da bunny

Noah likes to take pictures. A lot. Most of them are silly - close ups of carpet, under furniture, nose hairs. But sometimes one photo gives me pause and I don't delete it.

Like this one.

hazel

Noah took this self-portrait, of course. Don't look at it too long or you'll start to think that he's not really upside-down and that just plays tricks on your mind.

Noah has hazel eyes. I think they're pretty. Er, handsome.

samuel's first haircut

Noah took this picture of Samuel last week. You can see how his hair was getting in his eyes. Plus, it's two-toned and resembles a comb-over. All 3 of my kids have been like this - brown hair at birth until it mostly falls out. Then a few straggly strands hold on while new blond hair grows where the brown fell out.

After last night's bath, I'd finally had enough. Even though I knew it would make him look older.

I'm not a beautician but I did the best I could. It does look quite cute after a bath when it's all messy.

Yep, he looks older. And he feels heavier all of the sudden too. But that's b/c the little stinker has finally started eating solid food in the last month.

Can't get enough of his little face!

Terry and John - a history

Terry is going to a wedding today. In Chicago. Without me. I'll skip my sob story and go on reminiscing about Terry and John, the groom, the grown-up junior higher that Terry first met when he was working with the youth in Chicago while he was at Moody.

I really like and look up to my husband so I'm going to go through his and John's history. Also b/c this is my therapy since I can't be there. And also, b/c my history intersected with Terry's and so John and the whole Lakeside crew became quite dear to me. They love him there. I just get to bask in the reflected love of Lakeside for Terry and so I love them too! So, rewind.

Terry first got involved with this church, Lakeside, b/c he knew the pastor from his first year in college, back in 97-98. At that time he was attending his freshman year at Ozark Christian College. He started going to the only E-Free church there and met the pastor, Stan, and became good friends with him and his family of 7 children. Stan was instrumental in getting Terry to transfer to the Moody Bible Institute the spring semester of 1999, which he did after a semester off at home. And the funny thing was that Stan moved to Chicago at the same time to pastor Lakeside Church. So Terry went to church at Lakeside with Stan.

So once at Moody, Terry chose to fulfill his PCM (Practical Christian Ministry) at Lakeside. And that's where he met John.

Terry taught John's junior high Sunday school class. How cute are both of them?!

Terry worked with Lakeside the entire length of his time in Chicago. He didn't leave until he had to - we were engaged and so he came home in 2003. But even then, we came back lots.

So in the summer of 2001 he attended his first Teen Camp at Lake Geneva, WI, with Lakeside. I've written about Camp before here. Lakeside and their sister church have done a Family Camp for about 60 years. Here's a photo from his first year. I didn't see any of John in Terry's photos but John's soon-to-be-wife Erin is standing to Terry's immediate left - her head is right next to his blue shoulder.

This is Terry's second year at Teen Camp in 2002. We had just started dating before he left to go there. And such was his "like" for me that he drove all the way home to SD afterwards to have more time with me. Again, I don't see John, but Erin is there in the left corner on the end of the row of girls.

2003. Terry goes back for Teen Camp again. We were engaged and I was supposed to go but was too sick with mono (thanks Terry) to make the trip. There's John and Daka, Terry's closest buddies.

I think Terry brought John and Daka home with him after camp of 2003 b/c they did all this fun stuff in the Hills that I couldn't since I was still sick with mono! The punk. They climbed Mt. Rushmore with my dad, sister and our friend Adam since my dad was still a law enforcement park ranger there. Here they are on the back of George Washington's head. No joke. Again, engaged Eva sick at home.

Then they climbed Harney Peak. Again, without me.

2004. Finally I get to go along with him! After we were married and very early pregnant with Noah (didn't even know it yet), he took me to Teen Camp to be a counselor with him. What a blast. John's got the buzzed, almost bald, head in the middle. Terry and I are at the bottom left.

Then we didn't see John again until 2008. We had gone to camp with Noah and baby Evie that summer but John wasn't able to go - something about being grown up and having to work. So since we were in MN for my gramma's funeral, we stopped and saw him. I wrote about it here. And that was the last time we saw John. Until today. Terry will see little junior high John get married. I am bummed not to be there but we agreed he needed to be there.

fan club

Samuel's got a fan club: His brother and sister. Every time I go to get him up from a nap, both Noah and Evie run up the stairs with me, burst into his room yelling, "Samuel! Samuel!," and then press around me and pull on Samuel to give him a hug and a kiss. No lie. Every time. They get all disappointed when I tell them no.

