A Wii Bit of Fun

I must admit that the Wii is a pretty fun game system. We have really been enjoying the Wii sports. I love the boxing (I must admit that I am pretty good), Dustin enjoys all the sports, and David tries to immitate us playing the games. We had to grab a game cube controller because David kept trying to take our controllers from us when we would play. When David tries to play like us, the game cube controller is held between his hands and put on top of his head. It is so funny. It's nice to actually play a video game that we all enjoy and get some exercise at.

Nutcrackers & Snowflakes

Wednesday was a day full of adventures. We started the day by heading to Seattle. There were large nutcrackers on display throughout the downtown area. It was lots of fun to see all the nutcrackers decorated in so many different ways. There was also a carosel there that we rode on. David loved it!

Wednesday night we were at Bellevue Square for their Christmas celebration called Snowflake Lane. One street of the square is decorated and becomes a "parade" route for the live toy drummers that come out every night. They march out with their toy tamborine players and play on on platforms and the tamborine players dance around. Snow (tiny bubbles) fall from the sky. It is definately a favorite site when in Washington for Christmas.

A Benson Christmas

Before flying to Seattle for Christmas we celebrated (by opening presents) with my family. David got a car garage. This is what the old version looks like.Remember this from when you were little? I couldn't picture it when it was described but seeing it I can remember it. Anyway...Uncle Brian helped David put the new version of the car garage together. This is the process.

Baby, It's Cold Outside

The last few days have been a little chilly!  We haven't even made it above freezing and the lows at night are below zero.  Tuesday the snow came, get got about 6 inches over the course of the morning.  

Due to the extra cold weather we have been wearing our coats, hats, scarves and gloves.  David found Dustin's scarf and put it on, then he tried putting Dustin's coat on too.  We helped him out and got him all dressed up.  

David has played in the snow everyday and loved it!  Wednesday morning I got all dressed in my snow clothes and David dressed in his snow clothes.  We played in the snow for about an hour and of course David loved it.  While we were out there I  taught David to roll around in the snow, to eat the snow, throw the snow and I tried to get him to make a snow angel.  Thursday after Dustin's final I sent him and David out to play in the snow.  David showed Dustin everything I had taught him.  David loves eating the snow!

King of the Mountain

David is all ready for church, he's eating lunch and Mommy is sitting on his stool.  

Question:  What would any 2 year old do?  

Answer:  He would scream, "my stool!" and take it away from Mommy. 

David took his stool from me and put it on his chair to eat his lunch.  It was a little difficult for David to get back in his seat to finish his lunch.  Eventually we were able to get him untangled from his stool and chair.  We put the chair away and David finished his lunch as best as he felt like.  I guess David is the only one that may use his little stool.  He is very possessive about it and loves being able to use it.  He carries it all over the house to help him reach things that mostly he shouldn't reach.  David loves his stool!  He even uses it to help him climb up on top of the counter, washer, table, microwave, whatever.

Hats

David has quite the imagination or does this just come naturally to 2 year olds, is it built into their DNA?

The Purse Hat/Backback

Modeled by David who is wearing this years favorite pajama of trucks.  This lovely purse can be worn as a hat or when arms are through the straps (as shown) may also be used as a backpack.  This versatile number is stylish, economical, and convenient.  If you need more convincing discuss it with David, the model himself.

The Toilet Seat Face Holder

If you face is ever too much for your head to carry it around don't worry, just stick your face in the Toilet Seat Face Holder.  For you convenience the face holder comes with a hook to hang on the wall for easy access any time you need it.  Don't worry the toilet seat had recently been cleaned and was suitable for such an occasion as when David found it has too much to carry his face around.

The Toilet Seat Hat

You never know when you will be in a bathroom that doesn't have a toilet seat that fits your seat.  This toilet seat may be worn on your head so that at all times you have a seat that will fit your seat.  No more falling into the toilet!  Isn't that a relief?

Found it, Read it, Love it!

I found the most awesome website. Since finding it I have read a little bit of it everyday. If you want to read more about it here is the place to go, if you want to see it here is the place to go. I love this website, it has been so helpful and educational. Are you intrigued? Check it out!

Thanksgiving Before & After

We spent Thanksgiving in St. George, UT at my Grandpa Switzer's house. My family and my aunt's family was there at well as my step grandma and most of her kids and their families. It was a pretty full house. Anyway, after making it through the snow storm past Gunnison we made it to sunny, warm, green St. George. David loved being able to play outside and especially loved the trampoline. He definitely perfected his jumping abilities.

