Michigan Rice Family Blog

a little dusty

2011-03-02T10:10:00.003-05:00

Wow, it's been over a year. Does this thing even still work? I have replaced blogging with snarky Facebook status updates. Then while putting the twins down last night I was watching "What Not to Wear" and saw there was a 'professional blogger'. Not that I want to change professions - the one I have now allows me as much online time as possible without any requirements - but really? A professional blogger? Sounds pretty amazing. I suppose if I was being paid, I could write every day. But then again, the pressure would get to me, and I would probably lose my snarkiness.

So I thought, I might as well type a new post and see what happens. Maybe it would be a neat release.

Today is Dr. Seuss's birthday. This must be a big deal at school. I am just grateful that it doesn't require a day off from school. God knows we've had enough snow days to last an entire LIFETIME. Ethan was begging that he get dressed up. Mr. R said they could. He's even seen people wearing a "Thing 1" or "Thing 2" shirt, so he knows they sell Cat in the Hat clothing. He tells me this Tuesday night. Dr. Seuss's birthday eve. I still possess the "must get dressed up for school spirit day" gene, so of course I am madly thinking of something easy and quick that would work. This morning, while they ate their wonderful nutritious breakfast, I cut out 2 blue stars. Well, technically, three stars. One looked ridiculous and required a do-over. And of course once Noah heard that Ethan would be a Sneetch with an abdominal star, he wanted stars on thars as well. I knew it would be devastation if the star tore during school, so I also used self-laminating paper and laminated the stars. Crisis averted. I was going to take a picture, but we got a new camera and it must remain hidden in our closet let children touch it.

Hmmmm. Aside from that, today has been fairly uneventful. I suppose I should try to "run", as I have told Jerry that I would run a 5k with him and I am currently only able to run about 0.8k.... This will be very noticeable in a 5k race.

Also, we got both of our vehicles back yesterday. My car has been in the shop for 3 1/2 weeks (yes, WEEKS) after getting T-boned by an old man that probably should no longer have his license. Jerry's was only firing on 2 cylinders so went in for a tune-up.

Oh, and a year has passed since my last post. So, yadda yadda yadda - it's 2011.

I suppose I should post pics of the kids.

A close-up of Naomi. It's hard to catch a "normal" shot of her, as she now makes big cheese faces when she sees the camera....

The twins doing general naughtiness. They went in the garbage, took stuff out, and ate coffee grounds. Josh looks like he might have a guilty conscience, whereas Faith looks like "you can't prove anything..."

The boys standing in front of a snow bank after one of our many, many winter storms. This one might be from our "blizzard warning". Yes. We had a blizzard warning.

Typical Josh. He likes chocolate. At least we *think* that's chocolate....

End of January, in February...

2010-02-19T10:03:00.003-05:00

Ok, I knew I would blow it and not post for a while.... I have been trying to keep up on housework, and have been slowly (very slowly.... snail's pace) getting things back on track. Anyway, here are some catch-up from January. I can't really post for February yet because I haven't even gotten those pictures onto the computer. Some day I will. Maybe in March.

So back in January was Ethan's birthday. He wanted a Fetch with Ruff Ruffman cake. Oh, you don't know who that is? Right, neither does anyone else besides my children, I'm pretty sure. He's the host of a kids' game show on PBS. He's a cartoon dog, and the kids have to do different tasks and missions that are usually science related. Kinda like Mr. Wizard meets Double Dare. Right... so instead of printing a picture and taking it to a store to have scanned and put on a cake, I decided to just do it myself. It looks pretty much like him. Here is Ethan's cake. Oh, and usually it says Fetch with Ruff Ruffman, not Ethan Rice, but I thought it would be cooler this way.

And a picture of Ethan singing "Happy Birthday to ME!" We had quite the party, as both sets of grandparents were up, and Aunt Darlynn and Uncle Brian were here. Still not at the 'having kids over for a party' stage yet. Just a note - look how angelic Noah looks in this photo. Look quick, it doesn't last long! ;)

For the week after his birthday, Ethan was the VIP in his classroom. This also means that he got to bring Clifford home for the weekend. He was very excited, and we had to write in the journal all the things that we did. It was a busy weekend, but here is one shot of Ethan making sure Clifford is healthy.

I can't remember what this next picture is.... I think Naomi wanted a 'cheese' picture. I like how she then posed with her hands on her knees. It is intentional, because I have another similar picture with the same pose. Of course, when the camera comes out, everyone is all smiles. So there's Noah, getting in on the camera action. It freaks me out how old Naomi looks in this picture. Oh, and her hair is crazy in it as well. But she's putting much more pressure on her knees, and that's great!

I walked into the living room to see Naomi putting on daddy's shoes. She was going to go run. Then she realized how cute she was and threw on a huge smile for me. Perhaps some day she will be a runner - that would be awesome!

Hmmm, let me think of other cute things... Let's see.... I was explaining to the kids what Lent was, and how we sometimes give something up for Lent. Ethan, without much hesitation, said "I am giving up winter." I like his thinking, but I'm not sure how successful he will be at it.

There are other cute things, but I will have to think of them and write them down. I think I've reached my limit of "calm computer time", as things are starting to reach chaos again. We head to the doctor this afternoon for Naomi - her ear drained again last night. We were just there on Tuesday for suspected pinkeye for her, and her ears were clear then. Awesome. Nothing more exciting than taking 5 children to the doctor's office. Especially since they have put up all of their toys due to flu season. Although, I guess explaining every 15 seconds that the toys are up so we don't catch germs is better, in fact, than catching those germs.

TGIF!!!

Cheese cuteness

2010-01-21T20:17:00.003-05:00

Ok, so I don't want to overdo it so early in the year by posting all the time, but I got the camera out. I had realized that I hadn't been taking many pictures of the kiddos, so here I go, taking pictures. A "new" (as in, new in the past month) thing that the babies do now is smile. They are cute. There, I said it. I try to get pictures of them smiling, and it's not as hard as I remember for the others. Perhaps I have finally figured out the delay on the digital camera so I don't always catch the tail end of the smile. Anyway, pictures...

Joshua. He lights up when you look at him. These pictures don't do the twinkle that he gets in his eyes justice. Of course, I'm not impartial. I think they are beautiful :)

Naomi saw the camera out and had to get in on the fun. This picture was exceptionally cute because of how jammed shut her eyes are. It looks as though she is hysterically laughing, but no - this was just her 'cheese' face that day!

And yes, now that smiling is an option, I thought I would take advantage and get the both of them together. This is where they usually sit after they are fed. I am not entirely sure why I do this, but when they have a full belly, I prop them up in the recliner. There's just something about eating so much that sometimes you throw up when you burp, then sitting in a recliner....

Here is an awesome one of Faith's smile. She is just ear to ear grin when she smiles - it's so cute. She looks like such a little person here. Ok, so I didn't catch the both of them smiling, but come on; too cute to pass up, right? Actually, Josh's face is a little intimidating right here.....

And I love this last picture of them. It looks like they are best friends already, sharing a good laugh while tummy-timing.

Ok, by the feel of what just happened on my lap, I'm going to need to change Faith's diaper. Good thing I was done anyway!

Braids and updates

2010-01-20T10:06:00.006-05:00

Nothing much going on... just wanted to post again :)

Noah wanted me to take his picture. I can't quite remember why, but he looked so grown up so I figured I would share. This happens quite a bit ~ the camera comes out and everyone needs their picture taken. I guess it helps for keeping current on pictures, though!

My sister watches the kids on Monday nights so Jerry and I can do our Disciple bible study class together. This Monday, Naomi had taken a little power nap right before she got here, and was still groggy all evening. This allowed Dar to braid her hair. She sat there the whole time, just letting her braid. So the next morning, I wet her hair and re-enacted the procedure. How cute are these pictures!!! What a big girl! Oh, and she has this crazy cowlick (or however it's spelled), right where there's the jig-jag in her part... not that I can do a good job parting her hair anyway, but thought I would throw that disclaimer out there!

She wore it like this to physical therapy - it was so cute. But then we found out that the therapist that we had had for so long (about six months) was let go. I'm so sad to know that we won't have Kathy anymore. Naomi really liked her, and she was so sweet. Hopefully we can keep in touch, and hopefully Naomi adjusts to the new lady so she can start working out again.

The twins had their 2 month check-up on Monday, too. They weighed in at 12 lb 11 oz (Joshua) and 12 lb 2 oz (Faith). They both were 24 1/2" long (for as accurate as those doctor measurements are... a couple of lines drawn on the paper on the bed...) I really should have researched the 2 month check-up more, then I would have known that they were due for FIVE shots. I wouldn't have let them do all of them at once, so it was a good thing that they didn't have double of 2 of them. So we ended up with "only" 3. Know what's harder than watching a baby get their shots??? Watching TWO babies get them. It was awful. I think the hardest part was seeing Faith laying there calm and happy while Joshua was screaming, knowing that she didn't have any idea what was about to happen to her. We all survived. Faith ended up with a fever, and last night they both were up quite a bit, but hopefully we get back to "normal" soon.

Ok, I should do something besides sit at the computer since they are both somewhat contained... Wait... was that just THREE posts in January? Why yes, yes it was...

January randomness

2010-01-17T14:39:00.004-05:00

Just some more pictures. Ethan now plays basketball in an Upward league. It's a christian league where they have to memorize their scripture verse every week, they all get awards each game, and they all have equal playing time. It's a really cool program and we're glad he's in it. The game was the most entertaining thing we have seen for a while. If you need a smile on a Saturday morning, go and check out a bunch of 5-year-olds trying to play basketball!!!

Here's a decent one of the 5 kids before church last week. A decent one, meaning that most of them are looking at the camera. We realize it will be some time before all of them look at the same time. There were some where Ethan is looking like he's not ok with Joshua punching him in the face repeatedly - go figure.

This picture is just to show Naomi's knees. We get asked a lot how we knew she had arthritis, or what clued us in. Originally it had more to do with her lack of walking, and how uncomfortably she did walk. Once we became aware of the real problem, the swelling was a little more obvious. This picture shows her knees (obviously!). This is 7 months after starting anti-inflammatories. She's been on an increased dose of methotrexate by injection (poor Jerry gives her a shot once a week - they are both brave) for 2 months now, and we have really been seeing an improvement in her swelling. Anyway, this picture shows after 7 months of anti-inflammatories, that her left knee is getting much better. It also shows just how swollen her knees looked (by looking at her right knee).

And a last one, just because, of Faith. I was trying to catch her smiling, because they both are great at that now. But instead got one of her with her big giant blue eyes. The twins both smile, laugh, roll tummy to back, Joshua rolls back to tummy, and they both coo like crazy when you look at them. And recently, they have been sleeping more. They always have slept really well, but 2 night ago they both slept from 11pm until 8am. It is insane that at 2 months, they are doing so awesome at sleeping.

Ok, chaos is starting to brew.... I'll post more later!

A year in review

2010-01-11T11:11:00.008-05:00

Some pictures to recap our 2009...

We redecorated the half bath. The duck bath magically transformed into a clean and updated half bath that we are not embarrassed for people to use!!

In the beginning of March, "Uncle Brian" came to live with us as he got a job in Michigan. Aunt Darlynn stayed in South Carolina to try to sell the house while looking for a job in Michigan. Also, we found out we were pregnant! Hooray, we had been trying for a while!

Jerry ran his first race - the 4 mile Shillelagh in downtown Flushing.

In April, we found out that we were pregnant with TWINS!!!

In May, we found out that Naomi had juvenile idiopathic arthritis.

In May, we also decided that we would remodel our house to make room for the babies. First step, move the laundry room to the basement.

In June, the basement laundry room was functional.

Then it was time to demo the laundry room and computer room. Aunt Darlynn got a job in Lansing, and our house guest rented a house in Owosso ~ just in time for us to tear apart his bedroom!

The computer room before, and the laundry room demo-ed.

In July, we found out we were having a boy and a girl. We also had the entire Rice clan up to Michigan for Grandma Rice's 70th birthday. We all went up and stayed at a lodge in Gaylord.

In August, we finished work on our Master Suite ~ finally!

In September, Naomi went to the hospital for severe anemia at Mott Children's Hospital in Ann Arbor. She had a blood transfusion, and later that week had arthrocentesis to remove fluid from her knees and ankles and insert steroids for her arthritis. The next week, Ethan started kindergarten.

October was Noah's birthday, Halloween, and best of all, Noah got "accepted" into the Great Start preschool program! Hooray that the state passed funding for it, finally! Now, both boys ride the bus to and from school.

November, Ethan got the "swine flu" (apparently...), we had our twins, they both had jaundice, they both had their tongues clipped, Naomi turned 2, Grandma & Grandpa Rice came up, Thanksgiving....

Joshua David (right) and Faith Elizabeth (left) joined us November 3, 2009 at 3:04 and 3:08pm respectively weighing in at 7 lb 12 oz (Josh) and 7 lb 6 oz (Faith).

And December, of course, was Christmas.

I apologize for the lack of posting, or if I've forgotten anything on my recap post ~ as you can tell, we've been quite busy! But I do plan on keeping up better this year. I need to - this thing tends to serve as my baby book!!!

Babies!

2009-07-07T22:10:00.003-04:00

Yikes - it took me almost a week to post these. We've been so busy with the whole bedroom/bathroom remodel and I've been so tired that I forgot to put these online. I guess most people have already seen the pictures, but since this blog is currently replacing any sort of journal or baby book, I need to keep it updated :)

We found out on Thursday that we are having a boy and a girl! Two healthy babies, both growing great (actually, big. surprise, surprise).

Here are the pictures that we got - only 4 total pictures this time, but we go back several more times for ultrasounds. Plus there's always the billions that are taken once they are born!

Baby A is a boy! I don't think I need to explain the picture - the ultrasound tech labeled it pretty well... He's on my right side. Found out that baby A is designated because he is further down, and will deliver first. I never knew what made them choose which was A and B before. Thought I would share in case any one else ever wondered.

Baby B is a girl! She was moving all over and allowing for some good shots. The boy was just nestled in, and besides exposing himself was relatively shy.

The profile of our baby girl. She had her hand up in front of her face, too. At first I thought she was sucking her thumb, but no, just has her hand in front of her face like she's surprised.

He was facing my back the whole time and wouldn't turn, so here he is, looking down. You can clearly see his skull and spine, just not the profile. Soon enough we will!

Just wanted to share the news with everyone! I will post more later. Hopefully. I've got some cute pictures of Naomi that need to be shared :)

Updated belly pics

2009-06-26T20:20:00.005-04:00

More pictures to compare!! Starting back at 16 weeks and now up to 19. I can't believe we are half-way done with this pregnancy. It makes all of the projects going on a little more stressful. I'm not big enough yet to have the feeling of "phew - so glad to be half done". But knowing that our tub didn't come in today (the day it was supposed to, ever since 3 weeks ago) so the floor isn't patched yet. The mechanical inspector didn't come today, so we can't put up drywall yet... I'm realizing how much a cement floor with no holes and drywall really add to the feel of a room... Oh well, it will happen. Perhaps we were meant to relax this weekend in preparation for our busy couple weeks ahead.

On to the pictures.

16 weeks pregnant. Starting to really stick out there :)

17 weeks pregnant. Not a fantastic shirt to show off the belly, but we got a picture - and some weeks that's a chore in itself!

18 weeks pregnant. Back to the red shirt that I had planned on wearing every picture. Well, here it is again, so feel free to go back and compare - I think I got 2 others in this shirt... I have a feeling that later pictures will be taken in this shirt only because it might be my only shirt that fits after a while....

19 weeks pregnant. Ok, it doesn't normally fit like this... although sorta. I had to pull the top in a little just to get to the start of the belly. But it's a medium so it will probably have to go back in the bin. Mediums just don't cover the belly anymore... Here we are, half way done. 4 1/2 more months to go. Just seems surreal.

Next Thursday is our ultrasound - so we should have some pictures of that up next week! How exciting to be able to see the babies again :) Ok, that's all for now!

Naomi's cute hair

2009-06-18T14:18:00.005-04:00

I thought I would post some pictures of Naomi's cute, growing hair. Memorial Day I got her hair in pigtails. It was so cute, and it aged her by about 2 years! Today she kept wanting me to do her hair (which is NOT the norm) and so I put a little clip in the back - which was cute but didn't stay. Then I put it in a ponytail. All of it. Well, the sides fell down a little - her bangs need to grow just a touch more. Very cute.

How patriotic in her stars sundress and piggy tails!!!

Smiling while putting on her shoes. She loves shoes. The pigtails aren't even, but holy-moley... it took about 10 minutes of wrestling with her to get those tiny little rubberbands in her hair. I give a lot of credit to moms that get an actual straight part!

Side view of today's pony tail. It was skewed to the other side a little, but I couldn't get around there for a picture.
It is so cute!

She loves saying cheese for pictures. So I thought I would get a cheese picture from her.

And for those that don't know yet, we found out a couple weeks ago from the pediatric orthopedic specialist that Naomi probably has Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis (JRA - which is now more commonly called Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis, JIA). We are scheduled to get in to see a pediatric rheumatologist in late August, but are on a high priority cancellation list too. In the mean time, we give her naprosyn (basically Aleve), an anti-inflammatory. It helps her to walk better. For a while, she wouldn't even try to walk before lunch time. She still doesn't bend her right knee. She hams it up for mommy because she knows I'll pick her up. I'll be glad when we have some sort of treatment plan from the specialist!

Ok, I need to finish cleaning out the computer room so we can start demo in there soon. So much filing and putting away... When is it MY turn with a crow bar :)

Early belly pictures

2009-05-17T18:48:00.004-04:00

I was going to try to keep consistent outfits for the pictures for comparison sake. The first picture we took was about 11 weeks. You can start to see that I am showing. The red shirt is not my favorite (although Noah does in fact love it - red is his favorite color), but for whatever reason I wore it. Now it makes sense because it is one of my bigger maternity shirts, which I'm sure will come in handy in latter months! Ok, so for those far away who haven't seen the twins yet - here they are (hidden under maternity clothes, that is).

11 Weeks along. I'm starting to show!!! The very next week, I felt a lot of pulling and stretching and "poof" - there was a real pregnant belly.

Hmmm, I'll guess about 13 weeks. I had wanted to keep my outfits consistent, but I got dressed up for Mother's Day and wanted a picture in my pretty dress. I have nicer maternity dresses than non-maternity, so it's nice to get pictures in them :) You can see that it is in fact larger than 11 weeks.... Oh, and I forgot to put my glasses on after my Mother's Day nap...

Me at 14 weeks (today... so I guess a couple days shy of 14 weeks). Things are growing and growing! I love reading in the "What to Expect" book that soon I will be growing out of my normal clothes - time to start looking at transition maternity clothes. LOL! Yeeaaahhh... I'll "start" looking at those soon. Geesh, as if I could even try to get my others to fit.

Ok, 2 posts in one day. That's pretty impressive. I'll have to go through the other pictures and see what all I missed. Maybe play some catch-up.

Promotion Sunday

2009-05-17T16:24:00.003-04:00

Today was Promotion Sunday at church. We weren't sure what this really meant, as it was our first promotion Sunday. We found out it was having all of the kids' Sunday school classes go up in front, they gave out certificates for completing a year, gave out pins for Perfect Attendance (both boys got one! I think they let it slide that they missed one day. It was Easter Sunday.) Anyway, both boys also got "promoted" to the next class. Noah went from 2-3 year-olds to 4-5 year-olds, and Ethan got promoted from 4-5 year-olds to Kindergarten-1st grade. It was cute to see, and now we have certificates for them to keep in a scrapbook. Or more accurately, a file.

Anyway, they also sang a song. I got up to the front a little through the first verse. Here are the other 3 verses. Noah is the one to the far left, wiggling, jumping, spinning. Ethan is the very tall one to the far right.

Funny, while I was there taping and watching, I just kept watching Noah and how spazzy he was. It wasn't until I uploaded the video that I found he was actually VERY good, seeing as how he gets clocked by his friend a few times and never even retaliates. Wow. I gave him a hug and told him what a good boy he was.

Anyway, posted a blog the same day that it happened, so there ya go! Of course I missed about 500 pictures in between... And I have a few weeks of belly shots that I thought I would put up here, before I have a few months worth. Although then you could look through them like a flip book and watch the belly grow :)

Cuteness

2009-05-11T14:58:00.003-04:00

On the way back from Naomi's well-baby check up, Noah and Naomi fell asleep in the car. Although Naomi woke up, Noah got to enjoy a good little nap. Naomi is so sweet and likes to give kisses. Thought I would share the video with you that Jerry took of it all.

Easter prep and Easter Fair

2009-05-06T11:19:00.004-04:00

Yes, it was last month... I've been a little busy :) I thought I would post pictures, tho. So here they are!!

The boys getting ready to color Easter eggs. For most things in the kitchen, Ethan takes his shirt off. It's great for me for laundry reasons, but will have to teach him some day that it's not really acceptable to be shirtless at the dinner table...

Naomi couldn't color eggs with us because - well, she's one. So she sat and ate poptarts and drank juice. She doesn't really seem phased by this. In fact, it's one of her happier pictures.

Ok, then on to the Easter Fair at church.

The boys decorating their bags. This was the first station - from here, everything they did went in the bags. What can I say - they love stickers!

Noah writing a card to a shut-in. If you look closely (and upside down) it says "I love you". Jerry helped him with that. How cute!

Noah's smiley face that he got painted on. On the way to my parents' house after the Easter Fair, he proclaimed "I hope that everybody likes my smiley face". It was cute.

There was an interactive Bible story time. Noah got to be one of the guards at Jesus' tomb. He is wearing the helmet of Salvation.

Ethan was the angel that told "the Marys" that the tomb was empty and Jesus is alive. He was a good angel.

And the last stop before the bounce houses - decorating cookies. They were pretty well spent after all this. And we were only there about an hour! There was a lot of overstimulation with the sights and sounds and people. But it was a lot of fun!

Ok, I'll do a separate post for Easter Sunday...

Early outside pics

2009-04-30T10:12:00.002-04:00

A long time ago in March, we played outside while it was still cold. I thought I would post pictures because it always cracks me up when Noah wears his stocking cap. And this was the day that he was covering himself with sand. Oh well, on to the pictures.

Naomi with pigtails. They started to fall out, but they were still cute. She likes her swing this year, which is good because last year she would freak out when in there...

Ethan posing on the "balance beam". He loves getting his picture taken. And he loves walking across this yard decoration.

