Corrupting the Innocent

This weekend Jonah got to spend quite a bit of time with all of his cousins, including the ones that we usually only see once a year. One of these cousins is a thirteen-year-old boy named Andrew, and of course he has an iPod. Once this weekend he let Jonah borrow his iPod for a little while.

Do you think Jonah liked it?

I don't mind Jonah checking out the iPod for a while, but what I do mind is when Andrew told Jonah that he needed to ask Daddy for an iPod!

Hey now! I am not ready for my three-year-old to turn into a teenager just yet!


Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Memorable Memorial day

Hope you all had a great Memorial Day!

This weekend we traveled to Wyoming to attend my Granpa's funeral. Though it was a sad occasion, in many ways it was like a family reunion of sorts. I got to see cousins, aunts, uncles, great-uncles, great-aunts, sisters, brothers, nieces, and nephews; many of which I have not seen in a long, long time. I stayed up late with my sisters talking about memories we had of our grandparents and growing up on the farm in Wyoming. It was a great weekend with memories and tears; family and laughter; late nights and busy days.

We arrived home yesterday afternoon, about an hour before my in-laws arrived to spend the next two weeks with us. Needless to say, I am going to be busy for the next little bit. So my posting may be a bit sporadic. I do plan to keep up with my regular Wordful Wednesday and Photostory Friday posts... but I am not making any promises! I also might not be as good at getting around and checking all your blogs... so be patient with me!

I hope you are enjoying the end of the school year and the beginning of summer! I love this time of year. It is definitely the time for family and fun.

I Can Do it By Myself!

Independence is great, right? Well, most of the time.

Eli has reached the age where he wants to feed himself. I don't have a problem with that, especially with finger foods. But sometimes it is hard to think of ways to cut all your meals into small pieces. Especially with things like mashed potatoes and yogurt.

Sometimes I can trick Eli into letting me feed him with a spoon. All I have to do is give him a spoon to play with while I sneak in spoonfuls of food. He is getting smart to my game though! Now he wants to scoop up the food by himself. I guess I should let him, even if he ends up looking like this:

Very pleased with himself and extremely messy. The only problem is that he still tends to fling food off his spoon accidentally on occasion, and then EVERYTHING gets messy.

Ah well, I suppose it's better to let him use a spoon and get messy rather than letting him do this:

Yep. That is sand oozing out of Eli's little mouth and all over his teeth. My boy likes to eat handfuls of sand when I am not looking. Apparently it tasted better than I think it does because I have caught him doing it multiple times!

See who else is feeling Wordful.

Tuesday's Tribute: My Grandpa

A little over a year ago my parents and grandparents came to visit our family and see our newest addition. It had been over a year since I had seen my grandparents, so it was nice to have them at our house. We had a fun visit. Of course Eli got passed around so everyone could hold him.

Here is a picture of Eli and his Great-Grandpa. Isn't it sweet?

I don't remember anything really remarkable about that visit. Maybe if I had known that it would be one of the last times that I would see, talk to, and hug my Grandpa, perhaps I might have paid more attention and memorized each detail of his visit.

Saturday morning my Grandpa passed away.

His death was not unexpected. His cancer had returned, and we all knew the time was short. The past few months Grandpa had not been doing well. In a way, his death was a relief because now he would be free from the pains of this life.

It didn't hit me until Sunday that Grandpa was truly not with us anymore. I won't get to see his smiling face; hear his deep, kind voice; tell him I love him or give him a big hug the next time we part. It makes me sad even though I know I will see him again someday.

Raising my own family the past few years had kept me busy and I had not seen Grandpa very often, but I will miss him.

My Grandpa was a kind, honest, dependable, hard-working, and friendly man. I loved visiting his house as a child. We always had fun at Grandpa's house. I remember how Grandpa always had a smile ready for us and the way he used to carry butterscotch or rootbeer barrel candies in his pockets for his grandkids.

I remember the cupboard at the end of the hallway that was stocked with toys for us to play with and enjoy. I remember how fascinated I was with the staircase that went up to the huge door in the ceiling, granting access to the second floor. I remember singing songs and playing games on many occasions with my grandparents. I remember the yummy taste of the fresh fish Grandpa caught that he would share with us when we visited. I remember the taste of the cold, homemade rootbeer we drank out of teeny bottles that Grandpa kept just for the little ones on hot summer afternoons. I have so many memories of Grandpa's house. It was a magical place for me as a little girl, and I wanted to live there when I grew up.

Grandpa always had time to listen to us, and he loved to tease his grandkids. I am sad that my children will never get to know what a wonderful man he was. I guess it is up to me to tell them about him and show them the type of person he was by trying each day to be a little more like him.

I love you Grandpa. I will miss you. I look forward to seeing you again.

