Ziah Rolled Over!

Tonight Ziah rolled over four different times!  Of course when we tried to take a video of it he just got mad and didn't want to do it.  He is growing so fast!

Our big boy who rolled over today!

Happy Birthday Tean!

 On Saturday Tean turned 4!  I can't believe that it has been four years since he has come into our home.  He is such a joy to have around.  He loves to learn!  I have been doing preschool with him at home and he is always begging me to do school.  He is really smart too.  He knows all his letters, what their sounds make, can spell and write his name and can write a lot of the letters.  He loves to play superheroes, wrestle with daddy and the dog, play with cars, and loves watching Dinosaur Train and Super Why!.  He is a great big brother.  He just loves his little brother and says that Ziah "loves him the best."  He does a great job playing with the baby and loves to make Ziah laugh.  Tean is so sweet.  He loves to give hugs.  He loves to go to Sunbeams and sing the songs that he learns there.  He is a really funny kid and we love having him around.  He definitely keeps us on our toes.

We celebrated his birthday on Sunday.  We kept asking him how old he was, and he kept saying three.  We told him, "no, it's your birthday, you're four," and he would say, "No! Not until I eat my cake!"  Jake's parents came along with Getu and Mezi and the sister missionaries ended up coming too.  Tean wanted sweet and sour chicken pieces with the "red sauce" so I made that for his birthday dinner.

We then ate cake so that Tean could be four.  He loved his cake and it was a lot of fun to make too.

He had a lot of fun opening his presents.  We got him some piano books (he has been begging me to teach him how to play the piano), a car case to hold all his matchbox cars, and a dump truck that he can build himself.  Grandma and Grandpa gave him some balls, chocolate animal crackers and some money.   It was fun watching him blow out his candles and open presents.  

He is getting so big!  We love him so much!  Happy Birthday Tean!!!

Tean's Birthday Cake

This year for Tean's birthday, he wanted a dump truck cake.  I got my inspiration to do it here.  

The inside of Tean's cake isn't as cool as the one on the link (it is just plain chocolate cake) because I didn't notice it until after I had already made the cake. 

This one was really easy to make.  I got the dump trucks at the dollar store, used crushed chocolate center oreos for the road and the dirt and the candy rocks were from the bulk bins at Winco.  I used this really yummy recipe for the frosting that I got from my sister.  It is great to use when decorating cakes.  I think that the cake turned out pretty well, and Tean LOVED it.  Success!

Buttercream Frosting

1/2 c solid vegetable shortening

1/2 c butter or margarine

4 c (1 lb) sifted confectioners' sugar

2 Tbs milk

1 tsp. Witon Clear Vanilla Extract

 

Cream butter and shortening with electric mixer. Add vanilla.  Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating on medium speed.  Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often.  When all sugar has been mixed in, icing will appear dry.  Add milk and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy.

To thicken for icing, add a small amount of light corn syrup.

Crazy Shoes

Most Sundays we go up to Jake's parents for dinner. This Sunday we told Tean to go get his shoes on so we could go.  When we got to Grandma's house, I noticed that this is what he had on . . . 

One Sunday shoe, and one regular shoe!  

Dogs and Cute Kids

Tean LOVES playing with our dog, Roxy.  He loves to play fetch and wrestle with her.  Roxy is so good with him, will let him jump on her, tackle her, sit on her.  Here is a video of him trying to take away her toy.

Tean loves playing with Ziah and trying to make him smile.  One time when Tean was playing with Ziah, Tean said, "Mosiah loves me the best!"  Ziah sure does love Tean and likes it when Tean plays with him.

About Tean's hair.  He really needed a hair cut.  I usually just cut his hair with scissors, so the sides don't get super short.  I wanted the sides shorter so I didn't have to cut his hair as often, so I decided to cut his hair with the clippers.  I cannot cut hair with clippers.  I cut the sides, cut the top, then I decided there was a spot I wanted to fix, so I went to fix it and I messed up so I just cut it all short.  Tean was excited about it because it was short like his daddy's.  The whole time I was cutting his hair he was begging for his hair to be short like his daddy's and he got what he wanted.  He loves it and will ask every once in a while if his "hair is still small like his daddy's."

And to finish the post off . . . a cute picture of Ziah after his bath.

Happy New Years!

I didn't take any pictures of our New Years, but I have these pictures, so enjoy.  Ziah, our happy little boy.

