Vacation Fun in Illinois

While Ryan was off solving world illness at his Global Medicine course in Texas, the girls and I drove over to Emily's house for a good time. And if this picture is any indicator, a good time was had by all.

Jane and Alyssa practiced all sorts of new tricks while they were together like sticking out their tongues, pulling themselves up onto furniture, chewing on toys and climbing up stairs. Emily had a good time dressing them alike so it was nearly like having twins.

At one point I couldn't find Chloe and Helen. I followed the sound of giggling upstairs and found them exploring Emily's tub. Luckily they haven't learned how to turn it on yet.


Can you guess what happened in these pictures? Quinn was teaching Jane how to growl like a tiger, Jane got scared and Quinn got growled at by the mama tiger.

Here are Quinn and Helen showing off their superior tower building skills. Chloe is demonstrating the many uses of a Lego box and Jane realized that she needed her mom.

You probably thought this was Batman, but it's Zach. We didn't get a lot of pictures of Zach because he is all grown up going to kindergarten.

If you had a hard time figuring out who Batman was, Superbaby will be even more difficult. The long hair gives it away though -- it's Alyssa.

Grandma Johnson gave the girls all almost matching clothes for Christmas and they helped us keep track of them at the library. Clearly Quinn felt left out of the matching fun.
Helen was introduced to "power tools" at Emily's house. Chloe was able to show her the ropes.

Christmas in Iowa

This winter we went to Iowa, and as you can see from the picture below, we had a white Christmas. Making snow angels in this deep of snow can make a little girl very nervous.

While Ryan and Helen were outside tromping around, Jane discovered the joy of an exercise ball.

Now that my Dad has a workroom again, Ryan and I took advantage of our time by fixing up some bunk beds. Helen wanted in on the action, so she was assigned to brush off all the sawdust. While I was training her in her new job I realized that this was what I always did when I was a child. Note the protective eye wear; Norm Abram would be proud.

Here are Helen and Dad enjoying a good story during break time.

Now we get to the most exciting part of our trip -- putting a new wood floor. For those of you who have never put in a floor, in this picture you can see three important parts of the process. Mom was in charge of lining boards up like Tetris, Dad got the wood lined up and then I would nail it into place. The fourth person was the floater, tagging in and out of various jobs and keeping the kids out.
This fourth job was not always easy, especially since Jane is crawling now.

We went bowling and Helen is definitely at the "Do it myself" stage, regardless of whether or not the ball was heavier than herself.

Thanksgiving in Rhode Island

These pictures are a little late in coming. I have to admit that I was a little overwhelmed at the task of cutting down the number of pictures to include here. We had a great time visiting the McClures and Rambos in Providence. The trip was filled with fun, adventure, and most of all Helen and Katahdin running from one piece of mischief to the another.

Ryan's brother Nate, and his Mom and Grandmother came out for Thanksgiving which added to the fun exponentially.

Here is a picture of the big boys.Celeste took us out to the Audubon Society of Rhode Island's Environmental Education Center, and we got to see all sorts of fun animals, including the creatures that hang out in the tide pools.You may not be able to recognise what Helen and I are showcasing for you here below . . . it happens to be the inside of a whale. Whales hold a special place in my heart after reading Moby Dick. As a side note, they say that great literature changes you. I guess Herman Melville was able to do that with his great white whale. I don't think I will ever look at leviathans the same.

We also got to take a great walk/run over the wetlands down to the bay.

One morning walked over to the Roger Williams Park Zoo, only a few blocks from Celeste's house. They had the most beautiful flamingos I've ever seen, but sadly, I didn't take a picture of them. Here we are looking warm on a brisk New England morning, and if you look closely, you can see Helen demonstrating a proper flamingo stance.

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National Bundt Pan Day

This Monday we celebrated Bundt Pan Day, which may be among Ryan's favorite holidays. This "Too Much Chocolate Cake" was a real success.
Jane and I have been doing some serious bonding while she fought a cold then worked on growing her second tooth. Luckily she is a connoisseur of fine literature.

Nebraska's "Official" Veterans Day Parade

This Saturday we bundled up to watch our last Veterans Day parade in Bellevue, and we're going to miss them. If Iowa parades are known for their John Deere tractors, I would say that Bellevue has a lot of marching servicemen and women. I think that nearly everyone from the base turned out for the occasion. I tried to get Helen to march in place along with them to help her stay warm.

 

Is there anything as cute as a little kid waving a flag on her dad's shoulder?

Gingerbread Wonder

We finished our Polar Express Train this week, just in time for the 2010 Gingerbread Parade at the Kanesville Tablernacle. Ryan's adjective of choice is "awesome." We thought that we would post all of our creations so that you could vote for your favorite one and determine whether or not we have improved.

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Helen's Gingerbread House

Making a gingerbread house with a two-year old is a really good time. It also gets rid of all the less desirable Halloween candy. Ryan wouldn't let me put out any of the chocolate. But in retrospect, the chocolate would have melted in Helen's hot little hands.

Swedish fist make a great Japanese garden pond. Those fine pine trees were made out of ice cream cones with royal frosting.

Gingerbread Continued

Ryan has been working long hours this month and we haven't been able to work on the train as much as we would like. We made great progress this weekend. As a warning, if you use black food coloring in any appreciable amount it will turn everything (fingers, countertops, kitchenaid mixer attachments, towels) all sorts of lovely colors.

Gingerbread Season

One of the benefits of living in the Greater Omaha Region is that we get to make gingerbread every year to display at the Kanesville Tabernacle. This year's theme is stories and movies of Christmas. We decided to do the train from the Polar Express. I checked the book and all the children's books on trains out of the library. Then Ryan and I watched it on youtube (in Portuguese - that was the only language available that we understood).

Ryan is always in charge of making the templates and purchasing the candy. One might ask why the Oreos are open. Ryan seems to need chocolate nourishment while he works.

Here is Ryan assembling the brick bridge and the train tracks. Luckily I have spent years perfectly the art of nibbling off layers of Kit Kats one by one because we discovered that the whole Kit Kats were too big for our tracks. Here I am working on the garland around the bridge. Last year I got some sweet holly garland sprinkles on sale. And yes, those are tweezers.This year I splurged and got some cool edible silver spray paint. Ryan made those great spokes for our train and those raspberry filled chocolate things are going to become very important components of the engine.

We will put more pictures up as we continue.

Pumpkin Patch

The girls and I went to a pumpkin patch yesterday. The highlight of the event was the train ride. The conductor even let Helen get close to the engine. That really makes a two year old day, but I don't think she was keen on being held by said conductor.
We also loved the giant corn "sandbox" that was perfect for jumping into and swimming in.

Here are a couple of the farm animals that they had for us to pet. Now I have to admit that I was not raised on a farm, but I don't think that these particular animals are indigenous to Nebraska.

Happy October

Here is Helen's new quilt in all it's beauty. Thank goodness that Emily, Heidi and my mom helped out so I was able to complete it before summer next year. I don't know why it was so difficult for me, but joy in the journey I suppose should be the theme of this particular project.

 There are many secrets that experienced mothers keep from rookies like me. One of the things I learned this week was that the odds of getting a cute picture decreases dramatically as you try and add more kids to the picture. I decided not to post the pictures of Jane rolling onto Helen, much to the later's disgust. Or the pictures of Helen and Jane with their toys covering their faces. Or the pictures where Helen is ripping the toy out of Jane's hand. Or where Helen is showing me how she can roll over. Or where Jane starts crying because she remembered that she was starving to death. So really, one out of 36 isn't that bad.

I couldn't help adding this picture for your enjoyment. It sure is a lot of fun to have more than one kid, as you can see.