Strange jelly belly flavors

We were at Costco the other day and of course we were all munching on samples. Noah was trying out the Jelly Belly's. He would pop one into his mouth and then tell us what the flavors were. He popped one in his mouth and said, "Oh, this one tastes like laundry detergent!". I looked at him and laughed and asked him when he has eaten laundry detergent! He reassured me that he has never EATEN laundry detergent but that the taste of that jelly bean tastes like the smell of the laundry detergent...therefore laundry detergent must taste like that jelly bean. My kids are always making my smile!

My son Noah who is 8 yrs old has become very interested in knives, all kinds of knives, but there is one kind in particular that has really caught his attention... the Swiss Army pocket knife. My husband also has a love for knives. The other day Kendall took Noah into a knife shop and Noah saw a Swiss Army knife and wanted it more than anything! Kendall told him it's $30. He said that if he does all his chores and saved his money he could buy it. I wasn't so sure how I felt about this...but now I LOVE the idea! We do a bingo chart for chores, for every chore they do, they get to put a little star in that spot. For every bingo they get they get a bingo dollar. A bingo dollar is worth a quarter. So the last few days my son has been working hard, he spends all day cleaning and doing chores (He even does all his school work quickly). I haven't had to load or unload the dishwasher in days. He vacuums the whole house, cleans the bathroom, his bedroom is spotless, as is his sister's bedroom! He sweeps the kitchen floor, brings in the laundry, sets and clears the table before and after each meal! Life is good! This morning he got up and made scrambled eggs and toast for us, so he could put a star on the "kind deed" spot of his bingo chart! I'm trying to figure out what I can get him interested in after he saves up for this pocket knife.....maybe something less sharp!

Brown girl, brown girl what do you see?

I see a blue brother looking at me!

Noah and Emma recently started dressing in one solid color...Emma loves wearing all brown or all pink and Noah prefers blue or black. I think it's kind of funny. Emma has been reading the story Brown Bear, Brown Bear and on this day she noticed Noah was wearing all blue so she started reciting the book with a small change in words to include things around her.

Noah has this strange habit of only wearing one sock...It drives me crazy sometimes cause he always starts out the day with two socks on. No wonder finding matches is so hard. I have wondered for a very long time where he gets this from until the other day I noticed this....

Like father like son....

Noah joined cub scouts recently. He loves it! He is excited about going to camp this summer and learning all there is to learn about the outdoors.

Last week Emma had a little accident. She smashed her finger really bad and it required some stitches. The doctor was great with Emma and gave her this little purple lamb to help her be brave while they stitched her up. She named the little lamb Emily and it has been her constant companion this whole week! So now I have two children who have had stitches. It's been a bad couple of weeks for my kids...I am just hoping Noah doesn't have to go in any time soon!

Needed: Helmet With Face Shield!

It's been a rough couple weeks for my little independent almost 2 year old! He was climbing on his chair one afternoon (one in which I had a million things to do and not a lot of time to do it in). It would have been just fine if not for a little toy air plane he dropped as he was falling. The tail of the plane went into the back of his head which means a trip to the Dr. for two staples. He was really good about the whole thing too. Getting the staples removed the next week was worse then getting them put in. One of the staples malfunctioned while going in which meant a painful removal! When he was done he said his very first sentence "I wanna go home!" and then ran out of the office without looking back!
His independence is sometimes a painful thing to learn. On Tuesday he decided that he could go down the front two steps without holding onto anyone or anything. Well he went down head first. Cement does terrible things to the face! This is a picture of him a few hours after it happened.

This is what is looked like the next day...before he did the same thing all over again. We were going to a dinner and it was dark. He made it down the steps just fine but then tripped over his own two feet and went down. I thought he avoided hitting his head and put him in the car. When we got into the light of the building I saw that he had hit his face and had a fat lip! I really need a helmet with a face shield for this kid!

Picnic At The Beach

So once again it's been a while since I've updated. That doesn't mean we have been up to nothing. I blame our very very old laptop computer that refuses to recognise our new camera disks, which means all of the pictures I took for Noah's 8th birthday are stuck until I can get onto my mom's computer and post...which will happen soon, I promise!
I am finally starting to feel like my old self again. I went in last week for an ultrasound and from that they say this baby is due on August 4th. The kids came with us as they all wanted to see the baby. They were all very excited! The kids are taking bets on whether it's a boy or a girl. Emma really wants a sister!

Today was so beautiful! The sun was shining (until we got to the beach) and it was really warm. Emma was at preschool all morning so Noah got a lot of school done and didn't really complain at all! So Noah and I decided it would be a good thing to get out and enjoy it while it lasted! We picked Emma up and headed to the beach where we explored the beach looking for crabs, ate a yummy picnic lunch and played on the play ground. Sadly it was high tide and there weren't any crabs to be found. But we did have a fun time learning all about the tides.

