Lumberjacks and Halloween

Saturday all of us drove up to the cabin for a Lumberjack Party! We were the first ones there and got to have Grandma and Papa all to ourselves for a few hours! It was perfect. My mom served chili and turkey meatballs and sides. Everyone was supposed to bring a dessert and on Friday Nico and I made Sunbutter Chocolate Pumpkin Cups to bring with us. They were tasty!

I put some Halloween Jamberry nails on Lexie, just like the ones I put on Nico.

They matched up their fingers with matching nails

Showing everyone their matching nails

Nico not smiling at the camera when I told him to smile. hehe

There was a contest to guess the weight of a HUGE pumpkin, and also games to guess how many candies were in a jar, and how many M&Ms were in a bottle. Nico asked if his two imaginary friends Bico and Dico could also place guesses, and Bico ended up winning the pumpkin! I forgot to take a picture of it but it's sitting right outside (68 pounds!) I think Allicia and I are going to try to cook it up and freeze it so we have pumpkin puree throughout the year! Then, Nico won the jar of candy. The jar is a beautiful clear glass pumpkin with candies in it and a removable lid. 

It was a fun and full day, we came home happy. Thanks so much for the yummy food and the fun time Papa and Grandma!

Monday was Halloween of course, and we met everyone at the Roosevelt Market and then walked home from there, trick-treating on the way. Just like last year! I left early so I could catch the Financial Peace University class that was all about real estate and mortgages. 

Guy told me that Nico was very focused on trick-or-treating, and he got a lot more candy than the others. He was really committed and ended up with 125 pieces. He has been sorting them, trucking them around on the Spring Fair trucks, counting them and recording how many of each type he has (in his new red notebook that Gma Russell sent his way). 

Check out the video of the Boo Bash and of Halloween at the end of the entry!

Nico had a doctor's appointment today and we will be starting a few new supplements. I am excited to see how they may help his sleep and stomach.

Today was our parent-teacher conference, and Nico is doing really well in school, has a lot of friends, and has very good handwriting. He is in the upper level reading group and the upper level math group. They said he's very humorous and they enjoy having him in the class (this was the teacher and the student teacher talking). When he stood up front during his Star Student week showing his friends his pictures, he showed everyone a picture of someone reading him a book (this would be GG or Grandma Russell) and asked everyone to make 3 guesses what the book was. No one could guess so he kept asking them to try again. No one could see the picture closely so the possibility of books was really endless. They say he's very precise, and is good at seeing patterns in math.

They showed us his journal, and I wish I could show you guys every page, but I only took a picture of one of them. He's been really into car symbols lately and so notice that on Grandma's truck he wrote "GMC" because that is what she owns. 

Nico was very curious about Horseflies so we looked them up in the book that GG gave Nico. We ended up looking up a lot more than just Horseflies, and we even got out the ruler so we could see in real life how big some of these bugs get. Horseflies are HUGE!

We heard yesterday that GG is in the hospital with congestive heart failure, looks like it can be managed with the right combo of meds and we are praying for health and recovery! Love you Grandma!!

Enjoy the two videos this week!

A huge sandwich, spider pizza, and Boo Bash!

Last weekend on Friday and Saturday Guy took care of Nico as I was at the "Women Ignite Idaho" conference and trade show. I had a henna booth at the trade show and was attending the conference. It was fun!

Guy made Pad Thai for himself and Nico on Friday night, and on Saturday they made a HUGE sandwich. They had been planning this for a few days, ever since Nico read one of his new Pete the Cat books that Grandma Russell sent him (thank you Grandma!!) He got a set of 5 Pete the Cat readers. And, he can read them! In one of the books, Pete the Cat builds this HUGE sandwich with all sorts of things on it. So Nico made a list of stuff he wanted on his sandwich. Not everything that Pete had, but things that Nico could eat.

Apparently Nico ate a few things from the sandwich for lunch, came back a few hours later and ate some more, a few hours later and finished it off.

Because of my day on Saturday, we had pizza on Sunday instead. We made spider pizzas with olives!

Nico's

Guy's (his salami is under the cheese)

On Saturday, Guy took Nico to the library and Nico picked out Shaun the Sheep on DVD and that's what we watched on Sunday while eating pizza. 

Tonight was the Boo Bash at Nico's school. We walked there with the whole crew. 

Guy had to be at the church at 6:30 and the Boo Bash was at 6. So we got in there quick and made sure to get our polaroid before Guy had to book it.

