The Carpenter Clan: Works in Progress...

1st Grade Boy Madness!

2012-01-20T16:00:00.001-07:00

Recently, Josiah attended Cole & Reed's 7th birthday party. Cole and Reed live nearby and are fraternal twins and they also go to our church. Their mom had 24 (yes, you read correctly) 24 first grade boys over to her house for a big Lego Star Wars birthday party! All the kids came home on the bus with Cole and Reed (they are both in different classes at school) and they all piled in with all their snow paraphernalia and backpacks, which got dumped just inside the back door. It was quite a pile of stuff!

I stayed to assist Libby (Cole & Reed's brave Mom) and helped to be a referee amongst the sword fighting and rough boy play. I wished my camera hadn't died, or I would have had more picture to share, but this one sums up the energy and excitement that most certainly was hard to contain at the party!

After arriving, they all promptly found all the swords and sword-like items in the house and began dueling in the living room and then proceeded to the sweets table and loaded up on all sorts of Star Wars treats including chocolate dipped pretzel light sabers (in a stunning red and green), Death Stars (a large Whopper type candy), Star Wars characters cookies, chocolate covered Ewoks (gummy bears), Yoda Soda (sprite), Vader-ade (Root beer) and eventually some decked out cupcakes as well. I was helping with the drinks and would say, "Do you want Yoda Soda or Vader-ade?" and most of them looked at me really puzzled until I said, "Sprite or Root beer?"

It was little boy heaven there for sure! At one point, a group of boys (Josiah in the mix) ran up the stairs counting down from 10 and apparently when they got to zero a bomb went off downstairs! Good thing they got upstairs fast!

Another funny moment was trying to find everyone's boots and stuff to go outside and play in the snow. One little guy was like, "I can't find my snow pants....they are black." I am looking around and I say, "Well most all of the pants are black." Then another kept coming over to tell me he couldn't find his boots. Well it turns out that he didn't wear his boots there at all, so that would explain it! His Dad put on his shoes when he got there and I had to chuckle to myself about that one.

And I did not leave the party without a significant 1st grade boy party war wound! As I said, I was helping with all the snow gear and was trying to put all the gloves in one area, pants in another, etc. and I leaned down to grab a glove and WHAM-O...a little boy seeing his mom or dad stood up right underneath me and his head made contact with my glasses which went right into my upper left eye and eyebrow! I was seeing stars there for a minute and starting crying (ack!) 'cause it hurt so bad. The poor little guy felt bad and through tears I said, "It's OK, it was an accident, I will be fine." Nikki (a college gal that lives there too) got me an ice pack to hold on my eye for a bit and then I was OK. I did have a nasty bruise though afterward!

Anyway, it was a joy to see all the boys having fun and especially seeing Josiah have a blast too! Thanks to Libby for the fun party and for inviting Josiah!

A Day in the Life

2012-01-20T10:00:00.002-07:00

We are really getting into a groove with homeschooling now and Josiah is doing really wonderfully! He is in 2nd grade math (around lesson 46--160 lessons to complete) and he is finishing up 1st grade in the other subjects (should be done in March sometime I think) and I have seen lots of progress in both his academic work and his behavior. We still have some battles about school here and there, but for the most part, it is smooth sailing now (of which I am VERY thankful!) He is making a card here for his friends' birthday party. He wanted to sign his name in cursive and you can see he is working hard here by the drawn mouth.

Daniel is being a tattle tale here to tell me that Caleb is feeding a cracker to his panda bear (a fact that I was well aware of). You can see his workbook in the background. He is just DYING to start school and begs me to do his workbook most every day! I got him this BrainQuest Kindergarten book and he is just whipping through it. He can write almost all his letters (without me really officially teaching them) and numbers and takes such delight in doing the pages. I am working with him though on finishing what he begins, as sometimes he will start a page and want to just move on if he doesn't want to do it. I have been insisting that he finishes before he goes on as I want him to get in the habit of doing this. I know it will pay off later!

And here is the proof that Caleb was indeed feeding a cracker to his panda bear, as he wanted to be like Miss Naomi who was feeding her dolly. Caleb also is doing a BrainQuest workbook, but I got him the Pre-K one as he isn't quite as interested in academic stuff right now. I am not pushing him to do the pages, but let him choose which page he wants to do. I also insist though that he finishes the pages he chooses though and help him when he is struggling, but he too is also doing very well with his workbook. I have seen a growing interest in him to want to do his workbook and that was the idea with this, to work on his attention span and help him see how fun it can be. I did the same thing with Josiah at first and I found it was very helpful in getting him ready for Kindergarten. There is a certificate in the back of the book and stickers and when they complete a chapter, they get to put a sicker on the certificate. Caleb has completed 3 chapters already!

I came into the kitchen to find that Naomi's dolly was having a soup feast! She also wanted some tomato sauce apparently too! I had to laugh and then seeing the food reminded me it was snack time, and so put Naomi in her chair and let her have her snack with dolly.

Naomi's first idea was to force feed little dolly, but dolly didn't like that too much and so Naomi had to find other ways to get dolly to eat.

Dolly got a nose-ful of cracker too before Naomi finally decided that perhaps the mouth was the best place for a cracker. She was so funny though and I just laughed and laughed watching her play and eat. While we do school, Naomi usually sits in my lap and colors all over the lesson manuals. I am sure she feels important that she is "doing school" too. Thankfully, she doesn't disrupt the learning too much and just is content to play with the crayons and scribble.

New Clothes from Grandma

2012-01-18T20:36:00.001-07:00

Grandma send a whole bunch of new clothes for Miss Naomi and some for the brothers too. You can see here her ruby red slippers that she absolutely LOVES! When I get her dressed, she always looks up at her shoe collection on the dresser and says, "Shooo???" and "Other Shoo???" when we put them on.

One time, I had to put her down in her boots (new at the time) because she DID NOT want to take them off for her nap. Daddy came in there ('cause she wasn't sleeping and making noise) and saw the boots and thought they were causing her to wake up (by catching on the blankets) and so he took them off. Soon afterward, I hear this howling from her room, and not knowing what David did, I went down there and she hollered at me when I came in, "Daddy....BOOO, Daddy.....BOOOO!!" This of course is translated too, "How DARE Daddy take off my precious boots!!" I said, "Did Daddy take your boots off?" And she said in tears, "Yeah!" So I put them back on her and she was quiet afterward and went to sleep. A girl has to have her accessories don't you know!!

Naomi is giving her silly smile face here again. She does this whenever I say, "Smile for the camera!"

Daniel and Caleb just got some shirts this time, but they didn't complain and promptly put them on. Daniel was sporting his whining face here (can't remember why now) and Caleb was oblivious to the whole scene and was making maraca music for us all to enjoy.

I love the fact that they nearly have the same expression here. One might actually think they are twins in this photo!

Daniel decided that in order to smile he needed to say, "Cheesy Robot," and Caleb thought that was a good idea as you can see. Josiah got some new clothes too, but he wouldn't pose for me. I will catch him in them some other time.

Snow Storm #2

2012-01-18T20:33:00.001-07:00

We had been hearing from our western Washington friends for some time about the "snow-pacolypse" as it was called that they were having over there and finally we got to see some of that snow also. It snowed pretty much all day from morning until evening on the 19th, but on the 18th (as you can see) we also got quite a lot then as well. Naomi was more excited the 2nd time to be out in the snow and I am quite sure she was very warm and dry, so I am sure that had something to do with it!

Daniel is making a funny face here. I had to stand underneath the deck so that the snow didn't fall on the camera too much. I also took some video of them pulling each other in the sled, but haven't uploaded that yet (but will likely do so on our youtube site soon).

Caleb was "pleased as punch" to be out in the snow and his big grin shows it!

Josiah was trying to throw snow at me in this picture, but the snow was so powdery, it was a failed attempt! We tried to make a snowman too, but it was just not wet enough to make anything. We got the sleds out though and I pulled them around in them for a bit. Josiah also pulled Naomi around a little bit and as the snow piled into the front of the sled, she would brush it out just as quickly. She really enjoyed riding around in the snow though and when she sees it outside she says, "No??? No??" We try to tell her it is "ssss---now," but she won't say the "s" with it just yet. Josiah also thought it was fun to make "backwards snow angels." This is where you lay on your tummy and do a snow angel. He remarked, "This snow angel will have no head."

Daisy Afghan

2012-01-15T20:32:00.002-07:00

At our church, we have a "secret sister" thing going on and for my secret sister, I made this afghan. I was going to wait to give it to her at the end of the year, but I finished it early and thought it would be of more use during this cold, winter season!

She apparently likes "Gerber daisies," which are the daisies that are many different colors, so I picked this design because of that. I am hoping she likes the colors. It was a fun afghan to do and didn't really take that long to make. I just did a line or two while David and I watched shows together at night and before I knew it, it was finished! I started around Thanksgiving and finished on Jan. 15th.

Twin Kings

2012-01-12T20:29:00.002-07:00

At Awana, the boys learned about King Josiah from the Bible and they made crowns as the craft. The next day they posed for me to show me their handiwork.

Daniel is giving me a big cheesy smile here and Naomi is showing her silly smile face! She squints her eyes and usually makes a funny facial expression of some sort also.

More Christmas Fun

2011-12-26T20:26:00.001-07:00

Since we were all sick to some varying degree on Christmas day, we did not get to attend the church service that they had that morning, so Naomi had to wait another week to wear this cute little dress. We have determined she looks very much like Cindy Lou Who from "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas." This outfit seals the deal for sure!

Mommy posed with Miss Cindy Lou here as well.

Daniel paused briefly while he was playing with Woody on Christmas day and it was too cute not to post.

Caleb had just about as much fun with Naomi's toys as she did! He played tea party with her and here is serving her some cakes to go with her tea.

Princess Naomi is sitting in her new chair with her tiara and Caleb is bringing her some cakes to go with her tea. I am glad I got a shot of the tiara as it broke pretty much the same day. It came with a little skirt and some play shoes in the princess castle toy.

Christmas Day--Part 1

2011-12-25T12:05:00.001-07:00

Soon after the kids were in bed on Christmas Eve, David and I set to work and got everything set up for the following day. Thankfully because most of the kids were sick on Christmas Eve, they were very subdued and fell asleep right away and did not come upstairs too early! And yes, you heard that right, the kids were sick. Caleb threw up early on Christmas Eve, Josiah came down with a fever and runny nose and Naomi had the tail end of a cold and was coughing with a runny nose also. Meanwhile, I went to the Christmas Eve service to play my flute and felt well enough to do so (though recovering from a cold myself) only later to discover that I too fell ill with Caleb's version of sickness. Ugh. Merry Christmas to me? Not so much! Anyway, I went to bed early on Christmas Eve, but suffered through that night and then all Christmas day as well. After the kids opened their presents, I fell asleep on the couch and then David told me to just go lay down in bed for a bit and so I did.

So enough of all the bad news about this Christmas and on to the good news! We actually had to wake up the kids on Christmas morning, which I found rather ironic since usually they wake us up! David said though they were stirring really early and he went down to settle them and told them to go back to sleep. This was Josiah's reaction as he came up the stairs in his new Lego Star Wars pajamas from Grandma Walker.

And this is the twins' reaction as they came up in their new Lightning McQueen jammies from Grandma & Grandpa Carpenter. When Caleb saw the castle he said, "Whoah!" and went right over to play!

Naomi was really sleepy when Daddy brought her up. When we asked her if she wanted to get down and look at things she said, "No," but then when he put her down she promptly went over the pink house and flopped on her big pink doggie. This Christmas day was definitely Naomi pink approved!

Christmas Day--Part 2

2011-12-25T10:00:00.000-07:00

Daddy was in charge of handing out the gifts and I did my best to take pictures and enjoy even though I was feel blah!
Josiah is showing me his new Star Wars Leapster game here. He was really excited about this and also his new Cars Lego set that he got to build with Daddy a little later. Thanks Grandma Walker!

Josiah is posing here with his latest Lego creation in the new clothes that Grandma Walker sent. He also got a Toy Story alien camera as well from Grandma & Grandpa Carpenter that he used to take pictures of lots of things. After he built this set, he took a picture with it, but because it didn't have a flash we used the photo from my camera for the blog instead. Thanks Grandma & Grandpa Carpenter!

Daniel is smiling really big here to see Woody! Thanks to Grandparents Walker! Naomi heard Woody being played with the day after Christmas and she said, "Yee Haw!" Woody says that when you pull his string.

Daniel's favorite gifts were the Leapster games (from Mommy & Daddy and Grandparents Walker) he got though and while he was playing one of the games, he was holding the other cartridge firmly in his other free hand. He was shaking he was so excited to get them!

Christmas Day--Part 3

2011-12-25T09:00:00.000-07:00

Caleb was very excited to see Rex given by Grandma & Grandpa Walker. When you squeeze him he "roars" but it sounds more like a squeak and it is louder if you squeeze harder. It sounds pretty funny actually and is characteristic of the Toy Story character in that he is not that scary of a dinosaur really.

Caleb has really been enjoying the castle given by Grandparents Carpenter! He and Daniel both have had fun with the knights and horses that came with it and have had lots of pretend play with them! The horses drop knight bombs down into the castle courtyard and the drawbridge lets people and toys in and out. The castle has also been destroyed a few times and so Mommy has to be the "carpenter" to rebuild. Ahhh...the irony. Anyway, fun times!

Naomi was having great fun going in and out of her playhouse that Grandparents Walker gave and was playing Peek-a-Boo here with me.

