete around the house, do fun science experiments to do at home, or start a chapter book read aloud with the family. 

If all else fails, you can always venture out to an indoor play area/swimming pool, take the kids to an interactive store (think Cabella's), check out your local children's/science museum, or call in reinforcements (ie. Grandma & Grandpa or friends with kids).  I would love you hear your ideas of the creative ways you keep your little ones active! 
My two little monkeys displaying their 'cheesiest' smiles:) 
 (Apparently eyes must be closed to smile this big!)


I hope you are making it through this cold blast with your sanity...it's touch and go around here sometimes!  Dreaming of warmer days...

Thursday, January 23, 2014

January Happenings

Greetings!  Just wanted to share a few updates of what our January has looked like so far....so for Matt (and anyone else who was curious), here's some of what we've been up to:
 Playing with Elijah's new train table
 Relaxing on Grandpa Tom's lap:)
 Discovering pockets!
Improving our carpentry skills

Enjoying static-induced hairdos

Smiling and working on our preschool skills

Hugging

Helping little brothers down the stairs (melts my heart!)

 Putting up snowman and penguin window clings
Visiting Auntie Erika's house and our pug cousin, Henry!


We hope your January has been full of fun!  Matt, we miss you so much and can't wait to see you soon:)

Monday, January 20, 2014

Par-Tea Time:)

This year we celebrated Bella's birthday with a tea party!  We asked everyone to come dressed in their tea party best and enjoy tea, food and cake with us.   Here are a few pictures to recap the day:
Bella in her Tea Party Dress
Buttermilk Layer Cake with Chocolate Frosting (From my MS cookbook, of course!)


She's a princess:)

 Tea Party Treats
Cake, Chocolate Dipped Strawberries, Frosted cookies, and Ninja-bread men

 Matt was out of town, but he Skyped with us during the party!
 Grandpa and Elijah trying out some party hats
Bella and her friend Chloe

 Here are the two best shots I could get of all five kids: Clayton, Chloe, Bella, Elijah, and Asher


Cake time!  (as you can see Elijah supervised very closely!)


 Cross another cake off my list:)
 Frosting was approved!
 Can hardly believe my baby girl is FOUR!
 We are excited to be four!
 
Bella on her actual birthday

Happy Birthday Miss B!
 
 
A huge shout out to everyone who helped make Bella's party a success!  Thank you so much!  

Thursday, January 16, 2014

Happy Birthday Bella!

Our beautiful baby girl turns FOUR today!  I can hardly believe it.  Happy Birthday Isabella Joy!  We love you so much and we are so blessed by your sweet spirit, your sense of adventure, and your contagious laughter and joy! 
Happy Birthday Bella!
 

^Newborn Bella

^Bella, age 1
 

^Bella, age 2

^Bella, age 3
 

At four years old, you love to work on your letters, numbers, colors and shapes, you adore playing make-believe, your favorite toys are your 'my little ponies', you really enjoy reading Bernstein Bear books, and you have a major sweet tooth (ice cream is your fave!).  You are sweet, thoughtful, creative, musical, funny, and brave.  We absolutely adore you!

Here's to four years of life-changing, non-stop adventure with our Bella-Boo!  Happy Birthday!

Monday, January 13, 2014

The year of CAKE!

For Christmas this past year, one of my favorite gifts I received was Martha Stewart's cookbook, CAKES.  Not only do I love baking (and eating) cake, but it is actually on my 30 before 30 list to buy this book and bake at least five cakes from it.
 
 
Well folks, after looking through this glorious cookbook, I can tell you that baking five cakes in the next two years will be no problem at all.  In fact, after finding so many wonderful recipes, I have declared 2014 The Year of CAKE!  (By the way that also means that 2014 will need to be the year of working out a lot to compensate for said cake!).  I think a cake makes any celebration even more special, and this year I am going to make an effort to make a cake for all of our big events (birthdays, holidays, and get togethers). 

 I started the year off right by baking this delicious cake for our New Year's Eve celebration (fitting for the year of cake, right?) 
 
Next on my list is Bella's birthday.  Bella has already requested cake, cupcakes, cookies and a cake house (what?) so she's definitely milking this birthday thing for all it's worth.  I haven't decided which cake to make for her birthday yet, but there will be cake!  (on a side note, Matt has already picked out the cake he'd like for his birthday, and (surprise), it super chocolate-y and divine looking. Get excited people!). 
 
I think it's going to be great year:)

Monday, January 6, 2014

Elijah-isms

Now that we have a two year old (again), we get to hear some wonderfully unique vocabulary as Elijah learns new words and phrases.  His language is expanding so much every day, and it is so fun to hear him having conversations with everyone. 
 
Here are a few of my favorite 'Elijah'isms':
'Nums' = any kind of candy
'faffles' =waffles (one of his favorite breakfast foods)
'cargort' = yogurt (it almost sounds like he's saying carrots)
In response to asking if he wants something, he will shout, "Ya, I do!!"
When thanking me, he responses, "Thanks Mama...Welcome." 
 
He also says a lot of words very clearly, which is so fun to hear.  He's very talkative and definitely wants us all to understand him immediately.  Recently on a family car ride, Bella requested that we listen to on of our favorite worship songs, The King is Coming.  Both kids started singing along to the words, and it was one of the sweetest moments ever!  What a sweet sound to hear your children worshipping the Lord:)

Friday, January 3, 2014

Happy New Year! Some of my top reads of 2013

Happy New Year to you!  I hope your celebrations were joyful!  We rang in the new year with some great friends, then spent New Year's Day celebrating my mother in law's birthday-what a fun start to 2014! 

Have you started making goals for the new year yet?  I am still working on some of mine, but I found a great blog post (from one of my favorite blogs) on how to categorize goals, found here.  If more reading is on your list this year, maybe you'll find my top 5 reads of 2013 helpful! 

Here are my top five reads of 2013:

Best Memoir: Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
Best Comedy: The Tao of Martha by Jen Lancaster
Best Mystery: Before I Go To Sleep by S.J. Watson
Best Romantic Storyline: Something Borrowed by Emily Griffin
Best Devotional: Jesus Calling by Sarah Young

If you have any book suggestions for me for the new year, I'd love to hear them! 

May your 2014 be full of blessings!