Sunday, April 26, 2015

Noah's 10th birthday!

Sunday April 19th was Noah's 10th birthday. It was definitely, and still is, surreal to realize that he's that big. Seems like he should still be six. 

I'm very thankful for Noah. Even though he came at a time in my life when I did not think I was ready for him (married less than a year, still in nursing school, poor), his arrival did immense good to my life and even our marriage! Noah changed the way I saw the world.

Before Noah was born, we had rented a movie someone told us was good and proceeded to watch it the first night we brought him home. You know, to relax. You will think I'm an idiot because I didn't know that Hotel Rwanda was about genocide, but I didn't. No clue. So there sits innocent little hormone hopping, emotional mess, just gave birth two days ago 23 year old Eva watching this terribly sad movie. I just bawled. And please don't think I'm heartless when I say I don't think I would have reacted quite the same way had I seen that movie before Noah was born. Not because of the hormones and sleep deprivation and the huge adjustment period. That movie hit me more deeply than it would have otherwise because now I had a child. And having my own child changed everything. Those kids and people were somebodies baby! 

When I was pregnant for the first time with Noah, I was worried I would be a terrible mother and not know how to love him properly. Turns out it comes pretty naturally. That movie upset me so much because of how cruel and evil the world is, especially to the weak like children. And I just couldn't see it before I had kids. Noah changed the entire way I saw the world. 
this was the morning after the dreadful movie experience


Noah's birthday fell on a Sunday so we were already all bright eyed and ready to go for singing to him. I took one shot before we went in his room to sing Happy Birthday.



Noah was all ready to go and of course he loved being sung to.



He came upstairs and read his card, saw his helium balloon and we started in on breakfast - Daddy had bought some donuts the day before. 



Also the day before, Nathan and Ana had surprised him with a trip to let him pick out a goldfish, something he dearly wanted. They took him to Fish Here in the mall (and to Dairy Queen for ice cream) where he picked out this lovely bright goldfish that he named Spark. I love the name! Unfortunately, the folks there should not have sold them a goldfish in a bowl because, as I found out later from Petsmart, goldfish have been over bred and can no longer survive in a bowl! They need more room and air. 



So the next day, when Spark started spending all his time sucking air at the top of the bowl, I started doing some research and shopping. Goldfish need at least 10 gallons of water and an air pump/filter to survive! After a couple leads led no where we just settled in to wait for something to work out and I changed Spark's water daily or thereabouts. Last night (a week after we got Spark), Terry found the perfect tank on the facebook classifieds page. It was fully furnished and came with all the extra stuff we didn't have like a net and chlorine drops, etc. Plus, there was another fish! His (her?) name was Brick and I guess we'll leave it. 



Okay, back to the birthday. After church, we headed to McDonald's for lunch because it was close and we had to be back at the church by 2pm for Noah and Evie's piano recital. They had the perfect toys in their happy meals - Bumblebee Transformers and My Little Pony. Those are the exact things Samuel and Evie love the most right now.



I tried to make a healthy choice with the smoothie but probably drank half Terry's Coke anyway :P Ez enjoyed the fries and making faces at the folks behind us. Cute little mouse teeth.



They only started piano lessons last August so this was their first recital. The whole family came and it was quite fun. They both did great! I felt so proud, and that was a enjoyable feeling.


By the time the recital was done, we were more than ready to be home. But we had to stop and get some Papa Murphy's pizzas for dinner since we were having the family over. We sort of had to rush to get in a birthday party since Terry had to be back to the church by 6pm for a dress rehearsal for the Dinner Theater his Mexico/L.A. team was doing. 

So we got home, turned on the oven, put on party hats and began.

Snap loves my dad and Terry's dad. Since my dad was the only dad there, Snap sat with him. The kids put a party hat on Snap, which he did not like. I snapped this photo at the perfect moment and caught dad's silly expression as he was imitating Snap trying to get the hat off. So so funny! Totally my dad.



