Finally!

Finally!
Over night, on the weekend, snow arrived.  Perfect.  I hate it when it snows during the week and we have to worry about traveling on the roads to and from work.  This was perfect.  We went out and enjoyed the snow mid-day.

Alex loved getting "whipped" around in the snow by his Daddy.  

"Again!" was the phrase used most often.

He even loved getting thrown off the sled.  Total boy that one.

No, we didn't let him whip Aiden around.  But, we did let Alex slide Aiden around in the snow on a sled.

And, they both loved it.

Swinging and then jumping off into the snow.

One of my angels making a snow angel...

...and eating snow.

 

As part of Alex's new chore chart, in addition to his other chores, he has to do one chore per day of mom and dad's choice.  Today's chore...shoveling snow off the deck.  This little man had no problem with that!

 

Of course on a snowy day we need some hot chocolate.  Aiden had some goldfish.  Alex is saying "Hot Chocolate".  

We can't wait for more snow...on the weekends! 

A Date with Grandma J

Winter days get long when staying in the house.  For the past couple of years, my Aunty Reney and Uncle Jeff have bought our family a family membership to the MN Zoo for Christmas.  It is the perfect gift.  A perfect little winter getaway and a fun summer outing.  This week Alex, Aiden and I planned a date with Grandma Johnson.  Alex called her to invite her along on Wednesday and the date was set.

We haven't been to the zoo in a while.  Aiden was so much more interested in it this time than the last time.  He even wore his big boy shoes so he could walk around!

Alex found some boys to run through the tree with.  I could hardly get Alex to come out of here this time.  Usually, he runs right through.

One of our favorite parts of the whole zoo is the aquarium with all the fish.  You walk down a tunnel to get here.  It is dark and exciting!  Today, it was closed for remodeling.  Alex started to get a little cranky at this point.  The fish are getting a new home, and it looked like it will be very nice.

About as good as it will get at this point for a picture.  We were walking through and looking at the birds.  

When we go with Grandma, they actually get to see the snakes.  When they just go with Mommy, we rush through that part.  I try not to put my fears onto them, but it is really a difficult task.

For an extra special treat, we stopped by the beloved "Chucky Cheeses".  Alex had a great time until some little boy tried to bite him on a ride.  Grandma was with him when the little boy attempted to inflict harm on my little one.  Later that night I was talking to Alex about what had happened.  He said Grandma was his Superhero because she told the other little boy, "NO!".  This is what Alex tells me.

 

Even Mr. Aiden loved Chucky Cheese, although for different reasons.  He enjoyed the pizza, milk, sitting with Mommy and Grandma, walking around and falling asleep.  His most enjoyable part you ask?  Oh, that would be when all the kids were screaming and clapping for Chucky to come out.  He enjoyed screaming, clapping and laughing also.  I can't believe how big he is getting.

 

A great date with Grandma J.  It makes me so look forward to this summer and many more fun planned dates.  

We are so blessed.

Para Appreciation!

Our blog is primarily about family.  It is the Guse family.  But, I wanted to share something unique and special about me.  As a special education teacher, we are very busy in our jobs and get bogged down by paperwork, lesson planning and let's not forget teaching.  None of this would be possible without the amazing paraprofessionals we work with each day.

They take on anything we throw their way, with patience, understanding and knowledge.  Being in four schools for student teachings and a previous job, I can say with 100% confidence that we have the most amazing paraprofessionals we could ask for.  And, we get one week to outwardly appreciate them.  I hope they know we appreciate them every day for all they do.

So, we planned a lunch and activity in their honor.  We made soups, salad, bars, and bread. One of our secretaries had told us about her decorative scarf making skills and we decided to plan a make and take activity.  We had our 20 minute lunch to eat and create together. 

My mom made potato soup.  So delicious, one of my favorites growing up.  I made Chicken Wild Rice soup.  I got the recipe from my sister-in-law, Kristen and haven't changed it once.  For those of you asking for the recipe, here it is...

Ingredients:

(Makes a lot!)

1 C. Water                   3 Cans Cream of Potato Soup                          1 Tbsp. Butter

3 C. Milk                      10 Strips of Bacon - cooked and crumbled        1 C. Mushrooms

1 onion chopped           1 lbs. Velveeta Cheese (cubed into 1" cubes)   

4 unbreaded Chicken Breasts - pre-cooked and cubed

1 C. Wild Rice

3-4 C. Water

Boil 3-4 C. Water and 1 C. wild rice about 45 minutes, until water is almost gone and rice is tender.

