Merry Christmas

Annoyed

Everyday I watch Gilmore Girls on the Family Channel. I usually turn on just a couple minutes early and catch the last little bit of The 700 Club. Pat Robertson finishes his prayer and soon enough I'm watching my two favorite sassy tv stars. In between those two shows is an unfortunate message. It goes a little something like this 'ABC does not share the views of the preceding program.' It just surprises me and annoys me a bit. It is the first time I've ever seen that message. Apparently, ABC can't go on the record of supporting religious programming, but it never feels the need to distance itself from other programming. Now, I'm not a huge Pat Roberston fan, but I think it's a sad indication of where we are. I'm just sayin.

Sweet Tooth

I'm just wondering why Nathan will eat anything sweet even if he's never had it before, without even hesitating. However, when I give him something healthy that he's never had before, he just stares at it. He somehow knows by the look of it, whether or not it is going to be tasty. He is his mother's son after all!

Just for fun

So today after church, we had mac-n-cheese. Normally, not my favorite, but I'm tired of feeding Nathan PB&J and chicken nuggets for lunch. He was tired and ready for his nap by the time food got to him. He was just siting and eating with his hands for awhile and then I think the sleepy kicked in. I looked over and saw that he had completely abandoned the hand and fork and just stuck his face right in the plate of food and was slurping it into his mouth. Gotta love that! We got such a good chuckle. My camera was far away, so I'm sad to say I don't have a picture.

Other cute things he's doing lately:
1)He loves Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star and when he wants to sing it, he lifts his hands up over his head and does spirit fingers, while saying 'tar, tar.'
2)Also, Itsy, Bitsy Spider. He just taps his fingers together over and over while nodding his head at you.
3)My all-time favorite is the new way he wakes John up. I pick him up and put him on the bed. He crawls over to John and sticks his face right in John's until his nose is touching John's cheek. Then he says 'hi' in the cutest hi pitched voice. It makes us laugh every time! The other week, Nathan and I were out in the garden and I was weeding. Nathan kept following me around and bending over until he could see my face and saying 'hi'. I need to get that on video.
4) We have a tall laundry basket that is really flexible. Nathan loves to empty any laundry from it and lay it on the floor to use as a slide. The bottom stays firm, so that ends up being the top of the slide. The rest of the basket collapses and works well. Whatever keeps him occupied so I can climb back into bed for just a couple extra moments.

Hope everyone has had a great weekend.

Do not make this...

...unless you want to gain 5lbs in one evening.

Peanut Butter Popcorn

1/2 cup corn syrup
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla

Combine ingredients in a saucepan and boil. Then pour over popcorn. Mix and mix. Pour a tall glass of milk and enjoy!!!

P.S. I didn't make this recipe. I stole it from someone else.

Horses, Horses, Horses

Nathan rode his first carousel today. Once it started moving, he was pretty excited. The carousel is outside a Deli in Madison. Inside the deli, they have tons of crazy things hanging from the ceiling. Nathan was so intrigued he didn't fuss at all. The food was just okay and a bit overpriced, but a quiet meal is priceless. We'll be going back again.

I don't know how to make a collage of these pictures or I would. I don't think they all justify their own spot, but here's some of what was inside.

