Happy Easter!!!

Redemtion...Holiday style

Happy New Year From the Edge's
Look...a Family photo!!! We are off to a good start!
(OK, so this was Christmas eve, but since we didn't send out Christmas cards, this will have to do.)

We were lucky enough to get a nice little blizzard this week that has helped to keep our kids occupied.
This girl loves the snow but refuses to wear gloves...burr.
The boy showing off his skills on his new pogo stick. He was pretty disappointed on Christmas morning when his mom could pogo better than him. He is now working on showing me up.
Also not pictured, the boy decided to try out his new super awesome sleeping bag by sleeping in our freezing cold sun-room on a night when the temps dipped into the single digits...thanks grandma. He said he stayed warm!
Poppy wearing her new Rapunzel hair and dress...oh, the indulgent grandma, what would she do without you??? You certainly have the knack for knowing exactly what she would love. I do however win points for getting her a bead/creative box that has been getting pretty good play time too. Pretty sure that Rapunzel didn't have that in her tower!
Hazel didn't even have to ask to know that the barn and animals were hers. From the minuet she walked int o the room she had them in her hands.
The girls were pretty content with their pre-opened gifts prior to breakfast. We generally don't let them open gifts until after breakfast. This way they get to play with whatever is out on the floor and the other gifts come after.
Poppy was happy being Mary for our Christmas Eve nativity.Our good friends Helen and Justin came over for Christmas eve. We made our annual gingerbread trains. I was delighted by the fact that Oscar and Poppy are now old enough to handle the frosting themselves. They are really getting independent!
Christmas Eve I told Rick that I wanted him to take the kids out while I cleaned up the house and got it ready for Christmas. He then told me they were going hiking and I decided to forgo my plan...no way are they going without me! The bonus was that I got a awesome Family photo out of it. BTW I consider any photo that has my entire family in it-with them all facing forward a success. This may just go on our mantle.

(Oscar wore his cycling hat as a winter hat. Funny thing is, it doesn't cover your ears. I lent him mine half way through.)

Oscar did the extra two mile section with me. I always love it when I can hang with the o-man. He always has such great ideas and thoughts that come about when we are one-on-one.

Well, there you go, my first post of 2011. I am hoping to redeem my blogging self with the new year. I would love to catch up on the ups and downs for 2010, but then I get overwhelmed and don't know where to begin. So, lets just say I'll re-commit to do better this year than last. It shouldn't be too hard to do. Happy New year Blog world!

Spiking your kids food for fun...

Hazel did her own tampering here...dip your bagel in the nice clean river water so that it softens up to the perfect consistency. (I should note I worried about giardia for the next week.)

If I'm not tampering with their food, sometimes I skip the whole make a "bagel and cream cheese" step, and just give them cream cheese on a knife.

(Poppy feeding herself)
Crapes are another food I find opportunity to stash all sorts of goodness into.

I'm not sure if I actually spiked his cereal, but that is the face I see when they actually figure out I have tampered with their food.

Oscar's spiked sucker that grandma sent 4 years ago...there's a cricket inside.

Tonight as I was preparing my two older children's bedtime snack of oatmeal, I decided I must make a post about how frequently I spike my children's food with all sorts of interesting things. Sometimes I do it entirely to see if they notice.
Take tonight for example: Oscar has repeated multiple times that he does not like whole milk or what her refers to as "Hazel milk". Even when we were entirely out of skim milk he said he would eat his breakfast without milk, so that he wouldn't have to use her milk. Therefore tonight I did what any other good mother would do, I used whole milk in his oats just to see if he would notice, even though we had skim in the refrigerator too. Did he notice? No.
Case in point# 2: Poppy has been getting up in the night for the past week. I decided that she must be mineral deficient or something...therefore I cut open one of my calcium pills and added it to her breakfast oats (I seem to see a pattern with oats, do you? You may want to consider skipping oats if you ever come to my house) did she notice? No.
Sometimes I do it is for nutritional value, or maybe to see if they will actually eat a different food that I know they say they hate, but maybe this time they will like it. The part that is the funniest is when I do it completely to humor myself, and they kids never even know it. Man I crack myself up. Maybe this is what parenting is all about...manipulating my littles.
Maybe it is my way of mixing things up a little. Either way I'm probably going to keep it up. Just to see.

Ocean Trip 2010

Once again we found ourselves at the Oregon coast doing what we love best, playing.
This year we had the special treat of having Auntie Nat tag along.
She was a big help and it was great having her around.
Here is one of the few family photos we were able to take. Funny how the children and spouse always have about the same crazy faces in EVERY one of them.
Hazel really enjoyed her new found freedom of being able to walk and explore the ocean for the first time.
We rented a Kayak and canoe on our second day. We stayed on Devil's Lake in Lincoln city. It was the best of both worlds...fresh water and salty.
Poppy was really excited about the little crabs. They may be one of the best parts of coming to the ocean. They are not to big to be threatening and very cute.

