Kids listen

I had been out running errands for most of the afternoon. On our way back home both the baby and Cooper fell asleep. So I drove to the school and let them nap while we waited for Jackson to get out.
Now napping for Cooper is a double edge sword. He usually needs one every few days, but the problem with that is that he's a BEAR when he wakes up. And I mean, EVERYTIME he wakes up from a nap there's screaming and wailing and gnashing of teeth. This day was no different. By the time we had pulled into the driveway he was screaming. Jackson asks me "What's Cooper's problem?"
me: "Oh I don't know. It must be the end of the world or something."
Jackson: "No mom. When we die and then Jesus comes to the earth again and we're all resurrected, THAT'S the end of the world."
me: stunned...."um that's right Jackson..."
He hopped out of the car and goes in the house leaving me sitting with my mouth wide open.

A lesson for life (by Douglas)

Occasionally I do house work. Ha ha ha...let me start over. I have a (almost) one year old. He loves to get into any and everything around him. He's curious. He's a pain in the the neck sometimes because of this fact. So trying to get house work done around here is becoming harder and harder since I always have to have one eye on him. On one particular day in the very recent past I decided that I had to atleast get the dishwasher unloaded and then reload it with the dishes that had accumulated throughout the day. So with Douglas looking very interested in some of his brother's toys on the lvrm floor I ran into the kitchen and started working. I fully expected him (Douglas) to be joining me shortly since he has this sixth sense of the best way to always be in the way. But alas he never comes. I say a short prayer of thanks that I was able to get the dishes done fairly quickly without having to pull Douglas off the dishwasher 20 times. Then I walk into the lvrm feeling like I've taken a step forward in actually accomplishing something for the day. Well that was until I looked down and found this...















One step forward, one step back. Man I'm back where I stared.

The moral of the story is...never do the dishes. I like that.

Look what's in our backyard

Batman lives in my backyard!!!
Jackson put on his Batman outfit the other day and then went outside to play. I had the camera with me and thought he looked so cute swinging so I wanted a picture. This is the conversation that followed.
Mom: "Hey Jackson, smile."
Jackson doesn't smile.
Mom: "Hey Jackson, smile."
Jackson: "I can't smile mom. Batman doesn't smile."
So this is a picture of Batman, not smiling, on the swing.
Watch out Christian Bale, this kids gonna give you a run for your money.

As some may remember, or maybe not, we have a cemetery right behind our house. We've had mixed feelings from friends and what not when they find this fact out.
"Isn't that creepy?"
"At least your neighbors are quiet" (Dad would appreciate the cemetery humor)
"That's weird"
Well just so you all know, I don't mind one bit that there are a bunch of dead people behind my back fence. I actually think it's kind of cool and enjoy the open view from our upstairs windows. I've seen a few funerals and people who come to visit graves and actually there are quiet a few people that use it for walking their dogs and exercising. As a family, we've walking around in there, and Jackson likes us to read him the different names. We've seen some really old ones from the earlier-mid 1800's. From our kitchen sink you can see through a section of the fence where the bushes don't grow. The view right through that section is a white tombstone with a flag infront of it. I see it every day, but haven't ever gone outside to see if I could read the stone. While I was out back with the kids the other day I remembered to look at the stone and this is what I saw.

In case you can't see it in the picture, the man served in the Civil War!

I love our windows here at the house. (atleast until the winter comes and the draft is felt) Anyway, they're old looking and I love the wood frames, the fact that some are impossibly hard to open, and there are even a few that have to be propped open with wood pieces or they fall right back down. Hey they have character!! But we've decided (for the sake of our winter heating bill) that the first thing to do to the house is get new windows. So the charming wood framed, slightly distorting glass will soon be replaced by white plastic. I wanted something to remember our old character filled windows by, so I snapped a few pictures. This was my willing model.

Yum! Last week was a long week. Jonathan didn't get to see the kids all week, which means mommy was very worn out. Friday night I decided we needed to do something fun. So we went to McDonald's and got hot fudge sundaes. The boys loved them, and I loved the circle of hot fudge it left on Cooper's face.



