My Waterloo Days and Cooking with Dad

Last week we went up to Grandma and Grandpa's to pick up the Roll Over Protection Bar for the bunkbeds. Luckily it was also My Waterloo Days which is always a good time. Here we are at the parade. If you click on the link, you will see that the girls and I are superstars, at least famous in the greater Waterloo, IA area.

Helen really loved playing with all the new toys at Grandma and Grandpa's. This is where we found her when we told her it was time to go back home to Nebraska.

Jane was happy to see the Grandma had a good supply of necklaces for her to accessorize with. We also loved the Billy Goat Gruff bridge in the backyard.

Here are Ryan and Helen making cookies. Helen is just waiting patiently to eat the m&m's on the counter. She is really good at making sure we all get one when making cookies.

Meandering through May

I went through my fabric in anticipation of our move this month and I found some fabric that I thought would make a fabulous play dress. When I gave it to Helen it was immediately renamed a "Cinderella dress' in honor of her current favorite book-on-tape.

Here is Helen on her third birthday with her "Razzamataz" flavored birthday cake. To be honest, Helen makes birthday cake requests and then I just make a ice cream cake doctored up. My dad made a great raspberry/strawberry/blueberry sauce that razzamatazzed this cake right up.

Jane has enough hair to put pig-tails in and it sure looks much better than the flowing mullet she had down her shoulders.

Here are the girls having fun together. It sure is a lot of fun with the girls around.

As you can see from this picture I am getting much better at my coloring. I hope that by the time I am done being the mother of small children that I will figure out how to draw a decent looking horse. (That is not what I am coloring, just stating a general wish).

Jane's First Birthday

I didn't realize how exciting birthdays can be for the whole family. (Note the size of Helen's smile)I made Jane a lemon cake with lemon cream cheese frosting.
Poor Jane ate too much dinner and couldn't appreciate the cake properly.

Helen was more than happy to help Jane open her presents and then play with them. What a good big sister.I had to include this picture - I think that is one of our best pictures of Jane.

Pictures and Video to Share

Mom and Nate came out to visit last weekend, and we packed in as many fun activities as we could - the zoo, algebra, Scrabble, countless pretending scenarios with Helen, walking practice with Helen, and more algebra.

Here we are on a cold Monday at the Omaha Zoo.



It was so nice of Mom and Nate to teach Jane to walk while they were here.



Nate's getting very good at naming his colors.

Peter Pan is one of Helen's best friends these days.  A favorite song from that story is "Never Smile at a Crocodile".  Every time we turn to that one in our Disney Songbook, Helen has the self-imposed requirement to run to the closet, get out her "crocodile" (a.k.a. dragon) outfit, put it on, and then sing the intended song.

With our tulips in bloom, we again tried our hand at taking our girls' pictures in front of them.  As you can see - that's a task easier said than done.  

Picture #32.  The flowers must be poisonous to children.

Picture #51.  Enter Pinwheels.

Picture #68.  Helen shares the joys of picking weeds.

Photo #75.  Two smiles at once!

Photo #101.  Excitement, happiness, flowers, danger - it has it all.

Finally here's a little video packed full of treats - Jane walking, Helen tumbling, Jane's animal sounds, "Helen the Spinning Fish", and their proud parents looking on in wonder.  By the way, don't be alarmed by the duck-like noises Jane makes as Helen tickles her feet - that's her I'm-so-happy-I-can't-breathe-laugh.

Exiting News!

We received our next Air Force assignment: Misawa, Japan, starting in the mid July. This great picture of the base welcome sign came from www.misawalife.com.
In regards to the recent earthquake, from what we can tell, Misawa was spared from major destruction, but the have lost power.
To get ourselves ready, Ryan and I started a Japanese language course. Our library offers an online course through www.mango.com. We can now say good morning/afternoon/evening, thank you, good bye, are you sightseeing, it is cold/hot, it is fine weather, and be safe. We are well on our way to proficiency.

Happy Birthday Michelle and the Relief Society!

Imagine you got a present that was squishy on the outside and hollow in the middle. You might think that your husband had bought you an innertube for your bike or maybe a padded seat for taking care of business. But you would be wrong. It would actually be a massage face pillow and you would be so happy!Here is the birthday cake that I made for the Relief Society birthday (it is actually March 17th 1842) but our congregation celebrated early. I called this cake "Wishing for Spring" since I couldn't decide if they looked more like cherry or crabapple blossoms. Thank heavens for the Wright Family Cookbook and Grandma's great recipes.

Old things turn new

I wish that I had a picture of Ryan wearing his favorite shirt, but here is is converted into a dress for Helen. Ryan was struggling with sending this shirt to Goodwill because it had been through so many good times with him. He was willing to give it to Helen though. That's how much he loves her. Who could blame him?

New Dresses

A couple of weeks ago I decided that I would try and learn how to sew clothing. Granted, Mom helped me make a lovely dress when in was a Young Woman and Amber coached me through a couple of pajama pants, I would hardly consider myself an expert. In fact, I have to do a lot of deep breathing before I started. That been said, I think that it may be harder to get girls to stand still for pictures than to make dresses.

We are going to have to wait for a couple of months before we can wear these to church since we just got 3-5 inches of snow.  

February Fun

I recently got this costume from a family from our church and decided to let Helen wear it around the house. Although I know it's a dragon, we like to call her a crocodile. That way we can turn on "Never Smile at a Crocodile" and dance around the living room. It breaks up the monotony of winter quite nicely. Jane loves the costume too. One day I went into the girls room and found her wrestling the crocodile (without Helen inside) and it looked like Jane won. At least she was the one growling and biting. Last week we had unusually warm weather and the girls and I went out everyday for walks. As you can see, Jane discovered sticks. Who knew that they were so tasty. She must be related to her cousin Alyssa who also likes the taste of the great outdoors.

Here are Helen and Jane playing. These girls love moving magnet letters around on my fridge, on the floor and in their mouths.

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.