He really wanted a picture of him looking at the camera. So we timed it and got one of him kinda looking. He was excited, so I thought I would put it on here :)

Yes, this is what Noah likes to look like outside, apparently. He cracks me up. The sand was still very wet and cold. Good thing he has his winter jacket and cap on! And he looks so very happy!
Ok, that's about it for now. I just wanted these pictures up before I post our Easter pictures...

What the what?!?

2009-04-23T09:47:00.002-04:00

We had our next OB appointment on Tuesday. The first appointment we had, it was just paperwork and talking to the doctor, and giving the resident a chance to see a patient (he he he... my take on it). One of the questions (obviously) is date of last menstrual period (LMP). I was wavering between February 1st and the 3rd. Kinda started on the first, but really did the third... whatever. Anyway, just for explanation's sake, LMP is what they use to determine due date. The doctor and I decided we would aim for the middle (mainly because Naomi's birthday was the latter date... and we didn't want that). The doctor let me choose my due date. Not a big deal. Then the resident, when we were scheduling our next appointment, says "We should do a dating ultrasound." I was smugly thinking, 'silly resident... it doesn't matter if the due date is off by A DAY... this is my fourth baby...' but it's always nice to see the little baby in an ultrasound, especially when I can't feel it yet. Nice to see if everything is ok.

I met Jerry at the appointment - it was early afternoon. My sister is up this week (she has an interview RIGHT NOW), so she watched the kids so we wouldn't have to track them in there with us. On my way to the appointment, I felt this overwhelming feeling that we would be getting bad news. I just prayed that God would be with us to help us hear what we would be hearing.

The ultrasound tech puts the ultrasound thingy on my belly and goes "Whoah - did you just see what I saw?"
And this is what we saw.

Still convinced that we would be getting "bad news", I asked if they were ok. Yes. "They". Two babies. We saw their little heartbeats, their arms and legs wiggling around... insane. So I guess it wasn't "bad news" afterall, just news that we might need the Lord's support for!!! We are having twins. TWINS!

Here is the "4-D" ultrasound of them. Too early to know the sexes. That is at the 20-week ultrasound. I think we might find out this time. Jerry said he was done with surprises after this ultrasound! The baby on the left is easier to see as a baby. With the head all the way to the right of the sac and it's little arm bent up by it's face and the leg near the top of the sac. I think the baby on the right is facing away from the camera. So the head is far right, arm just next to that, and the leg near the left side of the sac. So bizarre. So very bizarre. They are not identical, and we've heard that this is the "safest" kind of twins to have, them being in their own sacs with what seems each their own placenta.

We know that God has a sense of humor, and we are pretty sure he was giggling when we had the ultrasound. It is obviously his plan and not ours. We decided that WE were going to have 4 kids. So we got pregnant with our 4th. Which is now our 4th and 5th. Who knew!

We will need lots of prayers - for a safe and healthy pregnancy, for healthy babies, for this to be as uneventful as possible. We are still dealing with the shock of it all. Twins. Another crib. Another carseat. So much for having Naomi share a room with the baby - there is no way that 2 cribs AND a toddler bed will fit in her room. We will be doing some home renovations to make this work.

Just thought I would share the news. The crazy, crazy news.

Ever have one of those days...

2009-04-14T18:50:00.004-04:00

When you're not really feeling photogenic...

But your mom keeps snapping pictures anyway?

I just had to post those two. They crack me up every time I see these.... so I thought I would share.

Karate and Races

2009-04-14T15:33:00.005-04:00

Alright, a new post... Here goes, let's see how much I can remember!!! Oh, first of all some big news. We found out (hmm, after the last post?) that we are pregnant again. I am 10 weeks right now. Due about November 9th. It makes me very, very tired and really nauseous (sp? I didn't think this was how it was spelled, but the spell checker did). And with this pregnancy, I throw up sometimes, so that's new.

We had our first nice spring day and we all went outside to play. This was a while back. We have since had many nice days. The kids wanted their pictures taken. This one of Ethan cracks me up because his hair is out of control. It has since been cut. Twice.

Ethan chilling on our deck, sitting on the deck chairs that still don't have the cushions on them. I think they just finished eating a banana snack.

Naomi and Daddy posing at karate. This is a cute picture. Her hair is getting long, and isn't always up in a whale-spout pony tail, but sometimes it obviously is.

A family pic (well, without me) at karate. This was moments before Noah got smashed into by a little boy, screamed at the top of his lungs for what seemed like 20 minutes, and we hauled out of there! Thursday night karate nights were always stressful for me, and the kids. By Thursday, our week is "done", so having to go somewhere was tiring and stressful.

The kiddos with Gramma watching for daddy. Jerry ran in the Shillelagh 4 mile race in Flushing about a month ago. His first race! (Well, he's run with the kids in the Leprechaun Lope, but so have I and that's not saying much) It was a nice sunny, brisk day. It was fun to watch the race, and Jerry beat his normal pace by about a minute a mile. Which ultimately means that I totally missed getting him on film or camera because he was four minutes earlier than expected. Now I know what to expect.

Daddy and Ethan after the finish. I wanted a picture of at least the finish line in it. There's a cute picture of Jerry holding Ethan, but it's a little far away and you can't really tell who either of them are...

The boys after registering for the Leprechaun Lope. It was later that day. Well, like 30 minutes later... So Jerry ran TWO races that day :) I think they were looking into the sun... maybe.

Jerry and Ethan, cruising along in the race. Noah and I are quite a ways back...

Here we come!!! The boys both did good, especially for having been downtown all afternoon for the races. Maybe some day they will be in the Shillelagh with daddy....

Afterwards we celebrated with boiled dinner in celebration of St. Patty's day, and a pretty intense game of "team Sorry". Teams were: Grampa and Ethan, Daddy and Noah, Gramma and Uncle Brian, Mommy and Naomi.

Phew, that was a big part of March. I have a few more outside pictures. Then it's on to Easter. There was an Easter Fair at church, which I think Jerry took lots of pictures, then we went to Gramma and Grampa Slamka's, which I think we took zero pictures. Then Easter morning. I have my work cut out for me. Yikes. I'll try... I'll try....

Our Little Ninjas

2009-04-14T15:01:00.004-04:00

Ok, a month late. The boys breaking boards at karate. Ethan first.

Then Noah. I hope these videos are right... I didn't check them before uploading.

Noah got a little spooked by the board breaking.

I will upload pictures to a different post. I'm so tired that my brain isn't being very clever...

In like a lion

2009-03-04T11:15:00.011-05:00

Ok, I sense a theme here. Once a month I realize that it is in fact a new month, and I try to catch up on the past month. Here goes... we've had quite a new year, just with cleaning and organizing and general busyness (I realize that's probably not how it's spelled, but business just didn't seem right, either.) Nothing extreme or out of this world, just day to day stuff. So on with pictures.

Noah had product in his hair when he went to preschool, and it was very preppy cool and all "intentionally messy". This is a good cure for bedhead, since the kids take nighttime baths. Anyway, when he got home he saw my headband and put it on. It was just about the funniest look on him, so I took a picture for later use when he has girlfriends (hmmm, I suppose that should say "girlfriend" in the singular...).

Noah, not looking so snotty as he usually does in pictures. And so very 80s with that headband...

We took our camera to Little Ninjas (both boys are in beginners karate). We of course bought them the outfits, because I'm pretty sure this is why Jerry wanted them in karate to begin with.

Ethan showing off some moves with daddy. It looks like he's mid hitch-kick. They have not really learned moves, so this is actually Ethan just unable to stand still. Makes for a cute picture, though.

The boys diong sit-ups during warmups. It cracks me up to see them all doing sit-ups and push-ups. I don't think I have a picture of the push-ups...

I'm not sure what Noah is doing in this picture. I took it from across the gym, as my usual job during Little Ninjas is to chase Naomi. Her "norm" is crying and crawling up my legs until I hold her. Until we are at a place where I want to just be able to hold her. Then she squirms to get down and crawls away, looking over her shoulder laughing. And I once heard that girls were manipulative... pshh. Oh, and my other favorite thing about the kids in karate is when Noah screams "YES SIR". It's usually just a little bit later than the other kids, and he has such a clear and unmistakeable voice...

It was kinda like flag football in that they were supposed to get the flags off of the other kid. Noah started off serious, as you can plainly see. Once he saw he was out-matched, he decided just to run, high-steppin' run... he obviously would have gone all day, but the instructor said to stay in the circle, Noah got distracted, and he lost. Good sport, though...

I love how Ethan knew the rules that you weren't supposed to leave the circle. It's a longer video, but it's always fun to watch them. At least I think so...

We tried getting the boys to pose with what they got for Valentine's Day. This is probably the best capture of the moment. Ethan got Horton Hears a Who ("we are here, we are here, we are here" - the boys love that movie) and Noah got a Webkinz. It's a pelican. Ethan got a Webkinz for his birthday, and named him Nelson (see post "what?!? it's February?!?" ;) ) and so Noah got one as well. In the store, Jerry asked Noah what he was going to name him, and before Noah could answer, Ethan said "You could name him Nelson". And for whatever reason that neither Jerry nor I can fathom, we now have Nelson 1 and Nelson 2. It drives us nuts, but we can't get Noah to choose another name, mainly because Ethan is very persuasive to keep his name Nelson. It's very hard and tries our patience because we don't want to use the term "stupid" or "dumb", but naming two different dolls the same name is... well... stupid! LOL! We need to get over it, I suppose...

Ethan's school had a field trip to the children's museum. Jerry went with him, I took Noah to his school's "pajama party" - it was on my birthday, not that it makes a difference.... Anyway, Jerry took some pictures at the field trip.

Oh neat, what are you doing there?? Oh, making homemade toothpaste out of baking soda and vanilla extract? Ok, nevermind... sick! We threw this out when he wasn't looking. Really? Homemade toothpaste? LOL! It was in a ziplock baggie and it looked so gross. I wanted to make sure that he didn't ask to use it!!

Ethan had a dream. And he also wished that the people off to the right were paying more attention... It was still February when they went - Black History Month.

Ethan as Rosa Parks. He doesn't look as strong-willed and confident as I remember her looking in pictures...

Jerry as Rosa Parks. Ethan's teacher wanted Jerry to pose as well - it made for a funny picture.
It's tough work being a fireman... I love this picture. And now I realize that maybe Ethan could be a magazine model some day. You know, like JCPenny where they are always looking off to the side...
Ethan's class picture on the fire truck. How cute is this!?! Ethan is near the left in the middle, if that makes sense..

The kids watching a movie and eating popcorn. I thought I would end this post with a sassy picture of Noah, since I started with a funny one. He's just looking like, hey dad, stop taking pictures....

Ok - I had to get that all out... Tomorrow the boys break boards at karate, so I will have to post again. But I didn't want this to be too hugely long... But hey, hopefully 2 posts in one month!

What? It's February?

2009-02-10T10:38:00.004-05:00

I've been keeping busy and not on the computer as much anymore, so I realized that I hadn't posted in a very long time. Here are some pictures to keep you entertained.

A delicious snack idea: vanilla wafers and chocolate frosting. A messy snack idea: see previous sentence. Naomi loves chocolate. Um! Um! ("some some" as in 'give me some chocolate!!!') Hopefully one day she will learn to be more discreet about her chocolate consumption. That will make it easier for me to 'sneak' her some...

At the end of January, Aunt Darlynn & Uncle Brian came up to Michigan. They will be moving back here soon, and wanted to look around at some houses. And to celebrate "birthday week". And because back when they were up for Thanksgiving, Ethan asked Dar if she would come back for his birthday party. Here are some pictures of the party.

Ethan reading the card from Dar. I think we have it on video, but I'm pretty sure on the real video camera, so not as easily downloaded to the computer. Anyway, he read it out loud and it was cute.

A sample picture of Ethan opening presents. I still can't believe he's 5. This year was a board game extravaganza. It was a great idea, and he didn't get any repeats. It's fun to play board games with him... and he wants to play them ALL THE TIME.

Tools!!!! We bought each kid a tool box for their first birthday, and every year since we get them a new tool for their toolbox. When they finally grow up, they will have their own set of tools and won't have to have any hand-me-downs. Anyway, he was pretty excited about his tools :)

Ethan's birthday cake. Ever since Noah's birthday in October, Ethan has wanted a Word World cake. We printed off some pictures and took them in to the bakery, which charged a ridiculous amount to scan and put on the cake. Two days before his birthday, Ethan decided he didn't want a Word World cake, he wanted a blue cake. I informed him that that was too bad - he was getting a Word World cake! :) He was ok with it by the time Saturday rolled around.

Dar & Brian with their "cakes". I made cupcakes for the rest of the birthdays. Yeah, it wasn't a whole cake, but hopefully they were ok with it. Dar's birthday was Feb 3, Brian's was Jan 26.

Mom's birthday was February 5th. Don & Staci couldn't make it up, but Don's is Jan 30. We had a lot of cake... I guess a half a sheet cake and 24 cupcakes is too much for 8 people. Who knew? I wanted everyone to have their own cake, and maybe that wasn't necessary... But really, can you have "too much" cake???

Saturday (this past one) we had the kids work on their Valentines. Ethan's class had to write their own names on them, and cut out pictures of the kids in the class and tape them on the front. Noah just needed to bring in some with his name on them, but he insisted in writing as well. Noah in action writing on the Valentines with pen.

Ethan (and Nelson, his dog) working on his. We started doing this Saturday thinking that it would take a few days to finish. But Ethan was a trooper and worked through until it was done. I guess that's not surprising.

Another action shot of Noah. You can see the concentration that went into this. I remember doing Valentines in grade school, and how looooong it took to address all of them. Apparently it doesn't. Just seemed that way. For a 5 and 3 year old, less than an hour to do 15 each.

Naomi is not in preschool, nor does she know how to write her name. She just observed. But she was pretty patient, so that helped.

Gramma and Grampa Slamka got Ethan a Webkinz for his birthday. He named him Nelson. He treats him like a baby. It's crazy! Anyway, here is a play mat that Ethan made for Nelson. It is actually Ethan's blankie!!! He let Nelson use it as a playmat. Then he put toys on it for him. He likes to wrap him up in this blanket when it's his (Nelson's) nap time. We get scolded if we are too loud and wake him up.... He also helps him to play. I overheard "good job - he just put the square in the square hole". And he was teaching him how to play Sorry the other day - because Nelson has never played Sorry before.

Noah wanted in on the picture taking. It's a cute picture of the two of them (three of them?). And a rare instance of Noah NOT sabotaging the Nelson play. I can't be sure if he's jealous of Nelson, or perhaps just likes the reaction from Ethan when he throws him across the room.

Ok, things are creepy quiet in the house... I just wanted to post a little something with pictures :)

Randomness

2009-01-26T14:31:00.004-05:00

It was very quiet as I was checking my email. I go out to find the boys sitting very close together on the couch watching Dragon Tales. I snapped a picture for proof. Unfortunately Noah spotted the camera right before the picture took, so there's the typical Noah sass face - but you can get the idea of how sweet they were.

Then I notice that Noah has a book in his hands. I ask what it is.... it's Luther's Small Catechism. I have no idea where he got it, because 'grown-up' books are usually put where the kids can't get to them. He said it was right next to him... he said "I'm reading the Bible of Jesus... with red words". That cracked me up, so I thought I would post it before I forgot. The Bible of Jesus with red words. Well, Jesus usually talks in red words, so he's pretty much right :)

Ethan got a new jacket from Grandma and Grandpa Rice for his birthday. He has the unfortunate habit of chewing on his zippers, so he goes through jackets really fast. This is his 3rd this year. He posed.

When Jerry let him open the bag to see it, he said "(GASP) A Jacket!!! I've always wanted a jacket!!!" Love that kid!

Again, the jacket he has always wanted...

Ok, time for Naomi's nap, and since she's weaned, that means I actually have to get her to sleep without being on the computer.

(When I posted it, it looked funny - so I went back to edit it. Sorry if this posts twice, I'm still learning, a year and a half later...)

January... finally!

2009-01-23T16:01:00.008-05:00

Ok, on to Rice family news from 2009. First of all, Naomi popped a couple molars through sometime in the beginning of the month. Her top 2 molars. They are now almost halfway through. I am pretty sure both boys had all of their teeth by now (and if I ever filled out baby books I would know...) and it seems odd that she started at 4 months with teeth and still is getting more...

In other news, she started standing by herself. In the middle of the room. From sitting to squat to stand. It's pretty exciting and she is really proud of herself. Here are some candids of Naomi standing.

Yeah... I'm standing!

Come hug me!!! I'm standing! Ok, so I guess all she says is "I'm standing"

And the actual act of standing!!! She is much better at it now...

In other news, Noah is potty trained! What?!? Yep, totally potty trained. Jerry was home the first week in January, and that Friday Noah went all day with no accidents. So we bundled up the family and went off to the "Underpants Store" (which looks eerily like Clio Walmart) for Noah to pick out his own underpants! Hooray! We are so proud of him! Then the next week he told me "I'm a big boy and I wear underpants that means I get to go to preschool". Yes indeed, that is what it means! So now Noah goes Tuesday and Thursday to preschool from 9-11am. It's nice hanging out with my girl for a couple hours a couple times a week...

In other news (yes, I have been saving up, remember - to try to get through the December posts) - Naomi is weened! Woot! Last Friday, I was just... done. She got a cup of milk and got to experience 'crying it out' in her crib. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday she slept 12-14 hours a night without waking up. I was kicking myself for not doing it sooner...

Friday we went to Dr. Solomon in Ann Arbor for Ethan's 6 month follow-up. It was awesome and it went really well. He said that he can see lots of improvements in Ethan's development (as can we) and that he should be set to go to Kindergarten on time in the fall!!! We are really really excited. We still need to get him some speech therapy, and we enrolled him in karate. We now need to work more on actual social skills in a social setting - our new "assignment" from Dr. Solomon was playdates. This is all very exciting for us and to think back 6 months and realize how far he has come, we (and Dr. Solomon) rate his improvement as "Very Good".

Oh, I forgot - for a while there everyone was sick. Naomi had bronchiolitis again, and we were on careful watch so as not to have to go to the hospital - the steroids really helped. Then the boys both got sick with some cold bug. This Tuesday I took Ethan to an after-hours clinic because he was crying that his ear hurt. The kid has had dozens of ear infections in the past and never made a peep about it and he was CRYING that it hurt. We got some antibiotics and he seems better...

For a second there we thought we might have Naomi potty trained as well. She would say "Tee Tee" and crawl to the potty. She likes to sit on it, and actually pushes until she toots, then she laughs. I guess everyone likes using the new potty...

Awwww - they are so sweet. They were hugging and giving kisses. One of those rare sibling moments that makes you run and get the camera... And one of those rare moments lately where I am not saying "Noah, did you hit your sis??? We don't hit..."

And here is a video to end the blog for now... it's humorous (because everyone is ok) and I wouldn't doubt that one day we are on America's Funniest Home Videos for it. Feel free to watch it several times... we have :) Naomi trying to walk....

"What we did on our Christmas Vacation"

2009-01-23T15:21:00.007-05:00

In the beginning, there were the ducks. Many, many ducks. Of the mallard variety. With cattails under the chair rail, and urine soaked wooden parkay floors. It must have been "cozy" at one point... I'm guessing 1982. The shelf with the ducks (and eucalyptus) was left by the previous owner.

The best "before" picture that we have... maybe "best" should be in quotations...

All of the wallpaper down! It took almost an entire day to get the rest of the wallpaper off, the walls scrubbed free of wallpaper paste, and all of the glue marks (there must have been wainscoting at one point) and holes hammered in so I could mud.

A glimpse of the wood floor, the vanity and toilet. It really was cramped in there with a LOT of wood products...
Hey boys, grab a tool and help daddy rip out the old toilet and vanity... and hold those tools dangerously close to your face... and smile! This was about the ONLY time they were allowed in until everything was reinstalled again. They got to peek around the gate that Jerry put up in the kitchen, but it really wasn't safe for them in there... unfortunately - they are good helpers.

Yay!!! The wood floor is gone! It was almost poetic in that each tiny plank came up separately. It took a lot of hard work with a hammer and screwdriver to get that floor up. It was poetic because for YEARS I have hated that floor... it has been water soaked, urine soaked, nastiness for a long time... so to think that it would come up easily would almost have been cruel. Nope, each of the 560 planks came up separate. Mastic covered subfloor has never looked so beautiful.
The new backerboard is installed - and the walls are pretty much "skim-coated" with mud, even though I was just trying to repair. During this renovation, I realized that I have never put enough coats of mud on any of my other projects. I actually did as many as I was supposed to, and the results were beautiful! Well worth the extra hour!

Laying the tiles. I was so nervous that it wouldn't turn out right. We were given 25 tiles from a friend for free... we needed 24 of those tiles. I had one to spare. Then I did some 're-engineering' and shifted the floorplan enough that I had an extra couple tiles, but still... yikes! It turned out very nice. I think it might even be nice with no reference point (not just in comparison of what it WAS!).

The kids loved cheering us on! You can kinda see the color of the walls. Both boys can tell you, it's "Potters Clay". I can't even describe it except for it's name... it really is a clay color. It's not tan, it's not grey... weird. Oh, except the boys (especially Noah) call it "Cotters Clay".

The new sink and toilet!!! The sink is awesome, and I am very proud of Jerry for being brave enough to install it! The toilet was a superflush from Home Depot. It's treated us pretty well so far :) It's way better than the old toilet that used to fill the bowl all the way to the top before flushing it down... it always made you nervous because you never knew if it would really flush or not...

The new light fixture. The mirror is currently being painted white. But I wanted the picture of the light fixture. It's very exciting to see it all finished! All I have left is one more coat of paint on the mirror and stepstool (for the kids) and to paint the molding white. Oh, and to find a threshold of some sort for the doorway... I will take an "after" picture when it is totally done. It won't look much different, but we do have a picture on the wall now and no more gaps in the molding.

Another "after" picture. The picture on the wall has red flowers on it - thus the red towels. Oh, and this also shows the new towel bar and toilet paper holder.

It was a lot of work, but it is sooooo worth it having a bathroom that we aren't embarrassed to have people pee in. So please - stop by, and pee in our new bathroom! :)

The end.

Arkansas

2009-01-16T16:35:00.004-05:00

Christmas Day we packed up and headed down to Arkansas to visit the Rices. All of them! Uncle Greg & Aunt Diana came in from Houston, and Uncle Steve & Aunt AnnaMarie came in from Tulsa. It was great to see everyone, and for everyone to "meet" Naomi!

Noah watching Grandpa Rice light the fireplace. He is waiting patiently as he was told that we get to open presents after the fire was lit.

