This is the soup...

This is the soup on Thane.


Thane cracks us up. He chortles when he is happy and throws his head back in joy. He has some tremendous crusty eyes that he flashes when we say, "no, thank you." He loves to eat, and loves to paint with his food. It is rare to find a meal that he has not spread onto his head, into his ears and down to his toes. I am so grateful that he is still in the eating phase of childhood. I enjoy the peace of mind of that phase.
Emma keeps us cracking...the whip. ha ha ha. She is relentless when she wants something. Tenacious. Committed.
Emma decides before she tastes what I make that she is not going to like it, and not going to eat it. I tried to tempt her by placing goldfish on the top of her bowl of butternut squash soup. As you can see from the picture above, it was highly unsuccessful. They were untouched. Emma decided instead not to have dinner last night. She would not eat it. ( It did not help that dad wasn't home last night until 9pm.) I reminded her calmly,that if she didn't eat it, I would not be serving her anything else. She did eat her bread and a bite or two of salad.
The result for me:
3am. "Mom, Can I snuggle you?"
6am. "Mom, I want to eat breakfast."

A new day, a new challenge. I love my kids.

Ballet Class

Blowing a kiss before class

Falling asleep and not waking up after class.
She could sleep through an earthquake!

We started a new adventure this month. I found this great teacher and class that is inexpensive with a structured way to teach little girls ballet. The kids are not supposed to wear dress up clothes/tutu's, just tights and leotard. She seems to enjoy the dancing and she has made some friends in the class too. She said her favorite part so far is when the teacher tells the kids to jump over her when she is laying down on the floor. Sounds interesting...I don't know that she was born for dancing, but I am thrilled she wants to try something that she doesn't know how to do yet.

a month of love

February 14th just doesn't last long enough to say all that I want to say to my family so we spread it out this year. Every day I made valentines and hid hearts around the house so Emma, Dad and Thane could find them. Emma had a good time collecting them on the doors and windows after she found them. She loves reading her name and sounds out some words when I write neatly enough for her to see it. This picture is some of the collection of love notes.
If you look closely you can see the ones Emma made. She LOVED making her own valentines and is very happy with herself for learning to draw hearts and cut along the lines.
We believe in expressing lots of love and affection all year long, so don't be surprised if you get some valentines in July.

Awesome 'Us' time

Spence went big for my birthday this year. Really big. He planned a get-away for the two of us, took time off from work to celebrate with me, and arranged everything without me knowing.
My husband knows me well. I love surprises, I love that he planned it, and that he took time off to make it happen... it doesn't get any better!
The escape was perfectly timed (the kids and I just got home the night before and we were TIRED.) Spence arranged for Nana and Carrie to take care of our kids while we were gone to the B&B. I am not sure they had time to miss us with all the fun and love they enjoyed. :)

We slept-in, talked, went to see Avatar in 3D and ate yummy food. It was fun just to be able to hold hands and talk to each other without interruption. (A novelty!) We loved the bed & breakfast. We loved not having an agenda, a pager, or a cell phone to answer to. Spence took the day off on Friday and we smiled so big and so carefree...
IT WAS SO FUN! What a wonderful break from the normal routine!
I am grateful for my husband who knew what he wanted to give me and made it happen. I was very surprised. I am still quite impressed by his thoughtfulness. It makes me smile just thinking about the dreamlike time we had together.
How did I get so lucky?! I love my Spencer. He is all I want. I don't deserve any of this. I am so grateful for every blessing I have. So grateful!

We didn't take pics of us. Once again I forgot the camera. This is the B&B where we stayed with beautiful picture windows overlooking the Chehalem Valley.

an update

February has been a busy month for us. Emma, Thane and I went to UT to see Tracy and her family. We were happy to spend time together making some of our favorite foods and treats for Liz, my niece. Liz has been trying to gain weight to help her keep up her energy to be able to continue cancer treatments. She has stage four metastatic melanoma. She is trying to stay positive and is pretty open to talking, sharing and keeping time together. Hopefully the new study at UCLA will provide a lot of help and stop the cancer from spreading further.
We enjoyed talking to Liz and Tracy, rubbing Liz's feet and trying to get her to eat more of anything. We loved taking their yellow lab Bo for walks with Brad and with Tracy. Emma and Thane both loved playing with Bo and feeding him their food. Emma is already asking me when we can have a dog. I am tempted to tell her on the 12th of never...
We didn't remember to charge the camera before we left and I forgot the charger too...so, unfortunately I don't have any pictures.
A few mental pictures;

• Thane grabbing Emma's life cereal out of her hands on the plane and then smashing it into the carpet. So sorry Southwest! We really did our best to clean it up!
  
• Liz smiling big, after she made faces at Thane and Emma.
• Sitting down and talking with Harris's at their kitchen table with a bowl of air popped popcorn. Does it get any better?!
  
• Emma's accident at the park, followed by Thane's projectile vomits.
• Seeing smiles & giving hugs
• Sunshine in UT
  
• Laughing with Aunt Dar, Shelly, Liz and Tracy
• Toffee, chocolate chip Pizookie's for Liz & JD
  
• Losing my contact on the plane and being blurry blind for the entire 2 hour ride.
  
• Saying lots of prayers and then finding the contact under Emma's seat when we got off!
  
• Answered prayers!
• Counting the blessings of good friends and dear family that we love even when we can't visit for very long or for very often.
• Sweet prayers of children