Valentine's Day Cookies

We love making sugar cookies for Valentine's day.  Lucas asks to make sugar cookies like once a week, but I usually make him wait for a holiday because it makes a huge mess and takes 3-4 hours to make and decorate them.  The kids have so much fun though!  I started the cookies while Lucas was at school so Paige actually got to help a little since Lucas wasn't there hogging everything.

 Then when Lucas got home we decorated.

Well, Lucas and I decorated - Paige mostly ate frosting and sprinkles. We made a special cookie for Ryan.

 I also made these tiny heart cookies that are adorable!

 Lucas's cookies all have way more toppings than cookie.  Paige is showing off the tiny heart cookies so you can see how little they really are.

Pumpkin Patch

We went on a little family trip to the pumpkin patch last week.  I love this pumpkin patch because they have so much fun free stuff for the kids to do.  Although, it was a little disappointing that the paid activities were substantially more expensive than they were last year.  Oh well.  Here's Lucas and Paige running through the patch looking for the best pumpkin.

 Paige trying to pick up the pumpkins was hilarious!

 Found the perfect pumpkin!

 Lucas and Paige always love the wagons.  Here's Paige getting a ride.  Paige refused to smile normal the entire day and instead gave me this weird scrunchy smile.

 Here's Paige giving Lucas a ride.  She was pretty determined.

The kids loved running around in the hay maze.  Lucas was so good about staying with Paige and helping her through.

 The kids favorite part was the corn box.  They played for almost an hour in here.

 Ryan was a good daddy and climbed in to play with them.

 And more of Paige's weird smile.  I hope she gets over that before we take family pictures.  We got one big family pumpkin and then picked out three little pumpkins for each of the kids.  Lucas has the biggest of the mini pumpkins, Paige in the middle, and Logan has the smallest.

I was pretty proud of myself for finding that tiny little pumpkin.  And I'm pretty happy about how cute the three of them look holding their pumpkins.  We had so much fun we might go back again before the month is over.

Sleeping Baby

Logan has slept the last three nights in his crib, and he stayed in his crib the whole night.  Pretty much every night he was in the bassinet in our room he would usually end up in bed with me at some point.  But since moving him to the crib he has slept all night in there, and has only gotten up once to eat during the night.  Last night he slept from 9pm-5am.  I'm counting that as his first time sleeping through the night.  I know it's only three nights and he'll probably start sleeping terribly again in a few more days, but for now I will enjoy it.

I LOVE sleeping babies!  They are just so cute and sweet when they are sleeping.

 Probably on my top 10 list of favorite things.  And they give me an excuse to take pictures of sleeping babies - another one of my favorite things!

I might be a little obsessed with taking pictures of sleeping babies.

Logan VS Lucas Comparison

I was going through some baby pictures of Lucas to see how he and Logan compare and I was surprised by how similar they are.  Lucas was looking at the pictures with me and he thought they were of Logan.  When I actually put the pictures side by side I can definitely tell the difference, but they sure do look a lot alike.  Can you tell who is who?

First picture Lucas is on top, second Lucas is on the left, and third Lucas is on the right.  Lucas and Logan act a lot alike as newborns too, which is funny because the pregnancies were so similar.  They both hated/hate being swaddled, and neither of them was/is as much of an angel as Paige - but I don't think it's possible to have another baby as perfect as Paige.  And they both gained a ton of weight in the beginning.  We had Logan's first dr appointment today and he weighs 9lbs, 15 oz.  He's gained a pound and a half in three weeks.  Overall Logan has been pretty good.  It's easier with second and third babies because you know what you're doing.  With Lucas we were just clueless.  We are starting to get into a rhythm and I'm starting to get used to three kids all on my own.  We've had a lot of help from friends and family too, which is nice!

I've been trying to come up with activities here at home to keep Lucas and Paige entertained without having to turn on the tv.  We've been going to the park too, but when it gets really hot I don't want to go outside.  We've done a lot of playing with sidewalk chalk, and building forts with the couch cushions.  The other day we used the cushions to jump around.  The kids loved this activity - obviously!


Today I decided to make a color scavenger hunt list for Lucas.  I gave him a check list of different colors and told him to find something in each color.  He found a few things in each color and spent almost an hour searching around for them.  These are most of the things he found.  A few of the things were too big for the picture.  He was getting really into it.  We will definitely be repeating this one.

California Academy of Science

We have recently discovered that we can get free museum passes through the library. When it costs $20-$30 per person to go to museums here in California, this is especially awesome. Ryan even went out and got a library card so we can get passes for both of us. We got free passes to go to the California Academy of Science this last weekend. We went a couple years ago, but I have to say I might have a had a little more fun this time around knowing I didn't have to pay to get in.

 Our favorite part of the museum is the aquarium and we spent probably half our visit there.

 The kids were pretty mesmerized by the fish.

Paigey is just so cute!

Ryan and Lucas went to watch an IMAX movie about dark matter, and Paige and I stayed to play by the fish tank.  She enjoyed having a snack and climbing on the stairs.

 We also got to watch a guy cleaning.

 Paige was pretty freaked out at first, but after a while she warmed up to him and kept waving at him.

 After the movie and the aquarium, we went to the butterfly/rainforest exhibit.

 Lucas and Paige loved being able to see the butterflies up close.  They both kept putting out their hands to have the butterflies land on them, and then as soon as the butterflies got anywhere near their hand they would freak out and pull their hand back.  It was pretty funny.

 The roof of the building is pretty cool.  We had to get a picture.

 We packed a lunch and had a little picnic outside on the grass and let the kids run around for a bit.  We went back into the museum to finish up looking at everything and then went back home.  Both the kids fell asleep in the car on the way home.  I think our outing was a success!