We left the Boo Bash at 7 PM and about 40 minutes of that was spent at the Cakewalk. Last year Nico won within 2 minutes, this year took a bit longer, but he persisted! They called his number and we hustled over the gluten free table and he picked out a chocolate bar. Yum! I have already agreed to let him eat half of it tomorrow after breakfast and the other half after lunch.

Next to Sammy at the Cakewalk

Waiting for the music to start

Some more pictures from this past week..

We finished the Star Destroyer!

It opens up!

Playing with leaves at Aadam and Sammy's house.

The Week of Celebration

Friday we invited Sammy and Aadam over to play inside the main house! Jeff and Allicia and crew were out of town so we used their living room for a play date. They colored and wrote books and had a grand time. It was nice to have the space available to invite them inside!

That afternoon they played out front on our table.

On Saturday morning we went to see GG. Guy was able to come with us because we did it on a Saturday, and it was great! As always really fun to see her and talk about what she's been up to and what she has planned in the coming weeks. Nico brought over his Grosseries to show GG. We may have left them there, in fact! I still need to call her and ask if we left them.

On Sunday Guy helped at the sound booth again at church. I think it will become a regular thing!

Monday was Columbus Day, which we affectionally renamed Columbo's Day, a day to watch an episode of Columbo. We picked one of our favorites. Guy and I watched while Nico was in school.



Monday started Guy's VACATION week! He took the whole week off from work. While he's been home, we have sorted through stuff, taken a load to the Youth Ranch to give away, watched lots of Netflix, bought lots of snacks, eaten lots of snacks, and on Wednesday night we even had a PARTY! We bought cupcakes to celebrate Guy's birthday and went to Trader Joe's and filled our carts with all those snacky items and dips that always look so good but you never buy because, well, they can get expensive! But really, Trader Joe's is cheap, although spending $120 on snack items was really a piece of cake for us. We are enjoying blowing all our money this paycheck.

The party on Wednesday was just under the covered porch and we had Jeff & Allicia, plus Tiffanie over. The guests that are staying in the suite above us, Vanessa and her 3 year old Ansel also came to the party, they've become good friends of the family. She bought us flowers. We ate all the snackie items from Trader Joe's, then cupcakes. Finger food heaven! Sammy is also gluten free, and Tiffanie told me that at the party he was like a child in Costco eating all the samples except this time he could actually eat them (because all our food was gluten free!) We sent them home with hummus and salami and veggies for Sammy's lunch. He is growing into quite the foodie and only 8 years old.

I captured only one picture. You can't see the rest of the people/kids that were at the tables, but you CAN see a small section of the dips and chips and crackers we got.

We purchased Nico his Star Wars Lego that he has wanted for a very long time. We ordered it last week and it was delivered on Monday. We opened it up and started putting it together straight away.

Before opening the box

Just starting out

Getting close to the halfway mark...

It is not together yet, but we are close.

Random pictures. Nico is tall enough to ride his blue bike now!

Picture by Nico

It is fun having Guy home. He takes Nico to school with me and picks him up with me. Guy even got to spend some time working on a project - building a card shuffler with legos, using a lego motor to power it. Want to see how it works?

Tapping, House Sitting, Baby Chicks

Friday was the start of the screenfast for Nico. We got him a dot-to-dot book which he spent most of the day doing on Friday. So far the screenfast is going well. Nico is growing in imagination and interaction and it seems like he's more keen to have conversations now and just "hang out", more than he was before we started. I like it!

On Saturday I had my tap performance for the end of the tap year. We had two shows on Saturday, 4PM and 6PM. For each show our group did 2 dances. I was nervous for the first show at 4PM but the second one was a lot easier. Guy and Nico came to the first one, and they recorded the first dance. Check below for a video!

I am glad the performance is over, and that tap class is also over for the summer. I am glad I did it, not sure I will be going back next year, I need a break right now so ask me again in a few weeks :)

We spent the early part of this week packing up for our temporary move to Jonny and Alanna's house. We are staying two weeks. We trekked over here on Wednesday with all the stuff we'd need and then did some grocery shopping. It is like a mini vacation for us and have been enjoying playing all their board games and listening to Nico's music through their awesome speakers, he loves to dance along. He has started trying to breakdance.

Nico was a little sick early this morning, throwing up. But huzzah we have easily accessible toilets here, he made it every time.  I wrote his teacher a note telling her he wouldn't be in school, but after sleeping in until 7 AM he woke up feeling great. I of course made him go slow with the food at first, but he had fully recovered. Sounds like it was a yucky tummy issue, but glad it was over quick for him. I figured it was too late to "cancel" my note to the teacher, so we played hooky and we went and ran errands together (I know, not the best hooky plans, but it was fun). We stopped by the clubhouse to pick up some things we forgot, and Nico got to hold a few of the new chicks that Jeff & Allicia had got. He was super gentle with them.

