Monday, March 1, 2010

"Day-cation" Part 1

Yesterday we went on our family "day-cation" (as Kelly called it), a one day extravaganza of fantasticality. After church we headed to Del Taco for lunch. Tacos are one of the few things Norah will eat, and Haddon will pretty much only eat fries at restaurants, so it's a good fit. After that, we headed up to Portland to visit OMSI for a couple hours. Here's how it went:

The big new attraction at OMSI is "Samson," one of the most complete T-Rex skeletons in the world. Here's Norah posing in front of Samson's skull (this is the real dinosaur skull they found):

Here's Norah in front of the entire assembled skeleton (w/ replica skull):

Here's one of Kelly and the kids in front of the skeleton:

Here I am with Norah:

And here's Haddon's commentary on the dinosaur skeleton:



They had some other dinosaur paraphernalia as well:


Here we are taking in some sort of presentation on planets:

The kids touched a snake and were able to see some other small animals as well:

Haddon was impressed by the "pirate" skeleton:

The kids tried putting on a puppet show:

Here's a taste of Haddon's "jibber jabber," which is becoming less frequent as he keeps learning how to talk better and better:



After that we went downstairs to the space exhibit. Here's Norah in space:

Here's a thermal family portrait:

Here we are inside a multimedia presentation on galaxies. The kids look more fascinated than they probably actually were:


I was happy to see this silhouette of an X-Wing on the wall of the space exploration exhibit:

Lastly, we took in a show at the planetarium before leaving:

After we were done at OMSI, we packed into the van and headed over to the Rose Garden Arena for the second event of our day. It was much cooler than OMSI, and we'll fill you in on it in the next post...

Friday, February 12, 2010

Sweet Face, Funny Face




Samuel Scott Lute

We're pleased to introduce you to the newest Lute...

Sam was born on February 3, 2010 at a whopping 5 lbs. 14 oz. and 19 inches. Welcome sweet Sam! We're so happy to have our new nephew and cousin!

They Won't Mind... Won't They?

He's not potty trained, and really he's a ways off. But his big sister likes to support him.

They won't mind the pictures, right?







Haddon Sleeps..



wherever he wants.

Pixie Hollow Tortilla Snowflakes

Want to make a mess, load your children up on sugar, and have fun? Well, here's how.

Visit Pixie Hollow, online, and look through the downloads. You will find recipes, and crafts that are just wonderful for little girls that wish they were fairies (and I'll be honest- for grown-ups that wish they were fairies too!)

Heat oven to 400.
Warm tortillas about 10-15 seconds in the microwave. Fold twice, and cut into snowflakes.



Place them on a cookie sheet, and brush them with vegetable oil. If you want to attempt to keep your cookie sheet more clean, you can place wax paper or foil underneath.... but really, it's just a formality. There's going to be a mess.








Bake for 4-6 minutes until golden. Then, sift powdered sugar on top.




Drop your snowflake on the floor twice.








Enjoy.





Bask in the aftermath.






Celebrate winter.







Preferably, clean child before climbing on furniture.









Where to Begin?!

We had completely fallen out of the blogaspere, and now it is time to jump back in.....




Where do I begin?




Uh....




Oh yeah, Christmas 2009. (YIKES! We are behind!!!)












Norah's arrangement of our nativity. We like to see Jesus lifted high. (And the picture is a family tradition: "Gumpy Claus".... ask us about it sometime.)