Christmas Fun!

The boys had such a good time with their cousins and Mimi and Grandpa at Christmas! It was two days of non-stop play! :) The cousins were getting ready to leave to go back home in this pic - that's why the boys are still in their pj's and their cousins were dressed and ready to go! We miss them already!

Almost 30...

I usually post about the boys, but today I have been pondering the fact that I will soon be 30 years old. Several of my friends have given me a hard time about it, but I've definitely decided to embrace this next chapter in my life. Questions flood my mind...Am I where I want to be in life? What goals do I have for the next few years of life? There are too many to write about...but I am excited about the future. One thing I can definitely do is be thankful. I am thankful for my husband, for my boys, for my parents, my husband's parents, for our siblings and their families, good friends, and the list goes on! What are the most important things in life? The people that we are surrounded by, whether they are family, friends, or someone we have yet to meet...besides God and our relationship with him, the people in our lives are by far the most important!

Here is a pic of my guys on Christmas Eve...watching Sesame street and eating special snacks...for their Grammy and Mom!! Micah can pack away the popcorn! Both boys were so cute to watch. :) Enjoy!

Dancing and Hot Chocolate!

On Christmas Eve, we always watch "Christmas Eve on Sesame Street" and eat finger foods. The boys really enjoyed it this year! Joshua was able to enjoy hot chocolate in his new special mug from his Aunt Sarah and Uncle Jeff (it has a snowman face on it, but he had it turned the wrong way!). Micah even got into it and really enjoyed snacking on popcorn from his own little bowl! What a cutie!
The next morning, they woke up early and tore into their stockings and then their presents. Neil gave me a Toby Mac CD, so we were rocking...Micah was dancing as well, as you can see in the picture above! What a fun Christmas it has been!

Reindeer Snacks and Christmas Trees

The other day, Joshua and I made Reindeer snacks. He really liked the idea of it, but when it came down to it, wasn't so fond of the actual snack. He separately likes peanut butter, bread, raisins, cranberries, and pretzels, but combined he wasn't so thrilled. I think it's because there was no jelly with the peanut butter! Maybe next time we'll give the reindeer some spots (of jelly)!
One of Micah's favorite things to do right now is to go downstairs and poke at the Christmas tree and ornaments. He's been doing a fairly good job of not trying to rip ornaments off, and I often will hand him a soft ornament to hold while he "explores" the tree! He loves the lights, especially. If we're out driving past dark and he spies Christmas lights, then he gets SO excited!

More Box Play

We aquired another box the other day, and Micah really enjoyed playing in it. But, it was not as sturdy as the last one and only made it a couple of days! Oh well!

New Videos!

I finally had a chance to upload some videos! A couple of the were taken at the aquarium. The other two were from last Sunday when we walked up to the park. You can always view older videos on my youtube account: kcutsinger.
Enjoy! :)

It's Christmas at our house...

...and you can tell because we've been making cookies and paper snowflakes! The cookies in the top picture were for Neil's customers. I had only iced a few of the trees at this point. Just to give you an idea of how many I baked, this is only half of them! I'm sure that by now most of the cookies have already been consumed...so much for all of that hard work! :) Just joking! If they weren't being eaten, then I didn't do a good job! The boys have been able to share in decorating and, more importantly, the eating!

Today, Joshua and I made paper snowflakes together! Much fun! I think he likes making them just because he gets to use his scissors! :)

Cabin Fever Days...

It has been cold here (we may have gotten over 20 today-that's cold to me), so the boys and I haven't gotten out much the past couple of days. I think we have a bit of cabin fever going on. I've been busy baking goodies for Neil's customers and the boys are going crazy. Fun times! :) Actually, the boys have been great, all things considered. And I scaled down my baking this year, so that it wouldn't be stressful. On the menu are sugar cookies with frosting (of course), chocolate peanut butter fudge with peanut butter glaze, and a new recipe, Cranberry-Almond Bark. They've all turned out well, and I have one more batch (times 3) of cookies to make and I'll be done for the moment! Yeah!

For those looking for pics/videos of the boys...hang in there. I have several to download, but have not had the chance! So, check back soon! Have a great evening!

All Gone

We visited some friends last week, and the boys were each given a container of M&M's. The boys loved these, of course, and what made it more fun for Micah was opening and closing the container. Here is Micah looking down into his empty container, wishing that there were more M&M's to eat. He has continued to play with it, putting things in and then pouring them out. Behind him, you can kind-of see our Christmas tree. I haven't taken an official tree picture yet...maybe today! :)

Cute Feet!

