Fall Party

For Josiah's homeschooling curriculum, it was suggested that we plan a fall or Halloween party as something fun to do. Since we don't celebrate Halloween, the logical choice was to have a fall party instead. We invited one friend over (Josiah's friend Hannah) and had three fun activities. The first activity as you may have guessed was to decorate pumpkin cookies. One thing I found helpful, was that I put the frosting on first without the kid's help and then put the decorations out for them to adorn their sugary pumpkins.

They of course also had to enjoy the lovely sugary goodness as well though none of them finished their cookies. They had just had lunch, so I think their tummies were full.

We then carved pumpkins, but first I read them a story called, "The Pumpkin Patch Parable" by Liz Curtis Higgs. It is really cute and it makes an analogy about pumpkins and pumpkin carving to the Christian message of salvation. The pumpkin seed is the Word sown in the heart, the pumpkin growing is like different people (all pumpkins are different sizes and shapes), taking out the slimy gunk is like working on getting rid of the sin in our lives (see note at the bottom about this point), putting a light in represents Christ's light in us and lastly, the smiley face would be our joy in Christ shown to others. As we did each step, I tried to make the concept stick. We shall see if it does! At the end I had them pose by their pumpkins (that Laura, Linda & I carved), and had them do different faces for each shot. Above here is their silly faces.

Josiah and Caleb were the only ones to really get into the whole scooping out the gunk stuff! Hannah was a little reluctant to get here hands dirty and Daniel hardly tried at all to do so. Note to self: carving pumpkins takes a long time (even a simple design) and is not super kid friendly other than the scooping the gunk part. This picture is showing their super sad faces. Caleb's and Josiah's were the funniest in this shot!

This was their super MAD faces! And here Hannah and Daniel had the funniest faces. Guess I can't get them all at once! You may have noted in the prior two photos also that the BIG pumpkin has a cross and two hearts and the little kid pumpkins with happy faces are looking to the cross.

The last activity planned for the party was to try apple bobbing. It is hard by the way to GET a picture of kids bobbing for apples! This was one of the best of Caleb and Hannah going for it! Hannah was so cute, she was gingerly getting her face near the water, but didn't want to get wet. Caleb and Daniel didn't really try to hard, but decided instead to just reach in and grab and apple, take a bite and then throw it back in a few times. Ummmm.....note to self again....bobbing for apples is not a game for 2 year olds! Oh well, it was fun!

Josiah was the only one to really DIVE IN (literally) to try and get an apple with his teeth. He was unsuccessful, but he got a little wet in the process and did a funny shaking off the water dance at one point as well. Daniel was busily eating an apple as you see here.

Our crazy Josiah boy, having a blast at the fall party. They all crashed (thankfully for me) soon afterward and I had Laura and Linda here to help me clean up a bit! It was a fun time for all and we sent Hannah home with a bunch of cookies to share with her family and her little pumpkin also. This was definitely a fun tradition I hope to be able to repeat each year.

**Note regarding the pumpkin book: Though the pumpkin analogy was cute and had some direct correlations, I wanted to point out that one does NOT have to have ALL sin removed from their lives before they can ask Christ to come in. We can all repent of our sin and ask Christ to enter at any time. It is over TIME that then we are called to holiness and little by little God chips away at various areas of sin in our lives and as we grow in Him and rid ourselves of that SIN, Christ in us can then shine brighter and our JOY in the Lord can be more evident as we show it outwardly by our actions. I found it interesting to note that if we do not remove the sin (or pumpkin gunk) that Christ's light in us would essentially be hidden from the world. "Hide it under a bushel....NO....I'm gonna let it shine!" Blessing to you all! I pray that you know the Lord Jesus Christ!

Girly Girly-ness!

Miss Naomi and her little cute tongue action. If you can't read her shirt it says, "I'm cute, Mommy's cute and Daddy's lucky!" :)

She is 7 1/2 months in these photos and is looking as cute as ever. She has been getting close to crawling lately, but I still have to encourage her to keep her knees up to try it. She can hold her head up nicely on her tummy, but doesn't like to keep her tummy in the air along with her head, but would rather flop down and pivot and scoot backward on her tummy or kick her feet vigorously hoping they will help her swim forward to the object she wants. When she is near an object to pull up on, she tries but doesn't quite have the muscle yet to do it all on her own. She loves it though when we prop her up and let her stand and hold onto something. Today she managed to sit down from that position without falling backward, so that is good too.

