April's MWOW

Honest to God one of the first things they do is run to the trains. They must not know that we have those at home too. Oh wait, yes they do because I step on them all the time.

My sweet girl doing what she does at MWOWs.

Jonathan came this time (YAY!) so I actually made it into a picture for your viewing pleasure. : D

Thatch practicing for a high school job. It's officially on his resume now.

Captain Destructor. Kids work so hard on building this beautiful castle and then they destroy it with one flying leap.

The U came this time with live sea creatures. Apparently our landlocked university has a thriving Ocean Sciences department, go figure. There were crabs, sea stars and egg pods...oh my!

You've seen in other MWOW posts how much Cooper loves this. Who knew colored rice was so much fun? Still not going to play with it at home though, Mommy doesn't enjoy cleaning that much.

This is a cruddy picture of Thatch but I'm just proving that Jonathan was there.

Just pictures and captions this time. Nursing H while blogging. Much more difficult to type one handed.

Love,
S

MIA...again. For the 3rd time. Sorry. Again.

Okay, so I've been a bit busier now that H is not a blob of newborn perfectness but becoming an interactive, smiley dress up doll, er, I mean baby. There really isn't much spare time at all and NO ONE naps at the same time. It truly is a tragedy the likes of Shakespeare couldn't imagine.

To catch everyone up here's a brief synopsis of the major events:
1. Harper turned 3 months old. Goodness, where is the time going?

My pretty little baby. Of course the one she smiled in is the one that I messed up the spacing on. Yes, I know I could crop it but seriously, I haven't posted in a month so I'm just putting it up!

2. The Museum With Out Walls put on a mini-event with the planetarium. It was SOOO fun, I really should make it it's own entry but we're pressed for time here. The boys had a blast, the blowup dome was lit inside by a LED computer program that projected the stars on the ceiling. It was phenomenal and Thatch was mesmerized by it so much that I'm not hearing about trains so much as space and rockets (Thank the Lord and the Mother Theresa, I would have done this AGES ago had I known the outcome). Cooper could care less about the show but watch out meteor dust...well, you'll see in a second.

The meteor dust stuff (I seriously can not recall the name, sorry) was a hit with the boys. The idea was that you dropped a ball or some sort of "meteor" in the powder mixture and it left the print.

Seriously, this kid kills me.

Cooper standing down wind. He looked like Casper when we left.

But he had so much fun so it was worth it :)

3. I attempted to take the boys to church so they won't grow up as pagan heathens (but if they do I'll still love them to pieces, as long as they bathe regularly). It was pretty much the Cooper Harper show, I was up and out of the chair about 5 times tending to one of them. At one point I walked back into the service with a toddler and a 2 month old on each hip. I guess it only gets easier the more we go so I'll just have to tough it out for a while and get them used to it. Here was a photo I took of the boys running in to church which is enough reason for me to continue to try.

I find this completely adorable. I am also biased.

4. Found this gem on the camera. Thatch has started to enjoy self pictures :)

Crazy kids.

5. My Dad came up for a business meeting and I captured this gem.

This photo seriously makes me laugh out loud. First there's Cooper, who was put on this earth to make me laugh every day. Then there's my Dad, who is like "Take a smaller bite kid." Love them both to pieces. Small, bite sized pieces.

6. Every Tuesday and Thursday Thatch as Occupational Therapy for an hour at 10am. It's made a world of difference in his fine motor skills and we are so thankful that he is able to do it. Here's a couple of things he does. I'll do a post solely on OT eventually.

Us in the car because we were early. Thatch likes to come up front and play Captain and CoCaptain. Generally, the ship is going down and we need to abandon it. He has quite the imagination.

This is one of the OT "toys" they use. He has to climb in it himself and it works on building his core muscles. It's also a reward and he LOVES it. I'm thinking of getting one for the garage so they could play in it too.

7. We had a good, chill Easter. Jonathan was working which was a bummer (until the paycheck came in, then it was awesome!) but we definitely missed him. The hit of the Easter Basket this year was the sunglasses for each kiddo. They have not maintained this shape and have easily been stepped on 100 times since this was taken but in this moment, my little guys were rocking the shades.

Terminators in Training (well, training pants actually).

That should have us caught up through April. There are two more big things that happened, a MWOW event and a trip to Anchorage, both which deserve their own entry. Perhaps, now that I'm back in the groove I can get them posted tomorrow. Or at least by June.

Love you all, sorry to be such a lame-o about posting lately! I will sincerely try to be more punctual concerning my posts.  XOXO

S

MIA again...my bad

Oops, I did it again. Actually, what had happened was...our modem died. I had to get a new one; however,  having 3 kids to take in with me proved to be a challenge so when ever I saw they were busy I turned my posse right around and we tried again later. On a bright note, I was seriously more productive around the house while there was no facebook...err, I mean internet.

Anywho, I stumbled across a new photographer whilst facebooking (see, some good came out of my procrastination). Here's a couple of pictures she took. She was wonderful, only $50 and she gives you all the pictures! Amazingly refreshing to actually get all the pictures instead of prints of the ones I pay for! Expect more photos of the monkeys this year!

