yay!!

blue stripe... up next, orange belt testing and board breaking

fun weekend

Saturday: Joel took the boys to Target for DS games and to an afternoon movie. Craig, Jen and kiddos came over for game night and a sleepover.

Sunday: Grandma Connie and Grandpa Steve came up to watch Eli and Katelynn play basketball.

Eli is still in "sleepover mode".

Mister Noah

Here are some action pics of Mister Noah (everyone is called Mister xxxx except Master Chris) at tonight's tae-kwan-do practice.

Warming up with the splits (top middle left under the blue thing)

Flawlessly executing a jumping front kick

He has four stripes on his white belt and one stripe left to go for before he can do his orange belt test (which includes breaking a board). Pretty good for just a couple of months and starting out scared to talk to anyone!!

Noah with Master Chris and his favorite blackbelt team leader, Mister Matt (blond hair)

Here he is practicing his last stripe challenge, which is "pattern"--he has to memorize a series of 20 movements or steps and get them correct for his blue stripe.

We are sure proud of him!

best thing I've seen today

second graders roller skating

best thing I've heard today

"When I grow up, I would not like to be the janitor of a school." -Noah

sad day

Mom: "Noah, what book should I read tonight?"

Noah: "Um, I'll just read this one by myself."

Are we having a party?

Nope, this is just how our entry looks lately. Yep, we do have TWO coat closets (although you can't open them because all of the shoes are in the way). Oh, and we also have a mudroom. I swear this house was clean 2 days ago.

We finally got some snow.

I don't know if we needed 5.2 inches, but yesterday was a great day to play in the snow!

Somewhere fun Friday

Noah had been asking for a hot dog for days, so we had a lunch date at A&W.
Then, we all gathered at Grandma and Grandpa's to celebrate Grandpa Steve's birthday.

You Stay Classy, San Diego...

For Uncle Rich...your nephew is an aspiring Ed Wilson...filmed with Noah's new spyglasses that record video...

one more

make that two

baseball (and shorts) in January???

love it!

what's new?

Eli started basketball yesterday.

Noah and I strapped on our aprons (handmade by Grandma Cathy) and made bugs with his Zombie Lab today.

favorite moments of the day

golfing in January

Noah earning his 3rd stripe

Eli multitasking

Home

We made it home on Monday afternoon 30 minutes before we had to leave for the boys' first night of gymnastics/fitness class. The kids were excited to see some snow on the ground.

Saturday/Sunday

Saturday was the annual game night/New Year's party. The kids and I made everyone stay up to watch the ball drop.
Sunday: We had a birthday party for Grace and went to a movie in the afternoon.

Friday

Christmas at Grandma's

Eli got an MP3 player that was connected to his head the rest of the trip. Noah got a lot of spy gear.

Christmas in Iowa

We arrived at Grandma's around 11:30 Wednesday night (12/28). On Thursday, we got to spend time (outside) with our friends. Eli went to Luke's birthday party, and Noah got to see a raccoon in a trap.

6th birthday gift idea??

my boys

Merry (brown) Christmas

Joel had to be on-call over Christmas. He started on Friday (his birthday) and will be done on Tuesday. Since he wasn't able to leave our house this year, we did things a little differently. Christmas Eve: Eli had a case of my favorite childhood illness... the one where you don't feel well right before it's time to go to church (he must not know that his mother mastered that one). Noah and I went to church, and then we opened a few presents at home.
Christmas Day: We hosted my family. Jen's sister, Rachel, had a Christmas baby, and with all of the EARLY morning baby excitement and Christmas fun, Katelynn ended up getting sick in the evening. It was probably a good thing they didn't have to travel.

I had this great idea that all of the kids could lay on our bedroom floor to watch a movie and fall asleep, so the adults could open gifts. HA! Some of them watched the movie, and in the end, only Noah ended up sleeping in our room....in our bed. We had a good time, and luckily, Joel didn't have to work. More Christmas celebrating to come!

Tae Kwon Do

Noah earned the first stripe on his white belt tonight!

Truax Christmas at the Lake