Hazel Turns One...and 9 days

Our little Hazel who graced this world one year ago...

I'm sorry you had to spend your first birthday in the same place you began your life...
I didn't realize that you wanted a giant gorilla cage and my undivided attention for three straight days. Had I known, I think we could have arranged something at home. Instead, you were blessed with a lovely nose ornament and some extra rich oxygen...what more could a one year old want?
Finally after an extended long sick streak in our household, we decided it was time to give you a true 1 year old birthday party...albeit nine days late. Poppy helped to build a chocolaty beehive with tasty strawberry bees (they were the only part you would really end up eating, so I'm glad you approved of them).
You didn't like the feeling of having your clothes off...or the cold frosting. But you decided to give it a few tastes after eating a couple of the bees.

Poppy, the baking apprentice, was eager to lick the beater.
It was sooooo nice to have you back to your playful self.
I'm not sure what you enjoyed more, the balloons or the wrapping paper? Too bad we can't wrap a hospital bill for you to open. Don't worry, when we get it we will let you open it as a late birthday present.

You haven't decided that you want to walk yet, which is perfectly fine by me, but your are certainly perfecting your standing abilities! Poppy on the other hand is mastering the blowing of balloons.Oh, little Hazel!!! How I adore you and your little chipmunk smile!!! I can't believe you are one.
As a means of documenting your little quirks here is a short list of some of your developments:

You can stand, although you prefer to crawl, especially with things in your mouth or while holding the items and crawling with your hands full.

You have mastered the stairs, both to the sun room and the long set downstairs. You find great delight in your newly acquired freedom (I do however, have the right to block such passage to avoid you playing with the dog food...sorry)

You LOVE animals and you have mastered the dog and bear sounds and can give them on command! SOOO cute. Your little belly laugh every time you see an animal of any variety makes me chuckle. It actually was animal books that kept us sane while in the hospital...I was grateful to find the animal channel on the Television when they came and woke you up at 6am to weigh you. (We seriously need to teach hospital staff the importance of baby schedules!!!) The monkeys on T.V. kept you from pulling your nose piece out for about 30 minutes.

You have learned quickly the art of manipulation of your siblings, and your new-found screech that demands what ever it is you are currently wanting...not so attractive, highly obnoxious, but seems to be effective (note to self: figure out how to curb this behavior, especially at 2am).

We polished off the last of your birthday antibiotics and you seem to be healthy and well. You are one sweet baby that the entire family adores you...even smiley. I only have one last request...how about we give up the nursing?

January updates

Popster ready for pajama day at school...I'm not sure if she likes pink???

Hazel getting some lovin'

Family photo...Edge style. At least we have documentation that we all existed at the same time.

Ahhhh....the BINKI BLANKET!!!! This girl won't live long enough without it for it to be washed. She, just like her big brother, are in love with their blankies.

The girls

(Poppy 10 months old)

I meant to write on this sooner but I got distracted. This is Poppy in the yellow pj's...a little younger than Hazel in the photo...

Here's Hazel in the same pair. I can see the difference can you?
I will also document soon some of our happenings...it just takes time getting from camera to computer...life is good. Oh, and Hazel is 11months old!!!!

The holiday re-cap

Hazel made sure that all of the ornaments stayed on the tree...
The making of the ginormous candy train...do you see any train under there?
Poppy hiking in her newly acquired dress (made by grandma Edge) she wore it for four days straight!
The annual Christmas day 5k (we missed it last year due to the pinata accident). Hazel won the youngest participant award...Oscar ran the whole thing! I belive this is his first semi-official 5k. It was fun.
Aunt Rosie and her new boots!
O man working with his new Dremel tool...right up this boys alley. I laugh every time I see him in his safety glasses. He has now begun to wear a face mask too. He dosen't like the styrofoam going up his nose.
Poppy and the beutiful dress. The heaband was made by Aunt Emily.
This my friends was my gift from Rick and the kids...a dinner bell. I think this will be a present talked about for many years!

I'm sad to see the holidays go but grateful for the routines that the new year brings. Last year was really good to us. I'm looking forward to another. I think this was a landmark year for me as a mom. I am learning new ways of prioritizing our life and am finding comfort in simplicity. I'm learning that (as a neighbor recently told me) when raising kids "the days are long, but the years are short." I like being a mom. I really love it. I'm grateful that Rick works so hard so that I can be home with the kids. Because more than ever, I'm realizing that once they hit school years, things start moving much too quickly! Life is good!!!