piles, piles and more piles

*warning, this post is for the grandparents, who care about these details
so nate has this new thing, he makes piles. he will use anything, he will gather them all (they are usually the same thing) and take them 1 pc at a time and pile them in a different location. abandon the pile when he is done and find something else to pile. his new obsession are these cloth alphabet letters.
he will take the letters one at a time, pile them in his cart and wheel them around to a new location.
as he piles them 1 by 1, he will yell out the letter. so i hear is "A" "C" "D" etc... ( he knows all the letters but x,z,n and j)

there he goes to find a new place to pile them. note his leg, he's walking on it crocked

he's yelling "H"

i find piles all over the house, this one is tools, in between the patio doors

another pile of those letters

dish towels

farm animals.

no, i don't clean them up. i leave them out bec i think it's cute and it makes me laugh.

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Posted by mel at 1:29 PM

cast is off!

like my patio furniture? i am waiting for the stores to mark the patio furniture wayyy down, i am cheap. i never buy full price.

monday morning we went to see the ortho surgeon (love him, he is such a great dr) and the decision was made, after 4 longggggg weeks. the cast can come off!!! wheee! i was SO happy to hear that!

the bone is still broken, but the ends are healed and as time goes by the middle will also heal. if it was an adult, the cast would be on for 2 more months! nate did so well esp during the x-ray. the nurse told him to listen for the birds, he was so quiet and well behaved.

now that the cast is off, he will still walk funny until the bone in completely healed. he's getting around but is still in some pain. i took him out on the deck this morning and he has so much fun playing with his out side toys. then we hit the park, he had a blast and we left very dirty. ha. my little stick gather is back.

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Posted by mel at 12:59 PM

hangng with hope

hope won the wed night "best job on their workbook" prize for the jump 7-12's. the prize was to spend the afternoon with us. hope is a young lady who has the gift of chatter, sparkle and laughter.

after church we went for a picnic at the park. then we played on the equipment (ok, i stayed on the blanket and took pic's)

chris and nate went to the slide

it's kinda not really fun to just slide at the park. nate's bum leg prevented him from really playing

then we went back to our place, where we made from scratch....sugar cookies...i tried a new recipe and it worked. the cookies were yummy

chris helped by making us drinks to keep our strength up, good job chris!

icing was made, candy picked. waiting for the cookies to cool before we decorated them

voila. yummy, decorated, candy filled sugar cookies!

nate saw them and wanted one, but i wouldn't give him one

pleaseeeeeeee

*i did give him one, after he stopped whining. i don't speak whine

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Posted by mel at 10:22 AM

sat's sidewalk chalk

sat morning we held the first evah sidewalk chalk project for the jump kids. i bought 100 pc's of chalk and let them go nuts. for our church this was a huge step of change. i made the above treat for snack. fri night i opened my cupboards, saw what i had on hand and created it. SO YUM.

i lined the pan with large marshmallows, melted choc chips, peanut butter, butter, poured it over the marshmallows, then threw on skor pieces, choc candy, peanuts, and more choc, p. butter and butterscotch chips. then i stuck it in the fridge over night. voila. the kids LOVED it.

you want some?

nate likes it too

so did elisabeth. this child cracks me up. she is so much fun.

some of the creation, with some water running threw it

this is for you muetti. i wanted to prove that i am alive. ha. i am the picture taker, so i have few pics of me

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Posted by mel at 10:06 AM

friday, fish and fun

i have always stored my decorating candy in the plastic bags that they come in (bulk barn baby) and just tossed them in a container. it has always annoyed me to see the mess.

while visiting the wonderful $ store i came up with this brain fart. take spice jars and fill them up with the candies. not only will they keep well, they also have the plastic cover that helps shake out a small amount and the are cheap. now i need to find an old spice rack that i can use to store them in. i checked walmart but all the spice racks come with spices and cost over 30 bucks. that's to steep for me. ha

so i started filling the jars, making a mess. then i heard this voice in my head that sounded like chris say "use the filter" . chris loves using the filter. so i did. and it worked. yes, chris you are brilliant, wise and cute.

ain't they all perty?

for now i have them in a plastic container, until i find a spice rack

so, this morning nate and i went to carla's to play with an idea that i had for nate's 2nd birthday cake. i know, kinda early, i still have 6 weeks (usri, you have 5 weeks and 6 days until d-date) what i envisioned is a cake fish. not in the shape of a fish, but more of a sheet cake with fish on it. then i thought hummm cookies! make sugar cookies in the shape of a fish and stick them in the cake. how easy-peasy!

