Mary's Birthday

Mary celebrated her birthday this week (won't say what day or year she was born for safety reasons as this is a somewhat "public" blog). We "slept in" until the kids came in around 7:45 and then made breakfast for Mary. She then took her time getting ready for the day and then left for some quiet time alone with a book. She enjoyed visiting a local quiet place where she spent about 4-5 hours reading "War and Peace". We met for a late lunch and then she went back and enjoyed reading her book. She's almost done with it and enjoyed the time away without the kids. Mary came back after some more reading and then enjoyed opening her presents with the help of a-little-too-eager-hands-at-times. Later, we all enjoyed some homemade ice cream cake (ingredients: tin roof ice cream, a fudge layer and crushed oreos) made by yours truly. After we got the kids down to bed - early (an inexpensive birthday present), Mary and I watched a decent but too-highly-recommended-movie, Stardust. Happy Birthday Mary!!!

Mary's highly anticipated and totally expected tortilla maker.

Thanks Mom, Dad and the Pierce's for contributing!

Throughout the present opening Nathan was (mostly) inadvertently whacking me, Mary, Sarah and the Christmas tree. He then enjoyed making noises inside the tube. Those long cardboard poles from wrapping paper can be so fun!

Ambidextrous?

So when Nathan eats, he generally likes to have a spoon in both hands, typically two different kinds of spoons (one big, one little). He also likes to have his sippy cup in one hand while he drinks his bottle with the other. Could he really be a switch hitter in baseball? Will he be able to dribble and shoot with both hands? The possibilities are endless! Or, it's just cute so we had to get a pic of it. We shall see......

Building Houses

So I came home from work one day with this house (Sarah's description, first picture) that Mary had built with the kids encouragement and support. Sarah and Nathan were really excited about it so we enjoyed some time in there together. This, of course, brings back memories for the both of us as we both enjoyed making forts/tents (as we called them growing up at my house) out of blankets and pieces of furniture with books and such as weights. It was fun to reminisce and to be involved in introducing this to our kids. The other day I came home to a much larger luxury suite that Mary had built and we again enjoyed some time in the tent together. I hope you enjoy the pics!

Mary's first tent/house/fort construction project.
Mary's luxury suite
Sarah inside the first abode with her baby and some necessary food
Sarah inside the luxury suite, if you look closely you may notice her food-stained cheeks. We were never really able to capture Nathan in any of the pics.... not sure why exactly.

Chooooo Choooooo

A while ago we were given some train track pieces that have since been added on from local garage sales and playing with the trains is something the whole family loves. Mary and I enjoy building the tracks and trying to make them creative and big (so that two little kids can coexist on the same track). I confess that I'm really proud of some of my engineering skills with this train track building business, as evidenced by the following conversation:

Jeff approaches Mary, who is in another room doing something productive and says, excitedly "Mary, come check out this new track that I built, I used all of the pieces except two... this ones pretty sweet!"
Mary: "Okay hun, I'll be there in a second"
Jeff waits a few minutes and then approaches Mary again: "Hurry hun, uh... Sarah really wants you to see it"
Mary sees right through "Sarah's" request but grins and comes and looks at it anyway.
Mary: "Wow, that ones pretty cool... nice work"
Jeff: "Yeah, did you notice how the track goes under both tunnels and I use both the splitter and the transfer pieces and that there's only two left over"
Mary: "Cool"
Jeff thinking to himself: "dude if my mom were here and I was like 5 or 6 years old I would get a way better reaction than what I got out of you just now.... don't you understand how awesome this is?!"

Anyway, the kids love playing with trains and if we build them a big enough track they can play together for awhile and generally get along and enjoy themselves. Sarah's getting better at fixing little breaks when Nathan wrecks something trying to scoot over it. At times we have to deal with repeated "Owie" reports from Nathan, which mean that his train is broken and needs fixing. I still get a little upset when Nathan decides it's wrecking crew time and destroys one of my precious and well-designed tracks.


What focus and determination! Mary and I just love watching Nathan play as he gets so absorbed and it is so cute to watch him scoot the train along a little and then scoot/crawl his little body to the next position to move his train a little farther. It's icing on the cake when he starts to make the sounds voluntarily or when he claps and says "Yay" when he's able to fix the train or his track after an "owie". Could this age be any more fun?


Sarah loves to play too but often gets a little upset when dad builds the track and then moves on. She loves to put the trees around the track and build little communities but has realized that they always get trashed as Nathan maneuvers himself around the track. She is usually really patient when their tracks cross or their trains are headed for one another. She is such a great big Sis and Nathan really adores her. Nice bangs huh!