She loves to chew on her toes now too when she gets the chance and here she is trying to get a taste.

SUCCESS!!

Yet Another Beautiful Sunset

Since we live on the north hill, we get some REALLY neat shows in the evening from time to time. This day the whole sky was lit up with color and it was just gorgeous!

Fun Fall Pictures

Caleb is most definitely our clown of the Carpenter crew. I just love, love, LOVE his expressions! He is always making me laugh with his antics of late!

He thought he was pretty funny making himself a leaf hat in this one! Caleb is most definitely also our outdoorsmen. He will sometimes request to be outside and will sit out there in the back yard by himself just playing with leaves or walking around the yard. Daniel and Josiah just don't really do that. I have the feeling Caleb will be our avid hiker for years to come of the bunch! After the recent day of hiking, Daddy was praying with Caleb and he thanked God for the "ribers (rivers), ribbits (frogs), hiking, and BIG mountains." Of all the boys, he gets the most giddy about being in the mountains!

At the park we went to in Ashford last weekend, I found him in this state saying, "Want down, Momma!" Thankfully, I had the camera on and ready and so took a shot before helping him get down. He just has no fear sometimes!

He is having a fun time in the little rocking dinosaur here giving another great expression.

I wish the shadows weren't covering Daniel's beautiful blues, but this is such a classic Daniel shot and he is so happy in this photo! Something funny he is doing lately is he will turn on the lights (at any time of day) and say to me, "It's Good Morning, Momma!" He has also taken to saying, "bother" when he is frustrated (compliments of me)! He can say the Pledge of Allegiance now (albeit a bit mumbled/mispronounced) without us helping and he loves to sing various songs as well such as Jesus Loves Me, the ABC's (an old favorite), Twinkle, Twinkle and a few others.

Daniel also enjoyed riding on the rocking dinosaur as well. Daniel is hilarious on the trails, after a while he huffs and puffs very dramatically as if it is SUCH WORK to be hiking. I am sure he would rather play his Leapster in the car, but we are encouraging him to get out and exercise a bit! He does enjoy exploring for sure, but any time there is much of a challenge or risk involved he opts out.

Josiah was all over the playground and it was hard to catch him motionless at any time! We also went on a little hike around the area (a paved trail most of the time) and had a nice time together collecting leaves, flowers, and other plant life. Josiah found a friend at the playground (much to his delight) and they had fun climbing up the grass mountain behind the play area and exploring the back sides of the grass mountain. It took some coaxing to get Daniel to go up the grass mountain, he kept saying, "I just can't do it, I just can't do it!" However, when he saw a well-beaten path, he went up easily and then said at the top, "I did it!" Caleb went off the beaten path pushing his way through grasses and such to climb, he didn't need a path whatsoever! One time though Caleb fell on one side of the grass mountain and Josiah came to his aid. It was very sweet.

This picture of Naomi isn't ALL that much different from others I have posted, but this was proof she came with us to the playground and hike. I do like the lighting on this photo though, it turned out really clear and bright.

Beautiful Naomi Girl!!

PROUD MOMMY ALERT!!! :)

I took these of sweet little baby girl the other day prior to going to church. She is just so stinking cute! I just LOVE LOVE LOVE having a little girl in the house. I feel like I have a little tiny advocate even now!! :) This Mommy is no longer the lone estrogen producer in the family and it is fun to think of the future Mommy and daughter things we can do together! I do love my boys too of course, but this has just been such a FUN experience having a girl!

Did I mention she is like the easiest baby ever? She is so even-keeled and goes with the flow! She does get upset from time to time, but it is super easy to know why, and when you take care of her she is back to her smiley, happy little self! Her name means "pleasant" or "beautiful" and I think she typifies them both!

The Many Faces of Caleb & Daniel

Today I FINALLY took them for their two-year-old check-up at the pediatrician. Now granted, they did go to the developmental clinic, so I wasn't COMPLETELY lax in getting them in to be seen. They needed their shots though, so I bit the bullet and brought them in to get it done! I posted so many pictures this time because I was laughing at all of them. I was telling them to make certain faces in each one. Here are their happy faces!

