Something New: Weeks 24 and 25

The past two weeks have been CRAZINESS. It seems like we've had a million people at our house...and hopefully did not infect every one of those people with the plague in some way. There has been a nasty bug floating around our family and visitors, and it turns out we didn't realize how potently infectious it was until we had interacted with pretty much all of Midland.

If you are sick and you know me, I AM SO SO SORRY! It's probably my fault. I will make it up to you by letting you vomit on me next time you get the flu. Seriously, that's how bad I feel.

I don't have the pictures or time to document most of June right now, so here is a little preview through my Try Something New check-in.

Week 24

June 10 -- Read a really interesting article about a gay LDS man who is happily married to a woman. He writes a popular blog called "The Weed". If you have a few minutes, I really recommend reading it. It's not a perspective you get to hear often.

June 11 -- Hmm...what did I try today? I tried not to throw up at 1:00 and 2:00 and 3:00 in the morning. I tried not to get my husband and mother-in-law and children sick. I tried to not be a party pooper even though all my body wanted to do all day was rest and not think about food. I tried all these things and failed.

Fortunately, everyone was feeling fine by the time Matt's dad and grandma arrived the next night.

June 12 -- Grandma Snow was a new visitor to our home. Having just finished a mission in Albuquerque, she was excited to meet great-grandbaby Jude for the first time. She brought us this beautiful watercolor painting...which she made herself! Grandma is crazy talented.

June 13 -- Sneaked over to a new house being built in our neighborhood and walked through it.

June 14 -- First day of our Growing Gardeners class at Dow Gardens. This is more for teaching me how to grow things than for entertaining my kids. We also had a new intern family over to play. Thank you Lindsay for sending Sarah my way!

June 15 -- Tried Grandma's delicious corn mashed potatoes. Bought a new watering wand for my plants. Bounced on our new TRAMPOLINE!! It was Josh's birthday present from his Snow grandparents. It is huge and wonderful and we love it!

June 16 -- Ate at a pizza place in Bay City. We never go out of town just to eat, but so many people have talked about the restaurants in Bay City that we had to give it a try. I can't remember the name, but it wasn't bad.

Week 25

June 17 -- We welcomed some new visitors here, just a few hours after saying goodbye to Matt's family. I never thought my youngest siblings would be able to come visit me all the way in Michigan, but my parents were able to bring them along this time! Steven and Julia were my babies before I had babies. They still are my babies. I actually told someone at church that Julia was 12 and didn't even remember that she was 14 til a few hours later. In my mind, they are still 7 and 11 -- their ages when I left home.

Steven and Julia, summer 2004, visiting me at work

June 18 -- My first time grilling hamburgers. (I usually delegate that job to a man.) I also helped my dad build an awesome workbench in the garage for Matt. It's the coolest. Makes me happy every time I see it.

June 19 -- Watched a movie that Matt has labeled OneOfTheWorstMoviesOfAllTime. He can't be serious, because Nicholas Cage isn't even in this one. It's called In Time, with Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried. Cool concept, I thought, but pretty lame writing and acting.

June 20 -- Ate a Mango salad from Qdoba. Very satisfying! I had lunch there with my friend Liz, who gave me this beautiful picture she sketched of Jude.

June 21 --  Had our first real kid birthday party! Josh turned four, and I thought we should do his party on his actual birthday so we wouldn't have three separate days of celebration, with all the family and whatnot. I figured since my family would be here, we'd have enough adults around that I could invite a bunch of kids and tell the parents not to stay. We had our hands full! There were some tears, and not enough seats at the table, but the kids behaved amazingly well. Best of all, Josh seemed to have a fun time, so mission accomplished.

June 22 -- Made drapes for the boys' room (finally!) in an effort to hide more light in the morning and trick them into sleeping in. Hasn't worked so far. I also tried carrot cake ice cream from Great Lakes Creamery, and let me just say...if you love carrot cake, you need to go there. Delectable!

June 23 -- Tasted an A&W root beer float from the restaurant. Will definitely be going back soon. Also bought some new clothes at Target, because that's where I shop around here. (Let's be real though...even in Chicago that's where I shopped. I don't have expensive taste. Stop judging me!)

Try Something New: Week 23

Juse 3 -- Matt and I made the most delicious pancakes ever. He got the recipe from the in-home chef on one of his "work" trips. Fluffy oatmeal buttermilk deliciousness!

June 4 -- Bought Meijer brand diapers for Jude. So far no leaking. My faith in generic products is ever increasing!

June 5 -- Listened to a few new (to me) TED talks while I mowed the lawn. Loved it so much I got the app on my phone. Now I listen while I run. I just LOVE hearing smart people talk!

June 6 -- Made no bake cookies for the first time ever. I had the need for chocolate right before a piano lesson started, and literally in less than ten minutes I had whipped these up. I could not believe how fast and easy they were! 

June 7 -- Made invitations for Josh's garbage truck birthday party. All this kid birthday stuff is still new to me, and I'm having fun with it.

June 8 -- Went for a run in my new awesome shoes. I'd had the same running shoes for more than four years, and since I'm not a regular runner, they were used for volleyball and other court/outdoor workouts. The soles had been peeling back for months and were being held together by duct tape. It was pretty bad. It took a lot of tries and trips to different stores, but luckily I found some new ones that I really love.

June 9 -- I tried my hand at royal icing. Josh wanted soccer ball cookies for his soccer party on Saturday. The icing didn't come out at smooth as I wanted, but it did the job alright. I also didn't like that it added a crunch to my deliciously soft and thick sugar cookies, so I probably won't do it again. BUT, Josh thought I was SuperMom for the day. Worth it!

