Boy Cheese?

So Nathan has a very limited, albeit odd, selection of food that he eats. His range is quite wide, but his in-between choices are fairly limited. The kid loves pizza, broccoli (usually) and he would eat our green shake thingy three meals a day if we made it that often. Like today we were trying to force him to eat Mac N' Cheese cuz that is Sarah's traditional post-church lunch and it would just be easier if Nathan ate it to. NO WAY! Wouldn't even try a bite. But then for dinner tonight he sees that we're cooking broccoli and can hardly wait to have some. Weirdo!

Anyway, Mary was telling me that on Friday she wanted him to try a grilled cheese sandwich, which Sarah loves, because that's what Mary was going to make for Sarah and she wants to get Nathan eating more things prior to Jane's arrival. So she's making Nathan's grilled cheese and serves it up and he likes it alright. While they're both eating Sarah says "mom, I'm having a girl cheese and Nathan's having a boy cheese". Mary had to explain that it's called a "grilled cheese", not a "girl cheese". She seemed to accept the distinction, even if it didn't make any sense to her. Pretty funny! He now has added grilled cheese sandwiches to his repertoire now... with more to come hopefully.

Easter Fun

Most other bloggers are able to get their posts up more quickly then I am... for me Sundays are the best times to get these posts on here, so my Easter post is a week later. Here you go:
We have church from 9 AM 'til noon so we did Easter baskets after church. The kids were plenty excited about finding them and then getting into the candy. We included a gift that they received in the mail from their great-Grandma (Mary's grandmother) in their baskets, they received a small bunny. They also got some candy, a new pair of jammies, and a small packet of pictures of temples for them to look at during church.
One of our Easter traditions is to have a little family meeting where we have a little "testimony meeting" wherein we talk to each other about what feel about Jesus Christ and his gospel. This was very enjoyable and Sarah was very proud of herself as she talked to us about how she knew that Jesus died for us and that he was resurrected. It was also nice to have a set apart family time where Mary and I could share with each other and with our kids (Nathan was in and out of the room) how we feel about Christ and his gospel.
We spent the rest of Sunday afternoon and early evening at a friends house having a nice Easter dinner with Turkey and all the other fixings. It was some good stuff and we enjoyed our time over there.

Here is Sarah after she found her Easter basket... she's pretty excited about it!
Here's Nathan and Sarah in their new jammies with their respective bunnies from their great-Grandmother. This is also a sneak peak at the new-improved Sarah and Jane room that Mary has been working on, which I will post about when she's finished.

We did Easter eggs on Saturday and Sarah enjoyed doing this. We did it while Nathan was napping.
Here is Nathan climbing up on his bed and discovering what this basket is doing and why everyone else is so excited.
He soon discovered what the excitement was about and dove right in!
Here is Sarah again, showing off her Easter basket!
Nathan is still digging in and really enjoying this situation.

Streak Ended :*(

My "Weak Week Running Streak" ended this week... after five good weeks. With my class starting on Monday and running 'til 10 pm, I wasn't going to run on Monday AM and didn't feel up to it on Tues. I wanted to run on Wed but we got snow and I didn't want to run in that kind of weather and I wasn't feeling great on Wed. Thursday I was feeling a little better but I was planning and greatly looking forward to playing b-ball that evening at the church. Well, that did me in... we played 3-on-3 full court and I was thoroughly spent by the end of the evening. I think I definitely overextended myself and was too sore to go running on Friday and started feeling really sick Fri evening and that has run into the present moment. Oh well, I will try to start a new "Weak Week Streak" this week. I have lost 14 lbs. over the last 7 weeks, which is pretty cool.

St. Patty's Day

So here are some pics of our St. Patrick's Day dinner. We have dyed green spaghetti noodles (this pic is before the red spaghetti sauce was applied), green grapes, some green juice, cucumbers, green jello (no carrots), and green peas. The kids enjoyed the food and the fun!

Nathan the Toolman Hamm

Nathan got a set of tools for Christmas and has enjoyed them a bunch. These are about the only toys that he has in his bedroom as all the others are in the toy room so if he chooses not to nap he gets these out and plays away. Anyway, here are some cute pics of him with some of his new equipment.

I just had to put the one with his pacifier in her as the colors scheme so well!

'Hamm'erin' away!

