Stats of my kids

Sofia Caroline
weighs- 13bs 11 oz and in the 50%
height - 24 1/2 inches and in the 51%
head circ- 41 cm in the 50%

*loves to rub her blanket around her face. kick it off her feet and eat it
*puts her fingers in the holes of crochet blanket
*Already gives big open mouth baby kisses
*loves her teething Hedgehog and her Al the Alligator rattle
and her walker exersaucer


Noah Lawrence
weighs 32 lbs and is in the 40%
height - 38 1/2 inches and in the 11%

Favorite toys- as always the blue lightsaber
play food that has velco to cut
his Clifford game on his Leapster LMAX
Star Wars Beanie Toys

Favorite Books- I am Anakin Skywalker
I Really Want to Eat a Child
Tigger needs a Bouncing Friend
The Lonely Firefly by Eric Carle

Sofia 4 months old

Sofia is such joy.
She has started to rock herself back and forth by launching herself off the ground.
Grabbing for toys and things in front of her.
She eats her hands all the time.
Slobber Sofia is her new nickname.
Talks all the time and has the biggest brightest smile imaginable.
Does baby sit ups all day long.
Daddy and Noah call her Sweet Ums
Mom calls her Princess way to much, can't stop herself and has tried
loves to hold herself up standing, stiffens her legs when you try to sit her down.
Growls at her binky when she is really happy you gave it to her.
chewing on fingers is her favorite, Daddy's is the best, just the perfect texture and taste
Still loves to be held as close as possible when upset.
Cannot believe she is 4 months old today

Grateful Sunday 4-27-08

Camera- We got an external hard drive so now I can upload my pictures on to my computer. Oh, it feels so good. Look how cute my kids were this morning just before we left for church. It is funny, how something so small can mean so much. (I loaded all the pics for Noah's birthday posts, cool cakes at least)

Visitors-We have some friends visiting from Austria with Kersten's family. It was so fun to talk and be with them yesterday for dinner. The company and food were fantastic. It always helps when your kids are fussed over.

Reminders-Emilee's fiance Gearold is a recent convert to my faith. I love talking with him and discussing things. As he says he is a baby in the gospel Thank you Gearold for reminding me what the atonement is really all about and for making me reevaluate how I am doing,

Preschool- I just love Noah's preschool. It has been so good for him to learn and make friends. It amazes me how much it has already help him in so many areas. We are lucky to have such an amazing team all so dedicated in helping Noah succeed.

Graham Crackers and Milk

I have been thinking a lot lately about rituals or traditions that bring us comfort and security. When Sofia was in the hospital with RSV and I came home one night to be with Noah. I found out one of his. I have thought about this a lot since then and have tried to pay more attention to what we do together that would be considered comfort. When I picked him up that night and we arrived home, he asked for a snack. He wanted Graham crackers and milk. I got him a cup with milk and the crackers and Noah got really upset and said "Ma, you too". As I sat down, I contemplated all the times we had done just that. Just the two of us sitting down at the table with our glasses of milk, dipping graham crackers or cookies inside. We would talk and laugh and it was always just us. Dad does not like this snack much so it has always been just me and Noah. This snack was one of my childhood favorites. So I am glad that I could pass it on to my boy. I hope when he is older we can still sit down at the table and have a snack and talk.

Party #3 (Spoiled Boy)

Last Night we had the combined birthday parties for Noah, Josh and Monika (Kersten's Mom) at their house. Aunt Virginia made him a chocolate Mint Star Wars cake. It was so nice not to have to bake. I did bring my famous mac and cheese for dinner though. Ginny cut out figures and made a scene of his favorite characters for the top. He loved it and thought it was awesome.

Josh was so excited for their party, he could not stay still even for a second. The aunts and uncles got him these awesome Beanie baby type toys, it was all the characters from Star Wars Episode 1. They are so cool and unlike anything he has. He loves them all and has been playing with them all day. He loved that all the boys, including the Huff's were there. I think his favorite part was playing outside with Sam, Charlie and Josh.