Snap looks quite ferocious. He wasn't. He just didn't like that hat. Ha! 



Ezzie likes his though. He kept it on for a long time. 



Even before pizza we got the singing out of the way. 10!!! 



He put a lot of nice spit on the cake... 



Noah made a short wish list, which I told him was wise, since it was more likely he'd get what he wanted. I was right. They're looking at Penguins of Madagascar DVD now. He also got a Minecraft Lego set. He was the most excited about his Boogie Board. It's almost like an ipad, but all you can do is write on it and erase it. Sort of like a modern Etch-a-Sketch. He's been writing a story on it everyday. I'd say that's a win!



Oh, and he got another Lego Bionicle to complete the set he had bought with his allowance. The kid is swimming in Legos. 



Rainbow cake with homemade chocolate frosting. Nummy. 



Once Terry left we all just hung out and visited while Noah put together all his Lego stuff. He said it was the best birthday ever and Evie agreed. It was a good day. And now we have a 10 year old! AH! 

back yard boredom

I'm a big believer in kids entertaining themselves. Especially outside. So I thought it was pretty great when I spotted them trying to climb the shortest pine tree for the first time. I liked climbing our trees when I was little. Broke one pretty good too... I wish my kids would have figured it out earlier! Of course they wouldn't go any higher than that but I suppose that seemed pretty high to them. 



"Mom take my picture too!" 



Ezra hauled this little sled to the high corner of the yard and prepared to propel himself down the hill. He doesn't seem to understand friction and sledding...  A few days later Evie was dragging Samuel around the yard by one leg. They've got to entertain themselves somehow!

Ezra's egg hunt

Since Ezra was napping for the kids' Easter egg hunt at the ranch, we saved his eggs for another time at home. About a week later we finally got around to it while his siblings were watching a show. 



It took about 2 minutes.



The olders had been using a piece of landscaping fabric as a cape on the trampoline but it blew away and got stuck in the tree. Snap spotted it and went berserk. Apparently strange flapping pieces of black fabric are dangerous to the family.



His first bite of chocolate. He's quite cute.



Waiting for another one to get unwrapped. 



Oh yeah.



Do it.



Nom nom nom 

Thursday, April 23, 2015

4 plays

For two weekends in a row Terry attended a total of four plays for students in youth group. It was a crazy weekend! We kind of didn't realize what we were getting ourselves into, but it was a fun time anyway. 

Terry took Evie to three of the four plays because mommy doesn't charge to babysit her brothers. Ha! Here is the first one on Thursday night. They went to see Lindsey perform in Beauty and the Beast and even sat next to Pastor Dave and Carol. This was the first play Evie had ever been to and of course she loved it! I had checked out several books on Beauty and the Beast from the library for her. I heard her reading them aloud to herself during quiet time. Adorable!



The following night Terry attended Annaka's play, the name of which I can't quite remember. Something like Girls and Ghouls. Evie again loved the show but Terry was not feeling well at all. We had some kind of stomach bug hit half of our family that week. Ezzie had had diarrhea all week and Evie threw up two nights later. Terry very nearly did throw up and probably should have, the poor guy. 



But he would never let a lowly little stomach bug stop him, plus he was feeling a tad better. Saturday night he went to Rapid City Christian's play with my brother, Nathan, and David. They were supporting many students from youth group. Bailey, Johanna, Nathan, Dylan and Austin. I hope I didn't forget anyone because I can't remember the name of their play either!



Phew! That was an crazy weekend. The following weekend, we supported Ben in Pinnochio at Central. Noah and I got to come along while Bailey babysat the littles. On the drive there Evie was telling Noah about the other plays she'd gone to and said, "Sometimes people say weird long words that we don't understand and people laugh." There you go Noah.

