Happy Valentine's Day!

We had a great Valentine's weekend here at the Davidson home.

Yesterday Mike & I went on a date to the Las Vegas Temple. 

I ended up having a breakdown at the Temple over my miscarriage and couldn't stop crying, so I don't know how romantic that was. :> 


We grabbed Pei Wei to go on the way home and had a nice little feast with Jasper.  He was munchin' down on the spring rolls and fortune cookies.  Of course the funniest thing was watching Jasper use chopsticks.

Today Mike made Jasper and I some super yummy waffles before church.  Jasper was so excited when Mike announced that he was making us waffles that Jasper ran downstairs and attempted to get the waffle iron out.  He went into the pantry, handed me Mrs. Butterworth and said, "pour".  He was ready for his waffles.

We loved all of the Valentine's and fun treats that we've received.  Reagan Schroeder came a knockin' tonight with a plate of cookies that were almost as cute as she is.  Little J greeted her in his glow-in-the dark superman shirt,  ready for some more cookies.  He already had a cheek full of cookie when he ran to the door.  He is a little cookie monster!

Jasper and I picked out a cute card for him to give to Mike with a happy octopus on the front.  Mike continued our tradition of making each other cards for Valentine's Day, birthdays and our anniversary.  He's even been known to whip out a glue stick and scissors in years past. I flaked out and went with Hallmark.  Thanks sweetie -- I know crafting is not your forte'!

Love Bugs

This morning I got my "Jon and Kate Plus 8" groove on and took Jasper and 4 of his friends to Story Time at Gibson Library.

 

We made "Love Bugs" for our craft.  Jasper was pleased as punch to wield his own glue stick and marker, as evidenced by his "Love Bug".

We met up with some other moms and kids at O'Callaghan Park  to soak up some sun and play.  It felt so good to be outside in the sunshine.

We loved seeing the Abbott's, Schroeder's, Quandel's, Wakumoto's and Sowell's.  Thank you for coming to play with us.  Every mom packed snacks to share and the kids had a fruit snack / fruit roll-up / Cheez-It festival.

 

We'll be going to Story Time from 10:00 - 10:30 AM for the next 6 weeks and then to a park from 10:.45 - 12 Noon.  

We might try different parks each week, so let me know if you want to come and I'll email you which park we're going to.  

Hope to see you next Thursday! 

P.S.    I have never watched "Jon and Kate Plus 8".  I was only "Angela Plus 5" but my adventures would have made for very entertaining TV this morning.  

Like when Jasper lost his shoe and I didn't even know it was missing because I was so worried one of us would be hit by a car in the crazy parking lot at the Gibson Library.  Jasper announced (quite loudly) that his shoe was missing once we finally sat down in Story Time (which we interrupted by coming in late).  It was later retrieved outside on the stairs.

Let's see...I could not get all of the car seat belts fastened properly, and after a frustrating 10 minutes I told the kids that I was going to have to say a prayer and ask for help or we would never be able to leave my driveway.  I was 100% serious.

 
We (all 6 of us) looked like a side-winding caterpillar holding hands everywhere we went.  I had to use my  "nice mom" public reprimand voice when Jasper took off, i.e. broke the 6-man human chain, and I tried to coax him to rejoin the chain.

Let's just say that we were quite a sight!  Can't wait to do it again next week!

Breakfast of Champions

Yesterday Jasper and I made strawberry cupcakes for his preschool Valentine's party for the kids to frost and decorate.

He had so much fun adding the ingredients, running the mixer, and setting out the cupcake liners.  And of course helping to rinse out the dishes in the sink

Because anything that involves running the kitchen sink sprayer is a delight. It's gotten so bad that after I rinse a dish or pot or pan Jasper pipes up with, "My turn".  Meaning -- now I get a turn to "play" in the sink.

I know, I know -- be grateful your kid wants to do dishes.  But he's a splish-splasher and it seems to always involve an outfit change. 

This morning I told him that today was his big Valentine party and he would get to share the cupcakes we made with his friends at preschool. 

Not my best idea, because then Jasper would not stop saying
PINK CUPCAKE -- MINE. 

So for breakfast he ate a pink cupcake.  And he loved every last crumbly crumb.  The new breakfast of champions -- strawberry cupcakes.

"Help Me!"

Now that Jasper is talking more, he loves to say, "Help me".  Most of the time he asks for help putting his shoes on, opening or a door, or reaching for a toy.

