"Bad Idea" game

So, the boys will occasionally play the "Bad Idea" game. I don't really know what that is, but it usually involves their empty laundry hamper and a lot of excited whispering. I'm expecting this game to get more alarming when they hit their teenage years.

Catching up with photos

Sam and Anna take a break before Sam goes to karate.

I don't know what she says...

but Anna definitely tells her brothers off sometimes. If they get in her face too much, pull on her, or--horrors!--sit in Mommy's lap when she wants to, this little girl hauls off a loud, vehement tirade on the offending brother. And the look she gives them! Anna may still be in 6 month old clothes, but she's got a full size personality.

That's not how karate works

I was on the floor playing with the kids when Daniel decided we should spar and started "punching" me in the chest. So I kept blocking him. He got really frustrated, and finally looked me in the eye and said, "Keep your hands to yourself and I will punch you."

He got in some pretty good shots after that because I was laughing so hard.

Healthy weight manifesto

They say that stating your intention makes it more likely to happen. So, here goes:

I intend to lose 30 lbs (and keep it off by cultivating healthy habits) by 1 January 2010.

-I intend to post this intention on our Blog site so I'm not the only one who knows about it
-I intend to take a daily weight and send it to my friend Anna for accountability
-I intend to keep a journal of my daily food intake and send it to Anna for accountability
-I intend to drink a full glass of water before snacking to see if I'm really hungry
-I intend to do activity for 10 minutes before snacking to make sure I'm not just bored
-I intend to not cut out any foods from my diet, including sweets, but to make reasonable choices--making this sustainable
-I intend to record daily exercises and send it to Anna for accountability
-I intend to without-stopping exercise at least 30 minutes 5 days a week
-I intend to seek out other activities to do--weight lifting while on the phone, "stair-stepping" on the bottom step, cleaning vigorously--that I can incorporate into my daily life
-I intend to need a whole new wardrobe for Christmas this year

Who knew?

Anna: "Pbbbbft" (raspberry sound)

Daddy: "Pbbbbft"

Anna: "Pbbbbft"

Daddy: "That's just part of the special Daddy-daughter relationship."

Theological observation from a 4 year old

When the boys are riled up at bedtime, trying to pile on daddy or running around their room, I often sing a little song to calm them down for family prayer time. The song I sing is "Be Careful Little Eyes What You See" and since I sing it from memory of my own Sunday School days, I'm sure my lyrics are slightly off. However, I sing it as:

Be careful little eyes what you see
Be careful little eyes what you see
For the Father up above is watching us with love
Be careful little eyes what you see

Then I sing through "Be careful little ears what you hear" and "Be careful little mouth what you say." By the time I finish those three verses the kids are settled down.

Last night, Sam picked up my song as soon as I finished, and this is his new and improved verse:

Be careful little nose what you smell
Be careful little nose what you smell
For the Father up above is smelling us with love
Be careful little nose what you smell

We were shaking with suppressed laughter. Well, it could be true. And I'm sure that if God is smelling us, He is doing it lovingly.

Well, the thought was good.

The kids and I went to Inflatable Wonderland today. It is, as you may surmise, a place for kids to play in all sorts of inflatable bouncy areas. It was half price day, and we met several other moms and kids from church there. As I got the boys and Anna buckled into the car, I thought to myself, "Self, you have to bring the camera." So I did.

Notice how many pictures are posted here? That's how many I took. Sigh.

We had a fabulous time other then the 40 minute drive. We'll probably go back for another half-price day, and then I can take the video camera so I can not take some video to post.

Where's the snooze button?

Two recent conversations that demonstrate why I don't need an alarm clock:
Daniel: “Mommy?”
Mommy, with eyes still shut: “Daniel.”
Daniel: “Mommy?”
Mommy: “Daniel.”
Daniel: “Mommy?”
Mommy: “Daniel.”
Daniel: “Mommy?”
Mommy: “Daniel.”
Daniel: “Mommy?”
Mommy: “Daniel.”
Daniel: “Mommy?”
Mommy says nothing, hoping this will break the cycle. It works for 10 seconds.
Daniel: “Mommy?”
Mommy: “Daniel.”
Daniel: “Mommy?”
Mommy: “Daniel.”
Daniel, with a giant grin: “Good morning Mommy.”
Mommy: “Good morning Daniel.”

