Just the boys...

It doesn't get more precious than this! I love, love, love, how my sweet husband adores his boys!


I promise, I'm as innocent as they come!



We are beginning to see a new phase emerging...These two little guys will now drag out a toy box and play together (sort of). Eli makes lots of noises and crashes things and throws things. Noah will pick up 2 pieces of whatever and bang them together. It's a miracle to me that they can be entertained by this for even 5 minutes!


These were some glow-in-the-dark Harry Potter glasses that somehow never got thrown away. Good thing because they amused Eli for a couple hours the other day! He didn't care that they were on upside down or not even sitting on his ears.

Toddler-hood...it's so tiring! I was working on something at the computer (probably doing something really exciting like trying to pay bills) and Eli and Eric were playing happily and quietly together. I realized things had gotten really quiet. I got up to see what had happened and I saw that Eric had slipped a note under the door saying, "Be quite. Eli is sleeping" (Yes, he really spelled quite instead of quiet! So sweet....they had been playing kind of a hide and seek game and Eli just couldn't quite stay awake any longer.

Our new nickname for Noah is The Gremlin! This face doesn't quite show it. This is just one of his typical huge laughing smiles. We have yet to get the gremlin face on a photo....you'll see it once we do! He attacks and laughs and scrunches up his nose and squints his eyes and bares all his 7 teeth! We laugh ourselves silly trying to escape him!

Who says that toddler toys can't amuse a 10-year-old?

I love the happy grin here.

Beautiful Day!

He wanted to read mommy a story.


Yes, he is under the bed and yes, he got himself there. He was giggling like crazy, thinking it was the best game in the world!



Lunch time with babies. Eli just couldn't make it any longer. Poor guy, if he'd just sleep in a bit more he might make it through lunch.




Eli is boogying to this silly hampster music card that we sent to Aunt Amanda. Should have really taken a video of this one!



Happy little guy.


Noah thinks he can play with Eli. Eli thinks otherwise...he's very possessive of all his toys. Little does he know they were Eric's to begin with.

Today was a great day because...

*I walked outside with a new friend. We walked yesterday too! Not only that, I think I've got her looked and she wants to go all the time! Yes! Sanity will return for me, I just know it. Also those last stubborn 10 lbs will go bye bye!

*I made chocolate chip cookies with my 2-year-old and we both survived it! He was so into the process. "I make it mommy!"

*I didn't yell at any of my kids. After this winter, this is a major accomplishment. Really, everything went very smoothly in our home today. Lots of things play into that, but the bottom line is that it's a good thing and we're happy.

*Kendall finished finals today! Yay! He took his last one this morning and said he felt pretty good about. I'll gloat (on his behalf) about his grades when they're all posted, but it looks good! All his hard work and studying paid off.

*NO SCHOOL for Kendall for 4 months! Wow, he's been taking classes year round for so long, I can't imagine how this will be. I'm going to relish it. Okay, I'm also going to put him to work!

*I read some friends' blogs. I love how creative and truly inspiring you all are to me! Wow, I know some awesome mammas!

*I'm finishing off my day eating some Ben & Jerry's Peach Cobbler Ice Cream and getting ready to watch American Idol results show (definately my guilty pleasure these days)

*I'm not worrying about how the cookies and ice cream are counter-acting my walk today. I'm just having warm fuzzies and being okay about it.

I recently took a little "vacation" to my mom and dad's place in Nampa, Idaho. Yeah, I guess it's not much of a vacation when I take my own little tornado with me everywhere I go. I'm referring to Eli of course! He played shy at first, but was soon aclimated and totally in love with Grandma and Grandpa. Grandpa helped by taking him for walks to get the mail and of course to get him to go to sleep at naptime (Thanks dad!). Grandma played and sang songs and read stories and made sure he didn't starve (Thanks Mom!). It was such a good trip in many ways. One benefit that I didn't expect was that the babies learned to sleep in the same room. Noah had still been in our room (yes, at almost 8 months old!). I was so worried about putting them in the same room for fear of Eli trampling him or that one would wake up the other. Well, I never set up the port-a-crib and just put Noah in the crib in the room with Eli. It's working beautifully. Who would have guessed?



I also learned that I could drive a reasonably long distance by myself with 2 little ones. They were so good in the car, way better than I could have hoped! Thank goodness for DVD players in the car and for an angelic baby who giggles spontaneously!



I was able to spend some time with my friend and her little boy. Funny, our boys are nearly a year apart, but they look about the same age (they're roughly the same size). They are so different in temperments and the first few hours were a bit rough. However, the second day we went to play, Eli was so excited to go play with Ryan! They did really well, ran and played outside and found plenty of common interests....cars, balls, and slides! You know, boy stuff!

Just had to share...
Ana, our neighbor and new friend, took the wonderful photos of our kids recently (see previous post). Then, to top it off, she made these beautiful scrapbook pages for us! Thanks Ana!

Fun Picture Pairs!

First, I don't know if it's a cousin thing or what, but I've NEVER heard of little kids loving tomatoes like Eli and Corbin do! As you can see, Eli was just eating it like an apple. He ate about 3/4 of it that way. Corbin was a little more sophisticated,(and younger at that time too) using a plastic fork.

Eli, March 2008
Corbin, September 2006

Next, Grandma and Grandpa have a really comfy and loungy couch. Here is a pair of pics with Eli and Noah at about the same age. Noah with Grandpa and Eli with Uncle Ryan. People keep telling me that Noah looks just like Eli. Could be the mother in me, but I really think they look very different and unique in their own ways. However, when you put pictures like this side by side, it is more than obvious that they are brothers. Thankfully, Noah is getting tougher by the day and he doesn't even mind all the time anymore when Eli is rolling over him. In fact, he giggles...I think he's thinking about how he's going to get Eli in the not too distant future!

Noah, April 2008

Eli, November 2006

Okay, finally some pics of the kids! All of the following photos, except for the tomato one and the bunny one were taken by our friend. Ana is an amature photographer and asked if she could snap some shots of the kids. How could I refuse. I think she got some good ones and here they are to prove it! These were taken about 3 weeks ago here at our apartment complex in Spokane.


Monkey on top of the monkey bars!

Way to precious for words...

Cutest little mug!

Typical

We tried to get a "nice" photo of the 3 boys together. I guess we just got a realistic one. :)

Another monkey on the monkey bars!

Eli is actually eating a tomato like it is an apple. I seem to remember a cousin of his doing this last year! He really ate most of it before he was too full to go on!

Eli went from being terrified of the bunny to demanding that he sit on the bunny's lap.

Eli's Favorite Things
1. Triangles. He finds them everywhere, on houses, on my dad's boxes in his office, on signs along the road, on our hands (fingers).
2. Chocolate milk. Left to his own devices, this is the only substance he would consume. Well...he has really enjoyed popsicles at Grandma's house this week. :)
3. Leaves. He's so fascinated by the ones on Grandma's plants, the dry ones on the ground and the little ones appearing on the trees.
4. Being Nakkie! He's 2 right? So, we're in the stripping phase. Since we're not potty training yet, overalls work the best at keeping this little monkey dressed.
5. Hugs and kisses. I'm not sure where he got this idea that he's European, but hugs and kisses have to be given on both sides of the cheeks. This was truly his own idea.
6. Saying "Good morning!". This goes on all day and is said in the cutest and sweetest of voices...sometimes when he's getting in trouble, but he always wants to put my face between his hands when he says it, like it will make every bad or sad or stressful thing go away. Maybe it actually will.