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!