Watch your nose Evie...

Yep, he got it. He likes to go for the noses.

this face

I just can't get enough of this face.

I took all these photos after Samuel woke up all shiny from a good nap. He just sits in there and plays now - no crying upon awakening.

He could crawl if he could figure it out. But for now he is moving along uprightly on his bottom, bringing one foot forward and scooting. I tried to help him crawl correctly and he still stuck his right leg to pull himself along. Silly baby.

I love his little smile and how his cheeks squish out to the side.

He needs a haircut. The bangs/comb-over combo is the only hair hanging on since birth. The blond stuff is new and it's already about an inch long. But he'll look like such a big boy when I cut it. :(

He's coming for me. He likes his mama.

contemplative boy

needle much?

I hadn't been outside today since I got home from MOPS. But when Noah went out to go to a birthday party I saw what the wind blew in...er, off.

A nice carpet of pine needles. Perhaps I should collect them for an old fashioned mattress? Toothpicks? Sewing?

Dratted tree! I actually really like this tree. Except for it's bi-annual shedding. Or perhaps it's just annual. I can't remember.

It's just as bad over on that side. The wind is what's made it so bad really. Get it over with I guess.

It's creeping into the garage too - to the left there. Oh, and in my ideal world, I would like to build a porch along the front picture window over the empty flower garden and sidewalk. Perhaps next summer.

Terry's gonna have to clean out the gutters before the forecasted weekend rain.

really finishing the patio

Terry took off the wood framing for the patio and discovered that the gravel was leaking out from under the stones a little. So he put up more wood framing, mixed up some leftover cement and poured it next to the patio. It was my idea to put hand prints in.

Pressing down was kinda hard for the kids. Daddy ended up helping.

Noah - he wrote that himself.

Daddy did Evie's name and pushed down on her hands.

And that's the day we did it!

bugs

I accidentally locked these 2 bugs in between our screen and window one night when I shut the house up. When I opened that window the next morning I had two strange prisoners. Any idea what kind of bugs they are? It's funny b/c both of them look like part of a tree or bush. This guy seriously looks exactly like a leaf.

And he looks like a twig.

he's a baby on the move

Today Samuel is 8 months old. Wow. And he is on the move. It started at about a month ago. While we were home for Terry's grandfather's funeral, Samuel began army crawling well. Upon closer investigation we realized that he was only propelling himself with his right big toe. He'd push off with that toe and pull himself along with his forearms. He developed a blister on that big toe and sometimes a carpet rash/irritation to his forearms.

Now I think he's getting sick of it - too slow. He wants to be up. Within the last week Samuel has learned how to push himself up into a sitting position. This makes nap time tricky sometimes. So he seems to prefer being upright now instead of on his belly. He's started scooting around on his bottom and half-crawling. He'll have this crawling thing down in no time.

Last Saturday he was pulling himself up on furniture:

Yesterday I saw him push himself into a tripod position with his butt in the air - he really wants to walk.

I put Samuel downstairs for safety (he likes going for the stairs) and soon after I left I heard Noah's yells of frustration - Samuel was getting into his train tracks. See Samuel attempting to climb all over Noah's stuff?

Ignore the cute girl with her baby and look at Samuel going for what Noah is playing with.

So I put Samuel is his secure stand up toy. The trains are safe.

nap interrupted

For about half of our afternoons I have Noah have some quiet time in the guest room bedroom while his brother and sister nap. Occasionally I find him sleeping amongst the pillows.

Or perhaps he wasn't asleep...

big boy pushes little boy

I've recently decided that Noah is big enough and responsible enough to start carting Samuel around on his own. And Samuel is strong enough for the bumps that ensue.

He's a very good big brother.

tutie

Baby talk interpretation of "tutie": cutie. When I'm talking to Samuel I like to start all my words with T's. He's a tute Tamuel.

Too too tute. He's like, "I'm happy b/c my mommy has me."