Boots

Collin has discovered that he loves boots. He can get them on by himself most of the time and is so proud of himself. It's really cute.

Here he has one of his and one of Grant's on.

Now he has Scotty's on.

This time he got both of his own on.

And more of Scotty's.

Date Night Family Dinner

This year Miles and I are having a turn with each other for date night. When it is our week, which happens once a month, Grandma babysits and we go out. But last week we decided to do a family date night since Miles and I were going away that weekend. It's amazing how doing something different, yet simple, at dinner can make the kids so excited!

First, we covered the table in newsprint and let the kids color.

We also printed up a little menu. As you see, Scotty wanted popcorn, (he originally also wanted an apple until he saw it was green), rice, orange juice and an ice cream sundae. He was a little disappointed when we put the orange chicken and green beans on his plate anyway!

Urban wanted popcorn and water. Since he was our guest he got popcorn and water. My kids grumbled, but there are advantages to being a guest! We were happy that Urban was here with us.

Grant was excited and circled everything!

We really had a fun time. There was a lot more coloring going on than eating, but the ice cream sundae's insured nobody went to bed hungry!

Here's the aftermath. We learned that a 1yr old can make quite a mess with markers, sticky rice and ice cream!

Valentine's Day

For Scotty's Valentine's to his classmates we made these. I made them for our boys last year and I was excited to be able to use them for the classroom this year. Scotty and I had fun putting them together.

I went into his classroom party. ("Party" being kids going crazy all over the place trying to pass out their valentines and trying to eat the candy as it's appearing on their desk.) Scotty was excited to give himself one of his own and ripped it opened as soon as he was done passing his out. They made those cute woven heart folders to put all their valentine's in.

At home on Vday we put hearts on their doors after they went to bed so Vday morning they saw them when they came out of their room.

I made these brownie covered Oreos. We all ate one and then we shared the rest with Grandparents. They are as good as they sound! Best when they're still warm from the oven.

Mmmmmmmmm........

We gave the boys Kung Fu Panda and while we were watching it we each took time to write down why we love each other in a cute little book that Scotty made. He really wanted us to write about our love in there and we had fun doing it.

Muffin Tin Monday

I decided last minute to do a muffin tin lunch today. Since I hadn't planned ahead I just scrounged around the kitchen to see if I could come up with anything Valentine-ish.

The boys had peas, a heart shaped rice krispie treat with little candies on top, milk, heart shaped grilled cheese sandwich, tomato soup and Craisens.

This is Collin picking out the candies from the rk treat. I think that is all he ate.

Scotty is slurping some soup. This is the first time they have had tomato soup. They were excited to try it in a muffin tin- I don't think they would have been excited to try it if it had been in a bowl. Love muffin tin meals!!

Grant showing me his heart grilled cheese. I love these boys!!

Hop on over to Muffin Tin Mom to see more MTM posts.

Fondue night

I found a simple recipe for fondue that sounded so good, but we didn't have a fondue pot. A few days later I read somewhere someone saying that they use their crock pot for fondue. So we decided to give it a try and it was so yummy and fun!

Scotty's friend was over to play and got to join in with us.

We ended up having to get Collin his own bowl of cheese so he could dip his fork in his own cheese rather than in the shared pot. He just wanted to eat forkfuls of cheese!

They had fun making kabobs.

As you can see, the apples were the favorite followed closely by the bread. We can't wait to do this again!

A new adventure

When Scotty went to his 5yr old check up he struggled a little with the vision screening. The Pediatrician said it wasn't too bad and to just wait until he did the vision screening at school and see how that went. They did the vision screening at his school in December. Then in January we got a letter from them saying that he couldn't see the line appropriate for his age and that there were differences between eyes. So we made the appointment with the eye doctor. Turns out that he has amblyopia (lazy eye) and his right eye is 40 times worse than his left eye. The doctor said that we didn't notice any problems because his left eye is so good that he has been able to compensate really well. He's hopeful that it can be helped with just glasses rather than having him wear an eye patch. Scotty is excited about having glasses. He found a pair that he really likes and they were green like Daddy's, so that made him love them even more. They finally came in today and he was so excited. He listened very carefully to the instructions that they gave him and he made sure he had his case in his backpack to put the glasses in during recess time. I hope he continues to love them!

Doing the 3-D check.

He was having fun so far and asking LOTS of questions!

Now we're getting a little bored waiting for the doctor!

We had to wait a long time.

After the dr's initial exam he decided that he needed Scotty's eyes dilated. They had to put 4 drops in each eye and Scotty hated it!! He was brave though and let her get all the drops in that she needed to. After that he was quite grumpy for the rest of the appointment. Luckily he was able to be distracted a little by picking out his frames.

He wouldn't let me take his picture with the super cool sunglasses that they gave him. He loved them though. I thought that was funny because adults hate them!

And here he is- isn't he cute??? The glasses took 2 full weeks to come and he would ask everyday if they were in yet. He was so excited. I, of course, worry about kids making fun of him, but hopefully that won't happen. He has a girl in his class that just recently had to start wearing an eye patch. She has different ones so at the beginning of class she comes up so they can all see which one she is wearing that day. I'm thinking this is a good class for him to be in when he starts wearing glasses.

And here he is with Daddy and their matching glasses. I love them!!

Look at Scotty go!

More fun in the snow

We also had fun at the cabin going snowmobiling and sledding.

Getting ready.

Grant, of course, wasn't so sure about the snowmobile! But even though he was almost crying when he left, he ended up loving it. He even fell off and didn't seem to mind one bit!

Scotty has been before and loves it.

We went sledding out in the road right in front of the cabin. It's a great spot to sled. This was our only family trip down the hill- Collin didn't want to go again.

But he didn't like sitting in the snow watching us either!

He liked Grandpa's lap much better.

Miles, Grant, Scotty and I had a lot of fun sledding down over and over. With occasional breaks to eat some snow and have snowball fights!

Ski day

Last weekend we went to my Dad's cabin in Alpine again. We had a really fun time. On Saturday Miles and my Dad took Scotty and Grant skiing at Jackson Hole. Scotty has been once when he was 3 and this was Grant's first time. They had a lot of fun and both did great. Grant was a little unsure at first, but once he got going he liked it. Scotty did really well. He picked it up quickly and really enjoyed it. 5yrs and under is free to ski on the two lifts by the bunny hills and that is always a nice bonus!

Poor Grant! He is a kid that cries at doing new things but quickly gets comfortable and has a good time. I know I can push him to do things that he says he doesn't want to do because 99% of the time he ends up loving it. Skiing was no exception.

They are so cute in their ski gear!

Getting towed up the mountain by Miles and my Dad.

It wasn't very long before Scotty was skiing all on his own and doing great.

He would put his hands on his knees and shush away!

Grant took a break to play in this hole. Miles said it had been calling to him for a few runs.

Having fun but getting tired.

Scotty and my Dad were the last ones to go up before they closed the lift. That's dedication!

Collin and I hung out at the cabin playing with all the fun toys, taking a nap, reading and playing outside in the snow. We had a fun day too!