Valentine's Day

I am not a huge Valentine's Day fan. I guess I really don't see the purpose in a day to celebrate your love for everyone. Isn't that what we should be doing everyday? In all honesty, it would mean a lot more if Steve just showed up with flowers on a random day than on the day that he is "suppose" to. Maybe I am just a scrooge, but that is my feelings.

Even though I don't love the romantic things of Valentine's, I do love an excuse to do something fun with the kids-see I should really be doing that anyways. My kids have been deprived of sweets lately. I have been doing a Biggest Loser Competition to loose all the baby weight and haven't had any of their favorite/my favorite treats in the house. So I decided to make some sugar cookies and let them decorate them.

So we invited some cousins over (have I mentioned that is why I love living close to family. My kids best friends are their cousins. I love it!) And all the kids decorate heart cookies.

Brighton:


Betsy:


Kate-yes she is naked most of the time:


Zack:


This was his first year taking Valentine's to his class. He loved how much candy he got. But he said his favorite part of the day was Mom coming to class to help with the party.


Josh wouldn't let me take a picture of him. So this is the only one I have of him.


After cousins left, we had pizza for dinner and then watched a movie together as a family. See we are big partiers.

I will!

That cute little girl came to me on Monday and said "Diaper off!"

"You need a diaper change?" I asked.

"No! Princesses on." She demanded.

I explained to her that if she wanted her princess big girls on she had to go wet in the toilet.

"I will!" she said.

I explained she could not got wet in her big girls.

"I won't." she insisted.

I decided it wouldn't hurt to try. She is a lot younger than my boys were when I trained them. But if she wanted to, I was going to take advantage. Well, she did what she said she would. She has only had a few accidents this week. She is having problem with #2 and I am having flashbacks to what Zack was like. I am crossing fingers she won't be that bad. But for only being 27 months, she is doing awesome and I am pretty proud of her. She even went in my sisters toilet and the church one today. Not to mention her cute little bum in those panties. :)

Look who is 6 months!

AMY!


She did not want to sit still for pictures. She wanted to grab the camera or suck on her hand or a toy.



She is a happy 6 month old!



She loves to play in the jumper or the on the floor or anywhere she can grab things and put them in her mouth. She is my first baby to roll to get places and she does move all over. We have to tell her brothers to keep all their small toys off the floor.






She loves her crib and smiles at me when I put her down. And, most importantly, still sleeps through the night like a pro.



She has 2 teeth.



She loves to eat too. She loves baby food and will down a whole size 3 jar in minutes.



She is a true Mommy's Girl. She loves Mom and jumps out if Dad's arm to get to her. She gives Mom kisses but will not kiss anyone else. She is one sweet little girl!

January 27, 2013

Monday was Martin Luther King day, so Steve had the day off work. That is one of the things I do love about his job. He gets all federal holidays off. It is always fun to spend the day as a family. This time we went to a Grizzle Hockey game. We have the Pass of All Passes and get in free to a lot of different venues. The game was fun. The boys had fun but are not interested in playing hockey.

When we got home, we were hanging out trying to decide where to go to dinner. Kate came over to me and said she wanted to sit on the toilet. So, of course, I let her. She sat and went #2 in the toilet! If you don't know, this is HUGE for my kids. We did a dance and gave her chocolate (her favorite treat). But I was too busy to really toilet train this week. So I left it alone the rest of the week. There was a few times she brought it up again during the week. But never wanted to sit only wanted a prize. I am hoping in a couple weeks we can hit it hard and get her toilet trained. One in diapers...what would I even do?!


Tuesday the day was spent (really the whole day) making this.

This was the first cake I have made for someone I have never met. It was really stressful. I love to make cakes, but I always warn everyone I am not a professional. My family and friends know this and are happy with what they get. But my neighbors had a fundraiser/silent auction to raise money for their child's surgery. The only thing I could think to donate was a cake. So I donated 2 cakes. This is the first person to call about it. It made me so nervous. I still hope that it tasted well and that they were happy with it. It was an aunt of the little boy who picked it up so I don't know what the parents thought. I do think it turned out pretty dang cute. I was happy with it. I just hope they were too.

