Naomi's Dedication & Park Fun

This last Sunday, on Naomi's 5-month birthday, we had Naomi dedicated at our church. I dressed her up in this pretty dress, which she promptly spit up on. I had a bib on her, but she has this way of spitting up OVER or UNDER things, which is baffling to me! Pastor George was gone this week due to his wife recovering from some major emergency surgeries (please pray for her--Elaine), so Pastor Dave was the one who prayed over her. My parents were able to come too as my Dad didn't have to preach this Sunday, so that was nice. Afterwards, we all went out to Denny's as a family.

I was trying to get a picture with the brothers AND Naomi, but they were too wiggly (go figure) and she was falling over, so I just tried to get one of the brothers. I have many "attempts," but this is the best of the bunch! They are all wearing their new Toy Story 3 gear that Grandma bought them.

Later the same day, we went to a new park in Puyallup. It was a really nice, shady play area with some trails to walk on as well. Upon arriving, Josiah kept climbing around saying, "This is awesome," over and over. Another boy about his age came to play also and Josiah introduced himself and also his brothers and told him, "They're twins...they don't look alike, but they're still twins." I guess that is his way of describing the word "fraternal" and hey, it works!

As always, our Caleb is doing the risky types of moves on the play area. Mommy's heart beats a little faster when he is climbing on things for sure. Caleb was having great fun mimicking everyone around him. Josiah heard a helicopter and both Caleb and Daniel were running around yelling at the top of their lungs, "Hel-cop-er," and were wildly flailing there arms as if it would land on them any second. A GREAT place to wear out those outside voices, I say!

Daniel was attempting to climb the rock wall here and was telling me about it. When we were on the walk, Daniel wanted to push Naomi's stroller and he and Caleb had a little tussle about who was to be the stroller driver at one point as well. Daniel definitely isn't quite as adventuresome as his brothers, but he also doesn't like to be left behind either! On one part of the trail, there was a steep incline to climb with lots of dirt and rocks and Josiah started up to see how far he could go. Caleb jumped right in and tried too and Daddy had to rescue Caleb at one point and then he taught Josiah how to slide down the hill to get down. Daniel took two steps towards the hill and said, "I did it!" Ummm, not really sweet Daniel, but you were sure cute!

Naomi was kicking her feet on the bumpy trail and seemed to enjoy our little walk! It was a really nice, relaxing family getaway and as a major BONUS, all the boys were tuckered out and went right down without any fuss when we got home!

Fun New Pictures

My friend Jasmine and her kiddos came over the other day to visit. It is kinda funny how we met, or rather didn't "officially" meet the day our baby girl's were born. In the hospital, I was talking with the nurses and they always ask how many kids you have and their ages, etc. and one nurse said, "You know, I really think there is another gal here who has the exact same ages of children and even the same gender!" I was thinking, "Yeah right, there is no way that could be the case!!" Yet miracle of miracles, indeed this was accurate information! Jasmine has a 4-year old boy (he is only 6 months younger than Josiah), 2-year old boy twins (only 1 month older than mine) and a little girl born on the exact same day, at the same hospital and by the SAME doctor! Coincidence? I think not! As David always quotes, "As the Jews would say, coincidence is NOT a kosher word." It has been fun getting to know her and her family and it was wonderful to have her visit our home. Ellie was trying to hold Naomi's hand here. They looked over at each other a little bit, but weren't too interested in interacting just yet!

Miss Naomi is loving this rolling over business and many times she will roll to her side and fall asleep. She is taking after Mommy's style of sleeping. All she needs now is a pillow between her legs and some loud snoring action and she will be a mini-me for sleep!

Grandpa loves to have the babies try on his hat. She looks so, so cute in it too!

Recently, Daniel has taken to wanting (desparately I might add) to play Josiah's Leapster 2. He runs around saying or rather whining, "I wanna pway Weapster, Momma!!" This became such a real problem for him AND for us, that Daddy decided it was time to have two "Weapsters" in the house! Here they are playing them together today!

We are going to Vacation Bible School this week and I will post pictures and more about that, but wanted to document here a funny thing Josiah said prior to starting the week. We told him about going to VBS on Sunday and later that evening he said, "Tomorrow's my lucky day, Momma!" I asked him why that was and he said, "Because I get to go to church EVERY DAY!!" This was such a popular saying that when I shared it with some of the leaders this morning on my way in to VBS, they passed it along to the lady who was writing the daily update for the parents and his quote made the cut! I would like to add that his VBS teachers are THRILLED with his behavior thus far and we have had no problems with him this week! Maybe I shouldn't speak too soon? But I am proud of his progress! Last year, he had to have his own personal adult to watch his every move and this year according to his teacher he is a model student! I am so glad! Caleb & Daniel are in a little mini-VBS group for the worker's children and I am working in the nursery this year with the kids under two years old. It works perfectly since I am nursing Naomi that I can help out in this way.

