Lobster!!

We had our turn to host cooking club this weekend. It is a great event. Four couples, two babysitters, and 6 kids (5 under the age of 3) all in the same house to hang out and cook a fabulous meal. We decided to do French food and made our theme "Foods from the movie Julie & Julia." If you haven't seen the movie it is really cute and Julia is Julia Child who wrote "Mastering the Art of French Cooking." The menu was: Brushetta on butter-fried French bread, lobster with lemon and butter, French onion soup, artichokes with Hollandaise sauce, roasted chicken in port wine, mushrooms and cream, and glazed oranges. "You can never have too much butter!"



Slater is pictured here entertaining the crustacean before it was turned into an appetizer. He called it a variety of things including: frog, bug and fish. The other kids all got to look at it and enjoyed seeing all of it's parts before we cooked it.

Maybe we should have named him Hoover

Slater dumped some chocolate chips on the floor and then found the most efficient way to eat them.

Baby vs Storm Trooper

She kicked his butt ... but would she fare as well against Darth Vader or the Empire? Only time will tell for this young Jedi.

Best / Worst of 2009

Best food: Mac and Cheese
Worst food: Avocado

Best toy: Anything with wheels that goes in the dirt
Worst toy: That horrible truck that Uncle Carter got that chanted "Raminator" - oh wait only mom and dad hated it

Best accomplishment: Talking!
Worst accomplishment: Tantrums

Best Doctor visit: Baby Jade was born
Worst Doctor visit: Slater had pneumonia

Best clothing: Jammies with zippers and onesies
Worst clothing: Anything Slater could remove on his own

Best brother: Slater
Best sister: Sweet baby Jade
Best mom: Mom!!
Best dad: Dad!!

Best Buddy (Slater): Anyone whose name begins with a J - you know who you are :0)
Best Buddy (Jade): Slater

Best park: Slaterville Park (of course)
Worst park: the one where Slater found used condom wrappers

Best dog: (tie) Piper and Vega

Best kid mover: Chariot
Worst kid mover: Grocery cart - between the toddler and car seat where do you put the groceries????

Best Movie: (tie) Cars and Toy Story

Best TV show: Curious George

Best Diaper: Luvs
Worst Diaper: Safeway brand...poor little bottom

Best summer activity: Chena Lakes
Best winter activity: Sledding
Best indoor winter activity: Bathtime
Worst indoor activity: Getting dressed

Best drink: Any fruit drink
Worst drink: Tomato Juice

Best book store: Barnes and Noble

Best toy store: The Toy Quest

Best Indoor Play Spot: Gymnastics Inc
Worst Indoor Play Spot: McDonalds

Would love to see other best/worst blogs :0)

Chocolate!!! And that is all we have to say!

Sweet Potatoes for the Sweet Baby

Suited up and ready for her first "real" meal. Slater never liked the rice or oatmeal cereal, so we decided to skip right to the veggies with Jade. Sweet potatoes were the first try. Looking at her face you would guess that it didn't go well, but she kept opening her mouth for more. She only ate a couple of teaspoons worth. Next we tried sweet peas and let her hold the spoon, she made the same awful faces and gobbled it all up. After veggies we are going to move to fruit, the store sure had a lot of options in baby food, she is going to be a real gourmet.

The new book shelf

Slater loves to have books read to him and will sit and "read" to himself at times. Until now his books have been piled in the corner next to the reading chair, so we decided to upgrade to a real bookshelf and Slater helped put it together. He also likes to climb up it and then jump over to his dresser, we kind of figured it would happen.

Doctor Jones

Wade was down with the flu this week. His symptoms included a high fever and lots of other grossness. Slater wanted his Dad to feel better and checked on him. I heard a lot of "shhhhh Daddy sleepin". But the best part was checking his temperature. Dad was a patient patient and Slater was careful with the ear thermometer. He also had a stethoscope which he put on everyone's chest.

Hazel + Brown = Blue

The doctor tells us that if they are blue at 6 months they will stay that way! I remember doing Punnet squares in high school and know that it is possible, but it still seems strange. The cheeks are pretty sweet too ;)

Happy little sledders!

Jade did not really enjoy the sledding trip that we took to UAF, but she sure cheered up when we got back to the car!

Slater made a trip to the ice park with Dad. Thanks for the tickets Uncle Carter

New Years News

New Years Eve was COLD in Fairbanks, about 25 below! The sweet baby went to bed at 7 and the multitude of fireworks didn't seem to bother her at all. Slater and Dad went down to watch the UAF fireworks at 8. He was impressed and said "WOW" too many times to count. The moon was beautiful that night and Slater came home talking about that too. Everyone in our neighborhood shots off fireworks and Slater wanted to stay up all night watching. Unfortunately NO pictures!

Dad has to go back to work on Monday and we are going to miss him. Spring break is only 9 weeks away :0)

Christmas Morning

Christmas morning was messy and fun. The family took turns opening Jade's presents, she got some amazing stuff. Her favorite was her brothers tool set and then a v-tech book that played music. Slater opened his stocking and 4 presents on Christmas morning. Once he had Buzz Lightyear, the tool set and his Geo Trax he lost all interest in opening anything else (you can see the rest of his presents under the tree). He was a big help with all of Jade's presents and enjoyed pouring tea for everyone with her new tea set. I have not enjoyed Christmas this much since I was a child. We worked on the real reason for the season, but Slater was convinced that baby Jesus was his sister... we will keep trying.

A future in construction

Sweet baby Jade has an uncle who operates heavy equipment, a grandpa who has built buildings, driven trucks and welded all his life, and numerous great grandfathers, great uncles and cousins who are carpenters. She loved Slater's tool belt, hat and especially his drill. Construction might be in her genes. She spent some time one morning giving her Dad advice on how to install drawer pulls and knobs in the kitchen. She is a great helper already.

Gym Inc

Slater loves to go to Gym Inc. There is a zipline, toddler toys to ride on, a giant mirror, scooters, and tons of different size blocks to build with and crawl through. He doesn't have a favorite and likes to run from one activity to the next for the entire playtime. They had strange hours over Christmas break and we didn't get to go, but we are looking forward to getting back to play soon.