Teaching Preschool

I've been the preschool teacher the last two weeks.  This is probably my favorite time teaching so far.  The group we have right now is really good, and the kids liked the stuff we've been learning a lot.  This month we've been learning about ponds and the types of animals, insects, and plants that live in and around ponds.  On my last day of teaching I decided to take the kids on a nature walk to the stream by our house so they could explore something similar to a pond.

Zac was the first one to show up, so he, Lucas and Paige read books while we waited for everyone else.  My friend took Paige for me so I wouldn't have to chase after her on our nature walk.  That was probably another reason why I liked teaching preschool so much this rotation - I had friends take Paige almost every day.  Paige has a lot of energy these days and is an expert at getting into trouble so she's a bit of a handful.  Teaching preschool is almost easier than having to take care of Paige!

Here's Lucas and Alyse inspecting the water for tadpoles.  We were really hoping to find some to catch.

We had little plastic containers and spoons to gather up samples of plants and mud from the pond to make our own mini ponds.  I scooped up algae and muck for the kids.  Some of them were more excited about it than others.  Here's my cute little preschoolers.  We were missing one of our usual kids.  I like having such a small class to teach and they are a pretty well behaved group.

And here is Lucas's mini pond.  He had a fun time tromping through the grass, exploring for stuff to add to his collection.

And as always, we ended class with snack time.  I made the kids popcorn and they ate it like frogs by sticking their tongues to the popcorn.  We had a fun two weeks!

Just Like Mommy

We've been bad at taking photos and updating the blog lately.  I have been working on nursery decorations for the new baby that I hope to post soon, though.  Paige has been doing a lot of funny things lately that I wanted document.  It's funny because most of these things are things that I did when I was a baby.

She has been making the most ridiculous faces lately.  Some of them are silly, but most of them are grumpy faces.  My mom told me I used to make the grumpiest faces at the doctor when I was a baby, and I have a pretty good grumpy/crusty stare I use as an adult to put people in their place.  I'm sure she means these faces to put us in our places, but I just laugh every time she makes one.

Paige and Lucas have been playing a little better lately.  He still doesn't let her do much or touch pretty much any of his toys, but every once in a while he makes up a game for them to play and she plays right along with him.  It's pretty cute.

Paige and Lucas have both been really in to dancing lately.  Paige's favorite is dancing on top of the table.  I loved dancing when I was a baby and would always dance on the table for everyone.  Another way that Paige is just like her mommy.  I tried to get pictures or a video this morning but this is the best I got.  I swear these kids will dance for hours but as soon as I pull out the camera, all of a sudden they are done and will refuse to dance any longer.

I did get a video of them dancing in their room a few weeks ago.  Paige usually gets way more into the dancing, but since I pulled out the camera, she decided to just play with her phone.  Go figure.  Oh well, at least for part of it she's showing off her moves.

Preschool Field Trip to the Fire Station

We went on a preschool field trip to the fire station yesterday.  The kids had a lot of fun.  When we first got there we rang the door bell, but no one answered, then a minute or so later we saw the fire truck pulling up.  While we were waiting for the firemen to climb out of the truck and come over, they got a call and had to leave again.  We got to see them turn on their sirens and pull out, which was fun for the kids, but then after about another minute they were pretty bored.  We kept them busy by taking pictures and playing in the bushes.

Luckily the fire truck came back pretty quickly and then they let us in for the tour.  The kids had fun looking at all the cool tools the truck had on it, and climbing in to sit inside.  The firemen doing the tour were pretty good at keeping the kids entertained, and rolling with some of the random comments and questions the kids had.  They also had one guy put on all his gear and mask to show the kids what a fireman would look like if he was coming into your house to save you from a fire.  I always think that part is so awesome, and such a good idea.  Here's almost the whole group in front of the fire truck.

 We also learned what the difference between a fire truck and a fire engine is.  A fire truck has the big hydraulic ladder attached to the top, and a fire engine is equipped with a water tank and pump.  It was a fun field trip.

We've been really busy this month and I realized I haven't really updated the blog at all.  The things we've been busy with aren't really very blog worthy, or I forgot to take pictures.  There is something we've been doing a lot lately, though, and that is having homemade smoothies.  Both of my kids are amazing eaters for about the first year and a half of their lives, and then they just decide one day that they don't like food anymore.  Paige used to eat like 8 chicken nuggets in one sitting and still eat a whole banana and a bunch of carrots, and now it's like pulling teeth to get her to finish just 2 chicken nuggets.  Both kids pretty much refuse breakfast altogether and Lucas literally starts crying almost every time I ask him what he wants to eat in the morning.  But we discovered that both of them love smoothies and will eat them anytime, so now I just make smoothies every morning for breakfast.  I can sneak stuff like oatmeal, spinach, carrots, and all sorts of healthy stuff in there, and they just gobble it up.  Aside from having to clean the blender once or twice every day, it makes my life a whole lot easier.

I love their bed hair.  To be honest that is Paige's normal hair; she looks so mangy sometimes.  She's adorable with pony tails if she ever lets me do them, though.

Last Year and Now

My friend posted a picture of her two kids on the slide last January and this January to show how they had grown and I thought it was cute so I decided to do one too.  Paige is whole lot bigger now than she was last year at 4 months.

 

She doesn't really ride on Lucas's lap anymore.  This is how they go down the slide now.

 Paige loves the slide and she will climb the stairs, or more recently the ladder which scares me every time, and go down the slide all by herself.  She's getting so big!

We get blossoms on the tree outside our house around this time every year, although this year I think they might be two or three weeks early.  I decided to play around with the new lens that we got for Christmas and take some pretty pictures of them.

 The tree is swarming with bees which excites and terrifies Lucas all at the same time.