The Adventures of Noah J & Little Wy

The lights!

2011-12-30T08:50:00.000-08:00

The lights are pretty cute, huh? I loved that we walked through it all so we could really enjoy it. Now if it had been cold I'm sure I would have felt differently! It was right along the water, so when you rounded the corner out into the open the wind was crazy strong. I've never been near the beach at night really and it was super beautiful with the lights reflecting into the water. I was super shocked that they actually told the story of Jesus! I have NEVER seen that at anything Christmas related that wasn't at a church. It was so nice! That's the town of Bethlehem in the picture above - it was really beautiful!

We stopped a bit of the way in and had snacks - you can see Annie enjoyed the cookie!

And then there was a lot of sadness. Do you see that little sad face? They have this paddleboat that docks and leaves from the path we were walking along. When that boat took off and we weren't on it Wyatt was heartbroken! I mean, he was seriously down in the dumps. I had to promise him that we would come back and ride the boat another day. That was not good enough to cure his blues, so then I had to promise my parents would come with us. That did the trick! :) Now I just have to convince my parents to join us!

And at the end they have an area where you can get snacks and roast marshmallows, and they had this amazing guy doing all sorts of tricks. Needless to say the kids were way impressed! We sat and watched till the end of the show and he was super nice and talked to the kids. Noah asked him how he learned to do it all and he said when he was a teenager he just started teaching himself how to juggle. Now Noah is telling us that when he is a teenager he is going to do the same thing. :)

Moody Gardens Festival of Lights

2011-12-21T08:28:00.000-08:00

So we had never been to see the Moody Gardens lights before! I don't know why, but they just seemed kind of lame to me. But I saw that they had buy 1 get 1 free tickets if you brought food to donate on Friday nights, so I figured for $12.00 we should give it a try. We drove through HORRIBLE traffic to get down there, but it was worth it. Although an hour into the drive and all the "are we almost there?" we might have said differently! :)

They also have half off tickets to the exhibits after 5:00, and since they are crazy expensive to get into normally we decided to go to the aquarium pyramid too.

We went here years ago when I was pregnant with Wyatt, so it was new to everyone. Annie loved that she could get down and touch all the aquariums. They also had this cute Shark Passport thing the boys did where you got this paper to stamp with all the different kinds of sharks we saw.

Everyone's favorite part was the tunnel you can walk through and the shark cage! Annie was super tickled by it.

Annie cried to get out of her stroller and sit on the floor in the tunnel. But that wasn't enough... to get the full affect she had to lay down. I think she had the right idea!

It was a little hard to get good pics of stuff cause they turned off a bunch of lights in the exhibits cause it aws night time. And since this is long enough already I'll share the rest of the pics later!

St. Nicholas Day stockings!

2011-12-20T12:14:00.000-08:00

Ack! I am so behind posting all our Christmas stuff! These are from way back on the sixth, but worthy of sharing anyways. :) Of course we celebrated St. Nicholas day again this year and the boys were once again surprised. The sixth is so early in the month it comes out of nowhere! Once again they were placed under the tree cause putting them on the foot of their beds was too risky!

Besides candy, nuts and fruit, they also got a few toys to play with. They have been wanting these camo covers for years now, so they were super excited they could play some backyard safari stuff. Annie rose sleeps so much later than the rest of us she got to open hers all by herself later on in the morning. She was adorable cause she was super excited about it, which surprised me. She finally likes gifts!

She got the cutest little bathtub teapot set that she loves! She is just too cute pouring water into the tiny cups and offering all of us a drink. She is so surprising me with her interest in doing stuff like that - the boys at her age would have just thrown it down and poured water everywhere. She really wants to do stuff the right way - it cracks me up! You can see Wyatt was pretty into it as well!

Co-op Christmas Party!

2011-12-08T19:59:00.000-08:00

I will be the first to admit I was not happy when I learned the Christmas Party for our co-op was going to be at the ice skating rink. I just KNEW the kids wouldn't be able to do it and would whine and complain the entire time. And my "the kids" I mean Noah! :) But once I realized it was on a Thursday and Joshua would be home to help I decided to give it a shot. And really, the kids have been missing Friday School. Which is super surprising to me, cause you know they don't really love going. I think Noah has actually turned the corner as far as that is concerned and can't wait for the new semester to start. Wy and Annie will still need a little convincing! Anyways, the party was a smashing success!

