Thanks to the internet we found a fun and easy way to make Valentines. Use a toilet paper roll, squish it into a heart shape, and stamp. The best part? The boys loved it!
Making Valentines
Valentine’s Day
The boys adore Valentine’s. They love all the hearts and I’m assuming Noah really loves it because of all the RED. For some reason they call Valentine’s hearts “clementines.” I have no idea why, but it is seriously cute. 🙂 To celebrate their love of the holiday we made goodies to give out. We visited Gamma and Papa at work (and played on the firetrucks) and took a giant dinosaur to Abby. They had a lot of fun. (I know because Ezra told me, I love that they can tell me.) Arizona also celebrated its Centennial that day so we had Arizona cookies.
Worms!
I decided to try vermicomposting pretty much just for the boys. I figured they would love having pet worms. Well the worms arrived today and they were excited! They were also a little confused because they asked if they could eat worms for lunch. I had explained that the worms would be eating some of our food scraps. 🙂
Nap time woes
The boys have started to fight and skip nap-time. I knew this day would come, but thought it would happen closer to age 4. They nap about half the time now. The skipping nap wouldn’t bother me so much if they weren’t so darn cranky! Plus they go to bed at 7 when they don’t nap and so don’t get to see daddy much in the evenings. Also it makes it really hard to get work done. I used to have a 2.5 to 3 hour block every day where I could rest, work, and prep dinner. Yep I was spoiled, and I am seriously struggling without that time. It is my least favorite transition so far, going from 2 naps to 1 was a cake walk compared to this.
In other bedroom related news, we got rid of their beds a couple of weeks ago. We weren’t too happy with the ones we bought, so we sold them. They had sharp, I mean sharp edges! Plus the drawers weren’t holding up very well. We are going to wait until they are read for bunk beds. Their room is really small with two separate beds in it.
I personally love this picture. On this particular day I hadn’t slept much the night before and was exhausted, so I went and laid down during nap. Knowing full well they weren’t sleeping, but they were happy, so I was okay with it. They made a mountain to climb and jump. Ezra is in the foreground doing flips, he was super proud how fast he could do them now since he had lots of practice.
Photo time
I’ve been bad about regularly updating the blog, but am going to try to get better. This our journal of the boys’ lives after all.
Jesus walked on water, but why?
A couple of weeks ago the boys learned the story of Jesus walking on water at Sunday School. On the way home we were asking what they had learned that day and Ezra informed us that Jesus walked on water because he was scared of the boat. As evidence by Ezra’s craft from the day. 🙂
Lost balloon
On Friday we took the boys to Sonic for lunch. (our sonic is not a drive up) Apparently I was feeling a little crazy because it was hectic. We spilled an entire drink, lost a corn dog to the floor, and push the button to call the waitress way too many times. She was super patient though and even gave the boys balloons.
When we got home I took the weights (ketchup packets) off the balloons so they could play with them inside, also so I didn’t have ketchup squirted all over the house. Well at some point in time they decided to take them outside and I hear Ezra, “mommy come look my balloon is flying way away!” I then had to explain it wasn’t coming back. When I put him down to nap he was very hopeful and talking about how maybe some birdies would find it and bring it back. After nap I hear him, “mommy look birdies!” Then very sadly, “they don’t have my balloon.” Poor kid was even hopeful the next day when he saw a plane and thought it would have his balloon.
It was sad to see, but I really loved his hope and imagination.
Funny Quotes – V
“I need milk for my mouth.” – Noah
Me “Noah where’s your banana?” him, “it’s in my tummy.” me realizing I didn’t ask the correct question, “where’s your banana peel?” (You have to keep track of those things!)
“Noah catch me the soccer ball.” – Ezra (he meant throw, but he uses a lot of opposites, like inside for outside, catch for throw.)
Noah asked what was in Sydni’s hair and I replied her bow. Ezra holds up his elbow and points to it, “this is my bow.”
“I got my baby sister out of the truck. Want to hug her?” Ezra holding up his sippy.
Just found the boys laying in their beds so I asked if they were tired. Ezra, “I’m just resting my mouth.”
I told the boys we were having fish for dinner, Noah ran in the kitchen “I want a red one!” ummm sorry buddy I’m not feeding you Swedish fish for dinner.
Noah just came in while I was putting on make-up and said, “hey you putting on your face?” weird neither Matt or I ever remember saying that.
“mommy your shoes are walking very well!” thanks ez my shoes appreciate that you noticed. 🙂
Ezra’s thoughts on why I wouldn’t take the cat on our walk, “he doesn’t have shoes!”
“I need a different pen, I need a cool one.” – Noah
Me trying to convince Ezra to take his medicine “you don’t want to get sick again” and his response “huh-uh I’m a boy.”
A little Honesty
There seems to be a rash of honesty spreading through mommy blogland and I thought I would jump on the bandwagon. When we blog or post facebook updates we are usually just presenting the neat and pretty parts of our lives. Unfortunately this can lead to people thinking we live the perfect life. They think we are like Caillou’s mommy and never lose our temper, always remain calm, and our house is neat and tidy. So I thought I would share of few of my imperfections. This is not a complete list, I screw up all the time and don’t remember every thing I do wrong.
My house is usually a mess. It’s never 100% clean. A random visitor is my worst nightmare.
There are almost always dishes in the sink, it is rare that all the dishes are clean and put away. Yep I like to cook, but not clean up my mess.
Our table can sometimes go the whole day without getting wiped down. Do you know how messy young children are when they eat?
My floor is never so clean you could eat off it, but my boys regularly do eat off it. No I don’t feed them on the floor, but if they or I drop something, it still gets eaten.
I snap, I don’t always use the kindest of words with my kids. I do yell, I hate it and would love to stop and work on using more grace each and every day.
I am slow in the mornings. I would say I hardly ever get dressed before 10 and some days not at all.
My kids watch more tv then I ever thought I would allow.
I’m addicted to facebook.
I hardly ever make my bed. (I’m actually working on this one, Matt really likes the bed made, and it is a small way I can make him happy.)
My kids play outside in their socks and I don’t care. As long as they are happy, I’m happy. If a pair of socks gets stained, so what? The insides of their shoes don’t care.
My kids are loud at the grocery store. Happy loud, so I don’t shush them. I keep it at the level I can tolerate. Reminding them every so often when I know the whole store can hear their shrieks of delight that they do indeed have inside voices.
Apparently one time when I made sweet potatoes for baby food a blob ended up on our kitchen wall. The thing is it matched the paint perfectly, so by the time I noticed it was hard and stuck on, then it took time to remember to tell Matt. He looked at it and said if he scraped it off we would have to touch up the paint. Yep it is still on the wall, dare you to find it. 😉
Our home office floors are currently cement and have been since Septemberish. Really crappy looking cement. Home improvement gone wrong and too lazy to fix.
Okay enough sharing for now, also there are probably typos in this post, but I am not the best proofreader.
Taking a walk
One of my goals this year is to spend more time with the boys without any other distractions (for me, let’s face it almost anything is a distraction to a 3 year old). I decided to start taking a walk around the block with them every day, the walk can take anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes. I don’t use my phone or having anything else to distract me, it’s just me and them. We’ve all enjoyed this so far. There are lots of rocks, dirt, trees, flowers, cars, and even a train or two to see! Yesterday the boys noticed someone had littered, “he made a mess, we need to clean it up.” I told them that we could take a bag next time we walked and clean up. We remembered our bag today and picked up some litter. They loved it. 🙂 I did use my phone today to snap a few pictures.
Noah at 3
Noah is serious and shy, but also fun loving. Ezra is the only one that can get a true belly laugh out of him. He loves everything to be done correctly and perfectly. He is strong willed and persistent. He is also loving, kind, and thoughtful. He takes very good care of his brother and loves to take care of mommy. He loves learning, drawing, and music.
Color: red
Sport: T-Ball
Animal: Bugs
Food: mac and cheese
Book: Green Eggs and Ham
Season: Anytime we can play outside
Restaurant: One where he can get a dessert
Holiday: Christmas, Halloween
Weather: Rainy (I’m just putting this because they get so excited when they see rain)
Cereal: Oatmeal (poor kid doesn’t know anything else)
TV Shows: Super Why, Thomas, Yo Gabba Gabba
Movie: Cars (okay this is the only movie they’ve actually watched)
Candy: Chocolate
Subject: Alphabet (he knows the letters and is working on the sounds)
Toy: Trains
Thing to do: Play trains with Ezra
Place have been: Arizona, Colorado, California, New Mexico, Oklahoma, United Arab Emirates, Ethiopia
Place to be: beach
Place I want to go: Gamma’s house
Person: Mommy
Hero: Daddy
Time of Day: When daddy’s home
Song: If you’re happy and you know it
Drink: apple juice
Treat: Marshmallow
Vacation: Disneyland
Ezra at 3
Ezra acts shy at first, but once he knows you he is a ham! He loves to be silly and is free spirited. He likes to do things “outside the box.” He really likes to help mommy and daddy. Tormenting his brother is one of his favorite things to do. Don’t worry he also loves making Noah laugh too. He loves music, music, and learning. (yea I know I put music twice, he really loves it.)
Color: green, blue, orange
Sport: He just loves to play
Animal: Cats, dogs
Food: muffins
Book: The Bike Lesson
Season: Anytime we can play outside
Restaurant: Anyone with french fries
Holiday: Christmas, Halloween
Weather: Rainy (I’m just putting this because they get so excited when they see rain)
Cereal: Oatmeal (poor kid doesn’t know anything else)
TV Shows: Super Why, Thomas, Yo Gabba Gabba
Movie: Cars (okay this is the only movie they’ve actually watched)
Candy: Chocolate
Subject: PE
Toy: Trains
Thing to do: Play trains with Noah
Place have been: Arizona, Colorado, California, New Mexico, Oklahoma, United Arab Emirates, Ethiopia
Place to be: beach
Place I want to go: beach (seriously he asks several times a week)
Person: Mommy
Hero: Daddy
Time of Day: When daddy’s home
Song: Going on a Train Ride (ygg) he sings it all the time
Drink: milk
Treat: Marshmallow
Vacation: Disneyland
Ringing in the New Year
Our New Year did not start the way we wanted. 🙁 New years eve started with Noah getting sick, just mommy and Ez getting to go to Abby’s party, then mommy ringing in the new year in Noah’s bed because he was feverish and just couldn’t stay comfy. Meanwhile daddy was starting to have fevers all on his own. By Monday all three boys were really sick and getting worse by Tuesday, so we finally went to the doctor. They all had strep throat, poor guys. Mommy only ended up with a mild case of bronchitis. Everyone was given antibiotics and we are finally on our way to enjoying the new year. It was one rough week to start it off though!
Advent: 22 and 23
On the 22 we played and sang some Christmas carols. Nothing like trying to play the piano with a squirmy toddler on each side and a cat in your lap. We had fun though, even if Noah kept turn the pages of my music book in the middle of the song.
On the 23 we drove around and looked at lights. The boys had decided to skip nap and were out cold by 6:50 pm. They were a little upset when we got home and were unloading them out of the car, but they were right back out when we tucked them into bed. Bonus they slept all the way until 8 am!