ambi-turner

My little Evie is so funny. Actually this is a little disturbing for me... Apparently she is trying to fit into the movie Zoolander like a previous post described. In the movie Derek is ashamed to be a super model that's an ambi-turner - he can only turn left at the end of the run way (or is it right? i can't remember but it's one of the two).
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Evie is the same, except it's with her head. She likes to look one way and one way only. She looks to the right, her right, constantly, even when she sleeps. In this first photo, you can see her doing it. There's a toy on her chest b/c I've been rattling it in front of her face trying to get her to track to the left and follow it with her head. The worst part is her head is flattening out behind her ear from this habit. Yes, her ears are no longer even when you look from the top of her head down. So we're trying to fix it. I've got this wedge sleeper thing that I put next to her right ear when I lay her down. She doesn't like it, just like she doesn't like it when she's sitting up and I move her head to the left. We'll keep trucking though and hope she doesn't need one of those head molding helmets.
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There's a shot of the wedge next to her head. Yeah, and the boy in his underwear...didn't want to wear anything else yesterday. =)

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Too cute. He likes to make faces when the camera comes out. Says,"CHEESE!"

Evie likes her mommy.

Smiley, cooing baby. 9 weeks.

recent weather

It's been raining and storming a lot here (thundering right now). When we drove back into town last Tuesday from home there were two huge cottonwood trees tipped over into the lake. They had been just on the edge of the water and due to erosion and and the rain, they just fell over. I wanted to get a shot of it but it was removed before I recovered from the flu.

Also as an insight into my own selfishness... The huge storms with tornados and hail are interrupting regularly scheduled programming. One such example was last Thursday, the evening of the much anticipated LOST finale. Yes, I am a Lostie and proud of it. So there were 6 tornados running through a neighboring town and the ABC network were of course covering it. I was upset that they were interrupting my show. I was slightly appeased when they announced that they had received many phone calls about the finale and to rest assured b/c they would re-aire it in full. At least I'm not the only selfish one out there.

So with all of this rain, our lawn was in great need of a mow but we couldn't get to it until Saturday - a week and a half since it was last done. Terry had to raise the height of the mower and do it again Tuesday evening. We'll have to keep doing it twice a week. Here are a few pictures of us enjoying the long grass.
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You can see our rhubarb there in the back of us - tons.

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There in the middle is the patch that we planted grass on (formerly a garden from the previous pastor...a terrible place for one)

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My feet.

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Me and Noah's feet...and of course his mower.

Dog Juice

Noah might not care if he has a wet or messy diaper, but as we have recently discovered, he does not care to have wet pants or shorts. Two days ago we decided to try a day w/o diapers since he was showing no signs of ever "wanting" to be potty trained. He had two successful potty pee pee's in the morning but after that didn't want to try again and endured the wet pants. We were back to diapers again yesterday. But today we tried again with new resources: Dog Juice...otherwise known as Mug Root Beer (Noah calls pop juice b/c that's how we explained it to him at first and now it's stuck). This is Noah's favorite pop b/c of the picture of a dog on the label. So, with the aid of Dog Juice, he's had a successful day so far! We can't bribe forever, but hopefully this will help him get the idea. I'm so proud of my little man.
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Noah is enjoying his new big boy underpants I got him. Bob the Builder.

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He's swishing the dog juice around his mouth.

Now that I am unsick I thought I better get these up from our trip home last weekend. Just like in here, there was a lot of rain and flooding. The little creek that runs through Terry's families ranch was very swollen...like I've never seen it before (but Jerry said it's been up to the bridge before). In this first photo you can see how high it is. Usually it's just a little ribbon of water in the spring and dry in the summer. Noah really enjoyed throwing rocks in it. It made me a little sad b/c it reminded me of how we used to live out there (just further down the road) and Noah and I would walk down to the creek to throw in rocks... Ahhhh.

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This is the creek running over the bridge at the grandparent's house (not pictured - that one is the house Jerry and Alice lived in when they first got married in '72)

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Another favorite past time of Noah's: riding the four-wheeler with Grampa.

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Now we're throwing and skipping rocks into one of the formerly dry stock ponds.

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Wow! This is what all of the ponds looked like. I mean, they used to be cracking dry. The rain was GREAT.

Terry having fun at work

We just returned from a long weekend at home - my bro, dad and Terry's sis had yet to meet Evie. But now the whole fam has and we're back... There are pictures from our trip coming up and some from around here since there has been lotza rain. But for now, since I came back with the flu (yuck. oh Terry said this morning that I sounded like Liv Tyler due to the enlarged tonsils making my voice softer), I thought I'd do a post on Terry.

Terry is pretty good about bringing the camera to events and youth group, catching all the fun stuff he does with the kids...

On youtube there's some commercials with Chuck Norris endorsing Mike Huckabee and they're pretty funny, one in particular where the two of them go back and forth kind of building the other up. My favorite line is when Mike says that when Chuck does a push up he's not pushing himself up, he's pushing the earth away. These first two pictures remind me of that line b/c Terry's doing group push ups.

What nice form he has.

This was a group building event for the high school leaders of a junior high camp that's coming up this summer. Check out Terry's concentration and strength in action. All that weight lifting is really paying off.

