Tired Out.

Nast.

Here's the lizard Aunt Emily sent from Texas. It's been 'marinating' on the back porch for the last 7 days. It came to us a lot smaller then you put it in water and it 'grows'. I could be wrong, but I think the tail grew exponentially faster than everything else! I don't know, it just kind of creeps me out. It's all squishy and bloated. Eww.

Crazy Kids.

You Are So Special.

Dang. Your 'other' sister beat me to it! Here's my list:
1. You have such a cool relationship with your nephews and niece. And they think the world of you.
2. You have the wildest craziest hair. The Skunk Hair was the best!
3. You have the most beautiful green eyes.
4. You've lived with us twice and we're still on speaking terms, even though you've seen the good bad and ugly.
5. You always help people.
6. You see God's hand in everything.
7. You layer exceptionally well. So well, that you are mocked by my husband.
8. You live in hot muggy nasty weather and you love it! Maybe you're adopted??? ha,ha.
9. You always brought me washcloths when I was sick with babies. And you helped me throw up after anesthesia. Why, oh why, does my love for you involve vomit?!?!
10. You were the first to feel Jackson "kick". Do you remember that night?!?
11. You have incredible talents, yet you are so humble about them.
12. You build others up.
13. I've been in two physical fights (in childhood, folks) with you that involved broken windows, and we're alive to tell about it!
14. You have dad's freckles.
15. You have a love of snuggling (which I do not have...but now that you're a gazillion miles away will let you indulge in once in a while) and when you come home you always think you're going to 'sleep in the middle'.
16. You've had your heart broken many times, but are not afraid to love.
17. You are super silly.
18. You do an awesome dance with twizzlers, have great show choir moves, and superb jazz hands.
19. You have a love, no...a NEED for chocolate.
20. You do crazy things I wish I had the nerve to do.
21. You want to get a tattoo of a lily.
22. You say "like" at least twice a sentence.
23. You snort when you laugh.
24. You pee when you laugh. (You laugh a lot.)
25. When you're home, you revert back to your child behaviour. i.e. in the kitchen, lack of doing anything useful, sucking up to mom, etc. (hee,hee.)
26. You're smart, talented and beautiful.
27. You are so much more than you believe yourself to be.

Happy 27th birthday, Em. We love you. It still feels lonely to have my party by myself! Maybe next year!

I was painting in the kitchen today when I felt a little finger poking me on the bottom. I tried to ignore the constant poking, but it was not going away. I then heard a little voice say, "That's big." Oh, no. I knew what was coming, but I'm a glutton for punishment, so I ask, "What's big, Lily?" More poking continues. "That bottom is really big, Mommy." Thank you, Lily. Thank you very much.

Potty.

Life with a 'mostly-potty trained' girl is very funny and very interesting.
1. She announced in the public restroom (very loudly) "GOOD JOB, MOMMY!" as I was going to the bathroom. I heard several snickers coming from the other stalls.
2. She's obsessed with being with me when I go to the bathroom. I am a VERY private pee-er, so this is a struggle for me.
3. Yesterday she held my hand while I was going to the bathroom and said, "Do you need to do your poo -poos mommy?"
4. Today, she had a tiny accident in her pants and came and told me, "Oops, mom, I spilled."
5. We have to check out EVERY SINGLE bathroom EVERYWHERE we go. She sees emergency exits or long hallways and assumes there's a bathroom down there which she MUST go visit.

These things are so worth the fact that Huggies will never get another dime from me EVER AGAIN!!!!

More Birthday Pics

Noah got some stilts from his aunt and uncle and cousins. No broken ankles yet! I caught him trying to go up the stairs in those things the other day. Hello? NO!

blowing out his candles...
Noah was so excited about this present...

he immediately threw down some break dancing moves...
with a dramatic finish.
He's having a thoughtful meditative moment on the last 7 years of his life.

And this was just cute. I like the look of pure joy on her face. Apparently grandkids will do that to you...

Noah reading his card from grandma and grandpa...
Lily got him a bocce ball set. She put a lot of thought into it.
Noah celebrating at his other grandparents earlier in the week. He got to spread it out. Every kid loves that.

We are celebrating tomorrow afternoon with a kid party with some friends. Then he's done! Then we get ready for my birthday, my sister's, my sister-in-law and Lily's. Lots to celebrate! Lots to be thankful for.

Birthday Boy.

My sweet boy is seven! He's been waiting SOOO long to be 7. We had a party over the weekend to celebrate. Here is my 7 reasons I love Noah (there are many, many more than 7 but I have to narrow it down).
1. He is a ball of energy. He goes and goes from the minute he gets up to when he lays his head down at night.
2. He makes me laugh. He likes to be silly.
3. He has dance parties with me in the kitchen. The boy has got some good moves!
4. He reminds me SO much of his dad.
5. He tries so hard at school.
6. He teaches his sister to say things like, "Jackson is a poo-poo" which he DOES get into trouble for, but I secretly think is funny.
7. He knows he can charm me. And he's really good at it.

I love you, Mr. Noah.

It's True, Joe.

It's true, Joe. Your little sister has a bun in the oven. I know, I know. It seems like just yesterday you were smashing in her Cabbage Patch Doll's face and making it sing the "Mommy Doesn't Love Me Anymore" song. But, she's grown up now. She's going to have a baby of her own. Don't worry, she'll always be your baby sister.

For Those Who Believe She Can't Be Naughty.

