January 25 - Day 25

Not much to report today. My cold and TN pain came back full force today, probably the worst day of the year for me and I ended up sleeping the afternoon away. I decided to take a shot of Aidan's moon light. He loves this IKEA light and insists it be on until he falls asleep each night. (It's hidden a bit behind his Pottery Barn Kids "Aidan" chair).

January 24 - Day 24

Swim day! Ian had a little bit of a setback today, due to a little runny nose. He was less excited about swimming on his own and insisted on hanging from the sides of the pool when needed to get from point A to B. Overall though, his attitude was mostly sunny and his spirit was brightened when Abby suggested he get his Spiderman flippers, gloves, and goggles on.

January 23 - Day 23

Library day! Ian loves picking out book and movies at the library. We try to go once every two weeks or so but today was a special stop just to pick up some holds (and Ian grabbed a few movies too). I am thankful that when I forget to grab my camera on quick trips from the house that we always have the iPhone as a back up. 

January 22 - Day 22

It's been months since we've done much geocaching, so today we got back in the swing of things. It was a wet but decent day and there were quite a few new caches on the GPS. I loved the idea of this cache, a Christmas ornament hanging in a tree. This particular cache was placed just off Indiana, east of Sullivan. 

Another one on our "to find" list was at the Coke building on Montgomery. Unfortunately, neither Dan nor I could find this one and we blame it on faulty coords. We'll be back to look again.

And several months ago, we placed a cache in a little park along Knox Rd and forgot to submit it to the geocaching site. In the meantime, someone else placed a cache elsewhere within the park. Today we decided to check to see if our cache was still where we placed it. No dice. Someone snatched it. 

Overall we logged about 8 caches around the Valley today.

January 21 - Day 21

I was craving blueberry pancakes and the boys were restless after running some errands (we got our new laptop today!), so we stopped at IHOP for dinner. Aidan kept busy by counting sugar and Splenda packets, and Ian quickly tackled the maze on the back of the kiddie menu.

January 20 - Day 20

We are busily editing photos for June's 90th birthday party next month. I have been super sick the last two days so there was no actual photo taken by me today. However, since we're working with older photos, I thought it appropriate to use one of June's photos for the photo of the day today.

Janie has been scanning the photos and we've been editing them for a slideshow. This photo is of her mom and dad (June and John) during their engagement. John had just made June a bracelet out of spoon! I have seen this kind of jewelry on many Etsy sites so I thought it neat to learn that June used to wear it.

Out of all the photos we've come across this week, this one stood out most to me. It just speaks to me and I love it.

For blog reader notes: Janie is Dan's mom, and June and John are Janie's parents. 

January 19 - Day 19

Ian is reading by sight.

He gets those cute little Scholastic book flyers at school (I LOVED those when I was little!) and we found a Thomas the Train reader set. The books are simple and perfect for learning to sight read with sentences like, "Thomas can not go," or "The fox is in the box." Ian picked up on these smaller words immediately. And of course he recognizes the names of all the engines (Thomas, Percy, Gordon, etc) from having played with these trains for the last two and half years.

This is an exciting time for Ian (and us) and we are just beaming with pride over our kids' love of books.

January 18 - Day 18

Ian loves Riverdance.

Actually, he loves listening to music, making music, dancing, and anything artistic, really. Riverdance was on TV one evening about two years ago and he got up, put his little arms next to his sides and began doing kicks, just like the dancers. Over the last couple years, you could out of the blue ask Ian to "Riverdance" and he'd happily dance around the room. When Ian was two, I'd discovered the An Daire Academy was teaching kids from the age of 4, how to dance the Irish dance. Well, here we are two years later and Ian is 4. We asked if he'd be interested in trying the class and he said yes. Today was the day. He loved it. He had fun with the other kids, learning the dance, learning some culture, and singing and playing games.

 However, after looking at his schedule (he does 23 hours of school and therapy a week already!) We decided to postpone his classes until the next session in three months, when things may be a little calmer.

January 17 - Day 17

Today, I suggested putting the kids in the stroller and taking a walk around the neighborhood. I like using the RunKeeper app to keep track of mileage and time, and I really love the little map of my route that it saves.