I think David spent more time outside than in. If he wasn't jumping he was playing with his new truck (birthday gift from Grandma & Grandpa Benson) or peeling the outer shell off the pecans, straight from the tree. Unfortunately the pecans were bad so they couldn't be eaten, but David loved peeling them all the same. David also learned how to play some games with balls and hitting devices. I think this game was baseball. All in all it was a good trip. I think the best part was that my brother got to spend some time with and play with David, which he hasn't had as many opportunities to do.

While we were gone we didn't realize that it had snowed more in the Valley and unfortunately we drove through snow from Montrose all the way to our parking lot in Alamosa. Apparentely it snowed Thursday night and Friday night. Well Saturday morning maintenance still had not cleared our sidewalk so we borrowed a shovel from our neighbor and did it our selves for our building. David really wanted to play in the snow too, so out came all of his snow gear. This bottom picture is of David on the three wheeler that a neighbor girl gave him (she got a new bike). Anyway, it was stuck in the snow, frozen to the grass, it took a little elbow grease but we were able to unstick it. David however is not a good driver of the three wheeler in the snow, he kept getting stuck and I would have to help him out. During all of this Dustin is shoveling away at the snow. Of course when all was said and done I spent more time getting him ready than he spent outside in the snow. David loved it though. Later on in the day he kept trying to put his snow boots on by himself.

Picture perfect

This is the only picture I have been able to get of David and his birthday presents. Grandma & Grandpa bought a kids digital camera. David loves taking pictures, but we have always been a little apprehensive about him using ours. This is the perfect camera because it is virtually indestructable. David loves this camera. The camera has a little screen to view the picture just like any digital camera but it also had the eye looker things. David can look through the eyes and see what he is takign a picture of or he can watch the screen. The box it was shipped in is a great gift too. The first day we had the camera we went through 2 sets of batteries, good thing they were rechargable! David has taken a million pictures, quite a few of them are of the floor, the ceiling or close ups of articles of clothing. Thank you Grandma & Grandpa for such a great gift. Please look for other pictures of David's birthday presents as they come. David got some really great gifts I just have to catch him on camera with them.

Two, Two Birthday

Yesterday was David's 2nd birthday. He was busy as a bee. We started the day by going to the zoo with one of David's friends. (Dustin had to stay home and go to class). David and Atticus had a great time running around the zoo together! Our first stop was to pet the llamas, one of them gave David a kiss on the top of his head. The electricritters were being set up so they too became zoo attrations for the boys. The boys had a great time feeding the geese and ducks and then the goats. The rabbits were chasing eachother around their habitat and David and Atticus played in the egg sculpture. David got up close and personal with the lion cubs when the llamas were paraded past, those lions wanted to llamas for a tasty snack. The otters were very excited to see people and David kept trying to follow the otters along the glass. The peacocks did not escape the boys, the peacocks wanted us to feed them our lunch. The boys saw this as an opportunity to chase after the peacocks and the boys loved it! Climbing on all the sculptures became the best activity the boys could engage in.
After the zoo we went to Sam's and Target. We had some money from relatives that was meant for gifts so that's what we did. David did such a good job going to the stores and loved being able to pick out his birthday present. Great Grandma Hinton bought David a set of four small dodge balls and a bowling pin set. Great Grandpa Switzer bought David a set of Thomas the Tank Engine DVDs.
The drive home was the perfect opportunity for David to sleep, he was so worn out!
Once we got home Dustin wanted to celebrate by taking David out to dinner. To the brewery we went! David loved to sit in his own seat and ate his dinner so well. (David no longer sits in his booster seat at home or at the restaurant - no high chairs either - just seats like Mommy and Daddy!)
After dinner Thom & Laci came over to help us sing happy birthday to David, eat cake and open presents. I now realize that I forgot to get a picture of the cake....so anyway just know that it was a pumpkin roll cake and very good! David ate all of his cake. Pictures of David playing with his toys will come soon.
After such a busy day went to bed very well and was happy to get up and play with his new toys this morning.