Too Much Festing

So, if you know me, you know that I love a good Fest. I even love mediocre fests. Add Fest to anything and I'm all over that. Babysitting Fest might not totally win me over, but pretty much any time there is food, craft booths and inevitably pan flutes, I'm there.
To my joy, Wisconsin is the home of the Fest. I have been mapping out our summer. We started out last week with our local Strawberry Fest and have a pretty busy summer schedule. If you haven't already made plans with me, and you want to see me some Saturday this summer, you're going to have to tag along.
However, with all these fests, there is a problem. I don't have enough weekends. Too many fun fests to choose from. I'm planning on having a family meeting as soon as John comes home from work, so I can request some of his days of of work to be put to good use towards this addiction I have.
Now I will list all the glorious fests and know that I can't go to all of them. Cry a little for me and then pick a weekend you'd like to come and Fest with me.
July 3rd-super local Johnson Family Fourth Fest! Fireworks, bbq and homemade raspberry ice cream
July 10th-Bastille Days Fest, St. Albert's Fest (local church)
July 17th-Dane County Fair and Festa Italiana in Milwaukee. Would be a hard choice but I'll be out of town.
July 24th-Here we go with a dilemma. Polka Days (who loves a good polka more than me? I can't think of anyone.) Lumberjack World Championships!!!! Hello?? But also competing for the day is Milwaukee's German Fest AND Minocqua's Antique and Classic Wooden Boat Show. I'm pretty sure we're going to go with the Lumberjack Fest because...well come on.
July 31st-Amish Quilt and Consignment Auction, and Oshkosh Air Show.
Then August! Oiy August.
Aug 7th- WI State Fair, Sand Castle building competition (who knew in WI),New Glarus Swiss Independence Day (full of yodeling, dancing, alphorn playing and accordian music) I don't know that I've ever heard real yodeling! Also, the weekend of our Ward Campout. A camping we will go.
Aug 14th- WI State Fair and Green Bay Tall Ship Festival.
Aug 21st- Sun Prairie Corn Fest, Milwaukee Irish Fest and Mexican Fiesta Fest.
Aug 28th- No festing on our calendar.

So, you can see that I have some deliberating to do. If you have anything to help me in this decision making, I'd be happy to hear.
Hopefully I will remember to take my camera and you'll be getting some festive pictures to document our summer of festing!

He's a reader

Nathan's favorite thing is reading. We read books all day long and sometimes he gets on ein his hand and follows me around saying 'bu, bu, bu'. I recently went through a box of old books and put them in my Goodwill box. He went in the box and found one of my random college textbooks. He's been flipping through the pages over and over. It's too cute. He may be looking for pictures, or maybe he is a genius and is learning about Cultural Anthropology.

Things that make me smile

Another post with some of my favorite random pictures. These are from the last several months. This little boy makes me so happy!

Maybe I posted this one already, but I couldn't help myself.

The view out my front door one night last week.

Just hanging out. Sat there for awhile listening to the birds.

Reading with Daddy.

He has entered the shoe stage. He loves the shoes and goes around most of the day relocating any and all shoes in the house. He's particularly fond of these pink slip-ons.

His love of hats is demonstrated.



Nathan talking on my cell phone. He puts it up to his ear and says 'yep, yep, na, na'. I guess that is how I sound on the phone.

Right before I took this picture he had been sitting happily in the drawer for several minutes.

I mean, come on!! If this doesn't make you smile, what will?

Nathan watching Gilmore Girls with me. I think he likes sassy brunettes.

Keep scrolling down, there is an Easter post.

Easter

Hello friends! We're back. Hopefully, I will be more regular in my blogging. Here are some cute pictures from Easter.
We had a great Easter together just the three of us. The day started out quite rainy and stayed that way most of the day. Before heading to church, we wanted to have our Easter Egg Hunt but it was raining. We said a little prayer, and luckily the rain let up for just a few minutes while we hid and collected the eggs. Nathan took to it right away. 'Put it in the basket' has since become one of my favorite things to say as Nathan is learning to pick up after himself.


Cuteness!


Nathan and I don't have too many pictures together, since I do most of the photography in the family. I asked John to take a few and I LOVE this sequence. I have such a fun little boy.




I was curious about whether Nathan would really like his candy from his basket. He hasn't had much candy before, but not surprisingly he knew just what to do when confronted with a Peep! Good boy!

The Easter Bunny brought Nathan a new book. Gotta love that.

Get excited for the next post. More cute pictures of Nathan. Maybe I'll even get a video in here one of these days!

He's Alive!!

Just so you all know, Chris Farley is alive and well. You'll be surprised to find out that he is living in Sun Prairie, WI, dressing up like a middle aged woman and shopping at my supermarket. Next time I see him, I'm totally asking for his autograph!

P.S. I know I haven't posted lately even though we have gone through Easter, Mother's Day and a trip to The Mall of America. I however didn't feel inspired to update until I saw Chris. I'm sure you understand. One of these days you'll get some cute Easter pictures! Until then, watch some classic Chris Farley, or just book a trip to come see me.

