What Do You Get When...

You decide that you just can't wait any longer and use the restroom? A boy who can no longer wait for his strawberry milk and decides to help himself to a cup of syrup with a bit of milk.







You decide to finally scrub that shower that has been taunting you for some time now? A boy who can't seem to find his plate after removing a sandwich from it. At least he has a napkin there to wipe off his hands and face.


You try to take just five minutes for yourself, hide in the bedroom and read the paper? A train table, that needs to be assembled, strewn about the kitchen.

What do you get when God gives you a gift?

A boy to love...

One More Post Today

but I would suggest that you grab a Kleenex before clicking the link. I have a blog link to the right of my blog that takes you to a woman who has six children and writes some hilarious stuff about her daily life. With six kids living in a house about the size of ours it's bound to produce some hilarious stuff. Anyway, she has a friend, Mimi whose son, Julian, had cancer. We've been following Julian's story and praying for him but sadly he lost his battle and is now free. If you care to read about Julian, send Mimi a card or light a cyber candle you can click here. I can't imagine being as strong or gracious as this little boy's mama.

Look What We Made!

Last post today because now I'm caught up. My friend, Stephanie, taught me how to make soap last week! I decided on a milk and honey concoction and I can't wait to try it. We made the soap on Wednesday, with a recipe Steph had, called "Cleopatra's Beauty Bar." It set-up until Friday when Steph came over and we cut it up. It takes a few weeks to cure and then it's ready to use! I have a ton of ideas floating around in my head for soap recipes. Thanks Steph for the soap making class...but I fear you may have created a monster, but at least I'll be a clean one! Our friend Tamara also came over and joined us for an afternoon of girl talk on Friday. Thanks gal pals!

Buddy Class at Karate

On Friday night, Trevor came over and went to a free buddy class at Noah's karate school. Trevor was treated to some one on one instruction with Mr. B because no one else signed up. It looked like Trevor was having a great time, here are a few pictures from that night. Noah proving to Mr. B that he can now tie his own belt, which is a requirement for his next belt level.

Trevor learning the horse stance, prayer pose (I think) and Oliver in the background desperate to be out there, also demonstrating that he too can do it!

Mr. B is teaching, in a fun way, that you NEVER bully/hurt/hit/pick on/etc. kids that are smaller than you. If you need to do something then you can use the "three year old defense" trick to hold them back.

It's all about the "safety zone" and if someone enters your "safety zone" then you run to get away. This is Trevor hitting the gas and getting the heck out of there!

Oliver showing us a few moves of his own, like I said, he desperately wants to be in the class too!

Future Babysitter

Oliver was having a moment the other night but Joel and I couldn't get to him right away so Noah took it upon himself to comfort his brother and he did a great job. I know it's still a few years off but it's one step closer to me being able to pay Noah to watch Ollie while Joel and I go out.

Walking With The Dinosaurs

On Thursday the 17th, Grandpa Jerry took two VERY lucky grandsons to the "Walking With The Dinosaurs - The Live Experience" show at the Rose Quarter. Trevor and Noah had a ton of fun and told us all about it when they got home. Noah's favorite part was the T-Rex of course but I couldn't quite narrow down what Trevor's favorite part was. I was going to try and post a video for you to watch but all of them on You Tube were too long. So if you want to see more you can do a quick search on You Tube and watch a few...there is a really good one of the T-Rex on there. Thanks Grandpa Jerry for spoiling those two boys.

Back to the Land of the Living

Wow! This has not been a fun weekend at all. All four of us, starting at about 2am Saturday came down with a serious flu. Me first, then Noah, then Ollie and finally Joel. Joel deserves a big round of applause because he spent that entire morning taking care of two sick boys so I could try and sleep some. Luckily, by the time he got it I was coherent enough to take over some of the duties. My poor sister and her family also came down with the same flu bug. They are in town and we all, except for Joel, went bowling on Thursday. We figure we must have come into contact with it there - nasty! We did rule out food poisoning because not all of us ate there and none of us ate the same thing while we were together. We are finally on the mend and currently sipping 7-up and eating saltine crackers. I do have some more fun things to post but those will have to wait until tomorrow...

