All in a Row

Last Saturday Ryan took a break from working outside to help entertain the boys while I got ready. They both wanted/needed a bit of a cuddle, so this is what Ryan arranged.

First Full Hair Cut

Back in January I trimmed some of Caden's wispy hairs around his ears and neck, and shortened up his mohawk area. It took less than 90 seconds and I deemed it his first hair cut. Life went on and his pale blonde hair continued to grow. Until this past week. I was cutting Ryan's hair and Caden decided he wanted a turn. So he jumped in the chair and I took the clippers to his head. I didn't think he needed a haircut, but it actually looks much nicer all one length. For some reason the kid tends to naturally grow a mohawk. He didn't mind the buzzing one bit, and kept directing me where to cut next.

We took a picture of the hair on the floor because you can't see his locks in a before and after picture and I wasn't sure anyone would believe we'd actually cut his hair unless they saw evidence.

Big helper!

Check out our big boy helping his brother eat. So messy, but so cute.

Crafting for Mother's Day

These are pictures of the fun Mother's Day craft we did for Caden to give to his grandmas. Yup, I'm behind on posting pictures. We hadn't done any crafting in a while (like, probably 3 months!) and Caden was so excited when I pulled the stuff out that he kept asking me to take pictures. We took some paint, mixed it with water, then I put dallops on the paper. Caden got to blow through a straw to spread the paint around. That alone kept him occupied for an hour, and when I finally decided to put the paints away he cried. I guess we need to craft a little more often. Once the paint was dry we traced his hands on it. That was comical since he kept lifting up his hand or moving his fingers so he could see the line I was drawing. Finally, we cut out the handprints and rolled each one around a straw to form a lily. Caden helped every step of the way. He cut up the scraps while I cut the hands, and handed me the tape while I assembled the flowers. The finished product was a little pot of love from kiddo to his grandmas.

Eric at 9 Months

Eric is now 9 months and one week old. We went to the doctor for his well check on Monday and things are looking good. He is on track with all the developmental milestones, and got props from the nurse for being such a tough boy when they gave him his shot. The kid doesn’t cry at all when they poke him. Ah, the traits of a second child who is constantly assaulted by his older brother.

Length: 27.5 inches, 25%
Weight: 18 lbs 3 oz, 20%
Head: 43.1 cm, 5%

Our little squeaky has his bottom two teeth and the top two just poked through. He loves food, rivaling his brother for what he can pack away. He crawls at the speed of light, but I don’t expect him to stay on all fours long. He’s pulling up on everything in sight and his favorite thing to do is stand at the train table and squeal, which is what he is doing in this picture. That blurr in the botton left hand corner of the picture is Caden attempting to jump across the table to get the car. If you thin the look on Eric's face is a mix of delight and fear you'd probably be right.

Congrats Kara and Dave!

Its official - Dave and Kara were married on Satuday! It was a beautiful day, a beautiful ceremony, and Kara was a beautiful bride. Ryan had the camera, so I don't have a picture of the happy couple or the bride by herself, so this picture of us girls will have to do.

With a little help from his dad, Ryan got the roses for the centerpieces finished in the nick of time. They are all hand cut and forged by Ryan, Rick ground and bent the leaves, and I did the painting. Again, Ryan didn't take a picture of the complete centerpiece, but Kara had nicely designed a grouping of 3 metal roses around a glass vase containing a live rose, accented by rose petals on the table.

We also attempted to get a family picture, but with squirmy kids, little time, and poor lighting this is the best we got.

Give It Up and Eat Like Us

Give it Up
This week is Food Allergy Awareness Week, and one of the national advocay organizations (Food Allergy Initiative) is sponsoring a 'give it up' contest.

The "Give It Up" campaign encourages children, parents, families and friends to show their support for the millions of Americans with food allergies by abstaining from eating a favorite food during the entire week. The "Give It Up" Facebook page also encourages supporters to share photos and/or videos on how they're "giving up" a favorite food. One lucky submitter will win an Apple iPad.

Eat Like Us
Next week is National Eosinophil Awareness Week, and the group organizing that (apfed) is encouraging us to invite friends and family to have an 'Eat Like Us' day. To avoid being redundant, I'm posting about both challenges together.

If you want to eat like us, you could pick one (or more) of the foods we are avoiding and try eliminating for a day or a week. Between the two boys, right now we avoid milk, eggs, wheat, soy (oil and lecithin are okay), fish, shellfish, peanuts, tree nuts, corn, oats, gluten, beans, melons, cucumbers, oranges, bananas, carrots and mushrooms.


Utah Food Allergy Network
If you're up for something with a little higher effort/reward ratio, consider becoming a fan of UFAN on Facebook. You'll be entered into a drawing to win one of 4 great prizes - 2 tickets to see Twilight Saga: Eclipse movie on June 29 at 5 pm; Face painting birthday party package; some allergy friendly treats; or The BugaBees Friends with Food Allergies childrens' picture book.

Have fun reading labels, and this week think of us!

Crawling

Eric is in heaven crawling around exploring the house. Caden loves to crawl with Eric. He particularly loves coaxing him to various locations throughout the house. His current favorite place is his bedroom, where once inside he shuts the door and giggles, "Now I've got you!" Here are the two of them on one of their adventures earlier this week.

Metal Sculpting

Ryan took his final for Human Anatamy this morning, finishing up the Spring 2010 Semester at SLCC. This class produced no fun pictures, but lots of hours of studying.

For his final project in his metal sculpting class Ryan made this awesome violin. It is full size, to scale, and the knobs are even moveable. The other item you see pictured is a forge. Ryan built it as another project in the class and will be using it to make metal roses and scrolls for decorative railings and doors. He is currently attempting to mass produce roses for Kara's wedding, so I'm sure there will be pictures of those within the next week or so.

Hooray for finishing another semester!

The Gravel Pile

Last week our neighbor had a retaining wall built in her backyard. As part of the job the contractor had a full dump truck load of gravel dropped off in the street by her house. They hardly made a dent in the pile completing the wall. On Saturday she ventured out to attempt to move the remaining gravel into her backyard. Another neighbor family saw her working and went over to help for an hour or so. She offered to let us have as much gravel as we wanted for our paver project if we would just haul it away. After we got our 14 wheelbarrow loads we helped move 15 into her backyard for her. She did a few trips by herself, then another neighbor dropped by to help for a while, then another family, then a scout leader showed up with the 12 year old scouts for a while. Not to be outdone, the 10-13 year old girls in the area decided to help for a while.

By the time it got dark the massive pile that took up half the street that morning had dwindled to almost nothing. It was easily finished up another evening. It was amazing to watch the steady stream of people flow in and out all day long, all of their own volition. I’m so grateful we are surrounded by such great neighbors.