Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Little Drummer Boy

So, we have a full-size drum kit in the house.  It's either a sign that we are brilliant parents who are nurturing our child's potential, or a sign of complete insanity.  You can choose.

It's two days after Christmas, and we are all entertained by Noah's drumming.  He sings while he plays, so that makes the drumming easier to listen to.  We wanted to share to little video clips with you.

Click here to see Noah singing "Jingle Bell Rock" and just having fun with the drums:

And click here to see Noah singing "Step By Step" and showing off one of his new rhythms.
(The lyrics are:  Oh God, You are my God And I will ever praise You... And Step by step You'll lead me, And I will follow You all of my days.)

For those of you concerned about Noah's hearing (which includes us), special noise canceling hearing protection should arrive at our house tomorrow.  

While Noah plays, Isaac usually plays his guitar and sings along at a microphone next to the drums.  Noah has assumed the role of band leader (probably because he has real drums and Isaac has a toy guitar), so Noah tells Isaac what song to sing, and Isaac always agrees, at least for now.


Sunday, December 25, 2011

Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful, relaxing Christmas, and we hope you did too!

We snapped these pictures as we went to church on Christmas Eve.  

 
This morning, the boys were so excited to see that Santa had left them candy canes!  They have been crazy about candy canes, and they liked the way that Santa hung candy canes on our stockings.  

In addition to the candy cane, Santa brought Isaac sparkly stickers and special marker/paint brushes.  He couldn't have been happier.

Noah said, "Santa got my order right!" as he opened up his gifts to see that he got the winter stickers and peppermint tea that he asked for.  They both had simple requests for Santa, and they would have sincerely been happy if that was all they received, but there was more...

In addition to a bounty of gifts from friends and family, they followed their strings to find their "big" gifts...

Isaac found a play kitchen, and this was our view of him for most of the rest of the day as he "cooked" delicious food for us.

Noah found a drum set, which completely surprised and delighted him.

This was our view of him for the rest of the day.  Isaac used a pretend microphone and guitar and the two of them instantly created a band.

We ended the day with a video call with our family in Arizona and birthday cake to celebrate Jesus's birthday.  
Happy Birthday, Jesus!

Here's more Christmas pictures.


Monday, December 12, 2011

Baby


Meet Isaac's baby.  His name is Baby.  


Isaac loves Baby very much, and he took baby everywhere he went in September and October.  Baby helped Isaac get into the routine of taking Noah to preschool and then picking him up after lunch three times a week.  If Baby came along for the ride, Isaac was happy about the adventure.  Since then, Baby stays at the house while we go out.   


Isaac is fascinated by babies.  He shouts "baby!" at the top of his lungs whenever he sees a baby.  And he also loves "itty bitty" things.  So, when we were visiting Grammy, Isaac found "itty bitty" babies in Grammy's doll house.  He carried around them by the handful and wanted to sleep with them too.


But, Isaac is all boy.  He cuddles with Baby and comforts him when he cries.  But his favorite other things to do are "cooking baby" in the crockpot and "jumping baby," when he throws baby up in the air as high as he can.

Boys and their baby dolls are so funny.  When Noah was three, he loved the "school babies" at his preschool so much.  He would spend a lot of time in the housekeeping area caring for the babies.  His teachers told me he would feed the babies and rock them and wear them in a little sling.  He showed so much affection toward them.  Then the next moment, he would be cooking them in the play oven and hitting their heads on the furniture.  Boys!!!
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Thursday, December 8, 2011

Helpers

In the last few days, Noah has taken a keen interest in helping out around the house. It started with laundry. A few weeks ago, he learned how to fold laundry, and now he can do a load from start to finish - filling the washer, transferring to the dryer, folding and putting away. It's not perfect, of course. I've found all sorts of strange things in strange places today. But he makes a very entertaining game of matching up lonely socks and puzzling over where our missing socks are. I hope he can solve that one for me.


I came downstairs this morning and found these piles of folded washcloths. Now that's a good way to start a day.



He has also started taking out the trash and recycling. It started innocently, but now he is insisting that he trash needs to be taken out once the can is almost half full, and he has spent way too much time looking in the trash and recycling so that he can monitor our trash level. So, of course, Isaac is now monitoring our trash level. It's well-intentioned, but there's been too many heads in the trash can today.



But the best moment of the day was when I walked into the kitchen and found the boys cooperating and hard at work unloading the dishwasher, completely naked.