Yesterday he tried to retrieve a small ball that rolled across the floor.  He chased it under the mini trampoline and managed to get completely stuck.  I soon heard a desperate "Help me!".

Most days the caboose comes off his favorite train and "Help me" is a plea to get the train cars hooked back together.

Sometimes Jasper is climbing the shelves of the pantry in hopes of reaching the M&M's and "Help me" really means --- I want some chocolate.

Last week he walked up to me wearing a yellow construction hat and had a large candy bar in each hand. (Our friends recently went to Canada and Mike asked then to bring him back some good Cadbury chocolate). 

Jasper looked up at me, waving the chocolate bars and pleaded, "Help me."  I could have finished the sentence by adding (Help me) open these nice big bars of chocolate!  I told him that they are daddy's and he'd have to discuss the matter with him.

Last night I left the pita chips out and when Jasper spotted them this morning there was nothing that could persuade him away from a breakfast of hummus and pita chips.  Things were going well until Sully mysteriously took a swim in the Avacado Cilantro Hummus.  I soon heard "Help me", even though Sully was the one who needed rescuing.

Sewing Classes

I am taking some free classes at Quiltique (on Stephanie and American Pacficic) over the next few months.

I am posting the classes I am taking in case you want to join me.  Reina Gammet is signed up for a few classes too -- come sew with both of us!  I put the link for Peicemaking Basics class and you can see all of the information in the Quiltique newsletter.

This photo is of the Vintage Baby Quilt.  They said we complete the entire quilt in 4 hours -- including the machine quilting.  Sounds good to me, and it looks really cute.

As an FYI, you have to have a Bernina machine, but they let you use one of theirs for free -- just ask when you sign up.


Piecemaking Basics
Thursday's from 6 - 9 PM
Jan. 28, Feb. 4, 11 and 18
 
Garment Sewing 101
Monday, Feb. 15 and 22nd, 10AM - 1 PM 

Machine Quilting
Friday, February 26, 5 - 9 PM


Color with Kara 
Monday, March 1,  5 -9 PM

Vintage Baby Quilt 
Sat., March 13, 10AM - 1PM

Just the Basics Pillowcase Class
Tuesday, March 2, 6-9 PM

Bindings
Tuesday, March 16th,  6 - 9 PM

Bounce With Us!

Today Jasper and I joined our friend Trisha and her kids for a bounce house festival at the Black Mountain Recreation Center (BMRC). 

Of course the kids had a blast.  To our surprise, hardly anyone else was there.  We brought our friend Savanah and she helped Jasper up and over what I call the "American Gladiator" wall.  What a great friend for Jasper.


They set the things up in the rec. center gym so there's tons of room for the kids to run around too.  They had five huge bounce houses -- the jumbo slide, two of the ones where you just jump and two other obstacle course ones with medium slides.

We stayed until 12:20 and no one kicked us out; the kids were just wiped out and ready to go.  It's for ages 2-5 and is only $3 per kid.  All of the bounce houses were cleaner and newer than any I've ever seen.

If you want to come with us next time, below are the upcoming dates for the BMRC.  They are all on a Friday from 11-12 PM.  You can just show up and register that day. Hope to see you there!
-- Feb.  19th
-- Mar. 12th
-- Apr. 9th
--May 14th

Silver Bullet Hunt

Last month we went to dinner at Chili's to celebrate Mike's new job.  Jasper was a bit grumpy until his chocolate shake came out. 

We hopped over to the outlet mall next door after dinner.  We drove Mike's car and soon realized that there was no emergency umbrella stroller in the trunk for impromptu shopping trips.

We coughed up $5 for one of those car / stroller things and we are off.  Jasper loved saying "beep beep" to everyone as we cruised around the mall.

We popped into the Nike store to survey the clearance section to see if they might have some more silver bullet shoes, since I am worried about what will happen when they are too tiny for Jasper.


I asked the sales person if she had seen any shoes like the silver bullets.  Jasper quickly pulled his foot out of the car / stroller to showcase the type of shoe we were looking for.

Before long we had a handful of sales associates circle around because Jasper was cracking everybody up asking for some silver bullets and pointing to his shoes.

Please note that Jasper has his Snoopy Christmas ornament in his hand, which he took everywhere with him for the entire month of December.

Ethel M Christmas Lights

Four days before Christmas my friend Kelly joined Jasper and I for a walk through the lights at the Ethel M Cactus Garden.