I Was Tagged Again

This time by my friend, Heather...check out her blog to see where she would like to travel! Here are the rules

The Rules: Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog.
Share 5 random and/or weird facts about yourself on your blog.
or
Share the 5 top places on your “want to see or want to see again” list.
or
Share 5 things you never pictured being in your future when your were 25 years old.

I decided to share the top 5 places on my "want to see or want to see again" list. So here they are...

Ireland, I would love to ride horseback across the countryside staying each night in a different bed and breakfast. Just think of the beautiful sights you would see and the wonderful people you would meet!

Las Vegas...we've been there a few times and love it! We don't get caught up in all the gambling, although we do some, but also enjoy the shows, the food, the shops, the pools, etc. Can't wait to go back and may get to later this year...my cousin, Amy and her Kevin are getting married there!

Rome, Italy...romance, art, food, wine, really, it sells itself!

The Azores (Portugal) are some islands in the Atlantic Ocean. Joel got to go and visit his mom while she was there and loved it. I would love to take him back and experience this beautiful place with him.

Greece, the photo opportunities here would be amazing! I would take a photography class before going and maybe even buy a new camera!

One Way to Get A Black Eye

I was getting ready to go out to dinner with Joel Saturday night and Oliver suspected there was something up so he tried his best to never let me get out of his sight. I was putting some makeup on and Oliver decided that he was going to try some too. He insisted on putting on his own mascara all by himself. Believe it or not, he actually got some on his eyelashes and managed to NOT poke himself in the eye.

Oliver's Head

Is it wrong to love the shape of your kid's head? I especially love it right after a fresh buzz cut. It's thoroughly rub-able and so fun to plant a few (hundred) kisses on. I'm sure he gets tired of me constantly touching that head of his but as I see it, it's my right as his mommy.

Cupcakes With Gammy

The boys and I went out and spent the day at my mom's yesterday and Noah convinced my mom to make cupcakes. She took this picture during the event...

My Color is Brown but my eyes aren't

My Sis-In-Law had this quiz posted on her blog and asked us to take the quiz to see what colors we were. She was orange and my color is brown. Surprisingly, it fits me pretty well.

What's Your True Color?

My Result: Brown

You're brown, a credible, stable color that's reminiscent of fine wood, rich leather, and wistful melancholy. Most likely, you're a logical, practical person ruled more by your head than your heart. With your inquisitive mind and insatiable curiosity, you're probably a great problem solver. And you always gather all of the facts before coming to a timely, informed decision. Easily intrigued, you're constantly finding new ways to challenge your mind, whether it's by reading the newspaper, playing a trivia game, or composing a piece of music. Brown is an impartial, neutral color, which means you tend to see the difference between fact and opinion easily and are open to many points of view. Trustworthy and steady, you really are a brown at heart.

Take this test >

Tornado Warning - Vancouver WA

To all of you not living in this area, yes, we did have a tornado today that touched down in Vancouver. Luckily, it all happened to the NW of us in the Hazel Dell area. We got some weird wind and rain but that was about it. Noah's school went into a tornado lock down of sorts for about 40 minutes, all the students gathered in the strongest part of the structure (basically the middle) and hung out until Clark County lifted the warning. Sounds like they did great and just what they should. If you would like to read more about it you can go here and read all about it at the KGW's website. If the link doesn't work just go to kgw.com, it's the headline news. Below is a note that Noah wrote when they got back to class.

Finding Fossils

A great gift that Noah got this year was from Aunt Bev. It was literally a chunk of rock/plaster with plastic dinosaur bones embedded inside. Noah had to chip away at the chunk, dig out all of the bones and put them together. He had a lot of fun doing this. I found it quite appropriate that he was wearing his dinosaur pajamas when he decided to take on this project.
You can see that he has made progress and some of the bones are starting to show....
Well on his way to finding a complete "skeleton"....

Handmade Gifts

Grandma Ricki made these beautiful sweaters for our boys this Christmas. They fit them well, maybe even a bit of room to grow, and they look great in them.