Who Knew Nathan Had Such Talent!?

Nathan is learning to use the potty like a big boy. One aspect of potty training, #1 has gone very well! The other aspect, #2, not so much. He would wear underwear for the day and when the urge arose, he would ask for a pull-up, go hide, and do his business. That is up until this weekend. Nathan has mastered doing #2 on the big potty. His reward, a sucker. This is where his new talent became evident...this kid had 5 suckers yesterday and 3 so far today! Apparently he can go #2 on demand, who knew?!

Putting pants on both backwards and inside out is a talent of his too!

Because she is beautiful and we love her...a picture of Tessa. This is after she had French Braids in her hair for a couple of days. She loved the curly hair and thought that she looked like a princess.

U2 concert pictures

Gerrit and his friend Marc recently went to the U2 concert at Soldier Field. Here are some pictures from the show:
This is a picture of the stage...it was huge! It may be difficult to realize how big it is in the picture. The legs cover about a 50-yard x 80-yard space. There are banks of speakers hanging off the sides (we figured that there were over 600 speakers), and the sound was very clear. Hanging from the center is a 360-degree screen, and through the center is the orange spear which contains a bunch of spotlights and a disco ball at the top. Even though we were at Soldier Field with 80,000 others, the stage/sound/projection/light show made the stadium not feel so big.

Here is Bono singing his heart out...

Picture of the stage and screen...

Close-up of the screen...

Towards the end of the show, the lighting got more intense and the screen started to expand which created a really cool effect for the rest of the show.

School

Waiting for the bus on the first day of first grade.

The excited student.

Nathan, before the bus arrived.



Nathan, after the bus drove away.


He kept repeating "I want my Tessa, I want my Tessa" I replied "I do too, buddy" and it was all over for both of us. Lots of tears were shed.

The solution? Baking monster cookies.

Enchilada Casserole

I enjoy cooking. I enjoy trying new recipes. I enjoy when people put recipes on their blogs for me to try out. Our family all enjoys this recipe so I am passing it on to my millions of fans that faithfully read my blog...

Enchilada Casserole (courtesy of Sioux Center Christian School Cookbook-1996)

2 pounds ground beef
1 cup chopped onion
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp garlic powder
4 tsp chili powder
1.5 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 can refried beans
1 cup tomato juice
2 cups taco sauce
2 cups cottage cheese
1 cup sour cream
8 oz Monterey Jack or Cheddar cheese, shredded
8 flour tortillas

Brown ground beef and onion, drain. Add cumin, garlic powder, chili powder, salt, pepper, and refried beans, simmer, set aside. Mix tomato juice and taco sauce in bowl or pitcher. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pour 1/2 of sauce in 9x13 greased pan. Place 4 tortillas (I tear them into pieces) in bottom of pan. Spoon 1/2 of meat mixture on tortillas. Top with sour cream and cottage cheese. Place remaining tortillas on top. Spoon on remaining meat mixture. Pour on remaining sauce and top with shredded cheese. Bake covered for 40 minutes. Let stand at room temperature for 10 minutes before cutting.

Brouwer Happenings...

Some photos of the latest activities at our house...

*Today is an extra day off of school for Tessa. Since she and I have strep throat we are somewhat house-bound. What better thing to do than build forts! Tessa made both her and Nathan's. As I type this, roofs are being added, we will see how that turns out! In the picture, Nathan had just come out of time-out so he is chilling out in his fort and recovering. It was his first official time-out, definitely not the last!

*Nathan's new hobby (besides time-outs) is sitting on the potty. He has yet to accomplish anything but is very determined that he needs to be there. His face is dirty because this potty session "needed" to happen during supper.

*On one of our spring-like days a few weeks ago, Tessa set up a lounging station in the garage. She is sitting in an old car seat which is in a lawn chair while wearing capris, boots, and mittens. We are not sure what the umbrella was for.

*Brushing teeth has become a bonding moment at our home. The kids typically sit out in the hallway, touching each other in some way and then go to the sink to spit. Tessa spits in the sink, Nathan puts his mouth close to the counter and makes a spitting sound.

Go Chargers!

We taught Nathan the 1970's-sounding jingle for the San Diego Chargers. Here is some footage of us trying to get him to sing it. Keep in mind that singing IS one of Gerrit's talents and NOT one of mine!

Effective Discipline 101

Have I mentioned Nathan's stubborn streak? Well he has one and a temper to go with it. Kind of a "My way or the highway" guy. Now that he is old enough to understand the relationship between behavior and consequences, we decided that a form of discipine should be put into action. We chose time outs in the pack and play which is set up at the foot of our bed. As you can tell from the pictures, there is a real negative association with being in the time out crib :) It has become the latest fort. Today the Elmo chairs were added in as well as snack time. Back to the drawing board!