Weekend at the Park

This weekend has been pretty warm (55-60 degrees) so we went to a few different parks. (This is what I LOVE about living in St. George) Blake discovered that he loves to go down slides and both Nathan and Blake are just so happy anytime they get to play outside.
Today we went to a park and there were so many people there! I think everyone else had the same idea we did. There was a guy there that overheard Wes and I talking about how we wish we had a Frisbee....so he went to his car and gave us his! Ya, crazy. It was so nice of him. So we played with a Frisbee for a while and the boys loved it! We had such a fun weekend playing at parks. It makes me excited for when the weather gets even better!

Blake trying out a slide


Blake just loving being outside
The Frisbee...it was rare that Blake got to play with it because Nathan doesn't like to share sometimes...okay, all the time.
Nathan with the Frisbee
Nathan and Blake going down the slide together!

Blake's Birthday 1-11-11

I can't believe Blake is one! This last year has gone by fast!
Blake is so much fun to have in our family! I love this age because they can do so many things. They can also get into more trouble but it's so fun to see Blake's personality come out. At one Blake can do so many things. He can walk, wave bye bye, say a few words...Mama, Dada, Nana(Banana) and Me. Whenever he says me, he is usually yelling it because it means he wants something..usually food. He shares a room with his brother and loves to do anything that Nathan is doing. If Nathan is laughing, Blake is laughing, if Nathan is crying, screaming, running, playing with a toy...Blake wants to do it too. He has 3 teeth with the 4th close behind. He LOVES to snuggle and this is probably my favorite thing about him. He will just walk up to me and lay his head down on me...especially when I have his blanket, he will just snuggle right up to me. It's so cute. I hope this lasts for a long time! He is much more of a picky eater than Nathan ever was but I recently discovered he really likes chocolate chips and M&M's.
He loves going down slides, swinging in swings and just being outside. He loves being chased and he will smile at just about anything.

For Blake's birthday, Nathan and I made and decorated some cupcakes. Nothing fancy, just plain cupcakes with some colorful frosting.

Here is Blake trying out his cupcake. He didn't really eat much of it but he did manage to get frosting everywhere.

He got a few toys and some clothes and here he is with one of his presents.
And here is the video of Blake with his cupcake while we sang. It's a little blurry but you get the idea.

Fun Piano Stuff

I was so nervous about teaching piano lessons in my home for a few reasons. One was I just wasn't sure if I could do it. Even though I've played the piano since I was 6, I had never taught before so I was unsure. The second reason was my kids. I quickly discovered that I LOVE teaching piano. I feel so good that I am able to use my knowledge and talent and share that with others. I have some really great students and I am remembering why I am so passionate about music. I got 3 more piano students last week so I am now up to 7 students. My kids are not loving this as much as I am so I think 7 is a good amount for what my kids can handle right now. I wish I lived in a big house where I could have my own piano studio but for now, my piano is in my kitchen. Sounds pretty funny, I know, but I needed to be able to turn on a movie for my kids and teach in another room. It works for now.
This last weekend I wanted to get some fun ideas to use in my teaching so I started looking around online and I found so many great things! I found a few piano blogs that I spent several hours reading and have gotten some great ideas off of them. Here are a few things I discovered.

This is a rhythm pizza. A great little thing to help kids understand the concept of eighth, quarter, half and whole notes, especially when they haven't learned fractions yet.
One of my new students is a 3 year old. I was a little nervous because I have no idea what to do with someone that young but I found lots of things to do with young kids, this is one of them.
This is just a little folder game with ladybugs that have a few music symbols on them. This is a lapbook that I made that just has some different flashcards in it and a mini rhythm pizza
I will be the first to admit that I could not come up with any of this on my own so here are the links where I found these.
http://heidispianonotes.blogspot.com/
http://www.susanparadis.com/
http://lowepianostudio.blogspot.com/
http://musicmattersblog.com/

I basically just read through these 4 blogs for several hours after the kids went to bed and founds lots and lots of great ideas. I'm excited to start using them in my teaching!

These are just 2 folder games that I found and made Sunday morning for Nathan to play with in church. (Since our church starts at 2 I had plenty of time in the morning)


Here is the website I found these on: http://www.mormonchic.com/crafty/filefolders.asp

My little helper

I have recently discovered that Blake LOVES to help out with the laundry. I took this video the other day while I was folding clothes from the dryer. Today I was sorting clothes into different baskets and he was so excited to help move clothes from one basket to another. It takes me twice as long to get anything done but it's cute to see how much fun he has. If only I could be that excited to do laundry...

Christmas

We went to SL for Christmas to spend time with family and we had lots of fun. Here are a few pictures that we got.
Nathan playing with his new "Cars" garage

Everyone on Christmas morning
Wes and Blake
Us in our Christmas PJ's

The boys in their new Christmas Pj's. Nathan has "Cars" and Blake has "Thomas".
This video is of Nathan playing with his new "Cars" garage. He was very into playing and not so much into talking to me :)

Christmas goodies

I love making lots of yummy goodies around the holidays. I had so much fun making (and eating) them this year. We gave most of them away but we kept a few to eat for ourselves :)

Sugar cookies




Oreo Truffles
Caramel and chocolate covered pretzel sticks
Sugared Almonds

Blake walking

Blake started waking in December...the 10th to be exact.



Here are some of his first steps on video. He is walking all over the place now. I can't believe how big he is getting!