IPSSSDR

 

 

 

What an envigorating morning we have had. We drove up to South Pass (check out the web cam-that place is wintry) this morning to watch the beginning of the second stage in the International Pedigree Stage Stop Sled Dog Race (IPSSSDR). Inspiring it was. So much excitement, beginning with Charlotte the entire 30 minute ride there asking all about it and mostly "are we there yet??". Really she talked the entire way. She also looked at one of our favorite books on the way there: Togo. The book is based on a true story from 1925 and is about the famous sled dog Togo who led his team 300 miles across Alasksa in January to bring much needed Diptheria serum to the town of Nome. She was sure we were going to see him at race and insisted that we were goint to his house. She even got Timothy mumbling about it.
As we neared the start line for the race the wind picked up and the snow was blowing across the road. Reid and I were getting nervous that we would drive all this way and not even be able to get out of the car. We were skeptical and even Timothy was saying brrr, brrr.
We arrived and luckily found a very close parking space, we bundled up, stepped out of the van, and were greeted by a chorus of barking dogs. It was windy and snowy, but everybody was happy and excited. Charlotte eyes were darting back and forth between the teams looking for Togo.

-We watched people running here and there with the dogs.
-We watched the mushers hop on the back of the sleds.
-We watched the dogs getting harnessed up and led up to the start line.
-We watched our friends Sandy and Jerry take off with their dogs.
-And we visited with the dogs that were staying behind for the day.

As cold as it was, 45 minutes was about all we could take of the cold blowing snow. We thought we were heading off a kiddo melt down by leaving before anybody got too cold. But as soon as I made tracks towards the van, Charlotte began crying. She wanted to stay, she wanted to go with them, and she wanted to see Togo. She was definitley not satisfied by our brief visit and was not convinced that we really saw Togo. Truth be told, I wish this event were more than once a year, I would have liked to have stayed longer, I wanted to go with them, and I wanted to meet Togo too. Maybe Charlotte and I will sneak back there this afternoon to wacth them cross the finish line for this stage of the race.

blogspired

I admit I have not been very blogspired lately. Here is why:
-dealing off and on-mostly on with sick kids.
-dealing with the stomach flu myself for the 2nd time in 3 months (finally better today), but now I have pinkeye for the 2nd time in 1 month!!!
-dealing with a spacebar on my keyboard that barely works.
-dealing with 2 jobs.
-and then-
-loving my family time
-loving my alone time
-loving dreaming of house projects, wall colors, organization, etc...
-loving being more distant from my computer

so hang in there everyone, I will be blogging, I am just looking for some more good inspiration , oh I mean blogspiration.

Mr. Timothy

 

Still a goof. He loves to do whatever his sister is doing, and loves to antagonize her at the same time. His is saying more and more all the time. He is still on one syllable words, and he can just about make any word you say one syllable. He tries to say everything you do, studies your lips, repeats, and will ask you to say the word over and over while he keeps trying to master it.
Some of his favorite words lately are: trash-he will find a piece on the floor-easy to do around here-and take it to the trashcan. I love the eagerness!
deer-while looking out the back window for them.
bus-we see lots of school buses on the mornings that they go to daycare
truck-any large vehicle is pretty darn exciting
plane-he has a serious ear for them flying over
wa-that would be Ava
hhhaathat would be Charlotte
ju-juice, hi, bye, nigh-nigh
the list goes on and on....
He was also having some difficulty with hitting-well we were all having difficulty with it-kids fighting, parents dealing-it was hard. He was really taking pleasure in hitting his sister in the head, banging his cart into cabinets and people, and well just hitting and banging everything he could. After a few weeks of time-outs for uneccessary roughness, the aggression has lessened much to everyone's pleasure.
Lately he is extra cuddly, and I am soaking up all I can.

Miss Charlotte

 

 

Charlotte sure is full of spunk lately. She is just talk, talk, talk. She will talk your ear off at the dinner table or anytime she has your undivided attention. She still loves playing the little mama to all her babies, animals, friends and parents-really anyone who will sit still for a minute and induldge.
Oh boy and this girl loves pink. I tried hard to push any color but pink for the first years of her life, like purple-what is so bad about purple??? Nope, all she wants is pink (don't get me wrong-I like pink-just not everyday head to toe). I am swallowing my own opinions and preferences and letting her choose her own clothing each day, as long as it is weather appropriate. Now I think I am left to find the cutest pink things I can and hope that it doesn't last too long.
Today she had her first ballet class. From the moment she woke up she asked every 20 minutes "is it time to go to my dance performance now?" She loved every minute of it!