She also enjoyed the tea set that we got her as well as her purse that Grandparents Walker gave as well. The teapot makes sounds/music when you have it on various settings and she has had great fun serving us tea and cakes. Her purse also makes sounds/music on various settings and there are many items to "use" in it. There is pretend lipstick, a small hand mirror, a bracelet, a set of keys (plastic of course), & a piece of play money to take in and out of the purse. She just loves it!

Overall the kids had a great day and played with their toys all day without stopping. We had planned to go to church originally since there was a service that day, but because we were all sick to some varying degree, we decided to stay home. However, we did talk about coming up to Christmas and during the day about why we give gifts and why we celebrate. Jesus is the reason for the season and we are thankful that He came to Earth that we may all have eternal life with him should we choose to follow Him. Thank you Jesus for your precious gift to us all!

Taekwondo

2011-12-22T20:59:00.002-07:00

Josiah has adjusted well to his new Do Jang here in Spokane. He still misses Master Kim, but he also loves to study under Master Justin and enjoys his Taekwondo classes. This picture is of Josiah and Master Justin after he received his orange belt. Because we moved, he took a bit of a step back with the belts and also they have a different belt system (here it is yellow then orange and there it was orange then yellow) but it was good for him to learn the new routines and ways of doing things here.

This is a picture of Josiah receiving his orange belt. He is the one looking back toward the camera with the yellow belt on standing in the front. Daddy was the one who got to go to his actual test, since I needed to stay home with the other kids and I got to go to the belt ceremony, which was two weeks later. We decided that since these tests were so frequent (one every 2 months) that we would do it this way to save on babysitting costs.

And then on December 22nd, I got to see Josiah test for his green belt. This will be his very first green belt that he has earned, so that is pretty cool. In this picture, you can see Josiah in the front with his orange belt and then Josiah's friend Reid in the back with a white belt. His friends (who live right near us) Cole and Reid and their sister Allison started at the same Do Jang a while back and now will have their yellow belts.

I think Josiah was a little distracted to have his buddies there as his focus was really low. Master Justin had him do his Poomseh (phonetic spelling) twice and after he finished he told him he did not pass his test and would have to do it again.

However, when he did his Sabancheck (also phonetic), he did just fine and also was able to recite the 11 commandments of Taekwondo. Master Justin told him he only had to say 5 of them, but he knew all 11. It is funny that people think that 1st graders can't memorize much because I think it is just because people don't require them to do it! I suppose though because Josiah has been doing Awana that the memorization isn't as hard for him.

Here he is doing his Poomseh for his test. After all the tests were completed, Master Justin had Josiah do his Poomseh again for him with him standing near him and Josiah was much more focused and was able to do it right. Josiah came running up to me and said, "I passed my test," and I said I didn't think so because I didn't hear what Master Justin had said to him. Apparently, Master Justin told me that what he did afterward was sufficient and that he would get his green belt after all. It was very kind of him to have mercy on Josiah and allow him to try again I thought! I also found out that they only have to break a board every other test! That was a relief also!

I really think Josiah's way of showing nervousness is to be unfocused. He was like this sometimes at the old Do Jang too. Taekwondo has been really good for him though, I think and will continue to be a good outlet for him to express himself and work through some of these things! I am very proud of his work and progress, he has come a long way!

Grandma's Christmas Visit

2011-12-17T11:16:00.000-07:00

Grandma Walker came over as "a Christmas present to herself" from the 17th through the 21st of December and it was really fun to have her with us. She came also to hear me sing in the choir cantata called "Jesus No Other Name" of which I have no pictures of since I did not bring my camera, but later I hope to get a DVD recording of it that I will post some of on YouTube to share at some point. I sang a gospel/ad lib sort of solo (channeling my inner black woman) called "What Did You Say Was the Baby's Name?" It was stepping out of my comfort zone a little to not have a written out plan for what I was going to sing, but it worked out well despite that.

Miss Naomi is flashing a big smile here as she plays piano with Grandma!

On Sunday morning, I posed with my two four year olds and miraculously they sat still long enough to get a good picture!

The girls of the family posed too and Miss Naomi is wearing her "Mommy's Lil' Christmas Present" shirt and red tu-tu. My mom and I went shopping on Saturday and I was able to pick up this new purple sweater and black skirt as well as another red top and black and white (pretty design) skirt for the concert the next day. I also got some new black and brown flat shoes to wear for regular use. Thanks Mom!

Daddy and Daniel were cuddling in the chair and it was a perfect time to capture two of the men of the family before church as well.

On Monday, Josiah had to take the M.A.P. test for his schooling (a standardized test to see where is his level-wise) and so Grandma took the other children out to buy small presents for David and I and for each other and later after Josiah finished his test, she took him out to do the same and to take him for ice cream to reward him for doing a good job on his test. Later that night he told me, "Guess what Momma? I learned that it is Jesus first, Others second, and Yourself third and that spells JOY! Grandma taught me that, did you learn that?" It was so cute! I was recovering from a bad cold (yes I sang through a cold on Sunday too) and so I rested a bit on Monday and Grandma picked up the slack for me. Thanks again Mom!

Tuesday, we went to the Care Center in Cheney to visit Great Grandma Betty (in another post), but on Wednesday before Grandma left, we went to the NorthTown mall to play in the play area and discovered they have a "pay to play" kind of place right next to the free one that was relatively inexpensive to play in and so we took the kids there instead as it had many more options for them. It also has the option to drop them off there hourly as well, so that it is good to know for future reference! It is a bit more expensive than to hire a babysitter here if you do it for very long, so it would be only used in a pinch! The kids had a blast there though!

Before we moved over to the other place though, I got a good shot of Naomi coming down the slide! At the other place she got to playing with this little boy who we found out was six, and I told my mom that the age gap between them is about the same as it is between me and David. It is funny to think that long ago if David and I had known each other that he could have been pushing me around in a little play car like this little boy did for Naomi. It was cute to watch them together.

Caleb also posed on the lion before we moved. It was really nice to have my mom here especially when I was feeling very sub par on the health scale! She had fun interacting with the kids too and made lots of fun memories. The kids really enjoyed buying and wrapping the gifts for us too and each time they got one wrapped Grandma sent them upstairs with the wrapped gifts to give to me. They were so proud! Daniel even wrote all the letters on the gifts himself and of course so did Josiah!

We were sad to see her go and as we left the airport Caleb cried and when we got home Josiah said, "I'm really going to miss Grandma." Thanks for the nice Christmas gift of your presence Grandma, we love you!

Christmas Pictures

2011-12-15T11:51:00.000-07:00

And this was the result of the "picture day" that we had at Sears. Oh boy, they were just "thrilled" to be there as you can see. As I mentioned in a previous post, I guess this is a reflection of life right now. It is difficult to get these kiddos to perform on cue to put it mildly! Naomi was deathly afraid to get in the photos, but took more kindly to it after I found her this princess chair to sit in and a special teddy bear to hold. However, as you can see she wasn't keen on sitting still too much or smiling! The twins were determined to be super grumpy and only Josiah was willing to smile!

Josiah was a champ and gave us a nice gap toothy grin right off for his picture.

Daniel finally consented to give me a squinty, squishy Daniel smile, but I will take it!

After some Mommy tickling under the camera's flashing lens, I managed to get Caleb to smile also!

This is a classic shy Naomi look and it was such a sweet picture that we had to get this one too.

This was our favorite of Naomi though with her sweet little smile!

This turned out pretty funny too with the three boys. I would like to introduce you to Sleepy, Squinty, and Grumpy respectively. Anyway, it was rather funny overall to see these photos afterward. My Mom and I had a good laugh for sure!

Caleb & Daniel's 4-year-old Check-up

2011-12-13T21:06:00.002-07:00

It has been a while since the twins have been in for a well child visit because we were late with their 2 year old visit and then rather than a 3 year old visit, we just brought them in when they were four. They both willingly got up to be examined by the nurse and the doctor. While we waited, they explored everywhere looking in every drawer and cupboard of course! Before the doctor came in, Caleb had to go potty, so I directed him to the bathroom kitty corner to our room. I had to kind of monitor both rooms as I had all the kids with me, so that was interesting. I got Caleb in the bathroom and closed the door figuring he knew what to do there and stood in the hallway. The doctor came in our examining room when Caleb was still in the bathroom and I got to talking to him when I heard this loud beeping sound and heard a nurse knocking on the bathroom door saying, "Are you OK?" It turns out Caleb had pulled that string that hangs from the bar for those that are very ill that calls for a nurse in an emergency in the bathroom.

Dr. Moon was checking to see that Caleb's legs were working properly here and of course they were. He was very gentle and kind with the kids and they liked him. Caleb weighed in at 32 pounds (16th percentile) and was 38 inches tall (8th percentile), so he is still a petite little guy, but he is very strong! When he doesn't want to do something, look out! Later when it was time for their shots, Caleb was hiding under the table because he saw the suffering poor Daniel went through and I had to pretty much drag him up to the table then. He got his shots in his legs cause it was easier to hold him down that way. The nurse held his legs and I held his arms and chest. Sadly, he was the one that cried most of the way home saying it hurt really bad. Poor little guy! He got over it though! Walk it off buddy!

Daniel was very intrigued with the doctor and when Dr. Moon sat down at the desk with his laptop, straight away Daniel was breathing down his neck to look at the technology and then asked, "Where is your mouse?" The doctor didn't have a mouse, but a pen he used to touch the screen. Dr. Moon said that the mouse doesn't work very well with this computer. Daniel also was interested in all the instruments and things the doctor was using as well. He weighed in at 38 pounds (69th percentile) and was 42 inches tall (85th percentile) and so is our heftier one of the two still.

When it was time for the shots, the nurse asked who would go first and Daniel volunteered, but I am positive he didn't know what he was volunteering for! When she asked if he wanted "arms or legs" he said "arms" and then next thing he knew he had 2 pokes in either arm. When we went to the 2nd arm he was very squirmy of course and crying, so that was hard. He fussed for a while afterward, but as we were walking out of the office he says to me, "It doesn't hurt now!" He was totally fine after that, but Caleb played it up for all it was worth!

Decking the Halls

2011-12-10T21:08:00.001-07:00

It is always fun when it is the season to put up our Christmas tree again and the kids always enjoy watching Daddy put the tree together. We bought an artificial tree a few years ago and we are glad to not have loads of pine needles on the floor and worry about watering the tree and/or worrying about children playing with the water. Naomi got to get in on the action this year and she got right down there with the boys to see what was happening.

As Daddy put up the lights, he had the kids watch from the couch and so they cuddled up with the Christmas blankets and enjoyed from there. When it was time to, they got to decorate the tree with all of our ornaments. Caleb and Daniel were very excited to participate and Naomi would not be left out either and so the bottom of the tree was very loaded with ornaments! Josiah got to take the "glass ornaments" and put them up a bit higher on the tree for me.

That night before bed, Daddy read the boys the Christmas story (Naomi was in bed by then) and afterward he was going to help Josiah put the angel on the tree. We read from the new Bible storybook we got from Grandma Carpenter called "The Jesus Storybook Bible." It is a really GREAT book for kids I have found and I really like how each story makes a tie in to how the story relates to Jesus and His ultimate story. The pictures are very beautiful also and very artistic. The actual text is fun to read also (very animated) and isn't so dry and/or hard for them to understand like some of the kid's Bible stories are at times.

Josiah really enjoyed being able to put the angel on the tree. Daddy says if he gets much bigger he won't be able to lift him! He is such a big boy now!!

Christmas Dessert

2011-12-05T21:05:00.002-07:00

This year our church hosted their annual Christmas Dessert function and I was honored to be asked to sing for it! It also happened to be on my birthday, so it was a fun treat to go out and hang with some girlfriends on my birthday! I sang "Welcome to Our World" and "Blessings." I shared a little bit about why the song "Blessings" means so much to me because of what I went through this last fall with the miscarriage. They had lots of other speakers and entertainment also, so it was fun to hear them all and fellowship with the ladies at our table.

I got to sit with my friend Kim, who I invited to the dessert and then discovered that we were assigned to my friend Liz and her family's table as well, so that was fun! Liz used to host a small group at her house that both Kim and I and a few other families attended back when we lived in Liberty Lake.

This is a picture of the decorations that were on our table. Jan (Liz's mom) did the honors. Everyone was really impressed with her center piece, which was two knitting needles and some ornaments that she threaded onto them to make them stand up with the toppers on top to hide the needles. She did a great job with the decorations for sure, it looked very nice! Each table host brought their own style to each table, so it was fun to see all the different tables set up at the dessert.

Journey to Bethlehem

2011-12-03T23:17:00.003-07:00

A couple of my new friends, Aimee and Bridget, both separately invited me to go to this event at their church called "Journey to Bethlehem." It is an outdoor walk through of what it might have been like to be in Bethlehem when Jesus was born. First, you enter the church and take tickets that have a "family name" on them. Our family name was "Zechariah" this year. Then you wait in the sanctuary where they have special music going on and watch for your family name on the big screen. When it comes up, you go back and line up to take the tour. You are assigned a guide (ours was named Josiah) and they take you through the tour as if you were characters in the story.

They had live actors playing various parts throughout the journey and then at one point you see Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus as you see here. They had lots of animals there too including geese, ducks, sheep, goats, donkeys, and even a camel at the end! It was quite cold that night, I think in the low 40's? And in that temp you can last for a little while, but with the little ones and walking for a bit it got pretty cold! They had fire pits along the way which helped somewhat and at the end they had a tent with warming lamps and warm apple cider.