One day this week I went to check on the boys after they had gone to sleep. This is what I found:

It really made my heart so happy. I swear that all these two do during the day is fight. One wants the others toy. One doesn't want to play that game. One wants to other to play with him. The list could go on and on of all the fights I break up between these two. But to see this,it should me something must be going right in this house. They do love each other. In the morning Zack told me that he asked Josh to come in his bed because he just really, really likes him. Cute!

Another day this week, Amy had just woken up from her nap. I had to finish one thing really fast before I went to get her out of her crib, probably laundry, or dishes or something. When I went to go get her, I found Kate talking to her. They were playing. Kate was making her laugh. (That is huge. Amy is not a giggler) It was another moment that made me so happy this week. My hope is that these two will grow up to be best friends. It is what my sisters are to me and I only hope they will be too.


Another day this week, I was asking Josh if he knew how much I loved him. He said no. So I explained that I loved him so, so , so much and that I would do anything for him. Zack overheard and asked "Would you do anything for me?" I said "Of course I would." He returned with "I wish I had a dog." :) It made both Steve and I laugh. This kid is quick! He really wants a dog. But we are a no pet house. Sorry pal!

A week of firsts...

On Monday, Zack started piano lessons. He is taking from a neighbor that is just a few doors down from us. He was so excited to go to his first lesson. He asked all day if it was 3:30 yet. When it finally was, he went and came back so happy. He loved it! He was excited to show me everything he learned. He practiced willing everyday this week. He should his cousins all that he learned. He even "taught" his cousin Brighton all that he learned. I can only hope that this excitement continues for a long time. I was very excited that he has this opportunity. I always wanted to learn to play the piano but my parents never had the money to buy a piano. Maybe someday I will start lessons. But I can't even figure out when I could throw in practice time in my life right now. So I guess I will just live through Zack. :) Josh also go to start lessons this week. He started tumbling. His first day did not go as well as Zack's first day of piano. I took Josh in and he would not leave my side or let me leave. I figured it wouldn't be all bad if he watched so we sat and watched the whole lesson. I tried to get him to go and do things but he would not. He is one stubborn and shy kid. He loves to do cartwheels and summersaults. After the lesson he came home and told me he just wanted me to buy all the pads so he could do the stuff here. That is not going to happen. The plan for this week is to send him with my sister. Hopefully it works. Amy turned 5 months today. So we started feeding her with a spoon. She was not a fan of sweet potatoes. She would swallow a bite and then cringe and shiver like that did not taste good. But she still ate a lot of it before being totally done with it.

Since then we have tried corn and pears. She loved corn but did not like pears. She loves oatmeal. She is still working on her tooth but is as happy as can be! She loves to be played with.

Zack had his first Snow Day on Friday. School was canceled due to a huge storm. We got 12-18 inches of snow all within 24 hours. It was crazy. The boys played in the snow for a little bit. They are too much like me. They don't like being cold so they don't love playing in the snow. Then we came in and made playdough and hung out the rest of the day. It was nice to have a relaxing day where we could just stay home and enjoy each other.

On Friday morning after getting Amy down for her morning nap, I went out to shovel the driveway and noticed that it had already been done. My sweet across the street neighbor had come over and snow blown it. It was so nice of him and helped me out a ton. Then that same day those same neighbors brought over a plate of warm cinnamon rolls. It was all a very nice reminder of the great neighborhood we live in. I still feel like I am adjusting here and trying to get to know people. But everyone is so nice and kind. It makes me want to be kinder. I am glad that we can live here. Last Saturday I started a Biggest Loser competition. My goal is to get back to my pre-kids weight. That means lose 30 pounds! I am counting calories and exercising everyday. This week has been an eye opener for how many calories are in the food I eat. I have cut back a lot. I have also found that getting up and exercising is giving me more energy. If my scale is the same as the scale that I weighed into on Saturday, I have lost 4 pounds in one week! Yay me! I know I won't keep that up the whole competiton but it feels good knowing that my hard work is paying off.

