Best Friends

This is what I found when I went down to tell Tean that quiet time was over and he could come upstairs.

Roxy is so good with him!

Ziah's Talking!

Tean was sick at the beginning of the week.  He was so sad that he was sick for so long.  On Thursday when he finally felt better, he was running around the house like crazy, so happy that he was better.  Ziah still hasn't gotten sick from him (hope it stays that way).  Ziah has also been sleeping a lot better since getting the lavender oil and the serenity blend oil. His naps aren't perfect like I want them to be, but overall he is taking longer naps and he is a lot happier.

This week, Tean was playing with Ziah on the floor.  Ziah was talking with him, and I heard Tean yell, "Mom!  Mosiah just said stegosaurus!"  I must have a pretty smart 4 month old.  Tean is always saying that Ziah is saying this word or that word.

Tean and Ziah watching Dinosaur Train.  That could be where Ziah picked up the word stegosaurus. 

Tean is such a great big brother.  He loves playing with Ziah and is a great help to me.  Ziah loves it when Tean plays with him (most of the time).  Tean with squish Ziah's face, have Ziah hit himself in the face, pull on his arm, and Ziah usually just smiles and deals with it.

On Saturday night we had a bunch of friends and neighbors over for a pie night.  Jake and I made a breakfast quiche, a shrimp quiche and a cheesecake.  Jake loved the quiches (I'm not a big fan of them) and the cheesecake was pretty good, considering I tried a new "healthier" version.  I mixed greek yogurt with the sugar free cheesecake pudding powder then I put a thin layer of raspberry jam on top with a few raspberries.  It was fun getting together with friends and having good food.

Since the beginning of the year I have been working on loosing the weight I have gained since being pregnant with Ziah.  I had about 10 pounds that I wanted to loose and my pooch on my belly.  Jake said that I could go on a shopping spree after having the baby to get some new clothes, but I didn't want to go until I lost some weight, so that was my motivation.  So far I have lost about 12 pounds!  I'm really excited about it.  I'll drink a green smoothie in the morning, for lunch I have one egg plus two egg whites, a fruit and a piece of bread, and then I'll have dinner and have a big salad with dinner.  I have cut out sweets except for Tean's birthday and this pie night that we had.  That has been kind of hard for me, but I just think that I only have to do it until my birthday.  Everyday except Sunday I try to do 40 minutes on my elliptical, but I don't always get that long in.  At night I'll do stomach exercises or arm or leg exercises.  I still have a little pooch that I want to get rid of, so I would like to loose a few more pounds and hopefully that will help me get rid of it.  My goal is by my birthday, so I have a few more weeks to get rid of it.  I'm excited about my results and look forward to eating a yummy cake on my birthday!

Happenings this week

Not a whole lot has been happening this week since I last posted, but since I'm trying to do at least one post a week, I'll update the few people who read it on what has been going on.

Tean has been sick for the last few days.  Tean, the baby and I didn't even go to church yesterday because he has had a fever.  He will lay around for a while, I'll give him some medicine and then about an hour later he is great.  Then after a few hours he'll be laying around.  I really hope that he will be feeling better soon.

Luckily Ziah hasn't gotten sick yet.  Hopefully he won't.  He is being his usual happy self.  He usually only takes half hour naps, which isn't cool at all.  He is a little more clingy on those days, and so much happier on the days that he actually takes a longer nap.  I just got some essential oils.  My friend used them on her baby when he wouldn't nap and they worked really well, so we will see how they work.  Ziah loves it when Tean plays with him.  I'm so grateful for my two little boys!  I am a lucky mom!

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.