To Top It All Off...

I stopped in the bathroom with Avrie at gospel meeting. She dropped her sippy cup on the floor so I set my purse on the sink to fix the valve in her cup. My purse fell into the sink but I didn't think anything of it since the sink was dry. I fiddle around with her cup for a good minute and go to pick up my purse and the entire thing had filled with water. The entire thing.

It was kind of funny.

Be Glad You Aren't Me

After a wonderful morning walking and playing at the park with Tara, my two darling children were bitten by the crabby bug. Nolan woke Avrie up from her nap (20 minutes in) by slamming his door in protest to the much-needed nap I forced upon him. Someday I will own a house that is big enough to walk around in without waking up the children. Someday. We desperately needed groceries. Unfortunately, we needed to make two stops. The co-op was uneventful. Rainbow was a nightmare. Nolan wanted the 8-foot long kiddie cart. This is not an exaggeration. Not even a little. It is literally 8 feet long. Halfway into our joyful shopping experience Avrie decided she wanted to be carried. Not happily. Carried kicking and screaming. We promptly ran headlong into a Rice-a-Roni display and knocked them all down.

At home I sat on the couch and told Nolan that Mommy wanted to cry and what would he do if I did? He said "I'd lay by you and cuddle and snuggle you and, ohhh Mommy, don't cry (hugs me), I love you". My day was marginally improved. If only for a few moments until the next ruckus.

Beautiful Day

Perfect fall day today. Kids both had school (babyschool for Avrie!) this morning and I got my dose of adult conversation with the parents.

Nolan has a new fascination with all things space, moon and stars. We walked to the library this afternoon and got a stack of books to learn more. Nolan decided he wants to be an astronaut so he can fly an airplane (pilot, same difference!) to heaven to see God. He is very intrigued with God. He wanted to call Him on the phone last night. It's hard to explain to a child what praying means. To get him to understand what "thinking" meant I told him to think about swinging on the swing set. He thought about it and started to giggle and that was the end of the prayer conversation.

Nolan is also very defiant and very THREE. He decided he's too big for naps and quit pretty much cold turkey. He still needs them. I still need them. We're having almost daily too-tired-tantrums.

I am so, so, so sick of trying to get him to poop. You could say I'm pooped.

Avrie is such a big girl now. She can answer yes or no to just about any question with a shake of her head. She is a little climber and has been caught in the act of climbing onto the counter many times. I can't begin to count how many times she falls off the kitchen chairs in a day. She's a strong-willed little thing. Wonder where she gets that from?!

Fall Foto Shoot

Try Not to Laugh!

Thanks to Darren, my son now laughs like a hyena every chance he gets. I shot this video on command and I love how at the end he looks at the camera like "is that good enough"?

At least he's an adorable hyena.

Feeling Accomplished Today

Before 11 today I cleaned the junk drawer, made two pans of lasagna (one for the freezer and one to eat later this week) and a pan of chicken chimichangas for lunch. And we didn't get up until after 8. I'm feeling pretty good! Pushed the kids on the swings for half hour...gave my arms a workout. Heading to the park after naps. Check this out:

Before

After

Everything that has another place!!

Hi Cheri!

Thanks for the tank top! Mom let me stand on the table and pose.

Misc Pics

Fishing with Great Grandpa.
Avrie is fascinated with her belly button. Can't ya tell!?
Look quick...they are sitting by each other and not fighting!
Hi-ya!



Been busy, busy. Evan put a new screen door on this weekend...it was MUCH needed. We now have a lovely, nice quality, french door-style, QUIET screen door. Oh, and it even has screens on it!! Imagine that. Nolan didn't have school last Wednesday because of MEA so he's anxious to go back today. I'm going to *attempt* to do a daily posting of my lunch over at my foodblog this week...check it out if you're so inclined. Oh, and whoever commented on the video...why didn't you call me ASAP?? I never even thought of that. Good thing he doesn't ever say the house number right. I removed it from YouTube lickety split and was happy to see it hadn't had very many views. Happy Monday!

I Had Just Vacuumed

From the Mouth of Nolan

Time for another installment:

While listening to the radio: "Where are the little people inside singing"?

In the car today: "Blah, blah, blah, I've always wondered that, it's amazing".

At convention last week: "I'm so cute and Grandma adores me". Ohhhh, boy. Do you think we need to cut back on how much we tell him he's cute?

Avrie has started talking up a storm in the last week. So far nothing sassy! Her love of sheep has been replaced by a love of kitties. She had the whole meeting shed looking for the stray cat at convention last week. She does a perfect kitty impression.

Bookworm

I read so many wonderful books and I feel bad not sharing them with the rest of the world (or you faithful blog readers). So I had this great idea of making a list to the right with recommended reading. But then I realized the list would be waaaayyy too long. How about a "I'm reading now" blurb? Then you wouldn't know if I actually liked the book. So I'm going to do a "I just read" blurb and let you know if it was any good. Happy reading!!!

Oh, drain update: RotoRooter came through and rootered it for free. We'll see how long it lasts.

We Need a [Free] Plumber

ARRGGGHH. We knew before we left for convention that the drain was clogging up again. We had Roto Rooter out August 28th and they allegedly got rid of the clog. But they couldn't guarantee the service being our line is 'severely pitched'. So we put drain cleaner in it last night and let it sit and I flushed it out with boiling water this morning. I threw in a giant-after-convention-load and intended to check on the drain when the wash was draining. Well I got a phone call at this crucial moment and forgot all about it until after I hung up. Went downstairs to 2 inches of water in the laundry room. So, I took my over-tired, crabby kids to the laundromat with 7+ loads of laundry. The first thing in view when you enter the laundromat is the candy dispensers. These trump the TV and video games. 25cents of candy held them over until Evan brought us some lunch. Got the laundry folded with a screaming, teething baby on my hip (this takes significantly longer, obviously) and headed out the door. Nolan proceeds to run headlong into a giant washer door...a huge shiner is in the works. Right outside the door is a coffee butts can with the employee's 20 butts of the day smoldering. Nolan picks it up and dumps the contents on the sidewalk all while employee is glaring through the window. So, we can't have showers without getting a gallon of water in the basement (totally separate problem). Now I can't wash clothes or dishes. It's like we live in the olden days.