It's Harry Potter!

The things kids say...  Howard has been asking to see some baby pictures of me.  I pulled out a scrap book my mom made for me just after Brian and I were married.  It has some wedding pictures, college-era pictures and some baby pictures.  We got to the college pictures and I pointed to a picture of Brian from about 1997.  He was much thinner, longer hair on top and bigger, rounder glasses.  I asked Howard who he thought the picture was of.  I did not expect him to shout with excitement and glee - "It's Harry Potter!"  It is the last thing I expected him to say and I laughed so hard I had tears, which hurt Howard's feelings and he started crying.  I'm not good with the scanner, but I'm going to try and scan the photo this weekend - SO FUNNY!  Brian even got a chuckle out of it and agrees that he does look a little Harry Potter-ish.

A couple pictures of the kiddos from the last couple of days.  Howard asked to jump in the tub with Hazel the other night.  I wonder if he's a little too old to share a tub with anyone, but it was great.  Hazel LOVED having him there to splash with.  :)

LEGOS EVERYWHERE!

I feel like our living room has been taken over by Lego's.  They are EVERYWHERE!  With Hazel starting to be more mobile, we've had a hard time finding a solution to our issue.  Howard loves his Lego's and plays with them most of the time that we are home, so I don't want to make him put them away or keep them in his room.  I've been dreaming about owning this table for a while:

I have the perfect spot in mind for it in our living room.  The downside - the cost.  BUT, I have finally convinced Brian we need it and we've made room for it in our budget.  It should be here the week before Howard's birthday and I can't wait!!!!

The Lego Video

Darn blog spot.  I have tried several times to upload Howard's how-to video and I think it's just too long.  8 minuutes worth of video can't be handled by the blogosphere - oh well.  I included a picture of Howard with his newest Lego's received over the Easter weekend, from the Easter bunny, of course.

Speaking of Easter, we had a great weekend.  The weather was AMAZING!  Saturday morning we aerated and power raked our yard.  We left the mess to clean up until after 2 of Howard's soccer games and soccer pictures.  When we got home, the clean-up began and holy smokes, it took a lot!  We filled up several yard garbage bags of power-raked grass (almost 300 lbs worth according to the Waste to Energy people who kindly took it off our hands).  We filled up the back of the pick-up.  The work was worth it - our yard is looking GREAT!  Now begins the dubious task of deciding what we are going to do with the over-grown edges around our yard.

Sunday (Easter), the weather was even more beautiful than Saturday!  We decided to take the kids out for a bike ride on the Centennial Trail after hunting eggs and checking out the goods from the Easter Bunny.  Howard LOVES riding bikes, so we took his too and Hazel in the bike trailer.  Howard rode all 4 miles and was pooped out after the ride.  He slept so well last night.  :)  We couldn't have asked for nicer riding weather. Our hour long ride was perfect!  Hazel seemed to enjoy the bike trailer, she slept for the last half of the trip.  We tried to find a small enough helmet for her, but ended up letting her ride without one, as the smallest one we had was too big as you may be able to see in the pictures.  We are hoping for many  more weekends of weather like we had last weekend!

HAIR!

Hazel's hair has been coming in SO nicely.  The last week or so it has become noticeably longer and thicker.  It looks so cute!  Howard was as bald as a cue ball for the first 9 months, so this is quite a change from him.  My sister, mom & sister-in-law joked about buying these silly baby wigs (that look like Donald Trump's hair).  I don't think she needs one, and really, she could be a hair model for them.  :)

Hazel & I had our 4th mommy & me swim lesson today!  She is doing great, she made it all the way under the water today - a little scary for mom, but she did great.  I love to watch her splash and she seems to really enjoy laying on her back (with her head resting on one of my shoulders).  I can't take pictures of us, but I might bug the instructor to help us out with a photo or two during the next lesson.

Hazel also has 4 teeth now!!!  She has the bottom middle two and the top middle two!  She's quite the little chomper.  We are glad the top one's finally came in, she hasn't been eating solids all that well while cutting the teeth, so I'm hoping she picks back up on the solids.

