Soldier

Our church had their annual chilicook off and kids costume party last weekend.  Colin wanted to be a soldier.  A Hokie soldier. (we didn't dress Joel up. he takes everything off we put on him)

Happy Friday

Colin LOVES this video.  We have to watch it over and over.  Just a glimpse into what I talk about all day with two boys. 

 Also this is how Colin will sleep sometimes.  Crazy to me.  He doesn't start out in that position. Guess he thinks its comfy.

And this sweet boy can fall asleep anywhere. Maybe if he'd start sleeping all night he wouldn't have to choose between lunch and sleep.

Fierce Face

Joel also makes the Fierce Face that both Colin and I used to make.

 This was me

This was Colin. 

He also LOVES paint,marker,crayons, pencils, pens. You name it.  He will stay at the table and color for at least an hour if we let him.  We are still working on only keeping it on the paper.  He prefers the tv stand, walls, and table.  The magic eraser is a wonderful invention.  Somehow he can find any pencil or marker even though we try hard to keep them out of reach.  He also knows about the Color Wonder markers.  He'll find a marker, take off the top and if it doesnt leave a mark on his hand then he won't use it.  He only wants to use the real ones.  Smart kid.  This one keeps us on our toes thats for sure.  Good thing he's so cute :)

TV time

My grandparents got new furniture so we got their old couch - sooo comfy and this big green recliner.  Its very comfortable just very big and we have no idea where to put it.  We've rearragned the room several times and I keep getting out the tape measure. So for now until we can figure out something its in the middle of the room.  But the boys dont seem to mind.  They climb up into it to watch their tv shows together.

fun friends

Saturday afternoon we had some fun friends visit.  Matt was visiting Kristin from West Va and it was fun to catch up with both of them. I don't think we've seen Matt since Colin was Joel's age. Matt was in brents bible study at least a year.  Maybe more?  The years all blend together sometimes!  Joel warmed up fast to both of them and once Matt started playing soldiers with Colin he became a friend for life. 

 Joel loves Kristin

 Kristin is great with Colin.  He loves her.

And kristin is great at holding Colin and forcing him to get a picture when he doesnt want to :) Thanks for coming over and hanging out with us for an afternoon.  And hopefully we wont go so long before seeing Kristin again.  Since she does live in va beach now :)

Pumpkin Patch

This morning after Colin's soccer game we headed over to the pumpkin patch.  (Colin won his game of course and had a great time.  Its so fun to watch him play) The kids had a blast picking pumpkins. Brent told Colin he had to be able to pick up his pumpkin (if you remember the pumpkin Colin wanted last year) And Colin tried to find the heaviest/biggest one he could pick up. Of course.

But he picked a perfectly round GREEN pumpkin.  I mean was there any doubt after seeing pumpkins can also come in Green?

Joel was incredibly cute.  He's always cute but the expression on his face as he ran from pumpkin to pumpkin was priceless.

Noah and Colin found a rotten pumpkin that was gross and squishy.

 Joel needed to take a closer look.

 

We went on a horse drawn hay ride and Colin got to shuck his own popcorn. And then we left.  Colin wanted to stay and do the corn maze and all the kids games but Joel was ready for a nap so we might go back and do the rest another day. But for now our green pumpkin is proudly on display in our dinning room. 

Football Weekend.

This past weekend we went to Blacksburg for a football game. Brent took Friday off and we headed to the farm.  The kids had a blast playing in the creek - especially since Ant Ant let them get wet!  Then on saturday drove to Blacksburg to watch the hokies beat central michigan.  Colin hasn't liked the hokies since we took him to the marshall game last year and they beat the green team.  So the whole way up in the car he was saying "GO Chippawawas!"  and then I would say "Go Hokies"  and after a while Colin said "mommy are you trying to make me change who i'm rooting for because its not working."  haha

He had this whole routine where he would said "Grandpa ask me who i'm rooting for?"  and then he would say "Go Chippawawas!" He thought it was great to egg on all the family members since he knows this family loves the hokies.

Joel thinks the Hokies are #1.  He even started saying something like "eeesss" when I'd ask him to say hokies.  Pretty close I think.

 We tailgated before and after the game. The kids ran around. Joel discovered his belly button is a great place to put dirt. 

Colin changed his tune when he saw the Corps of Cadets marching in.  He loves playing soldiers and was amazed that the hokies had soldiers. So then he was all about the hokies again.  Joel and I sat with Sarah and Brent and Colin sat with my parents.  Joel slept for the first quarter and did great.  Joel was watching me upload pictures here and kept signing "more" and pointed to the pictures.  So I asked him "more football?"  and he nodded yes!  Glad to know all the driving was worth it for him. 

 Joel is telling Ant Ant that in about 17 years he is going to go to Tech and play football.

