Little Chefs

I tore a recipe out of Southern Living probably a year ago for "Orange Rolls" which were dubbed"The Best Sweet Rolls Ever". I have never tried to make them because it is a very detailed process involving many steps and a lot of time letting the dough rise. However, this afternoon, I decided to give it a try. I asked Nathan to help me. Given his love for Play Doh, I thought shaping the rolls would be right up his alley. Of course, little sister had to get in the middle of the action. I don't know if they will turn out (the dough is still rising!), or if they will be fit for human consumption since I had so much "help" making them.

Rare Stacy Pics

The idea for this "family" blog was formulated by Amanda and me last July while driving down the interstate somewhere between Nashville and Columbus. However, Amanda has never once posted anything and has probably looked at it less than 10 times. Josh downloaded some pictures from his camera on my computer last time they were here, so I'll share some of them with all of you. I guess I will just make up the commentary since I was not there when they were taken...

One cool spring evening, Amanda and Josh took their kids roller blading. Mikayla wanted to go, but didn't think the roller blades felt comfortable.

Brandon wanted to go roller blading too, but his mom put him on the sorriest-excuse-for-concrete ever, and he feared for his life.

Finally, Amanda talked him into going with her down the road. Josh stood back and took pictures waiting for the inevitable crash. Good thing they wore helmets!

Horsey!

We went to visit our friends, the Goddards, today. They just built a beautiful new house outside of Cabot. They have 40+ acres and 2 horses. The kids got to ride one of the horses, play in the mud, and go for a walk around their property. They had great fun - especially getting dirty - and were both worn out.

Grant & Ashley in the Gator. Two 2 year olds in a motorized vehicle!

Greyson and Nathan riding the horse

The boys got soaked splashing in mud puddles!

Ashley was worn out and fell asleep on the way back to the house.

Benihana

The last time we took Nathan to a Japanese steakhouse was about 2 years ago. He was scared because they made fire on the table. Out of the blue last week, he said that he was ready to try it again, so we went to Benihana last night. Nathan was all geared up to conquer his fear, but they didn't make any fire on the table, so I think he was a little disappointed about it. He did have a good time learning to eat with chopsticks, and Ashley ate her weight in fried rice. Maybe not quite her weight. We took her to the pediatrician today for her 2 year check-up, and she's up to 24 lbs and 33 1/2 inches. Still scrawny, but she is growing.

We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo...

Jeff and the kids are on Spring Break this week. Since I still have to work (a little), we decided to do some fun things close to home. On Monday, we went to the Memphis Zoo. It was much better than the LR Zoo, but still not the best one I've ever been to. The pandas get all the hype, but we all loved the polar bear exhibit. It had the underwater viewing windows, and one of the bears really put on a good show for us.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter, everyone! We went to the early service at church this morning, and then my family came over for lunch. We had our traditional Easter meal: ham, vegetables, rolls, and Jell-O Eggs. The Jell-O eggs started as a joke years ago (before we had kids), and now they are an Easter tradition. (Sorry, no pictures of the Jell-O Eggs.) Jeff skipped out on lunch to go to the last session of the NCAA tournament, so I made my favorite dessert - German chocolate cake - since the coconut-hater wouldn't be here. It was delicious!

Nathan and Ashley on Easter morning.

Kids eating their pre-meal snack: whole, raw, organic carrots. Now, don't be fooled by the healthiness of their snack. They ate Easter bunnies for breakfast!

Fischer grandkids (sans Johnsons) with Fisch and Papa

Happy Birthday, Lydia!

Ashley & Lydia

We went to Lydia's 2nd birthday party yesterday afternoon. There were about a dozen little girls there - and Nathan. We hardly have any friends with boys. It's crazy! He played very well with them though, and I think they all had a good time.

Nathan & Ashley in their party hats. They both wore them for a long time, but it took Ashley a while to get used to the elastic on her chin.

It's hard to say "cheese" with your mouth full! Morgan fractured her arm and has to wear a splint for a few weeks.

Ashley and Lydia didn't know what to think about the pinata. Watch how they just stand there and stare at it. (For any former Unity members, the two half-grown girls on the right are Grace & Calli who turn 8 this year! We are getting so old!)

Let's go Peay!

We are at the NCAA regional today. Texas played Austin Peay (pronounced "pee") earlier today. AP's chant was "Let's go Peay!" It was very amusing.