The Morning Wave

So each morning as I leave for work I get to give Sarah and Nathan a hug and a kiss and then they both run to the front window, pull up the blinds and get on the little coffee/console table that we have next to the window. They are both so excited to watch me drive away. I have to flip a U-turn and so we always wave to each other as I drive away. These pics obviously don't do justice to it because it is way cuter from the front to see their two little faces up at the window just waving at me as I drive off... I also get the occasional kiss blown my way. The kids love this routine and I certainly enjoy it as well as it puts a smile on my face and reminds me how loved I am as I head toward work. Such fun!


This routine also applies just about any time either of us leaves for something, but is not as much a consistent routine as the morning wave on my way to work.

Chugga Chugga!

Mary reported to me that the other day she came out of the shower to see that Nathan and Sarah had created a train in the living room all by themselves. The train included Sarah as the conductor and Nathan, a baby doll, Tigger, "Sneakers" the dog, and Eeyore as some of the passengers. Both Nathan and Sarah were making the necessary train sounds and were clearly proud of themselves.

As you can see above, Sarah is using her arms while she makes the train sounds.
There is also a basket in front of the train that was part of the trip that had blankets, books, and a few toys. Looks like they had some fun.
Nathan and Sarah generally do an amazing job playing together and with each other. If Nathan wakes up before Sarah the first quetsion he asks is "where's Sarah?" and he gets so excited when she does finally wake up. Pretty cute kiddos and buds for one another!

Our Healthy Breakfast Shake

So here is our healthy breakfast shake: One cucumber, two avocados, some spinach leaves, and 1.5 peeled limes. Whir it up in our nifty VitaMix and you've got yourself a healthy, albeit scary lookin' shake, that tastes better than it sounds, thanks mostly to the lime.

This VitaMix is awesome. It was actually my grad gift from mom and dad and who woulda known that a power tool would look so good in the kitchen!

Does that look good or what! This constitutes our breakfast about 3-4 times a week! This isn't a Slimfast special, trust me!

Updates

The "Weak Week Running Streak" is up to five weeks. I actually ran twice this week and my muscles aren't as sore as they used to be. I need to try to do it after work or on the weekend so I'm not as crunched for time like I am in the early AM before work. I'm running between 2 and 2.5 miles at this point. I hope to be able to stretch that to 3-5 miles at some point but we'll see how that goes.
I've lost 11 lbs and gained two back, so hopefully I get back on track with eating more consistently better and exercising more. I was really disappointed this week to have gained two pounds. I doubt I'll win anything through our "Biggest Loser Challenge" at work as there are some heavy weights and they're doing the competition at work by how much weight you lose instead of percent of your body weight like they should've done... but oh well.

Driving School & Almost Live

So where we live it seems like I'm always seeing one of those cars with the "Student Driver" thing on top of the car. It always makes me laugh as I pull up next to the car and think of the days where me, Taylor and Chris Conser went to driving school at Bothell H.S. My driving career didn't start off very well as I hit a parked car while dropping off a friend (with my mom in the car cuz I didn't have my license just yet) after my surprise birthday party. Anyway, seeing these cars reminded me of the Seattle TV Show that they used to have either right before or right after SNL called "Almost Live".

It was a fun show and definitely a Seattle original. I looked up some of the clips they have from the show on Youtube and found some pretty fun and memorable ones. I've always remembered the Ballard Driving Academy one and they have that one, so here is the link for it. As is the case with most things, it's not quite as funny as I remember it, but if this is a memory for you then you will enjoy it for more reasons than just its comedic element.

Dad's Surprise B-Day... 2 weeks ago

So I haven't posted on this yet because I keep waiting for my mom or dad to email me their pics of the golf trip that me and my brothers went on Saturday morning (they have told me they will). We had a great time over at Robb & Heathers and my dad got surprise after surprise as first we showed up, then Rebecca and Ruby and then Braden and Amanda. It was awesome and he had absolutely no clue. Here are some pics and I'll refer you to Rebecca and Heather's blogs for further descriptions. So here are some pics from our end.

Here is a pic of Dad, Sarah, Ruby and Nathan preparing to blow out Dad's amazing home-made ice cream cake. As has been previously noted on other blogs, Heather took the Hamm Ice-Cream Cake tradition to a whole new level. If you can't tell what that is it is supposed to be a golf course with sand traps (brown sugar) and everything. It looked and tasted amazing!

