Pay It Forward

Pay It Forward

I don't usually do tags like this, but I thought this sounded kind of fun. I can already tell you what you will probably get--a hand-knit scarf or hat in this great green yarn I have been trying to think of ways to use. And I don't want to brag, but I'm a pretty good knitter. I actually wear shrugs, hats, scarves, and sweaters that I've made. You wouldn't be getting one of those hats made on a plastic ring. It would be "designer." :)

The Rules
1. Be one of the first THREE bloggers to leave a comment on this post, which then entitles you to a handmade item from me.

2. Winners must post this challenge on your blog, meaning that you will Pay It Forward, creating a handmade gift -anything!- for the first THREE bloggers who leave a comment on YOUR post about this giveaway!

3. The gift that you send to your Three Friends can be from any price range and you have 365 days to make/ship your item. This means you should be willing to maintain your blog at least until you receive your gift and have shipped your gifts. And, remember: It’s the Spirit and the Thought That Count!

4. If you are not one of the Top Three Commenters on this post, you can still play along. Go ahead and start your own Pay It Forward chain, and encourage your blogging friends to do the same! SO, REMEMBER... it is good... :) Pass it forward.

Experiments and Underwear

Jonah came home from Joy School yesterday with a note saying he had done some experiments in school that day. He was telling Max about it tonight and we got the impression that they were seeing which sorts of things float and which sink. Max said that he could show the boys another experiment and thus began a very fun evening. 

First Max showed them the pepper/dish soap experiment. I followed that with the baking soda/vinegar experiment bubbling up and out of a tall cup. (I probably should have saved that for last because it was a big hit and would have made a true grand finale!) They wanted more experiments and so we got out food coloring and mixed yellow and blue, then blue and red, then red and yellow, and then all the colors. They still wanted more so we got out some magnets and paper clips. Max first said he could move the paper clip just by talking to it. He would tell the paper clip to go visit each of us and then move it across the paper. The boys then learned the secret and each took a turn "talking" to the paper clip. Since they still wanted more, we gathered various things for the old favorite, "Will it float?" 

The boys are at a really fun age right now and generally they are very good boys. Today at a Relief Society Enrichment activity a friend jokingly asked me if I wanted to teach parenting classes since my boys were cleaning up toys not because they were asked but just because they were done playing with them and then when I called Jonah over to come and get his coat on he ran across the gym and said, "I'm obeying!" Little does she know how often it takes 20 minutes and 50 requests (by me) for us to get down the stairs, coats on, and in the car. 

They are also really fun because they are interested and awed and excited by so many things. Like tonight with the experiments or earlier today when we went to buy new underwear. Wyatt got his first pairs of underwear. He was pretty thrilled to pick out some Cars underwear and only had two little accidents for his first day. Not bad! 

It just occurred to me last night that I hadn't bought Jonah new underwear for a while so as I did laundry I checked the size and yes, my 4 1/2-year-old was still wearing size 2-3 underwear. (I wonder if I should mention that in my parenting class.) So he got to pick out some new underwear, too. He is REALLY into pirates right now. (For example, when Max asked him to say the dinner prayer about 2 weeks ago he replied, "Arghh, yes, ye scallywag!") So he immediately picked out the skull and crossbones underwear at Target. It was a little scratchy--his term--when we opened it at home so of course it had to be washed and dried immediately and then promptly put on. When Max came home, the first thing Jonah said was, "I got skull and crossbones underwear," and then showed Max just in case the explanation wasn't clear enough. Tonight, after his pajamas were on and just before bed, he had to look at them one more time. I'm sure he'll be begging me to do laundry more since there was only one skull and crossbones pair in the set of three. 

To feel such excitement over such little things is really enviable, but I think it is also a little contagious. 

Just in case...

you didn't notice, that little widget says I am now in the double digit countdown till baby boy comes. My other two were early--3 days and then 10 days--so I'm planning on knocking off at least 7 days from that countdown.

Correction

Remember how I said Iowa was cold a couple weeks ago? I had no idea!

In case you can't see, it says it is -21.8 degrees, and sensor for this is even attached to the house where it is probably a bit warmer.

