Surprise Party

This past week, my super thoughtful sister-in-law, Amber, arranged for Ryan, Liam and I to surprise Daniel (my brother) on his birthday since he was at a conference in Salt Lake. We got to his hotel about 10 minutes before he arrived and picked up the cake Amber ordered and had delivered. On a whim, I asked the front desk if we could surprise him in his room. They said YES! We went to his room and waited. Watch the video to see what happened...

Daniel opened the door to his room.  The room was dark except for a dim glow coming from under the drawn curtains.  There in the darkness was the silhouette of a small child. Was he imagining things? His immediate reaction was that the room had somehow been double booked and someone had left their child there.  He quickly shut the door and told some other conference attendees in the hallway that there was a small boy in his room.  One jokingly responded, "Oh, you can't do that..."  For liability reasons, Daniel determined that he couldn't reenter the room and proceeded to the front desk.  He slid his key to the man at the desk and explained the situation.  The man (knowing our surprise) told him everything was fine.  He confirmed that the room wasn't double booked and tried to reassure Daniel, pushing his key back to him.   Daniel, however, was NOT going back in that room. He began questioning his sanity and if he was seeing things.  Eventually, the manager had to come out and explain the situation. Daniel finally came back and we all laughed and ate cake.  We had no idea just how shocking our little surprise party would be!

 My cute little creepster...

Spring Update

I'm really good at blogging. OK, NOT! I'm just trying to convince myself or something. Sorry any faithful followers or should I say follower...

Here is a tiny update.
Liam is now 19 months and is our little explorer. His favorite place is "out tide."

Our latest adventure was on the river by our house. Liam fell asleep almost automatically, but we did get one shot that proves we were all there.

From now on, this blog will contain only family life. I'll be posting our crazy projects on the new sister's blog as it gets going.

The end... for now.

Baby Model

No. This post doesn't mean I'm blogging again... it just means I was bored. Plus, isn't this a great photo that Liam's Aunt Amber took!!!

Get ready, though, because we have a lot of fun summer things to post in a few weeks. Stay tuned!

Homemade Peanut Butter Play Doh

Ok. So I am just not very dedicated to this blogging thing. :) I do have a somewhat good excuse. WE MOVED two weeks ago and WE ARE MOVING AGAIN this Saturday! It is kind of a transitional summer.

Even though life is busy, I thought I could jump online and do a quick post of a fun activity for summer- making homemade play doh. Admit it, you've eaten the nasty salty stuff. This recipe is the sweet, unhealthy, cavity-causing type :)

I was hanging out with my niece and nephew so we decided to make it together. They are the models for the photo shoot below.

Recipe:
1 C creamy peanut butter
1 C light corn syrup (or mild honey)
1 1/4 C powdered sugar
1 1/4 C instant dry milk

1. Combine peanut butter and corn syrup in a mixing bowl.
2. Add dry ingredients, and mix well. (We used our hands at the end...it is just easier)
3. Divide mixture into four sections.
4. Roll each section into a 1" rope. Wrap in plastic wrap.
5. Refrigerate 2 hours or overnight. Cut in slices and enjoy. (This was way too long for excited kids... I think ours lasted 30 minutes in the fridge.)

Ta-da!





The ingredients












The finished blob














Ready for the fridge











Dinosaur

Liam's Laugh

Daddy's Boy

More and more I'm realizing that we could have named Liam "Ryan Jr." and been accurate. Here's why-

Liam is constantly staring at his dad. He is so captivated by his every move. When his dad laughs, Liam thinks he should laugh (it comes off sounding like a courtesy laugh...*huh*). When his dad talks, Liam stops whatever he is doing to look for Ryan.



Liam wants to be like his daddy so much that he even dresses like him. Ok. So I had some influence on this. The funny thing was that Ryan left in the morning before Liam and I even woke up so I had no idea they would end up as twins for the day.

I have to say that I highly approve of Liam's choice of role model. :)

Liam's Glass

The order is mommy, then bottle, then sippy cup right? Well, not for Liam. Whenever Ryan is holding Liam and goes to the fridge for some water, Liam starts to get so excited! At first, Ryan would just give him a sip out of his own cup, but the whole backwash thing didn't work out so well. We now keep a glass on the fridge for Liam.

It gets better. The other night we were eating dinner and I noticed Liam getting upset randomly. I finally realized he was getting mad every time Ryan took a drink. I got Liam's glass, filled it with water, and gave him a sip. He was fine the rest of dinner.