enjoying

Here are some of my favorite things that I haven’t had time to write a post on lately-so I am grouping them into one big post and I hope you will enjoy them as well.
Making new socks anti-skid by applying puff-paint. We have plenty of hardwood and linoleum floors that are super slippery, and poor Tim-O is still getting the hang of running around in socks.
Charlotte’s new people that she loves to draw. A big face with eyes, mouth, nose legs, arms and hair-precious.
Making my children’s clothes-here are some pants I made yesterday, sock monkey’s for Tim-O and cashmere pants from an old sweater for Charlotte.
Handmade Christmas presents-teepee, toolbelt, and felt flowers (sewed onto the vest I knit Charlotte). Flowers pictured here, the rest pictured on the Christmas post.
Kids playing together happily.
And last, but certainly not least-really cute baby bums!!

overheard

Overheard last night while Charlotte was coloring Uncle Grant Schell and Aunt Leah Schell (you try telling her that is not their last name).
Charlotte: Where is the brown crayon? Sh*t ,I cannot find the brown.
Mama: *short pause* What did you say?
Charlotte: Sh*t, I said sh*t because I cannot find the brown crayon.
Oh boy, well it isn’t the first, and it won’t the last but it sure was surprising to hear it used in the correct context out of my 2 ½ yr olds mouth. It is still so infrequent that ignoring this language seems to be best. Off to watch my language....

watch out

 

 

 

 

Charlotte and I went ice skating today. What an adventure. This Florida girl sure needs some more time on the ice before teaching a wobbly toddler. We had to try out a couple pairs of skates for her, until we finally settled on the smaller single blade skates with much better ankle support. Once that was decided, we had fun, skooting, sliding, and watching. Charlotte only fell a couple of times (because for the most part I was holding her up), and we only fell together once. Charlotte was all smiles even though she could rarely get her balance or get her feet untwisted. I am calling it a success and am sure we will try again.

christmas day

lots of fun, lots of family and friends, lots of yummy food.

 

Santa

 

Charlotte sat on Santa's lap last Saturday night. I thought for sure she would be afraid, but nothing could be further from the truth. She had already decided what she would ask him for before we arrived, and Papa, who was sick at home, sent her with a question for Santa. I thought for sure she would be afraid, but nothing could be further from the truth.
Before he arrived she was dancing around at the thought of meeting him. When he arrived, she waited her turn in line all by herself and climbed right on up in his lap. She told him she wanted a pony. And she then asked him if he wanted us to leave cake or cookies for him. He told her that he would love cookies, chocolate chip to be exact. He then gave her a candy cane and she was thrilled.
It was a fun experience. Timothy had fun being there, waiting in line for a few moments then dashing over to the tree to try to run away with the presents. Apparently he would rather run off with a sure thing than ask Santa and wait and see if he gets it. He had no desire to sit in Santa's lap, and I had no desire to force him. We got out of there with no crying and I am left still trying to figure out who told my not-even-3-yr-old that she could ask for a pony?

sledding

 

 

 

We have been having a heat wave here-it is warming up to 30 degrees during the days :) Warm enough for us to finally get outside. Our new neighbors across the street have 2 children a few years older than C and T, and they have 2 sleds. They were gracious enough to let us borrow one to pull the kids around the other day.
The kids had a blast and I ampretty sure Reid got a decent workout. When we pulled back up in the driveway, Timothy held his pointer finger up and said "more". I forsee more sledding in our future.