More Hawaii

Okay, so on to our third day in Hawaii. Again the weather was beautiful. The weather was around 82 all the days that we were there. It was so heavenly to drive around with the windows down, in my shorts and t-shirts and feel so warm and cozy. That was my favorite thing. Feeling the warmth on my skin was incredible. I've missed that during the long winter.
So we got up early again and found breakfast. We were told by the snorkel lady that Lanikai was the most beautiful beach. So, we headed over. The drive was wonderful. We drove through the mountains and stopped at an overlook that gave us a beautiful view of Honolulu.

One of the most impressive thing about Hawaii was the vegetation. The trees and plants were breathtaking. I took a bunch of pictures, but will spare you those because you don't get the effect at all and you will think I'm a moron if I upload pictures of leaves.
We drove through a few great little towns and thought 'if we were going to move to Oahu, we'd live in one of those towns, instead of Waikiki. They had yards and were in much nicer neighborhoods. We got a real estate magazine, just to check. Um...let's just say that we won't ever be buy a vacation home there. Or a primary residence. Or a condo rental. You get the idea. I guess there are benefits to living in Wisconsin.
When we got to where the beach was, you just have to look for these little alleys between the houses. They are the public access points. The have to put these in, even if when you get to the end of the alley, it is just a drop into the water. Our first try was a disaster with some slipping down sharp rocks. Not fun. Then we made our way to the beach. BEAUTIFUL!! The water was so clear and stunning. I just sat there looking at the different shades of teal and blue. We did some swimming and snorkeling at the beach and just hung out soaking up the sun.




We were told about a huge outdoor market that they had there. We took off and went to the market. Every souvenir imaginable was there. There were about 500 t-shirt booths. Jewelry, clothes, slippers, art, woodcarvings, etc. Some of it was really incredible and some was...less than. There was a woman and her family who were sitting there carving jewelry and other items out of whale bones. She was so talented and I'm still kind of wishing we got something from her. We picked up a few things to bring home and then headed back to the hotel.
That night we went on a sunset dinner cruise. I love boats and being on the water. I think I'm one of those people who could live on a boat if I had a really good captain. Ahoy, John! We ate dinner and then spent the rest of the time out on the decks of the boat. There was entertainment inside, but after having witnessed some great entertainment the evening before, (see hunky Polynesian guy in previous post) I was set to enjoy the water. The view was beautiful as we cruised around the island. On our way back in, John noticed a dark spot that was moving down by the underside of the boat. He kept watching and soon enough it came up out of the water. We were being escorted by a dolphin. We were going really fast and I was so surprised to watch the dolphin keep up. He stayed with us for a long time, jumping out of the water several times and then he took off in a different direction. We were the only ones on the deck at the time and it was such a fun moment.
Here are some pictures from the dinner cruise.


Isn't this the cutest picture of John and me?

In case that wasn't enough...



The beautiful sunset

Hawaii

I've been home for a few days now and think it is time to get a post going. It's nice to have something post worthy to get my butt in gear and update this thing. It will probably take everyone over a month to see that I've updated, since I am private and people have learned not to check my blog that often. I'm lame, I know. Maybe I should do an April resolution to update more.
Back to Hawaii.
My dad and step-mom watched Nathan while John and I were gone, and for that we are so grateful. I loved having the time, just the two of us and most importantly, I would not have flown with Nathan on my lap for 9 hrs!!
We left Madison early on Friday morning and arrived in Hawaii at 4:30 their time. It was already 8:30 by WI time, but it was nice to get a little extra daylight to enjoy our first day.
We asked at the front desk of our hotel and we were given some restaurant options. The first night, we went down to one of the suggestions, which was The Sheridan Hotel restaurant. We were told they had a nice buffet. I am morally opposed to most buffets, but was assured this was not a health hazard. They were right! We went in and were seated for the buffet. The food was incredible. Best crab cakes I've ever eaten. Prime rib, crab legs, sushi bar, wonderful desserts, etc. The more we ate, the more we wondered about the price. We decided that it might be about $30 a person. Got the bill............$109 for two buffets and one pina colada! Too bad, because I was hoping it would be our nightly dinner spot.
After dinner, we walked on the beach right outside the restaurant.
One of the really nice things about Hawaii is that the beaches are all public. No one can own a beach. So all the hotels that sit on beach front property, have beach access. Also in the home areas, they are required to place a beach access quite frequently.
Day 2: We woke up at 5:30am. I convinced John to get out of bed so we could go see the sun rise. I figured that we would quickly adjust and certainly wouldn't be waking up so early again. Oh, that I had been right! We drove down to a beach and watched a man in his 70's rake a public park and go swim in the ocean. We found out that he went swimming every morning. Apparently it was very rocky at that spot, so he had moved the rocks and created a path (in the water) to walk on, until he reached deep enough water to swim. Even as the waves moved rocks into his new path, he would continue to move them. He had no responsibilty for the park, but wanted to make sure that it stayed clean and beautiful. As I watched him swim, I was impressed. I'm sure he could have found a beach that was sandy and avoided the rock situation altogether, but he was obviously not afraid of a little hard work.

