What our Little Boys are Made of

Not so much snips and snails and puppy dog tails around here...

more like blanket forts and boxes and boxes turned into forts :)

I recently came across this fort from one of my favorite blogs, All for the Boys. I loved how she used fitted sheets for fort making! Why have I not thought of it before! I also liked the idea of using the broom handle  to create a taller roof. At any rate, our forts have been much cooler ever since! The boys also love the addition of twinkle lights, but that doesn't happen every time! :)

We also use pretty much any piece of furniture in the house, including the kitchen table to drape blankets and make a hideout!

Once the fort is built, the boys call out for a "special delivery, please!" To which I find some kind of portable snack or activity and "knock, knock, knock" for them to come and get!

The new set of pots and pans we got from my parents for Christmas came protected with cool pieces of cardboard and a box big enough to fit them both! We quickly turned it into a fort too :)

Blanket forts. big cardboard boxes

and the occasional Netflix break with graham crackers...

that's what our little boys are made of! :)

Secret Ingredient Wheat Bread

I've had the thought to post this recipe for quite awhile now and since I haven't done too much creative since Christmas to share otherwise, I thought I'd post it now!

The first time I ever used whole wheat flour in my homemade bread, I merely substituted it for white flour and didn't change anything else. Well, it turned out about like cardboard! At the time, I had no idea that wheat flour requires a softener, or gluten. You can buy gluten in the bulk bins at WinCo, but I thought if there was another way, I'd prefer it, what with all the negative you hear about gluten. One of my favorite people from our old ward, Vicki Meyer, told me you can add potato water or vinegar and those do both work.

But, there is something better that works even better in my opinion: YOGURT! Later Vicki told me to try yogurt and even my husband likes my wheat bread now that I have a secret ingredient! Just a cup or so of either plain or vanilla yogurt added at the beginning of my bread recipe with the water and flour makes it very soft and yummy!

This recipe is actually pretty dear to my heart since it's my Mom's and it's been made my own through lots of practice! I'd also guess that you could add the yogurt to your own recipe and it'd work fine too! I've noticed with my gas oven, it doesn't take the full cook time either, so if you have gas also, you might watch it close toward the end! You can click this card below, then right click and save to print! Enjoy! I know making homemade bread is something that makes me feel good- hopefully it does you too!

Ringing it In

 

Woo hoo! Finally... we woke up to snow New Years Eve morning! We got on our snow clothes and drove to the church parking lot to soak it up :)

Socks for gloves and playing peek-a-boo :)  And Taron spent his every spare minute setting up the K'nex roller coaster he and Keaton got from my parents for Christmas- cool, eh? He was, impressively, able to keep it from getting destroyed by the little boys!

It ended up being super fun having our friends the Rogers' and Marvin and Kathy and family over for the night! I made pretzels bites following this idea and they were a huge hit! I also hung balloons with activities on them that the kids could pop on the hour (or so) through the night. I had seen this idea HERE. This ended up not being too effective in reality, but they did end up doing each of the activities anyway. In the last stretch before midnight, Stephen cranked up some tunes and it became a dance party!

Yes, yes, it's true: Stephen and Marvin couldn't help but try to do the worm again :) And everyone loved  the glowsticks as we counted down- really a fun night! Thanks to our friends and family for making it that way!

Time Capsule 11.0

I recently saw a birthday list a Mom made for her child,

seven things about him as he turned seven.

I thought this same idea would be fun to do

for Coop and Ry as a new year begins,
like a time capsule post of sorts.

So, here's eleven special things (as 2011 ends)
about them as of now:

COOPER

1) I don't know that most four year olds could tell you what words like nocturnal, irritated, possibility, amphibian, situation, or impressive mean, but Cooper can. His vocabulary is amazing and moreso all the time!


2) He enjoys dressing himself... most of the time. Sometimes he just says he wants me to pick and get him dressed... I'm kinda glad :) Whenever he wants to do something on his own he says, "I can do this my own self." :)

3) He literally could blow through an entire ream of copy paper in a week, maybe ten days. He's a drawing fool :)


4) He loves building forts, especially when his little brother is napping so there's less risk of it being wrecked. :/ 


5) Cooper is an animal nut! He really does just love animals, all kinds. He begs me to looks up animal pictures on google for him to scroll through! It was kind of a blessing when his new leopard gecko bit him because at least now he doesn't want to hold it all day long. And, yes, we washed and purified it thoroughly.


6) Fav shows and movies= most any cartoon he hasn't already seen. He'll choose drawing or playing over TV for sure.


7) He's accumulated a little treasure stash and likes moving it from container to container and rearranging it in each. it includes several shiny pieces of plastic, a silver spur keychain he found in the dirt, two dollar bills (aka "green money"), a rubber glove Stephen gave him from work... well... here:

8) He sends mail just about everyday. I'm just waiting for our mail lady to leave a note reminding us that letters actually require stamps and a clear address in order to be delivered :) 


9) I'm grateful to be able to say that Cooper still trusts me mostly unconditionally, at least when he's in a good mood. Recently he was having a hard time wanting to stay in Sunbeams and I softly told him that maybe he could find a kid with an empty seat beside him and sit down and talk to the kid about if he was excited for Christmas too. (Ya, I'm one of those naive, idealistic type Moms.) Anyhow, from the doorway I watched and heard him do exactly that. He didn't question or respond with, "Well, that's kinda dumb, Mom." He just did it bravely and often does give my suggestions a try.


