Washington

Hi everyone! I have some posts to catch up on, but you are going to have to wait...
I loaded my photos onto Andrea's computer and got one post up, a second done -but not posted - when her computer crashed. Then we went hiking up in the mountains and the blog updates got left behind. I will be trying again with pictures at Gramma Nana's house on Saturday, so you will have to wait till then. I have pics from our Preschool Halloween party before I left, photos from my trip to downtown Seattle with my cousin Daniel and Gramma Seidel, my trip to see Andrea (and Jonathan) in central Washington, and another foot picture. In the meantime - lot of love from the Northwest.

Brothers and Socks

The boys got new halloween socks from Gramma Nana and they LOVE wearing them. Seth had his on for about 3 days before I made him take them off to be washed.

Visits

We had lots of fantastic company last weekend. Josh and Lindy came in from Colorado Springs for a wedding and to see us. We visited, watched football, played games, went out to eat, had brunch at home (where Gavin went nuts over the bacon and got dubbed by Aunt Lindy as The Baconater), went hiking, and basically enjoyed catching up. AND we had Gramma Nana and Grampa Guido (he had to work in Lincoln) here on Sunday, and Gramma Nana came back on Monday, and we got to eat lunch with them on Tuesday before they headed back home. We LOVED seeing everyone and miss them already. Good thing Andrew and the boys are headed back up to MN on vacation this coming week for a good Gramma fix. (It is pretty cute to hear Gavin say "Guido!") More posts to come from this week, but for now I need to clean and pack. I have an airplane to catch!

Family photos by Lindy

Mommy photo by Lindy

Daddy photos by Lindy

Gavin photos by Lindy

Playing at Acorn Acres:

Seth photos by Lindy

Seth playing at Acorn Acres: Listening for the Ocean:

Happy. I love it when I see this face on my boy!

Family Photo

More Pumpkin Picking Pictures

We went on a hay-rack ride around Vala's Pumpkin patch and they dropped us off in a field so we could pick our own pumpkin. Watching the boys run around and play with all the pumkins was the highlight of the day. Here the guys are on the wagon:
Pumpkins!!!!

We got done right about sunset and headed home for a good night's sleep. I fell asleep before the boys did about 7:30! Thank you, Andrew!

Vala's Pumpkin Patch

Saturday we went to Touch A Truck in the morning for about an hour. The boys should have had on winter coats, hats and gloves it was so cold and cloudy. I did face-painting and they froze trying to enjoy all the vehicles that were there to explore. It was so cold we ate hot dogs in the car. As we pulled out of the parking lot a tiny ray of sun broke through the clouds. By the time we made it back home it was completely sunny and warmed up tremendously. We turned around and headed out for a family day at the pumpkin patch with some other Air Force families. Vala's was a crazy unreal place - for those of you from Ohio think Young's Dairy on steroids: Can you see the pumpkins in the field in the distance?
Playing around in the straw/tire play area:



Any takers?

Gavin...

We have had a rough week with Gavin cutting his 2 year molars - top two are in, two to go. Gavin is really funny right now - he still says "un-hunh!" with conviction. He is always saying and doing things that make us laugh. When he is happy his joy affects everyone around him, when he is Not Happy he can scream for hours, hoping to wear you down to get what he wants. Bad habit from having problems as a little guy that we are working on breaking. He loves to swing, be outside, play on playgrounds, climb, flirt, and dogs. He is enjoying going to gymnastics with Daddy on Saturday mornings. Here he is mugging for mommy's new camera:

Seth

Seth is getting all grown up. He is becoming very independant - he can buckle his carseat by himself, get water from the refrigerator, save some of his juice for later, help brother with tasks. He is very independant, social, and cautious. He LOVES gardening and asks to do it almost every day. Here he is with the pile of rocks we have pulled out of the garden so far, and tools that are drying, since they got rained on: Seth likes to mug for the camera and has a "cheese" face that he makes a lot of the time. Here he is with Daddy demonstrating it:
Seth is a big boy and gets to stay up "18 minutes" late since he is 18 months older than Gavin. He loves to play his boardgames or watch sports on tv with Daddy or just hang out with Mommy and Daddy by himself. We are very proud of him and are enjoying watching him grow up.

Bedtime around here:

Gavin - done. Seth - wired. Daddy - laughing.

Drumroll Please....

Camera

Is on order and should be here in time for Touch a Truck and Pumpkin Patch photos on Saturday!!!! And Lindy will be here on Sunday to help me learn how to use it since it isn't a point and shoot camera. I think I am going to LOVE IT!!!! Very excited to get my Canon Rebel very soon. Stay tuned for photos...

To bunk or not to bunk - that is the question

We UNbunked the boys beds today. Gavin has been waking up in the middle of the night with some regularity, and this morning he fell out of bed. He does better when he sees Seth or knows he is right there, so we are hoping this will solve that problem. Seth has been waking up at 5 am or so every morning lately, and even depriving him of a nap didn't solve that - we aren't sure what that is all about. He kept saying he didn't like the bed bunked (and kept playing with the ceiling fan). So, we are down again. Hopefully this is final and everyone will start sleeping in till 9 am every morning...
Ok, 7 would be nice, though! :o)!

Our Weekend

We spent most of the weekend pulling rocks out of the garden to find hardpacked clay underneath. We made a small dent in the project and Andrew cut down the overgrown bushes in front of the house. Today (Monday) I was going to get a lot more done so I can get my bulbs in, except it POURED. Good thing, too. I got to see how bad the drainage was in one of the places I was going to plant my bulbs, and that would have ruined them. We went to the Nature Center for their preschool activities with Daddy today since he had off of work, and had a pretty relaxing day. And we have a mountain of small rocks on our front porch taunting us with yet another unfinished project. :o)! Oh well, we are still going on with life anyway. Someday we will get something done.

Sunday Lunch

Sunday we had new friends over after church. John is a student from Ivory Coast and was riding home with us. I asked him how long he had been speaking English for, and he told me 1 year. I told him how impressed I was. Seth butts into the conversation and say, "I have been speaking English for 3 years!" John just started laughing. He is pretty quiet and reserved, so it was good to hear him laugh. Later at the house when there were a bunch of us bustling around with kids and food preparation I looked over and John was sitting in a chair in the corner of the kitchen listening and watching everything going on - and Gavin was curled up in his lap. So happy to see that. We also had another Air Force couple with 2 girls and Pastor Drew, Theresa and their kids over. Another event that had us all laughing - Crystal came inside: "Theresa, I think your son just peed on the deck!" Poor kid - the adults couldn't stop laughing. We all knew it could have been any of our kids.

Today

I am thrilled to be working on my garden. My amazing Gramma sent me a huge box of tulips as a housewarming gift, so now I HAVE to get my garden beds in order. (I was really wanting to, but feeling like I had to do my house first and not letting myself.) I have to clear a huge amount of rock from the top of the garden beds, then pull up the black weed supressant sheeting, then I can start to supplement the soil and move things around... And we have 8 big overgrown bushes that need to come out, too. I have spent several hours yesterday and today trying to clear the rocks and it is going to be a huge project. I was shoveling the rocks I had piled up into the garden cart and Seth rides his tricycle up and says. "I can do that!" I tell him that I know he can. As he rides off I hear him mutter under his breath, "With one hand!"

Tonight I got cleaned up from the gardening and went out with some Air Force girlfriends. We had a spouse's function where we got to take clothes, shoes, and accessories that we don't wear/use any more and exchange them for "new" things. I didn't think I would find much, but took some shoes, jewelry I had made, and a dress. I came home with 2 purses, new dress boots, 2 pairs of heels, 3 sweaters, and a skirt! Then we went out to Applebees and had cheesefries and the Blondie with Maple butter - YUM!

It is nice to be in a healthier place than last week. Lots of sunshine, fresh air, and flowers in my future. :o)!

Seth

Seth had a FANTASTIC day yesterday. He seemed to get an attitude with turning 3, and he was really doing well at mastering himself yesterday, being thoughtful towards others, being creative and playing well with his brother. He has started Preschool. I am doing 2 day a week preschool with 2 other moms, so this was my week to teach. We visited the early childhood learning center on Monday, and today we had a "colors" theme. It is great because it forces me to be more disciplined in planning things to challenge Seth, and because the other moms do things with the kids that I wouldn't think to do. One of them taught Preschool before, and she gets excited about teaching this age like I do older kids. I know that Seth is really going to benefit from this. I can't believe how quickly he is growing up. He just moved into 3T pants about a month ago, and they are already starting to get short on him! There is such a great little guy there that is bursting to come out. He loves every sport and outdoor activity he is exposed to. He loves gardening and cooking with Mom. He loves learning about baseball and football with Daddy (and despite Mommy's attempts at bribing him with chocolate chips to be a Packers fan, he likes to cheer for the Vikings.) He is extrodinarily thoughtful and compassionate at times. Very social. It is a little scary how much like me he is. I love my little man sooooooo much. This is going to be a fun year.

Gavin

We had a breakthrough with him today. He has been acting like he doesn't understand us whenever he doesn't want to deal with a situation, and when we have pushed him it has lead to complete meltdown. Something happened in the last few days to make me realize that this is all him manipulating the situation. So... Mommy cracked down on him. A big issue is him telling the truth about what happened (ex. Did you hit Seth?), and today after putting him in time out over and over again till he told me the truth about something I SAW him do, he finally told me that he did it. I praised him for telling me the truth. This evening I smelled him and asked him if he was stinky. "NO" He is always so sure of himself in his answers. I reminded him that I wanted him to tell me the truth and I asked him again. "Un Hunh!" And then his face just lit up and glowed like crazy when I praised him for telling me the truth. I am so proud of him for being able to do this because it is foundational to building trust in relationships. I was so proud of him that I didn't even make him get his diaper changed right then (I am sure Andrew was thrilled about this when he smelled him shortly after!)

