Naomi Girl is Growing Up!!

 

Miss Naomi has just been exploding with words here of late and it has been so fun to hear all her words!  I linked lots of video here of her talking as well to show the progress of where she has come from.  The first video is of her talking on her phone to many various people as you will see.  She loves to play with the Woody doll and he has lots of "sayings" when you pull his string.  She many times will holler out "HEE HAW!" like Woody and here she is dressed like him too!  It is cowgirl Naomi!  When she puts on her clothes she always says, "I do delf, Momma!" and runs away so I can't assist her.  She calls her shoes and socks her "doos and docks." 

 

 Daddy caught a really funny moment when Naomi was describing a "MONSTA!!"  (aka monster).  She gets quite animated in this video telling us ALL about it!! And the above picture is when Miss Naomi got into the sitckers one day.  You can deduce from this that perhaps she might like stickers!  Another funny thing she likes to do of late is to call brother Caleb "DAPA" for whatever reason.  I think that is her version of "brother" and she will call for him all over the house, "DAPA!" and he knows that is his name and comes running.  They seem to be best buddies of late and have a lot of fun together.  However, sometimes I get the "DAPA hurt me, Momma!!"  Whenever I tell her to do something she will say, "Otay, Mommy."  Here is a video of her doing some singing for all of you. 

 

This is a classic Naomi face when she is givng us some attitude.  The other day I was changing her diaper and telling her it was time for naptime.  She argued with me a bit saying, "No," and then I said, "Mommy is in charge and it is time for a nap!"  She then smiled real big and said very matter of factly, "No, Mommy, I in charge!!"  It was VERY hard not to laugh loudly at this point, but I needed to be the Mommy and follow through.  Here she is in a video playing "Patty Cake" with Daddy.  She is growing up so fast and it is such a joy to have her in our family!

High Purple Belt--Movin' On Up!

 

Josiah before his high belt test talking with one of the other boys about Phineas and Ferb shows.  They were getting pretty animated about it too!

Josiah is in the back on the left and they are doing some warmups before they got ready to test. 

Here are the high blues (in the back) and the high purples (in the front) doing their sa ban chuck routines. Josiah did a really fabulous job! I was very proud! Daddy got to go to the belt ceremony, but we were told after the test that he had passed. Here is a link to Josiah doing his Poomse' routine. At the end of the Poomse' video, Master Justin asked Josiah, "Where's my frosty?" Earlier in the week, Josiah was told if he did well at practice he would get a frosty, but that particular day he didn't do so good. Master Justin was just teasing him today though.

 

Afterwards, Master Justin told Josiah that he would be moving up to the "high purple and above" class and that he would need to come to class with two nunchucks.  He was REALLY excited to have a 2nd set and here I said, "Say two nunchucks," and he is pretending to twirl them here to show how ready is!  He is on the way to black belt now for sure.  Master Justin told us he could conceivably have it in about 2 1/2 years if he continues on the path.  Pretty cool!  Great job Josiah!

Our New Home!

 On a fun date this past summer, David and I drove by this home and thought it looked like a really nice place to live, but really didn't think we were in the market yet to buy and at first thought this one would be out of our price range anyway.  What is not pictured here is on the left bottom part of the property is a large, paved area (for playing basketball or whatever) and both David and I looked at it and said, "Bible study parking!"  Anyway, the story goes that I called the listing agent for a viewing and she said she would after we were pre-approved for a loan.  

 

After we were all set up, we viewed three different homes, this one being the last.  The first one we viewed was in a good neighborhood and had some possibilities, but there was a lot in the home that we would have had to remodel.  The second home was far to small and the basement was not finished yet either.  This home that we ended up purchasing was by far the most fabulous and best suited to our families needs!  (This is the long shot of the living room.)  All these pictures were taken before I put up the decorations, but you get the idea. 

 

 This is a side shot of the living room to show the two windows looking out into the front yard.  Also you can see the new love seat and couch we purchased from the previous owner as well.  The living room is on the 2nd floor down from the top and it is the first room you see as you come up the stairs in the front of the house.  On this floor is also the kitchen and the back deck, which includes a covered awning with a table and chairs as well as a really nice BBQ, which we asked the owner to leave behind. 

 

 One of the biggest pluses of this home was the remodeled kitchen!  As you can see, it is really fabulous!!  We are looking forward to hosting the Thanksgiving feast this year with the double ovens and all the space to cook!  Josiah viewed this home with us early on and he then continued to refer to it as the "two oven" home. 

 

Here is another shot of the kitchen.  They really put a lot of money into this room and it shows!  I have really enjoyed cooking since we have moved!  It is also nice to have a place for all my kitchen things now too!

 Our new home has 5 bedrooms (possible 6 if we converted David's office to a bedroom). This is the master bedroom and since this picture I have added a few more pillows to the bed to go with the new bed set that my parents gave us as an anniversary/happy new home gift.  What you can't see here is that there is a door to our own private deck that is hidden by trees on the left and on the right we have a master bathroom as well that features a very deep, jetted bathtub!  :)

 The boys are still sharing a room as you can see here, so that we can all be on the top floor.  Three of the bedrooms are upstairs as well as the guest bathroom that is across the hall from the kid's rooms.

 Naomi has her own room now and the queen bed is down in the guest room.  All the curtains were left by the previous owner and we are very thankful that she left them as they are all very beautiful!  

 Here is a classic shot of the kiddos in the new playroom.  It is hard to see the room, but this is so funny, I had to include it.  This room is the 3rd floor down from the top and also has the laundry room and a half bath attached to it.  There is also a door to the side of the house and a door to the garage from this floor.
 

 The final floor downstairs includes the guest room (as pictured here), David's office (no picture), my office (see below), and the furnace room.  What is really fabulous about all these rooms being grouped together is we were able to put a lock on the door that leads to the downstairs and so can keep the kids away from all these rooms!  It also is neat because David's office is the farthest from that locked door and so when he is working from home, it will be harder to hear the kid noise! 

 I was pleased to have a place to put all my things too!  I have lots of shelves in the room to put all my crochet yarn, sewing things, music books, etc.  Also right outside the hallway, I have my electric piano and all my music, so that when I need to practice, I can put on the headphones and work down there.  We really feel very blessed that it worked out so well for us to buy this home.  The process was far easier than I remembered doing years ago when my parents and I bought a condo together.  As we have settled in, it has really become clear to me that we bought it at the right time and that we chose the right home.