Little baby toes and feet are so hard to resist! These are Micah's, taken while reading a book with his Daddy! The boy loves to have books read to him, and he is always wiggling his cute, little toes! :)

Quote of the Day!

Joshua was watching a short video about scuba diving and such this morning while I was getting ready. He looked up at me after awhile and said, "Next time I go boating, I'm going to have to bring my snorkel gear!" I have a son that is so much like his father (and papa)!

On a side note, I took the boys shopping with me today, which I hardly ever do. And they did a great job! What troopers! I even had one lady comment about how brave I was to take two boys shopping. How funny!

What blessings we have been given!

The weekend after thanksgiving, Neil and I had gotten home from the store, put the groceries away and were preparing lunch. We noticed how much fresh fruit we had and were amazed at the freshness and variety! This picture doesn't even show all of the fruit that we came home with that day. What an amazing place we live in today, that we can have wonderful fresh fruit year round. I am so thankful for the simple blessing of having a bowl overflowing with fresh produce!

Catching up...

I didn't realize that it had been so long since I had downloaded pictures from my camera. I meant to post these pics two weeks ago. It's been a bit crazy around here and I have been distracted. Well, better late than never.

The first pic is our "thankful turkey" that we did at Thanksgiving. Joshua and I asked everyone what they were thankful for and then wrote it down on a turkey "feather". Joshua even wrote out some of the words himself, with a bit of help, of course!

The other pic is of the boys thanksgiving artwork. We went outside and gathered leaves, then drew around their hand, colored a bit, and then glued (is that spelled right?) on the leaves. Joshua insisted on using ALL of the leaves he had collected, so his was weighted down and quite thick! :) It is quite obvious which turkey was done by a meticulous mother (helping a 1 year old) and which was done by a 3 year old! We had bunches of fun!

The reason we celebrate!

Tonight, as I was getting Joshua ready for bed, we talked about Jesus and how He is the reason that we celebrate Christmas. I can't tell you what started the conversation, but I can tell you that Joshua was very interested in what we were talking about. We do advent readings together most mornings, and then we have a corresponding ornament that represents the story that we read about that goes on a little christmas tree. Every story, even though we are working through the old testament, obviously leads right back to Jesus. It is so exciting to be sharing this with Joshua and to observe him beginning to understand that there is so much more to this man called Jesus than just a few songs and prayers.

Orange Juice!

The boys and I were sitting at breakfast this morning, the boys drinking their juice and me drinking my coffee (of course)! Neil was sitting in the big chair close by. I turned to hand Micah his juice, and as plain as day, he said "orange juice"! It took all of us by surprise, even Joshua. As we congratulated Micah on his new word, orange, he just sat there feeling very proud of himself. What a fun little moment! And one of the best parts about the whole thing for me was that Joshua enjoyed it and was excited for his brother. :)

This and That

We've had a crazy week, and I haven't been in the picture taking mood. So, here are some pics from a week or so ago. The frog artwork is a Joshua original. I helped him cut the frog picture out of a magazine and then he did the rest. He also spelled his name all by himself, and I helped him spell out the word frog (but he did the writing)!! I don't know if you can see the writing, as it barely shows up on the picture, but he did a great job! The picture is currently hanging in his room. The other picture is of Micah during bathtime. He loves his time to splash and explore in the tub! :) Have a great weekend!

You won't believe this...

My older son just got a CREDIT CARD offer in the mail today. It was addressed to him. I am a bit shocked and disgusted at the thought of it. Enough said.

Joshua at Thanksgiving!

Like I promised, here are a couple of pictures of Joshua on Thanksgiving! Again, what a blessed time we had with our family! I am so thankful to have such a wonderful family!

Before I forget...

Micah ate his first whole apple, skin and all. It was small, and it was a softer apple than some. And I was supervising him the entire time, for those of you worried about him choking. :) He gestured that he wanted a whole apple, so I gave it to him to see what would happen. He obviously has watched his brother and daddy, because he knew exactly what to do! It was so funny to watch!

We've been getting into the holiday spirit and have been listening to all of our christmas music. Yesterday, Neil and I heard Joshua upstairs singing "Baby it's cold outside..." He was getting the notes right and everything. It was so fun to hear him singing on his own! I have to say, our boys love music!