"OOOhhhh.... red fire dog pajamas?!?!" Noah loves footie pajamas. The kids kinda look like they might have slept in the car through the night... I'll have to keep that in mind for next time!

Ethan opening his clothes from Grandma and Grandpa. I would think that his expression is because he only slept for about 6 hours instead of 12, but having seen all of the other Christmas pictures, I realize this IS excitement.

Naomi really wanted to play with... well, everything! This is me holding her back from the ornaments on the table. She prefers things that are expensive and breakable. I love the toes to the left in the photo. I'm guessing they are Noah's.

No picture of the cake, but here is opening presents at Jesus' birthday party. This is probably the 20th 'present opening' event of the season, but everyone looks rarin' to go!
Ooohhh - a kid's worship cd and a Veggie Tales movie!!! Naomi got a couple books. I think the stickers on Ethan's arm are for beating Grandpa in Go Fish... or maybe Monopoly Jr. Oh and look - there's a piece of cake on the table, so we DID get a picture :)
The "Kids' Table" for Christmas Dinner with everyone! Well... Megan graduated to the adult table, Gregory was in Colorado for swim training, and Naomi was in a high chair at the adult table. So this is "the rest" of the kids :)

Ethan playing shuffleboard. Once he got the hang of it, he wasn't too bad! It was really really hard to keep both boys from wiping the wax beads off of the top of it... you can see the little arm marks on the one side - hopefully this didn't permanently damage the board!!! Maybe some day Ethan can be a shuffleboard champ!

Naomi having quality time with her cousins. Chloe was a good sport holding her :) Naomi did fairly well while we were there, and would intermittently play with random relatives. This was not one of her 'better' times. She was the center of a LOT of pictures - some day she will look back and be embarrassed about the times when all she would do is cry. Hopefully... I mean, I'm hoping that she eventually grows out of this phase...

All in all, it was a really good visit! The kids got to hang out with cousins that they normally don't see, we got to catch up with everyone, the kids were really well-behaved (almost shockingly well-behaved). The drive down was uneventful with nice weather. The DVD player from Grandma and Grandpa Rice helped occupy them in the car (although it made them NOT sleep...). The way back started off a little rocky... A half hour into the drive, Noah threw up all over himself (a victim of the windy, twisty, hilly road out of Hot Springs Village). We also experienced an exploding diaper from Ethan (all of the little 'pee crystals' all over the back of the car... don't ask...), a blowout from Naomi, a leaky diaper from Noah, I had mastitis (again) and got really sick near Indianapolis... but we made it home safely, too. And almost in record time!

I think that might have been everything from December... I can't think that far back now - I am once again about a month behind, so I need to get us caught back up!!! SOOOOO much going on in January! So Happy 2008 - On to 2009!

Christmas Day

2009-01-15T14:38:00.004-05:00

OOOhhhhhh Santa came!!! He leaves presents wrapped according to who they are for. Somehow the boys sense this and know right where to go.
Hard to see, but Noah got a magnifying glass. He LOVES magnifying glasses, and when at preschool just walks around looking at things through one. Hmmm, hope this doesn't mean glasses in the future - perhaps this is how a 3 year old tells you he needs glasses??? (we had his vision checked in the summer - it was fine)
A tickle jack-in-the-box!!! Santa was able to find one that was Curious George instead of the more common nightmare-scary clown!
Naomi eating the faucet of her kitchen. The kitchen was from us (as opposed to Santa). It is cool - made in America. It took me ~ 4 hours to assemble since little Chinese children weren't involved, but it is sturdy and nice.
Dig in to your stockings!!! And.... line them up perfectly according to type of candy, of course! Yes, there are obviously some 'tendencies' showing here. Jerry and I both were giggling at this, hence the picture. Everything came out one at a time and placed precisely where it needed to go.

The "aftermath". Not so bad. Santa doesn't go nuts at our house. Although we are still lucky enough for our kids to ask for reasonable things. In fact, Ethan got everything that he asked for. Not too shabby :)

Proof that the man really visited. Ethan was upset - "uuuhhhh... he only ate 2 1/2 cookies.... I left him 4. But he only ate 2 1/2.... I wanted him to eat all of them... I will have to eat this one." Ummmm, not at 7am... good try tho.

We didn't have enough eggs to make Jesus' birthday cake (extremely poor planning on my part) so instead of hanging around Michigan for the party, we packed up and left for Arkansas. Grandma Rice had several dozen eggs - plenty for a Jesus birthday cake! So those pics (hopefully I took some....) will be included in the "Arkansas" post. The boys are ruling the kitchen and I keep hearing the ice dispenser.... not good. At least it's water, but it's water that we need to clean up. Gotta run.

Christmas Eve

2009-01-15T11:51:00.004-05:00

Moving right along... Well, these first couple pictures aren't of Christmas Eve, but it is proof that my children don't know the rule of thumb that if you do something you aren't supposed to do, don't leave proof. Hmmm, do you think someone was playing with the camera?!?! There were 9 pictures and 7 MOVIES on there. The movies were great, and if it wasn't mainly just audio of them saying "it's broken... it won't take a picture... I want to take a picture... Ethan, it won't take a picture" for 35 seconds, then I might have uploaded them :) Anyway, the boys being naughty:

Ethan taking a picture of Noah. Looks like he has the hang of how the camera works.
Noah, not as good at the aim, gets a picture mostly of Ethan's chest. But it's still a funny picture.
Ok, now on to Christmas Eve. Gramma and Grampa Slamka came out to Flushing again so we could celebrate together. We opened gifts, ate chinese food and went to church. You know... Christmas Eve stuff :) We started the tradition last year of having a "Fa ra ra ra ra" Christmas, and it's wonderful (eating chinese food, that is...)! No cooking, easy clean up... awesome!

Grampa opening the birdfeeder that the boys made for him at the Santa Secret shop. Grampas love birds, and bird feeders!

Noah opening his Thomas the Train towel set. I am not sure why he is so serious of late... Maybe it's just that he's 3 and all grown up now...

See - again... so serious! Ethan with his Diego coloring book. Maybe Noah is so serious because he's wearing Polo... LOL!

Ok, maybe everyone is just tired... Ethan was very excited about the Spiderman blanket that Gramma made for him. Maybe my timing is just off for the pictures...

A cute picture of the boys helping Naomi with her presents. She likes opening them, but is still very slow at it. Also, her favorite part about toys are the tags on them. Give her a cute outfit, and she will have that tag off and in her mouth in 3 seconds flat :)

I told the boys that we would be going to the school building and they were having a Santa Secret shop and that we would be able to get presents for everyone there. I said they would get to pick out a present for daddy. Right then, Ethan said "I know what I'm going to get daddy... popcorn. Daddy loves popcorn. I'm getting him popcorn for Christmas." Well, he's right, daddy does love popcorn. Luckily we had some already and we wrapped it for him. Here's proof - daddy LOVES popcorn :)

Ethan also picked out a pocketknife that said "#1 Dad" on it. You know, so when Jerry needs to use a miniature pocket knife he will be reminded that he is in fact the #1 Dad. Ethan was insistent that he wanted to get Jerry a knife because "daddy really likes knives too". Ummm, ok... might have been more accurate with the popcorn...

The boys picked out some beautiful jewelry for me - bracelet and matching earrings!

Naomi couldn't take any more of the excitement. She napped like this while Ethan, gramma, grampa and I played Ethan's new game Pictureka. It's tough being 1 at Christmas....

A family photo! All of us pretty much looking at the camera, and all dressed up! Very rare indeed. This one should be blown up and put over our fireplace.

Ok, that sums up Christmas Eve. The family pic was taken at church - then after we came home, threatened the children about Santa not coming if they didn't go to bed (we feel it's part of our duty as parents to do that...), and set up for Christmas morning - which will be the next post.

Christmas Play

2009-01-14T17:48:00.003-05:00

The boys had their first experience with a Christmas play this year - it was fun! They got to choose from a few different 'non-speaking' roles. Ethan chose an angel, and Noah wanted to be an animal (even though a week after he decided this, he changed his mind and really wanted to be an angel... it all worked out in the end!)

Ethan got to sing Angels We Have Heard on High and do hand motions. He was very cute. Noah sang some songs as well... Away in a Manger, Silent Night... I think they were supposed to sing all of the songs that were being played while they were "on stage". Noah was the sheep that stood up and did the hand motions with the angels on their song.

Then after the play was a pageant where each Sunday school class came out and sang a song, then all came back out together at the end. Had I known they would be standing their in their clothes (and not costumes) I might have talked Ethan into NOT wearing his moon boots. I was able to pull his jeans over them enough so it didn't look too rediculous... Ok, pictures of the cute kids.

Ethan as a shy and very cute angel.

The two brothers all dressed up. Noah obviously loving being a sheep. Actually, having a bell around his neck was a big perk for him, so all was well :)

The room where Noah waited - full of shepherds, wise men, Mary & Joseph, and some animals... Noah would be the sheep on your left... the one not wearing tights... (we chose the black pants and socks option)

Waaaay in front is a cluster of angels... Ethan is near the right side. See... Ok, well, I felt like posting this picture anyway.

Noah and his friend Sam. It would have been a pretty rowdy stable if these two were really there... Besides Noah dancing in the center aisle during the last part of the play, it went really well for us! Hooray! Maybe next year we will have different parts ( or even a different play...)...

Time for pizza! Thought I would try to catch up while I could!

The third week of December

2009-01-13T14:57:00.006-05:00

Whoops - not sure why that posted as a blank post. Sorry about that. Thought I would get "ahead of the game" and upload some pics while doing laundry, and I must have clicked on the "publish" button. Hopefully my pictures still decide to upload...

Ethan's first homework project - decorating a gingerbread man with the family. He did quite well - there was a lot of glitter glue, lots of pom poms, and a candy cane made of pipe cleaners.

The box from Carolina!!!! Everyone was so excited for it. We could hardly wait for daddy to get home to see what Aunt Darlynn sent!
Some show their excitement differently than others... She really was happy - this just caught her not smiling. She LOVES unwrapping gifts. Also, this is a talking purse, and she is so very cute with it. She'll sit there with it between her legs and reach in while looking off to the side and pull out her bracelet and put it on, then do the same and grab her keys, and her lipstick. Very girl. Love love love it. See Aunt Darlynn, she loves you :) Thank you!

The next day? I can't remember - I think the next day, we had a big snow storm. School was cancelled (it was Friday, so Ethan didn't have school) and Jerry went to work. The snow was scheduled to begin between 4-6am, and when he was ready for work, the ground was dry. Unfortunately after 3 hours of trying to get home in the middle of the day, he got stuck in the middle of our road. Yes, that's our road. Not our driveway. A neighbor was snowblowing our driveway and Jerry was driving past to park next door - except the snow was up to the truck and he couldn't make it through. Luckily he did get out, and up our driveway. A few hours later the plow came by...

Then the next day...

Gramma and Grampa Slamka braved the snowy roads and brought out the bunk beds that grampa made for the boys. They were very excited!

Ethan carrying dolls up top and Noah cheering him on. It really does open the room up for activities :) The beds are quite awesome, and custom made so that they can be in this L-shape, or true bunk beds, or matching twin beds, all by swapping out 4X4's.

Ethan helping to drill holes in the guard rail that now is across the bed.

Noah's turn! They had a blast building things and measuring and using power tools. It was a great experience for them, and now they have bunk beds!!! Hooray! There's room for a few more kids in there now ;)

Ok - mass destruction in the house... must go watch the kids!

Ugh

2009-01-13T14:41:00.004-05:00

I have a lot to catch up on. Step by step, little by little. I've been warned by my sister that if they are too long, nobody will read them. I will opt instead for numerous posts, hopefully daily or more than one a day until I have caught the world up with the Rice family from the past very busy MONTH.... (staying up to date has made the list of "resolutions"....)

Ok, just a barrage of Santa pictures. I think I was waiting to post them at the same time, and then never did. None of my kids are real sure of the guy, really... Noah looks spooked all the time, probably contemplating whether Santa really DOES keep a list of who's been naughty, Ethan acts like "geesh, I've told you once already - I want a tickle jack-in-the-box, things that float, things that fly, things that go choo-choo... how many times do I need to tell you...", and Naomi - well, Naomi is Naomi. Her reaction is what you would expect.

So here are the Santa pics.

I think this was the first encounter... and I think I've posted it before.
Ethan and Noah, wondering why we are out in 5 degree weather, and why we make them talk to this man...

Ethan explaining to Santa what he wants. Which is exactly what was listed above. He told Santa three times (I think that was how many we saw this year) exactly the same... 'tickle jack-in-the-box, things that float, things that fly, things that go choo choo'. He got exactly that for Christmas.

I don't think Noah ever actually talks to Santa... with his amount of sass, there really isn't a point to talking if he really knows if you've been bad or good...

Naomi, sweet, sweet Naomi.... she cries when she goes to Aunt Darlynn, she still hasn't warmed up to the people in the nursery at church, and here she sits, on Santa's lap. The outcome was no surprise.

Noah looks so cautious... Sensing a theme here. Our battery was dying on our camera, and it took forever for the picture - I am pretty sure they were both more excited than this to see him at first...

The only way to get all 3 kids with Santa. I like how Santa is looking at Jerry... I don't know why - it's not like he would be able to hold Naomi himself (and we all saw what happens when you try!) Anyway, I think that was all of the experiences with Santa.

Christmasy times

2008-12-10T15:00:00.008-05:00

After I posted the last blog, Jerry took the camera out and got a picture of the kids' snowman. It's pretty impressive! They were outside for a couple hours in the cold and didn't come inside crying. I was shocked!

Sunday after church we went to get our Christmas tree. Santa was there - but it was very cold outside. I think that might be the expression on the boys' faces. Or maybe it's because mom and dad always get them cool gifts each year, and Santa is usually pretty lame. Coloring books, maybe one toy... They are so not going to be upset when they find out the truth later. In the mean time, I guess it sets them up for slightly disappointed looking pictures with the man in red. They've read the stories, they know what's supposed to happen... LOL!

The boys with Santa. Funny story - Santa said he lost his reindeer and we should keep our eye out for them because he had no way to get back to the North Pole without them. After we got our tree, Ethan told Santa that he saw Rudolph but didn't tell him that Santa was looking for him. The kid lied to Santa!!! Maybe he was confused, because it's not like Ethan to lie. But it was funny.

Yay! Our tree. It was slim pickins this year out there... We were lucky to find a tree that looked somewhat full. Even if we (and by we I mean Jerry) had to cut it down starting about 3' up.

She's cute and she loves her daddy. This picture is impressive because it was taken after we had been out there for almost an hour, and it was less than 20 degrees out. She must have been frozen! But maybe the cold makes her happy? I should put her outside more often - would solve many of my issues right now...

This pic cracks me up and reminds me of the movie Dumb & Dumber. It's on the hayride back to the "Christmas tree farm" (the barn where you pay). It really was bitter cold out. Noah snuggled with Ethan (while wearing my mittens because his were wet from playing in the snow) to stay warm. I'm not sure why he's licking him.

Noah decorating the tree with help from daddy. He kept saying something.... hmmm... let's put this as high up as it can go. Something like that. They were all so pretty that he wanted them as high up as they could go.

Ethan was cool with just decorating where he could reach. They were good about using the hooks this year, too. I really think that we didn't get as pokey of a tree as past years, which is bad for child deterrent later, but apparently good for decorating. You don't have to toss the ornaments at the tree and hope they stay - you could actually approach the needles.

Attempt #1 of putting the angel on. Looks like Ethan might be getting heavy. Luckily, next year he will probably be tall enough to reach without help...

Attempt #2. Both times, he grabbed the tree and it started to tip.

The first year that Noah got a chance to put the angel on top. Notice the ease that Jerry can lift him. He must feel like 10 pounds after lifting Ethan! In our house, most things are done at least 2 times - just so everyone can have a turn. A lot of times I will do things 4 times, so that one set Ethan will be first, and the next set Noah will be first. It takes more time and isn't how life works, but it saves me lots of headaches...

Don't be fooled - it wouldn't stay on for him either. I trimmed the top branches the next day and now (after the tree being secured to the wall with fishing line) she sits securely.

Monday, Ethan got sick at school. While Jerry was there volunteering. In Jerry's lap. He got better as the day went on, so we decided what great timing to take the Christmas picture! Here are some attempts of those...

The one we actually went with, after some photoshop work. Looks a little inappropriate right now with Jerry's hand placement, but it was the only way to keep her on the ottoman without being in the picture.

The boys. They are so cute. Lately they have really liked each other. It's sweet and makes for good pictures.

This would have been cute but Naomi's finger shoved in her mouth looks silly. I love how tight Ethan is holding her. I don't think she loves it, though.

Another cute one of the boys. Sorry Dar, if you are going to take any of my children, it's going to have to be Naomi. These two make for good photo ops. Really that goes for anyone... if anyone wants to take Naomi... :)

One of my personal favorites, only because it is just like last year's Christmas picture, only Naomi's not crying. Ok, just for comparison sake, I am also putting last year's picture. We'll see if anyone looks different... ;)

Yeah, I guess you can tell the difference...

I'm also going to post separately all of the Santa pictures. Mainly because this is already quite long, but they are so funny! There isn't the whole oober excitedness in any of them. Ethan tells him he wants a tickle jack-in-the-box, things that float, things that fly, and things that go choo choo. Noah the one time mimicked Ethan and told him the same thing, and added 'a candy cane' - which luckily he was handing out after the picture was taken. Score! And Naomi, no surprise, just cries. Screams. Unless it's the silent scream that comes before the scream.

Oh, and this is post-worthy... The other day (I think Monday?) Ethan said the alphabet backwards. You know, because that's what 4 year olds do... He would pause between some of the letters for a little bit... but not that long, like maybe 5-10 seconds. But some he would cruise through. He got them all in order, too! (Yes, it is a skill that mommy possesses - you never know when you might need to know how to say your alphabet backwards!)

Ok, I guess I should do something. Like get the kids dressed, or clean up "craft time". I should also take pictures of Ethan's snowflake he cut and the gingerbread man chain he made... maybe later.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

2008-12-06T14:42:00.005-05:00

What? Two days in a row?? Yes. Now that the shock is over, here is today's post. Last night we went to a chili dinner at church. It was PACKED there, and the kids did really well. Hooray! Ethan ate up a hot dog, some chili, about 20 saltine crackers, some cornbread, and a cookie. Noah ate a hot dog dipped in sour cream. ??? It worked, and he ate the whole thing. Anyway, while we were in line, Santa came walking around - so I snapped a picture. Only my batteries are running low, so it sat there saying "charging flash" for the longest time. By the time the picture finally took, this was the result.

'How long do you want us to stand next to this strange man??? And you want us to talk to him too?' :)

This morning the boys had play practice for their Christmas play. Ethan is an angel, and although originally Noah said he wanted to be an animal and got assigned to be a donkey, after several minutes of crying this morning the play director (bless her!) let Noah be a sheep with his friend. Crisis averted!!! After lunch, the boys got dressed up to go outside!

Ethan and daddy shoveling the driveway. Ethan was actually pretty good at this... So glad we have boys. I see in my near distant future sending boys out to shovel the driveway while I sit inside... aaahhhhh.... Wait.. that's what I did today...

Noah doing his part. Ok, so maybe he was shoveling the neighbor's yard... but you gotta start somewhere.

The three stopping for a photo op. Love it! How Christmas-y and wonderful!

Naomi watching from inside. She's mid-wave in this pic. She waves with both hands in this twisty wrist girly-girl wave.

Wishing she was out there with the boys. Some day, girl. First, let's work on walking. And sleeping through the night. And being "ok" with other people besides mommy...

Ok, just wanted a quick post to not go weeks again before I try to keep up!

December already?

2008-12-05T11:15:00.004-05:00

It's December! Time to recap November so I can clear the slate to get ready for Christmas posts!

Aunt Darlynn and Uncle Brian came up to Michigan to visit! Hooray! It had been since February since the kids saw Dar, it was much anticipated.

Awww, Noah and his godmother. They are sweet.

We went to the Mongolian BBQ - the first time taking our whole family to a "real" restaurant. Well, I mean, Big Boy is real, only more family oriented... It was fun. The best part apparently - balloons. Ethan, Noah and Brian posing with their balloons.

Dar with the boys and their balloons. And Noah with his juice cup again. This is bizarre because he rarely drinks juice, and when he does he normally steals Naomi's cup.

Noah posing while Naomi opened a couple presents. This kid could have a future in modeling - he really does love it.

The boys bonding. It's hard to see, but Butters is sleeping on Jerry. Three boys enjoying time together.

Naomi's birthday party at my parents' house. This picture pretty much sums up the chaos that I felt... And it's a decent picture of her not crying. Unfortunately, Naomi is a slight bit shy and cries pretty much any time anyone looks at her. It's a nice trait to have. Real nice. But I suppose, it's her party and she'll cry if she wants to.

A present that Ethan made for Naomi. He's sweet. He wrapped it, too. It says "happy birthday Naomi. Love Ethan" and that is obviously the two of them together, both quite happy.

Hooray for a girl! A princess cake!!!

No time to pose, dad... I'm eating cake. It's a sweet picture. It doesn't show from this picture, but she really has turned into a daddy's girl.

'Atta girl! Naomi enjoying her cake.

Ethan and Zachariah playing together. The boys all got along fairly well! Not bad for 4 boys under 5!

Noah and Elijah. See. No fighting, no crying... all smiles :)

The big Thanksgiving feast. Cheese!!!!! I'm somewhere back by the door behind Don, and so is Naomi...

Noah during arts and crafts time as an indian. Aunt Darlynn is cool enough that she does fun stuff like arts and crafts time. I did not inherit these same cool genes. Although, I did make that sweet indian headdress out of pipe cleaners...

Grampa reading bedtime stories. The boys look sooooo tired here! Everything seems so quiet and calm! Only you can't hear Naomi crying in pictures, so I suppose it would seem that way...

All of the Slamka grandkids! Hopefully someone got a picture of all of them looking. This was the closest I got... It's still a good picture. I could probably photoshop all of my attempts and come up with a decent shot! :)

An up-close shot of Eli my godson. He reminds me so much of my cousin Ryan - I would love to compare baby pics.

And an upclose shot of Ethan - they saw the camera was out and took advantage of the photo shoot. It is funny how different the two boys (Eli and Ethan) look!

A sweet picture. I believe this is an action shot of one of the many readings of "Go Dog Go", a family favorite and crowd pleaser. Naomi is conked out on mom - which gave my back a much needed rest!