Creativity Abounds

This is life as we know it in the Hinton home. David hadn't played with his tube in a while so we pulled it out (actually he pulled it out from under his bed). He stripped off his clothes and decided to move into the tube. First went the bear and elmo followed by 2 blankets from his bed. He spent a good couple of hours crawling in, out, through and round the tube. He really had a great time and Dustin and I enjoyed watching him have fun. We were also able to get some housework done before David tired of the tube.
I wanted to give everyone an idea of what our house looks like on a regular basis. Dustin has taught David to make forts with the couch cushions and David loves to do it. However, David's version of making a fort is throwing the cushions on the floor, often times he tries to get them to stand up together but to no avail, so....they end up on the floor. As you can see from the picture we have quite a few different projects going on at once. Books have been read, lunch eaten, pictures colored, cookie cutters traced and climbing has occured.
This is just another day in the life of the Hinton home. I hope you enjoyed the little peak.

Time to Potty Train?

We have always had an open door policy about the bathroom with David. Our thought was that he would see us use the bathroom and that eventually it would help him to understand using the toilet instead of a diaper. Well, so far things are starting to work out the way we thought. David has recently started showing an interest in the toilet. It started when he would try flushing the toilet, which he can do now. At night when we let him run around naked we would put him on the toilet for just a minute so that he could try it out. Then I realized that if we only put him on the toilet when he is naked he will think that to go to the bathroom he has to be naked so once or twice a day when I change his diaper I put him on the toilet.

This morning after Dustin left for school I realized that David was poopy and asked him about it. We were sitting on my bed and he pointed to the toilet. We ran to the bathroom. He lifted the lid and let me get him undressed and get cleaned up from his diaper. Then I put him on the toilet and he sat there for a minute and asked for toilet paper. David proceeded to wipe himself with the toilet paper and squirm down. He immediately flushed the toilet and watched the paper go down. When all was finished he stood so proud and clapped his hands and cheered!

This will probably be our practice with David for the next month or two and then I think we will actively start to potty train David. We are so excited for many reasons, but mostly because then we don't have to keep buying diapers! Wish us luck, hopefully this excitement will continue until the potty training is completed!

What Can I Say?

All Aboard....

...the biscuit train. David loves to line things up. I had a pan of bisuits cooling in the kitchen, David pulled his stool up to them and one by one lined them up in front of the TV. We thought is was so funny. All the biscuits were sitting on the entertainment unit when we turned around. We had no idea what he was doing at the time because we were picking out our family photos. It's amazing the things kids think of!

Trick or Treat

Well, despite my better judgement I took David trick or treating last night. Our play group wanted to go all together. I had just planned to take David to 3 houses of people we knew. Neadless to say we went with the group, which ended up consisting of 8 kids (7 of them 2 year olds) and 2 parents per child, except us of course (Dustin still had to go to school).

While the idea of going was fun, and novel I don't know that I will ever take David out in the evening again. Things were fine while it was stil light but after it got dark David became a little hellian! The first few houses is when the kids learned how to trick or treat, David tried joining the families for the evening and I had to grab him from inside a couple of houses. When it got dark David wanted to walk from house to house down the middle of the street and threw tantrums because I wouldn't let him. Every couple of houses he wanted to look at all the candy in his bucket and eat it, I of course would not let him and that would throw us into another tantrum.
Never-the-less I got quite the workout and David got quite a bit of candy, considering the few houses we went to. Once we got to his friend Ben's house David ran right in and down the hall to Ben's room to play with all the trains. Ben's mom had to get David for me since my wings wouldn't allow me to go down the hall like a normal person.
Despite everything that went on I think David had a really good time. I did enjoy myself too, and I learned that kids under the age of 8 will be taken trick or treating in the afternoon (at least the kids in our family).
David got these glasses while trick or treating, our little neighbor baby got some too. David really liked wearing his and kept trying to put them on all by himself. Well, that resulted in the ear pieces being broken off, so these are the little neighbor girl's glasses...don't worry she won't be needing them, she's only 6 months old. Anyway, David really enjoyed showing them off to Dustin and Dustin was able to get a great picture.

Parties, Pumpkins & Costumes

This weekend has been a very busy one for this Hinton family. Friday we went to a BYOP party and carved our pumpkin. We chose to carve out the headless horseman. It turned out really cool and looks great in the dark and it is lit up. David really enjoyed helping to pull out the guts of the pumpkin and then see what the inside of the pumpkin looked like. David even fell into a bowl of pumpkin guts at one point in the evening.

Saturday morning while Dustin was at work David and I worked on his pumpkin. We did not carve David's pumpkin but let him paint it. David had a great time painting away at his pumpkin. We ended up with a completely painted pumpkin. David was of course a huge mess and he got to take a bath on Saturday morning instead of Saturday night which was probably a better idea anyway since we had our ward Halloween party to attend.