Another day (I know it sounds whiny, but I swear it was done so matter-of-factly):
Sam: “Mommy?”
Mommy: Mzkrmkm
Sam: “Mommy, it’s daytime out. I want you to get me breakfast.”
Mommy: “I’m asleep.”
Sam: “But I want you to get me breakfast.”
Mommy: “I just want to sleep a few more minutes.”
Sam: “I want you to get me Cheerios with yogurt.”
Mommy: “It’s not time for me to get up yet.”
Sam: "With blueberries and a little bit of milk.”
Heard from downstairs:
Daddy: “Where’s Sam?”
Daniel, yelling: “Sham! Sham! It’s time to eat!”
Mommy: “See, Daddy hasn’t left for work yet. He can get you breakfast.”
Sam: “No Mommy, I want you to get me breakfast.”
Mommy: “I love you buddy, but I had to work last night and I’m not ready to get up yet.”
Sam: “OK.”
Two minutes go by.
Sam: “But it’s daytime out.”

I'm learning--slowly, but I'm learning--that I might as well give in sooner because I will always end up giving in later.

Come a little closer...

Gotcha!

Siblings

Have I mentioned that the boys adore Anna, often to her peril? They love to get down in her face and talk with her, and for Anna to grab their hands. Shown here are some of my favorite recent "sibling" pictures.

"So, what's new on the floor?"
"No, Sam, look UP if you want your picture taken!"
"Wow, my brothers sure love me!"

Everybody was Kung-fu fighting...hi-yah!

I don't know what the boys would do without John. Wait, yes I do. They'd try to attack their poor, defenseless mother more. Many evenings of the week the boys and John have an epic, no holds barred, every man for himself (and two boys against daddy) pillow fight. Here we've captured the beginning of their martial arts training from Master Daddy. They learn to punch, block, dodge and fall. Mostly dodge and fall. And no, daddy does not punch back.

"I'll get Daddy!"
"No, I'll get Daddy!"

This picture to the contrary, daddy still won.

Cutest baby ever (in our opinion)

Most of you have been asking of pictures of Anna, Anna, Anna. It's not that we don't take pictures of her, it's just that she doesn't do much that is blog-able yet. We did break down and get her both a walker (pictured) and a "piano" no-wheels walker. Anna's gotten mobile enough that she's not safe in her bouncer anymore; and besides, she's in mild peril on the floor around Sam and Daniel.

Anna is one of the happiest babies I've ever seen--crying is a true, rare event. She thinks her brothers and the dogs are hilarious, too.

This next picture cracks me up, so I had to post it. I think Anna is trying to intimidate me into not taking anymore pictures.

Ooooh...I think it worked!

Finger painting bonanza!

Since making my birthday banner and cards, the boys have been very prolific finger painters. Expect that for each of your upcoming birthdays that you will receive a card or other craft based item from them. In this particular instance, I was looking for something to keep them out of my hair while I organized our new craft desk. FYI, finger painting was not my wisest choice--too much supervision necessary.

Happy Birthday to Oooo!

I wish I could post a voice recording of the boy's singing happy birthday. Daniel still sings, at the top of his lungs, "Happy birthday to Oooo!" I think they sang about 10 times to me yesterday--they were so excited that it was my birthday. I told my family no presents please this year, I just wanted to do something to celebrate with the family and for the boys to make me something. Did they ever! Observe the dynamic finger painting on my sign!

As you can, see, they also got to help decorate my cake!

And the family helped while I was at work

Two blogs in one day--who knew it could happen?

So because work is so slow right now I really am going to try to keep up with blogging. John has been talking about this pizza from a place in Vancouver, WA, that went out of business, since we've been married. Each time we have pizza, it is compared to "Uncle Milt's." Well, he was able to get the recipe and made it tonight!

Splash, splash, penguin

We finally took a day away from unpacking/organizing/working last Saturday and went to SeaWorld! Unfortunately, we don't have any pictures to post at this time because we were too busy having fun to cheese for the camera. However, we did get season's passes, so look here later for wet, watery fun.

I called this post "splash, splash, penguin" because it's the quick summary of our day. Sam, Daniel and Anna were quite content to spend the majority of the day in the water park. We started out in the toddlers area, where there's a max 8 inches deep of water. There's fountains of water to walk through, small slides to go down, and best of all--shady areas to be in the water. Anna and I mostly stayed in that area while John supervised the boys--and by supervised I mean played like a boy himself. We ate lunch at SeaWorld--we normally don't have lunch inside the parks, but if you leave the water park area on a Saturday, we're told it's a good chance that you won't get back in! That's when we saw Shamu. That's right, we went to SeaWorld and the only Shamu we saw danced and sang on-stage. Sam was talking yesterday about the singing fishes and I finally figured out it was this lunchtime stage show! After lunch we took turns taking the boys down the lazy river. By the 8th time or so, Sam just wanted to bob along in his life jacket as long as we stayed close. I thought Daniel was going to be lulled to sleep as we floated along, but we kept going through spray areas which woke him up.