We made a trip to Red Robin for lunch on Saturday. It was a lot of fun but it's hard to find a table for 16. When the prego's (Mary and Amanda) have their babies that will bring the Hamm clan up to 20! Crazy!

Here is Nathan and Sarah and Hailey helping Opa open his outdoor fireplace gift from the Pierce's, Robb & Heather, and Braden & Amanda.

I paid for Dad's golfing trip and it was SO FUN. We couldn't have had better conditions. We had an 8 am tee time and never had anyone breathing down our five-some's back until the last whole. The weather was great and the company and conversation was so much fun. We did some golfing (if that's what you want to call it) too!

Me & Rainn Wilson

So I know that everyone already acknowledges that Rainn Wilson (pictured above in the middle with John Krasinski [aka Jim Halpert] and Jenna Fischer [aka Pam Beasley]) and I have a lot in common (glasses, male, somewhat balding, think The Office is cool... need I say more). But I discovered some new things as I read a recent Q&A article in the latest edition of Columns (UW Alumni) magazine that we got in the mail. Rainn Wilson (better known and loved as Dwight K. Schrute from The Office) went to the great University of Washington for a year (I went for two years) before pursuing his acting career further at NYU (I've been to New York... the state at least). He also went to Shorecrest H.S. (I've been there) for a couple of years and his wife is a UW Alumnus (as is mine!). Pretty cool!

Anyway, just thought I'd share some little-known facts about Rainn Wilson-the-actor-better-known-and-beloved-as-Dwight-K.-Schrute.

Pandora Music

If you haven't heard of pandora.com, you need to check it out! This website allows you to create your own music stations, totally free! You can select a genre of music you like, a certain artist you like, or a certain song that you like and pandora creates a "station" with music that is similar to or matches the criteria that you have selected. You create a profile (again, this is free) and then you can create as many different "stations" as you choose and you can refine them along the way. Here is a link to the details of how they create the stations. There are no commercials on these stations, they are funded (I believe) through advertising on the actual webpage. Anyway, it's pretty cool! I use it at work when I'm doing paperwork or I have pulled up certain songs to play that are related to treatment for the kids I work with in groups. Try it out and let me know what you think!

Sarah & Schroeder

So I always liked the Schroeder fella from Peanuts even though he never really liked Lucy. And of course everyone loves when Snoopy comes and dances on top of his piano when he gets going. Sarah and Nathan have made the Disney movie Tarzan their movie of choice over the last week or so, which is cool because our whole family loves the soundtrack. At the end of the credits on the VHS version that we own it has the music video for one of the songs that Phil Collins does and as soon as that starts to come on Sarah runs into the Playroom and comes running out with her little piano to play away with the music. She's got the beat down pat, even though she's severely limited on matching the notes on her four-key piano. She really gets into it and goes throughout the song. I didn't capture Nathan dancing on top of Sarah's piano but that's not because he didn't want to. I think that we need a better piano option for Sarah if anyone (Nanu & Bumpa?) has one laying around ;*)

Here's Sarah really going to town on the "ivories".

Ode to Uncles

I don't know what it is about Uncles that is so cool for my kiddos. I think that a big part of it is that for most of Sarah's life she's had four bachelor Uncles, two on each side of our family. Braden got married last year so my brother Jordan is the special uncle on my side of the family. Anyway, I was looking through some pictures on our computer and started seeing some great pictures that I wanted to post regarding my brothers and brothers-in-law with my kiddos. While we lived with my parents during grad school (about 18 months), both Jordan and Braden lived there for a good portion of that time. So Sarah, particularly, feels really close to Uncle Jordan and just the other day completely out of the blue she said "I want to call Uncle Jordan" so we did. Uncle Kris has been our most frequent family visitor since we've been in Idaho, which has meant a lot to us and our kids. Anywa, here are some samples. They are not in any particular order, just randomly posted as I find them on the computer. One of my favorite parts about all of these are some of the "awkward Uncle holds" when uncles that are not parents try to hold an infant. There are some good demonstrations of this below!

