All Boy???

I bought Emma a little doll stroller this week, and Noah hasn't stopped playing with it since! I'm not surprised that he likes it so much, because he loves pushing Emma in the umbrella stroller. Today he brought it downstairs, and I cracked up at what was in it: his Lightning McQueen car, his Boost car and the pink comb that I use to comb his hair (for some reason all the combs we have are pink) . Maybe I should be concerned that he loves pushing around the doll stroller, but its contents reveal that he is still ALL BOY!

New Playground

Today we got the kids' new playground set up! It has been raining like CRAZY all week, so I wasn't sure if it was going to happen today or not. But we were lucky to have a break in the rain just long enough for it to be assembled (we hired someone to do it because we knew we would never have time to do it ourselves without the kids bugging us). The kids were so excited as they watched it coming together. As soon as it was done, they rushed out to give it a try. They played for about an hour in the hot, humid weather. Then, right after they came inside, the rain started up again. Pretty funny.




I was a little worried when we first moved in that we wouldn't be able to put a playground in the yard because the yard is not flat (it slopes down away from our house, which is good when there's lots of rain, but not so good for playground equipment). And our yard is pretty small (everything's bigger in Texas except backyards). But luckily, there is a spot close to the house that is pretty flat and the playground fit perfectly there. I'm so glad the kids finally have a playground! Thanks so much to Grandma Hubbard for buying it!!

Isaac's 6th Birthday

Today was Isaac's 6th birthday! He requested "special" waffles (that means they were homemade, not Eggos) and soda for breakfast. He got to eat on the "red plate" because it was his birthday. The red plate is a family tradition I had growing up that David and I have continued with our family. We have a red plate that says, "you are special today", and whenever someone in the family has a special day (birthday, Mother's Day, Father's Day, graduation, etc.) they get to eat on the red plate.


After breakfast Isaac got dressed and opened his presents. He didn't get very many presents today because he got a lot of his birthday presents early. When Grandma Hubbard came to visit in April she gave him the presents from her. Then when Grandma and Grandpa Hoyle came to visit at the beginning of June we gave him his big present from them and us (a Nintendo DS). He also had his Star Wars birthday party with his friends in California before we moved, so today was more low key.



For lunch our family went to Gattitown. It's a pizza, pasta, salad buffet place that has a HUGE room in the back with tons of games. The boys liked bowling the best.

After dinner we had the traditional cake and ice cream. Isaac requested a blue homemade cake. It wasn't very pretty, but it tasted good. :)

It was a good day! I can't believe that my baby is already 6 years old.

My Roaring Reader

Isaac keeps getting better and better at reading. He got the "Roaring Reader" Award at the end of the year Kindergarten Celebration in May (along with about 3 kids from each of the 8 Kindergarten classes). They had different award categories (scientist, mathematician, story-teller, athlete, artist, etc.), and about 3 kids from each class got each award. So, he was one of 3 in his class to get the reading award. He can now read stories to Noah, which is great for me! I'm so glad he likes reading! Of course, he still prefers when we read to him, and his favorite book to have read to him is his Star Wars Dictionary.

Emma Is Walking!

Emma Learns to Walk

Emma is working hard on learning to walk. She gets better every day. Here are a couple clips of her learning. Noah is a little bit jealous of the attention she is getting (as you can see from the first part of the video). Sorry the lighting is so bad, but Emma is still cute!

My CTR7 Class

I love teaching Primary! When I moved to Texas, my plan was to tell as many people as I could how much I LOVE Primary. Having been in the Primary Presidency, I know that when people express an interest in Primary they usually end up getting called to Primary. My plan worked! I've been teaching one of the CTR7 classes (there are 3 in our ward) for about a month now. My class is awesome! There are 8 girls on the roll, but since it's Summer time I usually have 4 or 5 of them there each Sunday. They are the sweetest class! Yesterday I brought my camera and had David snap a picture of me and the 4 girls that were there (Maddie, Sophie, Kirsten and Sarah).

My Obsession . . .

I LOVE hair bows! I don't think there's anything cuter than a baby girl with a hair bow on. I've spent hours looking at hair bows online and more money than I'd like to admit buying hair bows for Emma. It's so much fun! But now Emma won't have anything to do with them. She won't leave any sort of hair bow or clip in her hair. I keep trying, though. Every once in a while she leaves one in her hair for a minute or two, and a few days ago she kept a headband on for about 5 minutes. Hopefully she'll grow out of it soon . . .

