Brothers

Snot

Snot.  We've got snot everywhere.  If you notice is all crusted on his face.  There is no stopping it.  To the disgust of his older brother. "Mommy snot patrol" is what I hear all day which means Joel has snot hanging out and Colin is yelling for me to get a tissue.  One day soon hopefully his allergies will get better and the pollen wont affect him as bad.

Until then a popsicle in his fort seems to stop the snot momentarily.  So instead of the benedryl he's getting I should just start dishing out Popsicles left and right!  (or maybe thats his whole plan all along)

Daddys boy

Fort

My days just got a little easier...

With a fort this fun in our backyard the kids are sure to have hours of fun and entertainment. Colin asked if he can sleep in the fort tonight. We said maybe not tonight but once it gets warmer he and Brent might try it out. Thanks Rod and Debbie!  

My Day

 Transformers. Or "more-more" as Joel calls them

 Coloring.  They made their own Iron Man drawings. They called them Iron Man because there are iron man stamps all over their people.  I think I need to work on my face drawings :)

 Joel wanted to pee on the potty.  Nothing came out but he was very proud of himself. 

 Contemplating what they could do with the cushions on top of the ottoman.

 It didn't take long for them to come up with this. 

Dessert Murder Mystery

Last night our community group had a Dessert Murder Mystery night.  It was so much fun. Earlier in the week we got our characters. I was Pepper Keegrip, a television producer who liked to sing everything and Brent was Bill Shananagan, an obnoxious NFL coach.  haha fit him perfectly I thought :)  The fun part was the person who delivered our characters rang our doorbell, and then when I opened the door they sped off in their car so we didn't know who did it. 

 We had to come masked and the boys had fun picking out masks for us. 

And this is just to show my dress. Sarah got it for me marked down to $3.  Isn't she amazing?  She can find some great deals. 

There were several rounds where we had to mingle and find out all we could about each other.  Everyone stayed in character the entire night which made it really fun.  We had different clues we were supposed to bring up in our conversations.  Before each round we would take a few minutes and read our cards. 

And at the last round the ghost of the deceased came walking in and we had to figure out who did it.  For a few minutes at the end I thought I might have been the murderer but I'm glad to say it wasn't me.  Even though he was my arch enemy :) 

It was really fun and we just love this group of people. 

We were out really late and came home to this:

 Ant Ant and Joel snuggled up fast asleep. 

wuv

Joel has learned to say "wuv u" and its so cute.  The other day he said "mommy wuv u"  and gave me a hug.  Love it.

Spring planting

 Spring is here.  And we have started on our gardens.  We now have 4 gardens. Each of the boys have their own garden and then Brent has a few himself. (the picture above is of the kids gardens.  Colins is on the left, Joel's is on the right)  Colin was very excited about picking what he was going to plant.  He picked snow peas, watermelon, sunflowers, and squash.  I think they planted the snow peas and a few watermelon so far. 

 Joel really enjoyed planting his snow peas.

 He took his time and was very careful about placing each seed in the ground.

 Colin and Daddy having a talk about how to plant watermelon seeds

 I'm not sure how many ended up in the garden but we'll see if any come up. 

 We realized we didnt have any watering cans so this was our makeshift watering can.  I have since gotten the boys watering cans so they can water their gardens. 

 Joel has learned that Daddy's water barrel has a hose and its fun to water his garden with the hose.  

We'll be lucky if anything survives in Joels garden but at least he's having fun.

This is where we moved Brents garden to.  As you can see it still needs a little work.  But its doubled the size of his old garden and will hopefully produce lots of veggies for us this summer. 

A genius

Its no secret I have the smartest boys.  At least I think so.  But my 20 month old can find Waldo.  Or Wah-wah as he calls him.  Colin loves Wheres Waldo books and will spend hours looking at them.  So Joel figured he should join in and now they look at them together. 

 Its amazing how fast Joel can find him.  I just tried to post a video but it wasn't loading.  There is one page that has stumped Joel and its funny to hear him say "wah-wah are you?  wah-wah hiding."

And sometime he just wants the book to himself so he will lay on top of it so that it prevents his older brother from finding wah-wah first. 

 

Another thing Joel is obsessed with are puzzles.  He will spend all day with two of our puzzle books and taking it apart and then putting it back together.  From the time he woke up today until right before bedtime he only wanted to do his puzzles. 

My smart boy. 

perspective

Today while I played with my boys, my sister in Japan was packing up all her stuff because she has to evacuate. Without my brother. He has to stay there for now.  I'm not sure of many details.  I basically read the news, check Angela's facebook and twitter to make sure they are ok and find out the real news. And then call my mom to see what she has heard.  I can't imagine what they are going through. The lack of food, water, aftershocks, even just all of what James when through on the train.  But for the moment I know they are safe.  James was supposed to be on the train that went missing but because of a meeting that went late he took a different train.  God protected him through all that and more.  But it has made me look at life a little different this week.  To really see what matters.  Not the stuff in our life but the people.  Stuff can easily be replaced.  I'm not sure when Angela will be able to return to Japan or see James.  I'm praying they don't have to be apart for very long. I'm excited to be able to see her but really wish it was under different circumstances. Please keep praying for them and for all of Japan. It is far from over. 

So I'm enjoying moments like this. When the boys see Daddy's truck outside and wait until Daddy walks in the door and then fling themselves into his arms. They are just bursting with excitement watching Daddy walk up the driveway.  Because this is what life is all about.

Trains

I got the trains out the other day when my friend Jessica and her son were over.  Joel is at the perfect age to begin getting into them.  And he has played with them almost every day since.