Toddler Tumbling

Ali filled me in on the great classes the rec center offers. {We hope daisy will join us when she's old enough!} On Friday mornings, Nate & Hadley are in a tumbling class. Nate is by far the youngest at 18 months {the age minimum for the class} and Hadley is a close second at 20 months. Even though they can't really do any of it on their own, they still have a great time running around the room and actually doing some tumbling with the help of their mamas. They walk on a beam, hang from the bars and do different tricks, forward rolls/backward rolls, jump on the tramp, go down the slide, attempt a cartwheel, handstands, etc.

One of my favorite parts is at the beginning of class where the kiddos get to pick a circle and actually listen to Miss Tiffany's directions. She always plays a fun song that they sing and dance to and do some fun stretching before we actually start tumbling. I think it's good for Nate to have to focus and listen to directions of someone other than me!





It's been fun for Kiley and I to watch week after week as they remember more and more and get better every time with certain things. They definitely have great little memories and it's fun to watch them in action.

While Nate LOVES the bars and doing forward/backward rolls, his favorite part of tumbling class is in the last five minutes. Miss Tiffany sits down and all of the kids form a half circle around her where she gives out stamps and stickers. On the second week of class, Nate knew exactly what to do and was the first kid by Tiffany to get a stamp. Then he proceeds to show it to everyone throughout the day. He's very proud of his stamps.

We have a few more weeks of tumbling and then they go in to a Rock'n'Roll music class which they'll love!

{Tumbling photos courtesy of Kiley!}

Q: What makes Nate happy?

A: a hat and a coat.



I never thought a 1-year old little boy would be so adamant about two things:
1 - a hat
2 - a coat

You will rarely find Nate without a hat on. He has many hats and he loves them. This Park Ranger hat is probably his favorite. His cowboy hat is a close second. He wears this Park Ranger hat EVERYWHERE.

Lately he's been asking for his coat, too. He points and says coat and won't stop till it's on. So, he wore it all afternoon in 70 degree weather.

Today was a FIRST for little Griff. He actually looked at the camera and said cheese! He typically turns away from the camera or he comes charging at me wanting to play with it. Today he looked at me for about 30 seconds and said "cheese". It was great!

In hopes I'll one day have a girl . . . I'm gonna try to win this.

Blushing Buttercream Pettiskirt GIVEAWAY!!!!

yum.

My friend Katie taught me {and our young women} how to make freezer jam this week. I've loved smearing my toast in this delicious stuff all weekend. It's surprisingly easy so I made a double-batch this afternoon. I can't wait to try all kinds of varieties like mixed berry & raspberry peach this summer!

And then these {Thin Mints & Carmel Delights} showed up on my doorstep Saturday afternoon which made for a scrumptious weekend.

sometimes things don't turn out the way you planned.

We had many different plans for our Presidents Day/Valentines Day/ 3-day weekend:

Plan #1: Go to the cabin with my parents to go snowmobiling and sledding. Then Duck Creek got hit with a major snow storm so we decided to stay.

Plan #2: Clean our garage! It really needs some attention from us.

But then Wes & I were both hit with a cold on Friday that involved a serious sore throat, body aches & no energy. We sat on the couch and slept whenever Nate slept. Nate was such a TROOPER while we were out of it and was such a good little kid. He even took a 3 hour nap on Saturday and a 3 hour nap on Sunday which allowed Wes and I to lay down, too. By Sunday we were feeling a little better {but still had zero energy} but we did go to my parent's house for dinner.

We did manage to get Nate out of the house a little bit so he didn't go stir crazy . . .




Since my parent's were planning on being at the cabin they didn't have any plans this weekend. So Nate had a sleepover at their house on Sunday night. I've decided that this stage is the perfect time for sleep-overs at grandma and grandpa's. He sleeps great in a pack-n-play and rarely wakes up at all during the night so it's pretty easy for my parent's to watch him.

They took him all day Monday which was such a nice treat after having a depressing weekend! I slept until 9:30am on Monday. That has not happened in YEARS and it was fabulous. Absolutely fabulous. We cleaned the rest of the morning & organized our food storage. All of our food storage cans are now under our bed and our under-the-stairs closet is now organized with all of the rest of our extra food. It's amazing how much you can get done with two people and no toddler! We decided to also have some fun so we went to Town Square & had lunch at CPK, did a little shopping, and saw Taken. What an intense movie. After the movie, we headed to my parent's to pick up Nate and it was great to see him.

I absolutely love 3-day weekends ... even when half of it is spent feeling crappy. I love starting the daily grind on a Tuesday . . . instead of a Monday!

happy v-day

While Wes and I don't do anything out-of-the-ordinary on Valentines Day . . . it was kind of a fun week for me and Nate. A few times a year {literally}, I feel like making treats and this was one of those times. I ended up making Valentine treats for my young women and Nate helped me with a few Valentine treats for his Las Vegas cousins. I made a few pans of rice krispie treats, cut them in to hearts, and dipped half of it in chocolate. (thanks megan for the idea). Then we made chocolate covered pretzels and little oreo sandwiches cut in to hearts. It was a yummy week at our house!



Then I made chocolate chip cookie dough brownies (again, thanks Megan for the recipe) for Wes' office as a little treat. This is very rare for me to spend this much time in the kitchen but it was actually kinda fun. Nate sure loved trying all the goodies.


