Two Year Old Tee-Tommy

We just love this little guy who...
says, "Pray me, Mom." (how he asks me to pray for him at nap and bedtime)

says, "Me no cry-nin, Mom." (as he aggressively wipes both eyes with one hand covering each eye and with his fingertips starting at his forehead, he quickly pulls his fingers straight down from his forehead to his chin swiping away any remaining tears...ADORABLE!)

says, "Eight o'clock!" ANYtime someone asks what time it is...apparently, it is ALWAYS eight o'clock in Tommy time.

says, "Him fly?" about any and every character in Star Wars or any and every Superhero we see. "Him no cape!" as his response to me when I inform him that one of the characters he's inquired about doesn't fly. And, "Him CAPE!" when he's confused about why I've said a character doesn't fly and yet he observes that the character does have a cape on as part of his wardrobe.

says, "Two!" holding up both pointer fingers straight to the sky when someone asks him how old he is. (my favorite! please don't outgrow this!)

said, "Touchy down! Touchy down!" and danced around the den victoriously when the Redskins scored during a game in November.

asked, "You pray-nin?" when he attended service with me and observed my eyes closed. Then said, "Oh!" and clapped his hands tightly together and squinted his eyes closed bowing his head, then looked left sideways out of the corners of his eyes to see if I was still "pray-nin."

says, "YAY!!! God's food!" when it is time for Communion during our church service. (totally Tommy-made-up phrase because no one has ever called it that!)

reminds us, "say 'Yay God!" because we often forget or at least don't start our meals with our family tradition of saying "Yay God!" for each person as they tell us about that day's blessings and problems. Tommy NEVER forgets "Yay God!" time during meals. He is quick to remind us that it is time to go around the table proclaiming our "Yay God" for that day.

declared that the tiny baby koala bear was riding the Daddy Koala's back...Tommy didn't know that most babies ride with their moms...he LOVES his Daddy soooo much, he simply assumed that baby koalas would be riding their Daddies' backs like he enjoys doing.

December 8, 2010

Tommy was taking his job of holding a gift during one song quite seriously. He knew when to shake, shake the gift as part of the song's motions. His first gift was shake, shaken loose by Tee Tom and had to be replaced mid-song because the package was coming apart from my aggressive package shaking son! He took it all in stride, though, and didn't melt down when his gift was shedding and had to be exchanged with a new one to shake.

Tommy had a BIG accomplishment yesterday evening...pee pee in the potty (finally!!!!) It's been many-a-week with "no diapie," as Tommy says. He reports to everyone in the family, especially Daddy, that he has no diapie on. But despite, "no diapie," there has been no successful
potty-ing going on at all. He had one tiniest of tiny poops (a poop droplet) a week ago...we celebrated it because he actually sat and tried for real for the first time. He's had quite a few pee pee mistakes and a couple poop mishaps...Yuck!! Not like the other kids...they just "got it" one day and went potty with VERY few accidents ever between the three of them. They were also right at three years old, whereas Tommy still had five months until he'd turn three. It helped that Fletcher had made a big deal of watching and learning from him, the big brother, last week. He showed him (again) how he holds his penis to go pee pee standing up. So Tommy's first successful attempt was a long (!) standing up pee pee. I didn't cheer, though I was kneeling right there holding Noah, until he was ALL the way done for fear of either me or Noah getting sprayed with a stream of urine. Tommy cracked me up when he was trying to pee one time a few days prior and while standing up holding his penis said, "Hey! Hide-nin!" He laughed that his penis was hiding! :)


Tommy's holding the elephant (hasn't let go since yesterday) that he chose out of "treasure box" for going potty in the toilet.

Paris lost her third tooth right before we left for Community Bible Study. It was her first top tooth. She may lose the top left one soon because it is also loose. Then she'd be able to sing, "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth!" Her good friend, Callie Adams, has no top front teeth right now and looks adorable. It would be a cute picture of the two of them together with no front teeth.

Paris can still fit in the Christmas outfit Gammy gave her last year. Praise God! She looks adorable in it. Yay, Gammy!!

Tommy's First Program...singing with his CBS class

Not the best pictures (too far away to have the flash work effectively) but such a cute program...the kids' songs were ADORABLE. Tommy loves "the monkey in the jungle, the bear in the forest..." (don't know the lyrics but the song is about how all the animals praise God with their noises and the kids praise God with their voices- the song has super cute body motions to go with each verse about the different animals that Tommy and Paris LOVE doing!)

Tommy's buddy from church, Ryken, is smiling at the camera in this picture. I'd tell Tommy it is time to go to CBS and that he'd get to see his friends Ryken and Josie. He'd say, "Yay!" and then, "Me friend, Ryken, he no me drive plane playground!" Apparently, being the pilot of the playground airplane was something all the CBS kids struggled to share.