out takes

The kids and I had a little photo session recently. It definitely tried my patience until I just gave in to their whims. It seemed that when one was cooperating the other was not-there was bribery with dried fruit, and eventually M-n-M's (not a good idea-too messy, too distracting, too much sugar). Eventually I gave up getting a decent picture with the two of them at the same time. Here are some fun ones to enjoy from our morning of photos.
Timothy has been a little cutie lately. He obsessively looks for the deer in the backyard. He has fun using tools and helping Papa. He loves pointing out any truck of unusual size or shape. And he loves to say "Monn" (interpretation: Come on), grab your hand and lead you to whatever he needs or wants to show you. He is a great helper in the kitchen-dishes (aka flinging bubbles across the kitchen), cooking (aka sampling). Lastly,he has mastered flirting-pretty adorable.
Charlotte has been doing good too. She loves hide and seek-and there are so many good places to hide in our new house. Her naps are pretty slim lately,and so she gets a bit cranky by late afternoon. She is beginning toy with talking back-should be interesting. Today,when I asked her to pick up the buttons she spilled on the floor,she said "Weeeelll, I could but I won't because my hands are broken" -excuse me, really??
She is however sleeping in much better. We set up a nightlight on a timer in her room so when it comes on she knows it is morning and she can get out of bed-pure genius (a friends idea,I take no credit). It gives her a lot more power and she sleeps better for it the entire night.
We also had a fun day on Sunday. She and I had a girls morning out and went to Art in the Afternoon. We had lots of fun and got some good Xmas presents,and were then inspired to come home and make some of our own today (look for a blog post on it soon). If anyone needs good holiday presents, you should check out some of Lander's local goods by Mountain Aven Baby (more than just baby stuff, like scrumptious, minkie scarves).

nutcracker

 

Well, I have had many requests for pictures of me in my Nutcracker tutus. Here is one of Charlotte and I on stage after my last performance. This is my least favorite of the three tutus I wore, but it is the only picture I have. This one was for the dance of the flutes. I also performed as a snow princess soloist in a white tutu witha crown and in waltz of the flowers in a beautiful burgandy tutu. You will just have to use your imagination for those :) Charlotte had fun seeing me dance on stage and of course wants to do it all by herself now.

what's this?

 

any guesses???

turkey leftovers

What to do with all those turkey leftovers? Leftovers are by far my favorite part of Thanksgiving, because it should make for a week of easy meals. Last year, I even roasted an extra turkey because I didn't have enough leftovers.
Usually I make turkey potpie, turkey tetrazini, turkey soup, or sometimes all three. This year I wanted something a little different. I am still making turkey soup (tonight's dinner),but I also made a really yummy Greek turkey salad that I thought I would share. One stipulation is, I didn't measure anything-so just add it all to taste.

Shredded turkey
Chopped tomatoes
Diced red onion
Sliced olives
Feta cheese
Your favorite vinaigrette (I used Annie's Balsamic)
Salt and Pepper

Easy and delicious. Great alone,on lettuce, or in between bread. Enjoy, and please share any yummy turkey recipes you have found.

2 fairies

 

 

 

fun with dress up. Pretend play has been big around here lately.

our new house -or- please excuse the mess

We have been busy! We have been working hard to try to buy a house and it has paid off. We moved in last Friday, and all is going smoothly so far. We had 20 friends help us move and it was done in 5 hours!! I could hardly believe it. After everything was here we had help placing things and putting things away. Two wonderful angels put my entire kitchen away, watched my kiddos, and stocked my fridge. What a wonderful community of friends we have.
It hasn't taken us too long to get boxes unpacked and find plenty to give away and throw out. It is so liberating to me to lighten my load of possessions. I absolutely love giving things away and I look forward to getting even better at it. Life is so cyclical. I find that for everything I give away just as much is returned to me. I am trying very hard to accumulate less "things" and so I wonder if I turn away accumulating material possessions, if it won't make room for more life-growth experiences.
Anyway back to the house (I know it is a large material possession,seems like a contradiction of my previous statement-probably is),I have included a few pictures of our stuff in the house-and please excuse the mess :) The house was built in the 1950's to mimic the Frank Lloyd Wright style and has some fun design features. Not much has changed in the house since it was built. It has lots of space inside and out and I think my favorite room may be the upstairs bathroom. It has the original turquoise sink,tub, and toilet as well as original white Formica counter tops complete with turquoise starbursts. Fun,fun.

brief pause......

We will return to normally scheduled blogging in a week or so. Life is busy, busy--and we will share all about why soon. -management :)

evening activity

We had fun dancing to lullaby's last night. Charlotte got out her tutu and Timothy was beside himself until he got one too. Just a cut little clip.

trick-or-treat

We have already been out to trick-or-treat on Main St. Lots of fun. Charlotte was fascinated with the entire thing. The costumes, the candy. She kept saying "oooooo, he's farey(scarey)".
Timothy was more excited about the candy, and after getting 2 pieces in his bag he was happy just to sit in the stroller and eat his tootsie roll. Pretty funny to me, how much more relaxed I am with the second. Last year at Halloween, I wouldn't even let Charlotte eat candy and she was older than Timothy is now-ha!
They also both seem content to eat only 2 pieces and save the rest for later-I'll count myself lucky.

Happy Halloween!