A beautiful weekend for a football game.  At the last minute Regis asked Brent to go to a wedding with him on Sunday in WVa.  So they left early sunday and had a great time hang out in the car for so many hours :) I stayed at the farm with the boys. I think Brent and Regis need more guy time together so this was great for them.  And I got all the details of Sarah Lovell's wedding. Joel wasn't too enamored with Uncle Re-Re because he took dadda away. Yesterday when the kids realized Brent had already left for work Joel ran to the window yelling "dadda...Rah-RAH!!!!!!"  haha almost like he was like oh no - Uncle Re-Re took him away again.

A long busy weekend but a very fun one. We all enjoyed it.  I'm campaigning for the extra thursday night ticket in a few weeks.  So is Brent :)  ha! so we'll see who stays with the kids and who gets to go.  Thanks for a great weekend Mom and Dad.

lake

 This past week it has rained every day.  And now we have a lovely lake in our backyard. The kids were just begging each day to go outside so yesterday when the sun came out for a few minutes I let them loose in the backyard. They had fun playing in the water and splashing.

 It was fun until I guess Colin started splashing a little much.

 Don't mess with Joel.  He then went and chased Colin full force.  I love the look of determination on his face in this picture.

Today Brent was home from work and the deal was if he slept in this morning I would get a long afternoon nap.  Sounds pretty good right?  well Brent got to sleep in. So this afternoon I got my turn.  For about 15 minutes. Right when I was in a deep sleep Colin barged into my room. "Mommy you said you would just take a short nap and this is a long one."  So Brent got the kids out of the room and shut the door.  Then for the next 10 minutes I heard Colin whispering to Joel in the hallway.  The conversation went as follows:

C:  Joel, you distract daddy and I'll go get mommy.
I'm assuming Joel didnt understand because then Colin said
C: Joel, do you want Momma?  Momma?  You go distract dadda and I'll get momma.
J:  Must have run to see dadda but then came running back (this went on a few times)
C:  Ok heres the plan. Joel you open the door and I'll go distract Dadda.
J:  nothing
C: Momma?  Momma?  wanna play with momma?  You open the door and I'll distract Dadda.
J: Can't open the door since he is a few inches too short
C:  see you put your hand on the shinny thing and go get momma.  I'll go distract dadda
J:  I guess tried to open the door and couldn't
C: ok I'll open the door and you go get momma while I distract dadda
C:opens the door and runs down the hall i'm assuming to distract dadda
J:  Comes running into the room and pulls himself up on the bed and covers me with slobbery kisses.

My nap didnt happen. and i'm not sure where Brent was during all this. Next time I'll sleep late in the morning and Brent can nap in the afternoon. 

Babble duce

This little guy isn't so little anymore.  He is saying so many things.  Its amazing to us since Colin had his own secret language for a while.  Just a few of the things I can think of that Joel now says:
*babble duce = apple juice
*please
*moo = cow
*duck (for duck but also any bird flying is also a duck)
*bubba = butterfly or any flying insect
*woof woof = dogs
*ROAR = lions, and dinosaurs
*momma
* dadda
*dooo ooo = i think for rooster = he says it when we sing old macdonald which is his favorite right now before nap time
*dis = this
*vroom vroom = for his cars
*weoooo weoooo = firetrucks

I'm sure there are more but thats all off the top of my head.  He calls Colin something different so we'll see what ends up sticking.  Right now Joel's favorite thing is to just yell "momma. Momma" louder and louder until I yell back "joel" and then he'll start again and I'll have to yell "Joel" again and he thinks its funny.  Joel does have a certain whine to him that Colin never did "ehhhhh ehhhh ehhhh" and he'll walk around almost moaning when he doesnt get his way or tired.  Its still pretty cute.  Whats not so cute is when you tell him no he will stop, look at you, fall to the floor and then hit his head on the floor.  Not sure how to stop that one. I've been trying to ignore it and he didnt do it this weekend so hopefully thats done with. 

He keeps us on our toes thats for sure.  He is still into everything he shouldn't be. And he knows it. He already tries to see what he can get away with. And always has to be playing with the same thing Colin is.

 

I guess we can stop calling him baby joel but he's still my little baby. Even though he insists on growing up way too fast.

Another saturday - another soccer game

 

Today we had Colin's first soccer game of the season.  Our coach was out of town this week for a wedding so Brent volunteered to coach practice and ended up doing both practice and the game today. Colin was thrilled.  I am also the team mom so last night I was up making a frog sign (they are the leap frog team) to put behind the goal so the kids knew which goal to run towards.  His team has 3 &4 years olds so many of them are still learning.  It turned out better than I thought and it was easy to tell the kids to go feed the frog the soccer ball when some of them had no clue were to go.  I wish I could take credit for the idea but another mom came up with it. Colin was not impressed with my sign and wanted me to draw another frog but that little girl holding the sign loved it.  haha in fact she looks like the only one who liked it.  oh well :)

Colin scored 4 goals.  He was so proud of himself. This league has goalies.  Which is a big deal.  A lot of the kids wanted to be goalie. I'm not sure all of them will want to be the goalie next time since they realized it wasn't so fun when all the action was at the other end of the field.  And yes if you read the shirts we are doing the homeschooling league this time.  So far its been wonderful. I'm going back and forth with homeschooling Colin next year and figured its a great way to talk to other moms and learn more about how it all works. 

