Changes!

Shortly after returning from South Dakota, Grace woke up one morning and was ever so gently escorted to the trash can (by her mother). She was educated on things such as dental care, orthodontia, medical bills, etc...and then instructed to lovingly say good-bye to the bink, and throw it in the trash!

It wasn't too upsetting until naptime when Grace ran to the trash can! But to her dismay, the trash had already been taken out to the dumpster!

We again talked about how sometimes in life you love things, and the sadly, have to leave them. Luckily, we still had plenty of 'bubba's' for her to love on.

She took everything in stride, and is now successfully binkless and not surprisingly, everyone is sleeping better!

MOVING ON!

This year I wanted to do some serious decorating for Christmas.

This involved creating a fun advent calendar, and of course, the calendar had to have a beautiful table to sit upon.

So, I pulled in this table from the garage...

and a little spray paint later...

Voila!

Then I made this area...

into THIS area!

I'm just realizing that you can't even see the black table from this angle, or the cool garland with white lights, fun christmas cards, and our Christmas Tree advent calendar, wait a minute! Let me try to zoom in...
that's a little better.

Once we got all of the Christmas decorations down from the attic, the Santa Claus hats were an immediate hit, and both children found their Christmas Spirit!

Ho! Ho! Ho! Ho!

(Grace always says four Ho!'s)

Yay! Boo.Yay! Boo.

Also Titled: The Tale of Buying 4x4's.

Me: "Do you have any 4x4's?"
Lowe's Employee: "Sure, follow me."
A minute later.
LE: "Actually, I don't think we have any 4x4's.
Me: "Oh really?"
LE: "Wait! I can call and ask someone."
Me: "Ok, that would be great."
LE: "They said they are over here."
We walk over to an empty area.
LE: "I guess we are all out."
Me: "Ok, well thanks for your help."
Lowe's Employee #2: "Can I help you guys?"
LE #1: "She's looking for 4x4's, but we don't have any."
LE#2: "Sure we do, they're right over there."
We walk to the 4x4's location.
Me: "Great! Is there any way you guys can cut these into 4 inch squares for me?"
LE#1: "Sure. It will take a few minutes, I'll leave them in a cart up front for you."
Me: "Awesome!"
Alex, Grace, and Mom do a happy dance in the aisle at really how unbelievably easy that was and how it was too good to be true. We are literally dancing and giving each other high five's.
A few minutes later we bump in to LE#1.
LE#1: Sorry, but the machine will only cut wood up to 3 inches, so we can't cut the 4x4's.
We load up in the car 4x4less.

We drive to a lumber yard on KK. Yes, they have 4x4's, yes they can cut them, but it will take a little while because there is only one guy in that back. We say we'll wait. She says, "Ok, your total is $45.86." We tell her no thanks, and load up in the car 4x4less.

We run another errand and bump into our neighboor who says he can cut our 4x4's. So, we go back to Lowe's and purchase the 4x4's, and finally leave with some 4x4's.

Our neighboor calls and says none of his or any of his friends saws will be able to work, but to call Meeks and they will be able to cut it.

I leave the 4x4's in the van, call Meeks, and they say I have to return the 4x4's to the store I bought them from, buy the 4x4's from Meeks, and they will cut them for free. Fine, I say. How much do your 4x4's cost? They say they only have treated wood. I don't want treated wood. He says I have to bring the wood I want to them, and they will cut it, charging 'probably' $5.

To be continued...or not...

Snowman Project

This is a little Snowman project I found on a website that seemed like something fun for us to do...especially because it involved marshmallows and said right in the directions, "Encourage the kids to eat the marshmallows!" So I knew right away that this activity would be a hit.

I didn't, however, have any idea what awesomeness the future had in store for me!

Alex is a fair weathered activity kinda guy.

We haven't yet hit the phase of life where the completion of projects ever really happens.

But today was different!

I explained the activity,

showed how we used 'Magic!' (our tongues) to make glue so the marshmallows would stick to the paper.

Grace went straight to eating hers. Could've cared less about the project.

But Alex, sweet Alex, got right to work and after a few minutes called me over and said,

"Look Mom, a 'Qua'."

And sure enough, there it was...

a beautiful, showstopping, perfect 'Qua' (or letter Q).

Well this little Q made me feel like the proudest parent ever on the face of the entire earth!

I didn't think I could go to bed tonight any happier until I saw this!
He finished...

...the entire project!

I'm beaming right now just reliving what just happened!

Ahhh...this is what it's all about!

Merry Christmas to me!

Happy Thanksgiving 2010!

Our children LOVE their family.

And they LOVE spending time with their family.

This year was the first year I really tried to teach my kids about how to be thankful,

and I can say without a doubt

that 'thankful' is exactly the way they felt all week!

I could see it in their eyes, hear it through their laughs, and feel it from their hearts.

They are thankful for their family.

Love for family was in the air at the Rasmussen house

and it was captured in every picture I took...

Happy Thanksgiving!

Brookings Children's Museum Day 2

Dan, Jess, Baby Nadia, and Anne joined us for round two and we took advantage of all of us being in the same place at the same time and took a spontaneous family pic!

Moo!

Anne, Grace, and Alex all had a blast up, up, up in the air!

Alex did some farming.

Baby Nadia!

The Water Room!

Mommy and Baby drumming away.

This is a see through drum filled with colored confetti that bounces around when the drum was drummed!

Outside of the museum was a huge Tyrannosaurus Rex whose head, eyes, body, arms, and mouth moved. Yikes!

Alex taking in the baby T. Rex with Aunt Jess.

Grace and Auntie Annie checking out the baby T-Rex.

The seem a little more concerned.

Both days were awesome.

This is one place I don't think we could ever get tired of going!

Brookings Children's Museum Day 1

The Children's Museum had opened in Brookings...

you can decide for yourself whether you think it's cool or not...

This was in the Fit 4 Life Room. You can change you heart rate by taking deep breathes, or by doing jumping jacks and then squeeze where Grace's hand is it will tell you your heart rate.

How long can you hang?
Of course, what looks like is going to happen, did in fact happen.
I was a bad mom and when Grace let go, I didn't catch her fast enough and she bonked her head on the bar below. Ouch!


There were three stations here...a wheelchair, stationary bike, and that thing like a bike only you use your arms. When all three machines are working together, a box of colorful gears across the room begin to turn. Also, when you do your individual thing, like Alex in the wheelchair, lights imbedded in the floor light up. Cool? I think so!

This room was called, "Under the Hood". There were different work orders involving this car that could be completed:

Change the air filter.

Change the tires.

Change the muffler.
Change the license plates.

Those white ball looking things on the ground were actually our lug nuts! :)

The Farm Fresh Grocery Room!

This was an amazing piece of work that reached from the floor all the way up to the ceiling.

Genius.

There were musical instruments all around, and in one area there was a TV that showed Native American dancing and you were supposed to try it yourself. I watched two little girls work at it for quite awhile, they were even using little hula hoop things. All I could think of (other than that it was an amazing idea) was how well those kids were going to sleep that night!

The Water Room

This room had all kinds of fun things. There were lots of different colored balls that you could do fun things with. Above near the ceiling were all kinds of tracks for the balls to follow and then land in different places.

You could put the balls in these little tubes, pump that red pumper, and then push the black button and they would shoot up the tube and roll all around the tracks above before landing back in one of the three different pools of water.

A Musical Wall

A wall of Light Brights!

It was just a little bit A-W-E-S-O-M-E!!!