What about me Mom!!!

Upstairs

I finally got around to videoing the upstairs. I'm sure it's more then most of you care to see, but I figured since most of you won't be making it out here any time soon (if at all) then I'd be really detailed.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

This is how we roll

Just doing a little cooking. I have to say remodeling a kitchen has been great fun so far.


Coming soon!! Before and after of the bathrm.

Well, I hope this works. I tried making a video of Will and his bugs. Forgive me if it is sub-par. I am a novice. :)

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

A mother's pride

Not to brag, but my William is dang cute! I just have to say, he is adorable! His latest thing, squealing. It started a few days ago and it is so funny. He can be happy and squeal with laughter or squeal in an angry way when he is tired or hungry. He has started to use his tongue more in talking and making different sounds and it is so fun to listen to. And he has made definite strides in tummy-time. He does not stay happy for long but he has gained such strength in his neck. He can hold his head up so well and he almost acts as though he wants to roll over. Is that early?And talk about a fun show, William and his bouncer/bug seat. He has learned what to do. When I sit him in his seat immediately he looks around for his "bug friends" as we have come to call them. We pull the shade over his head and he looks up, smiles and starts talking to "his bugs." We love it! I cannot tell you how fun to is to see him get so excited.

The downstairs

I was able to get a video of the downstairs while the baby was asleep. I'll try and do the upstairs later. We're taking baby steps here. :)
Sorry it's a mess. :)

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

ps this is Heidi Mae not Jon

Douglas

I didn't touch this photo with any adjustments etc. This is straight from the camera. The coloring is as is. Don't adjust the color on your screen, you're seeing it right. He's got orange/red hair.

I know, I know

I'm such a procrastinator! I should take some pictures of the house and post them, but I just haven't. And here's just a few of my excuses.
1. I've been working on the house all day long, for the past 2 weeks, so when I have a few mins to actually sit down and play on the computer...well the last thing I want to do is have to look at the house.
2. Pictures of the kids are just so much cuter.

So today I'm going to be a lazy bum. I've decided that I'm not working on unpacking, cleaning, or anything else of the sort. Well maybe I'll do a load of underwear. That might be a good idea. (sidenote: Jonathan installed a plug in the basement so we can get our dryer working! Thanks a bunch honey!) So back to my lazy ways today. I'm just going to sit around, play on the computer and maybe watch a movie. I know you're all wondering how I could do such a think, well, it's more because I have to then because I want to. I've been on my feet so much the past month with the packing and unpacking that my foot problem (plantar fasciitis) has really started bothering me again in my right foot. And within the past 2 weeks my left foot has started too. So walking and standing has become a problem. And as usual, I over did it yesterday and only sat down to eat lunch, which became a big problem come evening time. I couldn't get to sleep last night my feet were throbbing so bad. And then walking this morning was extremely painful. So I've decided to take the day off. Maybe with all my free time I'll get some pictures of the house and put them on too! But I'm not making any promises. :)

Here's the last pictures I took at the apartment, before the big move. We were taking a break from packing and playing bubbles outside.

I wish I was joking

No, this is not a joke. Yes, I do have to hang my clothes out to dry. No, I don't think it's fun. Yes, I do miss my dryer. No, it's not broken, just not hooked up yet. Yes, I will celebrate when it is. No, I will not be hanging my underwear out there. Yes, in some ways this is actually very funny!!!

Finally!!!

It FINALLY HAPPENED! Jonah lost his first tooth last night. It was a bit of a dramatic experience-since I basically pushed it out, but it was just hanging there anyway and driving me crazy! I only had to push once. It bled a very little and then we put some oragel on the spot where it used to be. Once it was out Jonah was ecstatic. He ran upstairs to look in the mirror. I got some cute pictures of him rinsing out his mouth-and of the offending tooth that has served him so well for the last 7 years. I thought I heard the Tooth Fairy in his room last night so I went to check-and Jonah woke up. He asked me what I was doing and I told him I was checking to see if the Fairy came yet. He said "Mom, I can't sleep. I'm so excited!" (sort of a problem if the Tooth Fairy wants to come.) I told him that the Tooth Fairy can only come if he is really asleep. He seemed to be more willing after that. And amazingly, She/He did come! When he woke up there were 2 gold dollar coins under his pillow! How did the Tooth Fairy know that Jonah liked Gold coins so much? We will never know.