We partied all week and I think we are all a bit exhausted. I think we are going to slow down all the parties for a bit. We did have a playdate with Lily today. They both cried when it was time to go home. They really do have so much fun together. I am so glad that Noah has such good friends around him. That love him for him.

(camera still weird, will post pics later)

Noah the Stud

Noah has become quite the ladies man. I don't blame these girls. He is just so darn cute. How could they resist his charms. On tuesday at school I brought chocolate chip cookies and milk to his classroom for his birthday. Luckily, Monika took Sofia so I could stay and help out in the classroom afterwards. Noah loved having me there. It was fun to see how much all the kids had grown. I had not help in class since October. During recess, his girlfriend Lillly asked him to play detective. Noah said sure as long as he could have 2 guns. He has another friend Blake that he gets along with really well and they all just ran around together the whole time. One thing that did surprise me but should not have is that Noah was the leader. He would direct them where to run and what they were getting, sliding, jumping or sitting. It made me so proud that even with his speech difficulties he could direct his play and maintain these great friendships. At the end of class, Lilly came up and had drawn him a picture for his birthday of a dog and wrote "To Noah, Love Lillly, Happy Birthday. He said thank you and we hung it on the fridge.

I had another speech meeting at school on thursday, so I hung out with Sofia afterwards and read with the kids until the end of class. A cute girl named Anna gave me a rolled up piece of paper she said was for Noah. I encourage her to give it to him herself. She is a bit shy. She had rolled up 2 small pieces of paper and had drawn on them. She explained all the pictures to him and he said Thanks again. As we were leaving Halle's mom handed her a picture she had drawn at home for Noah for his birthday. That is 3 girls. I need to watch this, my boy is being chased.

Later thursday afternoon, Lilly's mom called me to tell me a cute thing that happened. Lilly was drawing a pic for her dad, Noah and her mom. (apparently she draws stuff for Noah almost every day). She is always asking her mom how to spell things. When she went to look at the pictures on Noah's she had draw a heart with a blue and red person inside. She explained that Noah was always blue and she was the red person. And she had written "I Love You Noah". Love Lilly.
She told her mom she needed to let Noah know how she felt. Okay, that is just so cute. Noah can say Lilly's name almost and just that says a lot about how he feels about her. He tries harder on names for the people that are most important to him. So cute. This whole scenario made Kersten really proud of Noah. He kept saying last night when he got home from NYC, wow, go, Noah. What a stud.

April Real Simple Interview

My life would be simpler if . . . My yard was cleaned up and level. And laundry was magically folded and put away.

Most useless invention? the straps to help hold your sheets down around the mattress, they don't work well.

How much time do you spend on the internet? 1 to 2 hrs a day

What surprises you most about your adult life? How sometimes it is just hard to be the grown up, and how much better it is than I ever dreamed. I know it has something to do with finding my perfect match and my beautiful kids.

Simple pleasure? playing lightsabers with Noah, Reading to Sofia and listening to her coos and smiles and

How many children do you have? 2. one of each

What eco-friendly changes have you made in your life? turning off lights more often, using high-efficiency light-blubs, recycling as much as can fit in our recycling can, and I read about things I can do and try to do them

Something on my mind lately. . .Noah's speech therapy, (we have had a lot of meetings at school). how to fit in all the spring cleaning I need to do and what activities to sign Noah up for this summer.

Party #2 and The Big Day

The celebration just keep on going. On Sunday we went out to my Dad's house for dinner and a little birthday celebration. My Dad made his famous BBQ chicken and we took a Key Lime Cheesecake for the adults and Donuts for the kids or the grown up kids. We sang Happy Birthday again and he blew out the candles 4 times, since he is 4. We then opened more presents. He got Chutes and Ladders, a new outfit that says "Daddy's Little Helper" (will work for cookies), a fun Lightening McQueen toy and a Batman ball. Again, he was way spoiled. I think his favorite part as always was playing on the trampoline. It was a warm spring day so the kids get sneaking outside to play and we would call them back inside for the big events.