Rude Awakening

No, we were not awakened at 4:15 this morning by our children. They seem to have passed that stage except when sick or one of them has the rare scary dream. This morning, Max and I awoke to the loud purr, blare, roar of a snow blower. Our next door neighbor--who's retired and mows his lawn at least three times a week in the summer (and I'm not exaggerating at all)--was up at 4:15 snow-blowing his driveway. Yes, there was a big storm last night, but honestly, he's retired and is home all day! Max went out at about 6:45 to shovel before school and our next door neighbor was out again touching up his 4 am job. Max found out that his wife and son got stuck and had to stay in a hotel somewhere trying to come home last night because of road closures and so "the voice of reason" was not there to tell him he can't blast the snow blower at 4 in the morning. The worst part--we can't really complain because he has recently started to snow blow our sidewalk while he's meticulously cleaning his own.

Waterpark Fun

For Max's last week of vacation, we drove up to Wisconsin Dells and stayed at the Kalahari Resort. The Dells is this kind of weird little city that has a bunch of indoor and outdoor play places, live magic shows, a Ripley's Believe It or Not, and themed restaurants. The place we stayed had a great indoor water park with wave pool, lazy river, a bunch of water slides, arcades, a go-cart track, and more.  The boys were so excited for it because we let them see photos and video on the hotel website before we went. 

We had a blast. The boys loved the water slides. Wyatt was braver than I thought he would be. I think its because he has an older brother to follow around, but he would climb up this huge tower that had water spouting all around to get to the longer kid water slides. He also loved the scariest roller-coaster-like water slide that he rode on with one of us. Jonah loved everything about everything. He got a real kick out of the wave pool and liked jumping into and over the waves.

We also introduced the boys into the arcade--they played ski-ball, whack-a-mole, and stomp the spider. The whole "tickets we win can buy me candy" idea really had them excited. All in all, it was a great little vacation that we'd recommend to anyone. 

Christmas in Review

Max has been out of school since December 19 and so we have been playing and working a lot for the past three weeks. I realized I haven't recorded anything about our first Christmas as our own little family.

We had lots of time to play. One morning, Jonah and Wyatt--well mostly Jonah but Wyatt usually goes along with what his older brother wants to do--wanted me to make them dorsal fins. Jonah says "dorsal fin" with a slight English accent because it comes from a book-made- into-a-video narrated by a very proper speaking Englishman. So here they are being great, white, man-eating sharks.
And here is the shark sledding down the hill on the side of our house with his daddy. Wyatt liked the sledding until he fell off and got a big face-full of snow. It was a pretty bad fall though--cut up his cheek a little--so it was understandable. 
It is amazing how much more Jonah likes the snow this year than last year. He stays out for a long time and even asks to go out in the backyard by himself. He would never have done that a year ago.

The rainbow light-sabers came from Grandma Stirling and were opened on Christmas Eve. Earlier in the evening, we went to a friend's house with a bunch of other families for food and a children's nativity (forgot our camera though). There were probably 12-15 kids in the nativity and about 6 or more young ones not participating. It was kind of like being at home for me with all the kids except that these ones were all 6 and under. 

Christmas morning! Jonah is at the point where he is really excited and asks lots of questions about Santa. When they ran out Christmas morning, the first things they went to were these trampolines from Grandma and Grandpa Nelson. We let them jump for a little and then asked, "So do you want to see what Santa brought you?" Santa brought the bouncy blue balls and they seemed to think the two bouncy things went great together.

Jonah is ALL about pirates right now and this is his new fancy cutlass (by the way it is not a sword and he will correct anyone on that point). It has a button that makes the sword say things like, "Ye scallywag," "ahoy," and "arghh." 

The Christmas aftermath.

On New Year's Eve we opened those poppers that have crowns, toys, and jokes inside and wore the crowns for all of dinner. The boys went to bed at regular time and we watched a movie. Pretty exciting, huh!

And here we are dressed up as pirates. After church the first Sunday of the year, all Jonah could talk about was making pirate costumes. The pirates he uses as models are those from the VeggieTales movie, "The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything." He is Robert the Terrible. I had to remake the symbol for his hat, put this same symbol on a pirate flag, and a very small symbol on the handle of his sword. In this picture, Wyatt has already taken off his costume, but he was Alexander earlier in the day. I am the king as you can tell from the star on my scarf. Jonah tells all of us our lines since he has really good memorization skills. 

All in all, we had a wonderful Christmas and New Year. We missed being with family and friends in Utah, but we had a great time together.