Okay I am posting this picture cause I love the look on Daniel's face...but you can't really see his face now that it's on here....oh well. Emma didn't like walking on the beach so much. She doesn't like the feel of the sand under her feet. So she mostly stayed up by the picnic table while the boys explored the beach. Daniel got soaked from the knees down, but that didn't stop him!

Noah showing off his clam shells he found as the tide was going out.

When we got tired of the beach we headed for the playground. Daniel really liked the slides and swings.

Noah finally overcame his fear of heights and climbed up the rope tower. Here he is sitting on the little platform about half way up.

Noah, Emma and Daniel goofing off on the playground. It was a really fun day and so nice to get out of the house...it's been a while!

Daniel had so much fun on the swings...as long as he didn't get pushed to high. Emma pushed a little to high and he wasn't so happy. She almost got kicked in the face. Speaking of Daniel.... he's hit the terrible 2's, heaven help us!! He is currently working very hard on throwing tantrums in public (You should have been at Costco last week for that one! I had one woman come up to me and tell me she had just said a prayer for me...it was THAT bad!). He is also working hard at throwing hard objects such as rocks or toys at Emma's head. She had 3 big bruises around her eye last week because he threw a rock at her while she was sleeping and then a car at her later that day! We sure love our Daniel! Well that's all for now. I will catch up on all the other ideas I have in my head soon!

Random Kid Stuff....

One night I made popcorn to snack on while we watched a movie. I gave each of the kids a little bowl but Daniel would have none of that. He refused the little bowl and insisted that we give him the big bowl. I have always said he will be the one to eat us out of house and home!

On Sunday Emma came home from church and changed her clothes. The thing is she insisted that her clothes be on backwards. She was so excited about it too! She likes to do things her own way, and takes great pride in it.

Have you ever heard of or seen the movie The Last Mimzy? Well my children LOVE this movie. They got it for Christmas and ask to see it almost on a daily basis. They love that the big brother is named Noah and his little sister is Emma, and that it takes place here in Seattle. They always watch it sitting close together in the recliner, without fighting (can we say miracle?). In the movie the boy, Noah, learns how to "talk" to spiders. I noticed last night that Noah was starting to make the same sound as the boy in the movie. It's quite funny and he imitates it very well. I will have to try to get a recording of him.

Well it's been a while since my last entry. Life has been very busy with well, life. Right after Thanksgiving I discovered that we are expecting baby number 4 this next summer. I have not been feeling very well, which is normal for me and hopefully it will pass in a couple more weeks. That's probably why I haven't been blogging, just haven't felt like doing ANYTHING. My mom has been a HUGE help with cooking meals and cleaning up.
The kids have been so excited about Christmas and Santa coming. I hope you enjoy the pictures of the kids. We spent the morning opening gifts and playing with all the games. Daniel just had to take a bath after breakfast with his new bath toys. On Christmas Eve we had our traditional Mary and Joseph Dinner. The kids love eating on the floor with their hands. We had lamb, dates, olives, figs and goat cheese along with a loaf of bread. It was really yummy! After dinner we read the nativity story from Luke. The kids opened their Christmas Eve presents and got ready for bed. I was so amazed at how quiet they were when we put them to bed. Usually we are telling them to be quiet and stay in bed for at least an hour after putting them to bed. But last night we put them to bed told them stay there or santa wouldn't come and we didn't hear a single sound from them all night!
This is Daniel showing off his new PJ's.

Noah and Daniel in their new PJ's. I just really love this picture.

All three kids in their new PJ's. Every time we tell Daniel to smile he makes this funny face and scrunches up his nose.

Daniel showing off his new cars.

Emma got a rocking chair from Mana and a new dart gun. She has spent the whole day playing with it. I think it was in almost every picture we took of her.

Emma showing off a new dress, with the dart gun, of course.

Santa brought Emma a new booster seat. She was so excited about it! All day long she wanted to go for a care ride so she could try it out. I'm excited about it too, cause now she can get in and OUT of the car by herself!

Noah got a rc jet from Santa. He and Kendall spent a lot of time out in the field flying it. Noah also got a slingshot from Kendall. So they also spent a lot of time practicing with that.

Kendall got a Dilbert desk calender. Every engineer has to have one of them on their desk!

Noah got the game battleship from his Grandma Cork. He's excited to play it!

Daniel got a set of balls from Santa. He has spent the day throwing them at our heads!

Great Granny made the all the kids "happy pants". Here is Noah showing his off. We had a wonderful day and hope you had a wonderful Christmas as well!