This was the "grumpy face" and as you can see Caleb is the real ham in all the pictures (pretty much how he is in real life all the time!) Caleb is also our lightweight coming in at 30 pounds even (40th percentile). He is 36 inches tall (25th percentile) and he has a big head at 20 inches (75th percentile). He had a little cold today and because his throat was red, she checked for strep, but thankfully he did NOT have it!! Yeah!

These were their sad faces. Daniel's faces don't change TOO much, but you can see the extreme Caleb faces in each one. He just cracks me up! Daniel is our chunk of change and he weighed in at 34 pounds 8 ounces (80th percentile)! He is 39 1/2 inches tall (95th percentile!!!) and he has a HUGE head at 20 1/2 inches (over 95th percentile!) Can we say Charlie Brown head? Well, not quite, but it is big!

Now the twins are SURPRISED!! The doctor was pleased to hear Caleb speak a four word sentence while he was there ( "I did it Momma" ) and he also dressed himself while she was looking at Daniel and she was impressed to see he could do that. Daniel was a great patient too while she looked to see if there were any "monkeys" in his ears and he willingly opened his mouth to say, "Ahhhhh." Caleb wouldn't cooperate for that part, but that could be because his throat was sore.

Here are their SILLY faces! I was SO SO GLAD they got us in and out quickly as they managed to climb all over the waiting room chairs (the receptionist asked D to sit down while I was paying the co-pay) and throw all the magazines on the floor (Caleb's handiwork) even before we got in the room! Then they proceeded to explore most every nook and cranny of the tiny room to try and find more things to destroy. I had enough books and things to distract them with to keep them out of trouble for the most part, but they were ready to go towards the end for sure! They of course did not like their shots, but the crying was quick and they soon forgot it happened. They are quite the pair these two! I have found that when I have one of them at a time, it seems to be manageble to do normal 2-year-old types of activities (baking cookies, messier art projects, etc) with them, however, when they are both trying to do them with me it is really tough to keep the peace and keep the "activity" in tact! Usually while I am engaging one of them, the other one is destroying his project or throwing the materials on the floor. You know....GREAT fun boy mischief! *Sigh* We LOVE our little boys! They are so unique and fun and I pray I can meet the challenge to raise them up right!

New Haircut

This is NOT the greatest picture of me, BUT it is a great picture of my new haircut! There is a gal down our street who does hair in her own little studio and she did a great job! I would recommend her to anyone looking for a hairstylist! I decided to chop off a lot of length this time for something different! Since I pretty much only get my hair cut once a year or so, I figured if I didn't like it short, it would grow again soon enough! The good news is though that I do like it! Annie said that despite not having a haircut in a long time that my hair was pretty healthy and that she liked my natural color. I guess not curling my hair much, not using much product in my hair and RARELY blow drying my hair pays off in some way, yes? My idea of doing my hair is usually brushing it and putting it in a pony tail and adding a hairclip or two to keep it all back. You know...the frumpy mom do!

Puyallup Fair

This year Josiah entered the Lego Creation contest at the fair again. Last year he got a "Craftsmanship" ribbon, but this year he will just receive a participation ribbon only. I think he was a little disappointed as pictured above, but it is good for him to learn to be a good sport! I was amazed that he got a ribbon last year as he literally just put his creation together rather quickly, and this year we spent more time working on different projects until he came up with this one.

He called it a "Car Shooter." If you look closely you can see the reflection of it in the mirrored glass and also Josiah's reflection pointing at his creation. It was quite an adventure to even get to the fair this year! We left at 10am and didn't actually enter the fair until a little before noon as the traffic was totally backed up due to the road closure for the parade to kick off the fair and because lots of people were trying to get in free between 10am and noon that day. I heard later there were over 75,000 people there on the first day....no wonder! Anyway, we walked quite a distance from our car because we got tired of getting stuck on all the side streets. We had the twins in the double stroller and Naomi in the single stroller, so we were quite a sight.

Josiah and Daniel are grinding grain here together at the Pioneer Village display.

Caleb and Daniel are "churning butter" or some such thing here. The lady allowed them to bring it onto the ground so that Caleb could turn the handle easier.

They had kids fire jackets at the fire station booth and Josiah was very pleased to be able to try one on. Daniel kept taking his stick-on tattoo that they gave him and repeatedly tried to stick it on the board with all the fire station badges on the wall.

