Conversations with boys, vol. 2

I was driving Ethan to school this week and I was dropping him off a little earlier than usual. The following conversation occurred, much to my amusement/chagrin:

Me: I'm dropping you off a little earlier than usual so please behave on the playground.
Ethan: I'm going to make sure I'm not in line by Hanna.
Me: How come?
Ethan: I found out that she's been in love with me since the beginning of the year.
Me: How did you figure that out?
Ethan: She told me.

I only with I could portray the exasperated tone that he had while telling me this--and also the control I tried to maintain so I didn't laugh!

Alas, we only made it to 2nd grade before the school crushes started. The next day he came home with the report that she "snuck up on him" and kissed him. It was hard not to laugh because when I asked him what he did he told me he "screamed for help". He and Jason had a talk about how it's good to be nice to girls, but he was a little young for kissing. He readily agreed, and then stated that he thought he should wait until he's at least 13. Or maybe he said 11. I'm not sure since I was busy trying to hide my face so he wouldn't see me laughing. I have to laugh while I can since I probably won't find it to be so funny a few years from now!

1st Day of Preschool

Micah woke up this morning and said "No more sleeps! I'm so happy!" He was very excited to start preschool today! His teacher told him at his visiting day last week that it was five more sleeps until they started school. He has been counting down ever since he heard that!

It was a long morning for my excited boy. Afternoon preschool involves a lot of waiting. I'm sure the morning felt like an eternity for him. I could definitely tell he was excited. I answered the "Is it time for preschool?" question many times today!


We passed some of the time by taking a few pictures in the back yard. He thought this was great. He kept choosing all different spots to have me take his picture. We zig-zagged all over the yard! I loved the fact that he allowed me so many opportunities to take his picture. I don't often have that chance!


We made sure we took the traditional school picture by the tree! It's hard to get a good, not cheesy, picture of a 4-year-old!


He was thrilled to finally put his new backpack to use. He picked it out with Grandma. This morning we loaded it with a special stuffed animal friend to keep him company in class.


I love the picture above, yet I'm having a hard time coping with the reality of it. He looks so old! I guess that happens! We ended our picture spree with a quick mom/Micah shot. Another favorite!


He had a great day at school. When I picked him up he ran to me and said "I had so much fun!". I'm so thankful for his teachers and how they helped make his first day go so well. They are wonderful teachers (we had them when Ethan was in preschool) and we are looking forward to a great year!

First day of 2nd Grade

Time for another school year to begin! Ethan has been anxiously awaiting this day since the end of 1st grade! We were all up and ready to go right on time (surprisingly, we were not up incredibly early), so we had plenty of time for pictures.

I had to take our now traditional picture by the tree. It's a great place for a first day/last day of school picture.


I was able to take a few nice pictures in between all of his silly faces and poses. The following picture is by far my favorite. Keep in mind that I just shoot the pictures and say "OK, it's time for a nice one" every once in a while. He does all the silliness and posing all on his own!


Can you say "charmer"? This boy...I don't even know what to really say beyond I love him dearly.


By far, my favorite part of the first day of school is that each year the teachers take time to pray with the kids before they even enter their classroom. Because of an incredibly busy parking lot I only caught the tail end of their prayer time, but I love knowing that it's happening. Just coming around the corner to see this reminds me of what a great school this is.


Another great part of the first day is the praise assembly that they have. The principal is wonderful and has a great way of outlining some rules while still being fun. There are 400+ children sitting on the floor (and another 160!! preschoolers will start next week). They spent time singing and learning about the theme for the school year and then off to classes they went!


As the kids all sang, "This is the day that the Lord has made". What a great day it was!

Summer Carnival

Here's a flashback to June because I'm still sorting through pictures...

I was able to take the kids to a summer carnival at our local library. There were all sorts of fun (free!) things for them to do. We started out at the balloon guy since we managed to get there before a huge line formed.

It was easy to wait patiently in line because we could watch them make balloon creations for the other kids. So cool!


