IOWA

Eli, Noah, and I returned from our Iowa trip at 11:45 pm last night. I really can't believe how well they travel. We made one stop at Kelly and John's to eat, use the bathroom, and put on pj's (thanks for the pit stop and PB & J's!), and then stopped again for a nightcap from McDonalds (vanilla latte for me, and chocolate milk for the boys). They went right back to sleep when I got them in their beds which was a little different than when we got to Grandma's at 12;30 am Sat. It was 3:15 before either of them got back to sleep! I think they were just a little too excited!! The boys had a lot of fun playing with their cousins (We decided that Tyler must be getting too old!)

Poor Noah got sick on Sunday. He fell asleep going for a walk at 10:00 Monday morning. Thankfully, he was fever free and back to his busy self when he woke up yesterday.

Eli got to meet up with Luke, Jake and Chase at Recess on Monday night. They always love being together. I've never seen 4 year old boys give so many hugs!

Grandma Cathy got tickets for Jenninfer, Tyler, Matt, Ben, Grace, Eli and I to go to "Walking With Dinosaurs" (stolen picture from Jennifer). It was really neat, and the kids loved it. Eli did get a little scared at the beginning and decided that he didn't like the allosaurus anymore!

Cathy and Don-

Thanks for the fun and for putting up with all of us!

It's a beautiful day!

Jack, Ella, Noah and I got Eli from preschool and went straight to the park. We had fun playing, eating, and looking for leaves.

Thanks Aunt Linda...

for the fun Halloween book!

Oh Noah!

I find myself saying that a lot lately. Here's what the little monster has been up to... We have to hide the bathroom stools because he is constantly trying to use one to reach for something that he's not supposed to have! One day I'll be glad that he's so independant right????

This is what most of our cereal boxes look like.

This is his new electric toothbrush. He loves it so much that I have to hide it (somewhere he can't reach with a step stool). He saw Eli's toothbrush the other night, and REALLY wanted to use it. I told him that maybe he could get one if he stayed in his bed. Before I left his room that night, he said "go buy it". Well- wouldn't you know that little stinker managed to stay in his bed after I left, and he got his new toothbrush the next morning. Too bad he hasn't stayed in bed since!

Fall Festival take 2

Last night Craig, Eli and I met up with Krista and the boys and my parents thinking we were going to see a good high school football game. Well, I spent most of my time watching my child run around instead of the game, and P.R. won 54-0 (good for the home team but not that exciting). Eli got to spend the night at Grandma and Grandpa's with his cousins. Krista brought the boys up today, and we went straight to the "pumpkin patch". The lines were much longer today, but the boys had a great time...until it was way past naptime, and we were trying to get them to leave.

Eli and his bugs

Cathy,

I thought you'd get a kick out of this!

The Farmer in the Dell

Thanks to Grandpa's Steve's lovely rendition of this song, Noah has been running around singing "The farmer takes the cheese" for the past few days. I keep telling him, "No, it's the farmer takes a wife". Well- today he was singing, "The farmer takes the wipes".

Just the two of us

Eli and Joel spent a couple of days at Grandpa Jim's, so Noah and I were on our own. My parents were in town babysitting Katelynn and Austin this weekend and offered to keep Noah Friday night, so I actually got to go out. On Saturday, we took the three kids to a Fall Festival in town. Katelynn and Noah had a blast! We might have to go back this coming weekend so Eli can check it out! decorating pumpkin cookiesriding the train

parks and preschool

We haven't been up to much lately besides enjoying the beautiful weather. We only have a few more parks left on our list. We did go to my Aunt's last Sunday to celebrate my Grandma's 80th birthday (all 6 kids, spouses, 18 grandchildren, and 9 great-grandchildren made it for the party- pretty amazing!). The weather was not beautiful, but the kids still had fun running around outside and playing with their cousins.

Eli is still really enjoying preschool. He comes home with new information everyday.

*my favorite conversation this week*

Eli: On Alvin and the Chipmunks Dave talks to people for his job. He doesn't talk on the phone and look at his computer like Daddy.