Binge-Blogger

I'm a self-admitted binge-blogger. I rarely do one blog at a time and once I get going there are usually several blogs posted at one time. So, "Hello, my name is Jeff and I'm a binge-blogger". I think this is partly because I don't want to spend the time to do just one blog, partly because I like spending evenings with Mary, and partly because Mary works on the computer in the evenings during prime blogging times. I've posted a handful or more blogs tonight and have some more in my head but, alas, the bed is calling, so I'll have to binge another night. Also, don't make the assumption that just because I'm bingeing on the blogging that Mary and I are not getting along that night, it's just that I finally found some good time to do it, so I am. Any other Binge-Blogger's out there?

Fun in the Snow

It snowed Friday night and on Saturday AM we woke up with about 3-4 inches of snow on the ground. We had our Church Christmas breakfast Saturday morning and so after that we decided to go out and play in it. Nathan was of the staunch opinion that he only needed his regular outfit to survive in the white stuff and didn't like the all-in-one snow outfit that we had for him (a one piece outfit that included hat/hood, attached boots, attached gloves, coat and pants). He had what I might call an ultimate "onesie" on steroids. Sarah was excited to get out in the snow but complained that all of her stuff was "boy" stuff, so she was glad that she got to wear her lighter purple coat and red and pink matching hat and scarf.


Not a happy camper! Mom and Dad's response: "You're gonna go out there in the snow and have fun so we can take pictures of it whether you like it or not!" :^)

The snow out here in Southern Idaho doesn't pack as well as it does in wet Washington. So I could only make a 2.5 foot tall snowman, much to Sarah's dismay. Oh well, that seems fitting for the Hamm family.
Sarah's snow angel! She did such a great job and insisted that I take a pic of it.

The last time Nathan played with these toys it was sunny and warm. He thought he could just dust off the snow and hop back on his trike. He was pretty disappointed that the wheels were frozen, the seat and handle bars were slick, his thumb-and-fingerless gloves didn't grip anything, and the ground was really rough.

There were a few bright moments with Nathan in the snow but they didn't last very long. He was really frustrated with his gloves and his restricted mobility, as well as how cold all that white stuff was. He only lasted about ten minutes before he was unhappy being outside and furious that he had to go inside and take a nap... which he didn't really do. Sarah and I had a fun time. I really just wanted to play in the snow the way boys know best... throw snowballs. But, alas, I am a father and my only target was my daughter so I had to settle for either soft shots at the knees or sneaky ways like waiting for her to go under the tree and then pelting the branch above her with a large snowball and watching the snow fall on top of her. She wanted to throw snowballs at me but I had to make them for her, which she didn't seem to mind. I kept my snowball-throwing accuracy up by pelting the dish on the house, the wheelbarrow, the tree trunk and anything else that looked like a good target. Too bad Mary didn't join me. Maybe next time. Anyway, Sarah and I had a fun time and then enjoyed going in and drinking Hot (mine) and Warm (Sarah's) Chocolate. Mmmmmmmmm.

Last year when it snowed....

Last year when it snowed we had a grand old time outside with the kids. Nathan couldn't walk around in the snow much at all so he didn't spend too much time out there with us but it was a lot of fun. We were living at my parents place in W. WA and they have a great sledding hill in their backyard that is probably about 25-30 yards long. It's good enough to enjoy as an adult and a kid - not too fast but not too slow, with some blackberry sticker bushes to avoid. Sarah loved it until Daddy got a little too childish and had to build a jump, then she didn't like it so much and was ready for her "Warm Chocolate". The kids had so much fun and we got some great pictures. Before we got into the sledding, Jordan, Braden, my Mom, Sarah, Mary, and I all went outside and built a great snowman, named Spike (notice the pretzels for hair), whom Sarah still talks about today. Sarah loved having her uncle's around and enjoyed being out in the snow with them. One of the fun things that I remember about this is that after we got the kids to bed that night (or maybe it was the next night), Mary and I put our headlamps on and went out and did some sledding of our own! It took some convincing and probably some kind of bribing to get Mary to brave the cold, but we had a lot of fun and enjoyed that time together.


I love this pic with Mary and the kids! You can tell that Sarah is having the time of her life. We must have done a dozen or more trips each with the kids.
Our first family portrait in the snow with both Sarah and Nathan.
Here we are with "Spike" our snowman. Jordan is in the back on the left and Braden is next to him. Then it's Mary, Sarah, and I kneeling/squatting below. I think that Braden found the rocks for the buttons, one of which he (or Sarah, I don't remember) thought was shaped like a heart so they put a heart on Spike. So much fun!