We didn't stay at the fair too long because David had to get back to work (he was working a bit from home the day we went) and I needed to find a place to feed Naomi, so we walked back toward our car and stopped at Pioneer Park and let the kids run off some energy. On the way to park, Josiah (who walked a long ways from our parked car to the fair and then around the fair and back with us) said, "I am REALLY tired of walking....but I have some running left!" It was a good thing 'cause he wanted to do some running on the playground. David went and retrieved our car and brought it over to the park so we didn't all have to walk the entire way back.

Kalaloch Lodge Family Vacation

This last Wednesday and Thursday nights we stayed at Kalaloch Lodge on the Washington coast up on the north end of the state. Kalaloch is about 40 miles south of Forks for you Twilight fans. Some of the cabins had kichenettes (ours did) and they all have wood burning stoves as well. They supply the wood for you too, which was nice! There are no TV's, no phones, and no cell phone coverage (we discovered), so it was a refreshing technology FREE kind of vacation. On the way there, Daddy told Josiah, "And there will be no TV in our room!" He looked at me and said, "Is that true, Momma?" Stay tuned for what he says about that later! We spent some time on the beach as well as hiking in the woods. Above is a shot of Josiah playing in the water at the beach with the seagulls in the background. I don't have the best camera in the world, but I know a good shot when I see it! On the first morning, we had breakfast in the lodge restaurant and Josiah pointed at the ocean and said, "Look the ocean is waving!" So, we all "waved" back!


There was a little gazebo near the beach trail where the rangers would come and give little talks about the area. I managed to get the boys to pose for a picture for a brief moment before heading down the trail. Daddy was resting in the cabin with a sleeping Naomi girl.

It is hard to catch the twins in action most of the time, but I think this is a decent one of them to show how active they are and how much they like to climb over things. Our trip was not without twin mischief, which is no surprise of course! Upon arriving at the cabin, a curious Caleb was trying to open a drawer in one of the rooms and he didn't know his own strength apparently as the side table rocked forward onto him and the lamp fell and broke. An interesting way to start our adventure and hopefully the cost of replacing it won't set us back too far, but such is life when you have adventurous twin boys I guess!

We went hiking on the beach and the boys were having a blast climbing on all the driftwood. At one point, Josiah said, "I found something icky, Momma...it's right there!" I looked at it and said, "Oh, it is probably just bird poop, you can go wash your hand in the water." After he made this face at me, I started laughing and he got a little embarrassed. I told him it was OK and he went and washed his hand off in the little river that was going out to the ocean.

On the way to the cabin, Caleb made up his own little song, "Going cabin, going cabin, going CA-BIN!" At first, we couldn't tell what he was saying as it wasn't perfectly pronounced, but we figured it out after a while when he kept doing it! He was very excited to go to the cabin! Everywhere we went, he had to be sure and collect a few sticks to carry with him as he walked in true Caleb style!

Prior to leaving the house, I was dressing Caleb in his overalls and Daniel took one look at him and said, "I want farm!" This translates to, "I want overalls too!" Needless to say, as you see pictured here, he did get his "farm" clothes on! On the way to the cabin, Daniel was getting a little antsy in the car and we tried to distract him when we got to the road by the ocean by telling him to look out the window and try to find the ocean. At first he kept repeating, "I can't see it," and then he added, "Go 'way trees!!" Finally, a break in the trees came and he exclaimed, "I SEE OCEAN.....I win!!!" At breakfast the next morning, Daddy was making a "guitar" with a rubber band and two crayons and Caleb was strumming it as we were waiting for our food. Daniel interrupted and hollered, "STOP, STOP!!" with his hands palms out in the "stop" sign. Daddy said, "What?" and turned to look at him and he sheepishly responded, "'Cause," and then covered his face with his hands and smiled.

While the twins were taking their nap on the second day, Daddy and Josiah got to spend some time alone together going to a nearby beach to play in the surf and have quality Daddy and son time. They passed by this sign for the July Creek picnic area and Josiah very excitedly pointed out to Daddy, "No triangle hats allowed over there!!" And it was a good thing, 'cause we didn't bring any triangle hats along with us!!