I told the boys to stick close to each other since there were so many people. They obeyed...and were cute about it! Definitely something to record and remember!


Both of them chose to have a sword made. They weren't interested in any animals. They were thrilled with the end result.


Norah kindly held on to the balloon creations while her brothers toured the rest of the carnival.


Next we headed to the bounce house (again scoring a short line!) and they had fun jumping around.


After that we lined up for the goldfish race. This was so cute--each of them chose a fish and it was placed in a lane. Once the block was removed they had to blow on the fish to get it to swim to the finish line. Micah gave one little blow and his fish shot right to the end. Ethan kept blowing and blowing and his fish stayed right at the starting point. It was a fun little game!


We played a few other carnival games and they each took home a little bag of prizes. It was a great night!

So much to say

Norah is really starting to "talk" and coo a lot more. Sometimes she only has a few giggles or quiet coos. Other times, she really gets going and has quite a story to tell! We're thinking that once she learns how to talk she's going to be one talkative girl! Jason seems to think she gets that from me!

"Talking" from Janna on Vimeo.

Doesn't she have a sweet little voice?

Conversations with boys

Here's a snippet of a conversation at our house today:

Mom: You need to hop in the shower and get cleaned up.

Boy: Why?

Mom: Because you smell like 'boy'.

Boy: How do you know? You didn't even smell me!

Mom: I just know.

Getting ready for school

We had an opportunity to go to the boys' school (notice the plural--now it's Micah's school, too!) tonight for an open house. It was a chance for Ethan to meet his teacher and check out his new classroom. We also took a peek into Micah's classroom, but he will meet his teachers at a preschool open house next week.


Ethan quickly found his desk and gave it a whirl. He's thrilled that school is starting soon. It was a long summer for this boy. He loves school so much!


He took a tour of the inside of his desk. He has a pencil box filled with all sorts of treasures--a penny, pretend money, a tape measure, dry erase marker, a glue stick, and a pen (this was exclaimed over as he has always used a pencil in school until now!). There were also workbooks and folders. All ready for next Tuesday!


Micah was excited that his classroom was open and we poked around in it for a few minutes. He took some time to meet the preschool birds and the fish.


He also had fun looking around the rest of the room. He's very excited for next week when he is able to look around some more. He'll start school the week after Ethan, so we'll have a little more time to prepare me, I mean him, for school (really, he's so excited there's not much preparation!).

We are all looking forward to getting back into the school routine!

Simple joys

I went out to get the mail at work today and I had to laugh at myself. I couldn't help but smile when I opened the mailbox and there was a huge pile of mail. It seems silly because none of that mail was really for me. However, I was just happy because it was there.

I love getting the mail! I even remember loving it as a kid--and now my boys love to get the mail, too. Granted, I'm not thrilled when I get the bills, but oh the joy of a new magazine! Or, even better, is the hand addressed note from a friend or relative.

There's just something so exciting about flipping through the mail. I guess it's just a random, simple joy in my life. Am I the only one?

Rolling over

Norah is growing so fast! It is so fun to watch her grow and learn how do to different things. She doesn't mind tummy time, so we put her on the floor on her tummy and she loves to look at the boys or mommy and daddy.

While we were at the pediatrician for her two month checkup, the doctor put her on her tummy as she was telling me about the importance of tummy time. Much to the surprise of the doctor, Norah rolled over! The doctor laughed and said, "well, I was going to tell you that usually happens around four months, but I guess not!". After the doctor's appointment we kept putting her on her tummy to see if the rolling over was just a too-heavy-baby-head fluke, but she kept doing it! Now, she's pretty good at rolling when she doesn't want to be on her tummy any more. We don't think it will be too long before she rolls from her back to her stomach either. She can already get herself on her side!

One day (a couple of weeks ago already!) while she was checking out the world from her stomach I grabbed the camera just in case she decided to perform. I was happy when she did! Enjoy my cute girl!

Rolling over from Janna on Vimeo.

