Daddy's helper!

 Do you remember way back when, three years ago when I said Noah loves to mow the yard with his daddy?  Well he still does!  I went outside a couple of weeks ago and he was just too cute following behind with that same exact lawn mower.  He gets the same accessories as Josh on - glasses, hat, etc.  It's so cute cause he normally never wears those things.

 I stood there and reminisced about how much he has grown and how I miss the sweet babe that he was.  So I figured it might be time to kick up his helping daddy routine a notch.  I suggested to Josh that he let Noah push the mower for a few feet with his help.  Well, a few feet turned into the whole yard.  He LOVED it!  I was so completely surprised that he could really do it!  He was a bit wild with getting into the neighbors yards, but he still did a  great job. 

Now we have had to tell him he can't do it every time, which of course breaks his heart.  We told him to wait a few more years till he can really do it all by himself, which I'm sure he won't even want to do at that point! 

Crazy Hair Day!

Our last day of Friday School was also crazy hair day!  The boys were super excited, but I was sad for myself cause I was so bad at making crazy hair!  I went through all the hair products in my bathroom (which isn't a lot - you know me) and seriously owned nothing that would make their hair stiff!  All of it said "soft, touchable, etc".  Well, a mohawk isn't supposed to be soft and touchable!  :)  The boys still loved it anyways!  Noah's only lasted a couple of hours and Wyatt's fell into the cutest mass of curls ever.  I had no idea if I put product in his hair it would be so curly!  I have been saying they need haircuts for weeks now, but I'm kinda falling in love with their crazy shaggy look lately. 

Pumpkin patch!

PLEASE forgive me, but this is just going to be a post full of nothing but pictures and really no story!  If you have no interest in a thousand pumpkin patch pics then I apologize!  But I personally am in LOVE with these pictures.  My favorite pictures each year!  And of course this was Annie girl's first trip to the pumpkin patch.  She was pretty excited, but she was also super cold!  Josh's mom made her this cutie tutu and gave her the pumpkin outfit, so we just had to use it, no matter the temp. 

The boys didn't stay still enough for us to get good pics of them this year.  We were super excited to get to meet up with my brother's whole family for a bit, and my parents too, which the kids always look forward to.  We got this cute pic of the cousins.  Next year will be great cause Rebecca will be there to make an adorable group of five!  :)

And of course at the end of the visit Grandma and Grandpa bought them each their own HUGE pumpkin!  It was quite a decision for each of them.  You can see in the above pic Annie was pretty much over it by this point - she was cold and grumpy!

There was also an attempt at a new family pic - such a mess, but probably the best one we have of the whole gang!

She's walking!

I can hardly believe it!  But it is true, little Annie Rose took her first steps last week!  FINALLY!  I was just rooting for her to do it before that 15 month check up cause her pediatrician said we would "discuss" physical therapy if she was not walking before then.  Whew!  Like we needed one more doctors bill!  It is so strange how you raise all your kids the same way, and yet they each have their own time and methods of doing things. 

They are truly the world's tiniest little steps, and she can only go a teensy bit before falling.  She was getting up the nerve to do it every night for a week now, but she has been sick this week and won't attempt it.  Hopefully it won't be like the crawling thing - you know, crawl one time and then decide to never do it again and only booty scoot.  :) 

Last soccer game!

So Noah made it through a whole soccer season!  He missed two games cause he was sick for a whole week (Sat to Sat), but he didn't quit!  And that's a big deal for us.  You know how we don't like to make commitments with our time!  :)  Here he is playing goalie during the last game.  He loves to be goalie, but it makes me so horribly nervous.  I make Josh go stand over close enough to him to yell at him what to do in case the ball comes.  I mean, seriously, I never knew you could pick up the ball in soccer.  Shows how much I  know!!

I love these two pictures cause he is just so darn excited.  You would think they scored or something, but they didn't.  I don't even remember what happened but can you see how excited he is?  The boy truly loves playing the game!

 He was also super excited cause Oma came to see him play for the first time ever.   And of course the rest of the gang was there too....

And to end the season they had a party at Double Dave's and were awarded trophies.  Noah was so adorable cause he asked me that morning, "Do you think I played good enough to get a trophy?"  So horribly sweet!  I let him stay in suspense until the coach passed them out at the party.  Can you see how happy he is?  He brought it home and put it right next to his little trophy from doing gymnastics two years ago.

Of course Wyatt was pretty crushed he doesn't have any trophies.  He has proclaimed that he will play soccer next season, but I'm not really sure that will happen!  Later that night I heard Noah telling him that when you're a kid you only get little trophies, but sometimes grown ups get trophies that are as tall as a person and full of money.  Where does he come up with this stuff??!  He is really going to miss his coach and team.  He was just talking about them yesterday how he misses them.  His coach only coaches one season each year, so we have to wait till the fall to be on his team again.  Noah has proclaimed he only wants Coach Wes, so I'm not sure what we will do in the spring.  What are the chances he will get another coach he loves and good kids too? 

Renaissance Festival!

I know people seem to really, really love the Renaissance Festival, but I am one of those few people who just don't.  I find it expensive, relatively boring, dirty, and generally offensive.  BUT, my children love it!  How does that happen?  We went two years ago during school days and the kids had fun and have asked about it constantly for two straight years.  So I knew we had to go again this year.  Our co-op went as a group but it was on a Tuesday, so we waited until Wednesday so Josh could go with us.  THAT was the only fun part - getting to do it all with Josh since he had never been since the kids were born.

Everyone's favorite part was listening to the birds of prey presentation.  I was so very glad we didn't sit in the front row cause the birds were crazy scary!  The speaker guy told everybody that it was very important they we stay seated for our safety.  So I had Annie in my lap but she wanted to get down and stand in front of me.  So of course I let her and Noah FREAKED out.  He was so super worried that one of the birds would grab her and fly away with her.  He said, "Didn't you listen to that man???!!"  :)

This year they also got to play quite a few games since Daddy was along to help out.  We started out with the petting zoo, and Noah became quite attached to a little rabbit, which is strange cause he's not normally the one in love with animals.  Noah got to shoot paintball guns with Josh....

And then ride on a big huge swing....

And Wyatt decided to go in a castle maze...

And then see how strong he was!  He was strong and his prize was a card that entitled him to a free kiss!

To finish the day off they really enjoyed shooting arrows!

Even though I really dislike the event and location I had so much fun spending the day with my favorite people just goofing off.  I'm fairly certain we won't be going again next year, though.  I need at least one year off!  ;)

Little mummies!

First thing the very next morning after our visit to the King Tut exhibit the kids begged to open their new mummy kits they got.  Of course there is a little shop at the end of the exhibit selling all kinds of Pharaoh/Tut/Egypt stuff.  All we had funds for were these cheap little dig your own mummy kits, but of course my parents shelled out the big bucks for some Tutty Bears.  What's a Tutty Bear you might ask?  As any one could imagine it is a little stuffed teddy bear wearing a Pharaoh costume.  Makes sense, right?  Even Annie got one and she sleeps with it every night!  :) 

Noah got a dig your own dinosaur kit last year for Christmas and it was a HUGE hit, so I knew this would go over well too.  Happily they didn't take long to do either.  And the boys found the TINIEST little mummies in the whole wide world.  For real, I thought they would be way bigger.  But they were super cute!