The play was a hoot. So much fun! And to top it all off, this weekend Terry himself, and his mission trip buddies, are performing a Dinner Theater fundraiser. So many plays, so little time, so much fun.

first fire pit

A few weeks ago, when we finished the path, we busted out our new but rusted fire pit for it's very first fire. My aunt and uncle gave this to us but we'd always been worried about scorching the deck or grass if we used it. Now that we have some stone we are free to burn ("Free to run, I am free to run...")!


Noah and Evie wanted to take some photos. They were all terrible except for a few...

This was the best photobomb I could come up with. Evie's face is better. And Terry is crazy like normal.



Happy Sah-muel. 



It's just lovely when the kids run off and leave us in peace. Wait, they were still there. Darn illusionary peace. 



Contemplating life and death. 

fine stuff

I rediscovered this gem on Terry's phone. Just me and my crazy eyed husband hanging out.
This was taken during our date to the Alpine Inn during the weekend that we were working on the path. In fact, we had to stop work to go on this date. We hadn't been out in months so even though we didn't want to stop, it was necessary. We had a great time. 

Terry posted this photo to Instagram calling me "Fine Stuff." Yeah, I got razzed for that at church the next morning. And ever since he's been calling me that. Makes me laugh. As does this photo.

bath time Ezra

I found these photos from about a month ago on Terry's phone. They serve to illustrate a few differences between Samuel and Ezra. 

Ezra is a water baby. Literally. He was born in the water and perhaps that is why he loves bath time. However, Samuel, who shares the tub, hates bath time. Samuel is rather dramatic anyway, but I am not kidding you when I say Samuel screams through every bath. "My eyes! My eyes!" Ezra just pours the water down his face and has no problem with it. He coughs up what goes down the wrong tube and does it again. Samuel's in the background going, "Oh no Ezwah."



Also, Samuel and Ezra have rather different body types. Samuel is built like Noah, who is built like Sheldon on The Big Bang Theory. Tall and skinny. 
Noah is like Sheldon in other respects as well. His OCD tendencies...


Whereas Ezra is a thicker body type. Other folks with proper chunky babies might think Ezra is far from chunky. But for my boys, he is. He's just thicker. We will see if he remains that way or not.


Evie's ranch 7th bday party

I recently took some photos off Terry's phone to catch up on the blog and realized that I had forgot about Evie's ranch birthday. 

Terry's folks were kind of stuck there since it's calving season, so the Thursday before Evie's actual birthday Terry took the day off from work and we all headed out. Either the kids found Terry resting or he joined them watching the video monitor of the laboring cows in the barn.
Shari brought the Frozen birthday hats.


Once cow was acting ready so Terry and I took the olders plus Grace out to try to catch a viewing of a calf birth. However, the kids were too noisy and the cow got nervous. She calved when we were out of sight and I only saw the calf on the ground directly afterwards. I'd love to see a birth. I'm weird like that.



Jerry's first calf died because it came so early. And the next cow to go had twins! He had them fenced in here between the barns and the corral and let us all pet the gimpy one. 



Evie and her birthday dress and shoes... I should have had her change. It was cold. And well, cow poop. 



He was so cute! Wish they stayed that way. Of course, if they did, we wouldn't want to eat them. 



The kids like to bemoan stuff in their lives "isn't fair!," like for Noah's birthday last week. But Evie got two cakes for her birthday, a fact I reminded her of. 



And two parties. 



The grandparents got her gifts off her birthday wish list so they scored big time - two new "Isabella dolls" and a car. 



He's such a good daddy and uncle :) Oh, and you can see Shari and Jesse's new money-pit dog (many vet visits already), Sugar, a dachshund/schnauzer mix. She's like a short Snap dog. She makes me laugh b/c she's too short to jump on the couch very well. She like bounces off the first try and then readjusts her strategy and makes it the second time.



Can you spot Noah in this picture? 



I think we were watching Noah play a wii game, probably The Price is Right. 



He's gonna be a pro when he gets big, when he figures out how to turn the controller the right way.



We had lunch and dinner out there. Good thing they have a big table. It was a really great day.