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!