The camel was in a cage at the end of the journey and she walked around showing off for us when we got there. The kids thought the camel was pretty cool! It was a neat way to hear the Christmas story and I think the kids enjoyed it. It was a little hard keeping them corralled as we were walking, but it worked out. I had to laugh when we went into the "tax collector's" tent and were supposed to be "quiet and respectful" to the man in charge. Daniel meanwhile "stole" a coin off of his table to look at it and interestingly the Roman guard there did not put him in chains as he should have. Perhaps he didn't notice? Anyhow, I was wondering how the actor did not laugh at this and I managed to pry the coin from his hand and put it back on the table.

Thanks to my friends for inviting us to this fun event. It was a neat experience for sure!

New Hats & First Snow

2011-12-01T20:56:00.002-07:00

Daddy went to Walmart one day and saw these cute hats for the kids and just had to pick them up. Josiah was able to choose which one he wanted first and as you can see he wanted to have the Cookie Monster hat. David then gave the monkey hat to Caleb and the Scooby Doo hat to Daniel.

Though they have never really watched Scooby Doo, this hat fits Daniel as he is always looking for some "Scooby Snacks" AKA any kind of food! We sometimes call him our "bottomless pit" when it comes to eating!

And of course, Naomi got a pink hat because she is pink through and through!

We had our first snow of the year on November 19th. We thought it might prove that this winter was going to be rather rough with the snow coming so early, but it melted rather quickly in the coming days and we were back to just cold weather, but no snow until Christmas Eve again. Uncle Jon was staying with us that day that it snowed and so he enjoyed hanging out with the kiddos in the snow as well. He was getting a big kick out of Naomi here as she was not to happy with this snowy situation!

Daniel and Caleb spent a lot of time eating the snow as you can tell by their snowy faces. There wasn't really enough snow to do much with it, but they had fun trudging through it and playing around for a bit anyway!

And this one's Indian name is "Caleb Snowy Face," or so it would seem! As usual, Caleb threw himself headlong into the snow fun!

Caleb & Josiah are making their mark in the snow as they tried to make snow angels even in the shallow depth of snow that we had.

The final conclusion for Naomi about the snow was "no likey!" I put her down in the snow and almost immediately she was crying. She didn't have true snow boots yet (we have some now), so I had her in these other boots that were more for looks and I think maybe her feet were cold? Either way, she was not happy to be out in the cold even if she was bundled up!

Awana

2011-12-01T20:54:00.002-07:00

This year, the twins began Awana in the Cubbies program and have really been enjoying it! For Cubbies, there is one very short verse a week that they learn that has a story that we read at home that goes with it along with another Bible story. They get stickers for their verse and every few pages or so another patch for their vest. They really love going to Awana and look forward to it each week, so that is really fun.

Josiah is in his 3rd year of Awana and is a Sparky this year. He won an the "Sparky of the Month" award for the month of October for being the boy who learned the most verses that month. He and I work on his verses each night before bed and over the years has really become a great at memorizing things. We worked on Psalm 23 last year for school and it paid off because this year in his Wingrunner book he was asked to memorize Psalm 23, so he just breezed through that section easily.

This year the twins got to go to Awana on their actual birthday (Dec. 7th) and so I made blue and red cupcakes for them to share with their friends at Awana.

It turns out that for the curriculum they were celebrating Cubby Bear's birthday too and had party hats for all the kids, so it was a perfect fit to have the cupcakes there too! It is hard to believe these guys are 4 now!

Caleb & Daniel's 4th Birthday

2011-11-26T17:19:00.001-07:00

This was the first year that we had an all out, friends invited sort of party for the twins. We had it earlier than their actual birthday (on Dec. 7th) because Grandma and Grandpa were here for Thanksgiving and wanted to celebrate with us. In year's past, we just had a small "photo op" type of situation with just my parents, a few gifts and some cupcakes to make their faces all frosting-covered for the photos. They had a great time blowing out the candles and Caleb exclaimed afterward, "I did it!" Click on the link here to hear us singing to them.

As you can see, they aren't quite a messy as they used to be! This is of course a great development for me as colored frosting is QUITE a mess to clean up!

Miss Naomi has not learned the finer points of staying clean while eating cake just yet though and as always she looks super cute!

Caleb is showing off one of his gifts that he got here. It is a gift card to McDonald's! This was used very soon afterward of course! Thanks to the Burns' family for those!

Daniel is opening his Leapster game that we got him and as you can see, this is quite popular! He is wearing his doctor's costume and Caleb is wearing the knight's costume that we got them too.

Naomi later tried on the doctor's costume and looks very concerned here as you can see! Being a doctor is very serious business apparently!

This is a shot of some of the party guests and the decorations that we put up for their party. Our friend's the Allbee's came (Kim, Colton, Kylie), the Burns' (Kristi, Evan, Isaiah, Elijah), Neriah Graham, and of course Grandma, Grandpa as well as Great Grandma and all of us. It was a small gathering, but super fun for the boys!

We had a Buzz Lightyear pinata for the kids also and Daniel was getting a big kick out of it here as you can see. Caleb was the winning pull for the pinata and all the kids were scrambling to get the candy afterward of course. We also took some video of the pinata as well.

The night before, Grandma and Grandpa presented the boys with 2 photo books each that go through all the years of their life thus far. Grandma has been doing that with each of the kiddos, and they look at their books often!

Great Grandma Margaret and Grandpa are reading Naomi's book to her as she did not want to be left out of the fun!

Josiah was having a little bit of a hard time with Caleb and Daniel getting all of the attention and expressed days later that he wondered why noone loved HIM anymore. Poor oldest child, we love you very much and we talked him through how to be happy for others too. A hard lesson to learn, but glad we had the opportunity to help him. Josiah did enjoy playing with his buddy Colton and they played some Leapster together.

The party was a big hit for the boys and they talked about it many days after and enjoyed their gifts very much. Thanks to all who came and celebrated with us, it was a great time!

Thanksgiving---Part 1

2011-11-24T17:00:00.003-07:00

This year, we were able to host the Thanksgiving feast for many of our family members. My Uncle Mike and Aunt Genny (and their daughters Erin and Lauren), Erin's friends named Randi and Evan, my Uncle Steve, Aunt Sandy and son Jonathan, my Aunt Debby, Uncle Mark, daughter Abby and son Luke, my Mom and Dad, my Grandma Margaret all came to celebrate with us this year (22 in all including us!) David was the chef for the day and I was the hostess.

We put in the leaves in our table and then put another table at the end to extend it so that we could all eat together and that worked out nicely! Everyone brought something to share and we had ham, turkey, green bean casserole (two kinds, gluten-free and regular), stuffing, gravy, homemade cranberry sauce, rolls, and of course pies for dessert! Aunt Genny and her girls made pumpkin, pumpkin and pecan and I think another pecan pie as well. We also had homemade whipped cream and ice cream to boot! The kids ate at the little kiddy picnic table that we normally keep outside and Naomi ate in her high chair and miraculously we all had hot food!! Yeah for David!

I was in charge of the mashed potatoes and of course ended up getting distracted with all the people here and didn't check on them often enough. The result of this was that most of the potatoes cooked into the water and I thought I may have to throw them all out. I drained them in the sink and was able to salvage them, but soon after that the sink backed up. I had heard that it was a "no-no" to put potato peels in the garbage disposal, and had done it before with no problems, but this time there was a BIG problem! We tried Draino to no avail and I ended up having to haul dirty dishes/cookware down to the utility sink downstairs in order to keep the kitchen clean enough to work in. So as we ate the "lovely" smell of Draino wafted through the yummy dinner smells. Yuck!

After dinner, my uncles Mike and Mark set to work to help unstop the drain. Mark looked on and gave some good tips and Mike got down there and with various make-shift tools that I had on hand was able to unclog the drain. He had to dump water from buckets off the balcony, since it wouldn't drain properly and later discovered he lost his wedding ring! We weren't sure where it might be and a day later I found it lying on the ground in the back yard! I was SOOOO glad that my Uncle knew how to fix our sink and SOOOO glad he didn't permanently lose his ring in the process! It happened to be my Uncle Mark's b-day on Thanksgiving also, so we sang him a very hearty "Happy Birthday" as he ate his pie after dinner. (The picture above is of Grandma, Great Grandma and the kids the following day, but I wanted to throw it in here too.)

My Uncle Mike and David are always getting into it about the teams they root for. David likes the Yankees and Mike likes the Mariners, David likes the Cowboys and Mike likes the Seahawks, you get the idea! Anyway, since the Cowboys were playing on Thanksgiving, David thought it would be funny to get Naomi a little Dallas Cowboy's cheerleader outfit. As you can see, she was a rather reluctant cheerleader. We could tell she liked the outfit, but was a bit shy to shake the pom poms for us!

Then we had her pose with him, but as you can see she isn't too fond of people she doesn't know as well! Of course, my Uncle Mike and Aunt Genny said, "She is really crying because she wants to be a Seahawk's cheerleader!"

Overall, we had a great time visiting with everyone and spending time together. My Aunts and my Mom went to visit Grandma Betty in the nursing home in the afternoon and the uncles, my Dad and our family stayed at the house and watched the Cowboys game. We were glad to host and it seemed everyone had a good time. Thanks all for coming!

Thanksgiving--Part 2

2011-11-24T13:33:00.001-07:00

The day after Thanksgiving, Grandma Walker and I headed out with the kids to get their pictures taken at Sears for the now 2nd annual Carpenter kiddos Christmas picture. She bought them matching outfits for the occasion and we were hoping for the best when we got to the picture studio. Sadly, the kids were NOT very cooperative, in that rather than smiles we got grumpy faces and bad attitudes. It made it harder to choose some photos to buy, but even the grumpy kiddos were rather cute and I told my mom that perhaps this is a "perfect reflection" of this time of our lives! However, afterward we went over to the play area and I took my own pictures as well just in case and as you can see here I got some better smiles. Sweet Naomi is driving the ice cream truck here and is tickled pink to be doing it too!

Josiah was having fun driving the race car here. We can still take them to these areas in the mall with the ride-on toys and they have fun just sitting in them. Sometimes when Grandma or Mommy has spare change they get to ride them, but they have just as much fun climbing on them and pretending, which is fine with me!

This is the ice cream truck and Caleb was very kindly serving me up some ice cream here! Chocolate chip mint or Cookie Dough ice cream please!!

Daniel and Josiah are riding in the train in this shot. Josiah is the engineer and Daniel is just along for the ride. Perhaps he is the conductor shouting, "All aboard!!"

The boys are cruising the hood in their pink ice cream truck. Yeah....they are that cool! They love serving up cones to those passing by though and are very generous with their ice cream giving!

Visit to the Grimm's

2011-11-13T13:45:00.000-07:00

Back in October, we went to visit some long time friends of ours who live about two hours south of us now. Charlie was actually one of the groomsmen at our wedding and the last time we lived in Spokane, Charles and Janice came to visit us when we only had Josiah as a baby and they had no children yet. So now six years later, it was our turn to go and visit them (with only a "few" more children in tow)! We met them both in the same place where we met each other in a Young Career's Group at Westwood Baptist Church (where David and I got married). I think it is really neat that two thriving marriages came from that group! We always laugh about how Janice (whose maiden name was Carpenter) became a Grimm and I became a Carpenter. Now they have three lovely children named Michael, Abigail and Samuel and we have our four. We had such a great day catching up with them and watching the kids play. Josiah now refers to their house as the "far away house" and I later discovered that he now "loves salad" because they served it there and he apparently likes it now. They live out in the country near some fields with lots of open space for the kids to play outside, and the boys had a great time exploring. They also have a bouncy house that Charles set up for them downstairs in their home. A good time was had by all! Janice later told me that her Michael (he is four) said, "I was terrified when they left!" What he meant was that he was very sad, but it was cute how he expressed that.

Abigail and David were getting acquainted here as David was showing her his Ipad. And here is a link to some video of Daniel riding the little horse at the Grimm's house as well.

It was so nice to get away for the day and they were great hosts as well! We are hoping to have them over here again very soon! Thanks Grimm's for your hospitality and a great day!

Hair Cuts

2011-11-05T12:15:00.001-06:00

The boys' hair was getting really long again, and so I took them to a local hair place to get their mops cut. It turns out that my friend's sister works there, so it was fun to see her when we went also.

This is Caleb before he got his hair cut. Unfortunately, I didn't get any after shots because they were all getting into everything and I wanted to exit stage right as soon as possible, so I just paid and we left.

Daniel kept moving a lot because the shaving tool kept tickling his neck. I had to hold his head straight so he wouldn't get cut. At the end, they all got a balloon animal or sword to take home.

Visit to Daddy's Work

2011-11-01T12:10:00.000-06:00

David's boss was in town and she had requested to see the kids and so we made our way to David's office today to visit with her and some of David's other co-workers. As per usual, Naomi is wary of strangers at first, but eventually started to warm up. Vivian (David's boss) was admiring sweet little Bu-buhs (our name for her) hair and she wasn't too sure about that.

Daniel got right to work...playing on the Ipad that is! The look on his face says it all! Very serious!

David got all the kiddos some water to drink and Daniel especially kept trying to go back and get some more. Josiah was playing shy nearly the whole time and was either hiding under the table or facing the window in his chair (as you see here). We all met with some of David's co-workers in the lunch room, so as not to disrupt the people who were talking on the phones upstairs. And goodness knows, we cause quite a disruption wherever we go!!

Silvia (left) and Vivian (right) are listening to David talk and were watching the kiddos as they interacted with him. Naomi was chowing down on some candy that Silvia brought down for the kids. Thanks Silvia!

Naomi found the table that had some patriotic decorations on it and claimed this little flag and bear for her own for a while. She was vigorously waving the flag for a while and kept bopping the little bear on her nose for whatever reason.

It was fun to see Silvia and Vivian again and the kids thought it was the greatest thing to go and see Daddy's work. Josiah asked the next day if he could go into work with him again in fact and was very disappointed that he had to stay home.

