Shaving Cream Slide

Today we had a fun playdate with some church friends. We decided to play with shaving cream on the slide as a sensory play activity that I found here on Pinterest.

At first, neither of them wanted to play with the shaving cream, but after a while Mason liked my idea of sliding toys down the slide. Soon enough, he was having so much fun going down that he didn't want to stop and kept saying, "more shaving cream!". Unfortunately, Nicole never did get interested in the activity, but she had a blast watching, playing with the water table, playing with baby Megan, and eating crackers!

After all the fun, we headed inside to play with Nicole's toys. Mainly the Chevron cars. Eventually, Nicole was so worn out that we put in the Baby Einstein Numbers DVD for them to watch.

Look at Nicole's tired eyes!

Mason was counting with the little train on the movie and Nicole was fascinated.

She's catching on to how to hold up fingers when counting....yes, she counted to 2 even though they were at 3.

Can I just say that playdates are the BEST THING EVER?!?! We love having friends over to join in our day! It's also a great way for Nicole to learn how to interact with other kiddos instead of just playing with mom and dad.

Fun with colors

Can I just start with this: I LOVE PINTEREST!!!!!

As many of you know, Nicole is a VERY busy little girl!  This has challenged me to be a very creative mom to come up with fun activities! So, now I spend her naptime browsing on Pinterest (there are some super creative blogs created by moms with young children) and prepping fun activities.

Here are our activites so far:

Bubbles in the water table

Colored Ice Cubes

This ended up being a two attempt activity and I'm not overly impressed with it. I found that it takes quite a bit of food coloring mixed with the water and it didn't look as cool as it did in the instructions. However, Nicole still enjoyed splahing in red water!

Take 1

Take 2 *It also showed up better in the clear container instead of the water table*

Rainbow Crayons

I bought Nicole one set of toddler crayons, which she promptly destroyed. So I decided to make some fun rainbow crayons for her. Most blogs that I saw suggested that I melt them in a muffin tin in the oven, but I didn't see how those could be easy for her to hold. I then remembered some awesome ice cube trays that Nick gave me for my birthday a few years ago. They are meant to be used to make ice cubes that fit into the opening of a waterbottle. Consequently, they are also the right size and shape to make toddler crayons. The only drawback is that it can't go in the oven.......however, it's my favorite season: SUMMER! I just stick the tray outside for a few hours/days and now I have crayons!



Please note: This is my hand, Nicole is sleeping and I didn't want to wait to post this blog!



Wonderful Weekend!

Before I share about our weekend, I am going to post Nicole's 10 month picture! Believe it or not, she is 10 months old! I guess I better get her birthday party planned!

One of the ladies working in the nursery asked if she was always this happy. I replied, "Just about."

We had so much fun together as a family this weekend! On Saturday, we went to ABC (where Nick is a student working towards getting his Journeyman card) for their annual Craft Championship. We had fun walking around looking at all the different booths and watching other students compete by putting together electrical stuff. They were also giving out free In-N-Out hamburgers for everyone who was there. Nicole really enjoyed her first hamburger!

That evening, Nicole spent some time playing in her bath. When she is fussy in the evening, a bath will calm her down and bring back her smile!

On Sunday, Nicole was worshipping during church and it was super cute! I didn't think bringing out the video camera was appropriate, so you will have to trust me! She was dancing to the music and when she saw other people clapping, she starting clapping too! Our afternoon was filled with playing with the dogs:

And helping dad do the dishes:

We pray that you are able to find joy in your day to day activities!

Welcome 2012

We pray that everyone had an enjoyable New Year celebration! We spent it at home watching movies and spending time as a family. On Monday (Nick had the day off work), we went hiking at Santa Rosa Plateau (Murrieta). Here are some pictures of our day:

So, things are a little different with this computer and haven't quite figured out how to rotate pictures. I will have it figured out by the next blog.

On the way home, we went to Best Buy and Staples to get our belated Christmas gift:

Our computers were getting to be old and slooooow (I didn't realize how slow until I started using this one). The major benefit of having a new computer is that I can finally upload videos. So, here are several videos that I have been waiting to share:

Having Fun!

Here are some pictures and videos of us having fun!



All worn out after a day of having fun!



Nicole managed to climb on top of my fabric box! Nothing is safe around here!

Our table at the Homespun Market at Lambs Fellowship.

Look at where Nicoles right leg is......she was trying to use the wipes box to help climb her toy shelf.

Nicole LOVES looking at the dogs! However, the dogs don't really care about her.

Resting and watching Seasame Street while I made dinner.

Nicole was helping me fold laundry. I didn't get much done, but we had plenty of fun play time!

I'm not sure why this posted twice, but it's super cute! Every time we go through the front door, Nicole has to do this! She will fuss if we don't let her. So cute!

So Many Firsts

Since Nicole just threw her first temper tantrum (it was sooo cute/funny, but I didn't have the heart to videotape her), I decided to fill everyone in on her other firsts.
This week alone she has:
1) figured out how to go from crawling to sitting
2) figured out how to pull her self from sitting to standing (her crib matress will be moving a few notches lower tonight
3) say "mamamamamama"
4) do the hi sign from The Little Rascals
5) put things into a bucket


Here is a video of her doing the 'hi sign'

She has also found that she likes to crawl under  pieces of furniture.

A Weekend To Celebrate!

This weekend gave us many reasons to celebrate with our family. First, it was Nick's grandpa's birthday party on Saturday (his birthday is tomorrow). We celebrated with his family with dinner and cake.

Then on Sunday we went to Doug and Karissa's wedding in Brea. The wedding was beautiful and so much fun! They had the park decorated beautifully and had fun things that made their wedding unique. By one of the trees, they had several frames (just the wood, no glass or backing) with handles screwed on the back. People could take pictures of themselves or as groups using the frames. I also must take a minute to brag about the cakes. They were AMAZING!!! I think they were the best cakes I have had at a wedding (oh wait, I might be a little biased......)! Here are some pictures from the wedding.

 Nicole had no intention of sitting quietly through the ceremony. She was sneezing, blowing bubbles, spitting on Hannah, pulling my mom's hair. It was really pretty funny.

 The boxes of cakes.

 Nicole with her great-grandma Linda

 Hannah, me, Nicole, Grandma Linda, my mom

 Nick taking the time to pose in a frame.

 He wanted to make sure he had all angles covered.

 A 3-D picture of Hannah and me!

 In case you didn't know that I am short.

My Aunt Alisha, her son Bryant, Nicole, and me

We are so very blessed to have family close by so that we can join in on special occasions and make memories together! What a blessing family is!