carla had some left over fondant from her crafty, creative, cake creations. so i made a batch of sugar cookies last night and try it out this morning

perfect! to make it even more perfect, i found a picture of what i was trying to describe to everyone on line. see below

how perfect is that! i will make some changes to the cake, i want rocks and more fondant.

so, i need a sugar cookie recipe! i don't like the one i tried. does anyone have an amazing sugar cookie recipe that i can try? i would like to have the dough sit in the fridge for a few hrs before it's rolled out. i find the dough is much easier to work with. feel free to email me!

nathaniel in the mean time, found a stroller and proceeded to fill it up with every imaginable object he could find and use it to assist him in walking around.

yes, i am know he's not suppose to be walking on it!

i told him to stop walking on his cast!

he paused for a moment, reflected on my request and laughed as he made another round, pushing the stroller....

you try to keep him off his leg!

have a good friday everyone!

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Posted by mel at 2:23 PM

new ottoman

check out the lovely new (to me) ottoman/coffee table for the front living room. we picked it up at a garage sale for 12 bucks. i love me a great deal!

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Posted by mel at 3:27 PM

yet another cast

tues morning we took nate to his ortho's appointment with the surgeon. our appointment was for 10:05 and after waiting for 45 mins chris went to see how much longer it will be. chris was told that nate had 5 more ppl before him. chris then kindly explained that nate is 22 months, they then bumped nate to the front of the line and we got in right away to see the surgeon. i adore this child first policy. on the flip side i am wondering why make an appointment in the first place? anyways.

nathaniel was SO upset when they cut his cast off, he kept yelling "ouch" so we were sent for more x-rays to see what was going on. i stayed in the glassed off room to watch the x-rays. i find nate gets more upset if i am there so chris held his hand

the x-rays showed that the leg was indeed still broken, which would explain nate's proclamations of "ouch". we also found out that his left leg was indeed fractured in 2 places but healed fast, so it was a good thing he had that cast put on. it would have been even more challenging for me if he had both legs in casts!

nathaniel checking out his loot. the new cast is much more delicate, it has a splint type backing, wrapped in comfy cotton and covered with the bandage. we go back on monday to check the progress, more x-rays and determine what will happen.

i really liked the ortho surgeon, we booked mon's appointment with him. he is great with kids and i happen to notice quite polite to the nurse....which leads me to speculate that they may have something going on between them....hum....

nate is doing good. he is suppose to stay off his feet but has figured out how to walk on it. try telling a 22 month old to not walk around and play. it makes it fun for me.

so i happened to pick up a UTI infection. i have been resting and taking it easy which is SO hard to do. monday night i found a smoking deal on 2 pairs of sneakers, and i long to try them out. i just don't have the energy. chris knows that i am not feeling myself when:

1-i say no to ice cream

2-i don't walk, bike or work out

3-i try to take a nap

so yeah, i hope this passes fast!

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Posted by mel at 2:59 PM

dad's day

due to the ungodly amount of rain we received this weekend. i had to change my secret father's day celebration plans. nate and i took chris on a picnic to the loft. nate got a bit tired (or maybe he was thinking he would pretend it was old testament times) and relaxed and ate.

instead of baking *gasp* i went and bought chris a treat. it was yum.

nate feasted on strawberries

for some reason, nate thought we were taking his berries from him and he got quite upset

prezzie time! nate had to help open them!

nate the artist created this for chris's desk at work

the big prezzie

now chris can make all his fancy drinks

all in all it was a good day. i am growing tired of this rain. please god let there be sun!

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Posted by mel at 9:08 AM

nate's get well basket

our wonderful and ever so thoughtful church sent nathaniel a "get well" basket to my parent's place, the day we arrived. nate loved it!..so did quinn

i have never seen anything like this basket. it was flipping HUGE. it was stuffed with SO much stuff. it came with a balloon tied to it and inside filled with candies, chocolate bars, pop, cookies, popcorn, granola bars, rice crispy squares, apples, oranges, banana's etc.... there was also a stuffed dog, which nate loved. the basket was a dog bed. so cute. anyways....we have all enjoyed it! i still have unopened packages of treats. whee!

thanks church people!

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Posted by mel at 3:32 PM