The Naked Chef

I'm sure you've heard of Jamie Oliver and how he found his fame as "The Naked Chef". We have our own version here. This weekend Allison, Aidan, and Daddy made Ragu Bolognese. It was yummy!

Stirring the Sauce

Testing the Pasta

Finished Product

Kind Act #10

Yesterday while I was at cotillion Daddy took Allison and Aidan to the park. Allison picked up the trash off the ground as our kind act #10. Aidan refused to help out with this one. He just wanted to tackle Allison instead.

Ice Princess

Today Allison learned how to ice skate. Papa Jerry and I took her to Memorial City Mall, and after about twenty minutes of instruction she was moving on her own.

3-Year Stats Lead to Kind Act #9

On Wednesday Aidan went in for his three-year well visit. The day after his actual birthday we were in the doctor's office, but it was because he was sick. We finally made it back in a month and two days later.

Here are his stats:

Weight: 35 lbs (78th %)

Height: 3'3" (80th%)

The amazing thing about his height is that within that one month and two days he grew four inches. Tyler is convinced he was not measured correctly back in December, but I'm pretty sure he was. Both times they had him take off his shoes and he stood up straight. Regardless, that is some serious growth!

I had noticed his 2T pants had suddenly started looking like high-waters about a week ago. Also, some of his shirts were hitting right at the waistline of his pants. Aidan and I went through his clothes and packed up everything that was 2T and too short. The nice looking things went to a friend, and the not-so-nice looking things we donated to charity. Here is Aidan with the bag of nice things.

Kind Act #9: Clothes Donation

Some things about three-year-old Aidan

He loves trains. All types of trains. He will sing, scream, say in a monster voice, "Thomas, Percy, James". He sleeps with some of his trains. He carries his trains around the house with him. He will talk about trains all day long with anyone who will listen. His room is even train-themed. When we were first trying to get him to tell us his name we would ask, "What's your name?" His response would usually be, "choo choo", and then he would laugh.

Aidan is hilarious. He loves an audience, and he loves to make people laugh. He will perform crazy routines and then take a bow. He will come up with it all on his own. One night we were treated to a dance performance by Flash and a princess, which is below. Following that he shed the costume, went to my purse, pulled out my glasses, and proceeded to scribble on paper while talking to us and looking up through the top of the glasses. It was hilarious. We aren't sure how he comes up with some of this stuff.

Aidan loves his sister and affectionately calls her "Sassy". When she's at school he wants to take his nap in her bed. When she gets off the bus he runs to hug her the minute her feet hit the pavement. She really is his best friend, and for the most part they really do get along and play well together.

He is very active and adventurous. He loves to climb, run, jump, dance. When he falls and gets hurt, he's quick to jump up and say "ok" most of the time. The park is one of his favorite places, and he loves Inflatable Katy. We're actually headed there today.

We love our little three-year-old entertainer and cannot wait to see what this year has in store of him! At this growth rate he'll pass me up by Summer.

Snow Day

This morning was Snow Day in our neighborhood. The kids had so much fun sledding and playing at the park.

New Year's Resolutions

Preface - This post will not go into the blog books. :)

I am not one to usually make resolutions on January 1st, but this year, for some unknown reason, I felt the need. I am proud to say that the first one I wrote down was not the typical "I will lose 50 lbs in three months" statement, although something similar will make the list later. There are plenty about my exterior on this list, but my #1 resolution is about my character.

First Resolution - Speak with joy and happiness.

I find myself complaining too much. Of course, it's mostly understandable for each of us to complain. It's normal. I want to focus less on the negative and more on the positive this year. For example, I need to complain less about a very important person. Tyler and I will celebrate our ten year anniversary in June. We dated five and a half years before that. We ARE this family. Sometimes I think life and exteral things get in the way of remembering that. I love this man. He loves me. I could list a million wonderful things about him, and from now on I will focus more on those wonderful things.

Here are a couple of pictures from our honeymoon. It's fun to look back!

Second Resolution - My Plate

Check out my arse in that wet suit! Who's the hottie with the body? I am realistic. I'm 34, not 24. I cannot expect a miracle. I can, however, daily think about what I'm putting in my body. I'm using Livestrong's My Plate app on my IPad. It does help to make me aware of how many calories I'm consuming. This is day four, and I've lost three pounds. If I only lose ten and keep those ten off for a while, that will be an achievement. Baby steps here. Of course I'd love to be at my wedding weight by the tenth anniversary, but I'm not betting on it. Wait, I'm speaking with joy...I will be completely happy with a healthier me regardless of what the scale states.

