big girl car seat

We had a Toys-R-Us gift card and since we were home we got Evie a new car seat there. I can still remember when we put her in her other one. Sniff sniff.

We put both big kids in the back so I could care for Samuel and them. And their DVD player of course.

brother and sister and the rest of us

Here's us after church Easter Sunday. We went to Hillsview with Terry's family. Samuel previously had on a cute little man outfit my mom got him but he blew out his diaper and his clothes. Good thing I had a sleeper packed!

another first meeting

Terry's dad lives just a mile up the road from his grand parents. Actually, so does Shari and Jesse, in the house that we lived in before we came here. After the appropriate baby naps, we all headed down to the grand parents to introduce them to Samuel.

Here's great grandpa Elmer (or grandfather as Terry always says) meeting Samuel. Grandma Dorothy, Shari and Grace look on.

He likes babies.

She forgot she met and held Samuel =( but I have proof.

Four generations. Terry and Noah have a good chance of keeping their hair...I hope.

a first meeting

Terry's sister, Shari, had her first baby, Grace Elizabeth, just 2 days before Samuel on January 30th. It was killing me that we hadn't met her when they were both already 11-12 weeks old. Plus, Terry wasn't going to be able to until halfway through June. So the Friday of Easter weekend when Terry got an email from a friend going back home, we thought that we should go home as well. And we did! Talk about a whirl wind to get ready and a very quick trip (only two and a half days), but it was so worth it.

Terry meets and holds Grace for the first time.

Noah and Evie meet Grace. They were less excited than I hoped, but I don't think they understood the ramifications of their first cousin. B/c, you know, Grace is their first. Our kids were the only grand kids on both sides of the family!

Jesse and Shari look like they had twins.

Check out those cheeks!!! She is so incredibly cuddly and chilled. I heard her make like one noise. Samuel seemed cranky compared to her, which of course is not true. He's a pretty good baby. She's just extremely relaxed. They're so different, even in how they hold themselves. Samuel is all intense, so stiff. Grace just lays there like, I'm cool, I'm cool. Then she just goes to sleep.

I was pretty excited, though I look weird here.

Shari and Jesse meet Samuel for the first time.

Noah took this photo of Terry. Ha ha.

Like Father like son.

Shari with the twins again. Oh, and if you think Samuel has a lot of hair, he's got nothing on Grace. If she was a boy, she'd need a haircut. It's touching her back already.

See, look at that intense serious look. Grace is like, Lighten up cousin!

how girls play

Evie and Noah are so different, like in the ways that they play. Terry says that even if we took away all of her toys, she would still find a way to make something talk to something else: she'll make her fingers talk to each other. And in fact, she does that with her toes sometimes.

Noah isn't into toys talking to each other. He more like narrates what's going on: trains, cars, marbles, whatever. Evie makes all of her toys face each other and they talk.

At Noah's birthday Evie was playing with the bucket of dragons they both got. When I cleaned them up, I realized she had each character facing another character. Yep, girls like face to face time.

So the other day when I was making dinner she brought up all her "cuddly" toys and did her girl play thing.

Then she pushed them over to me to trip on

The next day she got out all the dinosaurs.

he's awake

Noah took this photo of Samuel first thing in the morning after they got up. I like it.

Noah's 6th bday

Noah's big day began with the final MOPS of the year and also his preschool graduation. Here are his other MOPS classmates. Noah said he wanted to be a dentist. But since another girl had said the same thing right before him, I'm not sure if that's entirely true. But he seems to be sticking with it...a day later at least.

Daddy didn't have time for a cool card and since Noah asked if he got a birthday hat like Evie did, Terry made this this Noah crown. Nice ears buddy =)

There's Kellen

And Matt and his son Ethan and sister Kaylee, who Evie says is her best friend.

Tawnya, Kale and Kallie

Combined gift for Noah and Evie - bucket of dragons. How to Train Your Dragon dragons.

Shari and Jesse's lego car gift, which he loved.

Here's his favorite, a Hot Wheels zipline track. It's super sweet. The little cars have magnets in them and can climb the front door or the fridge.

Everyone liked it, especially the boys!

Action shot

hand me down

Samuel wore this outfit to church on Palm Sunday. It's one of baby Noah's old things.

So I dug out the only photo I have of Noah wearing it at the same age. Crazy similarities!

SIX

How is it possible that Noah was born SIX years ago? It just doesn't seem like it should be.

Six feels like such a big boy number. Perhaps b/c he'll no longer be a preschooler. We'll be doing kindergarten next year, starting those long years of education (as if he hasn't already been learning all the days of his life until now... haha).

Happy birthday to our first born!

Freshly born baby Noah. Noah thought this picture was Samuel =) The nose is different though. And the ears.

1 year old

1 year old size comparison at my college nursing graduation. We all look a lot younger!

2 year old shortly before our move to Gburg

2 year old size comparison. This is the day we packed up our SD lives for the move.

3 year old Noah adores his Daddy...

...and his orange sister

4 year old boy

4 year old size comparison. He was much too big for those swings!

Silly 5 year old

5 and 2

Today. 6 years old. Big and tall and skinny. And sweet and silly. And oh so serious.

bribery

What kind of kid will only eat all of his waffle dinner in exchange for a carrot? Can this really be called a bribe?

Evie ate all her waffle so she got a cookie... I always feel bad doing that.

Samuel had his 2 month shots today so he was a little glum.

You can see where Noah gets his silliness from...

naps

This photo of Noah was taken on May 8, 2009, when he was 3 years old. He was still taking naps back then and I would have to sometimes wake up him so he would be able to still sleep that night. Here's where the post was: http://terryandeva.blogspot.com/2008/05/noah-is-not-forgotten.html

And here is a Evie a day or two after she turned 3. She is just like he was then. If I don't wake her up, she'll sleep 2.5 hours and have a hard time getting to sleep that night.

My french braid is improving even more than it shows here.

And here she is passed out this afternoon. I was just struck by how similar Noah and Evie were at this age. And yet, not similar at all. Noah is all intense and shy and perfectionistic. Evie is fun and social. They are so different.