We haven't geocached in awhile but by luck, Dan remembered a new cache right by the paper mill. Of course, neither of us planned on doing any caching today, so we didn't have a pen with us to sign the log, but we did take photo proof once we found it.

I love these photos of Dan, finding the cache.

It ended up being a magnetic key holder stuck under a bench.

After our walk, the kids burned off some energy in the backyard.

January 16 - Day 16

Not much going on this Sunday. We slept in, did some chores around the house, the kids played, and we visited some family from out of town.

Ian has been helping out around the house lately. We learned in Love and Logic that kids should do chores without expecting rewards (aka allowance), but that allowances are good to give kids, to teach them about money, as long as they're not attached to household work.  L&L says giving $ for extra jobs around the house is fine, but that kids shouldn't expect to get paid for doing normal chores. Anyway, we started an allowance jar for Ian, and before we started taking this class, he was earning "monies" (that's what he calls it), for helping me out with laundry or picking up his room.

Today, Dan pitched in to help with folding clothes. Ian willfully helped and didn't even ask to put "monies" in his coin jar. (I, of course, snuck some in later). These were really cute shots of Ian:

Later today, we went to my mom's for dinner. My cousins Charlotte and Maria made the best enchiladas I've probably ever eaten. Charlotte is also expecting and is due in June too, and her brother's fiancee was there and she's due in July. It made for quite the pregnant table. :)

Before dinner, Aidan (yes, my 2 year old AIDAN), snapped this photo of Ian and Auntie Tanya:

January 15 - Day 15

The family was brought together today by a memorial service for my dad's father. He passed away on New Year's Eve, and today we were celebrating his life. My dad made a really great slideshow of photos and many family members spoke wonderful things about the life of a wonderful man. My cousin was part of the 21 gun salute in honor of grandpa's service to our country, namely during the Korean War. 

In Memory of 
A.L.,  1929-2010

January 14 - Day 14

During Ian's OT, Aidan sometimes runs himself bored playing with the same waiting room toys. We let him borrow our iPhone this time, so he could watch a Netflix episode of Dora the Explorer. He was ecstatic. It was cute to watch him shout out the directions and other words in Spanish. Because of good ol' Dora, Aidan can say the colors blue, red, green, and yellow in Spanish. He loves to tell us when something is "rojo" or "azul."

Later this evening, Dan gave the boys piggy back rides around the house. The last ride resulted in a double.

January 13 - Day 13

Ian asked me to sit down so he could sing me a song. 

He serenaded me with "You are My Sunshine." 

My heart melted. 

I asked him if I could take his photo while he sang it again and he obliged. 

"You are my sunshine, my only sunshine.

You make me happy, when skies are gray.

You'll never know dear, how much I love you,

So please don't take my sunshine away."

January 12 - Day 12

It's been awhile since I've visited my dad at work. Before becoming a wife and mother, I would pop in there frequently to visit and chat. 

Today, Aidan and I had a reason to stop by. Three years ago I "borrowed" a box of photos from my parents so I could scan them and create a graduation present for my sister, Tanya. I was still hanging onto that box until today. I consider it a feat that it was intact and accessible since we've moved 3 times since I've had it! Dad needed the box of photos to create a memorial slide show of his late father (12/31/10) for his service this weekend. I was lucky to take a peek at his progress and I am very impressed. It will be a joy for the family to see all of these older photos again. 

Aidan had a great time visiting "Bompa Scott" and toodled around the office with his bag of fruit snacks. We should really try and stop in there more often. 

January 11 - Day 11

So last November, I had many many books due back to the library. It just happened to be during the 3 weeks our entire family was sick with the flu, asthma, ear infections, etc. I knew the books were due but the importance of turning them in was a low priority at the time. So after the colds let up, in December, we took everything to the library drop box. (If you wait too long, they consider the book lost, and that's not a good thing).

We were finally able to take a trip to the library this week to pay off the fines. This photo is of the long receipt showing the charges paid for each book that was late.

The total: $26 and change.

January 10 - Day 10

Another swim day. Ian is getting so used to the water. We're really proud of his progress and admire the bond he has with his OT. She's a great therapist and connects well with Ian. He swimming more on his own now and relies less on the OT's assistance. 

