Sugar Weekend + Updates

We started off our weekend with some Christmas cookie making. Grandma spoils us silly by saving all of the sprinkle cookie making for when we are there. Seriously, she does all of the hard work, and literally creates stations for the kid-friendly part of cookie making. Justin is crazy about sprinkles. Can you find his masterpiece?

 

 Then, I had a surprise waiting for me. Grandma saved this special pretzel bark recipe for me. Oh. My. Goodness! Not only did she make it for me, but she sent me home with the WHOLE pan!! I've been storing it in the garage refrigerator so it takes one extra step to break off a piece. Amazingness.

 The weekend of sugar continued when we finally cashed in on Colin's "listening coupon" from school. Good listening when the rest of the class is crazy = free ice cream coupon! Yes, he shared with his brother. And yes, bear bear and eeyore are still around.

 After our sugar-filled, wonderful day, I decided that we needed to run off some of that goodness. So off we went to the zoo. We walked the ENTIRE zoo and rainforest. No stroller. Just walked (with a few spurts of Justin being carried) and walked and walked.

Family Updates:

The house: Attic update - new paint (thank you Lori), new carpet + lighting. In about 5 years, this space will be the boys' den, but for now, it's a playroom and a guest bedroom (two rooms separated by a door.)

The other huge development is window treatments. Our before and after. When we bought the house, the windows had the roll up shades and they were old and started to rip. Finally, our new blinds arrived! Love.

And for our living and dining areas, we finally settled on curtains. They need an iron and hem to complete the look. =)

We're also trying to get a bit more settled in other "design" areas of the house. My sister renovated some old frames with paint and Hawaiian sea glass (no lie - she flew sea glass out here for her visit). And we finally cleaned up the dining built-ins to be a bit more festive. Honestly, we have no idea what we are supposed to put on these shelves. Any other ideas?

  

Kid updates:

• The boys make up their own words. And "Choo-Kee-Nah" is one of their favorites. When they're being silly, they call each other this. When you ask them a question, they answer with this. Whatever you say, you may hear "chookeenah" plus some giggles in response.  Silly fun.
• Colin: He is enjoying being 5. He is busy with 5 year old toys now: Snap Circuits Jr., Legos, Puzzles, paper airplanes, stickers and books. He loves to build and create new things. He's a great big brother and often helps Justin by reading to him or helping him with things. He is inquisitive and we need to call Jichan often for answers to questions. "What makes the sky orange at night? why only some nights? why not the whole sky?"
• Justin: He loves everything colorful and big. If we give him a choice, he'll always choose anything with the most color and the biggest of everything. He loves elephants and giraffes. He loves Spiderman and jumping. He whispers in my ear, "mama, you're so pretty." When he's excited, he'll say "oh my gosh. that is so cool!"  He rotates between 4 of his favorite t-shirts and often will pull them out of the laundry basket to wear if they are all dirty. He still plays Baby Lucas when he wants extra cuddle time. He's a good little brother and will often create new games for the two of them to play. If you ask him to share something, he will usually respond, "yes, in 2 minutes." He's in the middle of potty training and we'll all be so thrilled when it's complete. =) Picture: THE favorite green tractor shirt + Elephant = Justin happiness.

Adult updates:

• Jack is still vegan (95% of the time). One of our tenants moved out so he was busy with tenant turnover tasks all weekend. Repairs, cleaning, marketing, renting. He admits that he hasn't been back out running since Lori was here, so hopefully he'll start up again this week.
• Jamie is not vegan...and never will be. I gave up brie cheese twice in my life (for pregnancies), but never again! haha. In other news, a huge decision was made. The original plan was to keep the tmill in the garage. But since I have zero motivation to workout, we decided to temporarily move the tmill into the office. No excuses. Once I get in a routine again, we'll move the monstrosity into the (cold) garage again. For now, let the running commence. Yes, that tmill sure is looking dusty in this picture.