Here's a picture of Emma's hair bows. I count 49 headbands and 43 clips. I think there might even be more clips floating around the house somewhere. :)

The Middle Child

Tonight I feel like expressing my love for Noah. He is the middle child and just doesn't have a very demanding personality, so he's always the one who gets the least amount of attention. He is a sweet, independent little boy with a mind of his own. Some of the things I love about him: He always has some sort of car or train toy in his hand, he loves to repeat every word of dialogue in movies as he's watching them, he's my cuddle bug, his beautiful blue eyes, his chubby cheeks, his little baby feet, the way he looks up to his big brother, the way he looks after his little sister, his sweet smile, his calm disposition. Some of his favorite things: cars, trains, The Little Mermaid, lightsabers, swimming, playing at the park, running around in circles, the car wash, cereal, candy, strawberry milk, popsicles, his blankie, watching movies, looking at pictures of himself on the computer, watching videos of himself on the computer. I'm so glad Noah is in our family! I really love him! Now, if only I could get him potty trained. . .

Big Girl Car Seat

Last Friday I finally got Emma's new car seat hooked up. I still had her in her infant carrier/car seat and she was way too big for it. With each child, I've gotten more lazy about taking them out of the carrier. I stopped using it with Isaac when he was 6 months old because he weighed almost 20 pounds. I put him in a rear facing convertible car seat until he was a year, then turned it around. I did the same thing with Noah at 8 months. Poor Emma had to stay in the infant seat until almost 2 weeks after her first birthday. She looked so uncomfortable in there! She was so excited when we put her in her new car seat for the first time. She kicked her legs and waved her arms and laughed and laughed. It was so cute. She loves her big girl car seat!

Saturday Morning Frustrations

Since David and I have been married, we have always spent Saturday morning cleaning up around the house. Doing things like bathrooms, dusting, laundry, etc. Since having kids, this usually turns into David cleaning, while I deal with the kids. Let's take this morning for example:

David wakes up, and while I'm fooling around on the computer, he informs me of his plans to clean and vacuum the upstairs. I had been planning on having Isaac clean his bathroom, so I tell David to make sure Isaac helps. David and Isaac clean the bathroom while I change Noah's poopy diaper and try to keep Emma from turning off the tv while Noah is watching it. When David and Isaac are finished, I change Emma's poopy diaper, bathe her and lay her down for a nap.

David vacuums the stairs.

I decide to tackle the kitchen (I still hadn't done the dishes from dinner last night). While I am doing dishes, Noah keeps closing the dishwasher door. Isaac keeps asking me to look at the artwork he is creating. It takes me forever to do the dishes and wipe down the entire kitchen.

David continues to work uninterrupted.

I move on to laundry. As I am switching the laundry, Isaac comes in and throws a container of paper scraps at me (he's done with them, and does not know where to put them away). I tell him where to put them and force him to put them away himself while he whines like crazy. Noah whines that Isaac is not playing with him. I try to solve the conflict.

David continues to work uninterrupted.

I take a laundry basket into the family room to fold it. Both Isaac and Noah stand practically on top of me, talking to me while I fold the laundry. I tell them to go play. I go into my room to put the laundry away, and get another load. Isaac is calling for me before I even get out of my room with the laundry basket.

David is now cleaning the master bathroom, uninterrupted. He tries to tell Isaac to leave me alone and let me get some work done. Do you think Isaac listens?

I put in the load of laundry, and decide to eat breakfast. When I open the pantry, Noah spies some candy and asks for it. I tell him he can have it if he goes potty. He agrees, so I quickly throw my bagel in the toaster, and take him to the bathroom. On the way, Isaac is talking to me from upstairs. I tell him to leave me alone while I take Noah potty. Noah goes potty (yea!). I go back into the kitchen and take my bagel out of the toaster. When I'm almost done putting cream cheese on it, Noah asks for a bagel. Since he already had breakfast, and I'm really hungry, I say "no". I sit down to eat it. Noah sits down to eat his candy. As soon as I bite into my bagel, Isaac comes downstairs and sighs dramatically. I ask him what's wrong. He says, "You just sat down to eat, but I'm really hungry. I want breakfast." I tell him he'll have to wait.