Dan snapped this photo too. Ian had the Spiderman goggles on last time, so this week he tried the matching fins. His expression is just priceless. 

January 9 - Day 9

Dan took all of the photos today. I have been dealing with a bout of trigeminal neuralgia and haven't quite been up to par. Today, the boys were playing with their newest Thomas the Train track set. It's something having to do with the last Thomas movie, Misty Island Rescue. Ian could tell you the name of the set. He could tell me too but he's in bed right now :)

This is a great shot of the boys playing nicely. It's always a 50/50 chance whether or not you'll get a smiling face when you snap the shot, because the other 50 percent chance yields this:

January 8 - Day 8

I have never done this. Never started an herb garden. 

I love to cook with fresh ingredients, and organic herbs can be quite expensive at the store. I am starting small with this four planter cedar box and attempting to grow Cilantro, Oregano, Parsley, and Chives. I won't lie, I am super psyched and really praying I don't kill them.

Speaking of killing plants, I was able to pick up two houseplants for my plant naked house. One is a Ponytail Palm and the other, Bromeliads. Neither require much of my attention and the Palm was even touted as  "a very easy houseplant to grow." I just need to figure out where to put them in our home. I am a houseplant novice but extremely glad to have greenery among my living space.

January 7 - Day 7

With both boys, we've purchased "First Year" baby books and like busy, forgetful, "where's my brain" parents, we've failed to fill them out in their entirety. My long term memory is pretty good so I'm not panicked about hastily filling in those details before they are old enough to have their books.

With baby #3, (no nickname yet), we opted to go a different route. We picked up a super cute book from Barnes and Noble, called The Big Sibling Book: Baby's First Year According to ME. We flipped through the pages and giggled about all the drawings Ian and Aidan would create in anticipation of their newest sibling. There are charts, journal spaces, check box surveys, and even stickers included in the book. Baby #3's first year will be from the perspective of big brother Ian (with a little help from Aidan and of course, Mom and Dad). It will be quite interesting and I hope this will motivate us to actually follow along and document each milestone in Baby's first year.

January 6 - Day 6

Our new sensory tub. It's only part of the way full but the boys begged to play with it anyway. A mommy friend of mine, Elisabeth, pointed her blog reader in the direction of a super informative site, 1+1+1=1. I pulled some helpful information regarding sensory tubs and crafts that Ian and Aidan can do at home. The site is mostly about homeschooling and all of the posts are adaptable to your family's situation. Ian and Aidan both attend preschool but since I am not in their class everyday, I often feel left out of the loop. I've decided to take some of their home time and turn it into an extension of their schooling. We do that mostly anyway but now it will be a more regulated schedule. 

This tub is my first venture. Ian LOVES sensory tubs at school and I have no idea why it didn't cross my mind to have one at home until reading a post on the homeschooling site. I went to Michael's and gathered up some pipe cleaners, feathers, pom poms, and a few clearance holiday items that went with my theme (which is just Winter, by the way). Most everything in the tub is blue or white. There are some silver ribbon, felt, foam board, and sponges in there as well. I just need to get those cotton balls in there to fill up the lower half.

The boys took to the tub immediately. Halfway through playtime I tossed in some flat glass marbles as well, and we made felt snowflakes and flowers and glued them to Popsicle sticks (a la puppets!). When the bucket is fuller, after this weekend, I'll take a more proper picture. In the meantime, here's a close up of the inside.

January 5 - Day 5

Tonight the kids and I got the cat off his lazy buns and put him to work with his new Christmas catnip toys. Bones is 9 1/2 years old and has been with me since Oct 2001, when he was 4 months. I often joke with Dan that Bones is my longest relationship.

This evening, Bones went crazy over his new feather toys. Ian had fun tossing all of them around and watching Bones chase after. The best part was listening to the boys giggle and laugh and shriek over and over again. I never tire of hearing their happy angelic voices. They are so good with the cat too, and the cat is as equally nice in return. Bones is the best (and only) cat we've ever had and I am always appreciative of his high tolerance to my kiddos' shenanigans.

