Happy Birthday Poem

We usually call the cousins for their birthdays. Poem hasn't met Gideon and Elise so we thought with a birthday song on video she could at least see the people who are singing. Now that she can see how hyper her cousins are, maybe a call would've been better. :)




I have no idea where the t-shirt moves came from, but tonight they were cracking each other up.

Goggles

Jace bought the kids goggles for cleaning. They always want to help, and we don't want them rubbing cleaner in their eyes.









Gideon giving Elise a hug.







Elise loves water, especially the bathtub.


Helping Daddy clean the bathroom. They love their cleaning/swimming goggles.

Birthday Boy & Girl

Birthday Girl, Feb 7 2010

I bought this outfit for Elise's 2nd birthday, but I love it so much that I couldn't think of it getting frosting on it b/c I want her to wear it this spring and summer. These first three pictures were taken a few days before her birthday. Just in case I decided to have her wear something else I wanted birthday pics in this.


This little girl is going to be trouble...she's charming as can be, especially when she wants something. I can handle the tantrums, it's so easy to say no. But she'll get up on my lap put her head on my shoulder, smile and ask in the sweetest little voice and I have trouble saying no. I wasn't prepared for a smooth talker. :) Jace and I say all the time that she's a doll.







Elise getting birthday calls from her cousins. She loved hearing from them and joined in on the singing, even "happy birthday to you". Very funny!


She has a toy cell phone she jabbers on all the time. She likes to pretend to call her cousin Rycam several times a day. When she talked to them again (they called for her bday) a few days later, she just stared into the phone and didn't say much at all. :) I think she's used to doing both sides of the conversation.

The kids opening up little party gifts before Elise opened her birthday presents. Gideon didn't want to change out of his sleeper for the party.



She doesn't hold still for pictures so we have lots of pictures like this.

and this.



Jace with the kids. He is the superior photographer. I tried many times to get them all looking at the camera, but this is the best of the lot.


And Jace took this one...Gideon had been sitting there but left.


Blowing out the candle...



Taking a break to taste the frosting.



And with a little help from the woman on the right, the candle is blown out.

The Birthday Boy, February 11

Gideon playing out in the snow the afternoon of his birthday. We went to the store to get ice cream for his party, and he wanted to stay out in the snow. When I came out with a camera, he didn't want to come inside and he didn't want to look at the camera, so this is the best I could do. After two little kids, I feel a kinship to wildlife photographers.


A little game of pin the tail on the donkey.

Elise takes her turn.



Gideon put several tails on the right spot. :)

All of those tails by his left hand were his doing.


Elise loves coloring. She got some color wonder markers for her bday. She wasn't even interested in opening her other 3 presents. (They only color on "color wonder" paper--so they say.) The kids loved them. I love them because I don't have to worry about marker on their clothes or the table. So Gideon got his own set.


Gideon is so much fun to give presents to. A friend from church dropped off a couple of balloons and plush turtles for Gideon and Elise. She told me later that hearing Gideon's estatic reaction as she walked to her car made her day. The balloons were some of their favorite "toys" that night.

He was so happy when he saw these dinosaur wind-up toys. Elise got a wind up lady bug and caterpillar for her birthday so we gave these to Gideon. He's saying "Oooohhhh, these are fun!"

The figurines behind Gideon are what Jace calls "my people". Last month the kids were playing in the living room while I washed dishes. My bionic mommy ears heard something hit the floor. Yup. Gideon broke one of my christmas carolers. So until I have some real shelves, that's where they'll stay. It's one of the few places in the home they can't get to.




And here is a car for him. And he's laughing and squealing.



Gideon was not a normal 3 year old in terms of toys. For Christmas he wanted a UPS truck that has doors that open and close. Also he needed to be able to get inside. We did find one for Christmas. It was 3 inches long with a back door that slides open and closed. Elise has snapped a few little parts off of it. For his birthday we found this car with doors and a hood that open and close. So far it's held up. :)



Gideon testing the doors. Ahh, it is a good toy.
This is a fun nerf gun. Jace took Gideon with him to someone's house and their 3 yr old son had a nerf gun. Jace and I enjoy it as much as Gideon.

Gideon makes this face when we ask him to smile.

Happy Birthday cute little boy!

Blowing out the candles.


Gideon asked weeks before his birthday for a chocolate cake with chocolate sprinkles. This is the only cake I can make that actually turns out. It's the "too much chocolate cake" from all recipes.com. And you should put some sort of glaze/frosting on it so the chocolate chips close to the crust aren't crunchy

Some pictures of the birthday boy before bedtime. Gideon is covering my eye so that I look like a pirate. He and Elise watch the Wiggles nearly every day during snack time. They both love the pirate.



I think Jace is trying to tickle Elise so she'll smile. And it looks like Gideon is helping with her foot.

Elise is ready for bed. And Gideon is playing "keep away" with the balloon.


I can't remember what Gideon is doing here.


We had so much fun celebrating their birthdays. I can't believe we have a 4 & 2 year old now.

More than you ever wanted to know about "How we're doing"

Maren and Nate coming out of the temple. Maren is holding her niece who has one of my favorite names--Elise! Maren's dress was custom made and just gorgeous! I was standing off to the side because I didn't want to block any of the many family members waiting for the happy couple to exit.