We took a walk the Sunday before Christmas to deliver Christmas treats to our friends.  It was COLD, but Tean and Ziah enjoyed riding in our stoller.  Ziah just slept on Tean the whole time.

That same day while we were at dinner at Jake's parent's house, Jake and Tean were playing dogs and Jake was carrying his "baby" around.

For New Year's Eve we invited some friends over to play some games.  Before they came Tean had fun playing in the snow that we had that day while I shoveled the driveway.  Jake had to go to Utah that day, but got home just in time to celebrate. We had fun playing games, eating yummy food and having fun with friends.  Tean just played the whole time with his friend from across the street.  Around 10:30pm everyone had gone home and Tean was in bed, a little bit later Ziah finally fell asleep, then we went to bed just before midnight.

Christmas

So I didn't take very many pictures this Christmas, but we did have a great Christmas.
For Christmas Eve we went up to Jake's brother's house in Idaho Falls and had a wonderful dinner and nativity program.  For dinner every year they have a back to Bethlehem dinner where they eat foods that Mary and Joseph would have eaten.  So we had all kinds of cheeses, pita bread, olives, rice, salmon, fruit, lamb, hummus, and sparkling grape juice.  It was yummy and helps us remember Jesus and what happened on that night long ago.  We then acted out the Nativity and sang Christmas songs.  I love reading the Nativity story.  Then we opened one present, where Jake, Tean and Ziah all got matching pajamas.

Christmas was exciting with Tean.  He finally understands about Santa and the whole Christmas thing, so he was excited to see what Santa brought.  Tean only asked Santa for two things.  A watch that lights up and a remote control truck.  When "Santa" came, he couldn't remember where he put the watch.  We looked around for about 20 minutes and then we finally found it.  Jake had found another watch that we could give him, but we found the one we bought so we gave him both.  When he woke up in the morning  we got him before he could go in and we all went in to see what Santa brought.  He was excited about the watch.  After he saw the watch he looked around for the remote control truck.  We had hid it beside the couch so he would have to look for it.  When he didn't see it, he got mad and asked where it was.  We told him he should look around and he found it and was happy about it.  He was excited about all the things that he got.  It was a lot of fun to see how excited he was about the things that he got.

That day, we talked to my parents on their mission and then we went up to Jake's parent's house to see what everyone up there got.  Then we came home and enjoyed Christmas together.  Jake's brother and his wife came over for Christmas dinner later that day.  It was great to spend time together as a family.  

Tean Loves His Baby Brother

 Tean has loved being a big brother.

He loves playing with Mosiah, holding him, and teaching him things. When Ziah was about 2 weeks old, Tean yelled to me from the other room where he was with Ziah, "Mommy, I'm teaching Mosiah how to clap!"

He can't wait until Ziah can run around with him and play with him.  He can't wait until he can share a room with him.  One day Ziah was laying on the floor and Tean was playing a match game by him. After a bit Tean said to me, "Mosiah got a match!"  I looked over and Ziah was oblivious to what was going on, but Tean was loving playing with him.   Now that Ziah is smiling and laughing, he loves to make him smile.  Sometimes when Ziah is crying Tean will say, "Mosiah wants me, Mommy."  Ziah is lucky to have such a great big brother.

Mosiah's Baby Blessing

 On November 4th we blessed Mosiah.  We did it then so that my parents, who were leaving on their mission to Kenya the next day, could be there.  Jake did a great job giving Mosiah a wonderful blessing.  I'm so grateful that my husband holds the priesthood and that he is worthy to use it to bless me and my children.   I'm so grateful for the gospel in my life and that I have a forever family.  Thanks to all of my family and Jake's family that came and made the long drive to celebrate this wonderful time with us.

Happy Halloween

This is super late, but better late than never.  This year, Tean was Captian Moroni for Halloween.  I never got a picture of Ziah because after being in his costume (he was Frankenstein) for about an hour, he had a blowout and got it all dirty, and I wasn't thinking so we didn't get a picture.  Oh well.  Tean loved trick-or-treating this year.  We went lots of places trick-or-treating and Tean loved getting the candy at all of the places.

Pictures of Mosiah November 29, 2012

Jake's sister-in-law, Tami, took some awesome pictures of Mosiah and our family.  You can see more of her work here.  Enjoy!