Satuday night we had our ward Halloween party. We were able to get a good family picture of all dressed up.Dustin was a Jedi, I was a butterfly and David was a pirate once again. We are trying to figure out what we could be as a family for next year. We have thought about maybe being the main characters from "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow". That would make us Polly Perkins, Joe and Dax. If you have any suggestions please let us know. We would really like to have the family be themed before David realizes that he can be absolutely anything he wants to be.

Awesome Recipe

Last night we went to a BYOP (Bring Your Own Pumpkin) party at our neighbors. I had found this awesome fondue recipe online and we took it to the party. It was an immediate success. It has been a long time since we had fondue and we were really excited to try this one.

Apple Cider Fondue
3/4 c. apple cider (or apple juice)
2 c. shredded cheddar cheese
1 c. shredded swiss cheese
1 tbsp. cornstarch
1/8 tsp. pepper
1 (16 oz) loaf frech bread
apple slices

In a saucepan boil cider, reduce heat to medium-low. Toss cheeses with cornstarch and pepper. Stir into the cider. Cook and stir 3-4 minutes until cheese is melted. Transfer to fondue pot. Serve with french bread, apples or whatever.

We loved this recipe, loved it!!

Grandma...This post is for you

Pictures, Pumkins & Caramel Apples

We spent Thursday down in New

Mexico so that we could have our family pictures taken by a friend of my that now has a photography business with her husband. It was nice to go down and escape the valley.The first stop we made was to Wagner Farms to get our Halloween pumpkins. I remember going there as a kid to get our pumpkins.We let David pick out his own pumpkin and he loved sitting in the box to get the perfect one. Since we had a little cart David also enjoyed climbing all over the bottom of it while we waited in line to pay for our pumpkins. By the way we got 2 pumpkins cheaper than they were at Walmart (at least the Walmart here in the valley). Later we went to the mall to have my ring checked and while we were there we got a chocolate dipped caramel apple. It was so good and David obviously enjoyed it. When it was finally time to go get our pictures taken, while Peter was setting up we let David have his turn with the camera. This is the picture he took.David did have a hard time participating in the picture taking process, he wanted to be too close to the lights or with Peter taking the picture. I hope they turned out nice, we'll find out in the next few days.

Super Poor or Cleaning the Refrigerator?

Background Information -

David has learned how to open the refrigerator. It's actually one of his favorite things to do. He loves it when we ask him to open the refrigerator for us and he loves to make it into a game to see who is watching when he opens the refrigerator when he knows he's not supposed to.

The Incident -

Saturday night David woke up about 1am. He got out of his bed and crawled up to footboard into our bed. Then he got down, went back to his room and grabbed his white bear and climbed back into our bed. He slept with us the rest of the night. At least that is how I remember things going.

What Actually Happened -

All of the above is true, however at some point David went into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator. I don't know what he was looking for or if he just needed light I don't know. As is David's custom he didn't close the door because we weren't there reminding him to close the door.

The Result -

When I woke up in the morning David did too. We walked into the kitchen to get the usual cup of milk (for David). What do I find....the refrigerator door opened and everything is hot. I went back into the bedroom and told Dustin to get up. I spent Sunday morning emptying the refrigerator of all its contents and throwing 99% of it away. I filled the trash can 1 1/2 times. The milk had actually started to curdle. We were able to save a few things like the raisins, dried currants, an apple, some lettuce, the string cheese, butter, homemade shake and bake mix and the coconut. I made up some powdered milk so that I could use if for the "cooking" I had to do.

We were supposed to have our neighbors over for dinner but most of the ingredients we needed were in the refrigerator because we had just bought them Saturday evening. We ended eating dinner over at their house instead. The refrigerator is now held closed with a bungie cord so that if David opens the door he can only open it 2-3 inches before it swings shut.

Ah, the joys of parenthood.

Fire Truck!

Yesterday a fire truck, fire fighters, and Freddy the fire dog came for a visit. We live right by the ASC preschool and they were learning about fire safety. We got to see ladder lifted and extended and then one of the firefighters climbed up. He was so high! We got to join the preschool class and walk around the fire truck and look inside. David even high-fived Freddy the fire dog.