Cute Things

Jonah and Jonathan have said a couple of cute things lately that I thought worth mentioning to you all. Oh, and Spencer says stuff too-mostly he walks around all day and says "Go, go, go." Maybe that is his first word. I don't know what he means by it though.
The other day we were driving home from Mickie D's and Jonah had gotten a new Darth Vader toy. I asked him what it does and he said that it makes the "Darth Vader" sound. "You know...Hooper". I laughed so hard. I never thought as that sound as "Hoooper", but I guess it is.
Learning to read has been such a joy for Jonathan. He is doing exceptionally well, but there are still a few occupational hazards. The other day I had bought some drinks for the kids for after school and I gave one to Jonathan. He attempted to read it by sounding out the words. "C..r..a..p..p..y Sun, Crappy Sun!". I instantly corrected him that "No, it reads Capri Sun." I didn't want him going around saying that word all the time. I had to call Jason right away and tell him. It instantly cheered up his day. Pretty cute!

School Days

2 weeks ago, Deidre planned a awesome 'back 2 school' party for the kids. They had dinner, then made adorable thinking caps, and played games with chalk on the driveway outside. It was fun to get into the school spirit and get the kids excited for school. Here are some cute pictures from that night!

Jonah started 2nd grade last week. He has 2 teachers who team teach his class, Mrs. Dew and Mrs. Reasch. They are both excellent teachers. He is excelling in Math and Reading and has made some new friends (and luckily retained the old ones). Today we all woke up as the first bell was ringing-but amazingly we were only 5 minutes late! Jonah has been great at doing his homework right after school without complaint. As long as I have an after-school snack things are good! Pretty soon Jonah's pictures will be mostly toothless. He has 4 loose teeth-one of which is hanging by a thread. I can't wait till that thing falls out! The other teeth are growing in behind. Poor kid! Braces for sure. We love you Jonah!

Yesterday was Jonathan's first day of Kindergarten. He really seemed to love it. He commented on how much he liked his teacher, Mrs. Waddoups. He gave her 2 goodbye hugs. She seemed to be very impressed at his kindergarten assesment and recommended him for the ALPS program (advanced learning) as he is already reading, writing, etc. We will decide on that later, but we are so proud of our Jonjon already. Such a great kid!

School Days, School Days!

One last hurrah before the school year began...we were at Scofield for the weekend and as you can tell Caleb was silly and crazy as usual. :)
Caleb started school today, 3 Sept. 2008, at Heartland Elementary. He managed to get up on time, get himself ready and there were really no complaints heard; oh except the one about going to the bathroom before we left. :) We walked to school at a brisk pace just because breakfast took a little longer than expected and we arrived at school.
This is his teacher, Mrs. Hoggan. Do not ask me why he decided to take his picture in front of the bathroom, maybe because it was the end of the day and he was tired so, he wanted to sit on the bench. :) Mrs. Hoggan is a really nice lady and Caleb enjoyed himself. His favorite part of school were the Hersey Kisses they got to eat and when Mrs. Hoggan read "The Kissing Hand." The only complaint I heard from Caleb was that the potty chair was too low! And when I saw it, yes I agree it is very short. :) But he had a good time and I hope and pray that he continues to enjoy himself and jump right into learning!
Oh, and Peter's day...his morning was rough! He did not like watching everyone get ready to take Caleb to school. He wanted to play with Caleb, like they usually do. So, he was grumpy and out of sorts for most of the day. But he loves the playground at the new school.

My boys

I love my boys!!!






I know I should be posting pics of the house, but I just didn't feel like it. Instead I went through and edited these pics of the boys that I took a few days before the move. It was a quick photo session, since Douglas wasn't in the mood to be left on the grass, but we still got a few good shots.