I realize winter is almost over...

Skyler is still acting like El Diablo today, no pictures of him.  Just a video to fantasize about one day owning a fat bike.  Sigh...

Tractor cam!

There really wasn't enough snow to use the snow blower yesterday, but Skyler wanted to ride in the tractor and it was a good excuse to try out the GoPro!

Cheerios.

Make sure you eat every single one!

Oscars night.

Altair and I have a long tradition of watching the Oscars every year.  We both love movies, and we started watching the Oscars together 11 years ago after we were engaged. We usually celebrate with dinner or something special.   I made guacamole, beer braised bison meatballs, fried shrimp, (for me) fish sticks, (for Skyler), mini pigs in a blanket and a Dr. Praeger's spinach patty (also for Skyler). 

Meatballs in the middle.

Fresh flowers from Costco, champagne, and home made guacamole.

Fish sticks and spinach patty for Skyler.

My plate.

Skyler's plate.  Yes, that's a John Deere plate for him.

We had a nice time, it was fun to snack and watch the show.  Side note here, Skyler has started calling anything on the television "show?" 

Ma Ma yo quiero!

In the last few weeks, Skyler picked up on my Tom & Jerry addiction.  We don't just sit around and watch cartoons all day, (contrary to what my sister probably thinks) but I usually have to have a daily Tom & Jerry fix.  One of the best episodes is "Baby Puss" released on Christmas Day 1943.  There's a great Carmen Miranda scene set to her famous "Ma Ma yo quiero" song.  Skyler has started going "Mm Ma Mm Ma Ma"  Whenever I start to sing the song.  I'm not going to record myself attempting to sing a Spanish song that I have no right singing.  Take my word for it.  In the meantime, enjoy a clip from the cartoon and the entire cartoon.

Clip featuring the song:

Entire cartoon:

Friday fun.

The hawk was back yesterday.  I feed the birds bird seed at our feeder, and the hawk eats some of the birds that eat at the feeder.  I feel a little bad, but hawks need to eat too.

Waiting for a meal...

Skyler is obsessed with wearing our clothes.  Here he is trying on Mommy's sweatshirt.

Note he's trying to zip it.

Since Altair was off on Wednesday, her boss made sure that if she did come in, she had to go home.  He printed off this poster.

Nothing like burning $20 in ink and paper.  It's also pretty bad when the people she works with realize she's working too much.  The bottom reads "This message is brought to you by your PLM IPT who have all agreed to cover for you during this "planned absence".  Feel free to take this as a memento & general reuse as a finger painting canvas for Skyler."

Skyler loved to run all over it!

Every night after my dear wife gets home, I fix her a cocktail.  Probably one of my other great talents, playing bartender.  Here's a delicious Whiskey Sour.  No drink mixes here.  Just lemon juice, sugar, whiskey, and maraschino cherries.  Mmm, Mmm!! 

Note how the maraschino cherries make the drink into a sunset.

Yesterday, I came across a Spam recipe for heuevos rancheros.  Spam didn't sound good in that at all so I found a different recipe and modified it to my liking.  This was our delicious breakfast this morning.

Home made salsa, corn tortilla, black beans with lime and there's an egg in there somewhere.  And bacon.  It was so damn good!  Gotta love living in the Southwest and dining on that type of cuisine.

Another outfit from Buy Buy baby.

Play-Doh!  It reads "I've got lots of Doh!"  Size 3t.  It fits perfectly, even the pants.

Truly apocalyptic snow coming here today, might be a movie day.  I've got the GoPro mounted on the tractor.  We'll see what happens...

Continuing the growing theme.

I mentioned Skyler outgrowing his clothes yesterday. Here's more evidence as to how much he's grown.

I hung his "Curious George" growth chart on Wednesday.

Almost 3 feet tall!!!  He's not even 2!!

A side benefit of the new seat, he can put his feet up!

Steak, slippers, syrup, and a new seat.

Altair was off yesterday. We went to Longhorn Steakhouse for lunch. I had the BEST steak I've ever eaten! Seriously, everyone needs to go to Longhorn. After lunch, we stopped by Buy Buy Baby to get Skyler more clothes. He's not even two, yet he's wearing size 3t clothes now! We got him some frog slippers there too. He loves his new slippers! We picked him up a new booster seat because its getting tight in his ikea high chair. He then sat in the new seat to slurp raspberry syrup from his evening pancake snack. So cute.

