He has arrived!

Welcome to the world, Duncan Seth Deshazer!!

Chocolate

I've been doing some experimental cooking this last week.  Today was chocolate cake.  I know, twist my arm... The recipe I tried today was from here, except that I used brown rice flour in place of the white rice flour, and substituted almond milk for the cow's milk.

Isn't it pretty?  We had it for dessert tonight to absolute universal acclaim.  Seriously, this is a freaking amazing cake.

The kids both really enjoyed it.  Myra found some additional uses for it...

Ren Fest!!

We went to the Renaissance Festival yesterday and had such a blast!!  There was so much to see, do and eat.

Here we are all together, before we had a chance to get messy (which we did!!).  We're all wearing outfits I made this year.  I think that is a first!
We started the fun at the carousel.

We met up with some friends, and watched the parade.  Myra was entranced with the princesses and fairies all around!  One of the princesses even stopped an gave her a flower.

After that we went to my favorite show - the belly dancers!!

Then we all went walking in the garden.  It's a little less crowded back there, and the kids love to climb on all the sculptures.

After that we went to see the elephant.  Logan was a little nervous about it at first, but once he got closer, he couldn't get enough of it!  After admiring it for some time, he was ready to ride!

The other animals were a little tame after that, but the petting zoo was still fun.

After that, we took another cruise through the gardens to do some climbing on dragons,

took another spin on the carousel, (Myra had crashed out by this point!)

and then headed back to Temple.  It was a long, fun filled day, and totally worth it, just for this happy face.

Halloween!

I was a total slacker on Halloween and took approximately no pictures...

Fortunately, one of the talented young couples in our ward took family photos at the Halloween party, so there is some evidence that Halloween happened.  The kids looks very concerned in this picture.

But they figured out pretty quickly what it was all about...

Now they ask daily for more Halloween.

Playing dress up

Myra has gotten to the stage in life when she plays dress up.  I like to encourage this sort of imaginative play, so she has quite a collection of dress up dresses, shoes, scarves and other accessories.  I even knitted her a crown...

Cute, eh?  

So, with all of these choices, what does she dress up in?

My favorite apron.  At least she's cute.

Trains!

Logan has developed a great love for trains lately.  Building a big long track is a daily morning time ritual, then the rest of the day is spent running his trains along his constructions.

Here is one of his more impressive tracks.  It spans part of his room, the hallway and comes into the living room.

Once upon a dream

Myra's very favorite princess is Aurora from Sleeping Beauty.  As follows, this is her favorite song.

She isn't wearing anything for the protection of her wardrobe. It was dinnertime and she is an unbelievably messy eater.

My monkey

My mom made Logan some new monkey jammies, which was a very good thing, since the last pair I made him were seriously too small.  I attempted to get some cute pictures of him wearing his adorable new jammies.  This was the only pose I could coax him in to.

This is so his Uncle Dan's fault!

Singing Along

Our most recent movie acquisition has been Beauty and the Beast.

You can see that Myra has wasted no time learning the songs...

It's a....

BOY!!

Isn't he cute?!

Logan is 4!

I don't know why it has taken me so long to sit down and write this post, but there it is.  My big 4 year old started Preschool today, so I am home with a less rowdy house, thinking about my sweet boy-o and hoping that he has stopped screaming and let himself have fun.

Logan turned 4 last week!  The fun started with a package from his Grandma and Grandpa.  Logan LOVES packages, even when they are not for him, and this one was not only for him, but was enormous!!  Seriously, if you want to make Logan's day, send him a package.  It doesn't even have to have anything in it - he just wants to cut it up.

Cutting open the box is his favorite part.  Check out that intense concentration!
After the box, Mitch and I blew up balloons for his party.

My funny little boy had to collect them all on the couch...

then hide them all behind the rocking chair in his room.

We kept the festivities pretty low-key, as Logan doesn't like crowds of people very well.  I think he gets that from his mommy...  We had a few friends over for BBQ, and Oma and Pappy were able to come, which made Logan's day!  The kids all loved the pinata!

Here they are enjoying the spoils.
Then we opened presents.

That was Logan's favorite part!  After presents, we all had cake and ice cream.

Yes, Logan chose the same cake he had last year, although he did elect to go with the blue border this year rather than the red.  A bit of a surprise from my somewhat resistant to change boy.  We spent a lot of time putting Lighting McQueen and Mater back on the cake...

Myra (and the floor) enjoyed the cake, too.
After all the cake was cleaned up, Logan broke out his new train sets and all the kids got together and played.  We didn't get any pictures of that, which is too bad.  They were so sweet!
We were so happy to celebrate out sweet guy and to have friends and family there to help us!  Thanks so much to all those who were able to come and enjoy this special day with us.

Silly

I'll get around to posting about Logan's awesome birthday soon. 'Til then, here are the cuties being silly.

More presents!!

I love the age of online/mail order shopping, since it means we get to spin out our birthday's even longer.  Both Mitch and Myra have been enjoying a near daily trickle of more presents!!