Me: People do all sorts of different things for their jobs: like Erin is a teacher. She helps kids learn.

Eli: What does Jen do?

Me: She sticks people with needles to take their blood.

Eli: Ouch, what does Craig do?

Me: he sells insurance to people to help them pay for their doctor's visits.

Eli: how about Brent?

Me: he sells insurance too.

This went on for quite a while since he was stalling on his way to bed. Finally he said, "and what does Luke's Dad do?? "

Me: He sells stuff too, but I'm not sure what he sells.

Eli: Maybe bananas!

Thanks Grandma Cathy!

We took the boys costume shopping tonight. Eli had Noah convinced that they were going to be Transformers (he found the outfits in a magazine that Grandma Cathy sent), but he changed his mind after we didn't find any at Walmart. I told him that we could keep looking, but by that time, he was positive that he wanted to be Spiderman. I wonder how many times he'll change his mind before Halloween!

2 hours,

3 poopy diapers, probably a little yelling, and a clothing change later.... Where is all of his "stuff"?

in my room, and it didn't seem to matter ONE BIT!!!!

I'm pretty sure it was just last night that I was commenting on he goes right to sleep for his naps now. Can't wait for tonight!

My boys...

showing off their "zippy pajamas". Eli was WAY TOO excited to go get pajamas at Target the other day. Noah's may need some alterations. They don't make footed pj's in XXW!

PRESCHOOL STORY- Everyday Eli has gone to preschool for the past year, Joel has asked him if he played with anyone to which he always replies "no" . Well, today he told us that he played with a boy named Matthew. When I asked him what they played, he said, "hockey". Does our little Iowa boy even know what hockey is?????

"I love em!"

* Noah's response to his new bed sheets

Now that Noah is finally sleeping better, and I have stopped asking Joel to put the crib back up, I decided it was time to work on his room. The sheets are as far as I got today.

first day of preschool

I took a few pictures, but this was my favorite pose. I didn't get any info from the teacher and very little from Eli. I heard that he liked it, they put yellow, blue, and red paint on piece of paper and folded it to make butterflies for art, art was his favorite thing, they have a different calendar than the one we do at our house, oh and ALL of the other kids brought snack except him. Hmm..... I might have to check on that one!

labor day weekend

I DO NOT like to think of labor day as being the end of summer, but since the extended weather forecast does not show temps out of the 60's (friends and family from Iowa and those who are preparing for a Florida trip on which I was supposed to be going, may stop laughing now!) , I would say summer is over. We had one last warm weekend with Chad, Erica, Jake and Chase, who drove a long way to see us. The boys really did have fun together! I hope they will always be friends!

Today, I was explaining to Eli (as he was playing with his precious teddy bear) that we needed to put some pictures of the people and things that are most important to him on a sheet of paper for preschool. I said, "who and what should we make sure we have pictures of?" He said, "Jake, Chase and Luke" and walked away.

Here are just a few pictures from the weekend. campfire
bumper boats

catching frogs with Chad

labor day

not quite ready to give up the lake life!!!

Sometimes...

even Dads need bedtime stories!!!

"last week of summer"

Thanks for all the goodies Erin!!

So far, so good!

It was our first day with Jack and Ella (so cute and sweet!!). We had a great morning, and everyone is sleeping peacefully. It may take Eli some time to figure out how to listen and share again, but he is doing better than I thought he would. Noah LOVES having his new friends here!

Weekend Fun

Friday night: Eli passed his swimming lessons. He was so excited!

Saturday: We celebrated Austin's birthday. The kids had fun playing in the water! Krista, Brent and the boys stayed over. We played a little guitar hero.

Sunday: Crazy Krista decided to take Eli home. We hear he was jumping off their boat and tubing by himself. He even got dumped once and got right back on the tube (after the initial screaming).

Noah enjoyed his day of being the only grandchild at the lake. Grandma tried to give him his first haircut. He wasn't the most cooperative client, but his hair does look better!

