Sleepy muffin!

I have never had a baby who is so easy going as far as going to sleep goes!  Seriously, if she gets tired she just lays down and goes to sleep.  She was playing in her room on the floor while we were doing something in the living room and we realized it was very, very quiet.

And this is what we found when we checked on her!!  Don't you just love it?  So very very sweet.  For a while I thought she was falling over and then getting tired and going to sleep.  But recently I'm starting to think that perhaps she is purposely laying down.  I'm going to have to do an investigation!  I adore this little girl!

Wyatt's birthday!

So far since Wy has been old enough to celebrate we have combined the boys birthdays into one party since they are so close together.  And in the past we didn't want to stress Noah out with the concept of his "real" birthday and then the party on a separate day, so we just let him think the party day was the real day.  But this year we let the whole truth out and basically blew their minds. :)

So we decided that on their actual birthdays they would wake up to the kitchen decorated and then they can have whatever breakfast they want.  Wyatt requested orange julius and birthday cake.  A pink birthday cake with sprinkles  to be exact.  And you know Wyatt loves Mickey Mouse in a way that Noah never has, so we dug down into the extra party decor box and Wyatt was thrilled with the results!

We also gave him his present from us, which this year was really cut back on due to our financial situation.  But let me tell you, this boy just LOVES his coin counting machine.  What kind of 4 year old dreams of getting one of these?  Well, Wyatt does.  There is not much that Wyatt loves more than coins.  Specifically putting coins into all kinds of containers - bags, boxes, and basically anything that will open up.  The boys were so excited about it they immediately went and got their piggy banks and starting counting out how much they had.  They each counted out about $20 worth of coins which we then let them take to Target to use.  So really he got an extra toy with that money!  They both spent their money on Nerf guns!  Wyatt is also obsessed with Nerf.

Noah and Annie got Wyatt an Oglo paddle ball set, which he loves.  It glows in the dark, you know, for all the times we let them stay up till it is dark and play ball.  Which is never.  But they like playing with it in our closet!

I just can't believe my little boy is 4!  He is so very proud of himself and keeps saying that there are all kinds of things he can do now that he couldn't a couple of weeks ago.  Love, love, love him!

Sleepy noodle

I think we can officially say this will be the last time this ever happens with our big four year old boy!  He hurt himself and was so hysterical all he wanted was for his daddy to hold him.  And after a minute or two Josh realized this little pud was asleep!  My goodness he was adorable.  He was so out of it that Josh was able to take him to bed and he took a nice long nap, which is rare for him.

I think both the boys have been very happy to have Josh home with us for a while.  Not so sure Josh is ready for all the "daddy, daddy, daddy" that goes on, but I think he would miss is if they stopped!  We have so many pictures, events, and stories to blog, so hopefully I will be able to catch up over the next few weeks.  This past month has been such a whirlwind I have just not had the energy to blog in the evenings.  This one was easy, though! :)

Dinner outside!

I'm not quite sure why, but our kiddos just adore eating food outside.  Do yours love this too?  Any restaurant that has a patio is quite a nightmare to visit - they just beg and beg to get to sit outside, no matter the temperature.  So when they asked if they could eat dinner outside a few days ago I was all about it.  I love not having to sweep up after a meal!

They were pretending they were camping in the front yard.  After playing in the sprinkler they laid out their towels and then got some of our holiday decorations out to"set up camp."  Not really sure where they got these crazy ideas from, but we were happy to allow such nonsense!

Annie girl even got in on the crazy face nonsense.  I think she was upset she wasn't getting any of the boys food!  We started feeding her Cheerios this week and she LOVES them.  The girl wants to eat real food!

Insanity!

Please tell me what on earth I was thinking when I plopped Annie in the tub with these monkeys?  They were so excited she was in there I think she almost drowned a dozen times in a matter of a few minutes.  She will NOT be going back in with them again.  I kept telling Noah to sit Indian style, which he would do for a few minutes and all was fine, and the next thing I knew he had his legs all up in the air and Annie was halfway under the water.  But do you see what kind of trouble I'm going to have on my hands with these three?  She loves it!!

Who needs a skateboard?

One of the things I love about my boys is that they are able to have so much fun doing stuff in the complete wrong way that things were designed to be used.  No problem that they can't skateboard, they have two feet and even a scooter to have fun with!  One of our favorite parks has this ramp thing and the boys just love it.

Last summer Noah J was too scared to go down it on anything with wheels, but with his daddy their to cheer him on a few weeks ago he was so brave!  I love these pictures!

And you can see how Wyatt spent most of his time - on his hands and knees or his rear!  But it didn't keep him from having the time of his life.  Little Annie girl had her first head bruise while we were there, too.  She was sitting on the picnic table while I was right there and she suddenly just fell forward, head first.  She instantly had a red mark/bruise and it looked so sad for a few days!

Korean crowns

I've gotten behind on my blogging these last 2 weeks, so I'm gonna try and catch up this week!  Do you just love these crowns?  The boys do.  We mad them as part of our geography curriculum for our study of South Korea.  We learned about the kinds of crowns Korean kings used to have, so we made our own fancy ones.  they weigh about a thousand pounds and are quite messy, with all the glitter, beads, sequins and gems falling off, but the kiddos didn't seem to mind.

They were so cute running around the house with towels tied around their necks like a king's robe while wearing their hats.   I love it!  Sad I missed getting pics of it!

Put put!

Last week before all the madness hit we took the kiddos put put golfing at one of those indoor glow in the dark places.  We had a ton of fun, although it went by so quickly I'm not quite sure if it was worth the money.  I thought for sure it would take us hours to go through it all, but amazingly the kids got ALL hole in ones.  That's right, folks, every single one a hole in one.  :)

They would just push each and every ball all the way to the hole with the club.  Really very smart I kind of think. So we finished the whole course in under a half hour. :)

They also had this game where you could shoot balls from these big gun things and the boys of course thought that was awesome.  Wyatt was pretty concerned with how loud it was, though.

Annie girl and I watched from the window. :)

All in all we had fun, so we will definitely mini golf again!  Next time I think we will try some place outside, though.  The boys have a Mini Golf Wii game, so they have lots of opportunity to practice before our next trip!

Japan!

As part of our Japan study, the week before last we visited a Japanese hibachi for lunch, thinking that the kids would love it.  I guess I wasn't really thinking, cause you know the boys don't eat anything.  So it was pretty pricey for simply a bowl of white rice. :) 

Noah really loved watching the whole thing though.  I made the mistake of telling the boys that the chef's put on a show for you while they cook your food.  So when we got there Wy kept asking where the TV was.  I couldn't figure out what he meant and then he said, "You said they would put on a show!!"  Ha!  It went well, though, till the guy lit the grill on fire.  Wyatt absolutely FREAKED out.  Screaming, sobbing, begging to be taken home.  And he stayed that way pretty much for the rest of the dinner.   We weren't able to get any pics though, cause we were holding him the whole time.  It was so ridiculous it was funny!

Annie was also a bit difficult so we had to leave her in her carseat.  The girl has become WILD at the dinner table.  Trying to grab everything, eat everything, and drink any cup she can get her mouth onto.  You can see Noah entertained her by playing music on her carseat with a chopstick!

Our next stop in geography is India, so I don't think we will be dragging the kids to any Indian restaurants.  And you know what Josh's common response to where do you want to eat is, "Anything but Indian."  :)

Spring Break 2011: Fossil Rim

This was not a planned part of our trip, but we still had some time left so we decided to give it a shot.  We weren't really sure if it was going to be worth the money, cause you know drive thru animal places are pretty pricey.  But it was by far the best money we spent on our trip.  So much more fun than we ever expected.  And the park was just absolutely beautiful.  The drive took us close to three hours, cause the property was just gigantic.

The animals were amazing, and some were a bit too aggressive for our liking.  The zebra's were so out of control that it got to where I was rolling up the window when we came to a group of them.  One actually started nibbling on the window gasket!  There were quite a few times when Josh as looked off the right, only to turn back to the left to be greeted by a large, wild animal head inside the van, right in his face.  No worries - Wyatt never panicked and just threw the food right out the window.  For all the things this kid is scared of, he was not phased by these animals one bit!

Wyatt has always loved animals, but Noah has finally come around to liking them as well.  Not that he had a problem with them before or anything, but he has really started to love learning about them in an obsessive sort of Noah way.  You know, where you need to know every detail about their life, own a few books about each one, and definitely have a documentary for every possible animal there is. ;)

Josh and my dad were the only ones who were brave enough to feed the giraffes.  They were so incredibly HUGE.  Really so much bigger than I think of them in my head.  Look at this shot of his leg compared to the car window.  Really unbelievable.

Halfway through the drive we stopped at their little cafe to have lunch and a bathroom break.  It was so beautiful!  Can you tell how far up we are?

Some of the roads were the steepest that I have ever experienced.  I seriously had to close my eyes a few times, and Wyatt freaked out that he just wanted to "go home" cause he didn't like it one bit!  They also had a little petting zoo up at the top of the mountain, which the kids enjoyed.  I love how Wyatt looks like he is talking to the goat.  That's probably because he was. :)

As I'm sitting here typing this all I can think is how nice it was there!  It reminded us so much of Lost Maples, and that was really unexpected.  I don't know what I thought the area was like up there, but not this beautiful.  I would definitely recommend it for a great family afternoon!