Mr. Etiquette, Mr. Photographer

This morning at breakfast as we sat at the table David was quite the little entertainer. Dustin had put some nutella on David's apple and David immediately liked it off. Of course some of it ended up all over his face. I handed David his napkin so that he could wipe his face and hands and he tried. I then used my napkin to wipe off his face at least and returned the napkin to my lap. David saw me do this and proceeded to put his napkin in his lap as much as his booster seat and tray would let him. I ran to find the camera so that we could get a picture of our little etiquette master.
After taking David's picture he of course wanted to see the picture. I put the camera on review and showed him the picture I had just taken. David then took the camera from and figured out how to take pictures himself and how to review them. Here is some of David's own photography.

Gymnastics!

Today we enrolled David in a toddler gymnastics class. Today he caught up for missing the first class on Monday. David's class will be Monday afternoon for the next six weeks.

The class is so cute. They crawled on the balance beam, walked on the balance beam, jumped off the pommel horse, swung from the bars and played on the floor. Of course David's favorite part was the balance balls. The kids were airplanes on the balls, and they got to bounce the balls and roll the balls around the room. David loved it! The teacher also had the kids do somersaults, roll on the floor like a caterpiller and run and jump. They also jumped on a little mini trampoline.

I think it will be a really good little class. The kids love running around the room playing and pretending.I thought this would be a great way to make sure David gets a chance to run around and play with other kids different from church or MOPS. It also gives us something to do on Monday's for David. Since we have started doing preschool we have one activity every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday; now we can add Monday to the mix. I'm excited for this little class of David's.

The Wonderment of a Child

Despite being sick David still had the energy to follow this little lady bug around the floor. The bug had come in with the dill we just picked and David carried it from his Nalgene bottle to the floor and all around the kitchen. We tried to keep him from touching the bug so that it would still move around. David eventually got the bug and it has since been smashed and stepped on. Poor bug!

A Good Friday Laugh

I was checking my email today and decided to check out the videos on google. I found this one and it made me laugh. I thought, 'who wouldn't want a good laugh on a Friday morning'. This video is called Baby Panda Sneeze.

It's COOOOOOLD!!!!!

33°F

You know is it winter (even though it is just the beginning of fall) here when you wake up at 8:30 in the morning and the temperature when you wake up is 33 degrees! Last night our low was already down to the 20 degrees (29 to be exact). I just can't believe it. I know that we lived here last fall/winter but I don't think I realized how drastic the temperature change was. I suppose since we spent most of the winter with lows in the single digits or below that the temperature needs to drop befor then. Hopefully everyone else out there is staying warm!

Seasons are a changin'

Well, apparently temperatures drop pretty quickly here. It's like fall during the day and winter at night. David has had to start wearing his winter pajamas to bed in order to be able to sleep through the night without waking up cold. As you can see from the picture he is really fast! His new thing is to look at the screen on the camera any time a picture is being taken. The problem is that we are usually trying to take a picture of him. Anyway, here he is already for bed in nice warm jammies.

While we were walking this week I decided to take some pictures and see if I could take a really good picture. Well I am proud to say that I think I 2 pretty good ones. The first is of some of our changing leaves. Of all the fall colors I love the reds the best. The second picture is one of those yellow ones (I don't even know what kind they are). I like the way that the petals droop down instead of up.
I was so proud of my pictures I showed them to Dustin. Since Dustin is taking a photography class this semester I asked him if I would get a good grade on these two pictures. He told me I would get a good grade only if I could talk about them in art terms. As you can tell my art terms are excellent!

I must say that fall is my favorite season of all of them. The reds, oranges, golds, and browns are just stunning. That is probaly why the colors in our house are those colors. Fall has a much different smell, it's so earthy and calming. It makes me want to curl up on the couch with a mug of hot cider or hot chocolate and read a book. I also enjoy walking around in fall weather because I can wear a pair of pants and t-shirt and just a light jacket and be perfectly content.

My Little Picasso

We have quite the budding artist on our hands. I think David wants to grow up to be just like his dad. A few weeks ago David had his crayons taken away because he colored on the TV, and so in Taos he got to color on the paper on the table. He loved coloring with those crayons and trying out all of the colors in the box, especially the oranges. Obviously the flowers and the train were not drawn by my budding artist but he had a great time.

Today, our preschool art project was apple stamp pictures. David did a great job using the apples as painting utensils. We also used some leaves and a pinecone to get different prints on the paper. David had a great time, especially using the apples as ways to smear the pain around the paper.

Sometimes I am amazed at the way kids do things. I think sometimes as an adult we forget about the fun of the process and concentrate too much on the product. It doesn't matter that David didn't print the stamps the way I pictured in my mind, what matters is that he was able to work on his own. His picture is still beautiful and he had a great time making it.