Third Resolution - Skin Care, Makeup, and Hair

This might seem completely shallow and stupid, but I want to make more of an effort in my appearance. I feel like I've been in new mommy/mommy to toddler phases for six straight years. I kept on making an effort in my clothes, but quite often I did not take care of my skin, put on makeup, and my hair was in some sort of bun thing that I threw up when it was wet. Not a great look. I feel better about myself when I do put a few minutes into the appearance of my entire head, so I am resolving to do that more often.

My first step was to pull up some You Tube videos on eye makeup for 30-year-olds. I have learned I was pretty much doing what I did when I was 23. After watching many videos, this is what I have decided will be my go-to, everyday eye look.

I still need to work on the under-eye circles. Any advice is welcome. I'm sure more sleep would help.

As for my hair, on a whim a month ago I cut my bangs one day. It was impulsive, and I cut them too short. I have been pinning them back quite a bit, but I am going to embrace the bangs. My friend sent me a link to this blog: http://www.thesmallthingsblog.com/. She has great hair tutorial videos, and I learned how to properly style these puppies. Here they are today. They still need to grow a little.

That's it for This Year

Believe me there are plenty more I could add to this list, but I need to keep it obtainable. Of course getting myself to the gym is important, relaxing about money and the budget a little, playing with my kids more in the backyard instead of browsing on Pinterest, and so forth would all make for a better life. I will definitely make efforts to sprinkle it all in, but these are the three areas I vow to think about daily. Number 1 outweighing 2 and 3 by a ton! On that note...Happy New Year! I hope your 2012 is filled with many happy moments and tons of hugs and kisses.

Christmas Pictures

I realized that I didn't post these cute pictures that I took for our Christmas card. They were on the blog header and on facebook, but for them to stay with the kids in their blog books, I need to put them in a post.

This one was the front of our card this year.

Kind Act #8

For Christmas this year Allison drew pictures and made hand-made presents like crazy. She would put them in boxes or envelopes, wrap them, and put bows and tags. It was incredibly sweet, and she spent a ton of time on each one. Here is a Santa hat she made for Daddy.

I am not confident that we will finish by our new deadline, but we will do four more kind acts!

Christmas Whirlwind

This year we had quite the Christmas and New Year's celebrations. The short of it is this...

Dec. 22-24 - Allison and Aidan headed to Omie and Papa Fred's while Mommy and Daddy built the new playset from the grandparents.

Dec. 24 - 25 - Omie and Papa Fred were here for Christmas.

Dec. 26-27 - We drive to Lakeway (Austin) to celebrate Christmas with the Rayburn bunch (Gigi's family)

Dec. 27 - We drive home, and Ross and Corryn come with us from Lakeway. They drove from Denver to Texas on the 22nd.

Dec. 28 - Jan. 4 - Nai Nai and Papa Jerry are here to celebrate Christmas and New Year's.

The long of it is this...

The Playset

The grandparents pitched in to buy Aidan and Allison a new playset for the backyard. Remember the enormous semi in front of the house? This project took us approximately 13.5 hours to build. We actually got along the entire time! We were on a mission. On the second day we built in the rain. It was completely worth it though. Neither one of us slept much Christmas Eve because were so excited to see their reaction.

The boards

Getting close

Omie and Papa Fred brought the kids home on Christmas Eve. They arrived just after it turned dark. Their reaction on Christmas morning when they ran out to see it is on facebook.

We had a nice Christmas brunch and early dinner with Omie and Papa Fred before they headed back to Portland.

Unfortunately I do not have any pictures from the visit to Lakeway. There was a great group picture taken, and when I get it I will update this post. Gigi's sisters, neices, and nephews were there. Allison and Aidan were so excited to see Corryn and Uncle Ross.

Nai Nai and Papa Jerry were here for a week, and we did so many fun things.

We headed to the zoo.

We played musical hoops, duck-duck-goose, and spent a ton of time on the playset and tree swing.

We went to the park and played hide-and-go-seek.

We lit sparklers on New Year's Eve.

I am not going to lie...I'm exhausted. It was incredibly fun, and everyone had a blast. I left a few things out because the editting of this post was taking a while. Thanks to Papa Jerry for many of these great pictures! From start to finish this Christmas break was a great one. Thank you to everyone that made it special near and far. These are two very spoiled little cuties.