Here is Gavin in all his little personality with his new ability to use his words pretty well:
We are at the pharmacy and waiting longer than usual. I tell Gavin to let me know when they call his name. Then to keep him busy I pop out his pacifier and ask him what his name is. He thinks for a little bit. "Bubbles." "Your name is Bubbles?" He grins and nods, happy that I understood what he said. Then when I start to make a big deal about it he just laughs. The next time I ask him he thinks long and hard and tells me his name is "Baby" and cuddles up into a little ball in my lap and puts his head on my chest. He isn't my baby for much longer. :o)!

Pictures I didn't take:

My new haircut.
The boys on their new scooters (Thank you Mrs. Molly!) We have the best neighbors ever.
The HUGE praying mantis.
The banana incident.
... I told Andrew I need a new camera before I head to WA on vacation, so we will see.
The good news is that Lindy is coming and wants to do a photo shoot with our family!!! She takes such great pics, so I am very excited. Hopefully my blog will be more visually interesting soon.
We have school tomorrow - Colors Day!

When does this happen?????

So this week I was driving down the main road by our house (45 mph) and all the sudden I hear this big THUNK, and then a noise like a flag whipping in the wind. I look over and there is a 4 inch long praying mantis on the edge of the window by the seat belt. Now bugs and I don't do well together (but don't tell my boys this as I do my best to keep calm) and I am starting to flip out. The last thing I need is a 4 inch bug flying around my car in heavy traffic. It ends up flying onto the back of the passenger seat and it is still making the noise like a flag flapping in the wind. I mostly roll up the windows to cut down on the bug getting blown any more, turn off onto a side street and try to keep my panic under control. The bug starts to crawl onto the top of the seat. "Look boys, it is a praying mantis! It is coming to say HI to you!" They are calm and pretty excited to see this bug they know is in the car, but couldn't really see before. I get home and am in total panic mode inside, but totally calm outside. I get the boys out of their seatbelts and they are having fun watching the 4 inch long bug crawl around the inside of the van. I run in the house and call Andrew. "Please tell me you are almost home! There is a huge praying mantis in my van that you have to get out for me!" Andrew says, "It doesn't seem to be bothering the boys any." He is already in the driveway watching the boys and laughing because I am freaking out over a bug (He got hung up on.) I tried not to cry from the adrenaline let down, and felt pretty proud of myself that my boys thing bugs are pretty cool things to see and hold. They have no idea that their mom is such a freak about bugs. There are a lot of really neat bugs around here. We have seen about 4 or 5 different kinds of caterpillars, a cicaeda, a walking stick, and a praying mantis, plus all the spiders, butterflies, ladybugs, and other little pesty bugs that we see all the time. The funny thing about it is that none of this bothers me as much as having fire ants, hornets and jumping spiders that we had in Texas. At least most of the bugs here are the good guys!

Banana Boy

This morning I woke up and decided to wash my face before heading downstairs. Gavin appeared with a banana he wanted to eat that looked like it had some bite marks in the skin. We went downstairs and the rest of the bananas were all on the blue cube in the living room with little circular bites out of the skins. Who knew my 1 year old could bite through banana skins - he sure loves to eat!

Bad Hair Day

I have still been sick and not doing so good (my depression on top of things hasn't been too helpful) so last night I did something really stupid. My hair really needed cleaned up in back so I got it cut. At Walmart. I told her I wanted to keep the length and wanted texture. So... she cut out all the texture, cut off ALL the length in the back like a boy haircut from my jr. high years in the 80's, put layers in the front like these 2 big floppy ears, and didn't realize till she was done that there were long bangs in the front. Yup, 3 hairstyles going on and it didn't seem so bad for a wash and go cut till I woke up this morning and tried to style it a little bit before my dr. appt. I don't get too worked up about my hair usually, but I was sobbing. I have never felt embarassed to be walking around with my hair on my head before (except for maybe in junior high when I cut my own bangs for the first time and they were a centimeter long and crooked.) So on top of feeling rotten I was looking rotten. At Seth's gymnastics class there was a lady w/ stylish hair so I asked if anyone knew a good stylist. She gave me the card of Alyssa (my new hero) and I called this afternoon. Amber (my other hero) watched the boys and I now have the shortest hair I have ever had in my life. And I LOVE it. I didn't know I could do short hair this well. Anyhow, you all have to wait till I can get a camera and take some pictures before you get to see it. HA HA on you! Anyhow, I am feeling a little better, taking antibiotics for the fluid in my left lung, and trying to take care of my boys - Seth and Gavin are coughing, and Andrew is miserable and running a fever tonight. We appreciate all the prayers we can get. Lots of love from Nebraska. (Be glad you are far away and can't catch this bug!)