We are still here!

This year I have a new goal...well lots of them actually. But one of my new goals is to better document my cute little growing family. I have been really bad at this. I don't scrapbook. I am bad at writing in my journal. So all the cute and funny things that happen in my little family get talked about once or so to my husband or family or friends, then forgotten. I want to have something to look back at so I can remember the good and fun times when my kids were little. I want to be able to remember a cute story about Zack instead of the horrible 2 years it took me to toilet train that kid. So here we go. I am going to write a blog post every Sunday afternoon about the things that happened in my family this week. Will they all be hilarious? No. Will they be well written? No, I am a math major! But they will be memories that I will have written down. So to start out here is a quick overview of each of us.

Steve: He still works at HAFB for DISA doing computer stuff. That is all I can say about that. He serves as a Deacons Quorum Advisor and Assistant Scout Master. He enjoys doing all the fun things this calling requires. He is a great dad and loves playing with the kids. Sometimes I have to remind him that we don't roughhouse inside, but he doesn't seem to listen. :) The boys love wrestling with him and Kate tries to join in too. Liz: What to say about me? I am actually living my dream. As a little girl I remember dreaming of growing up and marrying a great guy, having lots of kids and being able to be a stay at home mom. Well that is pretty much my life. Though cleaning bathrooms, cleaning kitchens, doing laundry, trying to keep an orderly house, waking up at night with a newborn, or cleaning up throw-up was never part of those dreams, it goes along with all the other parts. So I do that too. I love it and couldn't ask for anything better right now. I currently serve as the RS Activity Coordinator. I enjoy planning activities for the sisters in my ward. It can be busy but is the perfect calling for me right now.

Zack: Zack is my crazy, energy-filled 6 year old. I don't know what happened to him but all of the sudden he is full of energy and loves to use it to bug his little siblings. He also has grown a ton in the last few months. I need to measure him to see how tall he is. But all of the clothes I bought him for school are too short already. Really Zack is a very kind and loving kid. He is perfectly behaved at school and in Primary. He loves Avengers, Star Wars, and castles and knights. He loves to play with friends but also loves to watch movies. He is very sweet with Amy. If he could have one wish he would wish for a pet lizard.

Josh: From the outside, Josh is our very shy and stubborn 4 year old. He won't talk to you unless he wants to. He won't look at you if he doesn't want to. But in day to day life, he is very kindhearted and loving and absolutely silly. He makes me laugh daily! I always think it is too bad he is so shy because no one can see the real Josh. right now he loves Jake and the Neverland Pirates as well as all superheros. He can play for hours on end and wants friends(who are really cousins) to play daily.

Kate: Our little Bugs is 2 years old. She is an absolute doll. I love to kiss her big cheeks. She is silly and goofy. I don't think she ever walks normal. She is either skipping or galloping or running or walking with a swing to her hips. She is trying to become very independent even when she can't do what she wants. she knows how to throw tantrums and will run to a soft spot to throw her head down. But she is usually happy and loves to play all day long. She is big into baby dolls and princesses. Beauty and the Beast is her favorite movie. She loves to dance and sing.

Amy: Amy will be 5 months on Friday. She is the most perfect baby I have ever have (expect when she is trying to get teeth and has shots all within a few days of each other and has to go to church on top of all of that). She just started sleeping 12 hours at night but then she got shots and that messed that all up. She only fusses when she is hungry or tried. She loves to be played with and smiles at everyone. We think she is one beautiful baby and are so glad she is in our family.

for Steve

Steve needed these for somethinga t work.

Buzz Lightyear!

I was talking with Liz and she mentioned that I need to post this story up on the blog. Let me give the background to the story so that it will make more sense. A few weeks ago I accidentally threw Zack's Buzz into the bathtub with the rest of his toys. The thing that I didn't realize was that it was a Buzz with batteries (not sure what I was thinking then). Oops, I guess we all do stuff like that sometimes. Since then, Zack has wanted a Buzz lightyear that works.

