Tag: random

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Moving around

Ingrid has started cruising around her arena walls.  She’s been doing it for a week or so.  I can’t believe how fast the last year has gone.  I am sure having two very energetic boys in the house has helped speed time up.  Our Little Miss is doing her best to try to keep up with her brothers – she loves to crawl into the toy room to see what they’re doing, swing on the swing set when they play outside, and has even gotten over her dislike for grass to chase them when they run in the yard.

I’ve heard people say that when you add children to your family, your love doesn’t divide, it multiplies.  I know from experience, it’s true.  I love my three little ones more than I ever imagined possible.

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Blue footed boobies

While I was in FL, Jake sent me a recap of a conversation he had with the boys on their way to church this morning:

Nolan: “Look at those boobies.  Blue footed boobies.”

Me: “Those are geese.  Blue footed boobies live in the Galapagos Islands.”

Lincoln: “I want to go to Galapagos Islands and see the boobies.”

Nolan: “But we have to wait for mommy to come home.”

Just to give a bit of background, the reason this even came up is because one of the animal magazines the boys get recently featured the Blue Footed Booby.  I can only imagine the restraint it must have taken Jake to keep from busting out laughing during this conversation.  I love my boys!

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Goodbye trees

The weekend we were up north, a strong storm blew through the area.  We had one tree casualty in the backyard that caught in another tree and also lost a couple of significantly sized branches off another.  (The largest branch apparently fell on the shed and swing set.  Our wonderful neighbors took it down and cut it up before we arrived back home.)  Because of the size of the trees in our backyard, we had to hire someone to come and remove the broken one.  And since they were already going to be in the backyard (and there would be a mess of some sort anyway) we had an arborist look at the other trees to see if any others needed to also be removed.   All total, we had 5 trees taken down.  Watching the crew of 3 guys work was crazy!  The boys and I camped out in the front yard and watched them work – they loved to see what was going on.  One by one, the 5 trees were no more.  They finished things off with a stump grinder and then cleaned up the majority of the mess.  By the end of the day (they worked 12 hours) we had a totally different backyard.  The amount of light that the 5 trees kept out of the yard was pretty significant.  It’s going to take a little while to get used to the new and improved sunny backyard we now have.

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Mommy, take our picture!

Every once in a while, Nolan will say to me, “Mommy, take our picture!”  The two of them are usually not doing anything wild & crazy when he makes this request, so it’s nice to be able to capture them on their better behavior once in a while 🙂

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Photo please

The boys were by the dining room table and Nolan said to me (while I was in the kitchen,) “Mom, take a picture of us!”  Well who can resist that?  I know I need to take advantage of their willingness to be photographed, because I’m sure when they are teenagers, the opportunities may not be as frequent.  And yes, that’s half of an plastic Easter egg on Nolan’s head.  (The main reason he wanted his picture taken.)

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Carpet canoeing

The boys must be dreaming of summer.  Tonight they used the emptied out book container as a canoe and a wrapping paper tube & hobby horse as paddles to navigate through the living room.  Who needs TV when you have this kind of entertainment?!?

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Phones and footballs

Jake called this afternoon and asked to talk to the boys.  Nolan talked for a while and then handed the phone to Lincoln.  I took a few pictures so Jake could see Lincoln in action.  It was pretty cute seeing him jabber to his daddy – it was like he was having a regular conversation.

And on a completely unrelated note, my kids enjoyed wearing football helmets today.  Who knew an empty popcorn tin could be so fun?

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OTW – food (cake) frenzy

At lunch on Friday I was getting something from the kitchen, turned my attention from the table where the boys were dining for a split second and saw this when I directed my attention back at them:

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Nice huh?

Saturday we had hosted a birthday party at our house.  Our friend, Deacon Joseph, came over for dinner and knew WE were celebrating with him, but had no idea about 20 other people were going to show up to surprise him too.  Nolan had so much fun getting the birthday decorations out for the party.  By far the best decoration in his mind was the Mylar balloon which we accidentally forgot to send home with our friend.  Whoops!  I guess we can re-use it for Jesus’ birthday in 11 days.  🙂

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Sunday we had a visit from my mom and a friend of hers who was visiting from SD.  She saw our house shortly after we bought it 6 1/2 years ago, so a lot has changed since then.  It was fun giving her the tour – she remembered so much about the way the house used to be.  I’m so glad we no longer have straw on the ceiling in the basement or black & neon fish wallpaper in the mudroom.  Seriously…you should see the pictures.

We’re still eating leftover cake from Saturday’s party.  We even sent cupcakes and cake home with other people.  I don’t think the problem was that we made too much, it’s that people didn’t eat enough!  Now I’m stuck with yummy frosted desserts staring me in the face when I walk into the kitchen.  My willpower just isn’t strong enough to withstand the temptation.  We had cupcakes for dessert tonight and Lincoln had a great time with his.  At one point he was using a portion of it like it was some sort of animal.  He hopped it along the tray of his highchair and made animal noises.  I know I should have probably kept him in line, but it was too funny.  I missed getting a picture of that specific scene, but do have a few of him making quite a mess.

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Nolan didn’t take a nap today.  The result was one tired boy at 7pm.  It was amazing how fast he crashed once we got him ready for bed.  I had told him earlier in the day that he was going to go to bed early tonight, but I didn’t think he’d have a problem making it until 7.  Guess I was wrong.  Lincoln on the other hand, was in good spirits for about an hour longer than his big brother.  That meant he got a little solo time with his mom & dad.  Here he is reading with his Daddy.  I love how much our kids enjoy reading books.  They even enjoy reading to each other – so cute.

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Bullet list

We went to mass this morning for a holy day of obligation – it was 1 adult vs. 2 boys.  The end result teetered close to disaster, but I somehow maintained my sanity.  I don’t care to repeat the solo event any time soon.  Man to man defense is definitely the way to go when it comes to church.

The 1st decent snowstorm of the season hit us today.  We will have to check out the end result tomorrow – if it is anywhere near warm enough.  Speaking of warm, here’s hoping I can find Nolan’s boots in time for me to take him to preschool tomorrow…oh the things I think about late at night.

I’m currently working on the 2010 family calendars for both sets of grandparents.  Good times.  As a result, I’m still not getting to bed before midnight.  Guess who will be needing caffeine in the morning?

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OTW – crafts, cookies & party shirts

Friday afternoon after nap time, I pulled out the “magical box of craft supplies” and let the boys use their imaginations. They each selected a piece of construction paper and loaded it with stickers & popsicle sticks and then punched out stars. We also pulled out the glitter and made a few ornaments for the tree. I love that part of my job as a mom means I get to play with fun craft stuff alongside my kids.

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We were invited to a Christmas party on Saturday afternoon. Nolan and Lincoln helped me bake cookies to bring along. We made my Grandma Fran’s Gumdrop Cookies. (They’re my dad’s favorite, so I made sure we had extras to send my parents’ way.) I loaded the cookie sheets with dough balls and let the boys add the gumdrops. It was the perfect activity for them – just about as much fun as eating the final product.

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Today as the kids were getting ready for the day, Nolan told me he wanted to wear his party shirt to school. I figured it would be good practice for the birthday celebration we’re having for a friends of ours on Saturday. Once Nolan had his shirt on, Lincoln made it very apparent that he, too, wanted to wear his party shirt. Here are the partiers playing in their hut after dinner.

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