Fancy dresses

Jason sometimes reminds me that Norah is not a doll. He says that when I bring out a new outfit to try on her--but mostly he says it when I bring out another new dress for her! Two of the dresses that she's worn my sisters and I wore when we were babies. Our grandmother gave the dresses to my sisters and I, so when my mom pulled them out I was excited to try them on Norah. Absolutely adorable!

This white dress is one from my grandmother. My mom had to tell me that it's a dotted swiss pattern. I wasn't sure what that was until I saw it, but I figured out it's delicate and beautiful! This dress was so tiny in the neck and sleeves that Norah could only wear it for two weeks. She did kind of look like a doll in it!


Once she grew out of the white dress, I pulled out the next one in line. This cute dress is also one from my grandmother. It had intricate smocking on it and ruffles and lace. While she was wearing this dress, Jason commented that it is much more difficult to hook her into her car seat than it was with the boys. All the ruffles and lace get in the way of the buckles!


Since Norah keeps growing, we recently moved to a new dress. This one Jason's mom picked out for her. I've decided that yellow is great on her! I love the big flower on the front of this dress and it has an adorable bow on the back.


It's fun to dress her up! We'll see if she continues to like dresses as she grows. For now, I'll keep having fun with them!

Lovin' for their sister

There is no shortage of people to love on Norah. It helps that she's absolutely adorable and sweet and cute. Her big brothers have days/times where they are indifferent to her presence. Other times we have to practically peel them away from her. I often remind them (especially Micah) that she can see them a whole lot better if they are not two centimeters from her face. When they are kissing on her and cuddling her, it's so sweet that I can't help but grab the camera.



These pictures are from June, but things haven't changed much. They still love talking to her and kissing her and hugging her!



I love how Micah is checking out her dimpled chin in this one. He must be trying to figure out why his mother is always kissing her chin. :)



I believe Miss Norah is not going to be lacking in protectors as she grows. Future boyfriends don't have a chance. :)

Pool Fun

My sister has a pool that my kids love to visit. They love to play in it with their cousins! We had one day where my sister, sister-in-law, mom, and the kids and I could all be there. All of the children were busy getting in and out of the pool and running around in the yard.


With how busy all the children are, it's rare that we can get the oldest ones to sit still for a picture. They actually lined up like this on their own, so I ran for the camera! The only children not pictured were Kimberly and Norah--who were snoozing away in the house!


Nothing better than splashing in the pool--from L to R: Evan, Jennie, Charlie, Rachel, Kathleen, Ethan, and Micah.

Summer Fun

I need to catch up on some posting! I'm hoping to do a few posts over the next couple of days about all the fun we've been having this summer. Since I was on maternity leave for a good portion of summer we had lots of lazy days and did all sorts of activities! I decided to go through my pictures and post, post, post!

At the beginning of June we took the kids to a local parade. As always, the boys got tons of candy (which their mother happily enjoys with them!).


Waiting for the parade to start while hanging out with Charlie. The boys were excited when one of the motorcycle police officers stopped and talked with them. They were really excited when the officer gave them each a sheriff tattoo (when I put them on for the boys, Micah wanted his on his chest. It was pretty funny!).


Micah getting ready to wave at everyone. Nothing like a goofy smile!


Seriously, this child is growing so fast! Well, all my children are growing fast--Ethan just keeps looking older and older!


As you can see, Norah thoroughly enjoyed her first parade. She didn't even flinch when all the fire trucks went by with sirens blaring!


I love parades and my kids do, too! Watching this one made me really look forward to the Fourth of July!

1st grade

Another school year flew by. Ethan is already done with 1st grade! Summer break was not met with much enthusiasm from him. He keeps telling us he would rather be in school. No matter what fun activity we talk about, he still says he'd rather be in school! We are thankful he loves to learn!

Just to give you (and myself) a glimpse of how much he's grown since September, here's his first day of first grade picture:


He looks old enough to me in that picture. Then, I look at his last day of school picture:


He has really grown up! He was making me laugh when we took his picture because he kept trying different poses. Such a funny kid.