Today, Liz and the boys went to Toys R' Us and Zack noticed a Buzz that was there and really wanted it. Zack didn't realize Liz had hid the Buzz and purchased it. She said that it was too expensive or something like that. Later on in the day when I was driving with the boys, Zack leans over to talk to me.

"Dad, I saw Buzz Lightyear at the store today!"

"Cool buddy, I heard from Mom."

"Dad, we should go there and buy Buzz for me."

"Well, we'll see what happens."

"Dad, you owe me because you broke the one I already had."

To be honest with you, I couldn't argue with him at this point and I felt pretty bad that I almost took him home and gave it to him. He'll get it soon enough though, we plan on giving it to him for going on the toilet so many times and he's pretty dang close. We're proud of him!

Hate

While I was loading the dishwasher, Zack ran up to me and we had this conversation.
"Mom!"

"Yea Bud."

"I hate owies."

"That is a good thing to hate."

"I hate bees too."

"I don't like bees either."

"I don't hate bears."

"Okay."

"I don't hate some gorillas. I hate giraffes. I don't hate rhinos. I hate hippos."

"Well, okay."

"So, Mom, you hate bees too? Cool." And off he ran. I wish I knew what was going through his head somedays.

Rome-Part 4 "The Ruins"

Sunday morning we got up and hopped on our bus. We went to the Forum and Palatine Hill. The Forum was the center of Rome. When Rome's empire expanded, this was the center of the civilized world. Palatine Hill is an extension of the Forum that use to be a huge Palace. Now there is just enough of these grand buildings left to imagine what it use to be. These ruins amazed me. They were my favorite part of Rome. It was so fun to walk through them and try to imagine what it use to look like and try to imagine how these people built these huge marble buildings and temples without the technology and tools we have today. Zack also liked walking and climbing these. For some reason, he came up with the idea that these were the Nephites houses. He kept saying "... and the Nephites lived here." That boy makes me smile.

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After seeing these ruins, we headed over to the Colosseum. On the way there, we ran into some 'Nephites.' Zack really wanted their swords. But they are a lot like the 'rose guy,' they just want your money.

The Colosseum was the huge stadium they used for Gladiator fights. This was built in 80 AD. In it's day, it could hold 50,000 fans.

The inside was incredible. The stage use to cover the whole bottom. But now we can see the underground tunnels. They use to house animals from all over the world in these tunnels, like lions, tigers, bears, crocodiles, elephants and hippos. Then when the Gladiator least expected it, they would lift the animal up in an elevator and release it into the arena. It amazing me that these fights would fill the arena up every night and that thousands of people, who were protected by nets that ringed the crowd, would cheer this on. I think I will stick to football. There's a little less blood and death. But this was a really awesome structure.

From here we walked to St. Peter in Chains Church. This is home to another Michelangelo. This one is Moses. You can see the ten commandments in his arm. We also saw the chains that were used to lock Peter up, or so the story goes.

Next, we hopped back on our bus and hopped off at the Pantheon. (I wish it really was that fast. But the bus kept staying at the stops for 15 minutes. It is just suppose to let people off and then let people on and go. It was really annoying. But both our boys were sleeping, so we just stayed on to let then get a nap.) We checked out the inside of the Pantheon. The inside was awesome! The dome was amazing. It was the first of it's kind and inspired many other domes, including St. Peter's and our Capital building. This dome did have a big hole at the top. This was the only light source of the building. On the floor beneath the hole are little holes to let the rain water drain. The art work was beautiful.

From here we sat at a little restaurant and ate some wonderful pasta. The best we have ever had. The pasta itself tasted like it was made from scratch and the sauce was divine. Oh, how I miss real Italian food already! The boys even loved it! The waiter was so nice. He brought us two glasses of free wine to try. It was the restaurant's special strawberry wine. It looked great, but, of course, we declined. I hope they weren't offended. We headed off to our hotel with our bellies full and our feet very tired.