Noah wanted skates right away, and was super excited to give it a shot. He wanted me or Josh to go with him, so Josh got suckered into it. Josh is HORRIBLE at any type of skating, so this was a big deal! That's how you know he loves this boy, cause for nobody else in the world would he be willing to get onto the ice.

Josh only made it about 20 feet or so, holding onto the wall. He promptly hopped off the ice and removed those skates! Luckily, that was all Noah needed to get his courage up to do it alone. Then we took a break and had pizza and cookies....

You can see Annie loves pizza! She was such a trooper and hardly cried or complained! Which was a nice surprise cause at Santa's Wonderland earlier this week she was quite a handful.

Wyatt was certain he did not want to skate until his friends started putting their skates on. Then we convinced him just to get the skates and walk around on them without getting onto the ice. Pretty sneaky of me, huh? I just knew once he had them on he would want to give it a shot. He only went a few feet and then was DONE! A bit later on we realized they could rent these metal "walker" things to help them, which he loved.

He was really super brave - I know he had the walker but I was still quite impressed. When he came off the ice he was quite adorable cause he sat on the walker bar to take a little break...

This was when he squealed with excitement cause he got to look at all of the ice shavings stuck to the front of the blade. He screamed, "Wooooaaaah! Look at all those icebergs on my skis!!" Meanwhile Noah just took off and had tons of fun. He was cracking us up cause he didn't skate properly - instead he skated just like he rides his skateboard. Like kept one foot down the whole time and pushed repeatedly with the other foot. It was too funny! And of course he took the time to help Wyatt every time he fell over and needed help. I love it!

We had so much fun!! Noah was already talking about how he can't wait till next Christmas to have this party again. And my heart was so happy cause he was thrilled to be around his friends. We have a few friends we see consistently, but he really loves spending time with other children. I was happy to see he actually had some friendships with kids that I didn't even know about! First Class has really been such a blessing to us this semester. I am so glad we came back!

Daddy's helper!

2011-11-24T21:16:00.000-08:00

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!

2011-11-21T21:06:00.000-08:00

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!

2011-11-20T16:53:00.000-08:00

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!

2011-11-19T20:46:00.000-08:00

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!

2011-11-11T20:17:00.000-08:00

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!

2011-11-10T19:52:00.000-08:00

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!

2011-11-07T10:53:00.000-08:00

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!

When Mom is away.....

2011-11-06T10:47:00.000-08:00

Evidently this is what the kids do to Annie when I am not around! We have our normal morning routine where I make my cup of coffee and then sit down to check my email/facebook and I demand that I am alone! So this is what I was doing when I heard the boys screaming, "Mom, come see Annie!" That can't be good, right? She was enjoying the Great Pit of Carkoon a bit too much if you ask me! I really don't know what I will do with this bunch when she starts walking! And of course, all of this was on the floor of what WAS a super clean room only minutes before. I couldn't get mad, though, when they were having this much fun! I love these kiddos!

Halloween!

2011-11-05T07:36:00.000-07:00

Ohhh, I used to hate Halloween but have actually grown a bit fond of it! I just love the excitement of getting to dress up and pretend you are somebody else for a while. And boy did our kiddos pretend! For almost a year now Noah has been saying he wanted to be Civil War soldier. SOOOO bizarre, but so true. We had read about it during some school lessons and Noah just clung to it. I was so pleased to find this Robert E. Lee costume. And once Wyatt saw this Pharaoh costume he was certain this was the one for him.

Rosie girl had no say in the matter, but I wanted to pick a costume that would work no matter if it was hot or cold. It was just perfect and she even loved her kitty ears - didn't pull them off at all!

Wyatt was just too adorable. He was not the easiest thing to put eyeliner on, though! When I first got it out he started to freak cause he "didn't want to look like a girl!" So I showed him the picture of King Tut from the bag from the art exhibit and then he was good to go. He was great about the upper lids but was pretty antsy about the lower ones. I did the best I could! And just ask the boy to let your people go and he gave a resounding "NOOOOO!"

Like I said, Noah really didn't know much about the civil war, but he was happy anyways. Especially about the sword. At the last minute he saw a Green Lantern costume and wanted to be that. So we got online to order it and at the last possible second stuck with his original plan. I'm so glad he did! Too cute!