Easy Train Cake

Jonah had a fantastic birthday this week. Thanks for all the birthday wishes!

Since Jonah is really into trains this year, I decided to try to make him a birthday cake shaped like a train. I searched online and was amazed at all the fancy train cakes people have made. I couldn't believe all the exact replicas of Thomas the Tank Engine (probably done to scale, no less!) and fancy fondant-iced train cakes. How much time do you people HAVE?

Since this cake was for Jonah (who is only three, after all!) and he's not as much of a perfectionist as I am, we went for a more simple train cake made from mini cake loaves. Jonah got to help me decorate it, and he loved it!

What do you think?

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek It was actually a really easy cake to make. If you want the directions you can keep reading, or just skip to the bottom to comment!


So I started by using a cake mix and filling four mini loaf pans. You could make more mini loaves to create more train cars, but we decided that an engine, a freight car, and a caboose was plenty of cake for our little family.

After baking the loaves I cooled them in the refrigerator so they wouldn't fall apart when I cut and frosted them. Then I cut up one of the loaves to make the engine and caboose. Here is what they looked like before I frosted them.

Attach the extra bits of cake with frosting. Then I did a quick crumb-coat of frosting and returned the cake to the fridge for a little while. Then I frosted the cake again to make the outer layer of frosting nice and smooth.

Next came the fun part-- decorating! I bought sandwich cookies for the wheels, licorice for the caboose roof and outlining, and M&M's for lights, wheel hubs, and cargo (and people's heads- that's what Jonah says). You could use whatever candy you want.

Jonah had a great time helping to decorate the train cake, and I think it turned out pretty darn cute.

My Birthday Boy

Tomorrow is my little boy's third birthday! He is my first baby and I can hardly believe that three years have gone by since he joined us! He is getting so big!

It is fun to see how excited he is for his birthday this year. He has been asking me every day if today is his birthday yet. He is so excited for his friends to come over and play, and of course the cake and presents later at our family party. (Just wait until he sees the presents that we got him! I can hardly wait myself!!) This afternoon he helped me decorate his train cake, and we had a great time.

Tomorrow when his friends come to play we are going to have fun outside, playing in the yard and sandbox. He may even have almost as much fun as he had when his pseudo-grandpa from next door buried him in the sandbox this weekend.

Ok! You can dig me out now!

Happy Birthday buddy! We hope it is a great one. We love you so much! You are such a sweet, smart and loving little guy. Thanks for being patient with us while we figure our this whole parenting gig.

Busy as Bees at the Honey House

I hope you had a lovely Mother's Day. I had a nice day at home with my boys.

It seems that lately we have been busy as bees here at the Honey House! Nearly every day Jonah wants to go play at the park, so we have been spending a lot of time there lately. I have also been busy getting ready for his third birthday. I can't believe that on Wednesday he will be three! The time goes quickly, doesn't it?

I am going to attempt to make a cake in the shape of a train, which will be my project for tomorrow. Plus Jonah's playgroup is scheduled for Wednesdays, so this week we will be having a mini-party at our house. It should be tons of fun and keep me plenty busy.

As an aside, I weighed myself yesterday for my 20 pounds in 20 weeks goal, and I lost 2 pounds last week! That means that in two weeks I have lost 3.5 pounds! Hopefully I can keep it up with all the cake and goodies this week!

Mother's Day Flowers

Three years ago my first son was born the day before Mother's Day. Due to pregnancy complications I was scheduled to be induced on the Monday after Mother's Day. Apparently Jonah had other plans, and my water broke that Saturday morning.

I spent my first Mother's Day as a new mother in the hospital with a brand new baby. I can't really say that I remember very much about my first Mother's Day, but having Jonah changed my life forever.

Now I have two beautiful sons, and I watch them learn and grow every day. It is amazing to see them develop into little people, and it is astounding how quickly they learn. I love to watch them explore the world and enjoy every minute of it. My boys are the sunshine of my life, and motherhood has changed who I am and who I want to become.

I have learned more about myself in the past three years than I think I did in all the years before that. Motherhood has changed me from a lovely bud that was tightly closed to protect itself from the world- to an open blossom, sharing and giving all that I have and all that I am.

Being a mother is often challenging, and not always fun... but it is always worth it.

Happy Mother's Day to all of you beautiful blooms.

Ghost Town Riders

On Saturday my husband and I participated in our first bike tour of the year. We signed up to do the Ghost Town Riders bike tour near Tooele, Utah. We planned to go either the 50 or 65 mile distance.

Too bad the weather wasn't feeling very cooperative that morning. It was pouring buckets outside and it was very windy. But we got up early and headed to the starting point. I wasn't really sure if we would finish our ride or not. Actually, many cyclists who signed up for the ride simply showed up to pick up their bag of goodies and commemorative T-shirt and then they left.

