Thank Goodness for Bandaids

It's amazing what good a bandaid can do. Yesterday afternoon, Owen was really tired so when he barely bonked his head on the table, it was just to much and he was crying and asking for a bandaid. We told him he didn't need one but he kept crying and asking for it so I gave him one and he put it right on top of his head and wow did it make him feel better. Then we went outside and he tripped on the road and scraped his hands a little bit but all he had to do was reach up and touch his bandaid on the top of his head and he instantly felt better.

Aaaargh!

"What does a pirate say?" A few weeks ago, Owen just started doing this face. We don't know where he learned it but it cracks me up every time.

Warm Weather- Wahoo!

Owen & Michael decided since no one did any yard cleaning up before winter came, they'd get a jump start today with some warm weather :). We are so excited for Spring!

Lucky Kids & Lucky Me

Thanks Cat & Jo for being around and helping me out, especially when my husband is working long days or off somewhere sleeping in the snow :).

Owen & Ava are such lucky kids.

Ava's Big Day

On Sunday we blessed our little girl Ava. She was a happy girl for her blessing day. My mom made her a beautiful little dress. We are so happy to have her in our family.

What would a big day be without family... and food

After church we gathered for some good food. Matthew made red beans & rice and everyone brought different salads & desserts. It was a yummy meal. I love dinners like that where there is so much good food to taste & eat- yum, yum, yum. It was also great to be surrounded by family on Ava's special day and really missed family that live to far away.

All Cozy Like

Whenever I put Ava in her Bundle Me with the hat she looks so warm & snuggly. Makes me wish JJ Cole made an adult size.

Nice Boots

Owen loves his boots. So this morning when we got invited to eat Green Eggs with Michael, He had a lovely outfit to wear outside. Then here's a couple cute pictures of a happy Ava.

Brother & Sister & Ramone

I haven't taken many pictures of Owen & Ava together and I think they are fun. To get this picture, I asked Owen if he would hold Ava and I'd get a picture but he was playing with his cars so he didn't want to. Then I asked him if I could take a picture of him holding Ava & Ramone. He came right over and sat down.

Food.

Today I discovered the mypyramid.com website. It is awesome. I played around on it today and found a bunch of cool tools. It has Food Gallery's in the different food groups where you can see real pictures of what serving sizes are, it has the new food guide pyramid and if you give your age, height & weight it gives you recommendations for your needs. Also you can set up a personal profile where you can keep a food diary and it analyzes what you ate and gives you back a whole bunch of information- like how your diet compares to the Dietary Guidelines of what you should eat, how you did on all of the nutrients and other cool info. Anways, I was impressed with all that it could do and how it helped me understand what I need to do to be a healthier eater.

I love eating fruits and vegetables but it's just to often that days go by that I don't eat any or enough fruits or vegetables. So, I've been trying to eat better and have better options at our house. I decided it doesn't take a lot of work to be better- I just have to think about it and make an effort to first of all have fruits and vegetables at our house, and then once they are there- eat & cook them. They always taste so good and really make a meal complete. Just talking about vegetables gets me all excited about growing a garden- yum.

Our Little Girl-

Here is some pictures of our little Ava. The first one is of her and Matthew on a Sunday afternoon, the rest are from yesterday- I was bored so we had a photo shoot :).

Valentine's Day

So, I was really excited for Valentine's Day this year. We started the morning off with some pink heart pancakes. Matthew thinks they are funny but growing up with my mom- I don't remember a Valentine's Day without them so the tradition lives on. In the afternoon I made some sugar cookies that are the best I've ever made. I usually don't really like sugar cookies but these turned out so good. So I was excited to just enjoy a night at home making dinner together and decorating cookies but then, we got a knock on our door. Earlier in the week Matthew had set up an appointment for this guy to come and give us an estimate for new windows. Mostly just to get an idea of how much they'd be. Anyways Matt forgot it was V-day when setting it up. So after over 2 hours of this really nice man getting to know way to much information about our family and blah blah blah, he finally got measurements on our windows. In the meantime, Owen, Ava & I enjoyed some quality tv time while eating a gourmet dinner of grilled cheese sandwiches and green beans. Then we decorated cookies, which was a lot of fun. So anyways now that I've grumbled enough about the window man, I did get to enjoy some fun with my kids, just not so much with my hubba. Anyways, I did get a couple of great pictures- would you believe that Owen put the sprinkles on his cookie all by himself?

Nice.

This picture just makes me laugh. There are a couple of funny things about it. First of all, Owen's beads. He has been wearing them almost non-stop for over a week now. He sleeps in them and if and when we ever get out of our house, he has worn them then too. Uncle Dallin Paul comes to our house everyday after school and yesterday he came over during the crazy bad snowstorm. Owen loves his Uncle Dallin so of course for a little boy, some cool glasses and gloves that he wears have to be tried on. Probably the funniest thing to me about this picture is that the ski mask & Power Ranger gloves were worn by Uncle Dallin Paul, age 18, to Sky View High School. Well, I don't know for sure that he wore them much at school but the thought of an adult walking around like it is totally normal to wear super hero gloves and a big ski mask really makes me chuckle. I love my brother Dallin.

Once there was a snowman...

Here's a lucky little boy that got to play in the snow with his Dad.

Quiet Time

So, Owen is in the transition where he never wants to take a nap anymore but sometimes he still needs one and sometimes he doesn't so from the example of my awesome sister-in-law I have started doing what's called quiet time. It's where he spends 1 hour either looking at books, playing, just resting, or sleeping in his bedroom by himself. That way he & I both get some downtime and I don't have to stress about whether he needs a nap. Anyways, I just barely was going down to tell Owen he could come upstairs now and this is what I found.