Micah on Thanksgiving

Here are a couple of pictures taken of Micah on Thanksgiving. We were out throwing this "bumper" for Ellie. Micah would throw it (all of 3 feet) and Ellie was very patient - usually- to wait until he had thrown it to try and get it. They had a blast together! :)

Riding in the car!

We went to my parents house for Thanksgiving and had a great time. It is always a blessing to be surrounded by family, although we wish we could have been with ALL of our family, not just a portion of it. :)

I have several fun pictures from our time there, but here are a couple to start off with. These were taken on our way over on Thursday morning!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I know it's a day early, but I wanted to wish every one a very happy Thanksgiving. I hope that you are able to spend the day with loved ones! I have so much to be thankful for, more than could ever be written in a blog. Have a great day tomorrow! :)

Riding and Pushing

Joshua and I downloaded two new videos today. One is of multi-talented Joshua, riding his bike and snorkeling. The other is of Micah finally figuring out how to push his toy while walking! :)

Wrestling with Daddy!

The boys love to wrestle with their daddy! Both Joshua and Micah get in on the action and pounce on Neil. Somehow, he manages to "wrestle" both of them, but keep the boys from hurting each other accidently! They always have a blast! What a Dad!

Scuba Diver in the Making!

Joshua spent a good part of Saturday wearing this mask and snorkel! He even rode his bike around for awhile with it on (of which I do have a video of...so maybe you'll see that one, too!). One of his favorite parts about being "Scuba Joshua" was the sounds he could make through the snorkel tube. Surprisingly, what ended his play time with it is that he had stuffed a bunch of dirt inside the snorkel while playing outside. And I just haven't gotten around to washing it out!

New Words and Sounds!

Micah is trying hard to talk and say words. There are already many things that we can recognize or understand what he is trying to say. He has always called the milk in his cup "juice" for some reason, although he rarely gets juice. But this morning, when I asked him if he could say milk, he nodded his head yes and then said "k" or the sound that the k makes at the end of the word milk. That was definitely something new for him. He has a word that is similar to blanket, says "this" quite often, and the list goes on. He was saying "thank you", but has dropped that for the moment. When he's upset, he calls for "mama", and when he's happy and looking for Neil, he practically yells "dada". "Book" and "look" have been in his vocab for a long time now.

As for trying to make the sounds of things, some new ones are the sound of an airplane, a cat's meow, a horse, and an elephant. He's already proficient at a dog's bark and a duck's quack! :) The elephant sound is funny because he tries to raise his arm like the trunk of an elephant. So cute!

This is such a fun, yet sometimes frustrating phase to be in. I enjoy the newness of his words and phrases, but as all of you know who have children, it's sometimes hard to try to communicate. This morning, we spent several minutes trying to figure out which book he wanted to read. After my pulling out several and asking him if he wanted to read them, we finally found the right one. It's amazing that he has preferences already!

More videos!

I just uploaded two more videos. One is of more box fun with the boys! It's the gift, that wasn't really a gift, that just keeps giving! :) The other video is of Joshua learning to climb trees at the park the other day! There is a tree in our yard that he loves to climb. The only problem is that it's not a very big tree (think Charlie Brown tree) and he likes to try to go higher than I would prefer! Sometimes it's hard to find the balance between being a protective parent and letting him test his limits!

Brrrr!

We met some friends at the park today. Yesterday, the weather was beautiful, almost warm. Today, it is 50 and windy, with winds from the north. Thankfully, it is still sunny! It's hard to make the shift from just layering up to wearing big coats, hats, gloves, etc. Regardless, we had a good time and it wore the boys out! That's a bonus for me, as it means they are both currently sleeping! Enjoy your day! :)

The Joy of Reading

I am so thankful that both of my boys love books! Joshua thoroughly enjoys our trips to the library and then reading the books the rest of the week. He is totally into non-fiction these days, and absolutely soaks up everything that we learn. Micah is really starting to get excited about books, also. Yesterday, while I was trying to get Joshua situated for his rest time, Micah followed me around with a book that he wanted to read. He must have followed me, holding the book up in the air, for a solid three minutes before I could scoop him up to read it! What a precious moment! And this morning while Joshua and I were eating breakfast, Micah walked around the room several times with a book in hand, coming back to me at least three times for me to read it to him! :) I love it!

All they want for Christmas...

...is a nice, sturdy box!! This box has brought hours and hours of fun for the boys. It has been a car, a storage container, something to decorate, a place to hide in, and much more! :) It never ceases to amaze me how something so simple can provide so much entertainment!

