First swim of summer

We are in Virginia on the first leg of our exciting adventure!

Scenes from February

In an attempt to make good memories for my kids, we're trying to find new and fun ways to celebrate the days as they pass.

These are the Valentines that Guy made for his class. I am immensely proud to say that after helping me sew three, he proceeded to sew eighteen without my help. They're brown paper hearts with candy inside.

Pink heart pancakes for Valentine's Day breakfast!

Valentine candies from Grandma, and 3-D sidewalk chalk from Josh and I for a Valentine's Day gift. Guy was SO EXCITED to use the 3-D chalk that he insisted we take it to the bus stop that morning so he could draw on the sidewalk before going to school.

Axel's favorite way to eat a doughnut. Look, ma, no hands! Also, to the right you'll see three snake tongue shapes missing from that craft foam. For Chinese New Year's Eve the boys helped me decorate and sew stuffed animal snakes.

Axel attempts using chopsticks.

Leo uses the tried and true finger method.

Guy managed with his chopsticks very well once Josh showed him how to manage. We had a fun Chinese take-out dinner to round our our fun day at home celebrating the coming of the Chinese Year of the Snake.

A blog!

A blog, a blog! 

So, I don't have any pictures from January, so here are a few from November. Guy has had two awards at school. One for being the responsible student in his class, which is where this picture comes in. You can see his little face on the left hand side, he's sitting closer to the stage on the floor. He's at the feet of the kid wearing a dark sweatshirt with white words across the front.

And we've had a nice fun family tradition of Friday night being pizza and movie night. Sometimes it's just the kids watching Power Rangers or Kipper or SpongeBob. Other nights we'll all join in and watch a film together. The boys love knowing they get pizza EVERY FRIDAY OH MY GOODNESS! I like having something fun for them at the end of the week, and fun for Josh and I too, whether or not we join them. This particular evening we watched Madagascar 3, which Josh and I and the boys all loved.

Christmas Advent-ures

My digital camera broke, otherwise you'd have a cute picture of the advent tree that my children's loving grandma sent for them. It looks like this, but with a variety of adorable Christmas paper that my mom attached to the front of each box.

In every box is a little toy or treat, and to add to the general festive feeling of the season I decided to add an activity to each box. I have to tell you, it has made having kids at Christmas a whole lot more fun.

I chose the activities in advance, while looking at the calendar, and having made the commitment to myself and also to the kids makes it a lot more likely that we'll actually do the activities.

Want a list? Here you go!

Decorate the house
Make a Christmas tree craft (we don't have a real tree)
Pipe cleaner candy canes, to give to teachers at school and church

A Christmas bubble bath--turn off the lights and bathe by candlelight

Bake Christmas cookies
Leave a surprise on someone's doorstep
Go to the local Christmas parade

Foam puppets of Santa and reindeer (cheap kit from Michael's)

Snowflakes from coffee filters

Drive to find Christmas lights--Leo just kept saying, "I'm having fun, Mom! I'm having so much fun!"
Take a night-time hayride with Santa at a local farm

Make Christmas cards
Play a game as a family
Use Christmas cookie cutters with homemade play dough

I have really enjoyed making the opportunity to do fun things with my kids. I hope I can get better at doing fun things with them all through the year. Merry Christmas!

Bowling

For Guy's birthday, I took him, his brothers, and his friend across the street Orion bowling. They had such a blast together, and I must admit I had a lot of fun watching the boys play and cheer each other on.

My boys

Out of Focus

I've felt less and less attracted to blogging lately, and I've finally been able to articulate the reasons.

Blogging is no longer serving the purpose I had hoped it would serve. I need to be writing in my journal and individually keeping in touch with family members and those friends whom I love. I need to be recording events in my children's lives, and blogging isn't working for me.

So I'm done for now. I may come back to it, I may not. If you read this and want to keep in touch, please do so! My e-mail is emmilee @ gmail dot com. My phone number is 919-636-9568.

On occasion I read or experience something meaningful to me that I pass on to those of my friends whom I think would appreciate it; if you want to be someone to whom I pass references and experiments and interesting information I occasionally share then let me know! I'll put your name on the list.

In the meantime, I will be using Facebook to post pictures.
I will be writing in my journal.
I will make a plan and start saving memories for my children to enjoy when they are older.
I will write more letters and make more phone calls to cherished friends and family members.
I will spend less time feeling guilty about not keeping up with my blog and my friends' blogs.

In this season of Christmas, I am taking the time to seriously consider how I spend my time and what efforts I make for leisure, and finding ways to come closer to Christ. This is one way I am doing so.

Love to all my friends and family,
Emily

*I'm on Facebook under my married name. Send me a personal message if you send me a friend request.

It's Christmas Time!

Despite it being December 2nd, yesterday I went outside without a jacket. It's harder for me to feel festive when it's not cold outside! I'm sure I'll manage, though.

