Fishing Fun

Nate has been called into the YM presidency and for an activity the boys went fishing. Well, Nate being the BEST dad ever took the boys with him for the fishing activity. The boys had SO much fun that we went back as a family later that week for more fishing fun.

That first night Luke caught 6 fish and Ethan caught 2 fish. Luke was just ecstatic and Ethan wanted to try again for more. So we went again and thought the kids would just be in heaven. They did have fun, but they didn't last quite as long this time. It might be partially because Linz was there and only had a small attention span. She casted a few times with her brand new PINK fishing pole and then headed for the playground.

Luke casted one time and caught a fish on his first and only try. He casted a few more times with Linz' pink fishing pole, but was just playing around. Then he too headed for the playground.

Ethan lasted a little bit longer. He casted a few times and unfortunately didn't catch any fish that day. Ethan was more interested in helping dad break the worms in half and thread them onto the hook. NOT my favorite part, but he had fun.

The lake is just a few minutes from our house and it was SO fun to go as a family and enjoy a night out. The PINK fishing pole was even Nate's idea (I guess my spending habits are starting to rub off on him.)

IT'S A......

Nate and I (and Linz) went in for my 20 week ultrasound today. The baby looks really heathly and is measuring exactly 20 weeks and 1 day which is exactly what I am according to the due date. It was fun to see the baby moving and see the heartbeat. I thought Linz would like it more, but I guess it doesn't really look much like a baby that she is used to.

Nate took a 1/2 day off from work today and I was happy he was able to be at the appointment with me. It was nice to have him home too when the kids got off the bus. They were excited to see him.

The ultrasound tech had a rubber baby about the size and weight of my baby and Linz held and cuddled that baby. It was fun to see.

When the boys got home from school, I asked them if they wanted a baby brother or a baby sister. They both said they wanted a baby brother and I told them that they were both RIGHT. They will be having a baby brother. Luke got so excited, he started jumping up and down and hugging Ethan. It was cute and they have already talked about what we are going to do with our new baby boy in the family. Now for the fun part, the name....

We are all very excited to welcome a new baby boy into our family in February. We can't wait to meet him and I'm sure Linz will help me with all the other aspects of taking care of a baby.

Home Sweet Home

So, we are in our new house now. Well, we've been here for 2 months now but let's just pretend we've only been here for a few weeks.

We are mostly settled here and getting used to a new city. We are LOVING our new house!!!! It is SO fun to have our own place. I keep starting to tell the kids to not be so loud and not jump, but then I remember that they can if they want to, no neighbors to bug (at least not with little things like jumping in our own house.) I feel so spoiled with my GARAGE and a real size KITCHEN. We have definitely been blessed and feel very privileged to be in this wonderful new house. And we can't wait to add our own personal touches to make it into our very own home.

Our WARD seems really nice and we are getting to meet many new neighbors also. Our current bishop (the former bishop of the University Ward in Columbus) has just announced that he accepted a job in Arizona so will be leaving us. It is kind of sad to have our only connection to Columbus now leaving, but I think we've been here long enough now to pull through.

Nate is liking his job and is adjusting to being referred to as Dr. Noakes. He is also getting used to telling others what to do and how he wants things rather than someone telling him how to do something down to the tiniest detail.

The kids are loving the house and the space and I am LOVING the backyard. Our upstairs is all unpacked and live able now. I'll explain the basement later. It was fun to open all the boxes and find all our new/old treasures and try to figure out what place they have in our new house. Every once in a while we'd find an extra special treasure in one of the boxes. Now if I could just find my keys that seemed to disappear during our move.................

Flooding Fun

We are just now getting started unpacking our basement. About 5 days before we left Columbus our basement there started having flooding issues. Luckily Nate had put everything up off the ground so our stuff didn't get wet. We did spend a couple late nights trying to keep up with the water as it flowed in from our window. Almost 3 years at that apartment and no issues until a week before we move??? Maybe preparing us for our next house....

Here is the basement of our apartment the first time it flooded. Not too bad, but certainly not fun.
The arrow shows where the water level is inside the window well. I guess that explains why the water was literally flowing into our basement.
And here is our NEW HOUSE's basement.

This is in the crawl space inside a closet downstairs. Notice how the water has a nice well cut path to flow down.
This is in the closet right under that nice river through the crawlspace. The crawlspace door is right out of this picture on the top.
This is actually the third time our basement flooded in the first three weeks we lived here. And this one by far was the worst. The water once again flowed in from our window (just above the picture where you see the water lines on the wall.) All the dark is water.
And here is a bigger picture of the basement. And this is once the water stopped coming in from the window. A large part of that dark area actually had standing water there. Nate had started squeegying up the water and putting it into that bucket in the middle of the floor. We probably emptied that bucket at least 1/2 full 6-8 times. Let's just say we found ourselves a really, really good dehydrator.
Swimming Pool

One of our favorite things about our new neighborhood is the community swimming pool. This pool is LITERALLY right across the street from our house. The kids (and us) have thoroughly enjoyed this pool. It is amazing how much the kids' swimming skills can be improved when they get to go swimming in a pool where they can't touch several times a week.

Luke wears a life jacket and swims around the whole pool. Ethan also has a life jacket to swim around with but can swim anywhere in the pool without it also. After a few jumps off the diving board with his life jacket on, he tried without it and has done great ever since. He swims to the edge after jumping in and is our good little swimmer. Linz is also quite the little fish. She absolutely LOVES to be in the water. If we aren't careful, she'll jump right in without us ready to catch her. In fact, she did this once; Nate had turned away in the water to watch Ethan jump off the diving board and Linz jumped in. Luckily she landed right on Nate's head, so he was able to get her up fast. We let her go all the way under the water when she jumps in and it doens't phase her at all.


Here is Nate showing the boys how to dive.

