When we're really bored....

In my defense, I am the WORST dancer EVER and it is no coincidence I was intramural chair and not SING chair:) But my boys love to dance and I do what I can to accommodate!

Funny video

I ran across this video today and thought I'd share. Last summer at Clearwater Beach a storm had rolled through the gulf and the waves were a little strong. I'm trying to help the boys maneuver the rough waters.

Winter in OK

We have been trying our best to keep the boys busy and active even though the weather is chilly and they have been battling being sick. Jacob is now on daily singulair and Jack is getting over yet another viral infection. Looking forward to our family being healthy !

We take full advantage of 'warm' days!

They do a lot of this when it is too cold to go outside although I try to limit most of their t.v. watching to PBS in the mornings.

Last week's Sunday dinner....Beef tenderloin with a mushroom stilton sauce...served with baked potato and sauteed spinach...not the best picture but my boys weren't patient enough for me to get my real camera:)

at a children's museum dressed up in random cowboy stuff...Jack looks like he suffering from Cholera in the background!

Weekend brunch- Rustic omelet, strawberry bread, and fruit. Have I mentioned my boys like to eat???!!!!??!!!

Erik and Jack took advantage of the one 75 degree weather and played a little golf.

Yogurt...mmm!

Picnic at the zoo!

Thawing Out

It is supposed to snow again tonight and tomorrow and we are already getting tired of the cold temps! So Erik and I plan on enjoying a little getaway next month in the desert where we can lounge by the pool in the upper 70 degree temps. Scottsdale here we come! Thanks to Jeremy and Courtney for agreeing to watch our boys for a long weekend!

This a picture of The Resort and Spa at Gainey Ranch where we will be staying. Hurry up February.

Let's try this again....

Erik and I don't give up easily and one challenge we've had since we moved is finding a church/small group. We thought we had found our place in a group and the people were so nice but our stage of life didn't really match up with the majority of the people. Most of the couples had older elementary age children and we were definitely the only 2 people still in our twenties. Anyway, we made it work and ended up just volunteering in Jack's class and going to "big church". This past fall I did a mom's Bible study at a different church and loved the girls in my group. We were all relatively new moms and had very small kiddos....many of the girls were expecting as well. So Erik and I decided to give this church a try again (we visited here after we moved) and we have been liking it. We don't have a small group but that's okay I guess. I'm getting to know the girls in my Bible study group and hopefully we can plan some get togethers with the husbands too:) Even though another move could happen this year we sure are trying to make the best of our time here! This spring we have Jack's soccer, both boys in gymnastics on Wednesday mornings, mom's Bible study on Monday mornings, of course MDO on Tuesday/Thursday, and trying a new church! This may not sound like much but to me, this is a welcomed change of pace from nothing on my calendar to several things during the week:)

Gymnastics=WONDERFUL

Jack had his first day of gymnastics today and it took ALL of my energy keeping Jacob out of the gym....he kept saying "my jump my jump my jump"...soooo I signed Jacob up too:) They both LOVED every minute of it! Jacob even did the zip line all by himself! I got a few videos that I will try to upload later. So every Wednesday both my boys will be jumping, climbing, sliding, swinging, rolling, balancing, and having a good ol' time. Hopefully it gets some of their ENERGY out as well;)

Recipes

Some of you have been asking me to post some recipes so I thought I would post one and also give a couple of sites for where I get a lot of good ideas for weeknight meals. A great blog is the Green Cattle Beef blog and she posts some really great ideas! Other places I get recipes are very common like The Pioneer Woman or from cooking magazines.

One VERY easy weeknight meal that is kid friendly is Poppyseed Chicken.

1 can cream of chicken

1 can cream of chicken and mushroom

1/2 cup sour cream

1 lb chopped cooked chicken (I use rotisserie chicken)

1 sleeve ritz crackers (crushed)

1 stick butter (melted)

2 tbs poppyseeds

Mix soups, sour cream, and chicken in a bowl and pour into baking dish. Top with crushed crackers. Drizzle melted butter over crackers and top with poppyseeds. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-45 minutes or until bubbly and heated through. Serve over rice.