Well, not much wit or commentary, but there was the rest of November! We haven't even started decorating for Christmas yet and already December is flying by! We are busy almost every day this month. I will try (likely story) to take more pictures and post more frequently. But most likely, I will wait until a few more weeks, post about 100 pictures at one time, then again a couple weeks later. There's always room for New Years' Resolutions!

Noah's Birthday and other stuff

2008-11-19T10:06:00.008-05:00

Always at least 2 weeks behind, here I go again! I thought I would post another picture from my cousin's wedding. He's not in this picture, but it's a decent pic. So here ya go!

I'm standing next to my Uncle Don - my mom's brother. Aunt Jean is in red with the broken arm, and cousin Todd is on the far right. I think Ryan and Sam are on the dancefloor somewhere behind the photographer... just picture a good looking bride and groom...

That was November 1. The next morning, the kids awoke to find Gramma and Grampa Slamka sleeping in the living room! They were so very excited. After church, we had Noah's birthday party.

Naomi asking if she can help unwrap presents. Noah's reaction was interpreted as "no" - I held on to her for the rest of the present opening.

Noah opening presents from Gramma and Grampa Slamka. A Thomas the Train book - he's showing Gramma.

Grampa holding open Noah's new Thomas the Train blanket, made by gramma. This actually gets him to sleep in his bed... He loves it, and it has already been washed many, many times.

Noah opening "Rhino Rampage". Yes, we got our son with anger issues a game with "rampage" in it... He saw it on TV, what were we supposed to do? LOL! He saw it and said he wanted to play with it, so we should go to their house (the kids from the commercial - they obviously have the game already.) Then later he told Jerry (after seeing the commercial ONCE) all about the game and how it works.

Noah with his microphone from Grandma and Grandpa Rice. It was a big hit (and still is). Kids and microphones - like PB & J. Hmmm, I didn't post a picture of the Hot Wheels... Well, imagine that all of us (both grandparents and us) got him Hot Wheels cars and race tracks and paraphernalia. Oh, I also don't have a picture of him opening his wrench set from us... Well, you get the idea. :)

Time for cake! He wanted a "Word World" cake (from PBS Kids) but it was too new and the bakery didn't have the design yet. Jerry talked him into wanting Thomas the Train. He's good, because by the day before his birthday, Noah said "and I want a Thomas the Train cake - he's my favorite". Ahhh, the power of suggestion.

After we blew out the candles. Ethan is showing the piece that he wants. Yeah, that bottom quarter of the cake... he wants that.

Hey Naomi, do you want cake????

"What kind of question is that mom?" Actually, now I realize that this is her "all done". It's pretty close to sign language, although sometimes it looks more like "great time", so it's confusing.... are you done, or is this a great time?

Ohhhh.... ok... all done. This was later, after she ate her cake. She was just a tad bit tired. Looks like someone needs to trim her bangs. I can't bring myself to do it. Dar will be here soon, hopefully she will be my moral support on the issue.

In case they want to recast the Harry Potter role, I think Ethan would do well! He put on my reading glasses (from college) and with his striped shirt, it just cracked me up. If I drew a lightning bolt scar on his forehead, he would be Harry Potter. Maybe next year for Halloween. Luckily enough, Noah broke the lenses out of them, so now they are safer for the kids to wear. Lucky.

And just another picture because he kept that funny smile on his face. Hmmmm, maybe a smile like "these aren't my prescription glasses and they sorta make it hard to see and are slowly and permanently damaging my eyesight" - yeah, probably that kind of smile. I explained this to him as soon as I snapped the pictures... he didn't wear them around the house or anything.

Ok, that's brings me up to date on the pictures, at least. We've since hit Naomi's birthday, but we didn't really celebrate it yet. We just didn't tell her it was her birthday. She's one, she hasn't questioned it yet. We were waiting for Dar to get into town since she's missed a couple of our wild and crazy birthday parties (yes, sarcasm) and we thought she would like to be around for one. Who doesn't like cake?

Also, this weekend we went to a Sweet Adelines show. It was right here in Flushing. Thumb (Song of the Lakes now... but does anyone really call them that long name?) had a show and my brother/sister-in-law/niece/brother's father-in-law sang in their quartet 4 Ever Family. I took Ethan with me. He loved the show, it was great. The quartet was awesome! Then we all came back and had a "Taco party". It was great to have Don & Staci over - thanks for coming (and Holli and uncle Phil, too!!!) Looking forward to seeing Uncle Don again, as Noah was thoroughly entertained by him, which meant a whole lot less fighting between siblings. :)

Oh, and later that night dad took me to an after hours clinic so I could get a shot in the bum. You know, father daughter stuff... No, I was really quite sick with a bad case of mastitis (apparently implying that there are "good" cases of it...). The doctor was gracious enough to give me a shot of antibiotics to jumpstart kicking it since pharmacies wouldn't be open at night. I'm finally starting to feel 'normal' (yeah, 'normal'... take it for what you will). Anyway, big thanks to dad for taking me and mom for staying back, and both for not leaving our house until 10pm!

Ok, I need to get Noah ready for preschool and figure out what I'm going to feed people for dinner. I guess I could also take some pictures. But that would just mean that I need to post another blog...

October round-up

2008-11-07T09:49:00.008-05:00

Man, you would think I would learn.... Oh well, here is another gargantuan post. Much to catch up on.

Noah's birthday was last Tuesday. We celebrated by allowing him to open his new jacket, hat and mittens (more out of necessity than anything else) and then went to eat at McDonald's. It was another 2-hour ordeal of funness.

Noah with his new hat/mittens and jacket on. They are pretty cool. And now he has a winter jacket to wear, which is good if it turns back to winter again soon...

The following day we went to a Halloween party at Noah's preschool. It's only an hour long, and in that hour they played, did circle time, and had snacks. Here are a few pictures from that!

The boys dressed up at school, and Noah's big, Price Is Right worthy, name tag :)
Noah decorating yet another pumpkin. The kids decorated at least 10 of these, which was nice because on Halloween we used them as a barricade on our house so they knew we weren't giving out candy :)

Jerry helping Noah play a computer game. Oh, and Princess Naomi on his lap, too.
And the "snack" time... it was a full plate of food. They had enough for the extra siblings (Ethan and another girl) to have a plate, too. It was pretty much their dinner, so that was nice!

The next day was the field trip with Ethan's preschool to Montrose Orchard. We went on a hayride, picked out a pumpkin, saw how they made cider, looked at the animals, and ate a donut and cider.

The kids picking out their pumpkins. Oh! And Wednesday Ethan brought home from school "Travelling Teddy" - I think I mentioned that before... anyway, Traveling Teddy chose Ethan's pumpkin for him. That was nice.

While watching how cider was made, Ethan's teacher picked Noah up so he could see better. I thought it was sweet and so here is the picture.

Jerry and the kids after eating donuts and drinking cider.

Ok, finally Halloween.

The kids all dressed and ready to go. It was about 65 out, so they didn't have to wear snowsuits like we originally thought. They started off strong and we made it almost around the whole neighborhood... well, sorta.

And this is how Naomi trick or treated... strapped into the stroller. Mainly because....

This is how she reacts to being near other people. Sweet girl. She had the silent scream for about 30 seconds before I grabbed her, she took a huge breath, and screamed loudly. And this is with our next door neighbor. Oh well, I guess it's not so bad - we'll probably know if she gets snatched from us!

A picture of the boys in action. A couple houses down, they both got these whistles. They loved them, only they wouldn't take them out of their mouths to say Trick or Treat, so we ended up having to take them away from them for the duration. I love how Ethan's is upside down, so it looks like he has an underbite of fangs.

Noah with his whistle. They are really funny. The following day, both were broken beyond repair. Good thing they got their use out of them. About 2/3 through the subdivision, Noah started slowing way down. In the beginning, he wanted to ride in the stroller with Naomi and we wouldn't let him. No candy if you're riding! So by about 1/2 way through, we let him get in between houses - he was getting tired. Then, like I said, about 2/3 through he started saying "I'm not so fast... I'm only 3. I'm not 4..." Repeatedly. Well, we kept saying "C'mon, let's go... let's catch up to Ethan" But it was still funny to hear him "I'm not so fast... I'm only 3.." And he would tell the people giving him candy, too. Eventually, Jerry told him he didn't have to get out of the stroller and trick or treat anymore if he didn't want to, so he rode the rest of the way. Then Naomi started crying, so I ran home with the stroller and Jerry finished up the neighborhood with Ethan.

Ok, one more - then I gotta go be productive elsewhere...

The following day we went to my cousin's wedding. Here is a picture of us before we left. It was fun - our first time getting a babysitter in a loooong time!

Then here is a shot from the wedding... I don't have the bride and groom in it... but there are my parents, Uncle Don & Aunt Jean, and my cousin Todd, and my Aunt Jean's sister and family. There were about 15 cameras going, so I guess mine wasn't one that got one with Ryan in it... Ok, I really need to go do something. This got me at least caught up with October. I will have to come back and do November later. Hopefully today, but most likely not...

Busy October!

2008-10-29T13:30:00.004-04:00

Ok, another barrage of photos. So much to go over, and so much coming up that I will try to be brief. I need to get caught up on the past few weeks so that I can be ready for times to come (Noah's bday party, various Halloween parties, Halloween, Naomi's bday... busy time of year) . We got the kids' Halloween costumes. Noah is Officer Awesome. Ethan is a pirate, and Naomi is Cinderella. Well, for indoor parties she is. Obviously this is not a Michigan-friendly outfit for trick-or-treating. Then she will either be a cow or a horse like the boys were at her age...

The boys posing together - excited that the costumes arrived!

The three of them - Naomi seems very happy and is dancing about her costume!

An up-close of the princess. We got her 1-year pictures taken and they are very cute. I have to wait until Nov 5 to pick them up. At this point, those of you that get pictures sent to them, I will send all the kids pics at that time. The boys had theirs taken at school, and are quite grown-up looking...

We had a hayride a couple weekends ago through church. Jerry took some autumn pictures of the boys. It will be nice in the autumn scrapbook I started making at MOPS - if I ever finish it... unlikely.

Noah. Still 2 in this picture, but looking older and older by the minute!

At the hayride they played a game where you put this stocking on your head with a sock inside it, and you had to try to pull off someone else's stocking without getting yours taken off. Ethan liked to run around, and Noah was part of the group where we stood with them and said "ok, now grab his... and grab his... try to pull... Yay! you got it off!" :)

Then later that day we had a Halloween party. There was a pumpkin roll contest, and candy in the haystack (below). The kids had fun.

This was fun for them. There was a bunch of candy hidden in the hay. It was a little odd later when their candy bag was laced with hay... but it still tasted good. Thank goodness for individually wrapped candy! You can see the top of Ethan's hat in the middle, and Noah standing up right behind him.

Then there was another hayride. Here is a cute picture of Ethan on the hayride. We left the party with pretty much everyone screaming because they didn't want to leave.... only it was sooo time to leave :)

Last Monday it was my turn to volunteer at Ethan's school. It was fun! I am glad that I am not a pre-school teacher (although the more kids we have, I feel like I am one.) While we were at school, Jerry took Noah and Naomi to Sam's club. Noah was sad that Sam (a friend from church) was not at Sam's Club. Here is Noah drinking the red slushee on the way home. I guess he drank the whole thing! It's almost as big as him!

Noah and his cherry slurpee.

Then we had another Halloween party last Friday. It was fun! The kids got to get dressed up again. Unfortunately, Noah gets overstimulated and his body shuts down. Ethan has a blast because there is a DJ. Naomi - well, she didn't really say one way or the other - but we think she had fun.

So close to being an awesome picture!!! I am not sure if Noah was being shy or sad or if we just caught him looking down. I almost want to superimpose his picture on this so I can print it and frame it :)

Ethan dancing. He loves music, and he loves to dance. He could have stayed all night just dancing!

Noah doesn't like the loud music and the bright flashing lights. He gets overstimulated, can't handle it, and falls asleep. My kids have sensory issues. At least now we understand them! He fell asleep in my arms, right underneath the bright dancefloor colored lights, near the speaker. Not ideal sleeping conditions, but he was out cold. He slept like this on these chairs for a good hour. And when he woke up, he was still a bit overstimulated, and wanted to go home. I guess this is good news for the future? We know he won't be out partying! Although, he might be the kid in the corner, getting drawn on in marker... We'll have to warn him that loud music and bright lights make him sleepy....

Ok, then yesterday was Noah's birthday. We celebrated by opening a couple presents, and going to McDonald's. He had his choice of where to go, and he wanted McDonald's. Fair enough. Both boys actually ate all their food (very rare for being in public) and then played on the playland for a while. Then we had ice cream sundaes. We were there almost 2 hours.... it's quite an ordeal!

Today is Noah's preschool Halloween party (the whole family is going), then Cherub choir and church. Tomorrow is a field trip to the orchard with Ethan's preschool (again, whole family going). Friday is finally Halloween and trick-or-treating. Saturday is my cousin's wedding, so we will be getting a sitter (for the first time in a loooong time). My parents will come over after the wedding and we will celebrate Noah's birthday on Sunday with a party. Oh, AND today Ethan brought home the Travelling Teddy from school (think "Uncle Travelling Matt" from the Fraggles - a teddy bear that you get to write in his journal what you did while he visited you, and it gets read to all the kids when it goes back to school). They are going to think we are insane, and it will take several pages to write about everything that we did over the weekend!!!

I will charge the batteries in the camera so I can take more pictures... we need new rechargeable batteries because ours die usually before they leave the charger... not good. I need to go get ready for the rest of the afternoon!!!

Fall Festival Fun!

2008-10-09T15:38:00.007-04:00

We had two fall festivals right in a row last week, so I need to get those pictures up quick quick quick! Hopefully they will speak for themselves as I am suffering through allergies and am probably incomprehensible. The first fall festival was a field trip through SK=IP (smart kids = involved parents) which our kids are signed up for through preschool. There was a bus to take you there, but you had to be 3 years old to ride on the bus and since I have two that are not... we met them there. It was cool, at the Ligon Outdoor Center in Clio. Jerry met us there after work. Our first time being there and we were pretty impressed. They had a whole tent of free crafts for the kids, then a garden, story time (which nobody really went to... it was cold and there were cooler things to see...) a horse drawn wagon ride, something about food that we didn't make it to... Anyway, the boys liked being on a field trip. Afterward we went to Big Boy as a family. We are really branching out and doing brave things like restaurants again. Maybe the boys are old enough to behave... maybe it's just been too long since we've been to a Big Boy... Ok, pictures.

The first craft the boys did were these sachets of different herbs. The lady put the stuff in there for them. She chose mint, lemon, sage, and chives. Chives. Yes, onion scented chives. These will not be keeping the underwear drawer smelling pretty. Anyway, they got to make these. Noah called it his "weed bag", which we thought we were grown-ups and mature, but hearing Noah ask for his "weed bag" just cracked us up. So here he is, helping to make his weed bag.

Next stop, they painted pumpkins. Both boys chose to put obnoxious amounts of yarn on top as hair. They are now setting on our front porch. Happy Fall!

Then they made corn husk dolls, which were very creepy and we threw away. Next up, they got their faces painted. They both sat very still for this.
Ethan got a dragon fly.
Noah wanted cherries.
Ethan's dragonfly.

A picture of Naomi and I, because we rarely have those. I even dried my hair - must have been pretty excited for the field trip myself. It was a fun experience, and an exhausting day for the boys.

Ok, so the next day (awesome timing) was the Harvest Festival downtown. They block off downtown and have some free stuff for the kids. Usually we get there too late and everything is already given away or closed. This year we got there in time for fun!

The boys in the streets of Flushing :) They are waiting in line for this really big inflatable slide.

Yep - this really big inflatable slide. There's Noah "patiently" waiting.

And the climb! Noah pulled himself up the whole way, even though apparently he was saying "help - I'm not gonna make it... help!" Noah is almost to the top, in the jean jacket on the right. Ethan is right in front of Jerry (Jerry is in the tan shirt and hat). Ethan made it about that far... then Jerry carried him the rest of the way. I'm still teetering between he physically couldn't maneuver this kind of thing and he was just being lazy. Either way, kudos to Jerry for carrying him up all the way to the top! 55 pounds of dead weight on a "ladder" that you have to pull yourself up... well, this was one of those times where I was glad to be holding Naomi at the bottom :)

And an action shot of the slide. This is Ethan. I missed Noah because he didn't wait at the top for Ethan and Jerry. He just ran over and shot down the slide. They only got to go down once - it was sponsored by someone running as a write-in in the election. Hmmm, apparently not effective since I can't remember who or for what... Liske. But still can't recall what he wanted us to write him in for. Oh well, I will vote for him for "Chairman of free entertainment", as both boys loved this slide.

Ethan getting a jack-o-lantern on his face. We were able to wash off the previous day's face painting only after promising that they would be painted again this day.

And Noah. Look how cautious he looks. It's so funny to see him shy in public, knowing how - how should I say it... - opinionated (?) he is at home. He wanted cherries again, since that's what he had the day before. They were cute again.

Ethan pumpkin bowling. He completely missed all 10 pins on the first few tries. We kept scooting him up so he wouldn't have to throw as far. He was so excited. Finally, he knocked them down!
Noah kicked his first attempt, like a soccer ball. Worked well for him - he knocked down 8. We had him roll the pumpkin, to pick up the spare.

And there's this picture. I realize it's hard to see, but Naomi is crashed out on Jerry's shoulder. I love pictures of dads walking with their kids - so this one is really just for me. Ok, I need to get the water going for kluski noodles. I made chicken noodle soup today, and don't have the energy to make my own spaetzel noodles, even though they are far superior, even to the delicious kluski.

Quick updates. We got the phone call to schedule Ethan's first PLAY Project meeting. Hooray! That was a 7 month wait - glad it's finally here! Oct 24th (mom and dad's 39th anniversary) we will be having our first meeting. I'll let you know how it goes!

Noah has started this new thing that is so cute - I need video of it. My dad has always had dentures. Ok, not always. But I think since his 20s? Anyways, he does this thing where you push his nose and he teeth fall out, then you pull his ears and they go back in. Noah has just started doing this as well. "Look, my teeth are broken just like grandpa's". Then he'll push his own nose and shove his bottom teeth out in a huge underbite. Then he'll try to say, with his teeth out like that, "now pull my ears". And he'll pop them back in. It's so very cute. Then I tried it and did the same thing as him, and he said "no mommy - you're teeth aren't broken..." Oooohhhh - gotcha! :)

Last week, Naomi got out of her straps in her high chair and stood up. She loves doing this. But this time, she turned around, looked at me and said "sit sit." My, how snotty and bratty and not even one yet. Yes - sit sit indeed! She also meows like the cats (well, she says "baaa" really high pitched at them), she baaas like a sheep, she occasionally will woof like a dog. She says mama, dada, plop (she drops a toy and I say plop. This continued on until she said plop), "ca" (cat), and once she said 'yes' - clear as a bell in answer to a question. She hasn't repeated that one yet. Oh, and when she's eating I'll ask her if she wants more while signing more and she'll do this really big lip smack, like a big kiss. She stares at me making the "mm" sound, but pops her mouth instead. It's ok, I know that she means "more".

That's all for now!

October already!

2008-10-02T13:37:00.005-04:00

Well, I suppose I should do a 'clean up' blog from the end of September since it is now October. A couple weeks ago we had a very busy Saturday! The boys got up with Jerry and went to the library and grocery store. Then we went to Meijer to buy size 6 pants for Ethan, who no longer fits in his size 5 clothes... This is a scary and melancholy time for me, as I actually remember being at the store buying size 6 pants for me. I remember because both me and Danny, who's 3 years older, were in size 6's. Only he was a 6-slim, and I was a 6X. And body image issues start at age 4 :) Luckily Ethan is a boy, so it's totally cool that he is a 6 already. Ok, so we went to Meijer, then to the apple orchard, then on the way home we went to McDonald's for dinner. It was the first time going to McDonald's as a family since Noah was still in the carrier carseat and probably about a month old. We were there a good hour and a half! The boys had a blast. We ate dinner, they played, then we had ice cream. We saw many, many, many people come and go in the time we were there :) Ok, on to pictures!

Play me a song, Mr. PianoMan! I taught Noah how to play chopsticks and he thinks it's fun. I also can use his finger to pluck out 'happy birthday' and 'twinkle twinkle little star'. He will keep his little finger out there and stiff so you can play with it. Ethan likes the idea of it, but never actually keeps his finger out. Or he'll keep bucking and jumping and squirming that you can't play with his fingers. Noah also likes playing chords. We'll probably start piano lessons for them, but probably not quite yet...

Hooray! On the hay ride at the apple orchard. I should have cropped myself out of this picture... hmmm. I am so happy that my upper lip disappeared. LOL! The boys don't seem too excited, either. Unfortunately, we had to walk past "the carnival" to get to the hay ride. We went to Spicer Orchard down past Fenton, and it is quite commercialized. Lots of inflatables, a huge rock wall, vendors, stores, animals, bees, hay bale maze... So anyway, they weren't all that psyched about having to walk past it - even though we said we would come back after we picked apples.

Noah picked one to eat. I love that he is ducking under the tree branch. At home he insists that I peel the skin off the apples, but he ate this one right up...

No, he's not going to sock the camera... I think he was going to wipe his mouth so he could smile. They did help pick apples... even if it was a bit of a struggle. Tons of low hanging red apples, McIntosh, no less... and we had to say - pick this one, pick this one... put it in the bag... pick another apple... Oh well - it was good, wholesome family fun.

Ethan, always the trooper, picking some more apples. At this orchard, you pay for the bag before you go pick. So we got a peck sized bag for $10 (yeah... about 3 times as much as if we bought them at the store... I guess you're paying for the experience) and Noah STILL calls them our $10 bag of apples. Funny the things that they pick up on.

An action shot of Ethan jumping to grab the higher apples. It was cute. He couldn't hardly reach them. Then one finally fell and he picked it up off the ground. Naomi does not necessarily like her umbrella stroller. She usually twists around in it until it is no longer safe for her to be in there. Then she screams and cries and I pick her up. I guess she's learned to get what she wants. But no worries - Noah took advantage of the open stroller.

The boys playing in the loft level of a play house there.