Trip to Seimer's Farm

2011-10-28T12:03:00.000-06:00

As we discovered on our trip to Walter's Fruit Farm, there are a LOT of farms to visit out in the Greenbluff area near our home. Another fun one we had heard of was Seimer's Farm, and it did not disappoint. We went on a day that was lower cost (billed as an educational tour) and paid our money for the day ($6.50 for everyone except Naomi) and wandered around there. They had a bigger train (Big Toot) that took people around the entire farm to see all the pumpkin fields and such and then they had a little train (Little Toot) that the kids could ride on. They also had a corn/sculpted bushes maze that lead to this big castle structure. They gave all the kids a map of where to find some "treasure" and Josiah was the designated primary treasure hunter and led us all around to find it. With our fee, we also were able to pick out a small pumpkin to take hoe with us that they had in a fenced off area. The above picture was of three of us on "Big Toot."

And here are the twins on "Big Toot" also. Click on this link to see some video of the kids riding on Big Toot. As we rode on the train, we also saw an area where they had these 4-wheeled bikes for kids to ride around on a dirt track. Josiah was the only one tall enough to ride them though and so he took a turn on one of them.

Josiah was having a great time being our guide in the maze and he is posing here with his map.

This is a shot from the top of the castle and you can see some of the fields in the background.

The kids enjoyed picking out their pumpkins as well and even little Naomi was swinging her little pumpkin around! It turned out that later, I used 3 of these pumpkins to make a nice pumpkin pie!
Caleb was trying to help Naomi keep up with the group here in this shot as he was pulling on her hood.

Daniel was smiling as he too was enjoying running through the maze. We ended up taking a shortcut to the castle though, as it was rather hard to find the "actual" entrance from the maze. There were lots of dead ends and we kept having to turn around and it was getting heavy to lug Miss Naomi around the whole time since she couldn't keep up with us.

This is a picture of the twins riding on "Little Toot." The barrels move to and fro and the farther back you are on the train the more the train fishtails a bit. Here is a link to some video of the twins riding on Little Toot.

Bikes for Big Boys!

2011-10-26T11:29:00.000-06:00

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Grandma & Grandpa Walker sent some early birthday gifts for the twins and since they chose to buy them bikes, we thought it wise to send them early enough so they could actually ride them before it starts snowing here. Josiah also got a bike when he turned four and so they got their bikes at four also, but the season is just not wanting to cooperate! Grandma sent helmets to go with the bikes too, but unfortunately all my kids have Charlie Brown sized heads and so the 3+ size did NOT fit! We took them back soon after and got them some helmets to fit, but the first day they rode without helmets. Here is a link to the twins riding their bikes for the first time.

Caleb is always hamming it up and he was very excited here telling me something! A few times on sunny (though a little chilly) days we ride down the street to the Mormon Church parking lot and they just ride around to their hearts' content. Josiah told me his bike was called "Comet Racer" because he goes so fast! He was also the fire engine because his bike was red. Caleb was the policeman and they would ride around looking for people to help. Caleb kept riding up to me (I was pushing Naomi in the stroller) and he would say very expectantly, "Do you need help?" I would tell him that the stroller was on fire and that he needed to put it out and he very proudly "sprayed" the stroller for me. Daniel was supposed to be the ambulance, but he wasn't down with that and did his own thing!

Daniel was just thrilled to have his own bike. What is kind of funny though is that for some reason his right pedal keeps falling off despite me trying to screw it on tight enough. I may need to take it to a bike shop to fix that I think as it is rather comical every so often I hear this, "My pedal, my pedal!" and I have to come running to the rescue with my wrench. Oy!!

For a while prior to getting the twins' bikes, I had been trying to get Josiah to ride without training wheels, but he just would not!! One time we tried and he did alright and did not fall, but since then he didn't want to practice again and no matter how many ways I tried to convince him to try he would get angry and pout and not want to do it. Then one day I was sitting in my chair on a Saturday and he looked at me and said, "Mommy, will you come out with me. I want to ride my bike." I said, "Do you want to try without the training wheels?" And he said, "OK." Just like that! I was shocked! We got out there and after a few tries he was up and going all by himself with no problem. His friend Colton was due to come over that night and as a bonus he was riding his bike well when they pulled up! I was very proud of him and since then he has really been loving his bike! Here is a link to some video of Josiah riding without his training wheels!

It's Falling Out!

2011-10-26T11:26:00.002-06:00

This last summer, I was telling the twins about the seasons of the year and for days afterward, Daniel kept asking me, "Is it falling out yet?" I told him when he sees the leaves coming off the trees that it would be fall then. When he saw some a few leaves falling then one day, he exclaimed with joy, "It's falling out Momma, look!" And of course as per usual, we need to get a shot of the kids playing in the fall leaves. This is much different from a few years ago when the twins DID NOT like being in the leaves.

Naomi stood observing all the leaf fun from a distance for a while and would not budge from her leafless spot for the longest time. She sensed I think that jumping in leaves was not a ladylike activity, especially in her furry pink coat! Uncle Jon picked her up and put her in the leaf pile and though and then the boys started throwing leaves onto her and she promptly brushed them off her jacket. When there were too many she started to moan and groan a bit and then we took her out of the leaves.
This is link to a clip of Uncle Jon playing with the kids in the leaves.

I just had to add this picture too as it really captures the boy leaf playing joy of the day! They had a blast jumping in the leaves and throwing them on each other.

Pillow Pets & Pom Poms

2011-10-21T11:20:00.000-06:00

For the twins' upcoming birthday in December, Grandma got a jump start on the gifts and determined that all the grandchildren would get a special gift for their birthday. Naomi was the only kid in the family that did not have a pillow pet yet, and I knew she would like one, so now she has a unicorn pillow pet. You can tell that she likes it by the look on her face and the death grip that she has on the pillow!

Here is the link to Naomi playing with her pillow pet when she first got it.

After she had played a bit, we had her try out the pillow part of the pet. :)

Grandma also got her some little pom poms to play with as well. She enjoyed shaking them up and down as she walked. Here is the link to Naomi playing with her pom poms.

Grandma also decided to send me my old pom poms from when I was a cheerleader and so Josiah was playing with them and told me here that he was an "ice cream cone."

The twins got some Buzz Lightyear parachuting guys from Grandma and Grandpa for their birthday and here is some video of them playing with them.

Funny Dress Up & Latest Sayings

2011-10-19T10:54:00.005-06:00

For Awana, they had a "Crazy Hat" theme this time and we scavenged around the house to find some crazy hats. Josiah wore his Yankees hat (some might find that "crazy" all by itself) and we put pipe cleaners in the holes and made little antennas that he bent around into funny shapes. Caleb wore an old hat that used to be mine. It is a sailor's hat that had my name written on it. He also found a crocheted table top cover that my Grandma Betty made and wrapped it around his waist as a belt. Daniel found the doggy ears and wore them as his hat. And not to be outdone (though she doesn't go to Awana yet) Miss Naomi was a little fire girl.

And to keep in the theme of "fun" for this post, I thought I would compile a lot of the kids' funny sayings here for you all to enjoy. Josiah has the most as he is the most verbal thus far of everyone being the oldest. I REALLY have to work to keep a straight face a lot of the time with him as he just comes up with the funniest stuff! Sometimes it is OK to laugh, but not when he thinks he is being so serious.

To preface this first one, we have a this Oranda goldfish that has this big orange part on her head.

Josiah: "Goldie is the Grandma fish."

Me: "Why?"

Josiah: "'Cause it looks like she has a lot of hair."

I had just finished spraying a small wasp's nest that day near the play structure in the backyard and then we had this discussion.

Josiah: "Mommy, if we had a robot monkey then he could do everything, like clean the dishes, clean up poop, and get the bees ."

Me: "What would mommies do then?"

Josiah: "Relax!!"

Sounds like a plan buddy....invent a robot monkey and I will buy one!

Josiah commenting on his ability to ride his scooter the other day, "It's as easy as pie, but I don't know how to make one!"

When I was pregnant this last time, I was complaining to my mom on the phone of a typical pregnancy woe that I was experiencing (painful gas--I know too much information), Josiah had some interesting insight as to why. He said, "Maybe the baby is farting in there?"

Josiah: "Mommy, I am going to draw a chameleon, but you aren't going to be able to see it, because it is going to look like a rock." (We were learning about animals that use camouflage that week in school.)

Josiah talking to Caleb and Daniel, "When you are as old as daddy, you can go to college too! Would you like that?"

Caleb and Daniel, "Yeah!" (I found out later that when Daddy was helping to lead the college group at church that this was what Josiah was referring to...that the twins could go to the "college group" with Daddy.)

Josiah and I were sorting Legos and he found this tiny gray key that goes to the police station jail doors and he said, "WOW, I have been looking for this for like 17 years!" I said, "You haven't even been alive 17 years silly!" Josiah laughs and said,"Oh yeah!"

Daddy was telling him to sit his 6-year-old bottom down on the floor in his room and Josiah said, "I always carry my bottom around, that way it is always with me."

Josiah had to write a story for school and this is what he came up with. It is called "Whale Learns Taekwondo." I will note here also that I had a hand in helping him fill in the gaps grammatically, but all the content ideas were his.

There once was a sea creature named Whale who wanted to learn Taekwondo, but he was too big to fit in the Do Jang. Some other creatures in the Do Jang named Squid and Shark were mean to Whale and made fun of him because he was so big and couldn’t come to class. Whale was very sad. His friends Boat, Fish and Octopus had some ideas to help their friend Whale. Boat’s idea was for whale to learn Taekwondo outside the Do Jang. Fish said that Whale can learn in an underwater area with a large cover to protect them from the waves and such while they practice. Octopus’ idea is that they throw Whale a birthday party and teach Taekwondo there. All the ideas worked and Whale learned Taekwondo.

Whale sparred with Squid and Shark and beat them!! Whale did a jump kick and landed on Squid and Shark. Squid and Shark were demoted to white belt and they had to do push-ups in class. They were also kicked out of the Do Jang forever because they were mean to Whale. Boat, Fish, Octopus, and Whale were very happy.

The End

Caleb isn't quite as verbal as Josiah or Daniel, but he will get there I am sure! He is most certainly the clown of the bunch and I predict all of us rolling with laughter in the future at Caleb's words and antics as well. Even now he loves to make people laugh and is a natural little actor. He imitates others behaviors well also and is the best dancer of the bunch! He is always the first one to dress up in whatever he finds and always has his own unique style. I found him one day dressed in Daddy's house pants and Tigger sweatshirt (common household attire for Daddy) and he said, "Wook, wook Momma, I'm Daddy!"

One day back when we lived in Milton, Caleb was sitting on the piano bench and Daniel says, "I'll be the mommy and sit in the rocking chair (where I normally taught lessons from)." Then he says, "And a one and a two and a GO!" Meanwhile, Caleb is playing along on the piano until Daniel yells, "Now STOP!!" Daniel was also making notes with a pencil and a piece of paper as well for his "student."

One day as Daddy left for work Caleb said, "Have a good day, I'll miss you, goodbye honey!" We then had a funny little disagreement about whose "honey" he was!

Daniel followed Caleb's lead and the next day when he found my sweatshirt laying on the couch he put it on and told me that he was "Mommy." He was very pleased with himself as you can see here!

One morning Josiah was teasing Daniel, and he was playing with a drawing pad at the time. I look over and I see that Daniel wrote the word, "NO" on the board. I asked him why he wrote that and he said, "It's for Josiah!"

I told Daniel that I he had a drumstick instead of cut up chicken on his plate, and he immediately started using it to hit his plate instead of eat it.

One night, we had Teriyaki Pot Roast with baby potatoes, carrots, & onions and Daniel reported to Grandma that we ate "brown chicken." Can you tell we rarely eat beef around here?

Daniel was talking to Josiah about going to Awana for the first time and said, "I am going to go to Cubbies, but you aren't Josiah...you are going to be a sprinkle!" (He meant to say he was going to be a "Sparkie.")

Josiah said at dinner, "I am eating dairy, Momma 'cause I have cheese and milk!"

Me: Yes, you are!

Daniel: (holding up his carrot) "And there's bunnies in the carrots!"

Me: Um....no, bunnies eat carrots.

Daniel: Oh, OK.

A long while back in Milton, Daniel was sitting next to Annika (one of his babysitters) on the couch and asked her, "What's your number?" He was referring to her age, but it was funny as it could have been a pick-up line. We all laughed heartily at that one!

And of course, Miss Naomi doesn't have any real "sayings" yet, but still her personality shines through! She has lots of single words, but no real sentences yet, however we expect her to really explode with language anytime soon. She is very good at imitating other people and she frequently observes her brothers' play and then joins in after she sees what they are doing. She loves to be chased and just squeals with delight when her brothers, Daddy or Mommy run after her to play.

When I was changing her the other day I was able to get her to say "Na" "O" and "Mi," but not her full name all together yet. However, when we ask, "Where is Naomi?" she points to herself and sighs a contented, "Huh."

Another day, she kept saying, "Foooo," in her high chair and so I pulled down some goldfish and said, "Do you want Goldfish?" and she tried to brush them away and shook her head. Then I said, "Do you want graham crackers?" and she also brushed those away. Then I asked, "Do you want fruit snacks?" and I got a resounding, "Yeah yeah yeah!!!"

She is very aware when she has a pretty dress on and she often goes to show Daddy her pretty dress right after putting it on. She shows off her pretty dresses by sticking out her chest and pointing to herself and/or straightening her dress or shirt.

After she takes a bath, her hair is really curly and the other day she was marching around the kitchen singing to herself and her little curls in back were bobbing up and down.