In the morning, we walked around our hotel. We found the best Italian Ice Cream place. Then our lovely shuttle driver picked us up and we headed to the airport. This time he was even more colorful. We made it safely to the airport and then safely back to Germany. This weekend was incredible. We wanted to go out with a bang and I think we did.

Rome-Part 3 "The Night Life"

We haven't see much of Europe at night. The boys are usually exhausted so we head to bed early. Since this was our last weekend, we decided to check out Rome at Night. We followed Rick Steve's "Night Walk." (Have I mentioned that I love his books. I would recommend them to everyone who comes to Europe.) We started out in Campo de Foris. Rick recommended to try some pizza bread with cheese from a little restaurant in this square. Here we are eating our pizza bread. It was really good.

Next we headed to Piazza Navona. As you can see, this place was busy at night. People were playing music on the street, groups dancing, artists selling their pictures, and water fountains. The fountain above is the Four Rivers Fountain by Bernini. It was a cool fountain.

We grabbed a quick ice cream cone and then headed to the Pantheon. This temple was built in 120 AD. It was very beautiful at night. In the square by the Pantheon, Zack found a water fountain. We stopped to let him grab a drink. We love these fountains. They are our saving grace in the middle of the hot days in Italy. Zack has become a pro and drinking from them.

Our next stop was The Trevi Fountain. This was a huge fountain. It has 24 spouts of gushing water. It was so crowded that it was hard to get a good picture. We were warned about going in to the crowds in Rome. There is a lot of pick pocketing. So I stayed with the boys while Steve tried to get a good shot.

The last destination was the Spanish Steps.
These looked like the night hang out. We checked them out and then Steve battled the crowd to get some more pictures. While I was hanging out with the boys, a man came up with a big bouquet of roses and handed 3 to me. He said it was because I was so beautiful. I said thanks and he kept saying I was so beautiful. I think Steve saw this guy talking to me because he hurried back. He gave the guy a hard time for giving his wife roses. The guy just basically just said you are lucky. Then he offered to take our picture. He gave Steve the rest of the roses he had and took our picture. See my expression in the pic it is like "Dude, why are you backing up? You better not try to steal my camera." He took the picture then gave us back our camera. Whew! But then he asked Steve for money for the roses he gave me. I tried to give them back saying we didn't want to pay for them. But he wouldn't take them back. He kept asking for money. We tried to walk away, but he followed. So Steve gave him 2 euros, which he said it wasn't enough. But we walked away and he didn't follow. We knew he had something up his sleeve. The things people do for money...

This was the end of Rick Steve's walk. Now we had to figure out how to get back to our hotel. It took us about an hour to walk back and we didn't even get lost. Josh fell asleep on the way back and Zack loved the new "swords" he got.

We really enjoyed seeing this city at night. We wished that we had done this at more places (but the next day the boys reminded us why we didn't. They need their sleep.)

Rome-Part 2 Vatican City

Saturday morning, we headed to Vatican City. It was about a 7 minute walk from our hotel. We learned later that Vatican City is it's own country. The Pope runs all the religious and political matters. So this makes 9 countries that we have been to.

Our first stop was St. Peter's Basilica. This church is in the location of the apostle Peter's upside down crucifixion. His tomb is under the main altar. I never knew the Catholic church worshiped him so much.

The exterior is completely amazing! Standing in front of it I could not believe it was just a church. St. Peter's Square has a ring of columns around it. The ring opens up to the main street in Vatican. It is suppose to represent that the church has open arms and will welcome anyone. On the top of the columns there are 140 10 feet statues of different saints. In the picture above, we are standing on the steps in front of the basilica. The Square is behind us. Do you see the huge columns and the saints on top?

In the middle of the square is this obelisk. It came from Egypt and is over 2,000 years old! Behind you can see the actual church. The dome on top of the basilica was designed by Michelangelo.

Here is a close up of the top of the church.