The boys "cock-a-doodle-doo"-ing at some chickens. A young couple walked by and I heard the lady say "We are not ready yet for 'cock-a-doodle-doo' " I felt like saying, "Lady, you have no idea..." LOL! The Rice boys - poster children for planned parenthood :)

The hay bale maze. It was cool, because it wasn't too tall where they couldn't see anything and would freak out, but tall enough where they had to find their way around. Oh, and I suppose you can see some of the inflatables behind them. They were for bigger kids. Well, there was a bounce house there, but we weren't about to pay $5 for them to jump in a bounce house when we have one at home... yeah, lame parents.

Playing together on the playground. It's cute - whenever we are in public they stay pretty close to each other and play together. I wish we could can that, and open it up at home... oh well. They are getting better, now that they aren't constantly together.

Noah's turn! They flew down the slide because they were both wearing mesh shorts.

And yet another back seat picture. Well, this one was taken for many reasons. Because they are cute, because every 5 seconds Ethan would ask "how much longer until McDonald's... I'm very very hungry", because he then switched to "I have to go potty... how much longer to McDonald's", because Noah was about to fall asleep and that would have been devastating for our McDonald adventure... so a nice picture was a good way to break the monotony of the ride, even if it was only about 15 minutes.

And finally - we made it to McDonald's. "Who likes cheeseburgers???"

"I do!! I do!!!" As I mentioned earlier, we were there for quite some time. Long enough for both boys to go #2 (in a public place!!! Boys - they sure are weird!) Naomi ate about half of a cheeseburger. She loved it. Then we got ice cream and Jerry had a cheeseburger for dessert. It was a long, exhausting day. I think they went to bed good that night, though... I think.

Since then, Naomi got hand-foot-mouth disease, but she's over it now. The sores in her mouth were just awful, but she only had one little blister on her hand, and one little one on her foot. She didn't eat or sleep for about 4 days. All she wanted to do was nurse, nurse, nurse. When she finally felt good enough to eat though... man! She can put it away! :) 'Atta girl!

Ok, So this is another super long post... I'll try to keep up on things better. Either I post multiple times a day, or not for a few weeks. This month will be busier, as it is Noah's birthday, Ethan takes a field trip, Halloween... lots of photo ops. Also, tomorrow we are doing a pseudo field trip hosted by the kids' preschool (well, SK=IP.. ummm... smart kids = involved parents). It will be like a fall adventure sort of thing. I will be there by myself for a little bit, so I'm not sure how many pictures there will be... Then Saturday is the Harvest Festival downtown. Hooray for fall!!! Oh, and tomorrow the boys get their school pictures taken. Seriously? Too cute. Ok, I smell something foul, and since I know it's not Naomi (she's in my lap) I better go check Noah!

Noah time

2008-09-20T11:04:00.005-04:00

I had the opportunity yesterday to teach Noah a very important lesson: we don't get the camera out by ourselves to take pictures. I could have done that. Instead I took pictures of him. And in his usual Noah style, he created poses. I would take his picture, he would look at it on the camera, then make up a new pose. Here is our photo shoot:

This was the first one. When he saw his hand up by his face, his self-direction for the next shot was "arms out like this..."

So I showed him this one on the camera, and he giggled and said "like this now..." and ....

put his arm up behind his head. Maybe this could be my "work from home and make millions" scheme... I'll be one of those moms that shoves their kid into show business! I think it would be great! Except we live in Michigan, and I think it would be more successful if we lived in Hollywood or something like that... Oh well, that's why I have a blog. Ok, 2 more pics...

This one cracks me up. He was standing there smiling, and by the time the picture actually took he was jumping. This is his face being distorted from the momentum of jumping. When he saw this picture and I told him it looked so silly because he was jumping, he started jumping more.... which led to this picture...

Which doesn't even look like he's jumping. Then the camera ran out of batteries so we had to stop. My little skinny boy... he cracks us up. He is getting more into this potty training thing. He will take off his diaper and go for hours with no accident. If I try to make him, he will resist 100%. That's why I sound so wishy-washy about the whole diaper thing. If it's his idea, he has no accidents. If I make him wear underpants, within a half hour he has had an accident. Anyway, he's so skinny, but getting tall. He's going to need to move up to 4T clothes soon, but his little booty won't hold them up! Luckily I think most of our 4T clothes have an adjustable waistband... So yeah, he's getting really good at going in the potty. He still insists on "one square to dab it" after he goes - he hates to drip. That cracks me up, but in a way that I appreciate since I'm the one cleaning the bathroom.... And he has yet to go #2 on his own in the potty. Seeing as how Ethan only had one of those accidents in his whole 3 years of potty training, this seems out of control (oh wait... Ethan used to paint with it... but that was before potty training...). But I realize that it's normal, and I will just have to get used to pre-treating underwear for a while... Oh! And Wednesday, he woke up dry in the morning, and went all day until 4:30pm with no accidents. He went to preschool with Jerry at 4:30 and had an accident right before class began. I have been working on not blaming Jerry for this... LOL! It's just unfortunate that it was his turn to take Noah to class... if it had happened while I was there I'm sure it would just be a matter of Noah not being ready for unders just yet - since it was Jerry, he must have done something wrong ;) But that was the closest day so far of preparing to go to the "underpants store" to buy Thomas the Train underpants... I guess in preparation I should actually find a store that sells those!!!

Wow - that was a lot of talk about potty training. I think it's just because this is our first time with a "normal" potty training experience. It's been exciting and quick (in comparison). Ok, I need to go get in the shower because after lunch we are headed to the apple orchard. That is also why I put these pictures up now, since I will no doubt have orchard pictures to post later! Woo hoo!

Improvements

2008-09-17T10:36:00.005-04:00

Ok, just so I can stop saying "I need to post before and after pictures" and because I'm getting used to only have 2 children home (one that wants to nurse nonstop today...), I will finally post pics of our "home improvements". Well, at least the ones that have yet to be featured on the blog...

Our kitchen chairs. Started in 2004, I believe. Well, wait... I was pregnant with Ethan when I started on the table - so that's 2003. Nice. 8 years later, here we are with a finished project.

Before:

Before (with Butters hiding out on it)

After: (now with children)

I suppose for those that don't know, I sanded them down, stained them, painted them with Polycrylic (a rock-hard protectant - incredibly washable), I padded them, covered them in (incredibly washable) vinyl, and glued a trim around them to cover the glue marks from the vinyl. This turned out to be a very tedious and awful project. I chose vinyl because it is so easy to clean. It is easy to clean because nothing sticks to it... not even glue... I finally had to use gorilla glue and lots of clamps covered in wax paper... and it took about 7 hours per chair (including the hour drying time for each area that I had to do separately) just to glue the vinyl on. Oh, and the sanding/staining/painting process took about 3 years longer than I had expected... But alas: it is done!

And now, the house. It used to be (at one point, I'm sure) tan with burgundy trim? I don't know how to describe the color. Especially since it was really really old paint and chalked out to a nice pink on the house with maroon trim. So cute! (no. no it was not.) Anyway, here are a couple before pics, just so you can get an idea of what it looked like. It looked so sad!!! I don't know why - maybe the dark window trim? It really looks like the house is going to cry...

Before:

And After:

Oooohhh, look at our contemporary 1970s quadlevel!!! So hip and trendy we are. (Wait, was that Yoda talking???) Anyway, we really like the color choice (even if family and husband may have thought I was crazy to begin with - which I really can't argue that point either...)
Oh right, and an up-close picture to show that the dead tree that has been in front of our house for years is finally gone!!! And also pics of the back of the house...

Before:

It's kinda hard to tell that the soffits are a nice maroon as well... those are now white. Hmm, and the major difference between the dark brown across the bottom is that now there is much, much, much less red in it... Ok, so here's after...

After:

Alright, I apparently have to feed my kids. At least a snack. Naomi is eating a napkin on the floor, and Noah is going in the fridge - his goal was to eat butter... gotta run. Just realized that Dar hadn't seen the house yet. There it is! When you come to visit, maybe bring an updated picture so you can recognize it :)

Posting for the sake of posting

2008-09-16T12:42:00.003-04:00

Well, now that I've been posting so much, I guess I got back into the swing of posting... I find myself taking pictures just so I have something to post. I'm sure I don't have any objections from my sister on this :) Anyway, we took Ethan out to the school bus today, and Noah was still in his jammies. I put a sweatshirt on him because at the last minute I realized 1) it was freezing outside and 2) the winter jacket in the closet is 18 months, and he would need the 3T in the basement. Anyway, as we were outside I realized that the sweatshirt is also too small. Plus, it may not have been the most fashionista idea to put shoes and a sweatshirt over footie pajamas... But as I'm looking at him, he looks just like E.T. So I just had to take some pictures... here they are - you can decide for yourself. I was cracking up, until I realized that it was my kid, and I was the one that did it to him.... hmmm... Oh well.

Yeah, the sleeves could stand to be a few inches longer. He insisted on having the hood up.

This one might be best at showing the E.T.-ness of his outfit. All I needed was him under a blanket in the basket of my bike.

Awwww - all we needed was one less kid in the house, and sweet, sweet Noah emerges. Who knew?!?!

And just because, another shot of Naomi. You can kind of see from this picture how knock-kneed Noah is. Apparently this is normal, even though we get to go back to the pediatric orthopedic doctor in a few months for more measurements...

Ok, that's all for now. I have to get Naomi from her nap. Oh, and we do plan on getting her pink pajamas... The last time we tried to get pink fuzzy pajamas, they weren't out in stores yet. (Weeellllll, they might have been, but not even a hint of a sale yet... I just need to stop taking pictures of her in boy pajamas! Then nobody would ever know) Right, and I still need to post before/after pictures of our kitchen chairs AND the house exterior... geesh... what do I do all day?!?

We made it!

2008-09-15T13:18:00.005-04:00

One day down, 14 years to go!!!

Ethan getting off the bus. He was so excited. He isn't falling, even though it looks like it. Just a way action shot :)

We got it all on video, as can be seen by Jerry filming. When we were waiting for the bus and Ethan, the next door neighbor's grandson Michael came out to wait with us. It was double fun because the garbage truck arrived at the same time as the school bus. Talk about excitement!!!

And one of the kids playing. I'm not sure how the rest of the school year is going to go, having to cart both little ones outside to wait... Oh well. Apparently they won't let Ethan off the bus without a parent present (this is a good thing!!!) so we'll figure it out. Luckily today Naomi was napping. Well, lucky and not - she took a super long morning nap because she was so tired from not sleeping last night... hopefully this isn't the case in the days to come.

Ok, just wanted you all to know that Ethan did great. He is now begging to play games on the computer (and continuously saying "stop that... stop that... stop that...") so I will get going.

First day of school!!!

2008-09-15T08:19:00.007-04:00

Well, today was the day! Ethan's first day of preschool. Jerry stayed home today (which turned out awesome since Naomi refused to sleep last night, and he was able to get Ethan ready this morning) and I think soon he and Noah might go chase down the school bus to see if Ethan really made it to school :) Noah is very sad to see Ethan leave, and this will take some time adjusting. I'm hoping it makes him realize 1) how much he loves his brother and to be nice and sweet whenever possible to all people and 2) how much he wants to go to school himself and will start pottying in the toilet all the time so mommy can have at least one morning with only one child. Of course these are my hopes... but I only got a couple hours of sleep last night - thus the delusional hopes and dreams... Ok, pictures have finally uploaded... a montage of this morning.

Breakfast was a banana. It was all he wanted. Ethan was up 3 or 4 times last night. He told Jerry this morning that he was excited for school and couldn't sleep. That is just about the cutest thing ever.

Approximately 40 minutes before the bus was to arrive. He didn't want any more for breakfast because he wanted to sit by the window and wait for the bus. Jerry explained he had lots and lots of time. He would not eat.

Ummm, not sure... I was still sleeping in the recliner with Naomi at this point, so I don't know if he was an airplane? Ok, Jerry said "pose" and this was the pose.

Noah joined the wait. He still thought at this point that he was also getting on the bus. He really wants to get on the bus.

And still waiting... "The waitin' is the hardest part". We just wanted to be sure that we were on time. On time we were.

Time for shoes. Only 20 minutes left until it's time to go outside to wait for the bus. Obviously I am awake at this point. Well... I am at least sitting up, but I'm not so sure on "awake"... Apparently I can put on shoes in my sleep!

The start of the outside wait. They kept creeping down the driveway, little by little... closer and closer to the street. Then we would have to corral them back up to the top. We did this several times.

The boys together. Noah is not wearing a diaper by this point (in a last ditch effort on his part to get on that school bus, since he knows that "you can't wear diapers at school").

Daddy and Ethan, still waiting for the bus. (It was on time... we were early. Unlike my first day of school where we were on time, and the bus was at least an hour late... So devastating that 25 years later I STILL remember :) ) Yikes - I hope he doesn't rip off the bright green name tag, as that ensures they get him off the bus in the right place!!!

A rare moment of that cuteness that takes your breath away. No, really, this is the sweetest thing ever. I'll put up a video too, even though it didn't really turn out so great, but they were just so sweet this morning.

And the grand finale of pictures - the one that makes it into the photo album, onto the photo board at graduation, the one that lives in infamy....

Ethan's first time on the school bus. She had to stop him to let us take a picture. He was so excited, he just wanted on and to sit in his seat. Ok, so now I'm tearing up. I made it through fairly well... when the bus closed its door and started off down the road, I gasped. But that was it (well, until now when I am crying... but that's ok.) Only 4 more hours until he gets home! Pray for Ethan on his first day of school!!!

Ok, and the video... what I missed was both of them saying "I love you brother". If you turn up the speakers way loud, you can kinda hear Ethan say "love you brother". Then Noah says "Thank you". Jerry got it on the real video camera (as opposed to the regular camera taking video... well, you know what I mean. Or possibly not... ) Anyway, thought I would put everything from this morning up, and that included the video.

So that's it! We'll have to interview Ethan when he gets home to see how the day went. There might possibly be 2 posts in one day! Imagine that!

September already?

2008-09-08T15:29:00.005-04:00

As with the start of most of my posts, "it's been a while". So here are again, lots and lots of pictures.

Ethan just hanging out with Naomi. He really likes her, which is good, as he did not like Noah. She thinks he's funny. They work good together (most days...) It's nice that he wants to watch her, because her new thing is standing up in the high chair.

SURPRISE!!! Guess what we started doing?!? Yep, goodbye Duck wallpaper. Ethan is standing in front of the section that he ripped off. Little trooper - he tore it down for a good hour with me. Oh, right, clarification - I started this, not the kids. Well, one of the kids did a long time ago, with a tiny little piece right below the toilet paper holder. That grew and grew in looseness, but was still attached to the wall. Until fairly recently when Naomi crawled into the bathroom, stood up against the wall, grabbed onto the top of that piece, and fell. That day I decided it was time to do away with the duck wallpaper. Now it is a fabulous unfinished yellow paint that was there before the wallpaper. I still think it looks better than the ducks...

Gramma and grampa Slamka came to visit (and take measurements for the boys loft / bunkbeds - yay!!!). I finally got the camera out while they were here. Here's the kids. Noah looks a little intense. He usually is. :) My mom is rarely in pictures, so I thought I would finally post one with her in it. See mom, I do love you :)
And another! The face on Naomi is cracking me up. She's getting so big, but this look is a little crazy for her. I think she was mid-laugh.

Grampa with the boys. I think he might be in the sun more than my children... Perhaps I should be putting them outside more. Well, poor Noah will always be white like me. Ethan at least has potential to tan. And Naomi? Geesh, she's already tan, and she has hardly seen the sun... Tan with natural strawberry blonde highlights and green eyes. We aren't really sure where she came from. Well, obviously Jerry, as that pretty much describes him.
Naomi with her walker/stroller. She needs some practice. Both at walking, and at being mommy. Notice her dolly lying on the floor next to the stroller, and Naomi just a-grinning away. She's getting better at walking. She cruises from the table to the couch now. And she looooves to stand. Not alone yet, but she'll pull up on anything now, even walls.

Oohhh, this is rare indeed. All 3 kids with grandparents! Naomi looks done with all the pictures... Ethan looks like he's just getting warmed up!

The kids all wearing U of M jerseys. It was the kick-off of Sunday School at church, and everyone was supposed to wear jerseys. It's a cute picture of them. And this is Naomi's first ponytail. Oh, she could have worn one since birth, this is the first time I put her hair in one. I wanted there to be no doubt that she was girl in that boys jersey.... But instead of just a regular pony, I did the little loop-through with it. It was cute. What follows are other attempts at getting the kids' picture in their jerseys.

We wanted them on the steps. Ethan insisted on being at the top. Noah wouldn't sit on the bottom. Naomi, well, she pretty much didn't care. I can't tell if she is laughing or about to fuss in this picture. It's a better view of the ponytail. I tried working with the "everyone on separate steps" concept, but it really didn't work out.

This is one of my favorite pictures. I am not sure what Jerry is telling them, but it looks serious judging from their faces. I guess just knowing that he really wasn't scolding them... yet they look so serious, it just cracks me up. Noah scratching his head, Naomi listening so intently...

Ethan loves to hold Naomi. And pick her up. And carry her, feet off the ground, all over the house. She doesn't always love it. Noah seems to at least be enjoying the show. Oh, and those aren't stains on her jean capris - they are embroidered flowers. Another measure to make sure nobody said "oh what a cute little boy". Ok, I need to head off to bed now. For whatever reason, I decided to stay up late. I guess so I could post a blog. So there you go. I will at least have more next Monday, as Ethan will be getting on the school bus at approximately 8:03 am and I am fairly positive that there will be some picture-taking going on.

Late August

2008-08-25T19:43:00.008-04:00

Another catch-up post... I have GOT to get better at posting... Anyways, some news since the last one. On Friday we heard (finally!!!) that Ethan was "accepted" into the MSRP (Michigan school readiness program) preschool. This is what we were really hoping for - it's 4 days a week, same hours as kindegarten, and they have more resources available more readily, like speech therapy and that sort of thing. They work more on social skills and adapting than regular "tuition" preschool. Oh, right, and it's ummm, about $1000 cheaper (it's free!). Honestly, we were more excited because we really feel that Ethan needs to be in that classroom. We have been waiting since May to find out. Anyway, so very excited about that. Terrified that it also means that he will be taking the BUS. Like, the real bus. With K-6 graders. My 4 year old baby, on a bus. Jerry will be taking the first day of school off, mommy will definitely need some emotional support that day!

Ok, first round of pics are finally here. Last weekend (a week ago now) was my Slamka family reunion. The kids had fun fishing. But it was more fun to throw rocks in the pond. And of course the best part of any family reunion, corn. Here are some pics.

Grampa helping Ethan fish. Ethan is not the greatest fisherman... he lacks the focus. But it was the first time using the new poles (that we bought last summer).

Daddy and Noah. Noah was actually a decent fisherman. He would let it sit, wind it in a little, let it sit. He caught quite a few fish. Who would've guessed?

Ah yes, throwing rocks in a pond. Nothing beats that! Hopefully it posts a little larger so you can actually see the three of them....

Fishing: fun for all ages. :) Aunt Kitty, Uncle Ken, Gramma and Grampa. Ummm, good luck catching anything - there are some punk kids chucking rocks in the pond....

Mmmmm..... corn. No need to teach Ethan the corn-eating stance... this kid can put away some corn!

I can't tell if she thinks it's gross, or if she's angry that I gave her an already eaten ear. She chewed on it a little... well, it's a cute dress, anyway.

Then out came the sprinkler - woot woot! The kids had a blast. Ours would be the two shirtless boys almost directly over the sprinkler.

Ok, that about sums up the reunion. Then this weekend, we had Jerry's work party. I forget how many people (I think I've blocked it out of my brain...). It was fun, we all had a good time. It was just a tad bit stressful as Naomi cries unless I hold her, there were 6 other kids over, and we have Noah... really, enough said. It went pretty well once we put up all of the toys that he is super possessive of. Then yesterday we went to Target. I needed some new shirts that didn't have spit-up stains on them, and we got the boys backpacks. On the way home, we bought some corn out of the back of a pick-up on the side of the road. I love Michigan. And apparently corn!!! Well, the boys love it, and might as well eat it when it's in season! Yesterday, dinner was corn :) Growing up, my friend's family would do this every once in a while and it was always the coolest... just trying to be cool I guess.

Ethan helped shuck the corn. Naomi would take the shucked corn and chew on it. For real. She was eating raw corn. Oh well, not like boiling it for 5 minutes really does a whole lot anyway.

Noah did not help. He fell asleep on the way home. This was probably best for everyone. He's wearing a big floppy fishing hat. I should get a picture of him wearing it. Well, wearing it and not sleeping.

Here she is, pushing those kernals back in her mouth. 'Atta girl, don't wanna miss any!

Ethan posing with his new backpack. It has a picture of a tarantula on the pocket. It was the one he wanted... It's a cute picture of him smiling.

But this face cracks me up! Like, take the picture already... Come on dad, it's just a backpack... ;)

And here's our girl, hanging out in her piano. (and Noah's backpack behind her on the couch) We were just chatting while the boys were in the basement going to the moon. She's had quite a few milestones as of late... She cut 4 teeth in the past month, she crawls, crawls up stairs, (falls down stairs... is that a milestone?), pulls to standing, is starting to cruise - very slowly, drinks from a straw... man, there was something today... I can't remember... and I didn't write it down. Hopefully she does it again and I think it's a milestone again so I can write it down.

Did I mention she got some teeth??? Holy moley! They are some big teeth. See, Dar? She kinda looks like you now that she has teeth :)

And I'm pretty sure she is working on some molars, as this is where her finger usually is, just a chewing away. And yes, she is wearing a boys sleeper... Girls can wear blue, right? Well, it's really because all of a sudden it became winter at night, so I pulled the most "neutral" of the boys sleepers out - just until it really is fall and we might get her some cute pink fuzzy ones.

Ok, and since it's forever long anyway, here's a video of her giggling. I'm being called on now (by my husband, not the kids - so that's alright...) The boys are asleep and I need to put Naomi in her crib (oh, I guess it's not really a milestone, but we had to lower her crib so she won't jump out...). Sorry for the delay. Hopefully the hundreds of pictures and a video make up for my lack of posting...

Always running behind...

2008-08-13T09:45:00.005-04:00

Ok, so it's been a while. I think the last thing I wrote was that we were heading to Dr. Solomon's office the next day. That was a couple weeks ago. So I guess I should start from there? Yeah, that makes sense. The visit went well. He had Ethan laughing so hard he had tears in his eyes. It was awesome to see someone connect with him like that. He diagnosed him with PDD-NOS (pervasive developmental delay not otherwise specified) which is on the autism spectrum. No big surprise since we already had a diagnosis of autism. The best part about the visit was watching the doctor model what we should be doing with him in play. We've been doing more intentional play with him and I think it's actually working. Not like "miracle cure" working, but he seems to be more expressive about emotions, he is feeling pain more now (is this a good thing?), he's saying more things spontaneously... all in 2 weeks. In fact, 2 days after the appointment Gramma and Grampa Slamka came over, and near the end of the night, Ethan spontaneously jumped in Grampa's lap and gave him a big hug around the neck. This does NOT happen usually. He's a sweet kid, but hugs are always prompted. I really need to start a journal to keep track of this kind of stuff!!!

