Dad's 60th and Other PA Shenanigans

Last weekend we took a quick trip down to PA to celebrate my Dad's 60th birthday with the fam. It was a much needed weekend getaway for our family. It's been a long few months full of sickness and everyday life business, especially for Darin as he prepares for his comp exam next month. We needed some time away. 

Darin still had work to do, so on Friday my mom and I took the kids out to a really fun playground where we met up with Philip and the little boy he watches. The kids just LOVED being outside as the weather is FINALLY warming up for us out here (and the leaves are finally coming in! Hallelujah!)

After getting home from the park we threw some streamers up and then got to cooking. We made a Strawberries and Cream Pie. We had just had this the previous week for Easter and Darin and I couldn't stop talking about how we wanted more. We did not complain one bit when my Dad chose it off the list of desserts I sent him that we could make for the big day. We also made his fave Beef & Veggie Pie with roasted broccoli/cauliflower for dinner. This is a special meal that his mom would make growing up. 

Beef and Veggie Pie

1 Pkg. pie crust mix 

      or

Pillsbury unfold pie crust (found in the dairy case)

2 TBsp butter or margarine

1 cup chopped onion

1 cup shredded carrot

2 cups chopped cabbage

1 lb. ground beef

1 cup hot water

1 envelope instant brown gravy mix

1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. leaf savory, crumbled

1/4 tsp. black pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Prepare pie crust mix. Chill 30 minutes. (or use Pillsbury crust).  Saute onion, carrots and cabbage in butter or margarine, stirring often until tender.  Remove to large bowl.  Saute meat.  Stir in water, brown gravy mix and seasonings.  Add to veggies.  Make bottom crust and place in pie pan.  Spoon in meat/veggie mixture.  Make and place top crust.  Cut a few slits in crust.  Bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown.

Shae wrote a story that he gave kuhn-ta. It was called: Kuhn-Ta, Shae, and Beekle Love Ice Cream. 

 The kids also got him one of their recent favorite books called How to Babysit a Grandpa that they can read with him when they visit. Shae loves to talk about how he wants to babysit kuhn-ta some day. (Excuse the blur in these last two pics, my camera has been acting up on me).

 Philip got him a new weed whacker head.

After the kids were down he opened his final present which me and my mom and siblings had been working on for a few weeks. Sixty letters/memories from friends and family. We ended up getting 32 letters in total from family members (extended and not) and friends that he has had over the years, and the rest we filled with memories. One of my favorite memory pages was about what we think of when we think of Dad in the kitchen. We all had some variation of the same thing: crazy, random foods mixed together. Sometimes good, sometimes not. How we learned not to ask what is FOR dinner, rather, what is IN dinner. Peas in everything. One time I remember a leftover casserole that he made that was Ramen noodles, meatloaf, and broccoli with cheese all over. Yum. 

It was just so entertaining to hear him read through all the letters and memories, that then sparked other memories that he would share with us as well. It was really special to read through them all together. 

I loved hearing about farting games that he played as a kid from his brother's letter and how at a camp out he didn't want to use store bought wood since he wanted to teach Scott about making fire from the nature surrounding them, and then went and pulled out dryer lint. His friend from MD, Mark, asked him, "Where in nature did you find that Bill?" 

I loved the story from Sister Wiltfong about the first time she heard my dad play the accordion in church way back when. She was holding back giggles and thought an accordion in church would be sacrilegious, but said that the number brought her to tears. 

My favorite FAVORITE memory was Anna's, when she remembered a time as a kid when her friend came over asking to play ponies with her. Anna didn't want to since she was "too cool" for that and left. When she came back outside my dad was sitting on the outside steps playing ponies with Anna's friend. I just LOVE that memory because it is SO my dad. He loves kids and he loves putting other's feelings/needs before his own. Such a sweet memory of something that he would easily do again tomorrow.

Darin and I got to sneak away on a date Saturday afternoon which was lovely. We went and saw La La Land at a $2 theater (something we lack in Ithaca), then went out to eat. Darin's adviser here at school is from the area and recommended this Vietnamese restaurant in Harrisburg to us. We had only had Vietnamese one time before this experience and it was not good. Everyone always raves about Pho. It just seems like it's one of those things I'm supposed to love, so we gave it another chance. 

 It was really good Pho, MUCH better than the other place we tried last year, but I've decided I'm just not a Pho girl and that is okay. It's just so brothy. Don't get me wrong, it's a good broth, but if I'm spending money on food I really don't want broth. Give me all the meat and rice and sauce! The noodle beef dish that we ordered was really good though. 