They tricked and treated until they couldn't go any more! They started out with Maddie and Emma but lost track of each other and finished it alone. Both of their buckets were full to the top or else I think they would have kept going. They were super excited to put on their new skeleton jammies and get started opening up candy. My parents come over and I was so thankful cause they helped me watch Annie while I passed out candy. And of course they got their Halloween treat boxes from them as well. They made out like bandits cause they got cool Halloween treats earlier in the week from Granny too.

They each got to pick their own pumpkin designs. Can you guess which is which?

King Tut!

2011-11-03T07:43:00.000-07:00

Noah had been waiting for this day for MONTHS! As soon as they announced the King Tut exhibit would come to the art museum we knew we had to go. Luckily my parents are members so they ordered cheaper tickets for all of us in advance. Noah has been obsessed with Egypt and Pharaoh for as long as I can remember, so he had been asking me for weeks, "Is today the museum day?" It was a busy day - Friday School always wears us out, but we rushed home, took a nap, and then got ready. Our tickets were for the evening so Josh could wake up in time to go with us.

This was our first visit to the Museum of Fine Arts. I knew the kids would be so excited about the light tunnel, and they were! Josh was able to snap a pic before the security people told him he had to put his camera away. They had all kinds of cool stuff along the super long walkway we had to take from the parking garage.

The kids thought it was so super cool to stand on this guys face! We were super early for our time slot for the exhibit so we got to look around quite a bit. It was nice the kids had a chance to walk about and have fun before we had to go in. Annie was especially happy to be out of her stroller.

Of course they won't let you take pics in the exhibit, but Josh caught this cutie one of Annie as the preview movie was playing. She was surprisingly good - only got a little fussy at the end, and we were there for a long time.

We all LOVED the exhibit. The boys really surprised me with how interested they were with all of it. We only got two of the little audio guide devices and the boys really loved this part. They were so cute typing in the numbers and insisted on staying at each piece until the man finished talking. I had expected them to fly through everything but they really loved it. About halfway through Wyatt whispered to me, "I all done looking at this now." I knew it was pushing it a bit for him but he was a trooper and finished it on a high note. Of course they were so happy we stayed out until it was dark and they requested we go eat at their favorite restaurant and we were happy to oblige. So we had a late night stop at The Corner Bakery.

Such a fun night! I love spending time with the people I adore the most!

Finally standing!

2011-10-27T11:26:00.000-07:00

So our little girl is finally standing! I know most babes her age are running around, but it is big deal for her! I really think in the next two weeks she will take her first steps. She's suddenly just very interested in it. We took this video last week and now she has progressed to clapping for herself when she stands. The cutest thing ever!!

Dropping the bottle!

2011-10-15T21:58:00.000-07:00

So perhaps you thought this would be a big "we got Annie off the bottle announcement." Well, it's not. I seriously don't think this child will EVER be off the bottle. Just like always, I am humbled cause I never understood how people couldn't get their babies off bottles. Seems easy, right? Just give them a cup and that's that. That's how it worked for both the boys. And then came Annie. If you remember Annie lost weight for the first 2 weeks after she was born breastfeeding, and then it took us $85 bucks worth of bottles just to get her to take one. And she barely took that. And even up until her birthday it was a struggle to get her to take the bottle. So I figured this would be easy. Well, she has the same problem with cups. She is HORRIBLE at them. I mean, she can use them, but she just will not sit and drink a large quantity at one time. She seemed to get better there for a few weeks, but has regressed. I got her down to just a morning bottle and night bottle, but these last two sick weeks I've been giving her a third. Oh well, I guess it will happen at some point. Our doc is pretty pushy about getting off the bottle, but she said for Annie she would make an exception. Even she remembers what a nightmare it was getting this child to eat! :) She seems to do best with these soft straw types. Well, until her brothers come along and do funny things....

Pumpkin science!

2011-10-15T01:20:00.000-07:00

I guess for some reason for the last few weeks, while sickness has been traveling through our house, the only thing I had the strength to teach was science! I downloaded this super cute science bundle for only fifty cents! You know I'll buy anything if it is less than a dollar! ;) The first experiment we did was with pumpkins. It was your basic stuff... predicting the circumference, weight, height and if it would float. You see they had to turn on the spooky cauldron to do this. Ha!

