We all scream for ICE CREAM

We went to Ben's parents' home on Monday evening and, what a treat, we were able to have homemade ice cream to boot. Ben wanted to use the hand crank ice cream maker and his parents were nice enough to do that. As you can see John caught on very quickly and was soon a pro at alternating ice and salt in the machine.

Here are Ben, his mom, and Miriam waiting for ready and delicious ice cream.

A very rare moment. I've captured a picture of Ben's elusive brother. Mwahahaha. Of course, he did manage to hide his face. /:<



Miriam was very patient. Here she is happily waiting for her ice cream. And again here she is just moments later and tired of waiting. It's ok though cause she wasn't going to get any this year anyway.

Here's John giving it a crank. He was a great helper and obviously very involved in the ice cream making process this year. He even tried to churn it again at the very end when it was hardest to turn. Maybe next year he'll have the muscles to do it :)

Below to the left you'll see that scout, the family cat, is also waiting for her portion of the ice cream.

For informational purposes today was also a holiday, Pioneer Day. See my other post for that info.

 

John and I together. Lately I can not get this kid to pull of a regular smile. So here we have crazy face and Mr. Wiggle worm.

It's probably best this way though since what you really get to see is the energy that my LO has  and just how much fun everything is for him. So while I would like to have a nice family pic of all of us together smiling, I love these peeks into what real life is like.

The finished product. A deliciously yummy rasberry cheesecake ice cream. I was posed the question of whether I would like this particular flavor to which I replied something to the effect of, "anything with cheesecake in it tastes good." This was not an exception.

 What better way to end a summer night than to sip water from the hose? John sure got the whole summer experience tonight. Grilled hamburgers, potato salad, home made ice cream, and cool hose water. He has been inaugerated into childhood. I couldn't be prouder.

Yogurt face

I gave John some yogurt and this is what it became. He at with a spoon and apparantly draped it all over his shirt and face (including nose and forehead) before actually putting it into his mouth.

Somebody's been sleeping in my bed

Looks like goldilocks has some competition.

Mac sleeps everywhere. I don't mind if he curls up in his own bed or on the floor, but I am constantly finding him on the couch, on our bed, in John's bed, on the big stuffed monkey, on the chair, on Mimi's changing table, and in the cradle and crib.

Just look at poor mimi and her bed companion.

You better believe I kicked him out. Sheesh!

Happy Birthday John!

We can now officially enter the terrible '2's. Though, if my chunk-a-munk wants to postpone or skip that phase, I wouldn't be too crushed.

We greeted John with Blues clues pancakes and we let him watch the show too. It was so cute because John saw these pancakes and said 'a clue, a clue' . He loves blues clues and can sing all of the songs. It is so amazing to me all of the things that a two year old knows. Ahhhh! I have a two year old. This went by so quickly.
 .

What a crazy day. I was kind of procrastinator and ended up having to make most of the cake today, but I think it turned out pretty well.
However, I did need to do some damage control. I went to check on Miriam and then John comes running into the room with chocolate and crumbs all over his face and hands. OF COURSE he thinks this is the best thing ever. I think, "oh no" and go running to the kitchen and find this...

Luckily it wasn't something that a little frosting couldn't fix. Shhhh! Don't tell the parentals.

While this was all going on, Miriam sat adorably in her swing. That's my girl :)

We had a pretty chill day and the grandparents came over for some cake and present fun. All minus my pops of course since he is still living in Hawaii. (miss you dad) I wish we could have had more family and friends over but with all the events we'd already had with everyone I was a little partied out and just needed something easy.

My Bro (Uncle Fish) enjoying the Hunger Games series



Miriam is ready to PARTY!!!



John got some great gifts and it was SO thoughtful of our parents to get him something that he would really love.

See. Toys so fun, even Ben can't stay away. Lol.

Time for cake (that's supposed to be Elmo)

I can't believe that two years have gone by since our little boy entered our lives.
He is so smart and can understand and say so many things now. He is able to do so much too. Every day he surprises me with the things that he knows.

Some of his favorite things are:

Reading. He loves to read. He is always bringing books to us and pointing things out. Even when he goes to time out in his room he ends it by trying to get a book to read with us.