Gaming

Mary and I are really into Gaming.... Board Gaming that is. We ultimately thank our good friends Kari and Adam for both introducing us to the board gaming world and then being such willing participants in our gaming fun. For about a year and a half we lived across the hall in an apartment complex from Kari and Adam and would put our kids to sleep and then assemble at someone's apartment to play games. It was so much fun and so convenient with kids: a rare mixture as you parents know. We've introduced our families to some of these games and were excited to see how they caught on. We started with Settlers of Catan with Kari and Adam and learned Carcassone (with some fun expansions) from Tim and Mindy.

We then learned Ticket to Ride from a family at Church and then played it religiously (The Europe version) with Kari and Adam when we went to SLC to visit them.

We have since found a family from Church here that is into games and we've gotten together with them on several occasions to play games with them and kept our kids up way too late doing so. We've played all three of the games mentioned above with them and then they got a new game over the Thanksgiving break and now we're hooked. I'm itching to play Alhambra again with them and want the game myself. Feel free to send it. Anyway, if you know of these games and know of other similar ones let me know about them, cause I love this kind of stuff! Other simpler games that we enjoy: Sequence, Mexican Train Dominoes, Greed, "Mormon Bridge", Candyland (Sarah), Trouble (Sarah), and looking for more in all categories.

The Bearded Hammy

Okay, so I grew a beard for the first time in ......... forever. I stopped shaving on the Tues before Thanksgiving and then didn't shave again until Dec 2nd before Church... a good 12 days growth or so. It was a clean and trim beard and I shaved the neck area as well as some of the lower cheek regions. Frankly, I was pretty prowd of it. I haven't had any deliberately planned facial hair since high school so it was fun to have for a while and I was really sad to shave it off. I thought it was a pretty good lookin' beard. But looking at the one pic posted on here and the two that were deleted just doesn't do it justice. Then again, I think that my inflated self-image may have been misrepresenting the studleyness of my beard. Maybe there was never justice to be meted out in the first place. Not only that but the pics only look like a goat-tee unless you look really close. This beard was definitely a point of pride for me while it lasted. Anyway, I enjoyed it while I had it, all the while knowing and looking forward to blogging about it. I know, I know, it doesn't look blog-worthy, but come on, most things aren't any. So say what you want, cause I'm proud of my short lived (and short grown apparently) beard. Next time I'll have to get better pics, because I'm sure that the problem was the camera, not the object.

Big Boy Bed!!

Nathan moved into a big boy bed recently and so we documented the occasion. He was pretty excited to come into his room to see his porta-crib replaced by a fully made bed the size of his big sister's. He seemed pretty excited (mostly because we were!) but seemed frustrated by having to use a stool to get onto his bed, though I can't blame him cause I would be as well. Mary has worked really hard on his room and when it's finished we'll post some pics of her creativity-expressed through Nathan's room decor.



















One of these pics isn't very great, but it's pretty cute to see two kids so excited to scream "CHEEEEEEEEEESE". If you can't tell from the pics, Tex (Nathan's bear, typically just called "Bear") is pretty ecstatic about the new pad as well. P.S. could that pacifier be any brighter.

Sarah's Creative Outlet

Alright folks - it's Mary here - and I feel very prompted to blog something so as to bump the wonderfully hideous image of Evil Knievil from the very top of our family blog - Yikes Jeff!!! - what will people think??? Actually, I have been wanting to blog as well, but it seems that Jeff always get to a topic first and when I am on the computer - I am usually working. As many of you know - our little Sarah has an artistic side that doesn't come from either Jeff or I - she loves to color and draw and does so on a daily basis. Sometimes she feels very lazy about it and just scribbles across the page and calls it done and other times she is very slow and meticulous (she has cried more than once when she decides she used the wrong color somewhere and there is no way to fix it - it's usually black). Anyway, I thought I would attach a picture she drew this morning of her cousins Ruby and Alice (Ruby just turned 5!! and Alice recently turned 2). Notice the smile on Ruby's face and the frown on Alice's. Alice has an endearing and sometimes very obnoxious way to say "please","I want that", or "now" with a very distinct shriek - she has greatly improved over the last 6 months or so - but Sarah seems not to have noticed since this is how she always remebers her. She rarely refers to Alice without calling her "Crazy Alice" or "Ali-Bear - she's Crazy." Both Ruby and Alice have 4 fingers and a dark blot which represents their thumbs - which is an upgrade from yesterday's rendition which only included 3 fingers and a thumb - we'll see what tomorrow brings :) I also attached a picture she colored this morning - this was one of her semi-lazy and partially meticulous projects which of course involves many colors. Enjoy!

"Superman just doesn't die, right?"