Sunrise in Hawaii
Since we were up, we found breakfast and started our day. We went and rented snorkel gear and found a spot to go. They give you a pretty serious talk about not touching, stepping on, moving, or disturbing the coral in any way. The spot that we went to ended up being quite shallow and I almost never got to use my flippers. I was too afraid I'd step on the coral. The fish were pretty. In my next life I'm going to be a marine biologist.
Then we went back to the hotel and showered and changed. Note to self: next time traveling to a beachy location, pack twice as many clothes. One set for the morning/beach and another to feel human in the evening after you've washed the beach off.
That evening we headed off to our evening Luau. Aloha!! Good food and great entertainment.
I have a new crush on this fella.


And this one too!



More later!! We had a great trip and were so happy to spend time together, just the two of us.

Desperate

to see Simon and Garfunkel when they come to Madison next month. Wouldn't that be a dream??? Don't I wish John read my blog!

Good Ladies, Good Movies

I just got back from a fantastic Girl's Night Out. We spent a good part of the evening reviewing some of our favorite movies. I now have a new Netflix list.
Here's what we came up with:
What's Up Doc
The Scarlet Pimpernel
the 6 hr Pride and Prejudice
Newsies
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
Persuasion
The Sound of Music

Aaahhhh, I'm just so happy typing those names. Boy do I need to watch these soon!
I'm sure that I'm forgetting some main ones that I need to order up soon. Let me know what else should be on my list.

My Laundry Man

Lately, Nathan is my little laundry buddy. When I go into the laundry room to load or switch the clothes, he's right in there, reaching in and pulling out. He's usually pulling things out at the wrong time, but I'm feeling confident that very soon, he'll have it down pat. Then my life will be bliss.
He also loves to carry around his blanket. He'll spot it and run over to it and carry it while he walks. Lift, step, lift, step. He learned quickly that if he didn't want to end up face first on the floor, he had to pick up his blankie as he walked.
While I'm getting ready in the morning, he finds a laundry basket with clean, but unfolded clothes and he goes and picks one piece at a time, out of the basket, carries it across the room and drops it near my feet. I'm anticipating that this too will end up being handy. From our many hours watching DVRed Project Runway, he's going to have a good eye for fashion and I'm hoping by 3, he can be my personal shopper. I'll let you know how that works out.
But my favorite of Nathan's clothes tricks is performed in his crib. His clothes hamper is next to his crib. If left in his crib awake for long enough, he will end up with an empty hamper and have a crib full of previously worn/dirty clothes. It just cracks me up when I go and peek in on him and I find some jammies, onesies and socks. I need to be getting a picture of that. He's just the cutest little fella. Aaahhh!

Slideshow Failure

Does anyone see the lovely little slideshow above this post? Yeah, well, it's supposed to be picture of Nathan's first year of life. (fixed it) Hmmm...I don't know why there are little Asian babies and kids playing ping pong. I don't know any of these people. I also don't know how on earth to get those pictures to be of my own flesh and blood. I selected 'add slideshow' and I am supposed to use Picasa, I guess. So I figured by selecting Picasa, I could go into my Picasa account and select the pictures that I wanted to appear in a slideshow. Hmmm...not so much.
Any ideas?
Cause today is Nathan's birthday and I want to review with you all, the most adorable baby born in 2009! I need some tech help here. Too bad John is at work. These will have to tide you over until I can figure it out. In the meantime, enjoy the magical slideshow of people I don't know.

Family Picture