The first night at the cabin was rough for getting everyone to sleep, or more specifically getting Caleb to sleep. This meant that Mommy was REALLY tired the next day as I was the one who got up with him each time he woke up. Because of that, Mommy needed a nap and so Daddy took the boys on a nearby hike while I had a LONG nap and a shower and hung out with baby girl in the cabin (one of the highlights of the trip for me actually). David took the boys on this hike up to a big cedar tree. There was a lady that saw them along the way who remarked that even some people her age (middle-aged gal) wouldn't trek up this trail, so she marveled that the little ones were making it up the trail. There were some pretty steep steps David said and Daniel did his usually huffing and puffing to indicate how "hard" it was for him to do! Josiah was a good leader though and Daddy was at the tail end to bring up the stragglers. They collected some ferns and sticks too (we have a picture of their feet and their little collection which is cute also).

It took some convincing to get Daniel to get this close to the water, but with Daddy nearby both twins were a little braver to face the cold ocean water. We have video though of the twins getting near to the waves and then running frantically away as they got closer to them. Caleb was a little braver than Daniel, but he also feigned being a scaredy cat from time to time as well to get some attention and to mimic his brother.

Here they all are being brave. Josiah on the far left, Caleb next, Daniel bringing up the rear and Daddy on the far right. Josiah had a BLAST jumping over the waves and couldn't get enough of the ocean! At one point, Daniel got even braver and went closer to the water, but he wasn't paying too close attention to the incoming waves. Then a bigger one came and he noticed too late and started running away and it washed over him (he wasn't deep at all and Daddy was nearby) and he fell over flat into the sand. This was NOT popular!! He was soaked all the way through and got sand on his face. Caleb promptly then flopped down in the water as well (though he clearly did not fall) to soak himself so he too could get some Mommy comfort and a towel.

Daniel had the biggest, saddest pouty bottom lip here as he was shivering from getting his pride washed over by the waves. Caleb wasn't too heartbroken, but was enjoying the warm towel anyway. After this, Daniel stayed close to Mommy on the beach to try and warm up.

Naomi got to feel the sand between her toes as well and she seemed to enjoy it. She tried to grab the sand and wanted to taste the rocks Daniel was playing with also. It was a nice warm day to be on the beach and we wished we had our shorts and flip flops, but we weren't sure it was going to be so nice, so we made do with what we had! Guess it is better to have warmer clothes than the other way around!

Josiah loves to be around his baby sister. Almost TOO much sometimes! He gets this funny voice and does this, "Baby daby, baby daby," chant that drives me crazy after a while and then gets this high pitched squeal and this kissy face sound which is supposed to get her to want to take her pacifier. He gets WAY to excited at times and scares Miss Naomi, but it is clear he loves his little sister.

A rare moment to get a picture with all the kiddos!! Gotta love it! The set-up in the cabin was perfect for our family. They had two futon fold out chairs that became the twin's beds (see below) and the futon couch was where we all sat together (see above). Josiah had his own room with a queen bed and we had our own room with a queen bed. It worked out really nicely!! Everyone slept better the 2nd night though once they all got used to their new surroundings.

The first night, Daddy tried to make a fire in the stove and it wasn't working right. He had the kindling going and all, but the logs just would not light for some reason. So the first night, we just gave up and we heated up our marshmallows in the microwave for some Smores. Daniel didn't want to eat his because it was too sticky and he hates to have his hands dirty. Josiah and Caleb ate theirs with no problems! The second night, we came prepared with a Duralog to get the fire going and this time we got a fire. Josiah quipped, "We have a fire now....Daddy did it right this time!" I would like to point out here that I never criticized Daddy for "not getting it right" the first time, so this was Josiah's own observation. Daddy just laughed!

Josiah and Daddy made this for me when they went to the beach together. It was very sweet! Overall, it was a really fun time as a family and we plan to go back there someday for sure! When the kids are older we can do more hiking and other things as well. On the way home, out of the blue Josiah said, "I am looking forward to watching TV at home!" We went back the non-scenic way on the way home and thankfully I did not have a headache like I did on the way there (that was a doozey). A "highlight" for me on the way back or a non-highlight really was changing 4 bad poopy diapers within about an hour of time. One at a gas station (that was THE WORST ONE), one in the car at McDonalds (still a change of clothes here), another one from the first poopy child AT McDonalds and ANOTHER one at McDonalds from the last child that hadn't pooped yet. ACK!! I thought I had enough wipes for the journey, but didn't realize we would blow through all of them on the tail end of our adventure, or wait maybe we do always use them on tail ends!! (That was my facebook post for those of you who missed that one). So on that poopy note, I will close this saga of our journey to the cabin!