Even thought the statement above is a little misplaced since the Christopher Reeves tragedy, it was said today by Billy Rundle, referring to his long time friend, Evel Knievel. "America's legendary daredevil" (according to the Smithsonian), Evel Knievel died today at the age of 69. A hero for some, an icon for others and just plain PSYCHO for the rest of us. Seriously, look at some of the videos on Youtube of this guy, he was crazy! He broke nearly 40 different bones in his career, and on one jump at Caesar's Palace in Vegas he cleared the 151 feet, but the crash landing put him in a coma for nearly a month. He tried to jump the Snake River Canyon in a jet propulsion motorcycle ("Skycycle") but had a malfunction which landed him in the canyon itself. He was pretty cool, though. He used to run a motorcycle dealership and would give discounts to guys that could beat him in armwrestling. "Over the Top", baby! This guy was crazy, but it's sad that he passed away today.

Metroblogger?

Okay, so in college I heard the term "metrosexual" which I understand is a male who is really trendy in what he does/wears and spends as much time worrying about what he looks like as an average diva would (some people might consider Braden a metrosexual because he spends a ridiculous amount of time in front of the mirror and generally getting ready for his day [Amanda, has that changed or can I get an "AMEN"] but Braden's clothing choice and the recent pics posted on Amanda's blog might state otherwise, but he's had glimpses of a metrosexual image). I've also heard this "metro" prefix added to other things to denote a male who does things that typically only women do. While in some ways I would like to be able to dress trendy and cool, I'm just not interested in spending the time and could really care less what 60 teenagers think of me when I go to work or what I look like when I run an errand to Wal-Mart. But, since I have been in the blogger world I have realized there is a rare few of us males that blog. I'm really into this blogging thing and find myself searching for fun reasons to take pictures of something or have a cool experience that I can blog about. I also love looking at others blogs and looking at their links to track down other people that I might know that are blogging. And each time I got to a site that might be labeled "The Merwins" or "Braden and Amanda's blog" or something I go there with the knowledge that although the blog is representative of their family or that couple, it is written by the female. This goes without fail. Please find me someone else that you know that has a family blog that is written by the male. Also, do women find it awkward to post comments on a males blog? Seriously, just cause I'm a metroblogger, doesn't mean I have to be shunned from the blogging community... does it? I don't remember anything when I was signing up for a blog that there was a requirement to be a female, even if you represented a male. But then again, I didn't completely read the "terms and conditions" section, which may have included that requirement. I already know I'm an odd man, but does that mean I have to be out? There are only a small percentage of males in the mental health field (I was one of three male graduates in my class of 31), so I'm kind of used to being singled out and being different. And, come to think of it, I did work in the Bridal industry for 2.5 years. This is getting a little creepy, I'll sign off now. Any feedback? Thoughts?

Christmas time is here

I know that some people feel like right after Thanksgiving is a little too early to celebrate Christmas, but I was definitely into starting early this year. Besides, in the Philippines, the people start celebrating Christmas as soon as the months start ending in "ber" (SeptemBER), so late November doesn't seem too early. When we got back from the Farmer's after Thanksgiving Mary set up the Christmas tree while Nathan napped, Sarah played and I cleaned up the house and did the annual fun task of figuring out Christmas lights. My task was frustrating, but I was glad that we didn't set up the tree together, because we both have opinions about how it should be done (mine - let's get this thing up, Mary's - go slowly, make sure each branch is just right... very particular). Even though we were both frustrated at times this year, neither of us was frustrated at each other. A significant improvement over previous years.




Nathan and Sarah loved putting up the ornaments. This was the first time Nathan got to experience it, so he had a lot of fun. If left to his own devices, he is much like his father: get the things in the general area and go get some more... move, move, move! He would just get an ornament, run stick it deep inside the tree area, let go and run for another. Fortunately Daddy was there to teach him the finer arts of ornament hanging and Mommy was there to rehang them once Daddy and Nathan had gone for their next ornament. Nathan was really cute and just so excited. Sarah loved it and was so excited to hang the ornaments in particular places and was very picky about which ornaments she got to hang. We have really enjoyed having Christmas music on the last couple of days. The results are below, though the tree does look a little crooked, which Mary has fixed I believe.


After we got the Christmas tree set up I got to go out and put up our Christmas lights on the house. I had my staple gun and was ready to get the job done, but was happily surprised to find out that a previous owner of our house had installed clips for the Christmas light (a nice benefit of a pre-owned house)! It was my first time, so it still took a little figuring out, but I was done in less than an hour and the results are pretty good. I was proud of myself and Nathan and Sarah were excited to go out after dinner that night and see them lit for the first time. It was a lot of fun!