Elise has started walking across rooms. She still crawls a lot, but she walks more than ever.

Her vocabulary is a very enthusiastic "Hi!", "Da'yee" (Daddy), "coo'ee" (cookie!), "Gi'yee'in" (Gideon) , and a form of mommy, "mama", but I think she has said "mommy" a few times. The easy breezy Elise phase has come to an end. Today at church she threw herself on the the floor and started to yell. A few parents turned to look at us. One of them said, "It's always funny when it's somebody else's kid." Elise wanted to go outside again and she wasn't happy about not getting her way.

She has started being more demanding the last month or two. Meal times are a guessing game. Gideon would just eat or not eat at her age. She wants 3 bites of this, a drink of water, 2 bites of that, and yes, that food I threw on the floor 2 minutes ago, I need that too!

Jace told me yesterday that he thought she "pretended" to be hurt to get Gideon in trouble. While I'm doubtful, I wouldn't be surprised. As younger sibling she has endured a great deal of wrongdoing by her brother. A few days ago Gideon brought me a little band-aid with 15 hairs stuck to it. He told me in a very pleased-with-himself toddler voice that he'd taken "Yeese's" band-aid off her forehead for her. I thought I'd heard a little yelp a few minutes earlier. I had to laugh when I saw all the little hairs on there. When Gideon is getting a band-aid off, his teeth brushed, his nails trimmed, he tells us that it needs to be done gently.

Gideon is starting a very messy phase that I thought we passed a year or two ago. He's started throwing his food on the floor--not just a few pieces, he dumps his bowl or plate on his tray, and before we can leap over to stop him, he's swishing his little arms like windshield wipers with beans and corn flying in both directions. He's laughing hysterically of course, and when we take him out of his chair and carry him to his room, he's still laughing. Jace and I joked about a feeding bubble for him when he was a baby, but now I think we're in the market for one.

Jace hurt his neck last week. Another painful episode of not being able to turn his head. It hurts to lie down, stand up, or be awake. I've never seen it this bad before. I finally convinced him to visit a doctor on Friday. They took an xray and the doctor told him his "neck is a mess." He has a curve of his spine in his upper back/neck that should be straight- it's scoliosis. He was told he had it while in college, but it's never caused him too much trouble, so we haven't spent too much time thinking about it. He's had a few episodes like this in the last few years, but never for this amount of time. The doctor didn't say if his spine is twisted as well as curved, he just said it was a mess. We're going to look into physical therapy to help prevent this from happening again. The doctor told him there's nothing he can do but take muscle relaxers and pain killers, but I'm hoping we can prove him wrong.

We're out of the worst of it with the new release. While I'm still very busy, I'm planning on getting more than 5 or 6 hours of sleep a night. Some of you might be thinking "What I wouldn't give for 5 hours of sleep a night..."

I've been experimenting with some new recipes lately. We're trying to clear up Elise's eczema, without using steroids. I took dairy out of her diet a little more than a month ago, and her skin cleared up a bit. Last week I tried cutting wheat out and haven't noticed much change. I'm hoping to get her tested soon, so that I'm not doing guesswork. We'd have to make a day long trip (in our falling apart car)* to see someone, since there's no one around here who does that. A website that I"ve visited a few times has a few good recipes: www.kidswithallergies.org. I told Jace today that feeding 2 toddlers nutritious food with variety is challenging. Throw allergies and food restrictions into the mix and it's a huge challenge. I'm on the lookout for dairy/wheat free recipes. If you have any favorites, please send them to me.

We're also starting to use a book recommended by Jace's Aunt Sandy who recovered from cancer by changing her diet to 80% raw foods and using this book: "Original Fast Food". One of the recipes we've started using is for a green smoothie. I make it for the kids. It's mostly spinach with enough fresh pineapple and apple juice to mask the spinach taste. You can add coconut and bananas too, but our blender turns the coconut to grit, so I leave it out. This is one of the first drastic things I tried doing to help Elise with her eczema. It has also produced the most drastic results. The red rough patches on her legs nearly disappeared after a week of the green juice. But she's still scratching, so I'm still looking for the rest of the solution.


*We had the radiator replaced on our geo last month b/c our engine was overheating. Well it's overheating again! Went to a friend's wedding a few weeks ago, and had to turn on the heat to cool the engine. Of course it was already warm outside, so I rolled down most of the windows. I found that if I kept the speed under 75 mph and turned the heat on going up hills, everything was just fine. Why is it, that I never imagined this as my life when I was younger. :) Jace returned home Monday and told me he'd had another sweaty drive home. (Thursday wasn't quite so bad because he had a bag of frozen peas on the back of his sore neck all the way home!) We'll need to fix it or our other broken car before one of us has heat stroke.




We took the kids to the park yesterday and got some cute pictures. Gideon has to put a hat on each time he goes outside. Early this week he was out playing in front for 10 minutes and that evening he was a bit sunburned. So now he gets his shark hat on, and thankfully, he doesn't mind it yet.

I'll try to find time to post pictures later (hahahaha).

Matthew & Tania's Wedding