Hopefully we'll be able to keep him busy until second grade starts in the fall!

Sleepy Norah

One of my favorite things to do is watch Norah sleep. She sleeps pretty well for a little baby and I love to take her picture while she's sleeping. While she has a number of positions that she sleeps in, her favorite way is to sleep with both arms above her head. We know that she is in a really deep sleep when she is like that--she won't wake up to eat and she'll sleep through a lot of noise. I thought I would post pictures of how cute she is in her sleep.

An arms up deep sleep position--with an open hands variation.

Another arms up, this time with tight little fists.


A unique on the side "because my parents have been bothering me and and I'm trying to get them to leave me alone" position.


Deep "who needs a pacifier" sleep.


Slumped in the bouncy seat position.


Finally, the "I don't want any blankets" position,

Norah generally sleeps the best when she's cuddled with someone (and I have a hard time resisting that!). However, when we want her to sleep on her own we swaddle her with a blanket. She sleeps great that way and usually doesn't kick out of the blankets until she wakes up hungry. Such a cute baby girl!

Dirt

You may think that the birth of Miss Norah made things all "sugar and spice and everything nice" around here. Trust me, that's not happening. There's still plenty of dirt and mischief! The boys have been enjoying plenty of time in the sandbox. However, they don't just dig holes and drive trucks in it. They lay in it, roll in it, scoop it with their hands (and clothes), and generally just wholeheartedly enjoy it. Since they were remarkably filthy one day, Jason took a couple of pictures. Evidence of the dirt!


Shovels are old school around here. These guys prefer the use of the shovels God gave them. I'd also like to note that they generally scoop dirt into their shirts and pockets and then jump around laughing. While I can understand what a riot that is to a 4 and 7 year old, trying to wash it out of clothes is enough to drive this mom crazy! We'll see if my "don't put dirt in your shirt anymore" declaration will actually hold.


Thankfully they prefer not to wear shoes in the sandbox. These toes need some good scrubbing in the shower when they come in! No baths are allowed, showers only, when the toes are this dirty.


Seriously. Don't those faces cry "mischief"? I told you they roll in the dirt. I think that little boy spit plus rolling in the dirt equals one muddy face. I think Ethan already ate his fair share of dirt so he keeps his face farther away from the sand!

Despite the extra laundry, soap, and showers that they require after playing in the sandbox, it's one of the best toys we have and we love it!

Norah Elizabeth

Dear Norah,

We have been praying for you and dreaming about you for many days and months. While you were in mommy's tummy we didn't know if you were a boy or a girl and we were very anxious to find out! You were a busy girl in my tummy--always moving around! Your favorite position was often one where a little foot or elbow was in my rib cage. Your brothers thought it was "unusual" when they watched my stomach move as you moved around.


We were so excited to finally meet you, one week before your due date, on May 17, 2010. You entered this world at 1:44 p.m. and once the doctor set you on my stomach your daddy was able to declare "it's a girl!". You weighed 8 lbs 3 oz and were 19 inches long. I was surprised at how big you were--bigger than both of your brothers when they were born! Your daddy also noticed right away that you have the same dimple in your chin as he does. It's adorable!



We picked the your name, Norah, simply because we loved the name. Your middle name, Elizabeth, is the same as mine. We thought they sounded beautiful together.



Your daddy and I spent a lot of time holding you and cuddling you and getting to know you. Not only did we notice the dimple in your chin, but we loved it when we noticed the way your chin would periodically quiver.


After a while we called your grandparents, aunts, and uncles to share our good news. There were many happy exclamations as we said again and again "it's a girl!". We had a room full of people when everyone came to the hospital to meet you!


Daddy picked your brothers up and brought them to the hospital to meet you. They were happy to see you and carefully checked you out. They were each excited to hold you and I loved how proud they were as they held you.

Your dad and I are so thankful that you have joined our family. God has blessed us with another wonderful child and we love you very much. We can't wait to watch you grow and change.


With love to my baby girl,

Mom