 After the date we met up with my parents and the kids at a middle school where they were doing the stake Road Show. The performances were pretty fun and the kids (especially Shae) just thought it was so cool to be at a show.

 On Sunday, after church, we did a second Easter with my family. We had a nice Easter meal and my mom set up a great Easter egg hunt for the kids.

 Better, brighter pictures from Philip :).

Before heading home we had to squeeze in a few more rounds of Sleeping Queens. Like I said in my last post, such a fun game. 

Then back home we went. The kids were exhausted after a long, fun day and crashed a few minutes in to our trip. Shae with his feet up on the seat. Belén is finally at a point where she can sort of car sleep. Only for about 45 minutes max, but much better than last summer. Sweet sleepy babies. 

Easter

We've started doing our "dying Easter egg tradition" the Monday before Easter for Family Home Evening. Before dying the eggs we had a really lovely little lesson about the meaning and story behind Easter. 

We read The Easter Story by Patricia Pingry that we got from the library. It was the perfect picture book for the kids about this topic. We then watched this lovely video about finding peace through Christ. There were a lot of words in it so I read them aloud for the kids. At the end it says: "He is Jesus Christ. King of Kings. Lord of Lords. Prince of Peace." After saying, "Lord of Lords," I got a little emotional and paused and didn't immediately read the next line. When I didn't read it, Shae shouted out, "Mom! What does it say?!" Through tears I read out, "Prince of Peace," and in that moment I felt such a strong connection to and love for Christ. I continued to feel it that entire week leading up to and on Easter as we discussed the Savior and his resurrection.

During one conversation Shae asked, "But why does he live AGAIN?" It was so special to be able to talk to him about what that means to me, and to our family. These kids, man, they sure do know how to bring out all the feels in me on these heartfelt topics that over the years I just haven't thought about or talked about or studied about enough. Thank goodness for their sweet inquisitive minds.

After the lesson we got to the fun part, the part Shae had patiently been waiting for ALL week. This was the first year that I felt like I didn't really have to worry about him drinking the dyed water or cracking all the eggs as he plopped them in the water (2016 and 2015).

 Lucky for us, we had this sweet girl to make sure we still had a few cracked eggs at the end of the night. Let me tell you, putting six cups full of colored water in front of her was terrifying. She's quick and messy. Thankfully, we somehow ended the evening with only one minor spill.

 (Face covered in chocolate from the Chocolate Cadbury Cookies we made the day before).

 Shae wanted to dye the eggs just like we were, which meant doing half an egg one color and the other half a different color. He was so patient, holding the egg in the water (and of course sticking half his hand in while doing so). 

 The Saturday before Easter we did a little egg hunt Primary activity with other members of our branch. Here the kids are playing a "pass the hat" hot potato type game.

These two. I just love them so much. I haven't started crying DAILY yet over the fact that they are moving in three months, but I have definitely cried. When is it too soon for the daily cry to start? 

 Our little spring bunny.

That lip. Always with the lip.

 We don't really do big fancy baskets from the Easter Bunny around here, but are trying to figure out a good tradition for us. This year we did a chocolate bunny for each kid and a new family game (Sleeping Queens), that we are obsessed with. We have played it a few times a day since Easter. It's a game that Darin and I actually enjoy playing too. In fact, I look forward to it (unlike never ending games of Candy Land or Trouble). And it was only 10 bucks! 

 Darin was sweet and let me sleep in a bit on the holiday since I didn't have church meetings. After I woke up, we ate some pancakes and then did our own little family Easter Egg hunt. The eggs were filled with M&Ms and Paw Patrol chocolate that I found at the Target dollar spot, which the kids of course were very excited about.

Before rushing off to church we had to take some obligatory family photos. We were in a hurry so didn't get outside. Of course I said, "Let's take a few now just in case we don't go outside after church, but let's go outside after church!" Of course that didn't happen because after church everyone is hungry and tired and the church clothes come off as soon as we walk inside...so glad we took these awkward hallway apartment pics before leaving :). 

The rest of the afternoon/evening was really lovely, spent with friends and food. What more could one ask for? 

 This sweet girl was the only one left on the tarp after 5 minutes and probably the only one who ate all her food. What a doll. 

At church I wasn't really expecting all the feels of the week to hit me so strong from the start of the meeting, but yowza, all it took was the first hymn. The words were just so beautiful.

That Easter Morn, a grave that burst

Proclaimed to man that "Last and First"

Had ris'n again

And conquered pain.