Next time on the blog - Howard's homemade Lego video.  Yeah, that's right - a HOMEMADE LEGO VIDEO!  They will rock your world.  :)

Snow & an old laundry basket

Today is April 19th and we woke up to SNOW!  WHAT?  Who ordered this in mid-April?  Yesterday afternoon it started snowing very hard, with no sign of letting up.  I know it's just a little snow.  And I know it will melt.  And I know in two months the thought of snow will be the furthest thing from my mind.  But really... snow?  If it hadn't been for Hazel's smiley little cheeks, I might have considered crawling into bed, under the covers for 6 weeks of hibernation.  SPRING, WHERE ARE YOU????

DJ Howard

Oooops, I posted the last blog on accident, without DJ Howard!  Howard adores the Bubble Guppies (a cartoon on Nick Jr).  There is an episode all about music and instruments.  I've watched it several times with Howard and he keeps telling me he wants DJ clothes, like Gil (one of the character) has.  When I ask him what they look like, he just points to Gil on TV.  The other night he came out of his bedroom with a HUGE smile on his face because he had a DJ shirt on (and yes, he had just showered and combed his own hair)!  I had to very hard to not laugh.  He thought he was the real McCoy - a real DJ!  This is one of those stories and pictures he is going to hate when he's about 17.

SPRING BREAK, DJ Howard and visitors

Spring Break has been over for a week now, so I thought it would be a perfect time to FINALLY share some of the fun stuff we did during break and the week since.  First, let me just say, I love spring break.  I remember looking forward to it when I was in school.  It's the perfect time of year for a break.  It feels like winter is finally coming to an end and with a little chance, the weather will be great for us to start celebrating spring.

With as much as Howard loves school, he wasn't that excited to take a break from it.  I signed him up for a 2 day Dinosaur Explorer class at Mobius (kids museum).  The class ran for 2 hours each day.  Although some of the craft were a bit easy, he enjoyed playing with the other kids and learning more about Dinosaurs.  The instructor was fantastic!  She was great with the kids.  We have a bunch of fun crafts hanging around the house.  And we couldn't be at Mobius for 2 days of classes without playing (and napping for Hazel).

We spent a few days with my mom, dad and nephew (Nick) who is living with my parents.  (See previous hiking post!)  The week BEFORE spring break, my brother & sister in law were in town (from San Diego) for a memorial service for one of my brother's best friends.  While they were visiting, my sister-in-law's father passed away.  He had been sick with cancer for some time, however he took a very sudden and tragic turn for the worst while they were here.  So, my brother ended up staying with us for a couple of days while Mandy (sister in law) was with family in Montana.  Despite the sadness that brought them to us, we LOVED seeing my brother, aka - Uncle Dan!  And who wouldn't love seeing him when he brings 2 new sets of legos for a certain 4-year-old that lives here.  :)  We thoroughly enjoyed our time with Dan.

Saddle Rock Hikes

We had a fantastic Spring Break week.  I have so much to write about our Spring Break, but feel like 2 days of the break deserve their own post, so here it is.  For a couple of days of break, we went to Wenatchee to stay with my parents.  This was especially exciting for Howard because my 12-year-old nephew, Nick lives with my parents.  Nick walks on water in Howard's eyes.  They both LOVE legos and play so well together.  Anyway, my parents live very close to several hiking trails near the Saddle Ridge area.  The Saddle Ridge looks just like a horse saddle.  You'll see some pictures below.

For our first day of "hiking", we started out on a horse trail.  It's a trail that hikers with horses start out on, because it's so wide (it's an old mining road).  We took several trails off the road to make our own hike.  We hiked for 2.5 hours.  My mom, nephew, Howard, Hazel and I explored and took our time checking all the neat things out.  We forgot anything to carry Hazel in, so she got to ride in the umbrella stroller.  It was interesting, but we made it work.  She slept most of time and didn't seem to mind the bumpy ride.  Howard & Nick found so many cool things to play with - cat tails, an old wrecked car, rocks and sticks to name a few.  