Video Update

I uploaded several new videos from the past week. It's amazing to me how a week can go by, and if i'm not intentional about the things that I would like to get done, then, well, they don't get done. :) You can find the new videos on my video bar. Enjoy!

A Walk Down Memory Lane

While Joshua and I were hanging out this afternoon, we decided to go through some of his pictures when he was as old as Micah is now - about 14 months. I pulled up some pictures from May of 2006. Wow. That seems like so long ago. I thought others might enjoy seeing them as well! :)

Neil and I were reminiscing about the blackberry patch we had at our house in AR. At not much older than 15 months, Joshua would go straight for those blackberry bushes and eat whatever berries he could find - ripe OR green! And those thorns didn't seem to matter at all! Joshua seems to forever have a deep love for blackberries! On Tuesday night, Neil took Joshua to Sam's to pick up a few of the bulk items we get there, and Joshua spied a container of blackberries. Those blackberries made it home with the guys, and they didn't last 24 hours in our house! YUM!

Let's go back a bit...

A friend from church sent me some pictures of Joshua that were taken at our Fall Festival. Here is one with his friend, Bailey! They had such a fun time and always enjoy seeing each other at church! :) She was "Super Bailey" and Joshua was Superman! Needless to say, they thought it was a blast!

Micah was sick for a good part of the weekend, but is doing better now. Before he got really bad, though, we did manage to make it to a hockey game. The boys really enjoyed it and we made it through two of three periods, which says alot, since Micah is usually in bed by 7:30!

Last night, Micah was finally feeling better, and we all needed to get out of the house. We headed over to our local Bass Pro, which is already completely decked out for Christmas! They had a huge kids area with games, free photos with Santa, and more! They where also showcasing some of their more pricey christmas gifts for kids, of course. Both boys had their pictures taken with Santa. This is the first time ever for either of them. Joshua was unsure, but the prospect of getting a candy cane helped him to overcome any fears. Micah, on the other hand, was not a happy camper! All in all, we had a good time, and didn't even have to spend any money! :)

At the farm

Yesterday we went with our Friday playgroup to tour a local farm. We had a great time, but it was cold and windy! Thankfully, we were bundled up! The boys got to call the cows, which they thought was a blast. That morning, before we left, Neil jokingly told Joshua to have fun "wrestling the pigs". After we saw the cows, Joshua then asked the farmer where his pigs where, as he wanted to go "wrestle one"! So funny! He doesn't miss a thing!

I couldn't resist!

It's almost that time again...time for haircuts. The boys generally do well with it, although Micah is a bit of a challenge. I couldn't resist posting this picture. It is from two haircuts ago, and they both got short cuts. I had been trying to let Joshua's grow out a bit on top, but all it does is stick up in the back. So, we might go back to short cuts for awhile. Any tips on how to cut it so that it won't stick straight up in the back? :) By the way, I couldn't get them to look at the camera because they were busy watching a video, which is about the only way I can get their hair cut these days!

No pics, just thoughts...

What a busy, fun, and challenging week it has been. We haven't really done much, but I've been trying to spend more undivided time with the boys, which means that I don't get as much done during the day. Micah does not sleep that much, and when he is awake, he's pretty high maintenance. So, that leaves Joshua and I very little time to spend together. I've noticed lately that this has been taking it's toll on Joshua. I'm going to have to get more creative with the time we have...oh, the joys of parenthood.

On a completely unrelated topic, we had another flat tire on the 4runner this week. I can't even begin to tell you how many flats we've had in the nearly two years we've lived here. The roads here are horrible. I know there are worse things in the world, and it's not that big a deal. We've even come to laugh at it, as it occurs so frequently. Thankfully, I had just gotten home from running an errand when I noticed the sound of air slowly leaking out. Joshua thinks it's "cool" and then goes off to ride his bike and have a "flat", which he then has to fix, of course! What a boy!

More Park Pics

Park Play

Yesterday we headed to the park up the street from our house. It's a part of the elementary school there, so we can only go on the weekends and in the afternoons after school has let out. With the days getting shorter, it's going to be more difficult to make it up there during the week. But both the boys love to play there, and we get some exercise on the way there and back. I took my camera this time and snapped over a hundred shots of them playing! Wow, so much, all for the perfect shot! Here are some pics from our excursion!

Dancing Spiderman and more...