I don't remember what day this was:

Working on the lego Jonny & Alanna left for him:

And here's the tap video!

G.G., dentist

Last Friday was Nico's snack day at school. He wanted to bring apple sauce and string cheese so that's what we did. He also got to share something with the class and he wanted to bring the Advent Christmas tree with him so we put that in a bag and carried it along.

Friday night was Guy's work Christmas party and it was held at Winter Garden Aglow. Nico stayed home and got to play with Evelyn and Avery. We walked all the way to the top, as high as you could go, and we got a pretty good view of all the lights below. We talked a lot with one of Guy's work buddies, Derek, and his wife (I can't remember her name!) They also went to NNU and that is where they met. They are pregnant expecting their first next year, and they love board games, and we left with the understanding that we would be getting together at some point to play board games. The party was held in a large heated tent and food was served buffet style. Then they gave away awards, and Guy got his 5 year plaque plus a bonus check. Then they did a raffle. 

I told Nico that if he was really good for Jeff & Allicia on Friday that on Saturday we could go to Joann Fabric's and pick up some stuff for a Christmas craft. So... we did! We bought glitter and jewels and sequins. When we got home, I brought out a folder I have that contains all of the Christmas cards we've received in the past. We took turns choosing which ones we wanted, and then we proceeded to decorate our individual poster boards with cut up christmas cards and glitter and jewels. This craft is one my brothers and I used to do as kids, a Grandma Salisbury original! Nico cut out a few of his cards and glued one portion of a card onto his poster board, but he preferred instead to just use glitter.

He kept looking at mine and saying "It needs more detail. There's too much white space." Probably learned that from school, so I tried unschooling him a tad and told him that when you're doing art you get to decide exactly how much detail you want and it's ok if there's white space. But he kept telling me anyway :) Every time I paused what I was doing to look at my picture, he would say "You need more detail. It needs more detail." The funny thing is that when we were done, Nico's poster was mostly white space.

Sunday evening, Guy and I sat down to talk about the budget. It wasn't very encouraging at first. We had been thinking about getting another car so that he could have one to drive to work. But when we started talking about NOT saving up for a car, and plugged in all our numbers, it looks like we will be able to pay off our last debt in 1 year exactly. So we decided we would do it. We can make it one year without a second car if it means paying off our debt so much sooner! We also decided that after we are done paying off debt we will move to a bigger house! We will rent, not buy just yet. It's exciting to think about. 

On Tuesday we visited G.G. Nico wanted to bring one of his games, so we did, and G.G. and Nico had a fun time playing it. They took turns. (see video at end!)

We will see her again in a few short days when Grandma and Grandpa Russell come into town!! Wahoo!!!

On Wednesday morning Nico had a dentist appointment to get two of his cavities filled. Allicia let us borrow their white car that day since Jeff was out of town, so that Guy could have a car to drive to work and Nico and I would have our own car. Nico did great at the dentist. The day before I had told him what they would be doing and I told him that afterward we could go get him a small toy. They described everything to him before he sat on the chair, showed him all the tools. He brought his stuffed dog Alvedo with him, and he sat on the chair next to Nico. The hygienist  also put a little paper bib on Alvedo. They hooked him up to the nitrous oxide and boy, Mommy was more nervous than Nico was! Nico did awesome while I was in the corner shaking in my boots. When the dentist came to work on Nico, he would talk to Alvedo every once in a while and check his teeth too, along with Nico's. Nico responded once "He can't open his mouth because he's not real!" hehe. This dentist is the same one I've had since I was 8 years old, and I've had many a cavity filled by him. I love that he still whistles and hums while he works.

After the dentist we went straight to Fred Meyer where he picked out a Spiderman lego. We came home and he put it together. He said he wasn't hungry but I put some food in front of him and he ate it. He chewed too much on the wrong side and his mouth started to hurt. Right before school he said "I'm sick, I can't go to school." because his mouth hurt and he had a tummy ache. I rubbed some diluted clove oil on his teeth and gums and cheek and told him I was going to take him grocery shopping with me if he stayed home. He said "Ok let's go to school!" and he was his happy chipper self.

Guy was able to work from home today. His boss last week texted him and thanked him for something and told Guy to take some time for himself this week. So he's been home today. Pretty cool!

G.G., Easter Party, Jesus

On Friday we went to see G.G. in Nampa. She showed me these adorable stuffed dogs that she made, I just can't believe how cute these things are!! She sent me home with the purple one for baby Ivy, who loves it!! 