These boys are quite dedicated to housework. I need to find a way to continue the focus!
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Saturday, November 26, 2011

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving with Baubie in Atlanta.  The Thanksgiving dinner was delicious, and the boys even dined at Mimi's restaurant for lunch.

Isaac loves the play kitchen just as much as Noah did when he was two.  They both played in the kitchen and ran a restaurant that served us many delicious meals.

                                       
The weather was great, so we spent lots of time playing outside

Nothing is more fun than rolling a ball down a driveway again and again and again

The boys love their new matching cozy pajamas from Baubie

Noah had a great time doing all sorts of Thanksgiving activities, such as a counting activity and a graphing activity that centered around the story of Thanksgiving

Noah and Baubie worked on organizing Baubie's state quarter collection, which was a perfect activity for Noah.



Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Happy Happy


Happy happy birthday to me!

I was inspired by this blog post about a woman who did 38 random acts of kindness for her 38th birthday. It sounds like so much fun and I would love to do something like that! However, I have an adorable 2 year old who would find no joy in all the car rides that would be necessary to pull off the kind of acts of kindness that she did, and I just read the post a few days ago so there was no way I could pull together a project like that in time.

So, to celebrate my 38th birthday (and get the boys thinking about Christmas and giving selflessly), we are going to do 25 Random Acts of Christmas Kindness (RACK). Noah and I have been brainstorming all sorts of things we can do. He is counting down the days until December so that we can "do nice things for people who don't know who we are." I love the idea



To get my birthday party started, we danced to the Cha Cha Slide.



The best birthday present wasn't wrapped. It was a four-year-old who helped do four loads of laundry, folded most of the clothes in each load by himself and put almost all the clothes away without my help. That makes for one happy mama.


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Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Saturday is Project Day


Anytime we ask Noah what he wants to do on a Saturday, it's always the same response: "Projects!" Isaac then chimes in with "pa-dect! pa-dect!"

Our house has no shortage of projects, and the boys will help out with anything - putting weatherstripping on the garage door, fixing an exterior door, raking leaves, measuring things, anything that Daddy can think of doing.

As long as there's tools involved and the need to bang on something, they will be happy.

Friday, November 18, 2011

Grammy and Yaya


We had so much fun with Grammy and Yaya in September and October.  They came to Charlotte in September to take care of the boys while we spent a weekend in Memphis,

Then, we spent a week in Michigan with them in October.  This is the gazebo where we were married 13 years ago.  

I'll post more pictures from our trip to Michigan in the next few days.

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Pom Poms


Give a boy a pom pom and he will dance dance dance



and cheer cheer cheer



and never ever stop



And finally he will share one pom pom with his brother so he can take it on a walk

and dance dance dance

and cheer cheer cheer
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Thursday, November 17, 2011

After Dinner Music

Once in a while, Noah and Isaac break out their guitars and play a few songs after dinner.  


God has something big planned for these two.
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Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Weekend in Memphis


We traveled to Memphis, Tennessee in September to help our friends Chris and Jenna celebrate their wedding.  It was our first time travelling without the boys.  It was a wonderful, relaxing and fun weekend!  Here's a view of downtown Memphis and the Mississippi River in the distance.


We stayed at the historic Peabody Hotel and, yes, we even saw the ducks that play in the fountain in the lobby.  The ducks were cute and they are one of the most brilliant marketing ideas I've heard of in a long time.  People are crazy about the ducks!


A picture of the Mississippi River just for Noah.  When we got home, he said, "Look!  I can see Arkansas on the other side of the river!"


Chris and Jenna's wedding party had their pictures taken on the roof of the Peabody.  Look at Mr. Handsome on the far left!

That's when it dawned on us:  Matt had taken a shower and was wearing his best suit on the exact same day that I had showered and blowed-dry my hair and was wearing a dress...as soon as we realized that, we said, "Quick!  Take our picture!"

It was fun to get dressed up and celebrate a marriage of great friends.  We decided that we should get all dressed up and fancy again sometime.  It will likely be years from now, but we decided we should do it again. 
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Monday, November 7, 2011

Pumpkins Galore


Pumpkin season is one of the best times of the year!  We went on a field trip to a pumpkin patch with Noah's preschool class,



the boys had a great time at a fun-packed farm in Michigan with their cousin Jacob,



and then they picked out their carving pumpkins at the farmer's market.



They cleaned out their pumpkins while we watched a Michigan football game.  What could be a better combination of events?



The finished jack-o-lanterns are ready for Halloween!
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