Cat Tails Field Trip

2011-10-18T10:16:00.001-06:00

As a benefit of being enrolled in Columbia Virtual Academy (a public school homeschooling option), we get to participate in some field trips (that they pay for) throughout the year. We signed up this year to go to "Cat Tails," which is a small little zoo that houses only some big cats and as we found out a couple of bears also. They had lots of statues of big cats around the park and Josiah wasted no time climbing on them for a photo opportunity!

This is his action pose on the bucking black panther. We learned some interesting things about the bigger cats on this trip. One thing is that a lot of people have this "idea" that they can have them as pets and then discover at some point that "wow these are wild animals and they aren't good pets." To those people, I say, "DUH!!!" So a lot of those "pets" end up at this zoo, so they can be properly cared for. One of the oldest black panthers there they call "Thunder" because she was born in a thunder storm and barely survived. They told us a funny story about when they used to put her on a leash and walk her around the park. She is also called "Princess" or many times "Beautiful Princess," and a person was pointing at the flowers in her cage and commented on how "beautiful" they were. Later after Princess was back in her cage, she destroyed all the flowers because she didn't like that someone/something else was being referred to as beautiful besides her. Josiah thought this story was really funny and retold it later to his advisory teacher for CVA.

Most of the cats were put in separate cages, but these tigers were siblings and they tried putting them together at a young age to see how they would do as they grew up. Normally adult cats are loners and do not like to be around other adult cats. One of the tigers was VERY agitated that this man with this huge camera on a tripod was taking pictures of them. We got to hear lots of loud growls and see some fierce cat behavior because of it too. Thankfully, that "scare-dy cat" was behind the fence!

I think Josiah had a good time at the event, though it was QUITE cold on the tour. I think it was in the 40's that day as I recall. We were both chilled to the bone afterward and hopped in the car and went to get our lunch at McDonald's afterward. It was nice Mommy and son date for sure though and it was nice to do something with just him!

Family Fun

2011-10-17T07:36:00.000-06:00

When I had my surgery, my parents came over for the weekend to visit and to help out a bit while I was recovering. Before they left, we got some family pictures that turned out pretty well considering! It's always hard to get a family shot, but here we are!

And of course, Grandma and Grandpa needed a picture for them as well, likely for their Christmas card this year I am guessing!

And as always, I try to get one shot of just me with the kids as well!

This was Josiah at the Discovery Park on the Saturday that my parents were here. He wanted me to take a picture of him riding the frog.

I threw this picture in as well as it was just too cute. I saw Naomi and Daniel on the stairs yesterday playing with the Leapsters. Naomi doesn't know how to do too much on them yet of course, but on the drawing program she was scribbling and she also found the heart stamp to make stamps on her little drawing as well. It was very girly!

Visit to Walters' Fruit Farm

2011-10-17T07:10:00.001-06:00

As an impromptu trip this last week, we went to Greenbluff for a little outing. Out at Greenbluff, there are a lot of farms that you can visit and we chose this time to go to Walters' Fruit Farm to pick some apples and play in some of the little areas they have there for kids. At one point, Naomi tried to pick up our box of apples, but she was unsuccessful.

The kids all posed for a picture there in the orchard for me as you can see. The twins got a little overambitious and started picking apples the moment we got off the little trailer we were pulled on out to the orchard. The gal told us that we had to buy any apples we picked, so we ended up with some very small apples that the boys chose. It was OK though, they were having fun! Naomi had the funniest little face as she trudged through the orchard. Her expression was captured here in this photo. It was as if she was saying, "I'm not sure about this place, it seems like mostly boy stuff to me!"

Josiah was posing for me here by the trailer that we sat on to go out to the orchard. He also took the next picture of Caleb boy as well. Just as we had finished picking our apples and were walking back to the farm, a wasp of some kind came and stung Josiah's finger. At first, I thought we would have to cut the trip short (as the last time he was stung it was this long ordeal), but he toughened up rather quickly and we were able to stay and play there a bit longer.

Caleb eagerly awaiting his trip to the orchard.

Daniel having fun on the little play structure that they had for the kids there at the farm. He was showing me here his thumb that he said he hurt somehow. Incidentally, he was fine as you can see by looking at the thumb in question.

After the kids played in the dried pea patch (I hope to post the video I took of that on youtube later today), looked at the animals through the gate (goats, chickens, and sheep), and played on the play structure, we had hot chocolate and huckleberry candy canes as a treat in the little cafe. Incidentally, Naomi's highlight was that she loved the animals. She sat and watched them and made noises at them for some time. The goats and sheep thought they might get a handout from us and were coming over to check us out, but when they found out we didn't have the good stuff they went on their way. On the way home, I had the gal wash a few of our apples and we had those to eat also. It was a fun little outing, and I may plan another trip to one of the other farms out there soon.

Trip to the Farm

2011-10-17T06:52:00.000-06:00

This post is quite a bit late as I had forgotten about the photos since they were on my phone rather than my camera. I forgot my camera when we came to visit the farm when they were harvesting the wheat and so I had to make due with my phone camera, which isn't the best, but oh well! Some of the pictures are from Genny's camera too. I had forgotten that she had taken some too and took them off of facebook just now. This is Miss Naomi after all the excitement taking a rest on Aunt Genny's chair.

And I forgot to mention that we were at my Aunt Genny & Uncle Mike's farm out in Cheney for the wheat harvest. I figured that a place with a great big combine and wide open fields would be a a fun place for boys to visit and I was right! It turns out we should have worn pants though as the knee high wheat stubble was very poky for the little ones. Daniel wouldn't walk through it, but insisted that we carry him to the next place where the combine had flattened the wheat stubble. We stood in the shade of the hay truck while we waited for the combine to come back around so the kids could ride in it. The other gal in the background is Pat, Mike's mom. It is a family farm and he and his dad own it together.
Genny got a nice picture of us sitting together in the farm truck while we waited for the combine to come back around. It is amazing they are all looking at the camera! Great shot Aunt Genny!

Here is Josiah getting his ride on the combine. He was very disappointed when he came back around to us and it was the twins' turn and he had to get out. However, after the twins were done, he got to go back for another turn on it and then the guy who drove the hay truck brought him back to the house for lunch. He was thrilled!

While we were waiting around, Josiah was taking things from behind the farm truck's seats and checking them out. This was a great boy adventure for sure!

And the twins also had their day in the sun (literally--it was quite hot that day!) and they also enjoyed their combine ride. Caleb was excited 'cause he got to go to the "barm" as he pronounces it. We work with him and say, "No, it's f-f-f farm." Then he says, "F-f-f barm!" Too cute!

Naomi wasn't too interested in a combine ride, but she had her hand at trying to drive the farm truck! Thanks again Aunt Genny & Uncle Mike for letting us crash the harvesting party! We had a nice lunch afterward too and a great visit with family as well.

Recent Reflections

2011-10-08T09:26:00.004-06:00

First, I would like to thank everyone for their prayers in the past week for my surgery on Friday. I really felt God's peace and comfort during the whole day and thus far the recovery is going very well. I thought I would tell a little about the events leading up to the surgery day as well, as I think it will shed light on why I really think now we made the right decision.

For some time, I have been having issues with my body temperature. I just wrote it off to pregnancy woes and/or hypoglycemia stuff that I normally get. But as an example, at night when it was time for bed, I always found that I was wearing pants, nightshirt and sometimes a sweater to bed and I would get in under a sheet and two blankets (one a down comforter) and I was chilled to the bone and often would chatter my teeth for a while and it took forever to warm up. Some nights I slept with all those clothes on too! (I would check my temp a lot, but never had a fever.) The day I got back from the surgery, I went to take a nap (pretty much same temp in the room) and found that I was burning hot (no fever on my part then either) and could hardly sleep with just the sheet and blanket without getting too hot. The same was true that night and I found I wasn't cold upon getting into bed and did not need the extra clothing and was just fine, no chattering teeth. This has gotten me wondering if perhaps I was on the verge of an infection with the failed pregnancy as my body was just acting so wonky!

I also had another huge bout with nausea the Monday prior to the surgery. All that day, I battled random smells that would set me off and had to stop and hang my head to try and stave off having to go throw up. (I know, T.M.I.!) But it was an AWFUL day to say the least! Thankfully, Tuesday I was feeling more normal-ish and then by Wednesday I had all this energy and did a lot of cleaning that day around the house and felt pretty good. David left on a business trip to Seattle on Wednesday night and was gone at a meeting in Seattle all day Thursday. He was due back Thursday night, so he would be here to take me to the hospital on Friday.

And then....he found out that the planes were not landing in Spokane due to the fog that day. They had sent three planes over that had to come back to Seattle and the flight director told them all that they could get a refund and fly the next day or whatever. David made a decision to get the refund and rent a car to drive that night. He arrived home around 11:30 at night. Meanwhile, I was at home not sleeping well because it was the first night I hadn't taken half a Unisom in some time (it was helping me with the nausea). I decided not to take it since I had to wake up in the middle of the night to take some medicine to prepare for the surgery and also didn't think it wise to take anything just in case. I had all sorts of crazy thoughts running through my mind and was wishing David was home to bounce them off of. He is such a calming influence on me and I was missing my best friend very much that night! When he got home we talked for about an hour. He was surprised to find me awake! For those of us that have heard this I apologize, but David and I once heard a speaker talk about how men think like waffles (everything is in a compartment and belongs in that compartment until it is solved and things don't mix), while a women thinks like spaghetti (everything she thinks about touches another thought that touches another, etc. and to a man it seems totally unrelated). Anyway, I say that to then tell you that he jokingly commented that he didn't sleep much either because when he got home a bunch of spaghetti exploded on him!

I was VERY thankful my hubby was home though and felt much better with him near. I still didn't sleep well that night (due to nervousness and endless thoughts about things), but felt surprisingly awake the next morning and actually got up at 4:15am 'cause I couldn't get back to sleep and just sat and read until my friend Janeen got here to watch the twins. We left at 5:30 to arrive at the hospital at the scheduled 6am.

I was briefed on all the various things and was asked all the various questions they needed to ask me and then after they put in the IV (the first one didn't work--ouch) and the anesthesiologist (who later I found out was named "Dr. Falter") gave me my first dose of meds to make me a little groggy, he wheeled me down to the surgery room. He told me that he also had twins that were 4 1/2 and was shocked that we wanted to have more after that. I later commented when I found out his name that I hoped he didn't "falter" in the surgery and the nurse laughed. I am sure he has never heard THAT one before!! He was the one who told me that as a precaution they had to put a tube down my throat in case I had reflux or something they didn't want fluid getting into my lungs. I said, "Will that affect my voice?" and he said, "For the first little bit, but it will go away after a few days." He also said that my throat would hurt a lot afterward and boy was he right! I have felt like I have strep throat or something ever since! It has affected my voice too a bit, but I am hoping the swelling will go down in the next few days and things will return to normal.

Anyway, I fell asleep with the meds and next thing I remember I was waking up. It seemed like a minute or less, but it had been 45 minutes! Such a weird feeling, as I am sure most people feel like in surgery. The doctor told David that it appeared that we had waited a little too long as the uterus had more in it than he would have liked to see, but that the surgery was successful. This is another clue that makes me think that perhaps I was nearing infection prior to the surgery. Every since, I have been feeling great and there have been no complications other than the annoying sore throat!

My parents made a surprise trip to come and help out and that has been really nice too. Mom has been great in cleaning and helping me with things and both of them have been enjoying seeing the kiddos again for a short bit. They are coming again for Thanksgiving, but due to the surgery decided to come now also.

Also a big shout out to those that helped watch our kiddos! Aunt Genny & Uncle Mike took sweet Naomi to their place on Thursday night and Friday and she had a great time playing with her Angelina the Ballerina dolls and getting all the one on one attention from them. My friend Kim had Josiah over for a sleep over and so Josiah had a great time with his friend Colton and Kylie (Colton's sister). My friend Janeen (who lives nearby and who I usually walk with early in the morn) came over at 5:15 to wait until the twins woke up and take them to her place for Friday. She also gave us a lasagna for dinner on Friday night and that was really nice! Thanks to all you guys for your help! It was great to know the kids were in good hands while we were away.

Though I am tired a bit still, I am feeling much more like myself and am thankful not to worry about feeling nauseous anymore for a while! I was told by a friend who went through this that I will probably be back to my old self in about 2 weeks. That will be nice!

I want to say also that I really see God's hand in all of this and am very at peace with what happened. I know that if a baby did form at some point (though we never saw that baby on all the ultrasounds) that he/she is in God's hands now. What I saw on the ultrasound on Thursday was not a life, not a soul, not a baby...it was dead tissue that had not grown from that last ultrasound (the remains of a fetal pole). This is a comfort to me as I am glad I can look back and know that it was not me who chose to end this child's life, but that God had numbered this child's days long before I knew I was pregnant. He is Sovereign and He is in control of this process and for that I am thankful. It has given me great perspective on the true miracle of life and the preciousness of the sweet ones that we have now. I have had a lot of time to reflect on me as a Mommy and the example I want to be for my children and this experience has given me focus and renewed drive to be the best I can be for those I have been given charge of now. I also know that I can be a comfort to someone else someday who may have to go through something like this.

Thanks again for all your prayers and comforting words of encouragement. I cherish you all! Blessings in Him!

Some Closure to Recent Events

2011-09-28T13:52:00.000-06:00

Here is another quick update for those who were wondering about my appointment yesterday with the doctor. I was in a much better place emotionally this time, as I convinced that indeed this pregnancy is not going well, and since I have not yet miscarried on my own at this time, I knew we would have to make some kind of decision.

