Valentine's Cookie Mess

Happy Valentine's Day. I decided to make some Valentine's cookies to celebrate. By the time I was done here is what my kitchen looked like. What a mess! I've decided nothing is worth that much cleanup.

Our Remote: Budding Engineer or Battery Klepto

Every day I find our remote looking like this. Ashley has opened up the back and removed the batteries. I can never find the batteries after she has taken them out and we are going through 2-5 a day.
She loves to try and put the batteries back in, but can only ever get one back in.
She also uses the remote as a phone and will pretend to talk on it as she walks around.
And lastly she LOVES to suck on the batteries. She has 2 molers through and the bottom two will break through any day. Hopefully then she will ease up on this little oral phase she is going through.

The Leapster

Andrew got a leapster for Christmas with a bunch of books and he loves it. I have been surprised at how well he uses it, considering he was on the young end of the age range. Ashley is always wanting to play with it, and so we take off the book part and she just laughs and pretends to be using it.

Playgroup Shennanigans

All of my friends here in Colorado have kids Andrew's age, unfortunately they are all girls. Luckily Andrew doesn't seem to mind and is happy to play with anyone. He has a friend Zoey who he just loves. She tells him what to do and he is happy to oblige. (I took these pictures off her mom's blog.) This week at playgroup we looked and there he was pushing her in a toy stroller. Next time we saw them he was driving them around on his bike. Then we saw him pushing her in the toy grocery cart.

Andrew loves Zoey, and we frequently take the kids out for fast food after playgroup. Andrew now refers to Wendy's as "Zoe Nuggets" since that is almost always where we go. They have a great time together, and since Zoey is a little dare devil, she has taught him all kinds of new tricks, expecially on the playground. He just wants to do whatever she does. The big issue they have is that she has a hard time understanding why he doesn't want to play dress-up, dolls, my little pony and such.

Yes We Can

I saw this video and had to post it. It is one of the best political speeches of my adult life, second only to Tony Blair's after the 9/11 attacks. This video was made by one of the singers from the band, The Black-Eyed Peas. It was done without the knowledge of the Obama campaign, just as a way to express what the artist felt as he listed to the featured speech.

http://my.barackobama.com/yeswecan

It gives me such hope that a religous liberal (an oxymoran if ever I heard one) could really take on the Washington establishment and some of the most pressing issues of the day. Social Security, education, the environment, health care, our tarnished world reputation, the deep social and economic divisions in our population and immigration.

The apostles of the LDS church have asked us to use the "new medias" to express our views and beliefs. While I am not the most dilligant in this, I strongly felt that I should speak up for a man in whose cause I believe. This is the first politician who I've ever really been excited about. Before it has always seemed like I was choosing between the best of two evils. Good luck Sen. Obama.

The Rocking Horse

When Andrew turned 1 he got this rocking horse. It never held as much appeal for him as it did his cousin who is the same age. He would sit on it and rock for a minute and then was done.

Not so with Ashley. She loves the rocking horse. She rides it about every 15 minutes. I must say it reminds me of the short story "The Rocking Horse" the way she frantically gallops, eyes straight ahead, fixed on something in the distance.

So now that Ashley loves the rocking horse, who elso do you think loves it too. That's right Andrew. He is really good about sharing and taking turns on it, but he's too big, so he sticks his legs straight out or over the handles, and rocks until he falls off the back. He thinks that is the best part.

Making Car and Train Cakes

On Wednesday morning I decided to make Andrew some chocolate car and train cakes. I had found the pans at Williams and Sonoma while doing some last minute and totally unneccassary shopping. Since they were ridiculously overpriced, I promised I would use them often to justify buying them. After all, what kid doesn't love train and car cakes?

Mine.

The first time I made them he looked at me like I was crazy. So, I decided to make them this time because we had a friend coming over and another friend's house we were going to. Well, to my surprise he loved the little cakes. He licked the beaters, spatula and measuring cup too.

Today I went and bought a whole new round of cake mixes to try, strawberry or funfetti cars anyone?