The Christmas lights there were my favorite I've seen in Vegas,  and we sure had a lot of fun.

"Aunt" Kelly helped Jasper visit Santa and then nearly had a heart attack because Jasper was running at top speeds right through the cactus garden.  She just knew we were going to end up at the ER for some cactus spine removal. 

Luckily J is tiny enough that he just zipped in and out of the plants.  I am the only one that ended up with a couple of spines in my hand from trying to grab him.

If you're in the market for this kind of thing...

I've been pretty laissez-faire about my potty training approach this far.  Every once in a while Jasper's excited about it, and then the excitement wears off.  We've got little IKEA potty's in each bathroom and Jasper thinks it is fun to flush the toilet.  That's about the extent of our "training course."

I bought "The BIG Potty Book" at a library surplus sale a few weeks ago and Jasper absolutely loves it.  We have to read it at least four times in a row.

Tonight after family scripture study we were hanging out on the couch reading stories, including "The BIG Potty Book" and Jasper got a look on his face and I said, "Jasper, do you need to go to the bathroom?"  He said yes and ran down the hall.

Mike was the "potty handler" and even though I was a little panicky that Jasper was going to completely fall in, Mike managed to keep him from going under AND he went on the toilet.  The funniest part is that after he went pee, he had to grab a few squares of toilet paper and wiped his clean little bum.


If you are looking for other potty books, Jasper really likes the pictures in the book "A Potty For Me" by Karen Katz.

Help for a Friend

Our friends, Jonathan and Rachelle Abbott, are launching a fundraiser for Jon's dad.  He's a great guy who needs chemotherapy and is uninsured.

You can bid on items on their blog, and read about Garth's cancer here. 

So far I've made two hooded bath towels for the auction. 

I've already been out bid by a mile for the item I really want -- Rachelle's pizza.  Apparently everyone knows how great it is!

There are a lot of great items up for bid.  The online auction ends on January 13th at 10PM.

Sleigh Ride Through the Gift of Lights

When we went on our carriage ride at The District we found out that they also offered sleigh rides through The Gift of Lights.  I thought this sounded like a much more festive idea that trying to look out of car window driving through.


We picked the warmest night of the season, but it was still pretty chilly. Luckily we brought a thermos with hot cocoa to keep us warm. We had Betty again for our horse.


I was trying to entertain Jasper while we waited to take off by singing him a song. We were sitting right behind the horse, and when I sang, "Giddy Up, Giddy Up, Giddy Up Let's Go" the horse took off! Whoops!

Our ride was just a little bit more than paying to drive though in a car and it was A LOT more fun!  I would highly recommend this option if you go to The Gift of Lights next December.

All Aboard!

The Santa Train in Boulder City was our big adventure last  Saturday morning.

The storm clouds were threatening, but we were lucky to only get a littel drizzle of raindrops here and there.

We went with our friends Joe, Trisha, Benjamin and Abigail, Maridyn and Rook and Isaac. This train ride is a steal of a deal for $2 per ticket, as the price is usually $8 for adults and $4 for kids.  Plus, we had Santa and Mrs. Claus aboard.


Jasper was happy to say hello to Santa but he clung to my coat when Mrs. Claus made her move.

We rode on the Boulder City Line for 3.5 miles and then 3.5 miles back.  Jasper kept looking out the window and saying, "Choo Choo".

I had to pull a couple tricks out of my hat at times because Jasper wanted to run up and down the isles of the train.  A couple of upside down tickles kept him entertained enough to stay near our seats.


The conductor and other train attendants sat down for a visit during the ride.  They let the kids wear their hats and shared interesting train tidbits with us. 
The entire weekend he walked around saying a jibberish sentence that ends in a very clear "choo choo" and then is followed by more jibberish and a very clear, "Ho Ho Ho".  To which we respond, "Yes, Jasper.  You want on a train and Santa came aboard to see you."  He repeats this sentences about 5 times and then moves onto something else.  Let's just say he was really excited about it and can not stop talking about it.
Thank you Southern Nevada Railway for a great event!

There is a free train show across the street put on by the Toy Train Operators Society and a old steam engine called the Eureka that we want to check out next year.

If you want to buy advance tickets next year, they go on sale Oct. 1.  We want to go on Dec. 4th for the 10 AM ride.  I thought it would be fun to all get tickets together, so let me know next September.