This is the most current "Uncle" pic, from just last weekend when Mary and the kids went down to Utah for the weekend. This was at Braden and Amanda's house in Provo and Uncle Kris came by to spend some time with his sister and his niece and nephew. I don't think that Kris got his afternoon nap on that day. Kris is a pretty handsome kid, huh! If you know of any eligible young ladies in the Provo area, just let me know and I'll forward the info... not that Kris is in need of a date or anything... and he usually does quite well on his own... just not that well yet.

Here is Uncle Michael, Mary's oldest brother. Seriously, you have to be an Uncle to dress up in this kind of outfit when: 1) you're an adult; 2) it's NOT Halloween; and 3) There is a camera around. Nice work Uncle Mike! If you ever want to hear a hilarious story regarding Mary and the above Famed Hughes Frog Costume, just ask! In looking through our pics I was disappointed to not find any of Uncle Mike with our kids, though I have plenty with his other nephews. Then I realized that he hasn't been around Nathan much and he likes to wrestle and play roughly with my nephews, so Sarah has largely opted not to be a part of their rough housing. Mike is a great uncle though, when he's awake that is.

We invited Uncle Kris up to our place (from Provo) for his birthday in January. He came and didn't get much sleep but I hope that he had fun being with family on his birthday. Here he is letting Sarah help him with his candles on his birthday cake.

Here is Uncle Kris letting Nathan look at one of his birthday presents in January.

Here is Uncle Jordan holding Nathan last November when we were at Robb and Heather's for Carson's baby blessing. They're just watching college football together... hopefully the first of many opportunities!

Here is Uncle Kris with Nathan and Mary. Mary and I have done annual hikes with our siblings and whenever Kris has gone with his two sisters, he has been the packhorse because every year (three years running now) one of his sisters has had an infant and the other one has been pregnant so he has literally been a packhorse! Luckily, Uncle Mike joined them last year so he had some help. Mary reports that Kris has been a trooper despite the weight he has to take with him.
Uncle Kris reading to Sarah, Jacob and Gideon at Nanu and Bumpa's house in Leavenworth.

Uncle Kris drove over (from E. WA) for Sarah's 2nd birthday party. She was pretty happy to have her Uncle there, as you can tell!

Uncle Jordan reading a book to Sarah at Oma and Opa's house.

Uncle Braden and Sarah sharing a candy cane and a Winnie-the-Pooh story book at Oma and Opa's house.

Uncle Jordan and Sarah came up with this game where Sarah would sit at the top of the stairs and Jordan at the bottom and she would throw the balls down to him and he would carefully toss them back up. Sarah (and later Nathan) really enjoyed this game and enjoyed learning it from her Uncle Jordan at Oma and Opa's house.
"Sure Sarah, go ahead an play with my cell phone/PDA!" Uncle Jordan seems to be having an enlightening conversation with Mother Mary (Ruby) while Joseph (Sarah) checks out the latest technology. This may be the last sighting of Jordan's stylus for his phone. Here is one of those clearly awkward Uncle holding moments as demonstrated by Uncle Braden.
Sorry Uncle Jordan, Uncles aren't allowed to sleep when they're on Uncle duty!

Uncle Jordan seems like a pretty proud Uncle to Mary, Joseph and an Angel on Christmas Eve.

I'm sure Uncle Kris never foresaw this picture on the World-Wide-Web. I think Nathan is trying to imitate Kris in this picture. Sorry Kris, I just couldn't leave this one out ;*P
Uncle Jordan with Nathan as an infant... another awkward Uncle hold demonstrated by Jordan.
Uncle Kris with Nathan as a newborn in the hospital. It's great when Uncles come and visit in the hospital because they are very excited, but they don't really know what to do with themselves besides awkwardly hold the baby, pose for a picture and then try to stand off to the side with their hands in their pockets while they involuntarily listen to conversations about things they want to know nothing about and would prefer not to hear but they don't feel like they can just excuse themselves politely.

This is Uncle Braden returning from his mission in Korea. Sarah was really excited about seeing him at the airport and enjoyed making signs for him. Sarah and Nathan's great-grandmother is in the background. Even though none of my kids are in this pic, I wanted to include it because I liked it.

Last winter (06-07) when it snowed like crazy we had enough snow to go out and enjoy it and Uncle Jordan (back left) and Uncle Braden (back right) were right out there building a snowman at Sarah's command. Honestly, they did most of the work and followed just about every directive from Sarah.