Kitchen help

Andrew has continued to love helping out in the kitchen! Here, he's cutting out the biscuits for us. He loves helping with everything from prep work to setting the table. His favorite food to make is pancakes, and anything else for which an egg needs to be beaten! I just keep thinking of how much he'll be able to do independently in another year after helping with everything...it's a happy thought! :) 

Jacob's Birthday Party

Here are just a few pics from Jacob's birthday party. He loved his Thomas cake, though wasn't sure what to make of the lit candles! Andrew made party hats for everyone to wear, which was quite an extensive project that he coordinated...we were pretty impressed by his follow-through on them! (Alas, the birthday boy didn't want to keep his on for long, but the adults were good sports at least through dinner. Their reward is that I'm not posting their hat pictures on the blog! Andrew, for his part, still wears his party hat occasionally)! Following the Thomas theme, we presented Jacob with a few more wooeden track pieces and a train table board that gets stored under his bed. It's been out almost continuously since! A good time was had by all, and a very tired Jacob was ready for bed early!
 

Jacob turns 2!

Hard to believe our "baby" is already 2 years old! He had a fun day, even though his party isn't till Saturday. He had Ranch dressing on everything at dinner, and ice cream for dessert. And a toy choo-choo and race car to open from some friends. What more could a boy want!?! :)
 

Playground fun!

This past Saturday, we went to the school for the soccer tournament. The boys had a
blast on the swings and the climbing gym at the playground! It was a perfect fall day,
too-we enjoyed the sunshine! 

Brothers!

Brothers are such fun to have! From turning shoe boxes into trains to wrestling, there's no end to the entertainment! 

Cookies for Aunt Becca!

These pictures are from the weekend we spent at my parents'...making cookies to send to Aunt Becca at college! (Had to wait till she received them to post the pics, otherwise it wouldn't have been a surprise! They had a fun, messy time! 

Weird Weather

Things around here have been quite eventful while Mark has been away, and not the fun kind of eventful, either. Besides having both boys get sick, and having the furnace break down on us, we had a full 11 hours with no power yesterday.

Starting on Sunday, we had very high winds, constant downpour, and warm temps. The gale continued through the night; the power went out at 6 a.m. Monday morning, and communities from south Anchorage to north of Seward were without power. (To give some perspective, that's over 100 miles along the highway without power). No wonder it took so long to get it back up and running!

Seward Highway was closed due to flooding, and just south of Seward a bridge actually went out. Apparently it was the top story in Alaska news last night! You can view the article here: http://www.ktuu.com/cms/anmviewer.asp?a=6746&z=1

Needless to say, we were thrilled when the power came back on! Andrew doesn't yet have the concept that electricity is an all-or-nothing deal. He went around the house turning on various lights, and would announce to me that they were working as they went. He got to a lamp in the living room, and said,

The 'lectricity works, mom. Praise the Lord!

Amen, son.

More from Gramps' and Grandma's...

Just a few more pics from our weekend at my parents' house...the boys had a blast having a sleepover! Unfortunately it took them way too long to get to sleep...
And one more from our Kids' Workshop day, with my parents, my sister Kimberly, and her two kids Keenan and Mykenna. A fun time was had by all! 

Runs in the family...

Jacob has always loved music, and thoroughly enjoyed playing the piano with Grandma this weekend! And he wasn't just pounding away, either...gently plunked along with the music! 

Home Depot Kids' Workshop!

To break the monotony of not having Mark home, the boys and I spent Friday night at my parents' house. Saturday morning, after going to my nephew Keenan's basketball game, we went to Home Depot for Kids' Workshop! Andrew has loved the few times we've been able to go, and it's fun to have all of the cousins together for it. Jacob and I worked on his helicopter, and my dad and Andrew worked on his fire truck bank. I'm not sure which Andrew enjoyed more...the process or the finished project! If you've never taken your kids to a Kids' Workshop, check it out! They provide the safety goggles and hammers, glue, etc, and the project kit. The kids get to keep the apron, and add a new pin to it each time they come. All for no charge!

Sleepover

Tonight we have Caitlyn over to spend the night while her parents are at a two-day seminar in Anchorage. The boys both adore her, she's a great helper with them, and is good company for me while Mark is gone on a business trip this week! We enjoyed a "family movie night" with popcorn before sending the boys to bed! 

More dressing independence

Just wanted to share yet another "fun" outfit that Andrew picked out the other day. Who says you can't wear prints, plaids, and stripes together? 

Creativity...

Yesterday, I thought the boys were pretty creative with their trains! The upside-down laundry basket is the passenger car, and the holes are the windows for people to look out of! And backwards train is the caboose. (Andrew gave me this entire explanation). :) 

Star-gazer

We were coming home late the other night, and it was a rare, clear night...the stars were amazing! I was pointing out the sky to Andrew, and he agreed with me that they were beautiful. And then he pointedly asked,

But mom, where are the lines?

I don't know how I instantly knew what he was talking about, since we haven't spent any time looking at pictures of constellations, but he was looking for the lines to connect the stars in the constellation pictures! I'm still not sure if my explanation on that one made any sense...

Problem-solver

It was fascinating to watch Jacob problem-solve at dinner the other day. He had two quarters of his cheeseburger left. He had one of them in his hand to eat, but the bread had become mangled beyond an ability to securely sit atop his burger any longer.

He tried several times to get the shred of bread resituated, with no success and much frustration! He looked several times back and forth from his burger in his hand to the one piece left on his plate...we thought he had found the obvious solution of just picking up the burger from his plate to eat instead.

But, no...he was "thinking out of the box," (or something)! He simply took the bread off the one on the plate and put it on top of the one in his hand...and as much as we would have liked to see how he handled the last piece with no bread, he was full by then and didn't care!

(This may be one of those "you just had to be there" things...sorry if it is, but since this is our venue for moments we want to remember, I had to record it...it was just too funny to us)!

Cookie Day!

Jonah was here on Friday, and just for fun, we had a cookie day! The boys helped me make the sugar cookie dough, enjoyed licking the beaters, and had fun cutting out and sugaring tiny cookie cabins, moose, bears, canoes, trees, and fish!  

Helpfulness...

Andrew has been on a delightful streak of helpfulness! He has been asking to help make lunch, start laundry, put away laundry, wash up Jacob and get him down from his seat after lunch, tuck Jacob in for naps and bedtime, rushing to pick up toys (without me asking him!) when I get out the vacuum, and in all activities, wanting to teach Jacob what he's doing...like in the pics here he's teaching him how to paint!
We're so grateful for his spirit! :)