The doctor was ready to fight with us again on this I think as he came in rather forcefully said, "Since nothing has happened, your options are still the same..." I interrupted him to say that we had some time to think about the options and that I had some questions for him and then he softened up a bit and said, "OK...shoot!" So I proceeded to ask him if before a D & C if they normally did an ultrasound prior to the surgery. He said that in my case, he saw no need to do that because he was 100% sure that this pregnancy is not viable and such. I told him that though I believed him, at the same time I had read of women who were told that same thing and then a week or so later found a living baby in their womb via ultrasound. I said that I was leaning toward the D & C for the fact of the pain factor and to avoid the trauma and timing of a miscarriage on my own, but that I really wanted that last final look to be sure we were doing the right thing.

He said that if that is what it takes for me to make this decision then he said we could do that. So we set up an appointment for an ultrasound on Oct. 6th at 9am with a pre-op visit with the doctor and then the following morning on Oct. 7th at 7:30am (have to be there at 6:00am--ack) for the D & C. I feel much more at peace about this arrangement and we already have some people in place that are going to care for our kiddos on that Friday anyway. Still need to figure out the Thursday child care though.

Thanks all for praying. I have felt peace in these last few days and the emotions aren't quite as overwhelming lately. I have still been battling pregnancy symptoms that make me nauseous, tired, and sleep irregularly, so that has been hard. However, through it all I am trusting the Lord and know that this is all happening for a reason, though I do not understand fully right now. I have had a friend who has gone through a couple of miscarriages that has been walking me through this time and am very thankful for her and her support. Perhaps the Lord will use me also to be a helper to someone who has struggled in this way also in the future.

Today despite a horrible night of sleep, I was able to (finally) clean the downstairs playroom (including vacuuming---gasp) as well as pick up and vacuum the boy's bedroom also. This is a MAJOR accomplishment around here of late! It is nice to have a little energy today and it was on a surprising day for it for sure!

Sad News

2011-09-20T15:40:00.000-06:00

Hello all and for those of you who have not read the post following this one, it would give some background to do so.

I went to the doctor again today and again there was another ultrasound. We again saw what looked to be an empty sac and a glimpse of a fetal pole, but it did not show a heartbeat. The fetal pole (which normally becomes the fetus) was measuring at 6 1/2 weeks (only 1 week older than 2 weeks ago) and the sac was measuring at 9 1/2 weeks (also only 1 week older than 2 weeks ago). I asked why these things were growing if there was nothing there, and the doctor said it is because the cyst on my ovary (normal, not a bad cyst) was kicking out the hormones as if the pregnancy was normal and didn't know any different. I found out that all women have cysts every cycle that are there to help if the egg is implanted (until a placenta forms), but then they fade away if there is no fertilized egg.

Anyway, he confirmed again that this was not a normal pregnancy and that if I waited too long to miscarry on my own that I could risk getting an infection. He said that for future pregnancies that I have no adverse risk to have this happen again and that I could indeed have a healthy pregnancy in the future, but that chance is lower if I were to get infected from not miscarrying properly.

I admit, I had let myself get a little too hopeful with some stories I read online of women in similar circumstances who then saw a baby at the 10 week ultrasound (which mine should have been today), but unfortunately I did not fall into that category this time. This has been a real roller coaster ride for sure, but I know that God will see me through as He has always been faithful to do. He gives and He takes away, but in all things give glory to God. We have been praying for guidance and clear direction, and it seems the path is very clearly marked now. My prayer now is that between now and the next appointment that perhaps I could start the process naturally and not have to take something. If that does not happen, then I guess I will have to make a choice that I did not want to have to face.

One thing this has certainly done for me is to help me realize what a miracle life really is and how miraculous it was that I have delivered four healthy children, and two of them at once! Sometimes it takes a loss to really show you how blessed you are. I am certain there is a baby who has gone on before me now who will greet me someday when I go to join him/her in heaven. I thank God even now for the twinkle in my eye that this little one has given me.

Thank you all for praying and will continually covet those prayers as these next weeks will still be emotionally hard I am sure.

Update on Baby #5

2011-09-11T16:42:00.002-06:00

For those of you who may have not heard, I found out around August 10th or so that I was pregnant again with baby #5. It was happy news and we did share with many of our friends and family. I wasn't sure how far I was along (due to many different reasons which I won't go into here) and so I made an appointment with the OB to get a more precise date and start the maternal care. My first appointment with the doctor was on August 25th and we did get an ultrasound then as well. The doctor informed us at that visit that he "did not see a fetus" and wanted me to do some blood tests in the following week to determine how much pregnancy hormone (HCG) was in the blood.

The results showed that I had very elevated levels 93,000 the first time and 24 hours later it was reading at 106,206. The doctor was very surprised at HOW high they were and later told me that in a normal pregnancy that ladies with levels at 1500-2000 that he is able to see a fetus and a heartbeat at the same gestation that he thought I was (anywhere from 7-10 weeks).

After the blood tests, I went in for another ultrasound on September 8th and it was clear when we were looking at the picture the ultrasound tech was showing us that something was wrong. Neither David nor I could really see anything but an empty sac. The tech showed us that she could see a fetal pole, whereas last time it seemed we only saw a yolk sac. It seemed quite bleak and she said that the fetal pole was measuring only 5 weeks and that the amniotic sac was measuring about 8 weeks, which shouldn't happen. They should be progressing at roughly the same gestation.

When the doctor came to see us, he basically informed us that this was not a normal pregnancy and called it in fact an "empty pregnancy" saying that either the egg or the sperm did not contain enough genetic information to form a baby, but that my body proceeded to make all the other things a baby needs and it is tricking my body into thinking that I am pregnant. He says that I should be prepared for a miscarriage soon and suggested that I should take something to speed the process along. I really did not want to go that route as it just doesn't feel right to do that. Please pray that my body will follow the natural course and that I will not have to make the choice to take something.

My health could be in jeopardy if I wait too long for this to happen on its own, but at the same time, I just cannot justify speeding up the process when I do not see the need to do so. Maybe there was never a baby there, but maybe there was. I just don't know and I can't always wonder for the rest of my life if I killed a baby inside of me.

I could really use your prayers during this time as it has been emotional and difficult at times. I know God is in control though and that baby #5 is safe in His arms or will be in the near future. I am reminded of the newest song by Laura Story called "Blessings" (click the link if you have never heard it....great song) and often I am reminded that trials can sometimes be our blessings in disguise. I can't say how right now this is a true "blessing," but as time goes on I know things will become more clear. I do know that God is faithful and that He will hold me through this time as He always has in the past. Love you all, thanks for your prayers!

Franklin Park

2011-09-11T16:31:00.002-06:00

On one of the hotter days of the summer (I think it was in the 90's that day?), we met my cousin's wife Natalie and her two girls, Sophie & Evelyn, at Franklin Park, which is near to the Northtown mall in Spokane. She lives in Newport, so it was a pretty good halfway point in which to meet up. Sophie of course (age 2) doesn't know me that well and when I took her picture here, she is giving me this look like, "Who are you lady and why are you taking my picture?" It cracked me up!

Evelyn and Josiah had fun in the splash zone and are attempting to squirt each other here as you can see. We were very thankful they had a water area as it was SO hot that day!

Daniel and Caleb enjoyed the water too and I got a nice shot of Daniel running away from the water when it popped up again after being turned off.

Caleb was enjoying the regular equipment as well as the water feature also and went back and forth between the two quite often.

Naomi really didn't want to get near the water, but was doing her girly pose here to show me where the water was when I asked her.

Before Natalie came, we sat in a shaded area and had some lunch and Naomi got PB & J all over her outfit despite the bib!

Josiah, Daniel and Caleb ate also in between running around to check out all the equipment and eventually finished eating.

The shaded area was really nice and it was a relief to have it there as it really was scorching that day! Afterward when I came home, I felt really yucky and I think I might have been a bit dehydrated or something. It was fun visiting with Natalie though and catching up as well as watching our kids play. We are closer now, but it is still about an hour and a half to Newport, so we are glad to see them when we can! Thanks Natalie and girls for coming out to play with us!

Naomi's Pigtails

2011-09-11T16:28:00.002-06:00

Naomi's hair has finally been long enough to attempt two pigtails rather than just the one on top. She absolutely LOVES it when I say I am going to do her hair and trots off to the bathroom to get prettied-up. I had a chair in there for her and she was looking in the mirror a lot as you can see.

Here is a fairly good front shot of the new do.

I did her hair again today for church the same way, but she was super grumpy for all the photos for some reason. She was hiding down by Daddy's chair in his office and this was the closest to smiling I got out of here this morning.

Random Summer Memories

2011-09-11T16:17:00.003-06:00

Grandma & Grandpa took a trip to Disneyworld this summer and sent the kiddos some monogrammed Mickey hats and some cute little Disney-themed matchbox cars. Josiah thought he was too old to wear the hat, but I informed him that it will be a keepsake for him someday. Naomi got a pink hat with her name on it as well and a little Minnie Mouse cell phone toy. They got me a funny nightgown with Minnie Mouse dressed in a robe and bunny slippers, red-eyed, holding a donut in one hand and a coffee in the other with the words, "Mornings are not pretty." And indeed they are not! I have never been a morning person, so that was fitting. David got a nice 2011 Disneyworld T-shirt also from them. They also sent some pictures of them at the various dinners they attended in some magnets to put on our fridge. Thanks for the gifts Mom and Dad, glad you had a good time!

Josiah has had lots of fun reconnecting with his old buddy Colton. When they were very little (under one) they used to play with each other a lot. Interestingly enough, they are two of a kind and really get along well as they are both very high energy and leader types. Because of this they also fight from time to time too, but mostly they are buddies and have great fun together!

The boys are trying to drag Daddy down here, but Daddy managed to pull them across the floor and into the living room a little ways before getting too pooped to pull around 120 pounds or so of weight!

At one of the other parks in Spokane, Miss Naomi was cuddling with her Daddy. It is so fun to watch them together and lately when he comes in the room she will say, "DADDY!" with a very gleeful tone.

Here she is pointing at Momma taking the picture.

One day we made some crafts to show the grandparents on Skype and the boys had fun being creative with fluffly balls, pipe cleaners, crayons, markers, and glue on eye-balls.

Leiloni's Visit

2011-09-11T16:09:00.003-06:00

About a week after Sarah came to visit, another west-side friend paid us a visit! Leiloni and her kiddos were headed to a couple of weddings (twin girls getting married a day apart) in Utah and she was making her way to Montana to ride down with one of her relatives, so a stop in Spokane was a nice respite on the journey there. Here is Leiloni holding Judah just before they piled back in the car.

Miss Eliana is about 6 months younger than Naomi, but they had fun playing together. Naomi loved having another little baby here for sure!

Caleb, Daniel and Judah are having fun here just before they left for Montana. I thankfully remembered to get the camera out before they left this time!

Asher was playing Legos with Josiah, but when he found out it was time to leave he started to pout in the corner and wouldn't let me take his picture.

However, I am sneaky like that and got him as he was coming out to the car anyway!

Noah was happy to pose with his baby sister. He loves her a lot and frequently asked me if I thought she was pretty. And yes, she is a very pretty little baby! :) Thanks Leiloni and crew for stopping by and visiting with us, it was great to have you here!

Discovery Park

2011-09-11T15:51:00.003-06:00

We made sure to make use of the warm weather here on the east side during the summer and have gone to many of the local parks to celebrate the "no rain" situation we find ourselves in (finally!) One of our favorite parks thus far, has been Discovery Park. They have lots of neat and creative play areas including a sand box (one with just sand and another with sand and water), a splash pad, an in-ground trampoline, a rock slide (literally a large rock to slide down), music features (drums/chimes), and the traditional swings and slides as well of course. They also have poetry and things written in the cement and this one is right as you come in the park across a bridge. The whole park is fenced except for the bridge entrance.

The over-sized chair was a nice place to photograph the twins and they had fun climbing up there.

The twin swings with the twins swinging.

And the twin slides, with the twins sliding.

This was a big pumpkin, and Naomi liked to go inside and yell to hear her voice echo. Caleb enjoyed that feature too as you see him yelling here.

Mr. Caleb posing for a brief moment before running off to play again.

Daniel having fun in the big pumpkin.

Josiah getting super dizzy on the spinning cups. They just keep going and going and going and they are really hard to stop!

The lopsided merry-go-round was a fun toy for them as well, but it was hard to get that thing spinning very well. I guess it wasn't meant to really spin fast apparently.

Naomi had a blast exploring everywhere also. She also gave me a huge scare at the end of the play day. I told the boys it was time to go and wanted them to get their shoes on. Josiah informed me he saw some hummingbirds over in this other area and I went over there with them to get their shoes on and look at the birds. We had been the only ones at the park the whole time, 'cause we went there at like 8am in the morning and so I wasn't concerned I would lose Naomi or whatever as she had been toddling after me all morning.

Needless to say, as we were getting shoes on and such, she DID wander off and out of the park. She heard we were going and I think she was headed to the car and then overshot a bit. I started to panic a little and then a lady pulled up with her kid and told me that my little girl was just over there a ways (past her car) and it was then that she emerged from the bushes! Ugh! It reminded me of the time we almost lost her at church too, but it turns out she just made a beeline for her classroom and was there the whole time. Lesson learned though and I need to make sure I hold on to her when I say it is time to go!