Ok, so as was mentioned, my parents came over last weekend. We went blueberry picking (yea!!!) and then they watched the kids so we could go out for Jerry's birthday. It was his choice, so we got to go to Ponderosa. Always sounds so good... always feels so bad... :) Ok, so blueberry pictures.

Noah, with his bucket, ready to go! We always take pictures right before we go into the fields. Then it's up to Jerry to take more during picking since my main goal is to actually pick blueberries, and he is the blueberry monster chasing the kids. Anyway, a picture of Noah, looking so grown up all of a sudden.

Ethan and Naomi, ready to go. This picture cracks me up - it reminds me of one year in the 80s when my brother Don was in EVERY picture during Christmas. Literally. Many of them just like Ethan is here. Naomi is strapped in, 5-point harness style. Blueberry picking is intense :)

Grampa and the boys. I guess they would go from helping pick, pouring 3 berries at a time from their little buckets to the big buckets, to not being so helpful like Noah eating handfuls of berries from Grampa's bucket. Although that's really not a big surprise, as that's how I feel most days... they help pick up 2 toys, then dump 3 other tubs of toys... yeah, sounds about right.

Noah in the blueberry patch. It's not that fantastic of a picture, but it does remind me of a horror movie... like Children of the Corn or something like that... like he should be saying really creepy "come play with us..."

Ok, that was last Saturday. Then last Thursday Grandma and Grandpa Rice came into town for a visit. It was fun, good to see them, busy with activity, sprinkled with sass and meltdowns. So, pretty much "normal" :) The kids were soooo tired. Apparently I don't do that much with them during the week, and they are only used to go-go-go usually on Saturdays with Jerry... so four straight days of busy was a lot for them. Again, sass and meltdowns. But all in all, it was a great visit! We celebrated Grandma's birthday on Friday (her birthday was yesterday - but this way we got to eat cake every day!)

Here are the boys patiently waiting - so patient that they even said cheese. They each picked out special candles to decorate with. Ethan picked out race cars and Noah picked out trains. It was very yummy cake - Happy Birthday Grandma!

I uploaded the pictures this morning, and realized that THIS is the only picture we have of the kids with grandma and grandpa. Hopefully we will take more next time! The kids having a good time playing in the bounce house - supervised by grandma and grandpa.

This picture is great. By itself it is a good picture - but I guarantee that you will at least be giggling after you read this.... We decided it would be fun to take the kids to the Children's Museum with grandma and grandpa. The kids liked it so much the last time we went. There was a ton of build-up to it. Noah knew in the morning after we ate we were going to the "kids booseum". So here we are, very similar to the picture I posted the last time we went, right? Smiling in the parking lot. Then not 2 minutes later we find out.... the museum is closed on Mondays. Unfortunately I didn't get the "after" shot of the kids crying for the next 20 minutes in the car. Nothing like hyping the kids up to go somewhere, getting IN the parking lot, and finding out it's closed!!! See, look at the picture again, and know that they are about to find out it's closed... it's a little humorous. Way back when SNL was still funny, when they used to have "Deep Thoughts by Jack Handy", there was a Deep Thought about taking a kid to Disneyland, but instead taking him to a burned down warehouse and saying "oh no, Disneyland burned down". Anyway, that's sorta how I felt at this moment...

So instead we went to the park. The "colors" park, as the kids call it (because of the rainbow colors...) Here is Jerry "helping" Noah up the rock wall. He needed a little more help than Ethan did - but he made it to the top!

I also love pictures of my kids flying in the air. Something about the sky background - these are my favorite. I have comparable pictures of both boys as well. She wouldn't smile, just stuck her little tongue out.

Noah coming down the slide (obviously. maybe sometimes I don't need to elaborate on pictures?) By this time he had already soaked up about 3 cups of water that had accumulated on a different slide. He was soaked, but had a lot of fun. Anything to take your mind off of the closed museum, right?

Naomi really liked the swing with daddy. She would giggle every time they would swing.

Noah really liked to swing by himself. And he kept insisting that we push him higher! Higher!! HIGHER!!! All the way to the top!

I'm not sure why Ethan looks so timid here. Maybe the sun is in his eyes. He did good at climbing up those toadstool things.

And he found a bug on the yellow slide. It was like a yellow lady bug, kinda. Hopefully it wasn't poisonous. Well, that was 2 days ago, and he's still doing fine... so I'm sure it wasn't. He insisted on a picture of him with the bug (it's on his ring finger). We then had to spend some time insisting that the bug stay at the park, with all his bug friends, and bug family... so that he didn't come home with us. The kid loves bugs!

Ok, that's all the pictures I have. I know, I told you that we didn't take many! Grandma and Grandpa left this morning, heading out to North Carolina then Florida. I guess I should go see what the kids are doing... I've been in here a while now. I think I might take some video of the kids just to get some live-action of them on here. I also still need to take pictures of the outside of our house with all the new changes. But first I'm pretty sure I need to clean up the disaster that has undoubtedly happened in the other room while I was posting this. Oh! And I need to give Noah a piece of parade candy since he just now pottied in the toilet!!! More on that to come (hopefully... fingers crossed!!!)

Rain, rain go away

2008-07-30T09:15:00.004-04:00

And please leave us with some cooler weather... Here is me, trying to be a little more consistent. I'm starting with the blog, and hopefully will work forward to being consistent in things like cleaning the litter box, or putting away laundry, or dressing the kids in the morning....

I'm becoming concerned that Naomi will turn out to rival Noah's sass. Now that she is little miss independent, she crawls all over and gets into things. She loves eating cardboard - which apparently everything that the boys own has at least some piece of cardboard on it... and in this picture...

Yeah, don't let her fool you... this is the face I get any time I tell her "no" or say "yuck, we don't eat cardboard" or "no, we don't play with wires". It's hard to keep a straight face because her face is just too darned cute. So yeah, super easy baby turns into a little snotters before the age of 1. I will have my hands full when she is closer to 2. Or closer to her first birthday. I'm sure walking will bring a whole other arena of independence and sass...

I asked Noah to model his new pull-ups. This was the pose. He is too much. I've been trying pull ups, the kind with the learning designs. Yeah... learning designs.... They are the ones that have little pictures on the front that fade when you potty in them. The concept is that the kids are supposed to want to be able to see the pictures. Unfortunately for us, Noah thinks it's neater to make them disappear. For real. Like, within 5 minutes of a new pull up "whoop, no more cars..." And he's so excited about it. So yesterday we bought the 'cool alerts' pull ups. These ones are supposed to feel cold as soon as you go. Hopefully this works better, but since it's about 80 degrees and humid before 10am today, I think it might not work. In fact, I might try to put some on just to stay cool ;) A picture of Naomi's shiner. It's hard to see... you kinda have to not look at it to see it... it's her right eye. Yesterday morning she was crawling along and somehow her arm got stuck under her and she tumbled onto the tile and caught herself with her face. There is a tiny little bruise just at the top edge of her cheek, but by yesterday afternoon it looked like she might get a proper black eye. Nothing cuter than a baby with a black eye. Riiiight... I felt like 'mom of the year' yesterday going in to Rite Aid with all three kids and her having a black eye. Oh well - I'm sure there will be more. At least I know that it was self-inflicted. She was a trooper, too, and only cried for about a minute...And here is Ethan making a typical Noah face. I guess I can see how they look like brothers... hmmm... I guess knowing their personalities makes them look different, but seeing them in pictures... well, yep, they are brothers. He didn't want to smile for the picture because I was blocking "Super Why", one of his favorite shows. Luckily SpongeBob is smiling big enough for everyone.

Tomorrow is our Dr. Solomon visit. He's the pediatrician in Ann Arbor that has been working with autism for the past 15 years. Regarding autism, that's like a millennium. He's the guy that created the PLAY Project. And this is the appointment we've been waiting for for 5 months. We aren't looking for a different diagnosis, but it will be nice to talk to him and just try to absorb some of his knowledge for the hour and a half that we are there.

Ok, that's about it for now. The natives are getting restless - gotta run.

A video of the little miss

2008-07-28T15:47:00.004-04:00

I call this one "who's watching the baby"... as in Hey, who's watching that baby? Yeah, the one at the top of the stairs chewing on something small... that one...

Disclaimer: No children were harmed in the making of this video. She actually stopped rolling before hitting the top of the stairs... It just gives the illusion that she may have fallen down them - but she really didn't. Now a couple days later, she did really crawl off of our bed. But I was sleeping that time, so it doesn't count. (Ethan was supposed to be watching her. And he did. Watch her crawl off the bed.)

Ok, since it takes forever to upload, some meaningless banter while I wait... Naomi cut her top tooth yesterday. I think the other top front will be either today or tomorrow. She got her first 2 teeth before 5 months, then almost 4 months later, she gets another. She is crawling now. She went from scooting to army crawl for a couple days, to trying to bear crawl, now she is crawling proper. Except it's still new to her and she looks like those lizards in the desert, picking up her hands so high on each crawl.

Oh, right - isms.... Some things just so I don't forget in the future. Ethan has started saying "actually" all the time. It's his sentence starter. Like "Actually, actually I was playing with that Noah... actually, you weren't playing with that." Only he says it really fast and it sounds like "ach-lee". Noah starts most sentences with either "but" or "because" and he says lots and lots of sentences. 'but it's not lunch time but it's snack time but we are in the kitchen but that's a bluebird because it's blue. ' I thought it was funny to hear them say it, and it was funnier after I realized that actually, I say those things quite a bit. Kinda like, "are we going to the park today?" "Actually, we're going to stay home today and clean". or when it's not asked and is just said by someone 'we are going to the park today' and my response is "but... it's raining outside so we're not"

Ok, I'm hearing hollering from upstairs. Perhaps the heat is making the boys restless. I decided today would be a good day to start NOT using our air conditioner. I thought it might get us outside more. But it didn't work (actually, we stayed inside all day). At least our Consumers bill might be a little lower because of it... we can only hope so...

General at home pics

2008-07-24T23:03:00.005-04:00

Ok, more pictures for your entertainment...

Naomi being cute as usual. This pose will be inappropriate soon, but she's still baby so it's cute.

Noah decided to have a photo shoot with me. Since we rarely catch him on film being sweet and happy, here are all of those pictures :)

The initial "cheese" picture.

With the dog - cheese.

Arms out! I don't know - that's what he shouted when he did it.

Hands on head!!! It's easy being his photographer when he's happy - he gives his own posing instructions.

Then him just being super sweet. I just am glad that I got these on film. He really is a sweetheart, just is more vocal when he's being sassy...

At 3:00 in the afternoon. Good thing the kids weren't in the sandbox. Well, doubly good, as the sandbox would be the blue off to the right, covered with a tarp. Although covering them while in the sandbox might keep them contained.... anyway, the deer by us are incredibly bold and domesticated. Last week there was one IN our garden at 10:45am. Bold.

The kids playing with trains together. It was cute. Naomi and Noah were there together for quite a while playing. Finally, some family fun time!

Looks like we might need a bigger bath!!! So many improvements on convenience now that Naomi can sit up by herself. Now I don't have to have Ethan hold on to Naomi to get her washed. "keep her head above the water... hold on to your sissy" to my 4-year old. Ok, so I only did that once... but still, her sitting by herself is just much better.

Obviously a chaotic time in our house. Why we may not answer the phone between 6:30 and 7. But the boys look like they are enjoying themselves. Yes, a big 2 person jacuzzi tub would be great for them. And for me when they finally go to sleep! But unfortunately if we had one in our bathroom, you would need to stand in that tub to brush your teeth or go potty... Some day... some day...

Early July catch-up

2008-07-16T13:26:00.005-04:00

Phew, so I've been catching up with life since Jerry went back to work. Here I am, battling for computer time, trying to get everyone else caught up with our life too :)

The 4th of July, we took a walk downtown to the park. We had a picnic on a blanket, played on the playground, stopped for rootbeer floats on the way home, then played on the slip 'n slide. I guess that would be considered the "executive summary" for the 4th of July. By the time we ate dinner and got the boys washed up, they were asking to go to bed at 7pm. Poor kiddos were so tired! We were going to let them catch fireflies for the 4th of July, but luckily we didn't say anything as we would have had to keep them up for an additional two and a half hours just so it would be dark enough. Perhaps some day this summer we will catch them - it's getting darker earlier, so there's a chance...

Noah at the park. It really is a nice park - the big wooden playscape. I'm surprised Jerry was able to get a still of Noah as he is pretty much running the entire time we are there. Although just noticed the right hand on the hip - he was probably sassing about having to stop for a picture...

The boys playing together. Noah calls this an airplane, even though it's really supposed to be a boat. We don't have the heart to tell him this yet. I don't really think it would matter to him - it will always be an airplane to him.

Weee! The slip n slide! I love Noah's expression on this one. It's like he knows it's fun, but it is just so cold!!! :) "I can't get any sun wearing this hoodie, mom..." Naomi doesn't think the slip n slide is nearly as fun as the boys do. We didn't put her down it yet - I don't think she would appreciate that at all.

She's a little happier in her bathing suit. I put a swim diaper on her - not really sure why... but we wanted to get a picture of her in her bathing suit because it was quite a stretch to get it on her!

It's a slip n slide, a sprinkler, a drinking fountain... an amazing $9 purchase!!! Haven't posted a video in a while, thought I would throw it on there for ya.

Ok, on to the zoo. We prefer the Lansing zoo over the Detroit zoo. I don't think Jerry has been to the Detroit zoo yet, so I suppose it would be more correct to say that I prefer the Lansing zoo. It is smaller, with less of a walk between animals. Detroit Zoo you have to walk and walk and walk... I think there was about a half mile walk IN the polar bear exhibit... then when we got there - they were sleeping or being lame. So after that experience, of walking and saying "yep... we're almost there... almost... allllmost... " Yeah, Lansing is much better. They have some questionable animals at Lansing - so they don't have the cool big ones, like elephants and giraffes... but they have a fanged deer... and a hare that looks like a miniature goat. I'm not sure how they pick them, probably just by the cheapest... but they perform well and make for some good pictures. Ok, ok, on with the pictures.

At the entrance. The big giraffe was too hot to sit on. Oh, so wait... they DO have giraffes here... My mistake.

Ok, so I realize I have a picture like this of her in just about every post... but aside from primitively crawling, this is about all she does. I'm not sure what exhibit she's by.

The best part about the zoo - the peacocks that roam free. I imagine they are well fed... they stay pretty close in the food court area. This one enjoyed more than a few of Naomi's Cheerios. The boys fed them, too...

And chased them. And I think right after this picture, Jerry was cleaning up lunch, I was taking care of Naomi, and both boys crawled underneath the little fence chasing the peacock. I'm not sure what was on the other side of that little fence (besides a pretty wicked drop-off), but it was the first time feeling like "those parents", that our kids are all jumping fences and we aren't even paying attention.

Noah and a lion. It makes me giggle because it looks like the lady next to him has her hands to her mouth like "oh no, get the small child away from the lion". But I think she is really just taking a picture.

The boys getting an up-close look at a tiger. A siberian tiger, to be precise.

"Ok boys, stand inches away from the tiger and smile!" They are going to have such a warped idea of how to act around large felines... Remind me to never send them to Africa (or wherever these cats might reside... I'm sure it said on the sign)

Because if you're not standing next to the sleeping tiger, then you are pretending to be one!

Ok, that about wraps up the zoo pictures. There were some animals that were fighting. We don't know what they were... anyway, we have video of them fighting. The kids thought it was great. We called them ManBearPig (from a South Park episode... half man, half bear, half pig) and is now what the kids call it. They come in to the computer room and request that we watch manbearpig... But since this is really long anyway, I should probably end it. I'll post more later. I have to charge some batteries so I can download the new pictures taken since these. I also have to take pictures of the outside of the house to let you know what it looks like now. It's all coming together so nicely. I finished touch-up painting today, so painting is done (until we start another project...) That is such a great feeling. And tonight is my last night of my bowling league (yes, you read that right... a bowling league...), which was fun - but I have proven that 10 weeks of bowling does not improve my average.

Oh right, and last night Jerry and I went jogging with our family (or maybe it's a soft J - pronounced "yogging" :) ) . We bought a single jogger so now Jerry can run with 2 kids and I can run with 1. It was my first time running in about 2 years, so aside from feeling like I was dying, it was great... Hopefully soon my knees and ankles will stop throbbing... Ok, Noah just walked in and asked if Ethan could play on the computer now. I don't know if Ethan bribed him to do so... but he said no, not mommy play... Ethan play. He hasn't yet today, and that's almost a record!

Flint Children's Museum

2008-07-05T15:26:00.004-04:00

Ok, 3 posts in a row... If you haven't checked in a while because I haven't been writing, then sorry for the overabundance of current posts!

On the way to the museum. Well, technically, I think we might be already parked. Which would mean that behind us is grass in downtown Flint. Who knew. When we got there, I realized I have never been to Flint before.

Naomi with hazel eyes. She is so excited to be at the museum. We made it all the way there without screaming, crying, or fighting. This is a miracle because we usually can't make it more than 10 minutes without one (usually more than one) of those things happening. And once they start, they don't stop... so hurray for Flint - the kids behave. Maybe they were afraid that if they didn't behave, we might leave them there :)

The boys playing with marionettes. I guess I should have chosen a picture that showed the marionettes, but they were just wooden. Nothing fancy. They liked making them wave hello and kick.

This is pretty much all Naomi did the whole time. Which, don't get me wrong, was fabulous! She stayed in her stroller content the whole 2 hours we were there. Also, not the norm.

Who knew that golf balls and a plastic vortex would be SOOO much fun! They stayed here the longest of all the exhibits, I'm pretty sure. Ethan was jumping and laughing all over the place. Gift idea for the future... a plastic vortex and golf balls...

There was a castle with dressup clothes inside it. Ethan is sitting right in front of the stage, and if you are on the stage you can watch yourself on TV. It was pretty cool. The museum wasn't all over the top like the U of M children's museum or Toronto's museum, but it was fun and they had a blast.

Noah stopped dancing and watching himself on TV long enough for a photo op. He just took his dress-up clothes off. He was a knight. No big shocker there. I'm pretty sure that's what he wants to be when he grows up. Also a great picture of how knock-kneed he is. Is that the term for it? Whatever the opposite of bow-legged is - that's what I mean...

Ethan driving the MTA bus. It cracked me up to see him in that big seat with the steering wheel. I didn't get a picture of him in the fire truck dressed up like a fireman... I think I was chasing Noah at that time. But it was cute!

And of course, Noah driving the bus. I love how Ethan looked all laid back and calm - just doing his job... and Noah looks a little more high strung. Kinda like "come on people, we got places to go... find a seat, we're going!"

Ok, one last picture of the museum (you'd never guess that it was only 3 rooms...) There was a store set up, with real boxes (well, empty, but real) of food. They both shopped, but when there wasn't anyone to check them out, Ethan stepped up to the task. Maybe he's like his mommy and secretly wants to be a checkout clerk. Note: yes, I always have. I was actually disappointed as a child when they switched from typing in the cost of each item to scanning them.... I always thought it would be fun. Perhaps if Jerry doesn't stop asking me where I want to work when the kids are all in school (he can be quite persistent!!!) then my dream will come true :)

So, I hope you liked the Flint Children's Museum. It's $3 a person, so if anyone comes into town maybe we'll splurge and go again :) They also have "free Tuesdays" but there are probably more people in there then...

I wanna be the next Design Star!!!

2008-07-03T20:31:00.005-04:00

Without further ado...

Our upstairs landing. What you can't really tell in the before picture is that all FIVE of the doorframes in that upstairs landing are painted robin's egg blue, just like the walls. So here we go...

Before:

After:

Up next, the family room. I suppose it's not totally fair to show before pictures from this far before since I tore down the paneling a year and a half ago... but the impact is greater, and I actually have "before" pictures then. So here is one of my favorite pictures of the boys when they were little. Gotta love 70s brown! It's so light and bright :) First in the family room, the outside wall.

Before:

After:

We still need to paint the windows, only windows are a pain (or a pane... *groan*) to paint and if I'm careful I can do these with the new carpet in. Or, I could make some really big curtains that covers all of the wood on the window. For now, I'm ok with leaving them as is for a while.

Ok, next is looking straight into our family room from the kitchen/stairs. As a strategic child-preservative move a while back, we blocked the fireplace with the couch. I wasn't certain on which couch should go there, so I sent Jerry a bunch of these pictures at work. I'm pretty sure this is how it was right before the new carpet - except an oversized recliner should be blocking the left half of the picture. Again, this is a picture while still experiencing paneling... but it is much more dramatic.

Before:

After:

Yeah, it kinda looks like a transformation on an HGTV show now... pretty cool to see them together like that. Ok, and one last one. Standing at the back of the family room looking up to the kitchen. We might (maybe... we'll see) swap out the couch for the loveseat there and give it a "reading nook" sort of feel with an end table. Really, we just enjoy sitting on our loveseat more than our couch, so functionally we like it like this. Whoops, got ahead of myself... pictures...

Before:

After:

Sorry, that first picture was kind of dark... but that was the theme! It feels so light and happy in that room now. Sorta like you want to spend time in there :) And since the couch is now right next to the kitchen, I've named it the "beer-me" couch. As in, "hey, since you're in the kitchen, wanna beer me?" Then... like magic... a cold one appears through the railing right to you. Yeah, pretty cool invention. I should market the "beer me" couch. We used to have a net that covered that railing, but since there is now a landing pad underneath instead of a television, we've deemed it safe enough. Well, safer than the upstairs railing that drops to the bottom of the family room steps, and that doesn't have a net.... We just aren't advertising it to the boys how cool it would be to jump through onto the couch - that's still a big no-no in our house...

Ok, that's it for now. Just a taste. I had before pictures of our front door area, but can't find an after right now. We need to take more after of the exterior once it's finished and the trees that are no longer dead and menacing, so maybe I'll throw in the front door railing into that batch. So anyway, that's pretty much why I haven't posted much lately. Who knew that painting would take up so much of your time.... Perhaps tomorrow I'll do the children's museum pictures.