Fry onion in butter until tender and add mushrooms.  Add potato soup, water, and milk.  Bring up to medium heat, don't boil.  When up to heat, add cheese, slowly, stirring often.  When cheese is completely melted, stir in bacon, chicken, rice...

Enjoy!

Our new special education teacher, Vanessa.  She is a wonderful addition to our team, I don't think we could have gotten any luckier.

Kevin was our "tester" of the soups. 

Our wonderful team of paraprofessionals at JHS.

Bring on the scarves!

Good job, Jamey! Your wife will love it :)

She felt empty without her Geometry book.

We have such amazing, and fun, men in our department!

Our team with our scarves...

We made one for our librarian.  She used to be a para and then a couple of years ago took the librarian position.

And, Sandy, our secretary, needed one too of course!

It was all done over the lunch hour.  

Without these people, our jobs would not be possible.  

Thank you for everything you do day after day.  You are appreciated in more than one way.  

Thank you!

Winter Days

Although I love summer days, I also love the winter days.  I hate driving in the snow and I hate the bitter cold.  But, I love the sight of the snow, getting bundled up, staying in to play, hot chocolate, and I love how imagination grows when you are forced to stay in doors.

Alex has become quite a young boy.  He has such a creative imagination and outgoing personality.  He rarely has a "down" minute and I love how he tries to make the best out of every situation.  

My little walking man.  He is a little over 11 months and walking on everything.  He will take five or fewer steps and then sit down and crawl.  He isn't too interested in all that walking has to offer yet.  Crawling will still allow him to keep up with his brother. 

Alex found one of my old Girl Scout books and decided he would like to color it.  He is all hands on.

We have some toys upstairs and lots downstairs.  I try to switch them out every couple of months so the boys don't get bored with them.  Somehow, we always end up with more and more toys upstairs.  Clutter.  Someday I will miss it. 

I think one of the best things we did was finish the garage.  It is now heated and adds a whole ton of space onto our house.  Aiden loves to go in his walker around the garage and Alex gets to ride his bikes, tractor and play chalk.  It provides another way to get some energy out during the day.

One of the things I love to do one the weekends is give the boys a morning bath.  They sit and play in there until their fingers get wrinkly.  They have such a good time unless there is a Code Brown.  But, we haven't had one of those in a very long time, thank goodness. Alex loves getting a matching mohawk with Aiden. 

We bake.  These are the cake pops we made for Alex's birthday.  Alex loves to help me in the kitchen and get "jobs".  Aiden "helps" also.  He provides the music by playing with the measuring cups and spoons.

My Mater.

Although we haven't had a lot of it yet this year, we love playing in the snow.  This provides a whole different type of imagination. 

Alex's porcupine snowman.

What else do boys enjoy but racing cars?  Sound effects and all.

Some of Aiden's new Christmas toys. 

 

 We made that shaker at ECFE.  One of Aiden's favorite toys.

 

One of Alex's Christmas gifts.  He got a Dora that you put the beads on and then iron it together.  We still haven't finished it yet, as it does take some time and patience.  Alex wants to make it into a Dora magnet. 

I feel so lucky to have a boy that loves to do crafts. I saw a similar project like this on Pinterest and thought Alex would love it.  We are tried it out and I think Alex did an excellent job.

Of course we have to eat some marshmallows while we make a project.  Alex would go back to doing the project and leave his pile of marshmallows.  Aiden would scoot his little fingers over to steal some marshmallows.  When Alex discovered what Aiden was doing, he just laughed.  I am in love with them and their relationship together.

One of the most annoying hand-me-downs Alex has gotten from Uncle Nate.  It's a singing Dean Martin.  He isn't a quiet singer.  Alex loves to play with him and pretend he is his baby.  He rocks him to sleep quite often.

One of the things Alex could do all day and night are puzzles.  He loves puzzles.  He is getting very good at them.  He can do up to 40 piece puzzles now, by himself.  He is a puzzle machine.

This year, Alex got a lot of new games for Christmas.  He loves to play games with anyone he can and tries to play at least one every night.  He is such a sweet heart.  Someone wins, someone takes second, someone takes third.  No one ever "loses" with Alex.

These are the days I will remember.  The "down" days of winter.