Sarah's Visit

2011-09-11T15:45:00.002-06:00

About a week after we were settled, we had some west side visitors! My friend Sarah and her kiddos Taylor, Colin, & Ryan came to visit. Our kids always have a lot of fun together. Josiah is the ringleader and Taylor and Colin pretty much follow him everywhere! We went to Riverfront Park together one of the days she was here, but I forgot my camera that day and so I have no pictures of that event. However, we went on the Skyride (which Daniel and Josiah got scared on a bit) and the kids played in the big water feature there as well. It was a bit of a long day for the Momma's, but the kids had a blast! I didn't get any pictures of Taylor I realized after the fact also! But here above is Colin, Josiah and Ryan chilling in our chair at home.

This typifies the silliness that ensued when our friends came. Daniel and Caleb love Sarah and we all enjoyed having them come to visit us in our new home. Thanks Sarah for taking the time to come over and visit!

Visit With Great Grandma Betty

2011-09-11T15:33:00.003-06:00

My parents stayed four days with us after the move and one of the days, we went to the nursing home where my Grandma lives to have a visit with her. She was absolutely delighted to see the kids and got very animated with them when they came near. They were a little shy at first, but warmed up more after being there for a while. We wheeled Grandma out into the main area and they had some toys for the boys to play with, which was very popular. Here Caleb is showing Great Grandma one of the singing dolls. They kept turning them on and the adults kept turning them off!

Naomi is always shy with new people at first and this is her "I'm not so sure about you," expression. She gave this one to Uncle Steve when he came in to visit Grandma too.

My Mom always loves to come and visit her Mom and it was of course nice to have all of us there with her too for her to show off her grand kids!

Caleb was his usual self, hamming it up wearing any dress-up clothes he could find. He was very outgoing with Great Grandma and came up to talk to her and show her things the most.

Grandpa was showing Josiah how to use the saw here and was joking around with Uncle Steve as well.

Uncle Steve pulled out some Grandpa Hal tricks and hid the object in somebody's ear or something and the twins were amazed.

Naomi really enjoyed looking at and listening to the birds that they had at the nursing home also. Although Great Grandma couldn't talk (due to her stroke), I know if she could she would have told us that she loves us and that she was glad we came by. I just talked to her a lot and asked the kids various questions, so that she could hear their voices and hear our updates as well. She seemed to like that a lot. We love you Great Grandma Betty and are glad we live closer now and can visit you more often!

Moses Lake Park Stop

2011-09-11T15:07:00.003-06:00

This post is QUITE a bit late in coming, but the reason I have been so behind isn't perhaps what you would think with a recent move and all that. Really, I have had a bit of writer's block and along with something else that is going on right now (to be mentioned in a later post) and the normal business of life, the blog has been sorely neglected. I keep reminding myself though that someday this will be a great remembering tool for my kiddos and for me, so that I will have not one or two, but MANY fun stories to tell them about their childhood. So, I keep on keeping on even in the midst of all that is going on!

This picture is of Josiah and Naomi on our last Sunday at Bethany as they were going to their Sunday School classes. Josiah and Naomi are buddies now and it is fun to watch them play together.

The journey TO our new home was not without many adventures! I can't recall if I mentioned in the "Big Move" posts that we had a bit of a problem with the moving truck. They were not able to fit all of our stuff in one truck and had to call in a second truck, which put a bit of a delay on when I wanted to leave Milton. It turned out that the movers stayed with all the stuff on our lawn to wait for the second truck and we left close to the time we planned and just locked up the old house behind us after we finished cleaning. My parents caravaned with me in their car and one twin and Josiah rode with them and I had the other twin and Naomi in my car. We would switch twins at various stopping points along the way. And believe me when I tell you, there was a very distinct NEED to switch twins quite often on the trip! We made our traditional stop in Moses Lake, despite it being around 6:45pm or so because the boys just needed to get their wiggles out. Naomi enjoyed the time out and about as well.

Caleb was a trouper for the whole trip and didn't complain too much really. He got a little finicky right before we went to the park, but did better after he got to run around. He enjoyed looking at all the sites as we went by them and such, but never did take a nap until really it was nighttime and time for bed.

Daniel, although very cute and innocent looking in this picture, was NOT so easy a traveler! He was constantly looking off into the distance and pointing to buildings and saying, "Is that our new house?" and "I wanna ride in GRANDma's car," and the most infamous (and very frequent throughout the trip), "I have to go potty!" I kid you not, we probably stopped at every possible rest stop known to Snoqualmie Pass and beyond for that kid and of course he wanted to switch cars every time as well. I would like to note also that at one stop where there was more of a port-a-potty, he REFUSED to go in and I had to take the boys to a well hidden cluster of trees to pee instead. Thankfully, they are boys and that worked OK, but man....what a pain! I am sure this was Daniel's way of showing he was stressed out by the move and he also DID NOT nap, much to both my and the grandparents dismay.
Josiah did pretty well on the trip, though also toward the end he was giving in to being silly and fighting with his brothers in Grandma's car. He of course enjoyed the park also and was showing me this feather he found there.

After the park, I finally had a crashed out Caleb-ee in the car until we hit the freeway construction right outside Spokane, when he woke up and started fussing again. He was awake for a good bit of the last portion, but thankfully once I got the boys to the hotel where David was (he left hours earlier thinking he would be there when the truck left, but because of the problem the moving truck didn't leave until later and we unloaded the next morning) they all crashed out there almost right away upon getting into their jammies and bed. I meanwhile, took Naomi to Grandma and Grandpa's hotel (because they had a crib for her there and the other one did not) and then proceeded to the new house to unload the refrigerator/freezer stuff we had brought. This only to discover that the fridge was not working (unbeknown to the landlords who thought it was working fine) at about 10:30pm at night. Thankfully, I was also headed to my friend Janeen's house to give her some things for Echo (as doggie spent the night at her place) and she also allowed me to store my fridge/freezer stuff in her extra garage fridge/freezer. All was well that ended well, but man was I tired that day!

The Big Move--2

2011-08-15T11:33:00.000-06:00

I worked on getting the play room finished pretty much by the 2nd day as I wanted the kids to have someplace to hang out while I was unpacking the rest of the house. I spent a long time that one night going through all the toys and deciding what would go where and this is the arrangement I came up with for now. We have Legos on the left side table, various toys in the dresser, the kid's computer/tv set up on top of the dresser (hence the rocking chair there), then all the other kinds of toys on the other side of the room (there is another bookshelf I used for toys on the right side wall). It works SO nicely to have a dedicated room for toys. They do creep into other rooms of course, but that is a perfect task for little kids to do to collect them and bring them back to the playroom! The other half of this room (behind the camera lady) is the homeschool room, which I will eventually take a picture of. It is done now, but I wanted to decorate it more before I shared a picture.

We put all the boys in one room and at first thought it would be hard to transition Josiah from being in his own room to being in a room with the twins, but really it wasn't a big deal at all! Josiah is a heavy sleeper and many times he just sleeps through their crazy antics. Once again though, just dressers and beds in the room so they are less likely to completely trash it!

Naomi's room turned out very nicely too. We put the guest bed in her room again and it had this cute little horse trim around the ledge that she just loves. She talks to the horses when I change her many times in fact. I still need to take a picture of the back yard, but I was sort of waiting to do so when I finished weeding the garden plot, which was quite overgrown. More to come in the future on that!

The Big Move

2011-08-15T11:19:00.000-06:00

As you can see here, we made it safely and the pictures that follow show some of our house all set up. I was able to unpack all the major boxes and stuff the Friday after we got there (about 5 days). I really hate to have boxes around and wonder where everything is day after day, so I was motivated to get it done fast! It did help of course to have my parents here for four days, so that was great! Thanks Mom & Dad!

It is nice to have much more room now and find a place for everything to go without feeling super cramped! My china hutch has china in it now again for instance instead of homeschooling stuff! Our living room is no longer another toy room (double yeah!) and we have a dedicated room for toys and the other half is for homeschool stuff!

The kitchen is really cute albeit a little smaller I think than our previous one. It has some neat perks thought like MUCH deeper sinks, a pop-out drawer near the sink for sponges and things, and of course the cute trim and colors is a big plus too!

Our bedroom is not just a bedroom and not an office as well (triple yeah!) It makes it much easier to keep it clean when all that is in here pretty much are clothes!

We live on at the intersection of two streets that end in this little cul de sac, so it is a nice place for the kids to ride their bikes/trikes/scooters. Yesterday, we met a little boy who lives down the road who is Josiah's age who came riding by on his electric scooter. It has been super sunny and nice since we have been here and it has been fun to enjoy some summer weather! We have been exploring various parks in the area and have been catching up with friends as well. It is nice to live less than 5 minutes from our church now too!

Bathroom Redecoration--AKA Comet Tower

2011-07-19T23:14:00.002-06:00

Why you may ask have I chosen to decorate my bathroom in such a manner? I will give you 4 guesses and the first two do not count! Why yes, in a matter of about 5 minutes (when they were supposed to be washing their hands) the twins unwrapped many rolls of toilet paper and found the Comet that was hidden way in the back of the cupboard behind the rolls of toilet paper (which has been there without incident forever) and proceeded to make the mess you now see here. Meanwhile, I am eating my breakfast, and not hearing any shrieking peals of laughter or silence, I was not yet alerted to the fact that there was a mess being made. I was cued into the disaster when Caleb ran out saying, "Mommy, Uh-OH" and was covered with a powdered substance of some kind. At first I thought perhaps it was baby powder, and then quickly ran to check and discovered this lovely creation.

Needless to say the twins were escorted promptly into their room to remain there until the mess was cleaned up. It was SO toxic in the bathroom, I could hardly breathe and started coughing immediately. I grabbed a mask to wear (I thankfully had one lying around) and got to work. I had to sweep up all the Comet and put it all in the bathtub. The bathtub got quite a scrubbing that day! As I was doing that, my mom came into the bathroom (they were there early to take the boat over the mountains and the truck and boat were parked at our house) and she said, "What happened here?" Yup....I let her guess too! She told my Dad, "Do you need to go to the bathroom Paul...if so, there has been an 'incident'!" Ahhhh....yes, an incident indeed. Well, after they left, I cleaned the floors and then had to get the vacuum out to vacuum the Comet they tracked on the carpet outside the bathroom as well.

Did I mention yet we have lovingly named them "The Troublesome Trucks?" I think "Twin Tornadoes" has a great ring to it to, wouldn't you say?

And today just as a bonus, I put out some gel pens and notepads that I got for them for Christmas that I found (I had put them away....wonder why?) and for a while they were using them properly. As I was getting dinner ready they started to unscrew the tops and Caleb thought it was a wonderful idea to bite on the tube of ink. I heard him gagging and looked over to see a purple, sparkly mouth and tongue. I rushed him to the bathroom and washed all the ink out of his mouth with water and cleaned off the table afterward. Honestly....where do they come up with these things?

I have learned...when you THINK you have everything child-proofed and figured out, twins have a way of finding the chinks in your defenses in the least likely of places. We have often joked that we could hire our children out as professional child-proofing checkers. They would do a thorough job I assure you! And lastly, I say...you have to laugh at these things and we do. However, when you think of me...say a prayer as I really do need it!

Naomi Update!

2011-07-19T22:22:00.003-06:00

Our sweet little Naomi is nearing her 17th month here on July 25th and her personality is showing more and more as she grows. She loves to cuddle with her blankie in the morning and won't leave her bed without one when I come and get her. She doesn't cry when she wakes up, she will just be sitting in her bed wrapped in a blanket with her pacifier as quiet as can be, but will pop right up when she sees me come in. I usually hold her for a bit and then bring her to her high chair to eat breakfast, and this particular morning she wanted her blankie wrapped around her while she sat waiting for her breakfast to be served.

She absolutely LOVES animals and she frequently plays with Echo and goes and tries to hug her or sit on her. Echo is not fond of being a pony though and usually gets up when she does that. Echo has a scowl on her face here, but most of the time she was licking Naomi as they were playing. Naomi barks at dogs by bobbing her head and saying, "Ooo, ooo, ooo!" Here is a link to a video of her eating an apple.

When I ask her questions now, she will respond with a yes or a no. For her "no" she shakes her head vigorously and says, "Uh-uh!" And for for "yes" she will either smile and head in the direction of what she wants or will say, "Yea." She will say nothing but "Ma-Ma" now when we try to get her to say "Da-da" and when we take her away from something she wants she puts on her grumpy face! It is a pouty lip with some very serious eyebrows to go with it! Needless to say, I am not convinced and can usually get grumpy baby to smile again pretty quickly.

She is a very sensitive little soul too as evidenced by the time she threw her plate on the floor and both David and I said, "NO!" and she got a big pouty lip and turned her head away from us and then started to cry and turn red. When I leave for a bit, she will roam the house saying, "Ba-Ba" or "Ma-Ma" and will keep looking around for me. She points to most everything and says, "Umm-BAH?" She frequently brings us books which she calls "BA" also and wants me to read to her. When she sees a baby face or an animal she makes a sound like "Gula-gula-gula-gula" with a big smile. She points to various parts on her face when we name them and especially loves to point to noses.

She gets picked on by her brothers and lets them know WHAT FOR when it happens! She comes to Mommy for comfort and protection from her mean old big brothers. They are learning how to treat a lady and sometimes don't always cut the mustard by princess standards you see!

She LOVES her mashed potatoes and when she saw them on her plate the other day I heard her say, "YEAH" and she smiled really big. She is on a meat strike currently for whatever reason, so we will see if she will get off that at some point again. She is finally getting more teeth and at current count I think she has around 11? Still not all in yet, and that is a guess actually as I can't get her to keep her mouth open long enough to see them all. She has big teeth like me though I have noticed.

We love our little princess and I have had a blast getting to know what having a little girl is like. Such fun! So different!

New Bed Set!