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This is a game played at the final junior high youth group of the year. It didn't end up working but the kids had fun anyway. There were 3 groups that picked someone to duct tape to the wall of "the building" (a previous restaurant that had a fire and is consequently owned by 4 members of our church and thus where youth group is held). The kids stood on chairs while they were taped up and then the chairs were removed to see who would stay on the wall the longest. I wasn't there, but Terry said no one stayed on the wall. This game has worked in the past though.

Terry explaining things.

Probably laughing at the kids falling down.

something right

So, it was a little early but since we are going home this weekend we had Evie's 2mos appt today. I was really looking forward to seeing the numbers as to how much she's grown. When she was born she was 7 lbs 5 oz, then 2 weeks later was up to 8 lbs. Now, at 7.5 wks, she is 10 lbs 13 oz. =) I'm doing something right.

Mondays

Noah is trying out the big boy mower.

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We tried out a new place this Monday not far from here. We were hoping for some trails and a beach but ended up having to hang out on the dock. We spent our time throwing rocks.

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Noah is throwing a rock up in the air. These had quite an unpredictable flight pattern.

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Don't I look so cool winding up to skip that rock? Yeah...

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Evie spent her time asleep.

my girl

I don't know what to say for these next 3...My girl is quite cute. And she's getting so good at smiling and cooing.

Tummy time. She does sooooooo much better with this than Noah ever did. Noah would scream and scream and SCREAM. Evie's just chil.

I'm new to infant girl world - still a little used to boy world. But these little outfits are super! They're a dress and at the same time a onesie. How convenient.

the finicky boy

My boy is so silly. He is so perfecting and exact and picky. For instance, when he plays in the pool he doesn't want to get his hands wet. What happens when this inevitable thing happens (b/c he's in a pool of water!)? He wipes them on the house. Nor does he like his cars to get wet (again, in the pool...) so what does he do? He whines (ah ah ah) and waves them at me indicating he wants me to dry them off. I did once, the first time, but now make him use his own shorts. He's the same at the table - if he gets anything on his hands, it must come off now. Grass on his feet - oh no.

But here's the thing I don't understand. If he doesn't like getting dirty, why doesn't a wet or dirty diaper bother him? He really could walk around all day in a dirty diaper and not care. But to get his hands wet he freaks out. I just don't get it. I would like to get the potty training under way, but he has absolutely NO interest. I guess it's diapers until he's 14.

So anyway, the pictures below are another example of how finicky he is. I was in the guest bedroom on the computer and he was bored and decided to get out the mother's day stuff he and Terry had been working on and have yet to complete =). I don't know what it is, but there's markers and crayons involved. So I went and asked Terry if it was okay for him to do it and when I go back in there after a while and he's done, this is what I found:

See how the markers and pencils are all lined up in a perfect row?

But what a pretty picture.
Here's the boy watching tv - his FAVORITE thing to do.

barely fits

Here is Noah at about 5-6 months with the same toy I just got out again for Evie. I thought we'd check out how much he's grown!

Here is Noah playing with the toys he was previously too small to get at, which is of great interest to Evie.

Check out that kid! He's huge!!!

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At the lake yesterday Noah found a new use for his cool vacuum/mower: chasing ducks and geese. You'd think he's be scared of the geese like I am, especially since they're sitting on their eggs and they're extra mean (the hissing and wing waving and chasing), but he's not. He's making sure they know who God put in charge of animals by chasing them with his mower. I didn't have my camera with me but it was pretty funny as I'm sure you can imagine.

this morning at our place

Noah got new pajamas last week due to the warmer weather - you know, his winter footie ones were making him sweat. I'd go in to get him and his hair would be all wet. Smells nice =). Yeah right. He's such a boy - even his bed already smells like one and he's only 3. So this morning he got up too early and hence cranky and didn't want to take the cool dinasaur pj's off. No big deal. So he got in a little pj play time.

Noah is sitting on his new play table. It previously belonged to Terry's cousins and since they no longer needed it, they gave it to us. Terry took 5 inches off the legs and it's the perfect play height. So the fouton that was previously where the table is now is now behind our couch until we can figure something else out.

Noah playing on the fouton. So cute.

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Daddy's home after working out and making a couple phone calls. Noah likes to help mommy cook and prefers to use these tongs. Today they were useful for picking up our cell phones. Evie would have found it more interesting if it wasn't time for a nap...and she could see that far. =)

mowing - like father like son

Today was Terry's day off and even though the lawn really needs to be mowed more than once a week down here, it only gets done on Terry's day off b/c he doesn't have that kind of time! It's a good way to get Noah out of the house and get in some practice.

The new vacuum/mower

Like father, like son

The side of the house

Evie and I hung out in the shaded porch

A friend jogging by stopped to visit and we had him take our picture

true to life

Yesterday Terry preached for both services. Since we were all dressed up (except for me since I changed already) we took some family pictures!

This is the most true to life one we got out of all of the ones we took. =)

A shot of Evie's cute dress that I got at a garage sale!

Noah's Bible

So yesterday afternoon Noah found this little Bible of Terry's and decided it was "Noah's Bible." He proceeded to bring it with him on our afternoon of errands. He brought it in the laundry mat, the church, Pamida and the grocery store. It got wet when we were walking back to the van in the rain at Pamida when he tripped and fell and dropped it on the ground. I got him in the car and he said, "Clean it" over and over, meaning the Bible. So this morning before he could finish his breakfast he had to go find Noah's Bible and when he did, he lined it up with his plate and cup (notice how everything is in a perfect line? that's my perfecting boy). I thought it was quite cute.