We took it out front to test the floating part, which REALLY surprised them. They were so shocked something so heavy could float! The assignment also had them test other fruits and veggies, which was really fun. They love it when they get to use the clip boards for school! I was pleased with the download because it had stuff for both Wyatt and Noah. Wyatt drew the results of the experiment and you can see Noah filling in his predictions.

Next up will be "The Black Bloom Of Doom" if I could only remember to pick up a carnation at the grocery store....

Water Filter!

2011-10-14T07:53:00.000-07:00

When we first chose My Father's World First Grade I really was certain we would supplement their science program. But now that we have been following it exactly as written for a few months I am really pleased with it. It is definitely different than everything I ever taught in public school, or even learned about in college. But we love it! They generally read a couple of pages out of an Usborne science book the first day of the week. The rest of the week we read literature selections from the list in the teacher's guide about the same topic. And then at the end of the week we do the hands on experiment and make an entry into our science journals. If we did an experiment they draw the experiment and then write a a sentence about the results. Otherwise I let them choose a picture to draw (using our book selections as inspiration) and then a sentence about anything they learned. Wyatt has surprised me the most- he is really picking up so much! Anyways, this week we discussed rivers, water, and the process of how water gets clean. They give instructions on how to make this water filter and I was certain it would not work. I was so surprised! So were the boys!

First you need some rocks....

Then some sand....

And you put them into a container you have poked some holes in the bottom of. We did a couple of inches of rocks and then a couple of inches of sand on top. Then we took some super muddy water....

And poured it in and waited!

Pretty amazing, isn't it? I figured it would filter out some of the filth, but it really took out way more than I expected. Fun!

He's growing up!!

2011-10-11T09:45:00.000-07:00

So a couple of weeks ago the time finally came to take the training wheels off! We went to the park with some people from First Class and he saw two of the little boys with no training wheels. Right then and there he stated that when he got home he wanted to take his off. You know, cause we've only been telling him we should do this for months and he was adamant that he did not want to. Little did I know it only took seeing some friends with them off to encourage him! :)

Josh and I have been dreading this day, cause you know Noah is not one to persevere through something difficult. But since he started soccer he has really taken to this idea of practicing to get better at something. Well the boy shocked the pants off us. Josh just gave him a little shove and off he went - he didn't fall a single time! I would have been a million bucks it would take weeks to teach him this. I love it when he surprises us!

The only thing he needed help with was getting started, and you know two days later he figured that out as well. We are so proud of him! You can see how surprised Josh is in that last picture that he didn't need any help. And just so no one calls the bad parents police, we did start making him wear a helmet. His helmet is just HUGE to fit his square head, so we worried it might throw him off balance for the first time. But he wears it now and is doing great. Annie loved watching him too!

Wyatt was a little sad cause he couldn't do it and has since asked us to take his training wheels off too. We have to fix the tire on the little bike and we're going to let him have a shot at it with that one before he tries on the big bike. He balances really well on his scooter, so who knows! Noah surprised us so maybe Wy will too!

HEAT!!

2011-09-30T13:33:00.000-07:00

So last week we came home from Friday School to find an 80 degree house. You know, when the thermostat was set at 72. Ohhh, so sad. Long story short, we had to get a whole new system. Horrible, right? We were pretty shocked too. In the mean time we had to find somewhere to stay, cause of the weekend, so we announced we were spending the night at my parents. Can you even imagine the excitement? Only Noah has ever slept there, so Wy was pretty pumped. I was less than enthusiastic about dealing with Annie without a crib, but it all worked out well. Do you see how much they loved the air mattress?

And then they had the best morning ever - donuts with Daddy and Grandpa while watching the new Clone Wars on the patio.

A little boys dream come true, right? They were pretty happy about it. :) Annie was not too sure about the donuts...

I think she was truly confused about not sleeping at home. What we expected to be one night turned into two nights, and then we still had a third night with no AC at home. So thankful for my parents letting us invade their life for three straight days!!

Window fun

2011-09-30T13:25:00.000-07:00

So the newest thing the kids love to do is play with Annie through the window. It is extremely noisy, so we don't do it often cause I don't want them to wake Josh. But they were just so cute playing the other morning I had to snap some pictures. Annie has been so proud of herself finally pulling up and standing on things, so this is her favorite spot. I love Annie in those socks and diaper. I wasn't expecting to capture one of the cutest pictures of all time....

Oh my, could it be any cuter? They love each other so much, it just makes my heart so happy. :) They really look like they are in a deep conversation.

First game!

2011-09-18T21:31:00.000-07:00

So little monkey finally played in his first official soccer game! He was pretty nervous, but also super excited! He was just the cutest thing ever - he looked so grown up in his uniform. And the best part of how Noah plays soccer is his attitude - just take a look at how happy this boy is while he plays. It was a bit funny cause he really had no idea what to do - he just thought you were supposed to run after the ball and kick it. He didn't really understand the concept of positions and such and I guess the coach didn't explain all that during practice. They had only met 2 times before this game, so that is understandable. His team has first and second graders on it, so some of the older kids helped to guide him through the tough parts.

As we went through all of the pics I was just struck by how happy he is! It just shines on his face - his pure happy heart. I love him so much. Honestly, if 3 years ago you would have told me that he would get out there and play a game in front of a bunch of people I wouldn't have believed you. Remember how painfully shy he was? Especially about being in front of a group of people. Well, no more! He's still nervous with new people and situations, but he is really blossoming and it is exciting to watch.

And I love this series of pis of him - I love to watch him kick the ball cause he gets SO into it. And his body is always crouched so low down to the ground, and his arm is in that crazy position - it cracks me up! Josh stayed up to see the game, and my parents and Josh's mom came out to see him, so it was a family affair. He was really pleased that we were there to cheer him on. Already looking forward to the next game, although I think he likes practices better. His team lost and his coach told him that next practice they were going to talk about defense. Sounds like a good idea to me! :)

Our One Year Old!

2011-09-17T21:25:00.000-07:00

It's so hard to imagine this little muffin is already one year old!! She is still just so little to me it is even harder for me to believe than it was for the boys. We had a teeny, tiny celebration here at home with just family. It was kind of hectic cause we had it on a weeknight, so it was late and we were rushed, but she had a great time and it was less pressure than a real party. Especially cause Josh had his MD Anderson check-up earlier that day.

The good thing about less people is less toys! She was really not at all interested in opening them up. She was mildly interested in the bows and ribbon when they first came off, but was more than happy to let her brothers and cousin open them for her! You can see Noah with the Rapunzel doll he and Wyatt picked out for her. I never would have dreamed that she would take to a doll like that at this age, but she loves it! As soon as they took it out of the package she picked it up and kissed it right on the mouth. Too cute! Of course I think all the boys liked it just as much as she did. They all took turns brushing her cornsilk hair! :)

Her big gift from us was this doorway toy - we never got one with the boys, so it was new to them. And they all LOVED it. All three of the big boys were playing with it so much Annie hardly had a chance to play with it herself. We all laughed - so silly to watch 4, 5, and 6 year old boys so giddy over a toy for babies. :)

She also got a walker, but she was not exactly sure about it. She mostly likes hanging over it and playing with the toys on the other side. I'm telling you, this girl is no hurry to walk!

Of course she had cake! She was by far my most timid baby when it came to the cake. The boys just tore into theirs and ate tons. Annie was not real sure - I love the picture on top there where she just daintily tastes the icing at first. Eventually she made a MESS, but didn't eat much of it. But she sure thought it was fun to smear around!

I think her favorite part of the cake experience was cleaning up! She was extremely tickled that she was sitting in the sink with the water running, with her clothes on.

Happy birthday Annie Rose!!! We love you!

Little Ro Ro!

2011-09-11T20:20:00.000-07:00

So this is pretty much everything you need to know about Annie! No words are necessary cause these pics sum her up perfectly! Love!!

Soccer!

2011-09-08T22:07:00.000-07:00

Noah has finally decided that he wants to play a sport! There were many times before that he told us he wanted to join a team, only to back out at the last minute. But not this time! I think you can tell how excited he was about going to his first practice. I'm not really sure what that pose means, but he insisted on doing it. :)

Josh took both the boys to the first practice cause I was just too nervous to go! There is not much more in life that upsets me than my kiddos feeling bad - either cause someone is mean to them, or they realize they are not good at something, or whatever. I was just too tense about it! I was so relieved when they came home and Josh said it went beautifully. You can tell how much Noah loved it. Wyatt, well, he got a bit bored watching.