Goodbye Grandpa Walker

On July 6th, 2010 my Grandpa Walker passed away. He had been ill for a very long time and after many falls and other problems, he was in a lot of pain. Thankfully, he passed away peacefully in his sleep and is now free from pain and is looking down on us from heaven.

Grandpa was a Navy Veteran, Methodist Minister, and he even worked for the F.B.I. for a time as well, but I will remember him as a fun-loving Grandpa who loved his grandchildren. He loved to tell corny jokes that he lovingly passed down to my Dad, who also tells them to this day!

Here is a picture of Grandpa reading me a story when I was 9 months old.

My recent memories of Grandpa were when he came to visit us to see his great grandchildren. When Josiah was almost 5 months old, he and Grandma came to visit us in our apartment in Liberty Lake (Spokane area) and they both had to climb a steep flight of stairs to get to our place. It was hard for him to get up the stairs, but slowly and surely he made it up there. The minute he got inside, he sat on the sofa and stretched his arms out as far as they could go and said with a wide grin, "Let me hold my great grandson!" Due to some of his ailments, it was hard to tell at times what Grandpa was feeling or thinking, but it was quite clear this day that he was very, very thrilled!!

He is holding Caleb here back in 2008 when he and Grandma came to visit over the Fourth of July.

And he also got to hold Daniel as well! I am very glad he got to see the twins as this was the first and last time he was able to meet them.

Josiah and Grandpa were playing with the cars here and likely Grandpa was telling one of his many jokes or words of wisdom to Josiah as well.

Though it was very sad that Grandpa wasn't with us anymore, it was really wonderful to reunite the Walker clan again. It had been many, many years since most all the family had gathered in one place. After the memorial service, we all ate lunch together at a local restaurant in the Tri-Cities. My mom also brought many pictures to share and I was able later on to scan them in and share them with the family on Facebook.

Grandma brought a collage of many pictures of Grandpa and the family to the service and here she is taking them off her board and returning them to her albums while she chats with my Aunt Diane. My cousin Sarah also had her son Michael with her and he and Naomi were having fun getting acquainted on the blanket we had on the floor of Grandma's apartment as we all visited.

My Uncle Jim and everyone else enjoyed seeing Naomi and Josiah who were able to come with me to the service. David stayed home with the twins as it would have been hard for us all to come at this time.

I was thankful to be able to come and celebrate Grandpa's life and to see everyone as well! Goodbye Grandpa Walker, you are missed and we look forward to you greeting us when we meet someday again in heaven!

Great Grandma Visits & Birthday Fun!

My Grandma Walker (my Dad's mom) came to visit us over the 4th of July weekend like she has been doing now for the last 3 years. It is always fun to see her and she is always surprised to see how much the kids have grown in one year. This was her first opportunity to see Miss Naomi as well and she was very pleased to hold her and see her smile and laugh.

Great Grandma and my parents accompanied me to Bill's Fishing Hole in Orting, WA for Josiah's friend Asher's birthday party today. They stock the pond with lots of rainbow trout, and you can pay a general fee for parties and the kids can catch fish and then take them home to fry up for dinner. I passed on our "catches of the day" to my parents as I am not the most experienced in cooking fish! The nice part is that the people there clean up and package the fish for you at least, so you can take it home. This picture is of the boys (including the b-day boy) running after "Bill's" cat. The cat was none too pleased to being chased, and scurried off quickly at the sight of four boys running after him/her. The owners of the fishing place got a big kick out of the cat being chased as well.

Grandpa is helping the twins here get the hang of using the fishing pole. Daniel could reel them in, but wasn't strong enough to hold the pole AND reel it in. Caleb just liked holding the pole. I was watching very carefully that the hook didn't end up hooking a twin or some other person standing around nearby! Oh and for our first catch of the day, Dad was trying to get the hook out with this tool they gave us and it wouldn't come out very easily. The bloody fish was flopping around everywhere (ick) and later I discovered Caleb had blood all over his face. Yeah....boy stuff....guess I am going to have to get used to this! I DID NOT want to deal with taking out the hooks though and thankfully a young man who worked there came and helped us out a bit.

Daniel was excited to work with the pole reeling the fish in, but didn't want to have anything to do with the flopping fish when it came out onto land. He stood this far away observing said fishie. His first response was to run away and jump excitedly and holler at the fish. Too funny!

Caleb on the other hand wanted to be right up near the fish and when the young man asked if he wanted to touch it, he gleefully touched it quickly and then assumed this cute little pose afterward. Josiah also had no problems touching the fish and was very interested in it.

They had a little boat there on the land, and the twins enjoyed sitting in it. Here is a neat shot of Daniel, but you can see my Dad and Josiah fishing in the background as well.

