All tied up

I decided that I should get my crafts for valentines day done before valentines day was here, so here it is. I saw the idea on the blog 'the idea room'. They are 3" felt circles that are folded in 1/4's and pinned to a heart shaped foam wreath. I think it turned out cute. It used about 3/4 yard of felt cut into circles. To make the circles, I dunked a canning jar into paint and stamped the felt. That way I didn't have to free hand the circles. Because the kids have been sick for about 10 days now, I got it done when we would watch movies. The kids really like 'Despicable Me' and 'Toy Story II'. Good choices if I do say so!
So, Isabel either had influenza A (the dr said 85% sure) or RSV this past week. That meant that we got to stay home, without seeing anyone all week. The kids came up with all kinds of stuff to do. Forts, tying each other up, cutting snowflakes, painting with watercolors, reading books (Isabel moved up to the reading group in preschool, she is doing really well, even if she doesn't like to sound stuff out), movies, etc. I think they were sick of seeing only me though. When Tuesday rolled around, Isabel was very excited for tumbling! She had her hair all curly (from being in braids), put on make-up and she was ready to go! Such a cute girl.
Ben discovered that yarn is the best toy ever. He spent the week tying everything up, including himself :) He and Isabel made up a game where they tied up my shoe, then one of them would stand at the top of the stairs and throw the shoe over the banister and the other one would try and catch it. It was a fun game til one got hit with the shoe. Ben LOVES to tie stuff up. I'm not sure about all of the trip wires around the house, but at least they are having fun! I'm glad they are feeling better.

Happy New Year!

I realized that I have almost no pictures of any relatives on Brady's side of the family since we only get together at funerals and on New Years, so I decided that this year at the annual Japanese New Year party I would take pictures! Every year we get together with Steve and his brothers and their kids to eat yummy food and talk. Above is Uncle Nick helping Zoey an Ben eat :)
Here is Isabel waiting for the food to be ready. So cute in a new Christmas outfit. (She told me that all she wanted for Christmas was blue stretchy pants that weren't jeans! Guess I did pretty good)Here are the kids, and Nick, racing cars across the front room, waiting for the food to be ready.
Here is everyone watching the kids race cars! (Janet, Jenny, Samantha, Matt, Corey's girlfriend and her son, and my kids with Nick on the stairs)
Here is Zoey playing with the fisher price nativity! All kids love that thing!
Krystle and Kandi in the kitchen finishing the cooking. (frying tempura veggies & spring rolls)
A sampling of some of the food. (sushi, footballs, shrimp, spring rolls, broccoli beef, sweet & sour short ribs (Chizuko's specialty) spring rolls, rice, tempura shrimp, sweet potatoes, potatoes, teriyaki chicken, etc)
Cute picture of Chizuko talking with Jenny (Brady's cousin).
Steve and his brother Dave. Believe it or not, he is smiling :)
Tracie getting the salad dressing out for the won ton salad. (I think I lost my favorite daughter-in-law spot when I took this picture!)
Jenny and her husband Matt. Aunt Janet is siting by the wall and Ben (from across the street) is standing in the corner. He is the one who loves my Ben and fishing. When Ben was born, he made sure to get him an outfit that had a little bear fishing on it. It was so cute!
Here are Mas and Chizuko. Chizuko likes to go and talk to everyone, but this is Mas' favorite spot, on the couch. He seems to have a touch of alzheimers lately. Poor Chizuko She has some funny stories about him now, but you can tell it is hard on her.
Nick and Corey. Corey brought his girlfriend and her son. Luckily Corey got out his camera and started taking pictures, so it wasn't just me!
Here is Judy (from across the street) talking with Brady. Janet (Dave's wife) is sitting on the bench with Brady. And below are Greg and Ben Keifer (from across the street).
There was TONS of food. To keep with ancient Japanese tradition there was enough food for everyone to take some home :) We all had a good time. It's good to be with family!

Crazy Kids!

Ever since Christmas my kids have been crazy, in a funny way! They make me laugh constantly! They had so much sugar the past few weeks, I have been detoxing them :) Ben wakes up and asks for m&m's for breakfast.....Well, Brady had the last of the nutella on bread yesterday. He threw the container away. I went into the office for a minute and came out when I heard a clunking noise. It was Ben with the empty nutella jar and a spoon. I asked him where he got it, and he said 'the garbage!' He wouldn't part with that jar for anything :)
Isabel really loves to play dress-up. She has loved playing with the superman capes from six flags this week. Here she is running down the hall.
They would run down the hall to the fireplace and she had them open their arms wide, then fold them, then take off running again, back down the hall. Isabel wanted the capes, Ben wanted the sunglasses. :) Ben kept his tongue out the whole time!
Here is my superhero Ben. Man can he run fast. He liked to hold the purple ball in the background and tell me he had big muscles. Truly a superhero :)
Isn't he pretty?! He wanted to be a pretty princess just like his sister :) Really, he just liked to make them shake cause they made a cool noise! I was amazed that he could get them on that part of his ear. Looks like it would hurt to me! What will these cute kids come up with next?

Merry Christmas!

Christmas is so much fun with kids! I have carried on the tradition of having the kids get new pj's that they get to open on Christmas Eve. Brady added to the tradition this year by getting them slippers too!
Isabel with her zebra feet, and Ben with his Bear feet! They hurried and put these on , and then went outside to sprinkle reindeer food on the lawn. We had some from when the kids saw the reindeer up at Weber State, and Isabel had some that she got to make at school! They made sure to leave Santa some chocolate milk and pao de queijo!
I thought that our tree was really cute this year. It had red, white and green lights and I loved the addition of the dangling icicles. Best part is, they are plastic! We had to watch Ben, cause he liked to 'fix' the lights by puling them out. He is such a good helper.
The kids actually ate breakfast (pancakes with red and green mini vanilla chips in them) before they went to see what Santa brought them! Ben got up at 6, and luckily, Curious George Christmas special was on so I slept while he laid by me and watched it!
The only thing that Isabel told Santa that she wanted, and the thing that she put on her list, was a candy cane! She was very excited to find this sticking out of her stocking!
Ben loved his mini tractors. He was funny cause he had to stop and examine everything that he got. Funny thing was, Santa actually called the kids this year! Santa told Ben that if he was a good boy, Santa would leave him some underwear.....first thing that Ben picked to open was new Buzz Lightyear underwear.....He looked at it and said, "santa!".
Isabel was extremely excited to get some new make-up! She likes to do it herself and put all the lip care products on at once too! She sure looks beautiful when she does!
These were mommy's favorite toy the kids got. They have been keeping the kids entertained for hours on end. You can decorate cupcakes with frosting (dry erase marker), they are wooden too, and there is a knife in the Ben's so he can cut his fruit into pieces. Ben loved the cupcakes and would walk around singing happy birthday! Isabel was a fan of cutting fruit! Santa brought dad a wooden sushi set, that has sushi rolls that can be cut apart. Pretty awesome if I do say so myself!
This is Ben and Isabel helping Dad open the present they got him.
As soon as they opened it, they threw them at him! They picked round fluffy pillows (3 of them) so that they could pillow fight daddy! Fun idea I thought!
I was crafty this year, and thought I should make the kids something. I used 8 1/2 x 11" pieces of felt and sewed them together. Each kid got 4 pieces of a town. There was a zoo, temple, hospital, target :), duck pond, apple orchard, swimming pool, beach, houses etc. I had to make sure to get a picture of them playing with them. They are good to take to church, or on airplanes :)
We then took the kids down to the playroom. Ben was in shock when he saw the new train table. He loves it! His exact words were, "oh wow! what is it?"
Isabel informed me that she doesn't play with trains, but she has been down there everyday with Ben playing :)
Isabel saw a snuggie at the store and asked me what it was. I told her that it was a blanket with sleeves, and she thought it was neat. Grandma Tracie got both Isabel and Ben one. Isabel loves hers. Ben thinks his is too confining. (think straight jacket!) I am amazed at how thin the material is.
Isabel also got a crown with earrings and dress up shoes. She walks around telling Ben to tell her that she is a 'pretty princess'. Oddly enough, Ben tells her. It's funny. She has him wrapped around her little finger. We will see how long that lasts!
Ben got tools for Christmas from the Yamashita's. After an unfortunate incident earlier this month where he was 'fixing' the handles on the kitchen drawers, I asked Tracie to take back the real metal ones that she bought him and get him plastic ones. It's a good thing she did cause he has been walking around the house with his plastic hammer, 'fixing things'! It was a great Christmas!

Christmas Eve

The Christmas Eve tradition we have in my family is to act out the Christmas story. This tradition started with me and my brothers acting it out as kids, and now we have the grandkids act it out. After dinner (mini pizzas cut out like Christmas trees that they could decorate), we turned on Skype (s0 grandma and granda Morgan could participate this year) and had the kids act it out for them. Here they are saying hi to grandma and papa! (I love this picture!)
Anyone who knows Ben knows that he is super active all of the time. He is always jumping, hopping, and running everywhere! Before we started the program, I looked back and saw Ben holding baby Jesus in the manger. He took his part as shepherd very seriously.
Adam and Ari were the wisemen, Noah was Joseph, Isabel was Mary, Sam and Ben were shepherds, and Sarah and Nara were angels. (they kept crawling and running out of the pictures!) I wrote a program that had all primary songs in it. We made the kids a jingle bell bracelet and they shook them for the song Christmas Bells are Ringing. The kids sang really well!
We added a shepherd (Ben) to this picture!
And this is the best picture I got with all the kids in it! It's not the best manger scene, but we had limited work area so mom and dad could see it! I love this tradition!