I am so pleased with all of it! It is through the YMCA so there are not that many games, and it seems to be a bit laid back. We took Noah shopping for his soccer gear and he was thrilled to get red socks, red shorts, and even a red ball. The boy loves red!! I'm not sure what they will wear for their games yet, but at he's happy to at least wear it all to practice. Ha! Josh said his coach seemed really great - firm with the kids and yet Noah loved him and thought he was funny. He even prayed with the kids at the end of practice! Can't beat that, right?

The Cat Incident!

2011-08-26T22:00:00.000-07:00

Some of you may know that our poor Wy noodle had a run in with a cat! So terribly sad and heartbreaking for this sweet boy who loves animals so much. I wasn't there so I can't for sure say what happened, but evidently it jumped out from under the bed where the boys were running around playing hide and seek. So it bit his leg and it was HORRIBLE! I had no idea a house cat could bite like that. I guess it is naive to say now, but I really didn't think they had that much power in their jaws.

When I was first told about it I wasn't too worried - but of course then I got online and researched and realize that cat bites are exremelely dangerous! I read so much about immediately starting antibiotics and such, but we really couldn't do that cause we only found out about the bit a half hour before Josh had to leave with our only car for work. So we decided that we would wake Wy up in the middle of the night and check for fever, and then decide what to do in the morning. So I did that - I got the boys up to come into my bed around midnight and his leg was STILL bleeding and he said his leg really hurt. Luckily there was no fever so I didn't have to call my mom to come over to help me in the middle of the night. But I knew the next morning would mean a trip to the urgent care facility. Sure enough, in the morning this is what his leg looked like...

He was sobbing about having to take off his bandage so we alleviated his fears by telling him he could take a bubble bath in Mommy's tub, which always makes everything better. You see Noah had to get in on the action too. :) Do you see how it was all red around the bite holes? Well it didn't look like that the night before so I knew it was getting infected. Luckily my mom came to the rescue and rushed over to watch the others while Josh and I took Wy to the doctor. She even brought him a pack of fruit snacks to take with him (his fave) and a special Thomas coloring and sticker book to bring to the doctor to occupy him. That sticker book was such a lifesaver!!!!! Wyatt is so horribly afraid of the doctor already but focusing on coloring really helped the situation. So thankful my mom is so thoughtful and prepared! They came and checked him and of course said it was infected and it was a good thing we brought him in right away. The bad part was that he was due for his Tetanus booster at his four year checkup, which we didn't get. So he had to have it there cause the danger for Tetanus comes from mostly from deep puncture wounds, which is exactly what his where. It was so heartbreaking cause it took Josh, a nurse, and myself to hold him down enough to give it to him. So horribly sad! Next we went to get his prescriptions filled and then went for a special post torture-filled-doctors-appointment trip to Menchies for some yogurt. This of course made everything better. But let me tell you, this bite was NASTY! Here is what it looked like on day two. Its gross. Be warned.

Do you see how it was oozing?? It oozed like that for ten days!!! So very crazy! Do you see how it is dark between the bites? The cat bit so hard it bruised him. It got pretty bad looking but I don't think I got a pick of it later in the week. I decided to perk Wyatt up by making him some fancy bandaids. The only bandages they had that were big enough to cover it were not decorated so he was kinds bummed.

Isn't he so pitiful looking? Here it was on the third day....

Still really yucky. We were photographing it cause we were starting to get worried it wasn't getting better and I wanted to document what was going on. Obviously Daddy draws cooler pictures than mommy. This was all I could come up with for the next day...

My drawing skills are seriously lacking. Hearts, flowers, and houses. Ohhh, so sad. The next day he requested Daddy draw him an ornamental turtle.

So Josh drew the turtle and then Wyatt insisted that he also draw himself on it. So that's a teeny tiny Josh in the corner. :) Ha! Here we are 21 days later and it is STILL not completely healed. Isn't that amazing? The infection went away but there are still 2 scabs that are healing from the 4 holes. It is really unbelieveable to me!

It hasn't stopped Wyatt's love of kitties, though, and that makes me happy! The first night he was home in my bed Lily cat came and crawled into bed with him, licked his nose, and snuggled up on his shoulder to sleep and he was just tickled pink!!! So thankful for sweet kitties.

