wakey wakey

Evie is 3 on March 31st and still takes a nap. She doesn't look real pleased about it though does she?

speaking lessons

Every time Samuel makes a noise or gurgle or coo, Noah asks, What did Samuel say? I go over and over how Samuel can't talk yet, he's not old enough yet, he's got to be closer to 1 year old and he's only 2 months, he learns by listening to us...

But all of that's not good enough for Noah. He insists on helping him learn to speak.

"Say 'corn,' Samuel. 'CORN!' Say 'banana,' Samuel!"

Terry says, you know you live in Nebraska when the first word your son thinks to teach is corn.

reading attempt

Samuel was wearing his very cute green pajamas recently and Evie was trying to read the words on the front. She came up with something like "Tiger wants to eat." Something about a tiger. It was cute though I can't remember exactly what she said.

I like this shot b/c Terry is like, Ug is she taking my picture? But Evie looks pretty happy with it. Or she's just happy about daddy.

too cool for...

Terry had a Christian music group perform in lieu of youth group last night. VOTA is their name. We first heard them perform before David Crowder a couple years ago and bought their CD and have been enjoying it ever since. They were great!

A couple of the band members happened to have been home-schooled. So they had this conversation about that and how I had given Terry the responsibility for coming up with a name for our home-school (you have to have a name for the paperwork). The lead singer had a good idea:

The Too-Cool-for School.

Haha! No offense or anything, I just think it's funny and different. Most names are pretty generic, something to do with where you live or your last name. I did hear a good one last year at the convention: The School of Hard Knocks. We'll see if we can come up with anything better.

Furthermore, if you're interested in our home-school education choice, I just read a really great article: Mixed-Age Classrooms by Andrew Pudewa. Just click on that link to read it. I had never really thought of all the things he wrote about. He's got a very good perspective.

quality brother time

This is how Noah wanted to watch Saturday morning cartoons

peek-a-boo

nap time nickname

I've been feeling a little sad that Samuel doesn't have a nickname. My mom said that will come with time and she's probably right. Noah was "the boy." Evie is "little squish." So what is Samuel?

Lately we have been calling him "Sam Well." But most of the time I say "little stinker."

Why? B/c of the diapers? No. B/c that boy does not seem to like to nap very well! Correction, he'll nap just fine, just for not very long. He goes to sleep without a fuss and then exactly 45 minutes into his nap, he wakes up and will not or cannot go back to sleep. I've tried everything - nursing him (but since when do growth spurts last 3 weeks?), keeping him up longer, putting him down sooner, putting him down later, keeping him up shorter amounts of time, louder fan. Nothing works. We are working and praying for a solution...

Since the nice quiet crib doesn't seem to help him sleep longer, he slept with daddy the other night for his 45 minutes. Terry really enjoyed it though you can't tell that from here =)

Little stinker Sam Well!

family picture time

Samuel is six weeks old now. Crazy.

This brought to mind that I still hadn't taken care of our baby announcement/Christmas card. So after church this week I made sure I had the camera timer set up for when daddy got home. However, that photo you'll just have to wait to see.

The kids had to play while we waited...

They like their brother quite a bit.

He's not sure how he feels about that.

Noah and Evie were playing with their ZuZu pets.

It's okay to put up a photo of myself every now and then right?

Dare to Share 2011

I had to miss D2S this year due to the little baby boy that was only a month old. But Terry went, of course, with a record number of kids - 108 people, himself and leaders included. They even had to take a charter bus, along with two 12 passenger vans, a suburban and a van. There might have been more vehicles but I didn't go so I'm not sure!

It was the "Un" Tour. The lessons were taken from David and Goliath - getting "un-ed," meaning un-cool, un-afraid and un-leashed for The Cause - sharing Christ with their friends.

So here is the whole group in front of the capitol. It was a lot colder than last year, unfortunately for them.

The guys in the middle are awesome - Kyle and Luke.

Rebecca gets her groove on - HA! And Terry printed all the shirts of course - for our group, Rapid City and Watertown. The two guys on the front are Greg Stier and Zane Black, the speakers who the kids adore.

Greg Stier. He's very funny. But notice all the kids behind him. The Pershing Center is always packed, quite a sight, and awesome for worship.

Terry on some bus. Pretty sure he's not texting me though! He's way too crazy busy for that.

Here is another shirt he printed, just for he and his helpers. His friend from high school designed it.

Another reason I was bummed not to go this year: My brother was there! He brought some kids from his youth group in Watertown.

And Zane Black. The girls have crushes on him ;) though I'm pretty sure he's married.

brothers

Everyone has been asking how Noah and Evie are getting along with Samuel. Very well, thank you.

Noah, especially seems to like his baby brother. If he's watching a show and Samuel happens to be awake, he wants Samuel on his lap. He looks so happy right? Noah that is. Samuel always looks...far off, deep in thought, serious.

Noah is always where I am with Samuel. This afternoon I was taking some pictures of Samuel and Noah was right there.

Smooch. Noah's been pretty gentle with Samuel, but I have caught him treating him a little like Snap... "Noah, Samuel's not a dog!"

LOVE this one!

sleepy

I could not get this tired little guy to wake up a couple weeks ago. So, he slept in the chair for a little while.

family nap day

Terry took 108 people to Dare to Share in Lincoln last weekend. We missed him. It's harder when he's gone now that we have 3 kids. It wasn't easy before either I suppose.

So after 2 nights of like 4-5 hours of sleep (he and I both), we were more than ready for a nappy Sunday afternoon. But first, some baby time.

He's wearing the crotcheted Converses my mom made.

Snuggle time

Terry's trying to sneak in an early nap. Gotta wait for that baby to go to sleep first!

Oh, and Noah wanted me to take this shot - see his foot disappearing under their fort?