Last Friday night we went to a fall festival at a local church that some friends go to. Joshua got to play games, bounce in a big blow up bounce game, and do other fun things. Micah pretty much clung to a basketball from one of the games all night long! They both got lots of special treats! I took the video camera instead of the Nikon because it is small and easy to handle. This was great, but I also didn't get many good shots of the boys in their costumes. We did get a short family video of Neil with the boys. There is another new video of Micah dancing and clapping to the music! So fun!!

Maybe this is a good time to post a disclaimer: I am not that good with the video camera. I am much more at home with my manual camera in my hands! :) So, bear with me as I try to become more proficient at it! There is great value in both mediums, and I really want to become better at capturing the boys, both on camera and on video!

Lightning McQueen and Grasshoppers!

Today was an eventful day for Micah! He finally figured out how to get onto the Lightning McQueen riding toy ALL BY HIMSELF! He was so pleased with himself and had a grand time getting on and off, over and over again! It takes quite a bit of practice to figure out how to swing the leg over. I was impressed! :)

As for Joshua, the kid is amazing. He manages to scoop up bugs that other kids can only dream of! In the picture above, he is showing off the catch of the day, a grasshopper. Those critters can be difficult to catch, but he seems to do it with the greatest of ease, just like his Daddy!

The boys seemed to handle the time change okay. Thankfully, they only got up at 6:15 am. I was worred that it would be 5:15 a.m.! We'll see how they do the rest of the week. After dinner tonight, I voiced to Neil that I would miss our evening walk. He suggested that we should go anyway, even though it was pitch black outside. So, we grabbed a flashlight and went on a "tree frog hunt"! The boys thought that our evening walk was a blast!

Superman!

One more post before bedtime... Earlier today, Joshua was practicing his Superman routine of leaping into the chair and then flipping over onto the floor. The first time he did this, I happened to have the video camera on, though I didn't catch all of it on video. We got several other attempts on video, but the first was the best, mostly because Joshua was going so fast and his landing took him by surprise! This video is also on the video bar below.

The Aquarium

One of our favorite places to go is to the Aquarium! This past week we went with some friends and had a great time. I asked Joshua what his favorite part was this time and he said that the anacondas and the bullfrogs were the best! Since then, every blanket in the house has become a "snake". They all have names and he even curls them up to "tuck" them in for bed. Our future should be interesting. :) Neil has kept many critters since we have been married. And even though I've handled snakes before, I've always asked Neil to not bring any home. I have a feeling that as Joshua gets older I'll have to rethink that rule! We'll see! I would rather know about a snake in my house than not know and be surprised! :)

Note: There's a video from the aquarium on the video bar!

Storytime

Yesterday the boys were able to dress up in their costumes for storytime! They had a great time and Ms. Becky, the librarian, even had cookies and special treats for all of the kids! Before storytime began, Joshua went hunting for books about Frogs. By the time we found some, he had already picked out several books. Needless to say, the book bag was VERY full yesterday!

What did God make?

Tonight as I was getting Joshua ready for bed, he asked me if God created the trees, frogs, children, our family, and the list goes on... This went on for several minutes. Then he asked me HOW God created the trees. I told him that I didn't know how, but I knew that He just did. Then I told him that one day, he could ask God that same question. Joshua answered, "I think God made the trees, one by one"! What a wonderful answer from such a sweet boy. It is refreshing to hear him talk about God and ask questions like this!

Hot Chocolate!

Ever since our last visit to Mimi and Grandpa's house, Joshua has been very interested in Hot Chocolate. So, last week on a chilly afternoon, we made our own! Joshua helped and then really enjoyed "sipping" it until it was gone! We did put an ice cube in it to cool it off. He loved every minute of it and it was a fun afternoon in the kitchen with him!

Micah is walking!

The big news on the home front is that Micah is walking and actually has been for about two weeks now. He's really starting to take off now and is doing much better with balance. He's had some pretty funny moments trying to maintain his balance. I've gotten a couple of videos uploaded! You can see them at the bottom of the page! I haven't figured out if I can embed a single video to an actual post, or if it has to go on the "video bar". Any help or suggestions would be appreciated!

A fresh start!

I've blogged before, but it's been awhile. So much has happened since that time...two kids, several moves cross county...more than can be mentioned in an opening post! As with most things these days, it always seems to take a long time to get anything done. I've wanted to start up a blog again for a couple of months. Well, today is the day!