I love this pic of my dad with Allie. They are looking at the book I made Noah entitled "When you were 3"

On his actual birthday, I sang to him right after he woke up. He informed me that we had to do everything in 4's. So I cut his breakfast in 4's. He took 4 sips of his milk and when we raced we counted to 4 instead of 3. We got ready and headed out for the day to the Discovery Gateway Museum downtown. It was so so fun. Noah is a perfect age for this museum. We took Baby Allie and Aunt Amy with us. Oh, the fun we had. Allie is such a funny girl, she was so excited, she kept hyperventilating.

They had a fun exhibit of Sesame Street presents "Our Body". It cost a bit extra to go in but it was worth it. Noah showed Allie all the cool things and each exhibit we stayed a good long while. Even Sofia liked the Rub A Dub she sat in the sink happy for a good 10 min. We stayed until dinner time and all of us were exhausted happy


Noah wanted Cheese and Rice for dinner. We took him to a local Mexican restaurant, where the plate of quesidilla and rice looks huge. The gave him a fried ice cream with chocolate. We as parents gave him a Leapster LMax we found online for a good deal. He was in heaven all night long playing with it. We already started talking about the rules of gaming. He is pretty talented at games. I have already set up that mom does not play games well so that it is more of a dad thing. Which I am totally fine with. Kerst is gone today for business. We miss him already. Luckily it is a fast trip. I think Noah's birthday was a success. He seemed happy and I know he was a bit spoiled. He is so gracious and happy it is fun to spoil him a bit on his birthday.

Happy 4 Year Birthday Noah

Happy Birthday! to my very sweetest, silly, handsome boy. I can't believe you are 4 already. You make me so proud. I love your generous spirit and your desire to include everyone. You are so brave and work so hard. You are the best boy. Thank you for making me a mother. I love you

17 years, Oh, MY

Well, another year is here and another Anniversary of my life with this daRn disease. It has now been 17 years which seems so weird and unreal. One year while I was a diabetic camp, they had us draw a picture of what we think this disease looks like. I think I was 15. Anyway, I remember this guy drew a picture of a mountain and said that he looked at is as an obstacle that he needed to conquer and overcome. Even then I say, GAG to that. And still do. I should have a more positive outlook on it. Maybe say that it helps me eat healthier, makes me more aware of my body and my health and it gives me another reason to make sure I exercise. But, unfortunately I am not quite there yet with the positive ideas about this disease. Give me another 17 years and I will let you know.

One thing I do know now that I have always struggled with and pondered is that that my disease and other crazy health problems do not define me. I don't look at myself and self worth anymore in reference to my health and how well I am doing with the millions of things I should do everyday and don't. OR the other things I always do and shouldn't. I look at my two beautiful, perfect children and think, Wow, they are miracles. I did not ruin them forever or deform them in anyway. I can be healthy, happy, well and productive. I also look at the many blessings I have because I am who I am and the amazing, intelligent, inspiring people I have met in my lifetime. Lucky Me.

Well, I definitely need to celebrate somehow. This is and was a pivotal day in my life. Another reason to celebrate today, would be that I was induced today when Noah was born. I know his birthday is on Monday. Let's not go there. So we are off to go get donuts.

Party #1 for the almost 4 yr old

We had a small celebration for Noah's birthday last night at my mom's house. We had it early so that all the important people would be there. My mom is tending 5 of Al's grandchildren for the next couple of weeks so we turned it into more of a party than just cake etc.

Noah wanted a Batman cake this year. So yesterday I spent the afternoon constructing this cake. For the black part of the symbol, I used crushed up Oreos. I figured out in the middle of making this cake that it would have been so much easier to make a stencil of the bat. Oh, well I think it turned out pretty good. Noah Loved it. And that is all the matters.