Slippers!

Slurping!

Sloppy!

More slurping!

New seat!

Evening antics.

I got Skyler's barn out that he received for Christmas yesterday.  It was a huge hit again.  I put it away after Christmas because he kept trying to break it.  This time he was much better at not trying to destroy it.  Toward the end of the night, he had all his "Johnny Tractor and Friends" toys jammed inside the barn.

Aerial view of the action.

Loft view.

Lower level view.  Note Cory Combine in the foreground.

He didn't like me taking pics so he moved his barn to the floor.

Then he quit playing with the barn all together and decided Maizey needed to wear sunglasses.  What a good dog!

Ride along in an F-15!

I wish I could say that I got to ride along in one, sadly no.  We'll have to settle for a (really) good video.  Turn up the sound, the link should take you to full screen.  Amazing F-15 video. 

I can remember wanting to be a fighter pilot so bad, it hurt.  I was about 12 years old.  Too bad I'm too tall and have had to wear glasses my entire life... :(

If you want to know more about the amazing F-15 aircraft, like how it can climb over 50,000 feet per minute and break the sound barrier in doing so, go to Wikipedia F-15 here.

So close...

Skyler found his almost too big trike downstairs yesterday while I was cleaning up the basement.  It came upstairs and we cleared the room of furniture so he could ride it.  In 3 weeks time he's almost figured out how to pedal!  The noises he makes are "motor" noises.  I'm responsible for teaching him those.  :)

Totally unrelated and I'm not trying to extend the silly Valentine's holiday, but the roses Altair received have opened up and are quite lovely.

Bubbles, a beaver, and a flashlight.

Skyler had the world's biggest bubble bath yesterday morning.  Bubble bath soap + jetted tub = huge amounts of bubbles!  He didn't want to get out and tried to climb back in the tub when I set him down to dry him off.

The bubbles started out HIGHER than the tub rim.  This is after about 30 minutes of tub time.

Bubbles! Bubbles!

Splashing!

After the epic bath, we went down for a walk along the Jordan River Parkway.  We saw ducks, the TRAX train, and remnants of the beaver removing trees.  The city even had to use caution tape around a partially chewed off tree!

Looking exasperated.

Ducks!

Beaver damage.

More damage.  We can't figure out where he lives.  Beavers like still water and we didn't see any evidence of dam building.

Caution tape warning of the beaver damaged tree!

Train!  Or "toot toot" to Skyler.

Even more beaver damage a little further down the trail.

Another train!

Yet another train.  The operator of this train honked his horn for Skyler!  Skyler was so happy he "toot tooted" the whole way back to the car.

Last night while Altair was using the "Mr. Clean Magic Eraser", Skyler found my LED Maglight.  He thought it was great to shine it where mommy was working on the walls.

"I'll help too!"

"Do you need light too Dad?"

I think he thought I was going to take it away from him here.

Run with the light!

Coming to find mommy...

"This is great!"

"I can light up my name!"

"And my foot!"

Too much Play-doh!

Results in Skyler sleeping in today. I wish I slept in...

Possibly the best Valentine's day ever!!

We had quite the day yesterday.  Skyler got some "Diggin' Rigs" Play-Doh toys for his gift, Altair got me a GOPRO Hero 3 camera to shoot video and stills on, (Tractor cam coming soon.)and I got Altair a diamond pendant necklace.  I made a dinner of grilled chicken Fettuccine Alfredo complete with pink Alfredo sauce, heart shaped ravioli, and pink Moscoto champagne.  We had some of the See's candy my sister gave us for dessert.  Thanks Karen!

The "spoils" before opening.  I helped Skyler make a card for mommy.

UPS came just in time!  Someone was super excited!

"Ergagurgagur!!"  Or excavator for those that don't speak Skyler. :)

The first hour of Play-Doh yesterday.

I think he played for 3 hours total yesterday.  We're already playing this morning, that's why I'm late in posting this.

Our lovely dinner.  It was fantastic! Hard to see the pink sauce here.  I used 1/2 teaspoon of tomato paste to tint the Alfredo sauce.  Super easy sauce, 1/2 cup butter, 1/2 cup heavy cream, 3/4 cup Parmesan cheese.  

A F%&#*^g GOPRO!!!!!!!!

Altair's new diamond.