2011-07-16T22:40:00.001-06:00

Well, for the first time since we have been married, we got a bed frame and some furniture to match in our bedroom...at least on my side for now. My mom got me a dresser and a side table and then later as an anniversary/VERY early Christmas gift, a bed frame that matched them (and a side table for David that I still need to put together). The side table and dresser came together fairly easily (which I built on different days than the bed frame), though I made a couple of mistakes on each and then there was the bed frame. (Cue scary music and an evil witch's laugh) Du-du-DUH!!

Sooo, it was supposed to be a surprise for David when he got home one evening, and I envisioned having it all made when he came home from work. Ummmm--NOT! As usual, I underestimated the project and not only did it take longer, but there were some major problems that had to be overcome. I found that near one of the last steps, I put the headboard together wrong (the sides were flip flopped) and so I had to take apart a good deal of it to fix the problem. Afterward, it was fairly easy to put the frame together and then with some help from David managed to get the Sleep Number device that hooked to the bed under the frame and made the bed ready for sleep that evening. And then (cue more scary music) Du-du-DUH...AGAIN!

I laid on the bed and....KER-PLUNK....the bed fell through the frame. So the IKEA peeps at the store told us that we did not need slats because we had a box spring for our mattress. Well, actually we have twin foundations it turns out (I forgot) and because of that, the weight was distributed differently and consequently we DID need slats. Thankfully my mom was still here at the time, and she made the trek back to IKEA to pick up slats.

Needless to say, by this time my arms were sore from wrestling with the bed, I was disappointed because the bed wasn't ready when David came home, and now I had to take the heavy mattress and foundations back off the bed in preparation for when the slats came home. I was glad to find out that putting the slats on was as easy as just laying them down, but the hard part then was to find a way to sneak the Sleep Number device under the mattress, under the foundation and now also UNDER the slats. It was hard work even with two people, but we managed to "get 'er done" and finally as my aching biceps were crying out for rest, I finally got to enjoy the bed!

The final product looks really nice though and it is nice to have them. Thanks Mom!

Vacation Bible School 2011

2011-07-15T22:56:00.001-06:00

This was our last Vacation Bible School experience at Bethany Baptist Church (or as far as we know for now anyway) and it was a good one. I helped to lead music for the kids (we had around 380 this year) each day in the morning and at the end of each day and also helped out here and there where needed as well. I had this horrible cold though the whole week, so it was only by God's grace that I was able to lead the music! This picture was from the last day when they got bouncy houses for the kids and had jump ropes and hula hoops outside to play with. Josiah was enjoying trying out the jump rope.

He was jumping without shoes 'cause they asked them to take them off for the bouncy houses and he just decided to jump rope without them also. He seemed to be able to swing the rope backwards better than forwards though for whatever reason.

One of the gals at the church, Mrs. Erickson, was there to help out kids who had special needs or just needed an extra amount of TLC for the week and Josiah was one of her buddies on a few of the days there. He absolutely LOVED hanging out with Mrs. Erickson and told me all about their adventures together at the end of each VBS day. I was so thankful for her willingness to love on Josiah and it really made his week.

The twins got to go to a mini-VBS that was set up only for the volunteers kids and they also had a great time. Daniel loved seeing his "teacher" everyday and both of them kept asking to go to "PBS," which is what Josiah used to call "VBS" too when he was little. The twins got to come upstairs for the music part that I did and each day when I asked them their favorite part they said, "The music!" The counter to this though was when I asked Josiah his favorite part he said, "NOT the music!" Later he said to me, "The music is nice Mommy, but I don't want to sing." I asked him why and told him he had a beautiful voice and he said, "I only sing when I want to." Naomi got to stay in the nursery the whole time and during my breaks I would come down and play with her a bit and she loved that. The ladies said she was very active and loved to do lots of different things in the nursery. One of the days, she hurt her lip on a chair that she fell on, but all was well!

The twins had one room for active play where they had this rocking boat and a little bounce house and some other things and then a room for arts and crafts and stories and just free play. Their teacher, Mrs. Kirkpatrick, is there on the left singing, "Row, row, row your boat" and Caleb is enjoying his boat ride.

They set up a water table there in the back of the room and Daniel is there playing. One of the days I peeked in and Daniel and another boy were drinking the water from the water toy cups at the table. From what I understand, the twins did a great job in class. They had a lot of 2 and 3 year-olds in that class, I think around 19, so it was quite a group! They had lots of helpers though too, so that was good. Mrs. Kirkpatrick was pretty worn out though at the end of the week she told me! It was nice they had this for the volunteers kids because the twins and Naomi had a great week too!

Beach Vacation #2

2011-07-04T21:19:00.002-06:00

After our time playing on the beach, we went back to the house we were renting for the weekend and made heated up some frozen pizzas in the oven and had lunch with my Mom and Dad and then set off to get a seat for the 4th of July parade, which just happened to be a couple of blocks from the house we were staying in. Trying to get four children to pose is of course near impossible, but this is as close as I could get to them all looking at me!

I tried again in vain to get my Mom to take a picture (mainly to prove that I DO go on these vacations too) and Josiah decided that he was going to be difficult and not allow himself to be photographed. The kids really enjoyed the parade and Grandma bought them some M & M's to enjoy as they watched. Naomi fell asleep half-way through the parade though in her little stroller and we strolled her home that way too.

She got to saying, "Ooo, AHH" over and over again with very pronounced vowels and Caleb joined in with her and I caught Caleb in an "AH" and Naomi in an "Ooo." Fun to see them interacting. Caleb is the best at doing "baby things" with Naomi, but he is also the one who will suddenly turn and randomly hit her or push her down too, so I have to watch carefully. Here is a video clip of this same photograph.

There was this big fire truck that was mainly a water truck with huge wheels that came by on the parade route that then parked across the street from where we were at the end. The driver allowed the twins to sit in the wheel well for a photo opportunity. We got one of Josiah sitting in the other wheel too!

After all the kiddos had a nap, we journeyed over to Long Beach where my parents were staying and roamed around that area for a bit. There is this nice little area where we stopped and let the kids look at the pretty flowers and such while we were waiting for the rest of our party to meet up with us. Naomi blends in well here with her pretty flower dress and Daddy is lifting Daniel up in the background.

Naomi gets her turn to be lifted up by Daddy, but this kind of activity doesn't prove to be girl-approved for long as she started to fuss and want down pretty quick after Daddy started swinging her up and down. Girls have things to do when there are flowers around Daddy!

There was this little "Mother Goose" show at a stage that was set up downtown and we caught the tail end of it where Mother Goose was letting the kids pet her bunny. When Caleb sidled up to her, she saw his black eye (which he got falling off a chair about a week prior) and remarked, "Did you and your brother get in a fight?" and he said, "Yeah!" Not far from the truth, but not actually the truth in this case.

Then we went to pay a visit to the Carousel as Naomi had never been on one before. I strapped the twins onto their ponies of choice and then got Naomi on a pony of her own. Before the Carousel started to move, she was pushing on his mane and bobbing back and forth to try and get him to go. We have a youtube clip of that here if you would like to see it! In that same video, you will see Josiah on the pony next to her as well. After we had dinner, we all headed to Grandpa and Grandma's hotel and went swimming in the pool there. It was Naomi's first encounter in a pool and she wasn't too happy to be in the water. She clung to me for dear life the whole time and was super sleepy and so we didn't stay too long in the pool. All the kiddos wore life jackets, and with three adults in the water, it worked out nicely.

When we got home from our trip the next day our "I'm not tired" Josiah was crashed out on our chair with his new boat that he got from Grandma. This about sums up what a vacation is like with four kiddos under the age of six! We needed a vacation from the vacation! They always have a hard time adjusting to new sleeping arrangements and new routines, and so it is a challenge for all of us, but we made some fun memories for sure!

Beach Vacation #1

2011-07-04T21:06:00.001-06:00

This year for the 4th, we make the trek down to Ocean Park for a little vacation at the beach. My brother and his wife and his in-laws were camping nearby, and so we also got to go to dinner with Katie & Brent on Brent's b-day as well. It was hard to coordinate seeing him much more than that though as they had their own plans with his in-laws too and the kids had their own issues that made things difficult, but we did spend a lot of time with Grandpa and Grandma while there for sure! This was the morning of the 4th and it was SOOOOO cold on the beach! It appears warm-ish, but I assure you it was not! Josiah didn't have a coat (lame me forgot to bring it) and when we asked him (noting his beet red arms from the cold wind), "Are you cold?" He emphatically stated, "I can handle it!" And he did! He was loving exploring the beach as he always does!

Naomi wasn't too keen on the cold and the wind and the sand, but she toddled around in it a little bit. You can see how windy it was by observing her little hair leaning in the wind. Here is a clip of her walking around at the beach.

Josiah is pausing here for a moment as he was digging in the sand making a sand castle. I think it might be appropriate to say that he is as "happy as a clam" here. Though come to think of it, I am not sure I have ever seen a happy clam before!

Daniel was most definitely NOT as happy to be braving the elements today and Daddy said that when he took the boys closer to the ocean waves he was lagging behind and complaining of the cold the most. I asked him here if he was cold and he gave me his best grumpy face to show that he was. Contrast this face with...

CALEB...who as you see here is elated, joyful and in his element! David said he was ever ready to jump in and do whatever Daddy was doing and loved running around looking at all the beach things.

Isaac's B-day Party

2011-07-02T20:52:00.000-06:00

My dear friend Melissa's son, Isaac, had his 9th birthday party and we were again blessed to be able to celebrate with them. Isaac had an Army theme for his party and his relatives all gave him some great gear for camping and hiking. It was also a nice sunny day for his party and so the kids got in some water play here as well. After they got pretty wet, they came in for some cake and Melissa was telling us about how much she loved Isaac and about how he has always had a servant's heart and puts other people first. And he does!

They played a pass the balloon game and when the music stopped whoever was left with the balloon was out. Also if you broke the balloon you were out too. The kids were laughing so hard during the game and just loved playing.

Then they had a water balloon fight. Isaac's Dad, Bill, put a line of balloons on one side of the yard and had the kids line up on the other and let the younger kids run to the line first and then sent the older kids and then they could grab one balloon and take their shot. Of course, Isaac's uncles did things like dump large buckets of water on those that dared come near and so it was fun to watch.

Here they all are running for their balloons!

Isaac's Uncle Joe got him pretty good here as you can see! He was loving it though for sure! It was bittersweet to be here knowing that we will not be here for his party next year. We love you Ciccone's and will miss you! As a side note, it turns out that they will be living in our old house in Milton so...we KNOW where you live! Happy birthday to Isaac and blessings to you guys!

Josiah's 6th B-day--part 2

2011-06-25T20:23:00.003-06:00

This year for Josiah's party, he again wanted a Lightning McQueen theme. And lucky for us, the night before his party, "Cars 2" premiered in the theaters! It was fun to take him on a little date just him and us! Also lucky for us, we have LOADS of "Cars" paraphernalia that we have accumulated through the years. I used all of this for the decorations and it worked out great! For the party day, it was thankfully nice and sunny and so we were able as in past years to get out the sprinkler, water guns, and wading pool for all the kiddos. Josiah was taking a break here from the action for a bit, just enough for me to snap a photo!

The kids always LOVE to have water fights and Jaiden was especially excited about the big super soakers and was running around trying to get everyone. We had to make rules about WHO could be "gotten" because some people were getting wet that didn't want to. Most of the kids neglected to follow these rules (go figure) and so people just got wet anyway!

We had lots of people come to the party and it was quite a full house here as you can see! Josiah all of a sudden got super shy and WOULD NOT come in to have us sing to him. In past years, he has been shy about the singing part, but this time he bodily refused. As you can see, Daddy had to wrangle him back near the cake so we weren't singing to an empty chair. He wouldn't blow out his candle either and so the other kids did it for him. At first he didn't want cake, but then magically somehow after everyone was eating and the attention was off of him, he wanted some.

Our sweet little shy Josiah! His Daddy isn't too fond of pictures either and being in the spotlight, so I guess he has the same inclinations! Here is a video clip of what happened.

Our babysitter Sharel and her boyfriend Michael and also her sister Laura (another of our babysitters) came to the party too and the kids always have fun interacting with all three of them. Daniel was enjoying some of the pinata loot here with Sharel holding onto him. We had a Lightning McQueen pinata of course and it was the kind where you pull strings to see which string opens the pinata. Josiah pulled the first string and Caleb pulled the 2nd and it was a winner! Usually it takes quite a while, but Caleb was so excited to be the one to open it!

Naomi was very interested in all the goings-on of course and we got her dressed in her little ballerina suit and cover-up and she was toddling around to look at everything. Grandpa would always scoop her up though whenever she was near to get some hugs and kisses in!

Josiah started an impromptu game of Limbo and his friend Bryce is getting ready to limbo down the slide. He was singing, "Limbo, limbo, LIM-BO!" as they would go down.

Caleb was having a B-L-A-S-T at the party! When he woke up from his nap he was elated to get in his suit and then was running around with the squirt guns shooting people with water as quickly as he could get them filled up. He got Josiah once and gave this evil little, "HA ha ha!" laugh as he ran away. Josiah wasn't happy to have been "gotten" and pouted for a while! Caleb was soaked almost the entire time, but didn't complain a bit! When I went to take off his suit at the end of the day he was VERY unhappy and wanted his soaking wet suit back on again! Daniel had fun too of course, but wasn't as in to the water as his brother was.

Here is a shy Miss Naomi making her debut in her cute little suit and cover-up!

Josiah was having fun here with his pail helmet and squirt gun. The kids had a great time and my mom heard one of them say, " This is the best birthday party E-VER!" Josiah had a great time too and got to make lots of fun memories with his friends that came. Happy birthday to our oldest Pumpkinhead, Josiah!