10) He loves preschool and is already so excited for kindergarten. I remember swearing I'd homeschool when he was a newborn, but I'm not willing to be the destroyer of his dreams now that the time is here.


11) Cooper has a good heart and is so full of life. I have to remind him that "The trick to carrying on is not to get carried away," but he means well nonetheless!

RYDER

1) Ryder loves his toys and is good at playing with them to entertain himself. He puts whatever he plays with last to bed at night on our kitchen windowsill. His favorites are "guys," like action figures or transformers. He also loves hot wheels cars.


2) He says "Dank Oo!" excitedly when you give him something or help him.


3) He thinks peek-a-boo is pretty dang cool and laughs so sincerely at the "reveal"! It's the kind of laugh that make peek-a-book pretty dang cool for the adult playing along too :) 


4) He absolutely hates getting his hair cut. Current style might just be a case-in-point. Recently Grandma might have accused him of having taken the scissors to it himself! 


5) Glubs= gloves, pooper= Cooper (sad but true), c'mon= come on, as he grabs my hand and pulls me toward what he wants


6) He's getting fairly good at recognizing colors. He can say them all, but usually calls everything "geen" before being re-directed to what it actually is.


7) Ryder is a dance king! From when was old enough to move it seems, he hears music and starts dancing! The thing is, he doesn't just stand in one place and bop up and down. No, he really has rhythm! He gets his hips and shoulders and the whole works into it! Same goes for wrestling actually- he can spin around and move to where he's not just pouncing when he's wrestling with Stephen or the boys- coordinated he is, our littlest man!

8)There's a possibility he hasn't withered away yet thanks to peanut butter. Depends on the day. 


9) He literally follows Cooper like a shadow. He repeats most any word he says, or at least the last few words of his sentences. Whatever Coop is playing, he wants to join in. He chases Coop and lets Coop chase him around the house almost all day long.


10) Fav words= "me too, me too!" Makes me kinda sad to think that trying to be included is the story of his life. Guess that's how it goes being the baby, but he sure does want to be in on things just like other kids.


11) He is such a cuddly, sweet personality- he still has his chubby soft baby cheeks and I love kissing on them! He feels so bad when he thinks he's hurt someone or done something wrong and says "orry" so quickly. I hold him and just want to cry for him not to get any bigger.

I sure love you, my boys!

Word of the Year

For the past two years, as the year begins, I've chosen a word of the year. A word that I hoped would capture what I wanted to accomplish or be or do through that year. I've been thinking about it for 2012 and have decided to go with...

...prioritize. Truth be told, I'm not sure I feel any huge surge of motivation toward a specific resolution. I know, I know, a horrible admission given that it's New Years! The thing is, I have lots of changes and desires on my mind all the time. So much so that I can't figure out how to turn my mind off to be able to sleep most nights! Also, I think a word that would describe 2011 for us might be tumultuous. Two moves in four months, letting go of our business and taking on a new job- some big, tough changes. I don't want to be complacent by any means, but this might be the year to settle rather than tackle.

So here's just a few, everyday things I'd like to be priorities over this year..


Simplify. Here's the thing- I love frosting. Not like the cupcake kind (though, that's good too). Frosting is what I call the little "extras" or finishing touches in life. I can't just bake a loaf of bread and run it down to the neighbor. No, I have to wrap it smoothly and sew a ruffle to wrap around it and cut out a little tag to add with bakers twine... get what I mean? :P This applies to lots of areas of my life- overextending so that I only disappoint myself (and make my family miserable in the process)! I would really do well to just let the details go in favor of what matters more. 


Familiarity and friendships. I am loving where we live. Idaho Falls has been a great move for me and for our family. But one thing I really miss about Eden is how familiar it was. I valued knowing the names of people I saw in the halls at Church or feeling like I was part of the conversation among a group of people. I know familiarity takes time, years upon years upon years even. But I think if I work at gaining it here, then it can be possible even now, at least to a degree. Stephen is great at this kind of thing- I'm grateful I have him to make this much more possible!


Spiritual consistency. I daresay we are good people. We have righteous desires and try to make righteous choices. We are also very down-to-earth, surely to a fault sometimes. We can, and need to, do better. Solid consistency with going to the temple, scripture reading, FHE and tithing are priorities for this year. Plus, we recently got called to be Sunbeam teachers and I intend to be awesome at it! ;)


Menu planning. I really enjoy cooking and baking, but really don't enjoy coming up with what to make! For the longest time I've wanted to make weekly menus so that I don't have to face this ridiculous struggle every afternoon! See- why don't I take my creativeness and make a menu decoration already?!


Health. I truly believe that health is wealth. But you might not ever guess it. I really would like to take better care of mine and my family's wellness. Not necessarily with any grand change or upset, just with simple choices of good over bad, discipline over ignorance.

Good Luck with whatever priorities you have for this year, too!