We pulled out the nativity and the advent calendar yesterday. This afternoon we'll be making a construction paper Christmas tree, and some paper chains to make things feel more festive around here. Tomorrow is gingerbread cookies!

Leo's ears are clearer, but we'll be doing a timpanogram in January to make sure his speech delay isn't a problem with his ears. Josh asked me last night if it could be a problem with his vocal cords or his throat; I really have no clue. I'm crossing my fingers that he's just delayed, and will catch up sooner rather than later.

I read this post this morning, from one of my favorite blogs of all time. I feel like Auntie Leila is right here in my kitchen, enjoying a cup of tea with me, when I read her posts. Such sensible advice!

And some more pictures from our trip to Virginia, including Aunt Audri, Farmor, and Uncle Ian

I just ate chocolate pudding for breakfast. It was amazingly tasty. And now I'm working on Christmas gifts! We're done with 5 Christmas gifts, and the kids gifts are mostly ready. I'm left with my mother-in-law and my nephew and niece. With any luck I'll get it out of the way with little difficulty.

Happy Thanksgiving!

 This year we're so grateful to have the Knudsens in our lives. Wednesday night we had a birthday party for the boys with Farfar, Farmor, Uncle Ian, and Aunt Gloria and Aunt Audri. The boys had a blast!

 Proof that every once in a while I do a craft with my kiddos. Leo wouldn't let me get anywhere near him, so he just colored his headband.

 We have a thumb sucker on our hands! It's great, because he sticks it in and goes right to sleep most nights without much trouble.

And . . . . typical Leo! This boy makes us laugh so hard we cry at times! He is goofy and sweet and cheerful and loves to run around yelling. "Yeeaaaaaaassssshhh!"

Happy Birthday Leo!

My second-born is now two years old! Happy birthday, love!

He now weighs 29 pounds and he is still just as cheerful and goofy as ever.

In interesting news, his language development has fallen far enough behind schedule that the pediatrician has put him on antibiotics to see if the fluid that appears to be on  his eardrums will clear up. If not, then it's off to the specialist to see if it might be causing the speech delay.

Ooh, and I made Boston Cream cupcakes for his birthday. Recipe forthcoming, because they were amazingly tasty. Best home-made cupcake recipe I've ever baked.

 Dang, I was hoping this wasn't blurry.

And see Marcos, who is threatening to steal Leo's cupcake. Leo's not buying it, as you can tell.

All right, obviously I need a new memory card, because the video I took won't upload and I don't have any more pictures to show you! Lame!

Pics of Axel

 Because every baby needs a king size bed to sleep on, right?

Vignettes

Scene: Church. Four people are seated in the pew in front of us.
Leo, pointing at each individual in succession: Un, deux, aah, AAH! Un, deux, aah, AAH! Un, deux, aah, AAH!
 (His vocabulary is increasing. Slowly, but surely.)

Scene: Living room, early afternoon on a quiet Sunday. Guy has unhooked the pad of the IKEA chair from the seat, leaving it attached to the top of the frame.

G: Hey, Leo! Wanna play in here?
L: YeeeeeeAAAAHH!
(They both climb onto the chair frame, with the pad draped in front of them and covering them)

G: Let's play rocket ship!
L: YeeeeeeAAAAAHH!
G: Look, there's the moon!
L: aah-aah-aah-aaaah
G: Look at the stars!
L: aahaah-aah-aaaaah!

SCENE: Grocery store, pasta and tomato sauce aisle. Three employees are stocking canned goods immediately to the left of the grocery cart, in which Guy & Leo are seated.

G: STUPID LIST!
Me: Excuse me?
Employees: *snicker snicker*
Me: It's a grocery list, dear.
G: Stupid grocery list!
Employees: Haha!
Me: Guy, if you say stupid again in the grocery store you will not earn a doughnut.

SCENE: Grocery store parking lot, post shopping trip
G: STUPID STUPID STUPID!
Me:  All righty then.

Update

I'd like to give a shout-out to my awesome husband, who recently rescued all of the videos we've taken in the last 4 years off of the hard drive from my dead computer. HOORAY! I'm so glad they're not lost forever to the ether.

In news: I'm tired and the kids are watching too much TV. Life is happy, but I still feel like we're adjusting to all the major changes of the summer.

I'm eating leftover chickpea masala, which is quite tasty if I say so myself, with home-made garlic naan. YUM! And thinking about trying to find a sitter for tonight so that Josh and I can go out to eat and celebrate my upcoming 25th birthday. Not sure about that yet; I may wait until next week to celebrate being a quarter of a century old!

In case I hadn't mentioned, Josh bought me a Kindle for my birthday! It has to be one of the best presents; it's lightweight and I can take it anywhere and have access to a whole library of (free) books.

 And because it's funny . . .

Axel!

Nearly 14 pounds, 24 1/2 inches long, and cute as a button! Except when he's awake at 1 a.m. Still cute, just not appreciated.

For Amy

I can't believe it's warm enough on OCTOBER 27TH that Axel is wearing this. But, there you have it, I live in the South now.