Not My First Choice, But Close

[Of all the family-related posts I should be doing... I'm choosing to do this one... go figure!]

I haven't always loved peanut butter, for reasons that will soon be obvious. My two earliest memories of peanut butter are 1st: the gross, oily yellow Adams peanut butter tubs that you had to stir every time you opened it and, let's face it, it didn't taste very good; and 2nd: a neighbor lady and family friend (I know my sis and parents would remember their names) who would have a stored container of peanut butter mixed with jelly to make the PBJ-sandwich-making combo easier. This grossed me out and I never really enjoyed the food option until JIF Extra Crunchy came into the house. This is when my love for PB blossomed into a snack-staple. My mom soon introduced me to PB toast with Jelly sprinkled on top. It is still a favorite pre-bed-time snack. I remember in my voracious appetite years in my teens when as soon as I would get home from school/practice I would make two PBJ sandwiches on delicious wonderbread and devour them on my way out the door. I still think there are few simpler things that taste better.

Mary buys JIF too... except it's the creamy kind. Seriously, why would you get peanut butter without the actual crunchy goodness of the peanuts?! It's a transition that I'm struggling with. We have a large tub in the pantry of the JIF Extra Crunchy and I'm looking forward to breaking that out soon. But, right now, we just have the Creamy available and, let's be realistic, the night-time piece of toast just isn't nearly as good as it was/will be.

Oh, and no, I never liked PBJ sandwiches for lunch at school. It always seemed like the soakage of the jelly into the bread was inevitable.

Happy Valentines Day '09

You know you're a parent on Valentines Day when your first kiss of the day is your son catching you off-guard by licking your face while he pretends to be a dog, which was the case this morning. You also know your a parent on Valentines Day when your day begins like this:

[Jane's cry is heard over the monitor and the time of 6:10 AM is noted]

Mary dutifully gets up to nurse Jane and, as she's leaving, states: "Sarah's light is on in her room and Nathan is at his door and I think he has a poopy diaper"

Jeff: "grooooaaan.... alright" [thinking: maybe I can get them to come cuddle with me for a while... after changing Nathan's diaper, Sarah comes out of her room and, after much work and the offer of a balloon for them, they agree to "cuddle" (read: bounce on and crawl repeatedly over dad while he continues in his delusional belief that this is actually like sleeping in)]

Jeff: "Happy Valentines Day you two, you are so special, we love you so much!"

Sarah [very excited]: "Today is Valentines Day?!" [confused because she celebrated it yesterday at school]

Nathan: "Happy Birthday to you Daddy!"

Jeff: "Thank you Nathan, it's actually 'Happy Valentines Day'"

Nathan: "Oh... Happy Birthday to you, Sarah!"

Sarah and Nathan [many times]: "Dad, it's time for breakfast"

Jeff: "let's wait 'til Mommy is done nursing and then she'll come in and cuddle with us and we have a special surprise to tell you about" [I knew that would hook Sarah, who could hook Nathan and delay the exit from my bed]

[Eventually, Mommy joins us and rescues Dad from getting trampled]

Sarah [as soon as Mommy enters the vicinity]: "What's the surprise?"

Jeff: "Oma and Opa are coming here today and visiting us for a couple of days"

Sarah and Nathan: "Yay!"

Anyway, they eventually drag us out of bed and I made some yummy pink pancakes for them and used a cookie cut-out to make some heart shapes. Sarah was pretty skeptical about the color, but I reassured her they would taste the same. Sarah likes her pancakes pure and undiluted (one time I made her chocolate chip pancakes and she wouldn't eat them... Geesh!)

Mary and I enjoyed going to a Valentines Dinner last night at church for couples and then talking with each other about some of Mary's past suitors (always an enjoyable conversation, with lot's of laughs... you should ask her about them sometime). Today we get to meet Oma and Opa in Boise and then they will take the kids home and Mary and I will get to go out together and run some errands without kids.
Here is the card that Sarah made for us. This is our family (sans Jane) "Jumping on the trampoline" of course. Pretty cute! Oh, and Sarah is currently stating that she doesn't like the "h" at the end of her name so she had to add that afterward.

We hope everyone has a wonderful Valentines Day today. We love our family.

I'm Three

If there are any questions about that, consult my olives, or my shirt, but not the picture at the bottom.


Nathan loves olives and he loves to stick them on his fingers and eat them off one at a time. That's the only way he likes olives, actually.
He also likes to play in this baby saucer play thingy, but typically he is head-first.