raking leaves

We finally got our back lawn raked today (our neighbors say hooray). And by that I mean, Terry raked our lawn. It was only fair. After all, we only have one rake. Plus, I did it last year when I was 6-7 months pregnant. Anyway, we got it done. I am posting lots of pictures of this boring event b/c I like pictures of my kids.

The leaves don't really look so bad here. It's just the one maple tree. But they sure add up.

Samuel was chillin with Noah and Evie's representatives.

Happy boy face

Happy kid faces

Evie gets the first of many dumped leaves on her head

This is what she thinks of it

More leaves

And more leaves. And no, I didn't tell him to stop.

We would have taken a complete family photo but there's no one else but me to point the camera. Perhaps we should train Snap dog...

3 amigos

Samuel was not digging it at this point. He had a nap after this.

Evie came to a stop at Terry's feet and was like, Excuse me daddy, I'm mowing.

4 of 13 piles

4 more

The fruit of our (Terry's) labors. The city will bring tractors by and haul away our mess. It's so nice.

5 new hooks

It's cold today! Since we were stuck inside we took care of a much needed project. Last weekend Terry bought a coat rack, chalkboard, huge hurricane and glittery wreath from an estate auction at the building. He spent like $2 on the first two b/c they were begging people to take the last things. I was pleased with all of it except for the chalkboard b/c that brings our chalkboard total up to three.

However, we ended up using the chalkboard. This is what the front door looked like before.

I love this so much more. The chalkboard placement was Terry's idea. He's a decorating genius. Who knew? And it's actually a nice chalkboard - old fashioned and very sturdy. Now we need something clever to write on it. I told Terry that's his responsibility.

This coat rack is for the kids.

You can see our other coat rack mess hidden away in that little cove. We made it a couple years ago and still love it. However, it's too tall for the kids to reach so every time we go out or come home, I have to put away 4 coats. Terry saved the day at the auction! Now those little punks can hang up their own coats.

attempted reading

I went downstairs this morning and found Noah and Evie doing this. I like it.

children's museum

Last weekend Terry had to work on his day off so the day before we took a much needed break from town. We decided to head down the road an hour to the Children's Museum that we've heard so much about. The kids LOVED it. It was a hit. Noah said, with imperfect grammar, "That was the best place I never been!"And he kept calling it a "nu-seum." Silly punk.

Evie's favorite part was the grocery store and the fire truck.

They even had a family room. Aka, nursing mothers room. So even Samuel and I enjoyed ourselves in the relative peace and quiet.

Noah's favorite thing was the working HO model train set. I didn't get a picture of it, but if you know Noah at all, you know he loves trains.

This was Terry's favorite part - playing with the water. He made us stay until they closed the museum so he could keep playing.

They were making rows using the little flap things for boat races.

We had to try to keep Samuel out of the water.

school project 5

This project was from several weeks ago. We had been learning about the ocean and it's movements in Noah's science book and one of the optional things you could do was to make "waves" in a 2 liter pop bottle with water and oil. I didn't want another 2 liter bottle sitting around, or to use that much mineral oil, so I made a mini-wave thingy out of a water bottle.

Water, blue food coloring and baby oil = waves

And I just like Noah's expression here.

his ambition...and other stories

Another self portrait of Noah.

Today Noah told Terry that he no longer wants to be a dentist. He wants to be an animal rescuer. And Snap is going to help him rescue endangered animals. We think it had everything to do with the TV show Animal Rescue Terry watched with him for like 10 minutes.

Yesterday after Terry and Noah were done wrestling and playing, daddy held Noah close and told him he wanted to snuggle. You would have thought Terry was hurting him for all the squirming and screaming he did. He yelled that he doesn't snuggle with daddy, only with mommy. When Terry released him, he crawled over to me and snuggled right up.

That behavior goes right along with what he's been saying for a couple months now: That he loves mommy the most. When I try to remind him how much he truly loves daddy (his excitement when daddy comes home, always wanting to play and wrestle with daddy, wondering when daddy will get home, etc.), he tells me that he loves daddy a little, but mommy the most.