For my mom & I, the coolest part of Day 1 of hiking was finding a cool little treasure box.  We were looking for a bowled-out rock to give the dog (Athena) some water during our snack break.  In digging through a small pile of rocks, we found a small container with a notebook and some other random things in it.  The notebook had the names and dates others had found the box.  We aren't sure if it was a Geo-Cache, but we were pretty proud for finding it without any gadgets.  We left all our names and the date in the notebook.  The previous entry was 2-10-10, over a year ago!

Day 2 of hiking, I took Howard, Nick and Athena on a much tougher high, up to Saddle Ridge.  It's a very steep but somewhat short hike.  It took up about an hour and 15 minutes to get to the top and about 20 minutes to get down.  All our focus and energy was put into climbing.  We saw lots of neat stuff, including someone walking 3 mini horses, lots of fun sticks and some GIRLS (or at least that was the neat part of Nick, the 12-year-old nephew).

All in all, we had an awesome 2 days of FUN and hiking.  My legs are finally feeling better, but the downhill climb from day 2 just about killed my legs.  I love creating these special memories with family!

When will it ever warm up???

Hazel has been so icky the last few days.  We know for sure she's teething, as we can see one of her top teeth through the skin, but she screams if we try to help push it through.  On top of that, I suspect she has a touch of a cold, she is just crusted over (for lack of a better description).  She's been napping great though, which has been our saving grace.  This past week my dad was in Spokane for some detective training and stayed with us for 5 days.  He brought their new puppy (5 months old), Athena.  Hazel LOVED having her around to lick her toes and fingers.  Howard wasn't too sure about such a big dog.  He kept telling us he wants a "Shima" dog, which is a very small breed of dogs that several preschool families have.  While the dog was here, Hazel started scooting around some more, she's starting to really get around.  We're really having to pay attention to choking hazards and baby-proofing.

We are beyond ready for warmer weather.  Howard has been taking advantage of the few nicer/warmer/no-rain days to play outside as much as possible!  We have some great neighbor kids who are older, but always include Howard in tag, rolling down the hill or just picking weeds.  The rain has been TERRIBLE, so much!  I heard on the news the other day that this March was the 3rd wettest on record.  We have had a couple of estimates done on having our backyard re-done and plan to have a piece of play equipment installed sometime this summer.  It will be nice to play at home in our own yard (not to mention saving on gas for trips to the park).  Howard wants a back yard like his friend Jacob, with a sandbox and a fence he can see through.  :)

Howard played a great April Fools joke on his teacher, Ms. Jean.  If you have read the April issue of Disney's Family Fun, maybe you saw the Sponge Cake idea for April Fools.  Well, we made a 3 layer sponge cake out of kitchen sponges, frosted it and decorated it with spring color sprinkles.  I suspect Ms. Jean reads the same magazine, as she played right into Howard's prank.  The look on his face when she cut into the cake was PRICELESS!  Here's a picture of he & Ms. Jean after she cut into the cake.  :)

Howard continues to ask for another baby.  He told me this week, "Mom, I just love babies, please can we have another one?"  :)  Makes my heart smile.  I feel like maybe we did something right with bringing Hazel into his life?  Who knows, but I love this soft, sensitive side of him, I hope it never leaves his soul and spirit.  He will make a great dad one day.

I have been doing good.  I started Weight Watchers several weeks ago and have lost about 8 pounds.  What I like about WW is that it's practical and they really don't forbid any foods, it's about portion control and feeling satisfied.  I've been working out 5 days a week and making time to take care of myself.

Last night I joined the old Oxyfresh group for Texas Hold 'Em poker.  Though I was the first one out of money, I had a great time reconnecting with old co-workers and friends.  Brian stayed home to take care of the kiddos but I'm hoping he can join us next time.

Brian is doing great, staying very busy with work.  We have a family vacation planned in June.  We're going to see his family in Maryland for a week and staying in Ocean City, which resembles Seaside Heights a little (for you Jersey Shore fans).  It's a fun place.  Brian and I went there several years ago when we were dating and had a blast.  Brian is looking forward to the break from work and to see some family he hasn't seen in over 15 years.