One for July

2008-07-03T16:19:00.006-04:00

Alright, a lot has been going on here. I'll try to tell it in pictures, but I'm so tired right now that it might seem a bit "choppier" than usual... The boys are out shopping, so I get some quiet time with Naomi. We really kicked it into gear with the home improvement stuff. Jerry set a deadline for our carpet to be installed, so for the past two weeks, I have been painting all day and all night. It's a big difference to us, but unfortunately if you aren't familiar with our house, than it just looks like a quick job that we happened to spend over a month doing ;)

Our roof is complete - they came last week and put that on. That was our most expensive project this year, and really the least noticeable. Oh, don't get me wrong, you can tell that it's new... but it's not like you drive up to our house and go "Whoah, what a SWEET roof!!!" It was needed, and now hopefully our house won't leak. Well, it better not at least, because I fixed and painted over the old water marks on the ceiling....

Yesterday the carpet guys came. Here are the boys sitting in the recliner in the kitchen. They are so incredibly excited about the carpet as you can plainly see... ooohh, good shot of the white banister! So clean and fresh... obviously the one across our kitchen. We had the neighbor boy help us (well, help Jerry) move the broken fridge out of our basement the night before - good thing because it leaked on our old carpet - and when they were flinging furniture around they gouged my paint jobs. I now have some touch-up work to do. But it's better than the whole shebang again. I didn't even cry when it happened...

Another enthusiastic shot of Noah. We got to play outside all day while they were here installing carpet. Apparently Noah was not in the mood for pictures.Nice shot of me vacuuming. Not a flattering activity, but you can see the white trim across the right side of the picture, the white banister (and one of the gouges at the top right of the banister), and our new carpet . I realize it doesn't look that light here... but it is. And we also realize that even though we have been calling it 'California berber', essentially it is shag. Hopefully we sell our house before the plush shag goes out of style, because we would hate to be "that house" - you know, the one you walk into and under your breath go "wow.... that's a lot of shag carpet..." :) Here's a better look at the carpet itself. Oh, and of Naomi. See how she kind of sinks right into it. We like to walk around in it. It's about 3 inches of padding and carpet. And it makes our house smell like "new house" instead of "potty-training boys". Oh right, and she really is this cute.

Yeah, you know it. She gets her little booty up in the air now - not long and she will be crawling. She got it up and was rocking the other day and squealing. She can't wait to crawl. In the mean time, she is incredibly effective at rolling. She puts her arms up over her head and rolls anywhere she needs to go. Then she checks to see where she is, where whatever she wants is, throws her chunker thighs around to reposition, and continues to roll. Ethan used to do something similar to this, only with scooching on his back and rolling... I can't remember if Noah ever got mobile before crawling - that age for Noah may have been when Ethan started painting with poo...

A shot up the stairs. You can see the white banister going up, the white trim upstairs, the tan paint upstairs (used to be robin's egg blue), and if you look close enough, the white trim in the living room. This is one of the bigger transitions because it used to be blue carpet. I'll do a before and after blog soon... maybe...

A cheese picture of Ethan, just because I haven't had one in a while. He's playing with a stopwatch. The most peculiar of things are the favorites... Oh, and that's one of the painters outside masking off our house. They aren't done yet. They started yesterday, stopped right before the storm came. It rained all night, and was too wet to paint today. They are coming out tomorrow, the 4th of July, to paint. As Jerry pointed out to me, if they had come 2 weeks ago when they were originally scheduled to, they wouldn't be working on the 4th of July. I still feel bad for them, but would really like my upstairs windows to NOT be covered in visqueen so they can be opened.

I love pictures of Ethan and Naomi together. He is always so sweet to her. And she just looks like she loves her big brother. So I thought I would share.

Naomi wins - she found the dryer sheet! It wasn't a game, but why is it that all babies (well, at least mine) love dryer sheets so much? We've been busy cleaning since the carpet guys left yesterday. We were in such a crunch to finish painting before they got here, that it might be possible that I slacked a little in my cleaning duties... and in my mom duties... but everyone was fed and diapers were periodically changed, so they were fine! The laundry was awful because of wet clothes and sheets that were not washed right away - thank goodness for vinegar, I should buy it by the case. This was this morning. Ethan wanted to be the mom? That's what he kept saying. This must be what he thinks I look like? With a tool belt and fabric hardhat? I wonder if he thought the toolbelt was an apron. But why would he think that moms wear aprons? Maybe he thought it was a fannypack. But again... why would he think that moms wear fannypacks? Oh well. It was funny, thus the picture.

Noah looking through binoculars. I don't know. It was a strange morning. We went to the children's museum in Flint afterward, but I will have to post another blog for that as well... I am running out of stamina. So still left to do... before/after post with all of the updates in pictures, children's museum post. I just needed to get something on here before 1) my sister disowned me and 2) we had so many pictures that it resembled the amount that we need to send to Sam's Club to get printed off (which, by the way, is all of the pictures taken since Christmas of 2005!!!!) Hopefully later tonight I can post again. The boys should be back from the grocery store soon, and I need to finish laundry.

Holy Buckets!

2008-06-17T09:21:00.005-04:00

It's been a while. Not much going on... We've been playing outside a bit, Ethan plays on the computer any chance he can get, and I've been painting any chance I can get. New carpet is such a huge motivator! So now that I have to battle for computer time - well, I'm still the mom and "in control"... however sometimes it's just not worth dealing with the meltdown. Alright, lazy parenting. Guilty. - Anyway, now that I have to share computer time, I rarely nurse Naomi in here (because if I do I have 2 little helpers right next to me waking her up) thus, not as many blogs. I will try to remember what has happened in the past couple weeks....

Since the last post - random happenings... Ethan caught a piece of poo while on the toilet and put it in the sink. I have no idea why, as this has never been a desire of mine. I went in there to help him wipe and there was poo in the sink. I asked if he had an accident, to which he proclaimed very loudly and excitedly "NO! I CAUGHT IT!" and then showed me how he reached down and caught it. Seriously, I should buy stock in bleach.

Noah told me one morning that he wanted to feed Naomi. He pulled his shirt up, much like Ethan did when he tried, but Noah said he wanted to feed her with his "circles". I laughed out loud. I told him that boys' circles don't make milk, only mommys.

The guys came to cut down our tree! That was a while back, but I haven't gotten the pictures off of our camera until now. That is Noah looking at him with binoculars. That just cracks me up. The guy is about 30 ft away.... and his binoculars are backwards :) We let them watch from the deck. By we, I mean Jerry. I think he was more excited about watching than the boys were.

I tried getting an artsy shot of Ethan with the tree being cut down. Here is the result. I guess you could see what I was going for, only it was too cloudy for a clear picture, our camera doesn't do that type of photography, and I lack the skill to get it.

Noah with a magic wand. He kept putting spells on everything "I'm gonna put a spell on you!" This really upset Ethan. Ethan must really think that the 'I love Jesus' pencil has powers. Who knows, maybe it does... So Noah went about putting spells on rocks, the picnic table, chairs...

Ethan with a cheese grin. The boys are actually shirtless for a reason on this day - it was about 89 degrees and humid. Our air conditioner even went on this day! I didn't realize until now - this is also an action shot of Noah casting spells in the background. I think it's on that rock on the table...

Just a sweet picture of Naomi and daddy. With fallen tree limbs in the background. She was so sweaty - poor girl. She's not made for hot weather. She breaks out in heat rash, just like the boys did when they were little. Unfortunately she's not old enough yet to send her down the slip 'n slide.

And, a fallen tree. Sorta. They came back a couple days later to cut down the stump and grind up a few other stumps. That was a while ago... maybe a week and a half ago? It's hard to imagine it being that long ago, as the piles of ground up tree stump wood chips are still right where they left them... I'm trying to work on them... It's hard when you gotta worry about kids and streets and stuff like that.

The roof guys should be here this week (hopefully) at the end of the week to do our roof. Then I need to simultaneously schedule the satellite guys to come out and reposition our dish that will be apparently haphazardly put back on our roof and non-functional. This is critical - not only for the kids, but I don't want to miss Design Star on Sunday... talk about drama!!! Anyway, hopefully then next week the paint guys will be here to paint our house. Exterior, that is. I am still responsible for the inside. I had the sad realization that the trimwork will take 2 coats of white. In the entire house. Still to do: wash, kilz, 2 coats of paint on the banister in the kitchen; paint 1 more coat on trim in family room and living room; paint front door; paint 2 coats of white on trim in upstairs landing (5 door frames!!!); paint the robin's egg blue walls in landing to tan; mud where the ceiling ornament used to be and touch up paint. I'm thinking that all of this may have been easier accomplished when we were DINKs, or better yet 7 years ago when we moved in and DINKs! (dual income, no kids... in case you didn't know. but I'm sure you knew... I'm just sayin...) But once all this is done... NEW CARPET!!!

Oh, and Naomi updates... she now talks. Wellll... she makes word sounds. More specifically, "da", "ya", and "ga". She is the only one in the house that agrees with me most of the time, as it sounds like she is saying "yeah". She also does big gummy smiles. Well, gums with those two big teeth on the bottom. Still hasn't broken any new ones through. She rolls all over. ALL over. Not down the stairs yet - I'll take that as a compliment to my parenting skills :) No crawling yet, but I imagine she's close. She was sick all last week with a fever. It was awful. Almost the whole week we slept in the recliner because as soon as I would put her in her crib she would scream. Like that pitiful sick scream. The past couple days I let her cry in her crib again. So now we are back to awake a few times a night. I'm working on it, I'm working on it.... at least it's better than not sleeping at all.

Oh, right! We went to the doctor last week because Naomi was sick (up to 103 degrees with really no other symptoms... so we went - we've hit our deductible, why not?). When we got there, we signed up everyone to see the doctor. Ethan had a horrible stye on his eye that the receptionist wanted the doctor to see, and Noah... well, Noah is just kind of a brat... wondered if there was something we could give him. Actually, he hadn't really eaten in a few weeks (which isn't abnormal for him - he tends to go in waves) but had been coughing and the only time he slept through the night was the one night I randomly gave him tylenol. Anyway, Ethan finally broke 50 pounds. I think he was 51.6 lbs. Noah was 35.6 lbs. Naomi was 21 lbs. I have kids 15 pounds apart.... Everyone was fine. The only one that got medicine was Ethan - he got some salve for his eye. We have to get Noah checked for weight again later as he dropped in percentile. He's right around 50th, which isn't awful, but at some point he was up near 90th? Jerry met us at the doctor to complete the family visit - all five of us in one exam room.

Oh, and I guess I don't have lupus! The test came back negative from the rheumatologist. I do have carpal tunnel and Raynaud's disease. But that's better than lupus! Ok, things are out of control with the boys right now... gotta run. I'll try to take more pictures. It was NOT a fun week last week. I could have taken pictures of a sick Naomi and Ethan with a big swollen red eye... Everyone is a little cuter this week - I'll take some.

Ten pics for hump day

2008-06-04T09:48:00.004-04:00

Oh, happy day... The kids were all up last night so I got very little sleep. I was woken up by Ethan at 6am hollering that he wanted more milk and wanted to sleep as he jumped all around (not very convincing...) Noah slept in a little (after being up for about 3 hours in the middle of the night), and as soon as I got Naomi down for her morning nap (in her crib, I might add...) Ethan started screaming and woke her up. I thought that perhaps coming online and posting cute pictures of my children would help me to feel better about them, let my blood pressure come back down, and give me some time to think of what I might feed them for lunch. So, there might not be so many captions this time, fearing that they might all be something like this "here is brat #1 smiling on a day that was happier" LOL! Ok, here goes...

He was supervised for a very long time with the dry erase marker and was only coloring on paper. He made a line across his fingers so we had the "only on paper" talk. I thought I was safe to run up to the kitchen for a few seconds. I was obviously wrong, as this is what I returned to see. Both arms, every finger, both legs, and two lines up and down his tummy. Note: dry erase markers erase only from dry erase surfaces. Those surfaces do not include human flesh. He still has black lines on him 3 days later.

A picture of what makes Ethan happy. Playing on the computer. This is PBSKids. From the moment he wakes up he asks if he can play "PBS games". I had to make rules about it. Rules about computer time for my 4 year old. I never thought that day would come....

I wish I caught this picture better... You can see part of his giant eyeball. He loves his 'fying-fying glass'. I got them a bug kit for outside. Noah claims the magnifying glass as his sole heir, I think. He slept with it on his pillow one night. Anyway, nothing funnier than the kid with giant eyeballs making his eyeball huge with a magnifying glass...

Oh, she's just hanging out on the floor. She loves to play on the floor now, which is AWESOME. She stays occupied just rolling around and playing with toys. We have to be very careful of choking hazards now.
I don't know, she's just so sweet. She has reached the age where you just want to eat her. She is happy and great. We love her.

A scary picture of Noah. Looks slightly possessed. This is how we see him quite a bit, as he is very dramatic with his eyes. Always has been. I guess it would be freakier with the magnifying glass in front of them on this shot :)

How GQ is this shot? We were taking "before" pictures of our tree that is getting cut down (hopefully soon!) It's a big dead ash tree. We wanted the boys in front of it. I got several without them, but they wanted in. That is, until I actually went to take the picture, then Noah took off running. So here is Ethan, looking all contemplative about the circle of life and why trees need to be cut down and the devastating effects of the emerald ash borer...

Proof that Naomi takes naps in her crib now. I feel so in control and mom-ly having her nap in her crib. Thanks to my friends Angie and Michelle for all of your support and encouragement and advice on how to get kids to take naps. You are right, it IS fabulous, and it IS possible... Oh, and also a picture of Butters and his favorite place to sleep. Probably until she learns to crawl, then he'll be outta there!

A cute picture of a cute moment. They were all playing together last night. This would have been a perfect picture if Naomi wasn't giving Ethan an eye gouge. But it still is cute. Noah looks so innocent, and was actually being nice here. When he is sweet, he is the sweetest... He likes the extremes...

It really needs no explanation. Ethan is obviously feeding Naomi. He was holding her on the floor and kept trying to pull her up on him. He kept saying "I want to feed him (meaning her)" Then he pulled his shirt up. I couldn't get a good shot of the impromptu feeding, so I put him in the glider with the boppy. Then she got angry because apparently Ethan was right, she WAS hungry....

Ok, and that's it for now.... mainly because we didn't have a very substantial breakfast (mine was coffee...) and I feel like I might pass out if I don't eat something real (and real soon). Thought the pictures would be a fun treat for a gloomy Wednesday.

on again, off again

2008-05-30T19:12:00.003-04:00

Well, we got in to the rheumatologist on Wednesday, and she said that she does not think that I have lupus. Apparently the bloodwork that my doctor ordered was the right test, wrong process of doing the test. So the rheumatologist went through the whole medical history stuff, then said she is almost certain that I do not have lupus. Then ordered 10 more vials of blood to be drawn, did about 20 x-rays, sent me to a vascular place (for Raynaud's disease? my toes go transparent white.. I think I mentioned that) and to a neurologist to test for carpal tunnel. Of course while at the vascular place, even after an ice bath for my feet, my toes remained a bright fleshy pink (I wanted to slap them.... at least I have more than one witness that my toes do in fact lose all circulation when I am cold. Problem being that for the past 5 years I have been pregnant or nursing - so I am RARELY cold...) Also today it was confirmed that I do have carpal tunnel. But he didn't think it was bad enough for surgery (obviously. Well, obvious to me, I suppose... as I wouldn't go under the knife just so I can write long essays or open a jug of milk without using a couple towels). But I do have to wear my dork carpal tunnel 'gloves' or wrist guards (I don't know the proper terminology for them). I had to buy them when pregnant with Ethan, and I was embarrassed to wear them then. How funny that now I have glasses that I'm supposed to wear around the house, wrist guards... what's next? A retainer and head gear? I feel sorta like a superhero as I take all that stuff off to leave the house. Although I have yet to discover my super talent.

So as of now, I have been told that I do and do not have lupus. In 2 weeks I will call the rheumatologist back to see what the new bloodwork says. At that point, we will go with the majority vote. In the mean time, I guess I'm back to just being weird with a lot of quirks... again.

Memorial Day weekend

2008-05-28T08:22:00.004-04:00

Well, I'm not sure about the rest of the world, but in Michigan when it's Memorial Day weekend two things happen. 1) If you have a cabin/cottage, you sit in traffic on I-75 to head up north to open it up for the summer and 2) You plant your vegetable garden! Since we do not have a cabin as of yet (nor will we for at least the next 20 years probably...) we opted for option 2.

The kids helped for a little bit, until it was very apparent that it was detrimental to the well-being of our plants. Ethan has a hard time knowing where his body is in relation to other objects (i.e. newly planted baby tomato plants...) so after planting a row of them, he would spin and jump and throw his feet around. Noah really just wanted to flip over the little containers holding the not-yet-planted veggies. This picture came right before they were banned from the garden :) Well, banned until we planted the "magic beans". Our pole beans we plant from seed, and since they LOVE the story Mickey and the Beanstalk, every year we let them plant the magic beans. I wonder if this ruins the magic of the story for them, as we tell them they are magic beans yet the next morning... no beanstalk. No castle. No giant. No golden harp. Just dirt. Oh well... add it to the list of childhood disappointments.

Naomi helping plant the garden. She helped by not crying while sitting in her stroller. This is really more help than you can imagine! Most of the time when we are outside, she wants to be held. That is really sweet and cuddly, but topping 20 pounds, it is also a back breaker! I am loving putting on her little summer outfits. She has many - so there should be a lot of variation in the photos :) Hopefully next year she can be in the garden with us getting her hands dirty.

Ethan eating "kid sushi". I saw it on Rachael Ray (Jerry took the boys for a run, so I got to watch grown-up TV during the day. It was refreshing!) Anyway, you roll pieces of bread with a rolling pin until they are flat, spread it with peanut butter (or as Ethan chose, apple butter) put a banana inside, roll it up and cut it like sushi. What is funny is that Ethan likes regular sushi as well. Well, California rolls at least. Oohh, and you can see the kitchen chairs too! I still haven't taken a "done" picture of them, but you get the idea from this pic...

Buzz-cut Noah. Sunday morning before church, we took the clippers to Noah. Jerry finally got him convinced that he wanted his haircut like daddy, too. I had tears in my eyes as inches of hair fell to the ground. It's ok, he is still cute. He didn't like the kid sushi (or "kid shushi" as he called it) so he opted for a regular banana.

Seriously? Could she be any cuter? This is an 18-month romper she is wearing. I wish I had a full shot of her in it, so you could see that it really isn't that big on her... scary. Oh well. Summer clothes are almost one size fits all for kids. Ok, not really. But it makes me feel better saying that when my 6-month old is wearing 18 month clothes!!! She is now rolling all over the place. Almost to the point of needing gates again. She rolled all the way across the living room yesterday. And this morning she went across the family room. It's great because she is more entertained. But I had forgotten about the whole choking hazard risk that mobility brings. And reminding the boys of what is and is not ok to give her to play with. "No, you shouldn't give a baby a domino... that's too small". So they set it just out of her reach. Well, now it's within rolling distance. So I'm just going to have to be on my toes about keeping my floor clean. I'll add that to my list of things to do. And since it's a choking hazard, I guess it will be bumped to the top!

Get your mind out of the gutter - it's a guitar! We were making thank you cards for the grandma ladies at church that watch the kids. Imagine my 'trying to be calm' bugged eyed expression when I see what Ethan drew on one of the cards! I stayed as calm and inquisitive as possible as I said "Oh, that's a nice picture... what did you draw?" And yes, it's a guitar! The two circles at the bottom are the neck of the guitar on the left and the big part on the right. The top oval would be the neck strap. Needless to say, I chose to NOT give this one to them as a thank you.

Oh, and here's a fantastic story for you... A long time ago, Jerry taught Ethan to say "That just happened!" It's said in the same tone of voice as "in your face!". It's from the movie Talladega Nights. It's funny. Well, the other day I was sitting in the family room feeding Naomi in the recliner. Ethan walked to the top of the stairs, pulled his shorts and undies down to flash me, and as he stood there exposed said "That just happened!!" It was inappropriate on so many levels, but hilarious at the same time. I suppose it was funnier because he's only 4... and encouraging that he used the expression correctly... Anyway, all I could manage to say was "Jerry?!?!?" And he responded by making Ethan go to the potty. I think this was so both of us could get the giggles out as much as we could. Nothing like telling your kid not to do something while trying not to bust out laughing! Hopefully this is not something that will happen in preschool. Or the church nursery!

Right, and we made it through our stressful week! Both boys are registered for preschool, we had the MSRP screening, and his IEP meeting. At the IEP they recommended "regular" preschool with just some extra things. A physical and occupational therapist will come in every couple months to observe him and then give recommendations to the teachers for things to work on. He has goals set for the year, too. 1) choose a friend to play with, 2) transition from one activity to another and 3) ask for help when appropriate.

Oh, and yesterday I got a phone call from the rheumatologist and they have an opening today. So instead of mid-July, we will be going today!!! Hopefully we find out more, as I feel fairly ignorant about the whole lupus topic.

I will have to keep taking pictures of the kids as they play more. Also, last night I finished painting the railing to the family room. At some point I will take off the blue tape. When that happens, I just might post before and after pictures :) But only after I do the chair pictures... Oh, and I need to get outside to take 'before' pictures of our yard before all the people show up to work on it. I think the tree guys are coming this week to cut down our big dead ash tree... and we might be deciding on roofing guys this week, too. And hopefully the house painters quotes will start rolling in. It will be satisfying to not have a pink house anymore.... that definitely needs a 'before' picture!!! Ok, Ethan is in here begging to get on to PBSKids. He gets to play computer games now. You would think this would stress me out, but it is a better babysitter than the TV (lol!) He knows how to use the mouse, how to change games, and how to play all of the games on there. And because it's PBS, it's all learning stuff, so it's right up his alley! Ok, really gotta go.....

Few and far between...

2008-05-18T19:08:00.006-04:00

Pictures first, since we finally have some! Lately Ethan has been wanting to hold Naomi. A very sweet gesture indeed... except when he decides to take her out of her jumper and drops her on the floor, or drags her across the floor to get her on her activity mat. This picture not as dangerous... well, I suppose they are on the couch and she could fall off, but at this stage in parenting that hardly even triggers the "danger meter". Although some "disturbing" bells might be going off as he is shirtless...

Noah eating popcorn, pausing long enough to give a "cheese" shout-out. He's got that rash on his face again from drool. But he finally popped his first 2-year molar on the top, so one more to go and hopefully we can stop drooling as much. He's starting to look like a kid much more than a toddler.