A fun morning.  Colin was so cute and always has the biggest grin on his face when he is out playing.  He also was the loudest cheerleader yelling "go green leap frogs!" over and over when he wasn't playing and cheered on his team mates. 

Joel made himself at home in someone's chair.  He did run out on the field saying "dada" a few times and really wanted to go out there.  Its going to be hard this time keeping him on the sidelines just watching. 

Giving 'coach' daddy a high five after he scored yet another goal. 

tired boy

After lunch I was letting Joel watch a little Curious George with Colin while I put everything away.  Not even 5 minutes later Colin came tip-toeing into the room and whispered "mommy come look at Joel"  Poor little guy had climbed on the ottoman and decided nap time would start right then and there.  So cute.  He's been sleeping for a few hours now.  He needs it.  He was up all night. I did put him in his bed.  He was super cute and if he didnt move so much in his sleep I might have left him there.Now if only I could get Colin to nap - then I could also get a few hours of needed sleep.  I did fall asleep playing dinosaurs with Colin today.  Twice. He had to wake me up.  I think he was getting annoyed that mommy couldnt keep her eyes open to play another exciting round of meat eaters vs. plant eaters so he wanted to play something else.  haha I guess he figured a change would keep me awake :)

saying goobye

We said goodbye to Jamie and Benjamin a few weeks ago but I just found this picture on the camera. We miss them already and can't wait until they come visit. Jamie and Ben were some of our first friends here after we moved and its been fun watching the boys grow up together. And how can you not love Jamie and Benjamin.  In a roundabout way these boys are related - maybe?  by marriage?  not sure how it works but they share an aunt and uncle.  Which is fun for me because no matter where the coast guard sends Tony, we'll always be connected.  Have fun Burley family up north!  Colin wanted to know if Benjamin had seen snow yet (he's jealous of all the snowmen Ben will get to make this winter) I told him not yet but maybe in a few weeks :)

Our week in pictures

Its hard to believe another week has come and gone and its the middle of September.  I went on a womens retreat with our church last weekend and someone commented that it was 9.11 and I remember thinking "wow its already September. When did that happen?"  I dont have any pictures from the retreat but I did have a great time.  Brent and the boys had fun. (somehow he must have bribed them because they slept all night for him...)  But here are some of the things I spent this past week doing.

Joel will sneak up to Colin's legos when Colin is in another room.  He likes to take their helmets off and then try to put them back on.

We fed the ducks.

 

Went to the zoo with some fun friends.

Played for hours with toy soldiers. 

Went to visit ooo-eee and see How-How in what Colin calls his meditation hos-i-pital (rehabilitation) When we got back to my grandmas house I was trying to put Joel down for a nap and came out and saw Colin and Ooo-eee snuggled together looking at a Hokies Magazine.

Both boys fell asleep on the way from the grandma's house and my parents house for dinner. Colin then slept another 2 hours I think.  Wish that could happen at home. 

Soccer started again.  Noah and Adah are on Colin's team which makes it really fun for all of us. (we're doing a different league and LOVE it.  When you get m&m's, bubble gum, sitckers and stamps from your coach after practice it must be great!)  I was a little nervous since Colin wanted to be on the green team again. But I figured his black soccer shorts with the green strip would satisfy him and it did. But guess what team he's on... the GREEN leap frog team.  And I wont go on about how excited I am that he's on the green team again since I wrote it here last spring. But just another reminder for me :) 

The coach said Joel can join in on practice for a little bit. He thought he was big stuff let me tell you.

 When Joel isn't trying to be one of the big kids on the field he is trying to hug and kiss Nathan. (now that lucy is gone Nathan gets all of Joel's affection!) I'm sure Nathan will run from Joel when he can start walking since I'm not so sure he likes all the hugs and kisses :)  My sweet boy - he can kiss and hug me all he wants.

We had church on the beach today and stayed to play.

this is my favorite time of year to go to the beach.  Not too hot, not to crowded

But the biggest thing and most time consuming was fixing Colin's floor issues and installing new floors.  Next weekend we work on Joel's room.  I was putting stuff back into Colin's room and found Joel in here playing with the matchbox cars. They slide much better now on the new floors. But the best thing for me is that Colin has stopped coughing and can breathe so much better. 

And this is a tradition that started last fall.  We make homemade pizza every Sunday night and watch football while eating our pizza.  Anyone is more than welcome to join us any Sunday night!