Nico had fun playing with the blocks, building some of the things displayed on the side of the bin. He also had fun "hiding" Scamper's dog treat under the table for him to find. Scamper had to be coaxed over to where it was lying on the floor because he didn't see it.

Then G.G. showed me the firetruck quilt. Wow!! I am so impressed by this. I love that cute little dog in the corner.

Guy had last weekend off and he took Nico out on Saturday. Nico and Guy have started going to McDonalds when they go out, so that Nico can play on the toys. Guy just buys some french fries for himself. Nico calls it "Old McDonalds". "Can we go to Old McDonalds?"

On Tuesday Guy and I put together our new 3x4 cube storage that is replacing our dresser. It takes up much less space than our dresser did so it feels like we added a whole new room to our house. That is what I'm talking about! We are trying to organize this space a bit better and we're on our way.

Wednesday was Nico's Easter Party at his new preschool (that is how we differentiate between the two preschools - old preschool and new preschool). I teared up while they were singing their song about Jesus. I'm such a sap. I just like that he's learning about Jesus taking our sins away. He often tells me out of the blue: "You can trust God", quoting one of his favorite songs. He repeats it "you can trust God, you can trust God, you can trust God." Then he'll say "Jesus lives in my heart." He'll tilt his head, look at the floor, and tap his heart with his right hand. Tonight I encouraged him to pray before bed after I prayed and his usual thing is "no you do it". But I asked him to come up with one thing to thank God for. "I don't know", so I asked him what is one thing that he loves. And he said "Mommy" So he repeated after me "Thank you for Mommy"...

Me: Is there anything else you want to thank Jesus for?

Nico: Daddy?

Me: Yep

Nico: Thank you for Daddy. Evie?

Me: Yeah

Nico: Thank you for Evie. And Allicia. And Lexie. Amen

Nico eating his Easter Party Snack and looking at a picture of himself on Teacher Melissa's phone

All of Nico's friends at his new preschool

The latest in nighttime reading traditions is letting Nico read the words "it" and "was". These are the first two words in the book "Curious George Cleans Up", so that's how he chose them. But he reads these words in every book, not just that one. When I come to one of those words, I stop and point to it, and then he reads it. I think he is excited about being able to read. 

Putting together a lego with Daddy. A beautiful day to have both doors open to get a breeze! Can you perceive the extra light coming in from the open back door?

Until next time! (I'll have news next week of Nico's first Kindergarten transition meeting)

Lego

On Sunday all of us went up to the cabin. Nico and Lexie always have fun together. Lexie tried to catch a fish from the pond for Nico. She also built him a road out of blocks so that he could drive his cars on it.

On Monday we had our next big adventure before Nico starts preschool - we made a trip to Urgent Care because Nico stuck a lego up his nose. Thankfully, it was one of the small ones:

The doctor's first attempt didn't work, and the majority of the time we spent there was waiting for them to find a tool that would help. They were concerned that they wouldn't be able to pull it out, and warned us that it might be necessary to go to the ER so that Nico could be sedated in order to get the lego out. Yikes! I prayed that their next attempt would be successful, and it was! Thank you Lord! Nico cried out when the doctor got a hold of the lego and started pulling it out, but he stuck through it. It's not like he could have moved anyway, Guy had a pretty solid hold on him. His nose bled a little afterward, and they had us sign a paper telling us what might happen after a foreign object has been removed from the body (bleeding, infection, etc.) 

I was very grateful that the Urgent Care wasn't busy. We were the only ones there and were in and out within an hour. From start to finish Nico had the lego in his nose for probably an hour and a half.

In the waiting room.

In the room, after the failed first attempt. Watching cartoons to zone Nico out a little before trying again.

Also on Monday, my Aunt Jill gave birth to her 4th daughter, Juvia. I have a new cousin! Her other daughters came over to our house on Wednesday to hang out a bit, as their Mom was still in the hospital then. We watched Spirited Away (in Japanese with English subtitles, hence the serious concentration faces in the picture) and Nico so enjoyed having them there (so did I!)

On Tuesday we went to a BBQ that a friend from Guy's work threw. I got to meet some of Guy's coworkers, and Nico got to jump on a trampoline for the very first time! They also had a swing set that he enjoyed. 

Tonight, Guy took half a night off from work and is attending Rifftrax Live: Starship Troopers in the theater. He is there right now with Josh and another friend, Justin. I am so excited that he got to go to this!

That's it for this week! Here's one more picture, from our trip to Mountain View Park today.