We had talked about catching fish on the way to the fishing hole and Caleb & Daniel both leaned down near the pond first thing and put their hands out like this. You know....trying to "catch" a fish! So precious!

Here are the birthday boys, Asher & Judah. Asher was turning four and his brother Judah was turning two. His mom combined the parties to make it easier for their family. It was fun to celebrate with them and it was a neat idea to have it at Bill's Fishing Hole! Thanks Leiloni for this fun first experience for our boys!

Josiah was informing Asher here was getting Legos before he opened his gift. He also gave him these gummy soldiers from Toy Story 3, which was a bit hit as well. A funny side note too about Josiah. On the way home he randomly told me, "I'm going to be a garbage collector when I grow up...'cause it's good to keep the eart (earth) clean & healthy." I said, "OH" with great interest and then he added, "And also the garbage will be HAPPY because they have a new collector!"

Birthday Fun Installment #2

This year Josiah's birthday had a Lego theme and as you can see the cake is a gigantic Lego brick. Thankfully, I still had some candles from last year's party or I wouldn't have had any candles for him to blow out! We had quite a turnout for the party and it was fun to see everyone!

First we played a little treaure hunt game to find the treats for the goodie bags. I had little clues written on Duplo Lego blocks that would lead them to the next treat. After we got the game out of the way, we did the cake right away and then following that had a lot of water fun in the back yard. We had the wading pool, some water cannons and water guns, (I meant to have more of these, but ours got locked in the half bath in Josiah's room somehow and I didn't have time to take the doorknob off and retrieve them) water balloons, a big tarp to function as a slip and slide, and an octopus sprinkler dealy to shoot water all over the yard. The kids had a lot of fun with all the water stuff and thankfully the weather cooperated and it was really sunny for this part of the party! You can see Josiah in this shot gleefully trying to get Jaiden with the water cannon. Judah and Caleb are in the pool getting wet as well.

Rather than bringing everyone in to sit and watch Josiah open the presents (since the kids were all having so much fun with the water and were soaking wet), I decided to just bring the kids who brought each gift up to see Josiah open his presents one at a time. This was nice too as they could personally hand him the gift and I could get a picture! Here Asher is telling Josiah what he is getting before he opens it! Too cute!

Maggie, Issac, & Gary Jr. made Josiah a cute card that required him to look through the glasses they drew on the card. Maggie is there smiling in the background as Josiah is looking through the card as directed! They also gave him some Lego candy, which he was really excited about as well!

Hailey, Isaac, & Katie gave him a neat homemade card also and some money for a gift. My mom said, "Oh look Josiah, money!" And he said, "yeah, money to give to church!" Everyone laughed and I looked at them and said, "I have no idea what made him think of that, but I'll take it!" Of course, when someone else gave him a wonderful Lego set, his first response was, "I don't need this one, I already have it!" So you win some and you lose some I guess!

When I took the water balloons out for the water fight the twins stood around one of the buckets and just proceeded to pick up the balloons and drop them on the ground nearby the bucket. It appears that the idea of a water fight is pretty much lost on two year olds!

And of course I had to include a shot of Miss Naomi in her pretty dress! I took this before all the kiddos arrived for the party.

Overall, Josiah had a great time with all his friends and hopefully they had a good time too! I have many more pictures of the event, but just included a few here to share. Josiah really loved all his gifts and the time spent with friends. Thanks all for making his day so special!

Boy Adventures!

The boys went over to our babysitter's house for a little bit while I took Naomi to the doctor. As per usual, Caleb was quick to find dress-up clothes and he put on two different girl's dress shoes and a cat headband. They have seven girls and so there were LOTS of dress-up things to choose from.

Here he is again fishing outside with the cat headband on. He is just loves to be the clown and we predict he might be an actor or do some kind of outgoing type of job some day!

Josiah and Daniel were enjoying jumping on the trampoline with the babysitters. I was able to go in and talk with the babysitter's mom and we had a nice time chatting. However, while we were chatting Daniel proceeded to draw all over her wall with a marker. At first, I thought it might be permanent since it had a "Sharpie" label on it, but it turns out it was a Sharpie dry erase marker and it wiped right off the wall! Thank you Lord for that! Anyway, they had a fun time playing while I was out.

Birthday Fun Installment #1

We had the pleasure of getting to see Grandpa Carpenter around Josiah's b-day this year! He was here under sad circumstances, however, as his brother's wife recently died and so David and he drove down to Oregon for the funeral on Saturday and they will be back on Sunday night. The first day he was here though, we got to catch up a little and we will see him again for a day and a half when he gets back. First thing upon entering the house, we handed Miss Naomi off to him to hold. He was very pleased to see our 4-month-old little bundle and she was very smiley for her Grandpa as well.