I hope you enjoy!!

Love,
S

Styrofoam

Cooper is the most amazing eater ever. The only thing I've ever seen him turn his nose to is a tomato and a mushroom (that's my boy!). He, however, takes this one step further into eating not so healthy things like receipts, Thatch's soccer picture, and most recently...Styrofoam. The following is submitted for your viewing pleasure:

I could commentate on this but I'm too busy laughing.

I tell my self that he thought it was funny too that way I'm not laughing at him, but with him.

Gymnastics, Mushing and Microwaves...Oh My.

Weekend planning is a prime time to apply the Deathbed Priority Test: On your deathbed, will you wish you would spent more prime weekend hours grocery shopping or walking in the woods with your kids? ~ Hal Borland

This Hal Borland fella is on to something. Laundry and groceries can wait, there is fun to be had. Today is Saturday and we were BUSY. Okay, not so busy that I don't have time for two blog entries, but still busy in it's own sense. This morning Cooper had Gymnastics, after that we went to Mush For Kids, and to finish it off we picked up our new microwave.

Speaking of our new microwave, let me eulogize our last one. It was a beautiful microwave when she (Yes, it's a girl. It did a lot of work around the house, cooking, cleaning and providing love in the form of warm hot fudge, which makes it a female.) came into the world, shiny and new. She enjoyed her job of warming the cold and reveled in the smell of perfectly cooked popcorn. The world, however, took it's toll on her. After only four short years her door became loose and yet she hung on, clinging to life like a dryer sheet stuck to a skirt out in public. Alas, on Saturday last she lost her battle. An explosion in her bowels ended her life, just 10 months past an average extended warranty. (5 years...Is there a conspiracy theory to be born in the misfortune? I think so.) She has been replaced quickly with a younger, cheaper version (HeHe.) but will be sorely missed. Well, as soon as someone who will not be named (No, not Voldermort...Jonathan!) takes her to the dump she will be missed. You were a good microwave, Ms. Fridgedaire Professional Series, but you could not hold up to the test of time. Fare thee well.

Huh, can you say Tangent? I can, and just did. Anywho, we were busy but there was fun. Here's a bit of photographic evidence.

I adore this picture of Coopie. Is there anything more beautiful than the sound of your baby's laugh? I think not.

His little faces crack me up.

Thatch driving the Fire Truck. It's kind of a big deal when you are a 5 year old.

The boys playing with a Malamute. (Go LHS!)

The Coopster playing in the snow while we were waiting for Thatch to finish his sled ride. Good times.

Jonathan is working tomorrow so today was basically the only family weekend time we are having together until April 28th. We squeezed in a lot of fun time and a little house work. However, Mr. Hal Borland has one flaw in the Death Bed Theory: we seriously need some groceries. I guess we are having Papa John's for dinner!

Love,
S

Vlogs

Vlogs, aka video logs, kind of sounds like a Russian word to me. Technically this isn't a video blog, it's really just a bunch of video links. That's how I roll.

This one is of Thatch swimming. He's really doing pretty good now, hopefully he advances to the next level soon.   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXLs1GpWUx0

This little ditty is of Thatcher and Cooper bringing wood in from the garage. I was nursing Harper and happened to have the camera next to me so I caught it. Coop instigated the mischief, as he usually does.  However, Jonathan would definitely be proud.  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3ib45hCUb4&feature=relmfu


Cooper has really started talking quite a bit. I speak Cooper, Thatch speaks Cooper and Jonathan is learning to speak Cooper but has less patience for learning a new language. In general you can figure out what he says because we always repeat it when he's done.   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hH6lze38J3M&feature=relmfu


We went to the Mush For Kids event at the Carlson Center this Saturday and while Coop was too young for the major dog sled ride, he was old enough for this little ride with his brother.   
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXTZee98eNE&feature=relmfu

Museum With Out Walls

Fairbanks does not have a children's museum but do not fear as one is in the works. My friend Brenda is working night and day on developing one and I know it's going to be amazing! In the mean time she has set up a program called Museum With Out Walls that is a moving event. Once a month we all take our over-energetic kids to a contained space to explore, create and produce general mayhem, all while learning. It's pretty fun and the kids LOVE it. Here's a couple pictures of the little guys.

Imagine that, the first thing the gravitate towards is the trains.

Playing well together. This generally does not happen when trains are involved, Thatch is serious about his engines.

Baby Harps enjoying the museum noise :)

Considering this is my blog I thought I should start being in some of the pictures, even if I have to take them myself.

Cooper building a train city...still.

Ahhh, we finally moved on to other exhibits. This was a colored rice, textile thing. He loved it and made a big mess and I didn't have to vacuum afterwards. It was magical for the both of us.

Thatch finally moved on to this balloon vent. The general idea is you put the ballooons over the vent and it blows them sky high. It really is quite entertaining, I could have fun with this for hours.

Coming.

Going.

 Well, that's it. Every Saturday this happens is the best Saturday of the month!