{photo courtesy of bakerella}

I'm trying to teach Nate from a young age to be nice to the ladies. So he sent this Valentine to a few of his girlfriends . . .



Happy Valentines Day.

Pay it Forward

The first 3 people to leave a comment on this post will receive a hand made gift from me during this year. When and what will be a surprise. There's a small catch though...Post this same thing on your own blog and then come back and leave a comment telling me you're in. Fun, huh? Remember, only the first 3 comments receive the gift!

Nate's new favorite word is no. He just likes to say it. He knows what it means but even if the answer is yes, he'll still say no because it's his favorite word. For example, in the video below, he says no to wanting candy but as he's saying no, he's running to the treat drawer.

I know . . . the saying no to everything won't be funny or cute for long. But for now, it makes me smile.

{as i look back on the blog, i see that nate is repeatedly in just a onesie running around. which means i need to get the camera out more than first thing in the morning and right before bed. because at those times, he's for sure running around in just a onesie but he does look like a normal kid most of the time. i'll try to capture those moments, too.}

Nate's first week in nursery. Overall, a great Sabbath day.

Today was Nate's first day in nursery. We've been waiting for this day for 6 months! Overall, he did quite well. For the last few months, we've been "hall dwellers" and every Sunday Nate knocks on the nursery door hoping he can go in. So he was pretty excited when I walked him in there today. Luckily there was a small kitchen (one of Nate's favorite toys) and so I walked him right over and he was in heaven. I left immediately so that he doesn't get used to having me in there. Sister Wood said he whined on and off but that overall he did quite well.

Then . . . he did what he does best. He pooped. So of course they had to come find me. I took him back in and this time he knew exactly what was about to happen so he clung to me for dear life. I managed to get him to sit down and play with a toy but as soon as he saw me head for the door he started hysterically bawling. Luckily we have FABULOUS nursery leaders and they were able to calm him right down and he stayed until the end of church! Nursery, cold turkey, just might be the way to go.

And so . . . I got to experience Sunday School for the first time in months. And it was fabulous. I love the Doctrine & Covenants so it was great to be able to sit through a discussion about it and actually learn something while being at church instead of being distracted by my little man. And I'm sure he had a much better time in nursery than roaming the halls.

{Wes took Nate on a mini-walk this morning before church so I followed them with the camera.}

Our Sunday ended with having the missionaries over for dinner. It was a nice Sunday!

i can't wait for my day of rest

I am thrilled that tomorrow is Sunday - our day of rest in the week. It means that we won't have this INSANE workout video on our TV. Have you ever heard of it? It's an amazing {and insane} workout. Sam's old roomie Cassie is nice enough to let us borrow it to see if we want to buy it.

Wes is currently doing the legs and back video. I had to quit half way through because my noodle legs can't hold my body up anymore & I know I can't do one more pull up (even with the assistance of a chair). P90X is INTENSE but since we weren't making it to the gym . . . we decided to bring workouts to our house. My body is not very happy with that decision ~ it's wishing I was at the gym because it's much easier there!

The infomercial advertises that you can get ripped in 90 days. I just want to tone up and get a good work out in and it definitely does that. And more. I just hope to one day be able to do an entire video, with all of the reps, without having to stop. That's one lofty goal. I can't even do the 16 minute ab ripper video. It's SOOO hard!

I'm glad I get a day of rest tomorrow.

what do you feed your kiddos?

I need H E L P.

My once-wonderful-eater is SOOO picky and inconsistent with the foods he'll eat and it's driving me bonkers. Eating is a game of keeping him distracted enough for me to jam food in his mouth. Usually it's a jar of baby food or applesauce because he'll eat that. I thought I was done buying baby food.

He used to eat just about anything. Is this sudden change of heart normal?

PLEASE comment about foods that your kiddos eat. I'll take ANY suggestions because I'm out of ideas. Breakfast isn't usually an issue but lunch and dinner are. It's not that he's not hungry. Once I find a food he'll eat - he definitely eats it. It's like he gets a new set of taste buds every morning.

Here's what I'm currently dealing with: he's wierd with meats . . . will rarely eat them even if it's fried or a part of a dish. He will rarely eat bread so a grilled cheese or a PB&J is out. He will eat fresh fruit . . . but one day he'll like it and the next he won't. He'll always eat cucumbers and pickles. Sometimes he'll eat what Wes and I are eating but most of the time I have to make him something different. And even then, he doesn't usually want it, either. I've tried to keep him on a healthy diet but he'll even say no to things like french fries & pizza. I didn't know that was possible!

I can't wait until he's old enough for me to say {and for him to understand}, "this is what's for dinner. If you don't want it . . . then don't eat till breakfast!" I look forward to reading any suggestions you may have!

a great sunday.

Last week, I pretty much implied that Nate was a terror every Sunday. Now I'll change that to almost every Sunday because yesterday he was P-E-R-F-E-C-T. Church? A breeze. He stayed in sacrament and was quiet the entire time and did fine for the last two hours, too. Then he took a 3 hour nap (which rarely happens . . . it's usually well under 2 hours) and then played SOOO well during the Superbowl. And . . . he's got a little bit of a cold so I was even more surprised by his excellent behavior.

Good job, Naters. Dad and I enjoyed a great Sunday with you.