Last night, he went to sleep by himself and did not wake up until 7:45 this morning. YAY!

today's park

Eli picked another park from our list today.

*It was small.

*The equipment was very old.

*It was on the complete opposite side of town from where we live.

*It was... fabulous!

Erin, you'll be jealous! I actually got to sit on the bench while the kids played! There was a short fire pole for Eli, two smaller slides (one was a wide metal one that Noah could go down really fast), short ladders, the bridge on the climber was really low to the ground, there were two diggers, two little airplanes, and rocks (which the boys played with for a long time). LOVED IT

progress????

He went to sleep all by himself in record time.

Hello??? Supernanny????

2 days- nuk and crib free. He's doing pretty good once he's asleep. It's just the falling asleep part that seems to be a problem. He sure likes the freedom his new bed brings!! YIKES!!!!
My favorite conversation today.

Noah: (dumping a bag of goldfish on the table)
Mom: (yelling) "Noah, what are you doing?"
N: "Want some more goldfish."
M: "Yes, but you just dumped out the whole bag!"
N: "Making sandcastle."

Who authorized this???

Upon returning from some afternoon fishing, Joel was a little surprised to find Zach and Eli in the neighbors kayak (he didn't see Krista and me a couple of houses down). The boys each took a turn rowing and got exactly where they were trying to go. Impressive!

CRAZY!

That would be my cousin who climbs 60 ft. trees for a living. He took 8 down at the lake this weekend. It was pretty amazing (and scary) to watch.

PASSED OUT......FINALLY

HELP!!!!!! Our formally fabulous sleeper has turned into a nightmare! He has been up each night at least once or twice since Sunday. He doesn't really cry; he just sits or stands up and whimpers asking for me, and he will not go back to sleep in his crib! He did make it until 6:30 this morning, but he didn't fall asleep until almost 11:00 last night. He used to fall right to sleep for nap. Today, it took him over an hour (after he completely destroyed his crib). Any suggestions??

a future in mapping??

I suppose if you could really make a career out of reading road maps Craig would be doing that . I just had to share this picture that Aunt Jennifer took at Adventureland where once again, Eli loved the map!

Eli's new best friend

Yep, it's a map. We had really been slacking on our tour of parks, so it was fun when we got this map in the mail. It has all of the town parks listed, so now we just mark them off after we visit them. Eli gets more excited about finding the parks on the map than actually playing at them. Last night we picked up KFC with the idea of eating at one of the "new"parks. Well, the playground equipment was made of rotted wood and metal slides, with no picnic table in sight. We let the boys go down the slides once, and then we were off to another park.

Erin... Jen.... you will be so glad that you did not join us on this morning's adventure. Eli found two parks on the map last night that are pretty close to each other and insisted we go today. This was the first park we went to. It was in the middle of a trailer park, and it was gross. Luckily, it didn't take much to convince the boys to move on. The second park was just a little neighborhood park, and it was fine but small. We didn't stay very long!

the boys

Krista and Brent had a wedding this weekend, so I offered to take the boys for them. We got to our house around 2:30 on Friday afternoon, and I was exhausted and thinking we had done everything we could possibly do by 4:00. I didn't even take a picture until we got to the lake yesterday and Grandma and Grandpa took over. A very wise man once said "you can't let them out-number you". Oh yeah- that was my husband who now thinks another one wouldn't be so bad. Maybe this weekend changed his mind.

*On a positive note* The kids were really good. They had lots of fun, and Brady is the best baby in the world. I even saw the return of old Eli- the one who plays nicely, listens (for the most part) and uses his manners.

family night

I packed a little picnic and decided that we should show Joel Eli's favorite park (the one with the maze). I thought it would be fun to take Eli's bike and go for a long walk. Well......Eli wouldn't ride his bike, and Noah wouldn't ride in the stroller. We had fun anyway with Eli in the stroller and Noah on shoulders, and we ended with an ice cream treat at the DQ.