Moments

Last Friday I went on a early morning run by myself through some nearby trails.  The tempreture was ideal and the sunrise so perfect I couldn’t help but snap a few pictures as I went. 

Nathan is starting to be more adventurous at the park.  Last week he began walking outside without holding my hand – just some of the time – which is so exciting.  He has the biggest smile on his face with every step.  I love when walking is the source of joy.  He even went up and down a ramp by himself, then pivot turned and did it again.  I took the kids to happy hollow last week to meet some friends.  I love seeing them play together.

Andrew cut my hair!  He’s never seen a haircut so he watched a few youtube videos before getting started.  We had to have an extra emergency youtube watching session halfway through when we realized things were heading in a scary direction.  He pulled through will patience and diligence.  It took me a week to straighten my hair to see how it really looks (blessing of curly hair). A few touch up snips later and I have a respectable haircut with extra money in the bank!

Emily and Nathan took paintbrushes and water from a water bottle one morning and went about painting the house while I rode the exercise bike.  It started out with painting the trampoline, followed by our metal doors.  Then things went downhill and ended with me wrestling supplies from tiny hands – not my greatest parenting moment.  But the initial 20 minutes of play was brilliant.

Emily made herself a crown one morning and then asked me to help tie it to her head.  It is so fun to see the emergence of ideas and making things on her own.

She also figured out how to jump, dive, slide across the curvy board.  The use of these boards never ceases to amaze me.

While the preschoolers were at Joy School it was my turn to watch the younger crowd a few weeks ago.  I love teaching the 3 year olds, but it was so fun to watch the 15-20 month olds.  As second children, they were all thrilled to have free use of the toys.  Nathan initiated snack time and they all quickly gathered at the table.  When they finished the first round of snacks they put their plates in the sink and then asked for seconds.  I love seeing the execution of family systems that weren’t in place with our first kids.

Another day I had just these two.  They sat right down on the trampoline and took care of their babies together.  Melt my heart.

Andrew recently found out he has been accepted as a 21st Century Scholar, which is a big deal in the Technology Education field.  We took the kids out for a quick round of head shots that he needed to submit with his acceptance. Nathan wasn’t pleased with being left to stand by the tree while I took pictures.

When I lay out  a blanket Emily and Nathan flock to it, roll around and laugh like crazy.

We ran out of chocolate chips about a month ago, so Emily replaced her treat with frozen corn and pepperoni.  She gets all set up while I put Nathan down for a nap.

The kids figured out that our teepee makes a fantastic swinging jungle gym.  It worked as long as I was holding onto it to keep everything steady.  Emily hopped on while I was talking with a friend and the teepee collapsed entirely, leaving Emily, Nathan, and our friend all sobbing uncontrollably at the loss of their new toy.  The next day Andrew took to fixing and strengthening the set up so it would be available for more winter entertainment.

I can’t seem to make enough of this pasta salad.  We each eat 3-4 helpings every time and it is gone without leftovers.

Emily’s most requested hairstyle since visiting my family at Christmas is a french braid.  I have been diligently trying to improve my french braiding skills. It is a work in progress.

Last week for family home evening we had a lesson about repentance and forgiveness.  Andrew told a little story about someone making bad choices and put drops of food coloring in a jar of water. Then he told the kids about about how to repent by saying sorry and praying and poured bleach into water. The water became clean again, just as we can be clean again.  Nathan was super excited about the water in the jars, and Emily stayed engaged.

We had our first cinnamon roll Sunday yesterday! We started cinnamon roll Sunday’s in the Moose household when I was around the age of 12, and it is a tradition that was fun to share with my kids.  We used sourdough with date paste, cinnamon, raisins and walnuts and the frosting was made from an orange, cashews, coconut oil, and a little honey.  They were amazing – the perfect amount of sweetness, filling, and they tasted like cinnamon rolls should.

I couldn’t find the watercolors when Emily really wanted to paint.  I ended up putting some tumeric in a bit of water.  It worked perfectly.

Nathan is officially walking and picking up speed.  He loves to walk around carrying books.  I love how happy he is.  This is such a fun stage of life.

Our fridge was overflowing this week so the oranges stayed on the floor.  Nathan was convinced we had a bag full of balls and was desperately trying to dump them out.  Now he knows they are oranges and most of them have a few bite marks in them.

Nathan learned how to put olives on his finger from Emily.  Now the two of them can go through a whole can in a matter of moments, filling up their fingers and eating them off.

Nathan officially stopped nursing when I was sick two weeks ago and couldn’t put him to bed.  This weekend we tried leaving the kids with some friends for dinner and having them put them to bed so we could go on a date.  We went to Panera, worked in the shop on a few wood projects, and finished with a jazz and big band concert on campus.  The kids had zero problems and we had a fabulous time.  This is the first time we have been able to leave before tucking the kids in since Emily was born and it was a nice break.