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O-R-A-N-G-E

WARNING: The following post is comprised of annoying comments by a mother gushing about her child:

Nathan has been working on colors at school the last few weeks. I wasn't very impressed at first. He's known all of his colors since he was 2, but now he knows how to spell them! He knows songs about some of them, but several (like "orange") he just remembers. He's always been the little wordsmith! And just yesterday, his preschool teacher complemented his reading skills. I'm so proud of him!

What to wear, what to wear

Sunday morning while I was getting ready Micah got out all of Lily's shoes and lined them up. I did not realize how many shoes the girl had. Luckily most of them are hand me downs. And Rach by the way I decided to take your approach and let Lily "cut her teeth on cars" Chick Hicks was the car of choice on this morning.

Happy Birthday, Ashley!

Happy Birthday to Ashley! As you might guess from the cupcakes, the party was Sesame Street themed.

I'm not much into party games, but we did play "Pin the Nose on Elmo". Some of the stickers ended up on the door facing.

Lydia K. (who will be 2 next week!)

Mary Beth J. (who turned 2 last month)

The SEC championship game was also this afternoon, but fortunately, Ashley's party had a much better outcome than the basketball game. Thanks to everyone who came to the party! Ashley had a great time and has had no nap today, so hopefully, she will sleep well tonight!

Almost 2!

Ashley will be 2 years old tomorrow! My baby's really growing up. We got her a "big girl" bed today, and she was very excited about it. She's been sleeping on a mattress in the floor for a month or so (ever since she started climbing out of her crib in the middle of the night.) Both of the kids are feeling better, so we are looking forward to the birthday celebration tomorrow. More pictures sure to follow...

Sick Day

I'm home with two sick kids today. Ashley started running a fever on Monday night, and Nathan caught it yesterday. The timing could not have been worse. I had to work all day Monday through Wednesday (Which stinks, by the way. I hope I never have to go back to an 8 to 5 job!) Jeff also had to work because he started teaching a new class and didn't want to cancel it on the 2nd week. So, a big "thanks" to my mother-in-law for watching them for me this week. I medicated them and put them down for a nap. When they are both sick, it's a nightmare keeping up with who had what medicine when. I have lots to do around here today, so I better take advantage of the quiet time.

Last of the snow pics

We went up to Petit Jean last Saturday. Jeff, Nathan, and I played in the snow with Meme while Ashley napped. (Which was a blessing because - see previous post - she hates snow!) Phyllis estimated that they had about 8 inches, but half of it was melted by Saturday. We had lots of fun and made a big snow-woman. She was about 6 feet tall.

Here's Nathan's snowman that he made all by himself. He was so proud!

Big Snow

So this is what 5 to 8 inches of snow looks like. Well, that's what ALL the local stations were predicting by the time we went to bed last night, and this is what we woke up to. It did snow all day today and has just started snowing again. We have several inches of accumulation.

We packed in all the snow activities that we could this afternoon. Here's our pirate snowman. We also made made snow cones.

This is what Ashley thought of the snow. She's more of a fair-weather kind of girl. She hates the beach and hates the snow.

Big Johnsons

Amanda wanted me to take a picture of Nathan and Jeremiah beside each other so that she could see how tall JJ had gotten.

Actually, this picture is deceptive. While JJ is about 3 inches taller, in this shot Nate's standing on the sidewalk which drops off sharply.

Here's a side-by-side shot of Lily and Ashley. They are 1 year and 4 months apart, but they are very close to the same size. Here's a picture I scanned of Renee and me when we were probably about the same ages that our girls are now.

Children's Museum - Part 2

As promised, here are a few more pictures from the PCM. I think the kids liked the water play area the best, but here are a couple of my favorite things:

Ashley playing with the giant Lite Brite.

I don't know what these things are called but they were really cool and really gross at the same time. I don't even want to think about the germs we picked up. The top picture is my mom. The video is of Nathan.

Children's Museum - Part 1

We took the kid's to the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh yesterday. They had a great time! Here we are on the 3rd Floor Waterplay Area. These pictures are from Renee's camera, so I'm sure I will post some more when I download mine.

Still in search of the white stuff

We arrived in a snow-covered Pittsburgh on Saturday. It had snowed several inches earlier in the week, but was starting to melt by the time we got here. Aaron took the boys sledding for a little while, but that's all the winter weather play they got to enjoy. It was 70 degrees here yesterday which is nearly unheard of in PA this time of year. I talked to Jeff this morning, and he said it was snowing in Arkansas - 12 inches in Russellville! Do I repel snow or what? This is getting absurd!