That's not how we roll at the Honey House! We signed up, so we were going to ride, by golly! (Come hell or high water... or headwinds and huge puddles as the case may be). Here we are just before we left on beginning of our ride.

Here we are in our rain gear. Fun, huh?

As we set off it was raining, and my feet were soaked within a few miles. My cycling tights were awesome though, and my legs didn't really get wet. Too bad I can't say the same for my hands, feet, face, etc. It was cold and wet and miserable. Honey Daddy and I couldn't go nearly as fast as we usually do because the headwind was so bad. My least favorite part was when semi trucks would pass by and the wind blew their spray directly at us. Sometimes the wind was so strong I was afraid it would tip me over.

But we made it to the first rest stop and decided to keep going. Eventually the rain stopped, although the wind never did. Somehow every time we turned another direction, the wind shifted. I know I sound like one of those "uphill both ways" stories, but I swear we had a headwind our entire ride!

Here is what the weather looked like just before we made it to the second rest stop for lunch.

Beautiful day for a bike ride!

By this point we had given up on going 65 miles, but we were halfway done with the 50 mile ride. As we ate lunch the winds shifted from the south/southwest to north/northwest. Yippee! A headwind the rest of the way.

Did I mention that at the second rest stop they had a fire?

At this point quite a few cyclists gave up and had the support crew take them back to the start. My husband and I decided that we were halfway there and we could finish this ride. So we left after lunch, facing a headwind and going uphill. By the time we got to the last rest stop I was almost ready to quit. I wasn't having any fun... but I decided that I could do it and I kept on. I am glad I did because if I gave up I would have missed the best part of the ride.

The sun came out, the winds died down a little, and we got to go downhill fast! We made it to the end, when most people just gave up and went home.

Honey Daddy and I joked that this bike tour will make our next one seem much more enjoyable and easy by comparison. I am proud that we managed to finish even in a deluge. It proves to me that even when things get difficult, I can do it!

By the way, I lost 1.5 pounds last week. So I am on track for my 20 pounds in 20 weeks goal.

Cool Dude

Friday afternoon we went to a local park to play. It was sunny, so both boys were wearing their hats. I had to laugh when Jonah insisted on wearing his backwards.

Whatever makes you happy buddy!

Trouble is his First, Middle, and Last Name!

Have you ever had one of those evenings where is seems like your child is determined to run amok no matter how hard you try to keep him out of trouble?

Thursday afternoon Eli woke up from his nap just as I was getting dinner ready. Jonah was outside helping Honey Daddy paint our sun-faded wooden playhouse, so I figured that I could easily finish getting dinner ready while Eli played inside the house. I would only have my little one-year-old boy to watch, which shouldn't be too hard, right?

Think again!!

I was in the kitchen cooking hamburger, when Eli walked in carrying the plastic bag that the diapers come in... but it was empty. I took the bag away from him and then went to his room to see what happened to the diapers. When I got to Eli's room I found the missing diapers scattered all over the place. It was like a bomb had gone off in there...Oh what fun!

So I got the diapers all cleaned up quickly and headed back to the kitchen. There I found Eli holding the water bottle that Honey Daddy had set down after riding his bicycle home from work. Of course he was holding the water bottle upside down, with the spout open, laughing as the water splashed on the floor! He thought it was great fun to stomp his little feet in the water that was now all over my kitchen floor.

So I took the water bottle away from him, and got a towel to clean up. I checked on dinner and then Jonah came inside. Of course Jonah had paint all over his work clothes, his hands and face from helping daddy paint. So I immediately went to strip him down so he wouldn't get paint anywhere else.

As I was cleaning the paint off Jonah in the kitchen sink, I realized the I didn't know where Eli had gone. I went down the hall and found Eli in the bathroom. Apparently he figured out how to lift up the lid on the toilet and was plunging bath toys in and out of the toilet water, having a great time.

At this point I didn't know whether to laugh hysterically or have a good cry. I couldn't believe that Eli had done all of these things within a half hour! I quickly got him away from the toilet and started cleaning up Eli and the water he had splashed all over the bathroom. I got everything cleaned up and then had to divert Eli from playing with the full-length mirror in my bedroom on his way out.

Looking back on that evening I am amazed that I managed to get dinner ready without burning anything, and with both children still intact. We all survived the rest of the evening too, which is somewhat amazing considering the fact that Eli figured out that he could climb up the ladder and get onto Jonah's bed. I found him up there later that evening, running back and forth across the bed, laughing as he flopped down on the pillows. I swear that kid has absolutely no fear (or sense of self-preservation!).

Forget the terrible twos. We haven't had any problems with that at our house. If anything we are suffering from the overly-adventurous ones!

Tell me he'll grow out of it.... right?