My Oldest

Since 95% of the people who check our blog don't see us on a daily basis, I wanted to give a little update on Jack. He's an active 3 year old boy who will be starting Gymnastics AND Soccer in a few weeks! How time flies. I was reading some blog posts from when he was a newborn and we knew what his personality was from the time he was 4 months old. I wrote things like "he's not shy" and "he loves people" and "he's going to require lots of discipline" and "he talks A LOT" and "he's in a hurry to accomplish things"....he has not changed. He is a very verbal, outgoing kid. He potty trained himself in ONE day by the time he was two...and with a newborn at home...I was trying to NOT potty train until he was 3...he was ahead of me by a whole year! He searches for videos on youtube and wants to watch them in Spanish. He asks a MILLION questions about everything. He recognizes most of the letters of the alphabet and can spell a few words. His favorite letter to write is "L". The other day he asked me why there was a star in between the letters L and M at WalMart. I was caught off guard. All this sounds great but I am NOT an elementary ed. person....I do not know exactly how to foster this type of personality....Erik isn't that way either. His attention span is pretty good and he will actually sit and watch shows like Little Einsteins (his favorite) or Super Why...we live on PBS in the mornings! He loves the movies Cars, Ice Age, and don't tell Erik but he also loves Tinkerbell:) He loves to run, play soccer, baseball, and football. He talks to anyone and everyone and when we go to the park he doesn't want to stay unless there are other people there to play with! He's very much a leader type personality which comes out as bossy at times...especially with his younger brother and peers. He will ask Erik and I in the mornings what we are going to do that day and he expects us to lay out the schedule down to the minute! He's a planner....probably because he wants to approve of what we are going to do. He doesn't get excited about sugar but loves protein. He is always asking for fruit, chicken, beans, and salad...haha...that hasn't changed since he was a baby! This morning he looked at me before church and said "mommy, you're cute" :) He has a soft side to him...either that or he knows when to turn it on! He keeps me on my toes everyday. Pretty soon I'll do a post about sweet Jacob, who is COMPLETELY opposite of his big brother:)

Favorite part of my house.

I think I've mentioned before how much I love the layout of our house. Particularly the downstairs. When I look out over my kitchen sink I look straight into the most wonderful playroom. It's hidden in the back corner of our house and it has the best toy closet that goes under our stairs. This will be one thing I will surely miss when we move one day.

Do you see the boys? This is how they usually start their day:)

I don't really let them play in our living room much because, well, there's no toys...but on New Year's day I let them bring their chairs into the living room and sit by the fire. I think they like it:)

More Holiday fun

On New Year's Day I made the Pioneer Woman Cinammon Rolls. They are so good but we still have 4 pans in our freezer!

Baylor did TERRIBLE in their bowl game but that didn't stop Jack from wearing his football uniform all day!

Playing with Aunt CoCo at Granna's house in Paris, Texas.

Wearing his new baseball glove and checking out if there are any more gifts;)

Tearing into their presents at Granna's.

They loved playing with Jeremy and Courtney's new dog!

Jacob loved all the attention from everyone!

Christmas in Lincoln

Well our Christmas was very different this year and we learned a lot about what the Holidays will look like for us in the future. Not living in the same city or state as family means we have to travel to see family. Usually we try to spend Christmas eve and Christmas day in our own home and travel either before or after Christmas. Since Christmas was on a weekend this year we decided to try to travel for Christmas day so we headed to Lincoln, Nebraska to visit Erik's family a few days before Christmas. Several things happened that made this Christmas very challenging. First, we ALL got sick. Erik and I can suffer through and take medicine but we had to take the boys to an UrgentCare Clinic on Christmas Eve:( Double ear infections for both boys! Ugh. And the antibiotic they had to get on totally destroyed Jacob's little tummy and because of the loose stools he immediately developed a terrible diaper rash. Fun right? Despite their ear infections Santa still came and left some pretty great things! That was our other problem. They got a kitchen, a bike, and a battery powered car not to mention Erik and my gifts. We had to find a way to pack all that stuff into the back of the seqouia (sp?). So that confirmed our original decision to just stay in our own home for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. But the boys still got a visit from Santa and got some pretty fun things!

Attempting to take them to a Christmas Eve service.

Playing with some cool musical instruments at Nana's house!

The Olson's on Christmas Eve.

At Erik's grandparents house...all of their great-grandchildren are boys! Erik's brother and his wife are having the first girl due in April:)

Pre-Christmas Activity

This year since the boys were a little older and able to participate in a few more Christmas activities we had a great time making gingerbread houses. We started something that we will probably do each year...Erik and I each teamed up with one of the boys to make gingerbread houses. This year it was Erik and Jacob and Jack and myself. We had a great time!

Poor Erik, all Jacob wanted to do was eat the candy. Jacob was also congested and dealing with a case of eczema on his face:(