May Days

I was a bit of a blog slacker in May. Here is a look at our month.

We've spent a lot of time digging in the dirt outside our house, enjoying the beautiful weather.

Got to know the neighbors a bit better. This dinner was held at a non-kid house, and I don't think our host expected all the lovely fingerprints we would leave behind.

Mother's Day was great, as always. Josh made me this card. He wrote all the words himself with Matt's help spelling, and we've never seen him draw people this well before.

Josh and I made these little cards to send to his grandmas. I went through some magazines with him, reading different words and letting him choose which ones to cut out. That explains the words like "Nutra Sonic" and "Don't Forget". He also insisted on the bench, the credit card, and the almond milk.

This is how I unwind lately. My "evening glass of wine" is made by mixing grape juice, Fresca, and ice in a fancy glass. I think it has a similar calming affect.

The library opened an awesome new play room that was perfect for my kids. Where was this in the winter when we needed indoor entertainment? Sadly, they shut it down until August.

Josh saw the Lego table, and rather than building something awesome, he chose to organize the blocks into colors. He's funny that way. Don't know where he gets it. Maybe from his mother, who used to take all the towels out of her grandma's closet to refold and reorganize them by size and color. At age three. Dunno.

Josh is really learning to handle the computer well independently. He sits here during Jude's nap time or my piano lessons and plays game after game. Usually I don't even have to turn it on for him. I love how he looks like a little college student here.

On Memorial Day, we went to a picnic with church friends. Josh was fascinated watching the big boys fish in this pond. 

This is Nicole, the sweetest little eight-year-old babysitter you could ask for. She buddied up with Jude and helped him practice walking on the grass. Such a little mother hen!

Josh has been playing soccer every week and getting so good at listening. He loves to follow the rules of the game. Below, you can see how he refuses to leave his spot on the center circle while everyone else takes a water break. Because that's just where you're supposed to go after a score!

After every game, the parents and siblings stand up to make a tunnel for players to run through. I love his proud little grin here after being the first one out.

Jude is turning into a real person. He's starting to communicate better, and I think it just frustrates him when I don't understand or don't let him do what he wants. So we've had a lot of this face as he struggles to free himself from my fun-sucking death grip.

He climbs everything these days. Including our dangerous riding lawn mower at every opportunity.

 He's also developing a pretty good sense of humor.

I get it! Diaperhead! Hilarious.

We've seen more of cute little Luke lately. We got to have him for a sleepover last month while his parents and family went away for a big race. It was nonstop fun for these two!

Sometimes my husband takes phone pictures of me. I try to make sure I look really mature and put-together in them.

Josh's baby step toward eating more vegetables = picking green beans apart and eating the tiny beans inside the pods

Jude's food repertoire is expanding as well. Here he is eating a chicken nugget! Hooray for protein!

Matt and I had the chance to go shopping in Detroit after we went to the temple one Saturday. It was strictly for business reasons, but it was so fun! I got to pick out a nice suit for him and some other fun stuff. And as everyone knows:

(Thank you Pinterest.)

Matt has been traveling for work, and that basically means dressing up so you can go eat ridiculous food with company money. Oh yeah, and sit in a few meetings. But really it's about the food. You don't even want to know how big this steak was....Okay you got me, thirty-eight ounces! And he ate it all! He obviously doesn't want to live to see me as an old wrinkly lady.

And lastly, some dorky pictures of my big boys playing with the camera phone. They are ridiculous. I love it.

Try Something New: Week 22

May 27 --  Planted sweet basil seeds in a little container kit I bought from Target. It cost one dollar and so far, it is the most successful I've ever been with basil. Usually I buy it already grown in the pot and it starts dying as soon as it enters my house. This way, with the little "greenhouse lid", is working great! (Cheri, you need to try this.) Here is a picture from today.

May 28 -- Tried watching an episode of "24". Really, really didn't like it. I can see how people might get into that show, but it's really not for me. We even watched a couple more episodes throughout the week, and I could not get hooked. Good thing "So You Think You Can Dance" has started back up so I have something to watch when Matt leaves town.

May 29 -- Went to a splash park with our friends, Megan and Rachel, one we had never tried before. This one has a gate all the way around and is more low key for younger kids. It was perfect for us. 

Playing Footsies?

This is Jude's yoga cat stretch

May 30 -- Tried a new form of art with Josh, called crayon canvas art. (Google it.) You hot glue crayons to a canvas, then use a blow dryer to melt them and watch the colors run down. Josh loved it! I loved it! We used old slightly broken crayons, too, so I didn't feel wasteful. We had more broken crayons left over, so we took some silicon ice cube trays and made rainbow crayons in the oven afterwards. Learn how here. Fun morning.

May 31 --  Researched all kinds of birthday party ideas on Pinterest. Josh's birthday is coming up, and he's trying to decide between a robot party and a garbage truck party. I ended up finding a lot of new ideas and blogs and projects that he would love. I've never had to plan a legit kid birthday party before because Josh hasn't been old enough to care, so hopefully I don't mess it up!

June 1 -- Went to the local museum with friends, Melissa and Luke. It has a Bob the Builder exhibit right now that is absolutely perfect for getting out energy. After a couple of hours on the same floor, my boys did not want to leave, and they hadn't even explored everything yet. We're definitely going back. Want to join us?

This is the only picture I got that features a face.
The boys were so busy they could not stop for a decent picture.

June 2 -- Made new window covers for our back French doors. Blinds don't really work well on those windows, which I found out after measuring and ordering nice overpriced blinds for them which I cannot return. I found some pretty fabric at Joann's and finally made shades for them, so we can have complete privacy, and keep the afternoon sun from scorching our living room in the summer.