Our escape artist!

2011-08-26T21:37:00.000-07:00

Earlier this week I noticed the house was unusually quiet after the boys went into the back yard. So I asked Josh where Annie was and he said the last time he saw her she was in the hall by the kids rooms. So I go over there and look in all four rooms but couldn't find her anywhere. I was starting to freak out a bit that something had happened. So I called her name really loud, and you'll ever guess where this little peepy head popped out.

YUP, from behind the shower curtain!! That's right, the little girl who can't even crawl somehow made it into the tub and seemed quite happy about it!! Can you tell how tickled she is with herself?

Of course I had given her a bath earlier in the afternoon and she REALLY didn't want to be in there. She was trying to climb out the whole time. Never in a million years did I think she would want to crawl in! And I'm honestly shocked she was even physically capable. I think she must have gone head first onto the bath pillow that I hadn't hung up from her bath earlier. I wonder how long she would have played in there before crying for us to get her out?

The big scroll!

2011-08-22T12:06:00.000-07:00

Like I said before, part of our curriculum discussed scrolls. So we made those teeny tiny ones, but he also got to make a big one. He was so proud of his work.

All the pages were just handwriting practice. Now, this boy really hates handwriting. To the point of tears if I give him a page to do. But this handwriting? Loved it. He actually begged for more when we were done.

I love it when we an activity is both fun AND beneficial. So pleased with MFW First so far. We are about 20 days in and are looking forward to the next 20!

Happy Not-Back-to-School!

2011-08-22T09:11:00.000-07:00

This morning we celebrated officially not going back to school with breakfast at McDonalds! I love having the kids home with me, and I know it is the right thing for them, but there is always this teeny tiny moment where I think about how easy it would be just to send them off each day! :) So I was able to hang out with my sweet friend and remind myself why I do this. And the kids got to play, so it was a great way to start our day!

Dear Annie Rose even got in on the action and played for the first time and she was thrilled! She kept covering her eyes to do peek-a-boo every time I tried to snap a pic of her. She had so much fun feeling like one of the big kids.

We are so thankful God has brought us great friends to go on this journey with, both for the boys and for myself. Now even though it is "Not-Back-to-School" day at our house, we're still gonna do a smidgen of school today. :) The boys are quite confused by this concept but momma needs to get as much done as we can when we have the chance!

Wyatt's date!

2011-08-21T11:52:00.001-07:00

Like I said before, I got to enjoy 2 date nights in a row! My sweet bug was just so excited to have his own night out. He picked out his clothes, and even my clothes! He went to my closet and specifically requested that I wear this green dress. I was a little disturbed cause its a smidge too small, but went with it any way just for my little noodle. He picked this blue shirt for himself and matched it with black dress slacks. So so funny, but he thought he was snazzy!

Can you guess where he requested to go? Cici's Pizza!! I think he hardly ate a thing, he was mostly just concerned about using some quarters to play games. :) I don't know why he loves the games there so much - there are only a few but for some reason he is obsessed with them. He was also thrilled cause he got to have some Dr. Pepper! After dinner we went to one of his favorite places - the pet store! He got to push a teeny tiny cart and we looked at every single animal they had. He was so sad cause they didn't have any cats! After that, per his request, we went to have some frozen yogurt. We had recently tried a new yogurt place out on 1960 and he LOVED it. So I assumed that was where we were going. But when we got in the car he told me he wanted to go to the one by HEB. Huh? I told him there wasn't one, but he insisted. So, I took the directions of my four year old and headed over to HEB. And sure enough, there was the cutest little yogurt shop there. :) He amazes me! Have you been to Menchie's yet? Well it is quite possibly the most adorable yogurt shop ever. Wyatt was instantly in love cause he got to have a pink spoon! Do you think he will ever outgrow his love of pink? I'm not sure either. Ha! We got home and all he could talk about was "Smoochies!". He still calls it that and I love it!!

Momma date night!!

2011-08-21T09:08:00.000-07:00

Oh my, so it has come to our attention that perhaps Noah James has been feeling a bit neglected as of late. Things have been so crazy the last month, with the start of school in addition to everything else we have going on. So I realized I needed to carve out some one-on-one time with each of the boys, starting with Noah. So I proposed the idea of a date night with just the two of us and he was ecstatic! He even got all dressed up for me - picked his outfit even though it was a billion degrees out.