After checking out the outside of the church, we got in line to go inside. The line really didn't take too long. When we finally made it inside, it was truly a WOW moment. Here is the video from our first step inside:

One of the main attraction in this church is Michelangelo's Pieta. It is a statue of Mary holding the Son after the Crucifixion. Truly, breathtaking. We later learned that this statue use to be in the middle of the Basilica without any protection. Then one day some crazy Hungarian man climbed on in with a hammer and scream "I am Jesus and this is not my mother." Then he started attacking Mary with his hammer. Pieces of the statue flew all over. Many tourist picked up a piece for a souvenir. It took 5 years to get all the pieces back and the statue back intact. Now it is behind bullet-proof glass.

After spending our time in the church, we headed up to the top of the dome. We paid the extra 2 euros to take the elevator up instead of walk over 500 stairs. We walked around the inside of the dome. It was an amazing view.

Here is the view of Rome from the dome.

Here is a closer view of the dome. Pretty incredible! Just think at how old this is!

When we were done with the Basilica, we headed over to the Vatican Museum. This is the 2nd largest museum in the world. On our way over there, a lady stopped us and tried to sell us tickets to a guided tour of the museum. We wouldn't have to wait in the hour line to get in. We wouldn't have to try to find our way around a maze like museum. We wouldn't be confused as to what we were talking about. We would have a lot of fun and laughs...okay, she sold us. And let me tell you, it was worth it! We learned so much on this tour. Here are a few of the fun facts:

1. Captain Jack Sparrow is in the Vatican.
2. Bill Clinton is also in the Vatican. Steve didn't snap a pic of it. But there was a statue that looks exactly like him.
3. It was uncommon for artists to sign their work. When the Pieta was revealed, the crowd didn't believe that it Michelangelo's work. It was too good to be. He overheard this. So that night he broke into the chapel and carved his name on Mary's sash. We could see this on the duplicate in the museum. It wasn't behind bullet-proof glass. :)
4. Michelangelo was forced to paint the ceiling on the Sistine Chapel. He didn't like painting. He much preferred to sculpt. But the pope asked him to do it. They had an argument in the pope's office. Michelangelo can out of the office with the imprint of the pope's ring on his cheek. The pope won.
5. Michelangelo painted some interesting things in the ceiling for the pope. First, he painted God's naked bottom right were the pope would be staring during mass. His response, God was busy creating the world so that is why he is facing the opposite direction. Second, a little boy on the ceiling is "Flipping the Birdie." It is in a dark corner so the pope didn't see it right off. Third, Michelangelo puts the pope's second hand man in hell in the painting. This man told the pope that Michelangelo had painted everything naked. Michelangelo was than sent to repaint them with clothes. Thus this clerk was going to hell. He also had a snake wrapped around him and biting him in a not so pleasant part. Ummm...I think Michelangelo won.
6. Da Vinci was caught by the pope dissecting a dead human body in his room in the middle of the night. This was against the law and he was kicked out and never allowed back in.

Here is a little slide show of the museum. It was amazing! I really have a new appreciation for art. I can only imagine how hard it would be to sculpt marble and paint ceilings and sew tapestry. Simply amazing! I'm glad we went in!

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After our tour, it was time for lunch. We found a little stand and had a panini. We also grabbed an Italian Ice. The boys really liked those.

Then we headed to our hop on hop off bus to get to another part of Rome. We sat up top. The boys thought this was neat, esp Zack.


We got off the bus and went to the Cappucin Crypt. This was another church that had bones in it. We thought it would be a lot like the one we saw in Hallstatt. The one there was peaceful and not at all gruesome while we were in it. This was a totally different experience. They had used real bones to make everything. The bone chandelier really freaked me out. They had also put bones back together to make a body and then put those dark black robes on them. Then they made a scythe out of bones for them to hold. It looked more like a horror movie than a church. We got out of there pretty dang fast. CREEPY!!!

From here, we walked over to the Baths of Diocletian to find out that the church we go through to get to there was having a wedding. So we couldn't go in. Rome must be the place to get married. I can't tell you how many brides and grooms we saw. There was a cool waterfall in front of the church.

From here jumped back on the bus to get to another part of town. Watch for more pics from our night walk.