We thought it was spring....

...but there is a chance of a little bit of snow tomorrow night! We had three days of 70 degree weather and all of us loved being outside. So here are some almost spring pictures and stories.

Apparently boys develop an affinity for weights early in life. Josiah was carrying these around like he knew what he was doing.


Nothing stops Josiah outside. I can't get shoes to stay on his feet yet so I put socks on him and let him go. The next day I let him go barefoot thinking it would slow him down a bit. Not at all! He walked on gravel and on the little prickery balls that fall from a tree in our yard. I'll stick with the socks for now!

It's a little tricky keeping an eye on two going in opposite directions. Aliza wants me to play and Josiah put things in his mouth that need to be promptly removed. Keeps me hopping!

Daddy has been working at home this week on tax preparation. Josiah can hardly keep his hands off of the keyboard. Jeremy pulled out an old keyboard this afternoon and Josiah helped Daddy work. One day soon Jeremy will have an office with a door!

Both of us are looking forward to that. Since he's been working at home I've had to figure out places to go with the children or how to keep them quiet....at least when he's on the phone. Today we visited a retired neighbor friend of ours. The children were both typically active. Last time we were there she showed us her newly decorated bedroom. This time Aliza remembered where her bedroom was and helped herself to a flashlight from the bedroom. Our neighbor excused Aliza, but I told her that I needed to teach Aliza about appropriate places to go in other people's houses. As soon as I finished talking to Aliza the phone rang. My neighbor asked me to pick up the phone since she was on the floor playing with Josiah. I answered and they said, This is the 911 call center. Do you have an emergency?" Yes, Aliza apparently dialed 911 while she was in the bedroom. I was embarrassed. My neighbor was excited to have a story to tell her friends!

Scrap Around the World--Week 6

This week's destination was Japan and the assignment was to do a layout about a friend. I have lots of friends, but very few pictures of my friends. I'll have to work on that. The clue was really vague, but one of the things she said was that this country had a sport with a uniform that she would not be caught dead in. I'm not certain if she was alluding to sumo wrestling, but the thought of sumo wrestling triggered some college memories for me.

Ever wonder where my sumogirl email came from? My room mate at EMU and I would sumo wrestle to relieve stress. We would put pillows under our shirts, start across the room from each other, run and collide. I usually ended up on the bottom. Stinks to be small! The others on our hall thought we were pretty outrageous and wanted to watch. So we locked our door and turned up the music. The song playing was generally "These are not my Pants." I can't remember who sang it or what CD it was on. 10 years later Carlissa and I still have sumogirl email addresses in honor of our fun and friendship. Fun memories!

Happy Birthday Jeremy!

In honor of his birthday here are 30 wacky and wonderful things about Jeremy!

1. He's really good at playing Solitaire on his iphone.
2. He can talk intelligently to anyone about something.
3. He wakes up happy in the morning so he takes care of breakfast for the children.
4. He's good at anything he tries.
5. I love that he takes good pictures.
6. He wears more polos than geek t-shirts these days.
7. He makes up really great kid songs on the spot.
8. He has a great personality for owning a business. His clients (well, most of them) really like him.
9. He has no sense of time. Sometimes this works in my favor, but most of the time it does not!
10. He loves me even though I don't really like watching movies and rarely watch one with him.
11. He is more likely to respond to a text message than a phone call during the day.
12. He has defied the statistics of owning a business. Something like 90% don't make it five years. He is on year 5 and going strong!!!
13. He's so smart because he reads stuff on the computer all day and most of the evening!
14. He would rather eat at Plaza Tapatia than pack his lunch.
15. He and Matt can hypothesize for hours about anything and everything.
16. A pastor's kid grew up with a strong sense of faith.
17. It's good for me to keep ice cream and diet sodas stocked in the house.
18. He always does devotions during breakfast.
19. Aliza uses the ipod and computer thanks to his tutoring.
20. His faith drives pretty much everything that he does.
21. When he makes a decision I can count on it being well researched and well thought through
22. He takes the brunt of any frustrations I've collected during the day when he walks in the door.
23. The best evenings are the ones we spend sitting beside each other--each with our own laptop. He can chat pretty well while "laptopping."
24. We have more than a business marriage in spite of owning a business.
25. He hasn't fired me yet as his bookkeeper! (That's truly amazing.)
26. He still holds us accountable for the 5 intimacies in marriage that we learned about when we were dating. (emotional, physical, intellectual, recreational, social)
27. He'd rather have Carvel ice cream cake for his birthday than a regular cake. Hopefully brownies were ok this year.
28. He's pretty tough to surprise, but I surprised him on Friday with a party for his birthday.
29. He's the love of my life. I'll enjoy every day for the rest of my life with him!
30. Only a geek could appreciate such a public display of affection!

Scrap Around the World--Week 5

I'm still in the game. I did not like my layout for last week at all so I didn't post it. This week's assignment was to do a layout of any size except the typical 12 x 12. I was excited to have an excuse to scrap this picture of Aliza "hiding."

Aliza's Day

We got lots of snow yesterday so Aliza's day started with another play time in the snow. It didn't last very long because Mommy got cold and doesn't like to be cold.


Then we went to story time at the library. Josiah thoroughly enjoyed himself. He clapped along with all the songs and then decided to raise his arms to be picked up by the leader. She couldn't resist.

Finally party time arrived. Aliza could not wait to open her presents. She got lots of fun toys, but I don't think anything could have topped the Wiggles guitar. And I was laughing when she pushed buttons and did the appropriate dance for the song. She also got a microphone. I was thankful for the quiet toys that she got too!

Aliza loves Chick-Fil-A nuggets so that is what we got for her birthday supper. Chick-Fil-A nuggets aren't complete without fries and fruit salad. (Aliza gets fruit in her kid's meal.)

This is the first year she could blow out her candles by herself. She really loved having everyone sing Happy Birthday to her too.

Aliza

Happy Birthday Aliza!

This morning when she woke I told her Happy Birthday. She was very excited and said "I want to go downstairs and see my birthday." Her highly anticipated birthday party is tonight.

1st Birthday Party

What a fun first birthday party we had. Our house was full with Jeremy's parents, my family and a few friends.

Josiah did well opening his presents. His big sister could hardly contain her excitement and enthusiasm.

But the bows were, by far, his favorite part of the presents. He carried them around and played with them more than his toys!

Our meal revolved around Josiah's favorite food. Ritz crackers. I made some dips that are good with Ritz crackers and had sandwiches and Ritz crackers instead of chips! The cake has cow spots since Josiah says Moo.

He LOVED his cake. He touched the frosting when he blew out his candle. I cut him a rather large piece and put it on his tray. He picked up the whole thing.....

and stuffed it in his mouth. And kept eating at a frantic pace until it was gone!

He was one happy little guy. And somehow he managed to keep his hands out of his eyes and hair.