At Spencer's birthday a couple years ago they played pin the symbol on Batman. Emilee miraculously still had the poster that Nik painted. So I whipped out some Bat symbols and we played the game. My mom had some balloons we blew up for the kids. And the party was a complete success.

Noah was spoiled as usual. He got some new play food (he loves playing kitchen and has been into that a lot lately), a full set of Super Heroes from Justice League (from Al's Grandkids), new books, a water gun, Cooties the game, Transformer figures and Star WArs ships.

Noah has such a generous, loving spirit, it makes it fun to watch him open presents for you can tell he is really grateful and excited. The party was so fun and we all came home really tired and happy.

Silly Wagon

I found this website that I love online. I was looking for new toys for Noah and Sofia and found this. It is a "Green" website where everything will also help the enviroment. That had some really charming and fun homemade things. Here are two of my favs

Look how darling this crochet cupcake is. I would not even know where to start to make one of these.

These are my absolute favorite thing I saw on this site. I love these felt sugar cookies. They don't look to hard to make if you sew, which I don't much. I love that it comes with a box, wrapped with a bow

Grateful Sunday 4-6-08

General Conference- I love sitting around in my pj's listening to the words of the prophets. It has been amazing so far. I can't wait for the rest of the day. And I am making 7 layer dip, yummy. It always reminds me of conference

Kersten- He is such an amazing father. I am so grateful for his desire to play and be with his children. He helps out so much and both of our children adore him.

Noah-Noah really is such a great boy. He has such a deep desire to make good choices and to help people. I am really proud of him and how hard he is working in school and with Speech Therapy. I watch him struggle and push past it with such a good attitude. It makes a mom proud.

Sofia- she is such a doll. I love that she is so talkative and coos and smiles so often. It is so rewarding after her sadness for so long. She is starting to cut two teeth and really is being so brave and fun. And she is sleeping for a really good stretch at night. Really you can't ask for more than that.

Sisters- I have got to spend some time with some of my sisters this week. It felt really good to be with them and feel of their strength and spirit. And know that they KNOW me and love me in spite of my craziness.

Noahisms

April is the month of Noah's birthday so it is officially the month of Noah posts. Here are some of the funny things he is doing lately.

*Noah wants to always be included in everything and include everyone else. If you say that you are hungry for example he always responds with a rousing "Eee Who" which means "Me too".

* We had a movie size box of whoppers that we had all been sharing as a familly. Kersten handed the very last whopper to Noah. After he ate it, he looked at Kersten very accusingly and said "Da, you ate it all". This made Kersten laugh so hard. And it made us proud, we understood every word of this sentence. Way to go, Noah!

* Noah loves wrestling with his Uncle Nik. It is a huge deal around our house. They (which includes all the nieces and nephews) all have special moves and talk about it to each other all the time. Before a match they have to call their "agent" to talk about their strategies. Noah calls on his hand phone and shows us his muscles and talks about the good food he ate at dinner to get "Super Strength'. Last Night before and during the match he had to rub Sofia's head, I figured out that he said he was getting "Sofia Power". It was making him super strong to win the match. He even came up with his own new move called the "Pincher". It makes a mom proud.

*After he finishes doing something he enjoys such as playing computer or watching Star Wars, He looks at me with his bright eyes and puts up one finger and exclaims "One more time" with an adorable smile. I'm a softy so if it is not a big deal I usually say okay.

*Lately he has wandered in to whatever room I am in with his hands behind his back. His face reeks of mischief and he pulls it out behind his back and exclaims "Surprise". It is usually fruit snacks and then he asks "eeese" = "Please" so very nicely. It is not always fruit snacks sometimes it is a book, toy or cookie.

*Noah has become quite competetive lately. He wants to WIN at everything. And he gets very upset when he doesn't. He will jump up and down and yell "I win, I win". So now we have races for everything. Including brushing his teeth, cleaning up his toys, eating his food, getting dressed and racing to the toilet. Yes, he is finally staying dry all day. He will still wait for a pull up to go poo but he is keeping his pants dry all the time. He WINS.