Dancing: We have an electronic keyboard in place of a piano. John likes to turn it on and put the beatboxing sounds on and then he goes into dance mode. I have NO idea where he gets these moves. He's bouncing back and forth, twirling, doing somersaults, bending his knees, working the arms, the head, the hips. I mean seriously this kid has some talent. The one draw back is that I am now so tired of hearing the same beat over and over and over again and he will finish dancing and just walk away to leave me "enjoying" his tunes.

Singing and music I am so glad that John loves these things, because we all know that I really love these things. John is always singing. He sings along to Blues Clues and Elmos World. He sings primary songs. And the other day in the car and then in the store he sang along to Bruno Mars' song Amazing. And my boy John IS amazing.

Cars and trucks Ok, so I took  social work, psychology, sociology, and anthropology classes in college. I even took a women's studies class in high school. I remember learning about how we tend to provide our kids with gender cues and faux pas (ie boys playing with dolls and girls with trucks). Well, I did not push these on my kid (to the ultra feminist out there no I also didn't push the opposite either) and he still discovered his need to push cars and trucks around, crash them, and make sounds. John also like to point out the real-life cars and the obvious size difference in very big trucks, fire engines, bull dozers, etc. He does this by the eloquent "WHOA! Big truck!"

Coloring This boy loves to color. For his birthday we got him an easel with a dry erase on one side and a chalkboard on the other. We were smart and haven't given him markers yet. However John has discovered that chalk writes on other things around the house. Grrrr. He loves to color in his coloring books, and lately if we aren't watching he practices his artwork in reading books, on chairs, walls, doors, and the blinds. Joy.

Food: I am very thankful that our little boy is not a picky eater. He will eat or at least try pretty much anything. Sometimes he doesn't want it right away but he will eventually eat it. He's getting to the "everything around me is way more exciting than sitting here and eating" phase so we take what we can get.

Words and counting I can't believe all of the words John has learned in two years. Children are amazing. He expresses himself pretty well and is really good at mimicking what we say and retaining the memory of the word. He's able to pick out the letters of the alphabet in words now and Ben has done a really great job at teaching John the numbers. He counts to ten.

Show and tell: He loves to show us things. He points or just says " Airplane in sky, neigh horse, grass, dog, uh oh crying (when Miriam is), Daddy's home" and much more. It amazes me how much he notices.

Helping out: John is an excellent helper. He always wants to be around to help with dishes, vacuuming, feeding the cat, taking care of Miriam, etc. It's such a fun thing to see him so excited about doing everything.

Play time: Our little boy has no trouble getting into play mode. Just a hint of a smile or encouragement and he is running, dancing, yelling, talking, thinking, you name it and our boy is doing it. He loves to play. He hasn't really developed any aversions to any type of play either. He loves to figure out the mechanics of things, he likes reading and art as already mentioned. He likes puzzles and stuffed animals, being outside, animals, planes, puppets, sports, you name it and he'll probably play with it.

Church: Since we've moved to our new home and ward John has been great in Sacrament Meeting. I don't know if it's because there are so many other children now that we don't notice it as much though it seems that he really is calmer. Maybe he's still in awe at the constant children's voices hum in the chapel. At any rate he is being really great. I hope he's getting used to nursery though I can tell that he really misses his friends and nursery leaders from our old ward.

We have quite the special little boy and I feel so blessed to have him as part of our family.

Singing in the rain

There have been a good number of summer storms lately. On one such evening Ben, Miriam, John, and even the cat took part in the fun.

 As you can see, John thoroughly enjoyed himself. We can't seem to get him to let us wash his hair in the bathtub without a fit or fuss but put him outside to play in rain or any type of water situation and he is inevitably doused from head to toe.

Smartest thing I ever did was put him in these swim shorts.

I thought that the clouds around our house were really beautiful. You an see a very faint trace of a rainbow if you look closely and furher back along the horizon you can see the clouds start to change colors in lieu of the coming sunset. My camera skills were a little lacking to capture it all but I think you can still see the beauty of it.

Here's Daddy as he wrangles the kids and the garbage can all at the same time.

See, even Mac had a lot of fun in the aftermath of puddles. Usually our little trouble maker cat is right by the door at any sign of rainfall ready to be let into the house.

It's these lazy days of summer and family time small moments that are definitely to be remembered. The little things that make the kids laugh when we spend time together. I'm glad I thought to take a picture to remind me of the memory.