January 4 - Day 4

Today I switched out some photos. I have been trying to rotate layouts every season, to keep it fresh. This is just one of my 8x8 frames on the wall, and I apologize for taking this 365 photo at such an unflattering angle. I made this layout last year and the photos were taken in October 2005, when Dan and I were dating. We had just finished a trip to Newport, Oregon and stopped in Tillamook to tour the cheese factory. Before we went inside, I snapped a few shots in the car. It was really random but turned out neat. I love this photo because it reminds me of who we were as a couple before we were parents - a connection that seems to get lost once tiny feet pitter patter around the house. One of our goals this  year is to take more time for us, have more date nights, just be together. This digital scrapbooking layout will be a beautiful reminder over the next few months.

January 3 - Day 3

Dan and I sat down this weekend and created a schedule. I was getting pretty stressed out by all the randomness going on during the week and a schedule sounded pretty darn good. In the midst of it all, Dan and I decided to carve out some "us" time that didn't warrant errand running, house cleaning, or kid talk! Our original plans for today dictated getting Ian on the bus, dropping Aidan off to school, and then killing an hour or so at Starbucks until Aidan needed to be picked up.

Well, we all know that things NEVER go as planned, right? Upon waking up, I realized we hadn't made a bank deposit that needed to be in, ASAP. The bank account it needed to be deposited into was clear over on the north side of town, near Division and Indiana. So away we went. With the roads being not so forgiving, the bank run cost us 40 minutes of that hour. We got to Starbucks at 10:14, I sat and Dan ordered. At 10:20 we were finally settled into the comfy chairs with our drinks and had five minutes to sit and enjoy one another's company. Five minutes. It was the quickest five minutes ever and we're planning a do over this week. However, it was pretty nice to just sit there and not do ANYTHING. A five minute vacation. 

Later today, I took Ian to swim therapy. I couldn't resist snapping this pic of him in Spiderman goggles. How adorable! His fear of water is subsiding with each session. Love this kid. 

January 2 - Day 2

Today we stopped at Barnes and Noble. I really could live in this store. I worked here when I was going to school in Boise and loved it.

This stop was to pick up some reading material (magazines!) that we have a hard time finding elsewhere. Love the BHG spin off magazines: Storage, DIY, and 100 Ideas for Real Rooms. All 3 had some fantastic ideas for revamping our rooms.

Of course, the kids require a stop in the Children's section of the store. Ian browsed the books for all of 2 minutes and then headed off to the train table to play. (Even though he has one at home!). Aidan went another route and picked some books off the shelves. Since I was supervising Ian, Dan hung around with Aidan. We were on two separate ends of the kids' section when I spied this cozy moment between dad and son. I couldn't resist the photo op and thank goodness for zoom. They didn't even suspect a thing.

January 1 - Day 1

We started the year off at Home Depot. We have plans to redecorate to increase the amount of livable space we have in our little house. Some of the upcoming projects include window seat benches (with storage) in the kitchen, complete with a smaller, thinner, table. The handed down oak table and chairs from my grandparents aren't cutting it for us anymore. Don't get me wrong, it's a great functional and classic set, but our less than large kitchen isn't equipped to handle a circular table. So out to storage it will finally go, most likely in the spring.

Secondly, we have this small not-really-a-bedroom for a bedroom. It's in part of the house that looks like an afterthought. Like someone said, "Let's put a mudroom at the back of the house, off the deck." That space is our room. Our queen bed just squeezes in and the area actually looks inviting thanks to some string lighting brought indoors and new bedding. I am going to keep the actual plans for this room under wraps but nothing we change will be a permanent change. It's just going to help in the day to day function of this household.

So we hit HD in hopes of finding some inspiration. I am excited for all of the newness to come.

2011

I only made it 3 weeks last year! I took more photos than I posted but I was disappointed in not keeping up with this project. So this year, I am embarking on a new 365. My goal at the end is to print 2 books. One will simply showcase a picture each day, along with the date. The other will be a spiral bound book with each of my blog posts for the year.

I didn't want to delete the photos from last year, just to restart this blog, so they're still here in the 2010 posts.

I hope to work on the design of this blog a little bit. All this white makes me want to throw paint on the canvas.

I look forward to 2011!