Anna wasn't allowed to go on the lazy river, but it worked out for one of us to be out with her and the other to be in with one or both boys. When we started getting some weather--thunder, lightning--we were already changed back into dry clothes to do the one non-water thing that the boys had been asking for--see the penguins. The water park, the rides, and the shows were temporarily closed down for the weather, and it was funny to be going the wrong way against the throng of people who were leaving SeaWorld. When you think about many of them buying their ticket for just one day, we were surprised by how many left the park just because of some sprinkles.

I must say we were not terribly impressed by the penguin exhibit. You ride past the penguins on a people mover, so you don't get to just stand and look. Luckily, there's an area that's set back up above where you can take your stroller, and we stopped there. We were also disappointed that the lights were so dim in the exhibit. We couldn't even really see the back wall where it looked like most of them were grouped. Lesson learned: go to SeaWorld for the lazy river, not the penguins.

We live 10 minutes away from SeaWorld, so we'll be going back often. Mom and I are taking the kids Thursday. I figure that if we only see three things each time we'll go, we'll still see it all by the time we leave San Antonio.

They moved to San Antonio....and survived

So I'm posting what, once a year? Better then never, right? We're more or less settled in here in San Antonio. By more or less, I mean that all the projects that didn't get finished while we worked on the house these past few years, are now sitting around in boxes waiting for us to disposition them. Sigh.

We're both back to work, John has even already been put in charge of the change of command for his squadron at the beginning of August. Nothing like jumping in with both feet! I've been back at work for almost a month also, really enjoying the team of nurses I work with and for. They were super quick about getting my work phone and internet service set at home. One of the first improvement projects that John did on this house was getting electrical and phone run to the second master closet which is my office. Sounds terrible to work in a closet, right? Actually, it has a window, an A/C vent, and is quite spacious for my work needs. It even has a built-in hardwood closet organizer that functions very well as a bookshelf.

We've been "church shopping" ever since we got down here and (fingers crossed) I think we've finally found our church. It's called Wayside Chapel--it's a bit farther away, and a bit bigger, then I'd really like, but we're not going to let those be stumbling blocks. It's a denomination that I have no disagreements with (Evangelical Free), it has AWANA for the kids, and the people there were so nice. It reminded us a lot of our church in Ohio, Patterson Park. That's high praise.

We're finally all getting healthy and well after having strep pass around among the family--everyone but Mom and I had it. Prayer requests: That we listen to God's leading in finding a church and getting involved there. That John's stress ends as we finally finish unpacking. That John's health increases. That we finally find new bookshelves so we can get all these books out of boxes.

Love you and miss you--ya'll know who you are. Also, we're preschool shopping for Sam, and the field is pretty thin right in this area. Any advice on what to look for in a preschool that is not also functioning as a daycare for us (hint hint LeighAnn)?

Are you sitting down?

I think this was our adventure in "how long can we go without blogging?" It's very late here, so I'm not going to try to give a detailed update all in one sitting. I'm not even going to try to summarize today. Here's the brief version of the last year:

1. Finished building a two car garage. Finished remodeling old garage and laundry room into new master bedroom, master bath and closet, coat closet, and new laundry room.

2. Currently working on finishing basement; wall frames could be up as early as next weekend, immediately followed by tiling on half the basement floor. Would love to be finished with basement by end of October--this may be too optimistic.

3. I work part-time now, from home, as a telephone advice nurse. Love my job and do some traveling to represent our services to perspective clients.

4. John's still in the Air Force and making some major decisions on staying in or getting out in the next 6 months or so--prayers requested/appreciated.

5. Sam and Daniel are doing well, now 3 and 2 respectively. Huge personalities, and bring joy to our lives daily. Sam is deeply into Thomas the Tank Engine and often relates things to trains. Daniel is our dancer and will break out the moves for any good beat. He loves the credits at the end of movies because it usually has the most danceable music.

6. My mom moved in with us (from the West Coast!) in January. It was mostly just for fun, but she's also taken on the role of "granny nanny" while I'm at work. As you can imagine, that has also been tremendously helpful during the construction projects.

7. There's yet another addition coming to our house. We're pregnant again, expecting 18 March 2009. Surprised? Us too!

Love and God's blessing on you all. Please don't have a heart attack because we blogged.