This morn renews for us that day

When Jesus cast the bonds away,

Took living breath

And conquered death.

Thus we in gratitude recall

And give our love and pledge our all,

Shed grateful tear

And conquer fear.

(Hymn: 198 That Easter Morn)

So thankful for him.

Four Year Old Ninjabread Boy

Wow, it feels like it's been years since I last wrote a blog post. March was just an awful month full of sickness sickness and more sickness, oh, and tons of snow and cold. Nothing blog worthy at all. We are now about to finish off the first week of April (or at least we were when I first started this post) with another crazy bug going around our family. This one has led us all to live in the bathroom and our beds for a few days before the next person took over. Belén’s 2 year molars decided to stop by last week as well and we were up quite a few nights with her, non-stop. Poor poor girl. And poor us. Really hoping this is all almost done. We went the whole winter without getting sick and I was so happy--until 5 weeks ago. 

Hence my 2 month late four year old post about Shae. I just want to remember every detail of him right now! So I'd better hurry up and get this written before he changes too much more.

...On top of the sicknesses, I really wanted to get some good pictures of him outside and there was just NO day all of March to get outside and take pictures. It was a yucky yucky month. We finally had a day last week where the sun was shining enough that the lighting in our apartment was decent, so we took advantage of that (we did end up getting out later this same afternoon b/c the weather was okay and since his hair was done...).

Okay, let me stop complaining about March and snow and sickness and move on to better, happier things...like this sweet boy! 

This kid has been SOO sweet lately. Constantly telling us things like, "Mom, I love you and I like you," and running around giving us hugs and kisses and "love strokes" (a stroke on our cheeks accompanied by him saying in THE sweetest voice with THE sweetest smile, "Love stroke?" 

I just can't get enough.

The other day we were talking about mailing a letter and he goes, "Mom, remind me to bring the envelope...sigh...I love you."

At the doctors for his 4 year check up: Sitting up on the table while the nurse listens to his heart, he looks over at me and sighs and says, "Mom, I just love you." ha! Right there with two nurses in the room and his shirt off. 

Notes about Shae:

Weight: 36 lbs.

Height: 39"

Favorite Color: Green

Favorite Animal: Super hero dogs

Favorite movie: Cars

Favorite Songs: Wreck-It-Ralph Soundtrack

Favorite Book: Ghost Town at Sundown (Magic Tree House)

Favorite Foods: Pizza, Hot Dogs, Chicken Nuggets, Ice Cream, Tomatoes, and Cantalope

Least favorite foods: Any main dish dinner food that is not one of the above (he will eat all other foods, but not without complaining first) and jello.

Favorite imaginary games: Magic Tree House, Super Heroes, and Paw Patrol (he loved playing "family" but now that is ALL the girls in Joy School want to play and he has started to not want to go to Joy School because, "I don't want to play Family.")

Favorite board games: Trouble, Sorry, Candy Land, Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus

And now on to a bunch of random things about Shae and things he has said/done recently that I want to remember:

We have stopped giving him milk in a sippy cup, but we often find him hiding somewhere chugging his sister's sippy cup full of milk (since she is the opposite of him and never drinks it). Clearly it's the sippy cup that he is most attached to, not the milk.

He LOVES taking pictures and videos (mostly of himself) with my phone. I gave him an old digital camera to play with a few weeks ago and he had a blast taking pictures of everything. 

When he draws letters in a weird way (and this totally drives me batty) and then says, "This is my Spanish S!" or "This is a monster M!" 

He thinks Ks are unnecessary and always changes them to a C. Thanc you. Jacc and Annie.

We've had to switch things up with quiet time now that Belén climbs out of the pack n' play. She now sleeps in her crib in their room, Shae does quiet time in the living room, and I work in my bedroom. I was so worried about this change, and while it's annoying that I have to move all the toys out into the living room, Shae has been SO great. He has been super in to building towns lately which is so fun to see (Magic Tree House audiobooks have helped a ton too. Some days I let him take a bath for quiet time and he will just play in the tub listening). 

We had a FHE lesson about the Holy Ghost recently and it really stuck in Shae's brain because he will occassionally ask us things like, "Did the Holy Ghost tell you to be nice to me?" (Usually said after I have lost my cool and then have to restart and apologize).

"Maybe I do want to die and go to Jesus so that I know what color the Holy Ghost is." 

While in the tub, "I'm dead now. I'm with the bathtub Jesus."

So many hilarious gospel related statements from kids as they try to grasp all this deep church stuff we throw at them. 