For some reason the kids on both sides of Tommy needed to check out their belly buttons during the singing! Tommy's must have been intact because he didn't feel the need to look at his. The kids' good girl friend, Charlie Venske, was diagonally behind Tommy and her Dad, Deane, and I rolled when she felt the need to sit down right at her spot to tie her boot lace and redo her pink tie headband in the middle of a song. So adorable.

December 6 in Mrs. Appel's class

Our little waitress passing out the cupcakes she made for her classmates.

She has been WAITING for this day for soooo long!

Maliek and Destiny (one of her two best friends from Mrs. Appel's class) can be seen behind her:

Pay Pay's shoulders hunch in her bashful posture...it used to surface when she was younger as a "chin tuck to chest and left ear to left shoulder while looking out the tops of her eyes" posture. She was feeling bashful as her classmates sung "Happy Birthday" to her during circle time. I was SO thankful I got to see her reaction- it was precious!

Starting to feel timid during circle time...

I no longer describe her as shy, however. She is in many ways more bold than Sarah or Fletcher right now. The go-carts and other recent situations have shown us just how "brave" she is! Small example: Paris will stand alone in a fast food line to ask the worker for a water cup. She no longer needs help or company to do things she might have felt insecure doing alone or independently a year or so ago.

Our SIX year old...

still loves all things "P"...pink, purple, paint ponies, pigs, plums, pears, peppermint, princesses, Polly Pockets, Pet Shops, Poppa Sam, Popsy!!

Paris' Pony Party

Johanna Perry enjoying the pony activities:
Destiny and Callie petting the horses waiting to be adopted:

Sarah and Fletcher excited to ride:

Paris' 6th birthday party was held at Friends of Horses Rescue and Adoption. The facility is rustic but the people could not be NICER! The owner/manager, Bill, is super laid-back and was great to work with. There were four horses for the girls to ride with about ten volunteers that helped to lead the kids around an outdoor arena. It was great that each of the children got as many turns as they wanted on each of the horses. The kids rode for well over an hour and then took a tractor-pulled wagon hay ride around the property past the chickens, goats, horses and foals, and calves. There was lots of squealing and much fun had by the party-goers.

Paris' friends had pony treats (apple slices and baby carrots), but we made sure the ponies got the real deal with big carrots and some apple scraps, as well. The kiddos played "Horse, Horse, Pony!" which only varies from "Duck, Duck, Goose" in that you have to canter after the tagger who names you the pony and if the tagger is caught, he is sent out to pasture in the stink pot middle of the circle. The kids acted like this was the best game ever! So funny! They also played a variant of "Red light, green light"..."All the ponies in the pasture...trot. HALT!" And then, "All the ponies in the pasture....gallop. Halt!!" The kids could have played this much longer had time permitted.
Paris and McKenna. Fun that Sarah is super good friends with Kenna's big sis, Lexi. Kenna was excited that she got to have a sleep-over this time instead of it always being Lexi at our house!
Tommy LOVED riding Cowboy. He'd say, "Me ride Black Jack. NO! (ha! ha! he'd laugh.) Me ridin' Cowboy!"
The kids all seemed to like their turns on Flour, Cowboy, Grizzly and Bob.
Paris' favorites are paints. She's influenced Sarah in that way, too. Sarah now seems to prefer paints and palaminos, as well.
Noah grabbed a nap in the Bjorn once he got all snuggled up in his snow suit! We call him the baby polar bear when he wears it. He's pretty darn cutie, if I do say so.

Our HIL-arious tree...

Not to be mistaken for a scrawny leaning tower of Pisa...the tree seems to slump right more and more each day! It is definitely not sturdy by any stretch of the imagination!

Here are Tommy and Fletcher in their matching Reindeer sweatshirts from Gammy. Fletcher and I were privileged to meet Twilight, a real reindeer from Siberia who was a very rare white reindeer. Not albino, just white fur and even white fuzz on his beautiful antlers. So special. We weren't expecting to meet a reindeer on our quick rollerblading excursion!
Tommy in his super cutie, super warm doggie with antlers jammies from Gammy. He is holding his "fire dogs" (dalmation puppies) that Gammy gave him this year for the first Advent gift (the tradition she does for the kids each year).

Chopping down our Charlie Brown Christmas Tree

The Friday after Thanksgiving we ventured into the Coloradian woods to chop down a Christmas tree with another couple who has done it for many years. All that is required is a ten dollar permit and you can choose any tree, any size you want. The kids had fun venturing into the woods to find the family tree. Needless to say, we found a great Charlie Brown Christmas tree. The girls chopped it down with a little handsaw and Sarah carried it back to the Chuckwagon. Our tree and our friends' tree both fit in the back of the van!

No trees in here, Mom and Dad!