Grandpa came bearing gifts for all the children that were from all the Carpenter's East. The twins were given some fun drawing toys and Daniel was right on top of those! They also brought a little train set and some cute clothes for Naomi as well. Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Carpenter for all the nice gifts!

Josiah was given a new Leapster game for his Leapster 2. I had wrapped it up prior to him coming and when my back was turned the twins had taken it off the counter and were unwrapping it as Grandpa Carpenter and crew were coming back from the airport. Sooooo, I had to re-wrap the gift so that it could then immediately be opened by Josiah.

Grandma & Grandpa Walker came yesterday and brought Josiah's b-day present as well, which is this farm Lego set. She told Josiah that it came equipped with the Lego version of Uncle Mike and Aunt Genny (who incidentally work a farm in Eastern, WA in real life). According to Josiah, Uncle Mike is the one who drives the tractor and he very matter of factly told me today as he was playing with his set that "boy cows are called bulls." When I asked him how he knew that, he said, "Uncle Mike told me on the farm!" I am sure Uncle Mike will be glad to hear he had a very good listener when he was teaching him about farm life the last time we visited. Later, my mom asked Josiah what Lego Uncle Mike & Aunt Genny were doing on the farm and I found Aunt Genny laying down under the silo and remarked, "Guess Aunt Genny is laying down on the job," and my mom said, "Something which doesn't happen very often!"

Here is Josiah opening his gift from us, a Lego fire station! This was also VERY popular as well! We opened this gift early since Daddy was leaving on Friday. This allowed for them to build the station before he left.

Josiah is telling me here that he loves his fire station "THIS much!" And I might add that he loves the time spent with Daddy building the station!

When Grandpa Carpenter arrived, Caleb went into full show off mode and was dancing around and flopping on the ground to gain Grandpa's attention. This is one of his poses as he was dancing around the room.

This is a sweet picture of Daniel and Josiah checking out Josiah's new Leapster game. Daniel LOVES to watch Josiah play and if it were up to him he would have a turn too if Josiah would let him.

This picture I had to include also of Daddy holding Naomi. She is Daddy's little girl and he loves her dearly, as do I of course!

Naomi's 4-month Update

Today, our sweet Naomi Joy turned 4 months!! It is hard to believe it has only been 4 months with our little precious one, but indeed it has! She has turned out to be such an easy-going baby compared the other kiddos. She does cry and have her moments, but she is soothed very easily either by face time, being held, or pacifier. She sleeps from 10pm until 5am most every night and in the morning she doesn't even really cry to wake me up, but rather makes these restless noises that stir me awake to go and feed her. I would like to add here though that when I unwrap her from the swaddle I make sure she can eat right quick otherwise she does break out the loud tomato-head cry! She loves to be wrapped up tight in a swaddle blanket at night for bedtime and she lays on the reflux pillow (a 45 degree angle pillow with velcro straps to keep her positioned without falling). This is her preferred method for sleeping well we have found! I really don't think she has reflux, but have decided that I am not going to mess with a good thing, since it is working so well for her right now!

She still gives us many funny faces and expressions when we converse with her. She has the cutest little sounds and she tries so desparately to talk to us! She also is very active when she is awake and loves to kick her feet, move her arms, and try to sit up. When I lay her on the bed to feed her, she either scoots closer to me or rolls to her side, but we haven't seen her do a full roll over yet either way. The doctor told me she thinks she will do it soon though. This picture above is so funny 'cause it reminds me of how easily she is startled by loud noises. And actually, she is OK with lots of noise that is going on and on, but it is more like if it is quiet and then a sudden loud sound, then she is startled. She and Mommy are a lot alike in this way. A common scene around here is me lost in thought doing something and David coming to wherever I am in stealth mode and he will say something and I pretty much hit the roof! He "thinks" he is loud enough as he walks in but most always I never notice until he scares me half to death. And then Captain Wordsmith usually says something like, "Well at least you were only scared 'half" to death this time!" Ha ha ha....very funny honey!

So here is Miss Naomi working on some tummy time at the doctor's office. You can see that this is serious business! She weighed in today at 13 pounds even and is now approaching the 50th percentile in weight! Yeah for progress! As for height, she is 24 3/4 inches tall, a whole inch taller than her 2 month check-up! She is right on the 75th percentile for height. Her head circumference was 16 1/2 inches, which is also the 75th percentile. She apparently wants to have a big head like her brothers do! The doctor was very pleased with her progress and didn't have any concerns, so that was good. She got her shots today and as usual that was quite unpopular. The nurse might have nicked a capillary and for a bit there was a little more blood than I would like to see coming out of our Tomatohead, but it quickly stopped when pressure was applied. It took a while to calm her down after that though and later her legs were a little sore, but she made it through!