David continues to work on the bathroom uninterrupted.

When I finish my bagel, I pour some cereal for Isaac. After I put everything away, Noah asks for some cereal. I take everything out again, and pour some cereal for Noah (even though he already ate breakfast). By this time, I feel guilty because David has cleaned half the house single handedly, and I've only done dishes and switched the laundry. I'm discouraged and frustrated, so what do I decide to do? Come upstairs and write this blog instead of attempting more cleaning.

David is still working uninterrupted. Number of times I've been interrupted since I started writing this: 2

What a difference a year makes...

It is amazing how quickly kids grow! Where does the time go? Check out Emma and Noah last June, compared to Emma and Noah now. One thing hasn't changed though, they sure do love each other!

Texas Pride

One of the funniest things about Texas is the Texas flag. Not only do the kids say a pledge to the American flag at school they also pledge to the Texas flag. The pledge is: "Honor the Texas flag; I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one and indivisible." Ya gotta love a state that is referred to as "thee".

A Work in Progress

Decorating my new home has proven to be a challenge. When you triple the size of your house, there are a lot of new things to buy. It seems like I've done nothing but shop for and buy furniture, etc. for my new house, but it still looks completely undecorated.

Things we've bought so far: couch, loveseat, end table, console table, frames for family pictures and pictures of kids, kitchen table and chairs, refrigerator, washer/dryer, new toaster oven, area rug, shelves for toys in playroom, tv stand for playroom (which is in the media room until we get a second tv), shelves for storage space, shelves for garage, bed and comforter for guest bedroom, desk for David, shelves for David's office, artwork to hang above fireplace (it has yet to be hung), bath towels for 3 bathrooms, 3 shower curtains, soap dispensers and trash cans for 3 bathrooms, decorative flowers, etc.

Things we still need: furniture and decorations for living room, furniture and decorations for dining room, artwork to hang on walls, playground for the backyard, and pretty much everything else not listed above.

So, I figure it's going to be a long time before our house looks decorated. But here's some pictures of what it looks like now:

Looking in from front doorway:

Family room: view as you enter from front

Family room: View from the entrance to the master bedroom, looking towards kitchen

Kitchen

Gameroom

Swimming

I'm the first to admit that going to the pool is not my favorite thing. It takes forever (or at least 20 minutes) to get the kids in their suits and all lathered up with sunscreen. By the time we get to the pool and I drag all the pool toys and floaties in, I'm already exhausted. Then after we play for an hour or more, and Emma is so tired she can hardly keep her eyes open, Isaac and Noah throw a fit because they want to stay. It almost always ends up with all three kids whining and complaining as we get into the car to drive home, and me with a headache from the sun. Then I have to get them out of their suits, washed off in the bath (usually), and dressed again. It's such a big ordeal. But, they seem to love it!

The summer started off with all three kids in the baby pool (1 to 1.5 feet deep). Noah quickly remembered how to use his vest to float himself around, and wanted to venture to the bigger pool. Although Isaac has been deathly afraid of the water for the past 3 years, I decided that this was the summer to "force" him to like it.

I signed him up for swim lessons, which he started last week. The first few days he cried and had to be forced into the water, and I was sure that I had wasted my money. But every day after class we went to the pool to practice, and he got more and more comfortable in the water. He still acts kind of scared at swim lessons, but when he's at the pool he floats around with his noodle and has fun. The boys especially like jumping off the little waterfall at the pool. Noah is the funniest. He climbs up, gets all ready, and jumps into the water. His vest quickly floats him up, and he swims back around to do it again, and again, and again...

Emma likes her little floatie thing (thanks Amy O. for recommending it)! It's great because it balances without me holding onto it, so I can let go if I need to help one of the boys!

So, with an extra long summer (13 weeks of Isaac being out of school), I guess I'd better get used to going to the pool!

The beginning of my blog...

I've been thinking about starting a blog for some time now, and I've finally made the decision to go for it. I've been wanting to blog, but wasn't sure if it was worth all the time and effort. My mind was finally made up when I heard (thanks to Rebecca's friend Emily) that I can have my blog printed into a book to keep for posterity. So, that's my plan. Hopefully, this will be a good way to keep in touch with friends and family. I'm excited to get started!