Shae has an affinity for keeping all of his artwork and showing it off on his wall above his bed. Sadly for him, we don't actually let him tape up ALL his artwork, b/c that would be a lot, but the wall is definitely quite filled. We're at a point now where he has to choose something to take down when he wants to put something else up. And I love that he wanted that family picture that I drew right in the center of it all. 

One day at swim lessons I snuck a pic of him and got in trouble for it. I told him later what happened and said, "The pool lady tapped my shoulder and said 'Ma'am' no pictures please." 

Shae: She wasn't talking to YOU! Your name isn't ma'am! 

The picture that I shouldn't have taken of the kids quietly listening to their teacher before jumping in. He's in the navy top on the right.

He LOVES swim lessons and I have been so impressed how different he is in the water over a short few months. Watching him bob in and out of the water when he wouldn't even dare put his chin in the water when he started has been so cool. They always end the lesson by jumping in the pool (little pool) and last week he told his teacher, "Don't catch me this time, I'm going to do a cannonball." And he did! Three of them!

He also wanted to take his swim shirt off last week like the other boys, so I helped him take it off and he immediately covered up his chest with his arms and said, "Put it back on!"

He reads sight words pretty well and will sound out words when I encourage him to do so. He can read better than he thinks he can, he just doesn't like to try. We've implemented a new rule that when we get "easy reader" books he has to read every other page and he knows and follows the rule. "Oh mom, this is an easy reader..." (I've learned to pick out easy readers he gets excited about, mostly Disney, Super Hero, Diego, etc.)

We started taking away his brown blanket that he has been SUPER attached with since he was a baby during the day. We noticed that he is more wild when he has it. He'll swing it around and terrorize Belén with it. When we took it away, it was amazing how much calmer he became. When we take it out of the closet at the end of the night, his excitement is so real as he runs and hugs brown blankie. Silly boy and his attachments. 

Shae (with Eppie): Me and Eppie are playing Mom and Dad and we need to play in your room so that we can pretend it is night time and go to sleep in your bed together.

Cue simultaneous mom laughter and freak out.

While it feels like Shae and Belén are constantly fighting over something these days, it is really cute how excited Shae gets while watching Belén learn things. When she says a word (any word, even if it is one she uses all the time) he will say "Yay! She learned a new word! Good job Belén, you said 'cracker.'" 

It's a bit strange just how excited he gets when she pees in the potty as well (or at least he did for the first few weeks). If she went in the little potty, he always wanted to be the one to pour the pee into the big potty (??) and when she went in the big potty he would run in and say, "Can I see?!" I love that her joys are his joys.

On the other end of this, he also becomes pretty excited about Belén being disciplined. "Mom, she hit me, she should probably go in a time out for that shouldn't she." It just must be SO cool to see your sibling be the one being disciplined and not you.

He really does put up a lot with her though, and he does a good job. It's gotta be hard having someone around who destroys all your block creations and train tracks, someone who throws their food at you during meal time, or draws on your drawings. He's (mostly) a good sport.

Shae considers every movie to be a bad movie if there are bad guys in it (every movie...except Cars, which is why he loves it). We have tried to explain that it can be a good movie, with bad guys in it, but he just hears the word "good" and can't take it since CLEARLY it is bad, if there are bad guys. "Shae, did you like Moana? It was a good movie wasn't it?" 

"No mom! It was a bad movie. There were two bad guys!" 

"But didn't you enjoy it?" 

"Not the bad parts!"

Me (after Shae had a conversation with the mailman): Did you know I wanted to be a mailwoman when I was a kid? Instead I chose to be a mommy and an editor.

Shae: I'm glad you chose to be a mommy instead of a mailwoman.

Oh, my heart.

Shae: When I grow up I want to be a ninjabread boy, and a Dad. 

Shae: I want to help put the gasoline on Belén! Please can I help you put the gasoline on her!
Me: It's VAS-oline, bud. Vasoline. 

Shae is such a joy. He is thoughtful, kind, loving, and friendly. He can be timid when it comes to trying new things and gets upset if his food is cut incorrectly or the milk level in his cereal is lower than it should be. But overall, he has such a big heart. He gives me a hug and kiss EVERY time I leave the house, even if it is just to check the mail. He loves his family and talks about his extended family often and when he will see them again. He notices when other kids aren't included and makes sure that everyone has a turn at doing things. Darin and I fall asleep just about every single night talking about funny/adorable things that he has said or done that day. We just love this kid to the moon and back.