Today he dropped a glass and it shattered. I wasn't in the room and after I heard the crash I expected some yelling. When I investigated, Noah insisted that he was going to tell me the truth. After he told me the story, he reiterated that it was the truth.

#50

Doesn't Noah look excited? He should be. He's completed half (50) of the Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. And he's doing very well. Mondays are a little tougher after the weekend break, but he's getting it. He's reading! Grandparents and aunts and uncles need to be quizzing him over Thanksgiving :)

Pink Bear hat

Pink Bear goes everywhere with Evie. Nice hat, little squish.

he cruises

Samuel is 9 months old. And all the kid wants to do is move.

Samuel was 7 months old when he started to army crawl which quickly led to the modified scoot that he's still doing. But at about 8 months he started pulling himself up on the furniture and cruising around the room. He also raises himself up to his knees and peers around like a prairie dog. Very good balance.

Samuel reminds me of Noah. Noah also wanted to move very badly, except Noah never learned to crawl. He just skipped it and went straight to walking at 9-10 months. We used to have to follow him around and pick him up wherever he fell b/c he couldn't get up. I think it was my fault with the burrito wrapping. At any rate, he's fine now.

This is what Noah looked like at about Samuel's same age. Noah saw this photo and thought it was Samuel.

Evie was a better mover than Noah but she needed a little encouragement to crawl. But at least she did things in the proper order. Here she is at about Samuel's same age.

Fast forward three years and now Samuel is the one digging in the bottom kitchen drawer for toys. And Evie is huge.

Samuel is peering in to the oven...or perhaps he was just pulling himself up.

He was standing here with the space heater a couple weeks ago when Snap came to stand next to him. I could just see on his face his thought process of how he could grab Snap. And he did, but then Snap moved. I thought it was cute. And I was right there to catch him b/c he's not good enough to stand on his own yet. But it won't be long now.

On Halloween I took a ton of photos of the kids and documented how mobile Samuel is. He crawled from the clothes line to the edge of the patio and stood up (20-30 feet).

Then he made his way over to the steps. See his scooting move? It's just like a crawl except he doesn't stay on all fours - he pulls his right leg forward at the time he should bring his knees up. That way he can stay on his bottom since he likes to be up.

Then he pulled himself up the sidewalk.

Samuel standing up at the step.

Now he's crawling up the step. He's done that a couple times inside too. We have to watch him since we have 3 sets of stairs and 4 levels.

Pulling himself up.

And he's standing!

Of course, he does get into to tricky places sometimes. I had to grab the camera before rescuing him from the basket though.

Samuel wanted to be a part of making cupcakes this afternoon.

halloween 2011

Believe it or not after looking through these photos, but we have come a long way in participating in Halloween since we had Noah. For his first Halloween we threw him in a laundry basket with some towels and said he was laundry.

Last year he just wore a hat, carried a baseball and wore his summer t-ball t-shirt and he was a baseball player. Oh, and Evie was a lady bug borrowed from a student.

So I say we've come a long way. But perhaps that's not so b/c Evie was a lady bug again this year... What?! It still fit! But Noah... Noah had his best year ever as a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle - Leonardo.

Leonardo was given to us by the church secretary, Terri, whose son wore it (even in college!). It was in perfect condition and Noah enjoyed it b/c he knows who the Turtles are since Terry downloaded the old school Nintendo game onto our Wii.

Samuel, unfortunately, did not get to dress up. Mommy is lazy or something. Oh, and see Noah's sword? That's an old one. The costume came with Leonardo's sword but Noah busted it as soon as he went outside. And Evie carried an old Easter basket.

First we went to our neighbor across the street who has rescued escaped Snap many times.

Then we went to our next door neighbor (the one who wanted our tree down and killed a possum).

We went up the street a couple blocks before going east several more blocks. Then we got in the van to drive to Terri's house and Rick and Shelli's too.

This was the most done-up house... Oh, and we pulled the kids along in the wagon.

Here is Noah's haul.

Evie's haul.