If you look close, you can see Naomi's 2 teeth. She has been learning that you don't bite mommy. Well, at least not when she is offering to feed you. Instead of latching on she decided to bite so she got flicked in the mouth and she did the most pathetic little girl cry ever. She is so not getting away with anything with mommy being the youngest of four... I was like, yeah, whatever kiddo, don't bite your mom.

Naomi looking a little happy. It's getting hard to smile with her cheeks getting so big... Those kinda look like teeth nubs on top, but they aren't yet (Thank goodness!!!). Oh, we just had her 6 month check up and she is still 27 3/4" long, but now weighs in at 19lb 11 oz. Seriously? This girl needs to start working out. I can't suggest that though, because it's been quite some time since I have (remember that post ages ago about how I was going to wake up early and work out... yeah... not so much.) Although the more I look at this picture, the more I giggle because she is just getting soooo chubby. Both boys, fully clothed. It IS possible... who knew. They are watching CyberChase. I don't really get why they love it so much, but it works for me!

"Seriously mom??? Couldn't you buy a real barrette???" She is crying because she's embarassed that I put a ziplock baggie clipping in her hair as a barette. It works though (thanks Skoie!) I need to glue something on it, like a bow or a button to make it look more stylish. But I just wanted to see if it would work, and it did. Here's a better shot of how it looks instead of so much screaming face.... Wow, that's a big pile of dirt! For years our veggie garden has been eroding. We are hoping that this corresponds to growth. The first year we had a garden, Jerry had to dig up this big rock wall that was in it so we had to fill it with topsoil. That year we had TONS of tomatoes grow. Then every year since we have had less and less. Last year I was pretty much chiseling through clay to be able to plant them. We had 3 yards of topsoil dropped off to fill in the garden. Hopefully now with something to grow IN, our plants will grow healthy and plentiful! Anyway, the boys had fun helping Jerry move it from the driveway to the garden.

Proof that they were helping. Jerry said they helped for about a half hour before they got distracted. Apparently moving dirt is only cool for a half hour. Now we know.I have no idea, but the look on Noah's face is cracking me up. He's always so animated. Both good and bad.

It's that time of year again!!! Jerry has been prepping Ethan for a buzzcut for so long now that I think I did it to please Jerry more than for actual functionality of it... 'Ethan, do you want your hair cut like daddy???' - daily. More than once a day... Well, he said yes (I don't know if Jerry actually bribed him or not... I guess we'll never know.) It turned out good and I always forget that his eyes look so big when he gets his summer hair cut. I think we cut off like 3 inches at once. It was just like those military movies when they shave their head and all that hair falls to the floor. I guess it's hard to capture that in a photo.. perhaps video would have been better.

Ok, some explanation. It's unusual to get a head shot of me like this. But, I ended up needing glasses. I have 'unique' eyes. Apparently if you took the results of my exam to eye doctor school (is that the technical term?) it would be like an extra credit case study. I have perfect vision in each eye, perfect vision together... but my eyes want to focus in. Or something like that. He said instead of reading glasses I will have these glasses. They have no prescription to them, they are prism glasses. When I was picking them out I asked the lady about them and she said "no... just for reading and computer work". So I opted for the trendier style. I think they were trendy. She said they were, but they were still on the "fully covered by insurance" rack... Anyway, I wore them at the computer for about an hour and almost threw up. I called and she said sometimes it takes a while to get used to them, give it a week. Well, I did... for a week I didn't get on the computer or read. She was right, I felt better :) Come to find out, I'm supposed to wear them ALL THE TIME, except for reading! They do make my head feel better... not so much eye tugging. But again, would have picked something a little more plain jane if I knew they would be for all the time. Anyway, the story makes me giggle a little, so I thought it was worth posting a pic. That and so Dar could see them.

The shirt reads "I don't have to be good... I'm cute!" And with this smile, I believe it! She is a cutie. Pictures like this make me still like her even after last night when she was up at least every hour and a half, AND bit me once.

Ok, so that was catching up with pictures. In other news, I might have lupus. Well, my doctor said I have it. And I'm scheduled to see a rheumatologist to get further treatment/advice. But since being told this, I've been told by others that it's really hard to diagnose and that it might not be. I'm scheduled to see the specialist in July. I have found that doctors that end in "gist" are really hard to get into... May is Lupus Awareness month, so I guess I'm aware now? April was Autism Awareness month. I'm really hoping that June is Cures for Incureable Diseases Awareness month... or Lottery Winner Awareness month. That would be a lot cooler than what we've been going through... and I might be happier to support that cause...

Other than that, this is a busy week coming up. We get to pick up a draft copy of Ethan's IEP (individual education plan) tomorrow, schedule for preschool on Wednesday, have a screening interview for MSRP (Michigan school readiness program) Wednesday afternoon, and his actual IEP meeting on Friday.

Oh, and in other news as well, we had a sitter last weekend so we could get away. We went to Birch Run. For those not familiar with Michigan, it's about 15 minutes north of here. There's the outlet mall there, and not much else. It was nice to get away, to not be needed by children for 36 glorious hours... plus it was close enough that I could drop off milk on Saturday. While out and about, we got new carpet. It's not here yet. We are going to paint the banisters white before they install it. We are in SERIOUS need for before pictures. This is a summer of home improvements, with getting a new roof, trees cut down and stumps removed, house exterior painted, carpet... yea! That stimulus check has been spent about 6 times over! Oh well, much needed work. Ok, gonna run. It's almost kid bed time and I've been nursing this whole time... I'll try to keep things more updated. And hopefully I can stop dropping big "this is what's wrong with us" bombs...

Up to speed

2008-05-08T09:26:00.004-04:00

Ok, finally I get to update you on what has been going on the past few months with the Rice family. Many of you already know, but for those who don't - well, get ready for a long post! Back in February we had Ethan do a free speech evaluation because, well, compared to Noah, he wasn't talking. There were some things that concerned us - mainly how he mumbled a lot and kinda just shmushed all his words together. We knew something was lacking in his speech so, why not, it was free. I fully expected to walk out of there enrolling Ethan in speech therapy. What I didn't expect was for the therapist to say that she noticed some other red flags. There were some gross and fine motor issues she noticed, and he was lacking more than just speech - things like eye contact, sensory deficiencies (not noticing his drool, having 2 accidents and not caring that his pants were wet), not sharing with us the new toys he was playing with. So she suggested that we go in for a full speech, physical, and occupational therapy evaluation to identify delays.

After I heard this, I was talking to one of the 'grandma ladies' that watches the kids on Tuesdays in the church nursery, and it came about that Ethan doesn't make eye contact with them, and he usually just plays by himself when he's there. Enter flashback to when Ethan was 2....

When Ethan was 2, we had him do a developmental test - the Denver Developmental test - because there were things that concerned us. He wasn't talking, but mainly because he would have meltdowns at the slightest change in our house. You could move a kitchen chair and he would melt down until it was moved back. Not just 2-year-old temper tantrum... screaming, inconsolable, until it was put back "right". He scored fine on it - right at his age level. The only thing lacking was his speech, but we were waiting to see a specialist for his ears (which every year since we have had tubes inserted... but that's another story...) so phew, nothing to worry about. She told us that if we still had concerns that there was a great doctor in Ann Arbor, Dr. Solomon, who could do a more extensive evaluation. We ran with 'everything is normal'.

So back to present tense... knowing the delays the speech therapist stated, mixed with the lack of eye contact, not playing with other kids - and the fears that we had at age 2 suddenly were back in our life. For the past few months we have known personally (not professionally) that Ethan has autism. The first week was the hardest. Umm, comparable to a sledgehammer blow to the head. I found out after the fact that apparently there is a grieving process that you go through when faced with something like this. Luckily after a few days of nonstop crying, I was able to function as a mom again. Oh, I suppose I was still a mom those first few days. Naomi didn't lose any weight, diapers got changed, that sort of thing. Anyway... I didn't post anything about this sooner because it was still technically speculation. I didn't want to write that we thought Ethan had autism and find out that he's just quirky.

From the time that I called the speech therapist back, a couple days after the initial screening, and asked her if she was requesting the extra evaluations because of suspected autism, we jumped on the ball and started making all sorts of appointments. Many, many thanks to our good friend Valorie who knows childhood development and was able to refer us to the people we needed to see! I also found out that it's kinda like playing hot potato... nobody actually wants to make the diagnosis. Nobody wants to say the word autism. Although they are protecting themselves, it is very very frustrating. However, we were pretty certain it was what we were dealing with when our family doctor called me at home and apologized for not catching it herself. Another frustrating factor - I did call to make an appointment with Dr. Solomon (2 years later...) and his first available appointment was 5 months later. So, July 31 we will be seeing him. He is very good, and has worked specifically with autism for I think 12 years. He created the PLAY Project, which is a program to work with autistic children to move them up the developmental ladder. It's based off of DIR and Floortime. www.playproject.org I think that's the website. We are on a 6 month waiting list for PLAY Project.

We finally did get a diagnosis on Monday. We were able to get in to see a pediatric neurologist in only 2 months, so we jumped on that opportunity. Monday we were in his office, and after about a half an hour of observation and social history questions, he said that Ethan indeed has ASD - autism spectrum disorder. We at last have our diagnosis. It doesn't change much. Not yet anyhow. We are still on the waiting list for PLAY Project. He said that his symptoms are mild, and he is encouraged by that. He should be able to be in mainstream schooling, that sort of thing.

Ironically, the most frustrating thing about all of this HASN'T been dealing with our son who has autism.... it's been trying to get a diagnosis, finding out that NOTHING is covered by insurance, and waiting. Waiting, waiting, waiting. Sorry this is so long... I have so much information that has been building up on this!

Hmmm.. I guess back to his symptoms, since I haven't mentioned those yet. It's funny how so many things just got chalked up to "that's just Ethan". I think it takes technically 7 of those to raise a red flag in parents :) He doesn't make eye contact. He does with us, and with people he has known for a long time. If he meets you, he may glance at you, but will not look at you during conversation. Well, he doesn't have conversation either. He has delayed echolalia. Most of the things he says are directly from a show or book or his 'learning computer'. He has learned to use it effectively sometimes - says the right phrase at an appropriate time. For a while, anytime something would happen he would say "Hmmm... That be ok... accidents happen all the time" - see. Appropriate. However it was spoken the EXACT same way every time, in this sing-song kind of voice. Ummm, another symptom... oh yes, the meltdowns. Apparently not 'normal' for a 4 year old to scream for 40 minutes straight, to the point of breaking little blood vessels by his eyes (it's called something... pitiki eye. I don't know how it's spelled...) He loves (LOVES!) rules. This is a good thing. Most of the time. But meltdowns can be caused by Noah breaking a rule. Oh, and he makes up rules, too... if he's playing with something, you better find out what the rules are before you join in! I mentioned before the sensory integration stuff. That would be why it was soooo hard to potty train him. Um, sensory integration problems is where... Everything around us alerts our senses. The smell in a room, the lighting, background sounds, movements, activities... and constantly we are taking in these senses, organizing them, dealing with them. For sensory integration problems - they can be hypo or hyper sensitive to them. Ethan is hypo. He's not bothered by too many noises or anything. But he also doesn't notice things he probably should. Like the drool. Or the food on his face at meal time. Or clothes on totally crooked. Another big one is toe walking. We never really noticed it because he was usually running. But when it was brought to our attention, yep, walks on his toes almost 100% of the time. He also runs and smashes into the couches... back and forth... run, smash, run, smash. Again, this was a 'that's just Ethan' thing for us because he's always done that. Apparently a self-stimulating behavior - he likes the deep pressure that it gives him to throw his body into the cushions. Luckily a good thing is his obsession. Usually it's something linear like trains or tractors, but his is spelling, math... anything academia. His little learning computer that we got from the Houston kids - he will play on it for hours. He's starting to read (well, has been for a few months now). He can spell most 3 letter words. Is up to I think 5 letter words. He can do bigger words if it's a compound word. Bedroom, rainbow.. that sort of thing. He can add and subtract. You know, normal stuff for a 4-year old. :) But it's encouraging because when we get past these social delays, he is gonna ROCK at school!

Ok, so where are we now... Let's see. We had the full evaluation. Through a rehab center, private pay. We've been to the neurologist and got our diagnosis (yea!!!). Friday we are meeting with the GISD (Genesee Intermediate School District) for an evaluation there. This is the one that will start the process of getting him enrolled in school. Or at least getting help through the school. We may be enrolling him on our own, regardless. July 31 we are still meeting with Dr. Solomon. Then hopefully in September our time will be here for the PLAY Project. During the month of March we took Ethan to the physical and occupational therapists to work on his delays. We were initially told this was covered by insurance. Then after $1,000 of charges find out that - whoops - might not be covered. We stopped going there until we figure out what is going on with insurance. We are working with him at home on his sensory stuff - the stuff the occupational therapist would do. We have a "sensory diet" that he follows, which is just doing certain activities twice a day, 20 minutes each time. Speech is definitely not covered by insurance for kids. Well, it is, but it's like those car insurance commercials - it's only covered if it was due to an accident where a Ficus tree drew a full name on him... basically it's not covered. This is because it's offered for free through the schools. (Hopefully. We are hoping that he will qualify...)

Ok, I think that's about it for now. He is in here wanting to do "crap" LOL!!! It's how he says craft, but it cracks me up every time he says it. "mommy, I wanna do crap". Yeah, kiddo... me too. I would love to do some crap, but usually someone needs something, so I never get to do the crap that I want. Sidenote... the rest of my fabric is in at JoAnns, so I will finally be finished with my kitchen chairs. A project started 5 years ago with refinishing the table. Last year we started on the chairs. I will take pictures when they are finished.

Also, since you have been so patient reading this, I will post some pictures. We went to gramma and grampa Slamka's house on Saturday. I brought the camera, but the only pictures I took were in the car on the way there. It was a nice ride :) Ok, I need to get some things done. I guess my kids need some attention as they won't leave the computer room.

Oh, and there are a ton of resources out there to learn about autism. If you want, I can fill you in. There is a great book that pretty much explains where Ethan lies on the spectrum. A Parent's Guide to Asperger Syndrome and High Functioning Autism. Very encouraging book. Ok - kids.. gotta go!

We are family!

2008-04-29T08:43:00.003-04:00

Awwww - what sweet siblings!!! To get a better representation of what was going on I should have taken a video. That way you could see Ethan sitting on Naomi, shoving Noah over to make room, Noah kicking Ethan's back to get him off the chair, and when that didn't work, shoving a knee in his back... But I guess that's one of the "pros" of still imagery :) Sweet, innocent children.

This picture cracks me up because of Ethan's expression. I don't even know what it is. But it's funny. Now it's Noah's turn for the funny smile. I should really take pictures when the TV is off, so that it's not so tempting to look at it. Or take pictures standing in front of it, so regardless they are looking 'at' the camera...

Ok, updates... Naomi took a drink from her sippy cup last week. Just one sip. But she usually just chews on it, so we'll take that as a milestone. She also loves her jumper. Not like a cute outfit... the 'johnnie jump-up' or something... the one that hangs in the doorway and allows me to do laundry and iron - that jumper. Also Saturday (?) she was laying on the floor playing and rolled over to her tummy, then back to her back, then to her tummy. She wasn't using it as a method of transportation (like Ethan used to... he could roll anywhere he wanted to go...) but she was playing and having fun. Yesterday she tried to eat her toes - I can see why, she must be starving!!! She has been playing with her toes for some time now, but the first time she tried to eat them. And (yes, I know, quite a week!!!) I believe she cut her second tooth officially last night. Still not 6 months old yet, 2 teeth.

Today I got an email update on where Noah should be developmentally. Soon, he should be able to match some words with the objects that they are and we should encourage more talking... Riiiiight.... We've become so accustomed to him talking like he's a teenager that getting an email saying where he should be is kinda scary. When he gets mad he talks really loud in very staccato.. so he'll yell I.... AM.... VERY.... ANGRY. Last week he was being loud and Jerry told him to be quiet and he hollered " I... DON'T... WANT... TO... BE... QUIET... I... WANT... TO... TALK...VERY...VERY...LOUDLY". So yeah, matching words with objects? We are on to expressing emotions, sassing back effectively, and using adverbs correctly...

Ethan has been having some improvements as well, but can't think of what they are right now... he's getting more imaginative and grown up, but I can't think of any real examples. I'll try harder next time :)

A little bit to tide you over

2008-04-25T14:50:00.004-04:00

Ok, it's been forever it seems. I've been sick. Nothing exciting, just swollen glands which cause all around crumminess. No symptoms that would have allowed me to stay home from school when I was little, yet it was a struggle to hold my head up... Blah.

We've been going outside a lot. The kids seem to already be getting bored with it and want me to entertain them already! We aren't even done with April! Oh well. Maybe it just seemed that way because I wasn't feeling well. So just to give you something, I took video of Naomi laughing last night. She is very ticklish and does this little girl screechy thing, only it's not the same as when other kids screech... that will get you a pop in the mouth in our household. Well, my sister thinks they sound the same over the phone... We might just give her a couple more months of little girl screeching before we start putting the big x-nay on it. This lax by the third kid, I imagine there won't even be rules for #4 (and if you ask my siblings, there WEREN'T any for me... the fourth kid... whatever... :) )

She's just super cute. Here is a picture of her looking huge. She doesn't normally look quite this big (at least I don't think so...) I mean, in this picture, it looks like her cheeks are so big they are pulling her eye sockets open... poor girl. About 2 more months of exponential growth, then she will start to even out. As proof, I could post pictures of both boys by this age - almost unrecognizeable as humans :)

Ok, need to clean now. That has also been put on hold this week, as my goal was pretty much surviving each day without my sinuses exploding. Hopefully I will regain some wit and motivation over the weekend and will post something more substantial.

Spring at last!!!

2008-04-17T20:23:00.003-04:00

But who invited summer to the party?!? Oh well - I'll take 75 and sunny when I can get it! Wow, what a day. I know, it must be good if there are two posts! Well, I forgot to mention earlier that Naomi only woke up once last night, and both boys slept through. Can you imagine??? So I got 5000% more sleep than usual. And consecutive sleep too! It was awesome. Let's hope this continues. So I did things I normally don't. I made french toast instead of cereal. I cleaned up after breakfast right when we were done eating. I organized some cabinets, cleaned the bathrooms, did laundry, took a shower, paid bills... I was invincible! The boys were champs, too. They helped clean, watched some PBS. But then... we had to have a picnic. Ethan packed the picnic snack... it was kinda gross. American cheese, apples, and gatorade. I guess that's not gross in itself, but he had it packed and out for quite some time before we actually went out to eat it. Needless to say, by the time we sat down to eat it, the cheese was just barely solid. They ate it up - I opted out.

But it was really fun to sit on the blanket in the grass and eat a snack. We were there probably close to a half hour before they went off to play. Must have been their "down time". These pictures aren't the best - nobody wanted to look at the camera. Artsy maybe? I'll run with that - always my explanation when pictures turn out crappy :) Hmmm, wonder what I think of art then....Naomi. Seriously, so cute you could eat her. Ok, having a decent amount of sleep may sway my feelings a little... but still, she's very cute. Oh, right, those are little boot leg jeans. And that hat? too cute. (thanks aunt Dar)Mmmmm... almost done eating his cheese. Just looking at it in the picture makes me gag a little... Just before I took the picture he was saying "mommy, mommy, take my picture" then I do and he turns his head. Oh well. Still cute. Maybe he was being humble because he didn't want to get too many props for a totally awesome picnic...Noah, whining "noooo, you can't take my picture". Awwww... such a sweetie. He is either the sweetest ever or sassing like a sailor. No offense to any sailors that might be reading this... I just couldn't think of anything to compare his sass to. And I really need to get outside to clean up the toys before it gets totally dark.

But alas, life is good... new episodes of The Office are back on, so everything is just a little better in life now :) I sometimes wish that this wasn't the case, because then maybe my life wouldn't seem so pathetic, but hey, it's a great show, what else can I say...

Hickory Dickory Dock

2008-04-17T09:04:00.003-04:00

That's the nursery rhyme I heard today while cleaning up after breakfast. Yeah, I know, wierd that we actually ate breakfast... and it was french toast too... so I look down in the family room and see Ethan playing with a mouse. Cute. They've been playing with the cat toys lately - fighting over them in fact (which is nice because they are like 100 for $1.00...). Then they start fighting over who's turn it is. Also typical. Only this mouse was a little bigger than the cats' mice... and floppier.... aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!

The cats apparently killed a mouse in the house last night. That part is fabulous as I cannot do that - physically or emotionally.... The unfortunate part is that they left it at the top of the basement stairs, and Ethan thought it was a fun toy. So did Noah. I may have freaked out a little. I washed their hands in hot water with antibacterial soap (not scalding water... just warm. They generally use cold.) And gathered up the little guy in a baggie and threw him in the outside garbage. So now Ethan knows that the mouse was dead and he has germs. LOL! So glad God gave me boys! Every day is an adventure! Sorry no pictures... I guess I could take one of the little thing out in the garbage, but you have probably seen a mouse before... Gotta run!

April Showers...

2008-04-11T19:14:00.004-04:00

...bring way awesome April mud puddles. It was 70 and sunny today (after the rain - insert "Nelson" song here...), so despite the fact that 2 of my children now have the fever virus, we went outside. What - I gave them both Motrin... it's not like I didn't care that they were sick... Anyway, I worked on the gardens a little, Naomi chilled in her stroller, and the boys... well... pictures speak 1000 words. So here ya go!

They were planting trees. Which really are last year's hearty hibiscus. but if they think they are doing something to help the environment... then we'll call them hippies and let them :)

It's hard to tell just how covered in mud he is. He IS wearing pants and boots, but they are kinda all one entity by now. I'm not sure why he has jazz hands. It is a very cool pose, though.

Yes, that is his stocking foot. Gross. And he wouldn't take off his sweatshirt. I was like, Ethan.. it's 70 and sunny. But I suppose he could retort back - mom, I have a fever of 102.5... whatever.

Yep, those are his shoes. I will be doing some cleaning tonight. But it was so worth it. They had so much fun. It was very boy. Very very boy.

Noah's war paint. He had a lot of fun. And liked watching the mud go down the drain in the tub too. I had to carry them in naked and hose them down. I will wait until they are asleep to start on their clothes and shoes.

Ok, I need to go now. There is a tornado warning, so should probably be focused on getting the kids out of the upstairs and closer to the downstairs.