Myra is in princess heaven in her new princess pool.  It was high noon when the package came and WAAAAY too hot to go outside, even with water so we blew it up in the living room.

It works great with water as well.  Yum! Dirty sprinkler water!

Oma also sent this sweet dress that she made.  You can't really tell from the picture, but there is fine silver glitter all over the fabric.  Myra loves it!  She keeps asking for her 'parkley dress.

But what is a new dress without new shoes?  Every little Texan needs some boots.  Myra's are pink, of course.  She adores them and has been wearing them everywhere, matching or not.  It's a good thing 90% of her wardrobe is pink.  Yesterday we had a true Texas moment, as we took her to the Walmart wearing a dirty white "wifebeater" style tank top, shorts and naturally, her boots.  I was hoping for a spot on People of Walmart, but she even does white trash with style, and everyone thought she was adorable.

Birthday

So Aug 14th was my birthday, and an active one at that.

Those of you who know me, or have read of my running escapades in the past, might have predicted that I would go for a little jog on my birthday.

And you'd be right.

The Birthday Loop

The above is a combination of two loops I have run many times in the past, with a little dogleg here noted at miles 6 or so to stop for a water refill at Lion's Park. It ends up being 13.75 miles, or more than a 1/2 marathon, for those counting.

Of note, as of today (Aug 19th), I've put in 53.7 miles since Saturday. Other than the day of the boards (and Sunday, as I never run on Sunday) that's not bad mileage. And I still have a few days left to run.

In more important news, I did have a blast on my birthday. Pictures are on the previous post, I will not reproduce them here.

Lots of good stuff for the birthday. As previously noted, I am fascinated by anything Lance, even now that he's become more Hollywood than Texan. The cycling game looks good, and if I ever figure out how to put the pictures on the electronic frame it will be fantastic. Just not enough physical space for all of the wonderful pictures we have. My folks got me a "Don't Tread On Me" tshirt, and yesterday a running belt came, which has been tested and approved.

I felt some leeway in doing just what I wanted to do, which unfortunately included studying for my boards. Nasty stuff, that, but if I pass (and I think I probably did) I don't have to take it again for at least 10 years and maybe not ever. I hate standardized tests.

Mitch

On to our next birthday in the August lineup...  Mitch celebrated another year yesterday!  And I learned my lesson about too many cameras, so photo organization was much easier this time.  Besides, grownup birthdays aren't as photogenic as kid birthdays.

I think Mitch still had a good day.  He got a chance to run in the morning, did some studying (His boards are tomorrow, so wish him luck!) and we celebrated with chocolate fudge cake and ice cream, as well as some of his favorite foods for dinner.
Then it was time for presents!

Logan helped, of course.  Mitch was excited about his digital frame and iTunes gift cards!

Then it was time to open presents from my parents.  Logan started tearing in, and I mentioned that these were for Daddy from Pappy and Oma.  Logan immediately stopped opening the package and said, "No!"  We were so confused!  Did he want Mitch to open them?  No, not that...  What was wrong?  Eventually Logan told us, "I am waiting for Oma and Pappy!"  Awwww!!

Eventually we talked him into it, but Myra had to open one.

Mitch immediately set to reading his new book about Lance, and Logan closely examined the new game.  It looks like fun!

Happy Birthday, Myra!

It's taken me a while to organize all of the pictures and video for this post.  Getting together two iPhones and a camera...

On Tuesday, our little princess turned 2!  It's hard to believe so much time has gone by.  She's grown so much in the last 2 years, and has definitely developed into her own person, with her own very decided opinions.

She had a great birthday, with as much pink as a little girl could wish for.

She's really not sure what to do with this pile of pink princess presents.

Logan was a good big brother and showed her the ropes.

Then she supervised while he opened the rest of the pile.

She played princesses with Daddy,

rode her new bike,

and fed baby her cereal, while dressed as Princess Aurora.

After all the princesses had been put to bed,

it was time for cake and pink ice cream!

How did she get so much green out of a pink cake?? (And how freaking adorable is that pose for the camera???)

After significant cleanup and jammies, she insisted that she wear her "pretty dress" over her PJs while we got ready for bed.
I'd love to say she slept well, but I think all the excitement (not to mention the cake and ice cream) had both kids pretty wound up.  It was a super fun day, and we were all glad to be able to celebrate our little princess.

Princesses

Today is Myra's second birthday, about which there will be more posting to come.  That means she gets to do whatever she wants today.  This morning, she wanted to watch Sleeping Beauty (not an uncommon request), while sitting in her wagon.

Logan joined the party, of course.

And, as you can see, Prince Philip, Aurora, Maleficent and the good fairies weren't far away.  I guess Myra thought they should watch their own movie...

Faces

When you ask Logan to smile for a picture, you're never really sure what you'll get...

sometimes this,

or this.

Occasionally we get a big cheesy grin.

But he pretty much always does his own thing.