And he was so cute cause he got his wallet and put his money in it to pay for our dinner and stuff. So so so adorable. He was so nervous to use it. :) As soon as we walked in to the restaurant he pulled it out of his pocket and started to give it to the hostess. Quite possibly the most adorable thing ever. He also opened the door for me and was so proud of himself. As we got closer to the front he started running just so he could get there first. His daddy told him this before he left and I could tell he concentrated on not forgetting the entire drive there. Of course he requested we go to has favorite restaurant, Johnny Carinos, and he was super thrilled cause he got to order Dr. Pepper. He was so grown up and even ordered his own food. After we ate we went to Barnes and Noble, just like Josh and I do. He really liked that we were doing the same thing and he even got to pick out a book to bring home.

Now the one thing he told me would make date night "perfect" would be if we ate cake. He told me this that morning when I was half asleep, still in bed. I agreed that was a good idea in my half-awake state. I assumed this meant that we would have a piece of cake at the restaurant. Later in the day, though, I heard him tell Wy we were bringing a cake home. That's right, a cake. As in the whole thing. So I started to correct him and you should have seen his heartbroken face - evidently he asked for a whole cake that morning and I had said yes, that was a great idea. So I didn't want to go back on my word, so I figured we would stop by the grocery store on our way home to pick up a cake. So that afternoon he comes up to me and says, "Mom, I can't believe we're getting a cake like at Maddie's birthday party." Huh?? That was a cookie cake. Yup, the kid thought we were getting a cookie cake. SO YES, we went out to the outlet mall and picked up a cake on our way home. Noah requested that it say "Noah and Mommy's Special Day." So so so sweet! Of course I had to repeat a hundred times we would never again do this, just this one time. :)

Of course you know who was oh so sad cause he didn't get to go with us. You can see his teeny little eye brow is so far down over his eyes. We promised him that he would get to go with me the next Tuesday, but he was still so sad. We even got his school calendar out and circled the day we would go so he could better understand. And still, the next morning I went to get them up and the first words out of his mouth were "I'm so excited we're going on our date tonight!" I started to correct him and tell him it wasn't for another whole week, but Josh said we should go ahead and go out that night. So I had 2 dates in a row!! I'll write about Wyatt's date later!! :)

Ooooh! Grass!

2011-08-18T19:45:00.000-07:00

So the other night Josh came outside to take a picture of Noah and I before our date (which I still need to blog about!) and he just set Annie down in the grass to snap the pictures. So I look over and this is what I see and screamed for Josh to take a pic before she stopped doing it. Don't you just love it? That big belly hanging out with her tank pulled up, and both arms and legs straight out! She DID NOT want her legs touching the grass. But she's so sweet she didn't cry, she just sat like that. It took a few minutes but then she decided she kind of liked it. I promise I won't let Josh leave her about again looking so trashy with her belly hanging out. You know I'm not a fan of girls showing their bellies!!! :)

Teeny tiny scrolls!

2011-08-12T00:52:00.000-07:00

Part of our Bible curriculum for this year taught about scrolls and how the Bible (and other things) were originally written on scrolls. So we went outside and measured out 30 feet to see how long some of the longest scrolls were. I had NO idea this wold be so exciting to the kids, but they have now become obsessed with scrolls. We made teeny tiny scrolls out of paper bags and then made salt dough "jars" to put the scrolls in, to imitate the jars scrolls used to be stored in. The jars were much more difficult to mold than I imagined they would be, but in the end the kids were pleased with our product.

Now if only I can keep this from getting broken so Wyatt doesn't get hysterical, then I will be doing good! So far the kids are really enjoying school, and have really been handling the increased work load really well. Perhaps I wasn't expecting as much of them as I should have been last year! :)

Cozy brothers!

2011-08-11T21:39:00.000-07:00

These two were so adorable the other morning I had to grab the camera, even in my sleepy state. They had the ENTIRE living room to themselves - two couches, a chair, and the floor. And yet they chose to sit just like this, all cuddled up. They are always so sweet right after they wake up - and they were super excited Lily came to sit with them. Hoping these two stay this close for a lifetime.