Playing together

 

 Can you spot Joel?

Teething

She walks around with her hand stuffed in her mouth most days. All four canines are coming in - but this is the last of the teeth until her two year molars. Yesterday she woke up from her nap with a corner of her blanket soaked with drool and blood as apparently one of the teeth popped through. Poor girl. 

The Emperor

He loves her.

 

I didnt even tell him to kiss her.  I love catching moments like this. He loves to kiss her all the time.

She also kisses him all the time.  But thats after we tell her to. She in return loves to hit Joel. So we're trying "no hit - kiss him"  We will see how that goes.  She has gotten extremely jealous of Joel - which is surprising since we just got Joel to get over being jealous of Norah.  Norah will get so upset when Joel sits in my lap or snuggles with me.  So she goes up and hits him.  Or if she's across the room will clap her hands together yelling while looking at him with death stares.  Today she went to hit him and she stopped herself, shook her head no and leaned in for a kiss.  So progress maybe?   My princess - a bigger bully than the boys ever were.  But at least its not stopping Joel from loving his sister. Although now that I am typing all this out maybe Joel is kissing her so much because he really wants to hit her?  ha!  who knows but he is really sweet to her and kisses are always better than hits. 

Basketball Camp

  Colin just finished up basketball camp.  Five days of basketball camp from 8:30-4.  He loved it. Which made his father very happy.

We went and watched one of his tournament games on Friday. This morning Colin was doing pushups, sit ups and jumping jacks and told me he was going to work hard to become a point guard.

Joel rubs our ears not only when he's tired or at night. But also in new situations, around people he doesnt know and also when he's nervous about something.  He wasn't sure about this whole tournament thing until it started and he saw Colin playing. I told Brent he will miss it one day and love to look back at this picture.

Pool Nights

 I finally brought the camera at night when Brent was there so we could tag team with Norah. But I thought it would be good to get some videos of Norah and Joel swimming since we have a lot of Colin swimming already :)

 

 One of the best things about our house is the fact that the pool is less than a 5 minute walk down the street. 

 

Pool time

we tried to go to the pool the other day and walked over and saw a sign on the gate saying the pool was closed due to throw up.  So we came home and Brent got into the little blow up pool with Norah.

 She loved it

And gave him this look every time he would stop and get out of the pool. He always got back in.  Wrapped around her finger he is :) 

Reading

dental hygiene

 

Summer...please dont leave

 

This past weekend Colin picked out a new backpack. That will probably be the only back to school shopping I do until back to school night. But it made me sad. And last night we slept with the windows open. I love fall weather but I'd rather keep summer around a little longer to keep the pool water warmer :)  Summer is going by way too fast. And I'm not really sure where the days have gone! The kids are having so much fun together playing. Norah keeps up with the boys in just about everything and Joel and Colin have had a great summer playing together. When Colin isn't pretending to be a tiger. Joel hates it. Colin loves that Joel hates it and now Colin just has to "roar" like a tiger and Joel starts screaming for me. So they have their moments but its been such a peaceful summer. Its going to be hard to get back into the school routine for us.  I haven't once heard "i'm bored" and not because we've been busy doing stuff. We've spent a lot of time just being home. They do a great job finding ways to entertain themsevles.  The other day they came up with a game where they throw stuffed animals at norah and she loves it.  She laughs even harder when the stuffed animals hit her so the boys now have a challenge. Now she will go into their room and climb up on Colin's bed and wait for them to go on Joels bed with their stuffed "friends"  So strange but they are all happy so it works for me. 

 

I have heard "im hungry" about 100 times a day.  Keeping these boys fed is getting hard.  I'm going to the grocery store at least twice a week just to keep them fed. I really wish I had their metabolism. Eggs and pancakes at 8;30 and by 10 they are wanting a whole other meal.  I've spent a lot of time in the kitchen making/cleaning up meals. 

 

Colin is in basketball camp all week so we're getting back in the school mode since he's gone from 8:30-4.  He loved it yesterday and couldnt stop talking about it.  Brent couldnt have been happier.  Which means I need to go wake up Norah and get her up.  Favorite child ever! She sleeps from 8-8 pretty much guaranteed. Colin was up at 5/6am every day at this age plus a few times in the middle of the night and Joel was even worse.  Joel still is up all night several times a night and he will only sleep if he is RIGHT NEXT TO YOU - every time you try to push him away he will come even closer.  And no matter how many times we put him back in his bed he will always end up in ours. But Norah loves to sleep and loves her bed and its absolutely amazing to us.  I'm kinda glad we had the boys first because if we had had Norah first and then the boys we wouldnt know what to do. 

 

But we do have a few more weeks of summer left so we will try to soak it all up while we can.

 

 

Snuggles

She loves to snuggle with her blankets. Tonight I rocked her to sleep along with 5 blankets and two stuffed animals she insisted on holding.

 And then when shes fallen asleep I've been putting her in bed with all of them. 

Its cute to see her snuggled up with them.

Peach orchard

We went to a peach orchard on knotts island this morning with a great friend. And I got possibly my new favorite picture of Joel. The boys were really excited that they could climb a tree and pick the peaches. It was a pretty drive out there and fun with a friend. Its nice to strap all the kids in a car and have time to talk. Amid the yelling "don't eat you brother!" and passing out snacks to the kids along the way! Ha! We picked two big bags of peaches. Which made Brent laugh when I told him since I don't really like peaches :) but we will freeze some for smoothies and figure out what to do with the rest! 

But I have eaten 3 today - they really are better picked fresh. The kids are loving all this fresh fruit. We ate all the blueberries we didn't freeze so we are going back Friday to pick more since Colin has requested a blueberry pie. Send us any pick your own info and we will go! 

Beans

 Our green beans seem to be the only thing the nutrias/racoons/rats/whatever else is eating our garden don't eat.  So we go outside and pick a lot daily. 

 It so easy to pick them with this tunnel we made.

 Joel likes to find the biggest one there is and then brings it to me and says whether I can eat it or cook it. I like them raw and so does Norah.  I only liked canned cooked green beans but the boys like them steamed so we've done that a few times.  But with Norah eating a handful each time so goes outside we haven't really had enough to cook for dinner.  Its no wonder her poop has been green all summer! 

Blueberry Picking

 We went blueberry picking friday night after Brent got off work.  Its still very early in the season so we might go back and get some more.  I like to go when you just put your bucket under and shake the branch to get the berries. This time it took a little more hunting and picking but we still managed to pick a lot in the short amount of time we were there. I think Brent said we picked close to 18lbs. Our buckets were filled and I'm pretty sure we ate as much as we picked.
 

A fun tradition

Last Swim Meet (Maybe)

Today was the last swim meet of the season.  At least we think so. We find out tomorrow at the swim team party whether Colin made the divisional team or not.  I'm pretty sure Norah is hoping he doesn't make the team.

  Her face shows it all

 Her face shows it all.  Ha!  She's been so patient this whole time.   But towards the end today she and Joel were both done.

 Joel decided he was done with swim team. They made him swim in the deep end one day while the shallow end was getting a broken tile fixed so after that he refused to even think about swim team.  He would rather just play with the rest of the little boys during practice.  He was the ring leader and lead them in games.  The coach tried to get Joel to do the kickboard relay today but he wasn't having it. There is always next year for him. 

Colin had a hard meet - 50 freestyle (which is hard for a 7 year old and his first time), 25 Breastroke, 25Butterfly and a relay. He did well. And had a lot of fun.

We're so proud of you Colin.

Dolls

Norah is starting to play with her dolls more and more.  Its so sweet watching her mother her baby doll.