Busy little bees.

I just had to change the blog to something Spring-y, and the opportunity arose this morning when my boys were working so nicely together, like busy little bees!

See how cute they are? I love Color Wonder coloring supplies--we have tons of them (fingerpaints, markers, paper) and I like that I don't have to worry that they will mark up the floor or anything else.


Smile for the camera! Lately Caleb really enjoys playing with Noah, when Noah will let him. It's nice to have them getting along most of the time.


Last but not least, Noah being silly for the camera. Noah loves posing for the camera right now; if he sees the camera he will yell, "SMILE!" and always wants to see the pictures or video after we take 'em.Happy Spring everyone! May your snow go away and your flowers start blooming!

Fun Fun Fall!

Hello everyone! Fall is here, which always makes me super-happy. Let me show you some other things that make me super-happy!

My kids playing nicely together--they've FINALLY started to be able to play together, sort of. It's more parallel play for Noah, but at least Caleb is no longer regularly beating on Noah, and Noah's no longer avoiding Caleb whenever possible.

Also, our garden did yield actual produce! Not much, and not very big...but I was very afraid that I would have to buy watermelons and pumpkins and stick them in the garden, so that Caleb would see what gardens are supposed to look like. I didn't have to do that, so it's a win. I don't have pictures of the pumpkins yet, since we just cut them off the vine tonight, but I'll post them next time. Here is Caleb with one of the watermelons! Yes, we know they are small.

Last but not least, some of our friends' kids came to visit us this weekend (their Mom and Dad needed a sitter during the big homecoming 300th consecutive sellout Husker game). The kids had lots of fun, as always!

That's it 'til next time. All of us around here are hoping for a nice hard freeze, just at night. We love the daytime temps right now, but the hayfever is really annoying! May your days be bright and your evenings COLD! :-)

Happy March everyone! The good news here in Nebraska is that it has felt like Spring the past few days (I think the high yesterday was in the 70s!!!). However, it was snowy before that, as you can see here:

Yep, Mark had to get out the snowblower last weekend, and despite it being bitterly cold that morning, Caleb wanted to go outside too. As you can see, Caleb improvised a snowblower of his own (it's his toy lawnmower)! If only the toy lawnmower really moved snow!

I finally caught Noah's goofy face on camera--he tends to grab his top lip with his two bottom teeth. Here is the evidence:

We don't know exactly why he is doing this--but it sure makes one heck of a funny look! He's got his own version of monster face!

In other news, Noah is now fully pulling up onto his feet. This has made for a few falls; luckily none of them have been painful for Noah yet. Every morning I go into his room after my shower, and this is what I see:

Noah is now always standing in his crib in the morning, waiting for me to get him. Usually he's babbling some combination of "ga," "ra," and "vra"...I'm just glad he's patiently orating to the room, instead of screaming and crying for me!

I've also gotten some cute recent pictures of the boys together. Here they are:

I thought this one above was just cute, even though Caleb isn't looking at the camera. What you don't know is Caleb is physically holding Noah there--as Noah wanted to zombie crawl over to me to grab the camera!

And here is another cute shot--again Caleb is holding Noah's feet, so he can't crawl too close to me. I tell you, when kids get mobile it gets really hard to get nice pictures of them up close!

Last but not least, I thought it'd be nice to compare Caleb's singing skills now to his singing skills about a year ago. I think I had a video of him on here, singing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" last year--well, he's much improved. I like to think it's not only his development but his Kindermusik classes; he really enjoys Kindermusik and I've noticed he now has good rhythm (for a 3.5 year old) and follows the general ups and downs of a song--even if he cannot quite stay in tune. Here's the direct comparison (whatever the reason for his improvement).

The old video, of Caleb last year in April:

The new video, of Caleb this month:

Not only is Caleb's singing improved, but my videography is better too! I know now not to take videos of the kids in the basement--it's too dark, even with the lights on!

Noah and Caleb's milestones!

Hi all! It's busyness as usual around here--this past week we had only one night where we didn't need to be somewhere! Needless to say, we are looking forward to this weekend where we don't really have to go anywhere on Saturday (oh, except the auto mechanic, AGAIN!).

Here are Caleb and Noah, just chillin' in the kitchen. Caleb told me the other day, "Mommy, I don't want Noah anymore," however within an hour Caleb came up, gave me a hug, and said, "I like Noah, and I want a baby sister." Mark and I are glad that Caleb likes Noah most of the time, but that sister request will just need to be put on hold for a while.

Anyway, Noah and Caleb have been busy too. Noah has started to truly crawl once in a while, and his favorite activity lately has been to clap! So here's a video of that:

Noah is also pulling up onto his knees, so he's probably within days or weeks of pulling up all the way. Time to babyproof everything up a little higher than the floor!

And Caleb went to his first Ash Wednesday service, and was very excited to receive ashes on his forehead. He was very concerned that someone would accidentally wipe off his forehead. Of course, he washed it off with Daddy before bedtime, but not before I got a picture!

And, as always, Caleb is into music. One of his favorite prayers to sing is one he learned at Sunday School. It's a simple version of Father, I Adore You. See for yourself: