Quick pictures

Smiles and giggles

This video is adorable - Doug was really getting her to laugh hard!!!

Neighborhood Block Party!!!!!!

We are having a neighborhood block party next weekend!!! How fun! We have wanted to for a long time, but never got around to it. There are many of us in our neighborhood that have moved in in the last year or so... So, we are having a "get to know your neighbors party". We are looking forward to the food, fun, and fellowship! Our family went around the neighborhood this evening and passed out fliers, and people seemed pretty excited - yeah! Well, thanks for sharing in my excitement! :-)

Abigail in her crib

Here is Abigail in her crib - practicing her sitting skills. Look at those big brown eyes!!!!

The Trinity

So Noah and I were talking about the Trinity today during our lunch time picnic. (The weather was gorgeous here today...) Anyways, I am never sure how much sinks in, but this evening after his bedtime I went to check on him because he was talking to himself. He had a poopy diaper, so I got him up and was changing him, and he told me: "I got it right!". I was not sure what he was talking about, but figured he must have been referring to the conversation that he was having with himself before I walked in. So I asked him: "What did you get right?" He told me: "God the Father, God the Daddy, and God the Holy Spirit". :-) I first praised him, then I gently told him that God the Father and God the Daddy were actually the same, and that there was also God the Son: Jesus. So then he practiced that a few times and went off to bed, to continue his conversation. So precious.

Imagination

Noah has a great imagination! He is often scooping the air with his arm and he will tell me his is an excavator, or a backhoe. The other day he was looking for his little snow plow vehicle and he couldn't find it, so I told him to go and get one of the other cars and pretend it was a snow plow. So he went and got a regular old race car, and was able to go along with the story he was making up, pretending it was a snow plow. The big question for me is how to teach him the benefits of pretending / telling stories / using his imagination, and at the same time the importance of always telling the truth. How fun it is to be a mommy.

First tooth and rolling over

Yesterday Abigail rolled over for the first time!!! Hooray! It was from her tummy to her back, and it happened so quick I almost thought I was imagining things, but I clapped and cheered and yelled to Doug that she rolled over, so that solidified it.

Then this morning, I feel that she has officially cut her first tooth. That on top of being sick, no wonder she has been a little fussy the last few days.

Favorite parenting website

I am often one to over analyze things, even as far as to what I should put on this blog... Well, this is one of those things that I have debated whether or not to put on, because I know that there will be people out there that after reading this will think that I am one of those weirdos that have some crazy ideas about child raising and the world in general. Well, since that is true I might as well not try to hide it. :-) I figured I would go ahead andshare this for those it would benefit. So, here we go - this is one of my favorite parenting websites:

www.raisinggoldlytomatoes.com

I know - pretty strange name for a website. She explains it on her site, and it is a pretty cool metaphor. The website has some wonderful pearls of wisdom, and has helped us a lot in our parenting! Beware... it does talk about "crazy" things like keeping your kids close, homeschooling them, not having T.V. etc. (We didn't have TV channels at home even before I had found her book). Basically the main page of her website is the bulk of the book that she has written over the years. She is a Godly mom who is raising 10 wonderful children. Like I was alluding to, there are some things on there that I am sure some people will dismiss as not being for them, or just plain weird, but even if you don't agree with a few things, if you read it with an open mind and heart I think you will be blessed!

Baby girl pictures 4 1/2 months

Pepsi

For those of you that know Doug - you know he likes Pepsi! Well, the last year or so, Doug has decided to only drink Pepsi for special occasions. Now, special occasions can be going out to dinner, going over to a friends house, his birthday (or anybodies birthday), being done with school etc. etc. But the point was not to have it all the time, because he knows it is not good for him.

So last night at dinner Doug was drinking a Pepsi because we had friends over this weekend (a special occasion), and we had some Pepsi left over from that.

The conversation between him and Noah goes something like this: Noah- "What is that black stuff?" Doug replies, "It is Daddy's drink". Noah asks: "What is it?" Doug replies "It is Pepsi" Noah asks "May I have some Daddy please?" Doug responds: "No, it isn't good for you - I shouldn't be drinking it - water is healthy for you - you have water, and that is good for you". As he is saying this Doug is realizing this isn't a very good way to teach, and comments on that to me. Noah then points to the Pepsi and says: "Daddy, you shouldn't drink that, it isn't healthy for you." Doug agrees: "You are right, I shouldn't be drinking it" And he goes and pours it all out in the sink and comes back with a glass of water. "Now I have water, and this is yummy and healthy for me". Nothing like getting convicted by a 2 year old!

Later that evening, Noah tells me, "We don't drink Pepsi, it isn't healthy for us, we drink water - it is healthy for us.

Jokes, Rhyming and Old McDonald

Noah is learning to tell Jokes - it is pretty funny what he comes up with. Most of the times they are knock knock jokes. For example: Knock Knock. Who's there? Thomas. Thomas Who? Thomas the train. That is funny if you are 2! Or if you are his parents. :-) We also taught him how he could make anything into a knock knock joke by rhyming. For example: Knock Knock. Who's There? Noah. Noah Who? Noah Boa Goa.

Noah likes to rhyme in general, and it is pretty amazing to me that he gets the concept of rhyming. Of course, he is my kid, so everything by default is amazing. :-) As I was writing this I got to thinking that maybe he just knew how to rhyme the specific words that we had taught him. So I asked him - What rhymes with flower? At first he said "I don't know", but then after I gave him a minute he said "Flower - Dower", so then, just to be sure, I asked him what rhymed with cup, and he said "Cup - Zup".

On the side of NOT knowing things, when we drove by McDonald's today, he said "There is Old McDonald's". I wasn't sure I heard him right so I asked him and he repeated himself. I still wasn't sure I heard him right because "old" can sound a bit like "Ronald" if said really fast. So I asked him: Do you mean Ronald McDonald? He said: No Mommy, Old McDonald's. And then he broke out the song, just to make sure I got it. On that note, Noah thinks that all fast food type restaurants are McDonald's. As a family we haven't eaten fast food in a long time (yeah for saving $$$!), unless you count the free chicken sandwiches I brought home from Chick-Fil-A the other day - they were yummy! (There, I blogged about it!) :-)

Back in school

Doug is back teaching at Fresno State, and he has a really nice schedule this semester. He has 3 classes, and they are at 8,9, and 10, M-W-F. Well, the 8 o clock one is taking some getting used to, but I think we had all gotten a little bit spoiled over the summer, especially me! He is teaching all humanities at State, and then he teaches 2 home school classes - Greek and Latin. The rest of the time he is reading and studying for his upcoming exams.

Toys

We try to keep the number of toys that Noah has in check, so that it doesn't get out of hand... but I think we might need to go ahead and get a few baby and/or little girl toys for Abigial. Or at least we need to see if we can find some of Noah's old baby toys up in the attic. You can only expect a girl to be amused by a helicopter for so long. :-)

Games

We like to play a lot of games at our house, and Noah has followed suit. He calls everything a game. These are two games that we haven't played in a long time (I love Chess but haven't played in a long time, I have never played Risk and don't think I would ever want to), but Noah liked playing with all the pieces. So if your family likes to play games, we should have you over for a game night! Some of our favorites are Agricola, Stone Age, and Carcassone. (These are all fun Euro games). Settler's of Catan, No Thanks, and Ticket to Ride are fun too and have the benefit of being easy to teach new players. Then there is always Boggle, Scrabble, Bible Scattegories, and Taboo etc. On top of that Doug has a whole other list of games that I haven't even ventured to play or try to understand. :-)

Water fun

I didn't feel like cleaning out, blowing up, and filling up our big blow up pool, so I decided to fill up this little bucket with water so Noah could splash in it and water the plants etc.. Noah was dressed in his swim trunks and a surf shirt anyways, so I figured he could just play in the water and it wouldn't matter if he got wet. But when we were done filling up the bucket he asked: "Would you take my clothes of Mommy please?" and he sat himself right down in the middle of it... and then after we were done he asked "Would you put my clothes back on Mommy please?"

Ninja socks

The other day Doug asked Noah if he was wearing "tip-toe socks". (Special socks that it just looks really cute when he does his tip-toe walk while wearing them). Noah replied: "These are my ninja socks". "Ninja" can mean all kinds of things in our family, and hanks to Doug we even named our black kitty Ninja. :-)

Thankful

This morning at breakfast, after we had prayed and were beginning to eat, Noah asked me "What are you thankful for?" Wow! What a sweet question, and I am thankful for so much. I started off by telling him I was thankful for him and Abigail, that I had such wonderful children, and for Daddy. And for Grandma and Papa, and Grammie and Grandpa. And for the beautiful outside that God made. That is just the start! God is good!

Pudding

Noah sure enjoys the occasional pudding treat!!!

Playing stickers

Here is Noah "playing" stickers with Abigail. Notice the stickers already on her outfit. He only put them in her hair once or twice! :-)

A fun day

Big brown eyes

Playing with friends

So much fun.

Doug's look of being beaten to a card. Yes, Abigail was looking on. We had a blast with the Veers.

Ready for company.

Chores

Here is Noah doing his new chore. Noah is very helpful around the house, and he does an especially good job at this! Also notice the picture that Doug put up for the kitties when we first moved into our new house. He wanted them to feel right at home, so he thought giving them a picture of us would help!?!? :-) Oh yeah, and I think Doug must have dressed Noah this day. :-)