I have proof. She's naughty. She's supposed to be eating dinner in her chair. She kept 'falling' out of her chair and getting 'stuck'. Yes, she's in Pjs at 6:00 PM, but obviously, I was picking my battles that day. When I started taking pictures of her episode an amazing phenomenon occurred. She was magically unstuck long enough for her to come over to my camera and look at the picture I just took, then went back to her 'stuckness'. She'll need to work on her consistency and believability as she gets older. Naughty-ness.

2 Year Old In Trouble.

Lily is so excited that she figured out how to use the pump on the toothpaste that....
she did some experimenting.
Her father insists she was just practicing her caulking skills. She does look pretty proud of herself.

Here's Jackson's house he's been working on. It's the Plum Grove house that's located on Carroll Street. The first governor of Iowa lived there, Robert Lucas. His wife's name was Friendly. I love that. Anyhoo- they did a great job.


Below are some other houses that I especially liked...

Jackson Extravaganza!

The above is a whistle...I said, "Ooh cool dinosaur." Apparently it's in the shape of a guitar. Oops.

This week I've been volunteering in Jackson's class to help out with a huge project they do every year. They make replicas of historic houses around IC. There was an article in the Gazette about it on Wednesday. His teacher called and asked if I was able to help out, saying "It would be SO great to an artist's professional help!" OK... no pressure there. It turns out we're talking sponge painting, markers and construction paper shingles. Whew. I can do that. They all turned out really neat. And they have so much pride in their hard work. It was really neat to see. I will take pictures tonight at the open house and post them. I thought it would be only Monday and Tuesday, but ended up being Wednesday and today as well. Grandma babysat the first two days and I thought 'lets see what happens if I take Lily with me.' Turns out she was the star of the show with the 5th and 6th grade girls. She was pretty much mauled. She got carried everywhere, read to, taken to the water fountain about 43 times. At one point, they had her sitting in a chair and about 10 girls were surrounding her and they were all trying to get her to say their names. "Lily, can you say Sunny?" "Lily, can you say Abbie?". There was lots of squealing and much talk about her pink toenails, her princess sandals, etc. And she ate up every single minute. What did Jackson think about this? He rolled his eyes. All the girls were coming up to him and saying, "Jackson your sister is SOOOOOOO cute!" His face was a little red. I also might add that he was very adamant that I come back and help today and "yeah, you can bring Lily."

The Problem With Undies.

Day 2 of Big Girl Undies.

Day 2 went pretty well. We had one small accident. She decided since she was going to do so much up and down and sitting on the potty she would boycott wearing pants. Fine by me. We're that wierd neighbor everyone has that lets their kid run around the yard in their underwear. I never thought I'd say that. Hopefully, we'll get over that soon. She seems to have found a 'new confidence', if you will. Tonight as I was putting on her PJs, I started putting a diaper on her and she said, "WAIT! I do it." If she can put on her own diaper, perhaps she shouldn't be wearing them!?!? Hmm?!?

Little Toady, Jr.

We found this big guy in the middle of the street. We cause quite a ruckus as we saw him about 8:00 tonight, when lots of our neighbor kids are going to bed. Jackson was trying to catch him in a bucket. He was all over the place, laughing hysterically. Noah is jumping up and down, yelling. I'm screaming, "GET HIM, JACKSON! GET HIM!" Lily is caught up in all the excitement even though she doesn't even know what's going on. One neighbor kid who was supposed to be in bed opened his blinds and yelled, "Hey, what are you guys doing down there?!?" We booked it home and found a tub to put him in. We then had to go get some creek water and a rock. Finally, we're settled down for the night. They are so excited to play with him tomorrow. We made a deal that he goes back in the creek tomorrow night. As we were going inside, Lily bent down and said, "I love you, doggie!" Her brothers thought that was pretty funny. Noah was trying to convince her to kiss it so it would turn into a prince. Brothers are trouble!

Kids Don't Try This At Home.

This stunt should only be performed by a trained professional...

He rides down the street like this! Crazy kid.

Big Girl Panties.

Grandma Mimi babysat this morning and when I came home, Lily was in big girl panties! And she was happy about it! I swear, grandparents can get them to do just about anything. She did great all day, no accidents, until about 8:oo tonight, she was sitting at the kitchen table and I hear a little voice say, "Ummm...I have to go potty." I look over and it was like a free flowing waterfall from her bottom to the chair and cascading all over the floor. I'm just glad she wasn't sitting on the couch. We'll try again tomorrow!

Itty Bitty Prayer 2

Dear God,
Thank you for Grandma Mimi
Thank you for big girl panties
Amen.
Oh, wait!
Thank you, God, for Menards.
Amen.

Quite random, but her father was proud of that one!

Big Day!

This weekend is our first art show of the year! It starts tonight 5-9 at the Coral Ridge Ice Arena...and 'No. You don't need skates!' and continues tomorrow 10-5. Come see us! Please pray for cooperating weather! We don't want to get swept away by tornadoes when we're unpacking! I would be OK with just rain...because that sends em' to the mall. Please pray for God to be glorified in this weekend foremost...and if I sell something, OK. If not... OK, too.

This Took Her 20 Minutes...

This took her a good 20 minutes and lots of frustrated noises and a few screams and hollers to get herself squeezed into this doll stroller...with the 'safety strap' on, I might add. She rolled herself around like this most of the afternoon. It took both me and Jackson to get her pulled back out again when she was done.

I Really Think This Might Be A Sign Of 'Creative Genius'.

My Sweet Boy.

When I got home from the store the other day this is the note I found in my kitchen...
and these...
Aren't they beautiful?!?