The girls chopped our tree and Fletcher worked on our friends' tree. Fun, fun!

The thing with CO is they actually like you to remove the "extra" trees that grow wild and just serve as more kindling if a forest fire breaks out. You just drive anywhere within the designated area and get any tree you want for each $10 permit you've purchased. There is not an actual tree "farm" like Charlie and I did our very first year of marriage. The trees were in relatively straight lines and were fairly plump. We did choose the only UGLY tree that farm had...Charlie had his heart set on the "Charlie Brown tree" and we did choose the scrawniest one they'd grown. The worker actually chopped it down, though. We just pointed to it. We did end up loving that tree once we got all the ornaments on it...not so this year!! Our tree is hilarious looking! Don't think "love" is the word for how we feel about this year's tree...more like, "nag." It is so REEEdiculous looking!

Three month Noah

Little man is so sweet! His new trick is cooing. He's been smiling for well over a month (since like six weeks old), but now he verbalizes with his big grins. It seems like he is trying to answer back when we talk to him! He makes little agha's and uhhun's while smiling so cheerfully at us. It melts me. He is such a joy!

Noah is now enjoying his swing for longer intervals. He has always been a good sleeper in his bassinet, although he is a tummy sleeper (ahhh, I know he's not supposed to!) He just made the 12 hour plus car ride to the Grand Canyon and then Las Vegas and Arches National Park with no problem at all. What a trooper! One day (while he was struggling with a cold and super congested nose) he didn't eat for like 10 hrs. which freaked me out a bit....cuz' he's an eater!

The kid doesn't miss many meals. To have basically gone from bfast to evening without accepting any of my attempts to nurse him was a bit concerning so I was soooo thankful when he finally felt like eating again....my body was VERY thankful, too! So Noah had his first cold at two months old which was a bummer. He was so little to be struggling with that much snot! He'd have wet spots under his face that would wake him up and he'd be so ticked off! The snot prevented him from breathing well and he'd wake up choking on it and gagging like he was going to sufficate. It was terrible!!

At three months Noah is trying to grasp toys for the first time. He is swatting at a few baby toys the kids give him.

We are thankful for...

Our Thanksgiving "tablecloth" (cream bedsheet) was a place to record what we were thankful for this year. The kids were able to draw pictures and write notes about what they were thankful for right on the sheet. Mommy and Daddy had prepared notes about why we were thankful for each child and left the notes at each child's spot around the table for them to find in the morning when they first got up. The kids loved reading their notes about why we were thankful for them. We went around the table at our breakfast meal and took turns reading the notes out loud for all to enjoy. The kids then decided to hang them up for us to remember throughout the week. Their turkey handprint art and our thankful notes adorned the walls this week until we replaced them with some Christmas decorations. Fun, fun!

Sarah was thankful for her "hole" family, friends, teachers, her home and belongings, and God. She was particularly thankful for her super sweet art teacher, Ms. Kendra, from her Monart class on Tuesday nights. I'll post some of her finished pieces soon (they're so fun).
You can't read it on the wall behind Sarah but on Mommy's note apparently Noah wrote that he was thankful for Mommy's boobs! Our Daddy is soooo silly! Our family got kicks out of this but then forgot about it until after our first round of visitors left. We laughed thinking about what this couple must have thought as they read that. After that, Charlie just pointed it out to the other guests (all his guy friends!) much to my embarassment. :) Oh well!
When asked, Tommy said he was thankful for Daddy. Then after a three second pause, "And Batman." :) So both Daddy and Batman got drawn on the tablecloth. Fletcher was thankful for his family (and he drew each of us) and "nice friends" (so he drew some buddies from school).
Paris was thankful for Mrs. Appel (pronounced "apple"), her Kindergarten teacher. She drew a cute picture of her on the cloth.

Brothers Bonding

Tommy assumes that Noah will love Star Wars as much as he and big bro Fletcher. "Noah, you grow up, you watch Dar Vader, me!!!" (translated: When you grow up, Noah, you can watch Darth Vader with me.)

Tommy showing Noah how Jabba the Hut's trap works. Batman demonstrates the fall into the pit. Noah can wear Tommy's Christmas outfit from Gammy. She was so cute and got these for Tommy when he was almost nine months old. Noah just turned three months, and the outfit is working for him just fine! I loved that Gammy got this for Tommy to wear to church for his Christmas outfit....I called her and asked, "Did you know they were jammies?" She was shocked and said, "No! I thought it was his Christmas outfit." Well, Tommy sported those jammies to church every weekend in December and lots of days in between because we loved them so much. Now Noah gets to wear them, too. LOVE hand-me-downs!!! Especially ones with great memories attached with them!

Arches National Park- November 23, 2010

Charlie with Noah: Aug. 22 & Nov. 22, 2010

Kids at the South Rim