Luke diving in off the diving board. Not too bad. Most of their dives are belly flops, but I guess with the life jacket on they don't feel too much. And here is our brave little Ethan going without his life vest. I'm not quite sure we can call that a dive, but he's having fun.

So, we let the boys watch some of the diving during the Olympics and Ethan started getting brave and wanting to do flips off the diving board. He did a couple until I put a stop to the flips when his head came WAY too close to the board one time.
Our cute little water fish. She had to try on the boys' swim goggles too.

Her favorite thing to do at the pool. She's a brave one.

We are learning to appreciate not having a house while in school - there is a lot of work that goes into taking care of a house, especially in the summer time. It is a darn good thing we have such a wonderful helper to accomplish such tasks as mowing the lawn a little quicker. (Notice she even has her gloves on so she doesn't get her nails dirty.)
Illinois State Fair

We decided to head to opening night of the Illinois State Fair. They have a parade that opens up the fair so admission is free and you get to enjoy a fun parade. We have a fun time, although I think I'd rather pay the $3 (yes only $3 for admission) next year and go when it isn't quite so crowded. The parade lasted forever so we couldn't walk on the streets. But other than the crowds, we had fun. We got to try all sorts of great fried foods and we even got to see some fireworks (since we missed those on the Fourth of July.)



Many at the fair were amazed we could fit all three kids in our stroller. It is not too uncommon for our stroller to carry all three of our kids, now if we can figure out a way to make our double stroller into a quadruple stroller - we'll really have it made.



Life is returning to Nomal...
Linz has made herself at home here in our new house, getting into all sorts of trouble - as usual. Don't you think it sounds fun to smear diaper rash cream all over your legs???

We finally cracked down on getting Linz to fall asleep on her own. Linz was an angel going to bed when she was in her crib but the moment we switched her over to a big girl bed, she hardly ever went to bed on her own. Well, that era of her life is now over and she goes to bed so well in her new bigger bed all by herself.



This episode happened a few weeks after she had been going down for her naps perfectly. I had put her down for a nap and about 5 minutes later I see her come walking out of her room without her blankie even (which she never does.) I asked her what she was doing and she said, "baby going night night." I walked into her room to find this. She had put her baby down for a nap in her bed with her blankie. And even a bottle near by just in case she needs a drink.

Potty Training Time

I finally decided to tackle potty training again once we got mostly settled here. Linz has done GREAT!!!! The first day was dedicated to just her. We played all day and did everything together so I could be with her and watch to see when she needed to go. It was actually really fun. We played with playdoh, did puzzles and read books, etc.

Since my kids all love sugar, I have potty trained them all with treats. So, every time Linz went to the bathroom, she got to pick out a treat. She got as much juice as she could possibly want and treats all day long. The first picture is her with the prize she got for going to the bathroom for the very FIRST time in the toilet. And then posing with her favorite treat, sour gummy worms (also one of mommy's favorites.)

This was her final prize that she received the first time she had a bowel movement in the toilet. This was hard for her to figure out for a while.

This is doing great now. Really no accidents anymore, except once in a great while. I was just thinking today while I was out shopping with her that none of my children have ever had an accident while shopping.

She really is doing well and has been dry every night since the first time I started training her. She stays dry for naps and bedtime every time!!!! She has only had one accident at night and that was at 6:15 in the morning, so it almost doens't even count as an acccident at night. She gave up her pull-ups on her own. She simply refused to wear them for nap time one day and then again that night. She didn't even go through one package of pull-ups!!! What a big girl!!

New School Shoes

This is the first time I've let the boys come with me to pick out new shoes (ok, this is really the first time they've gotten new shoes.) They found these shoes at the first store we went to and I for the life of me could not convince them of any other (cheaper) choice at any other store. They were so excited about these shoes and that they are matching too. They were so cute; when we got home from the store, they would not take them off. They kept running laps through the house having me time them - convinced that these shoes made them run faster and jump higher. That has been their criteria for shoes for a few years now, if the shoes help them run faster, then they are a good choice.

The First week of School

What have I done to myself???? This has been a very hard week for me, but gratifying to see the kids excited and learning.

I know I am jumping ahead of myself a little bit here. I still have more to catch up on from the summer, but I wanted to get this up while it was still fresh in my mind.

My BIG 1st Grader


Ethan started 1st grade on Monday. Ethan's kindergarten was only half day, so he had to adjust to going to school all day. He has done wonderfully!!!! He got out of school at 11:25 a.m. the first day, but the rest of the week has been all day for him. He gets to take his own lunch now and has really enjoyed it.

His biggest challenge I think has been the lack of time he and Luke now have to play together. They have been so used to waking up in the morning and pretty much getting to do whatever they want. They play the best first thing in the morning also.

So, it's been an adjustment to not have time to play together when they first wake up in the morning. They catch the bus at 7:20 a.m. luckily almost right in front of our house. We have had to wake them up a few times around 6:45 a.m. so they have time to eat and get ready for school.

Highlight of the week: Wed. was Luke's first hard time getting on the bus. I had to physically carry him on the bus and set him down in the seat next to Ethan. As soon as I set Luke down, Ethan had his arm around Luke's shoulders. I didn't even have to ask Ethan to take care of Luke for me. This as you can imagine from a pregnant mother sending her two "babies" off to all day school brought tears to my eyes. I knew Luke was in good hands and Ethan has been an INCREDIBLE big brother to Ethan this week. I feel very blessed to have Ethan as the oldest one in the family. He knows how to tease his siblings, but he also can be very sweet to them as he has been this week.

I Can't Believe He is in Kindergarten!!!!

As many of you probably know I had a VERY hard time trying to decide whether to send Luke to kindergarten this year or wait until next year. Luke did a preschool with 5 other kids rotating between the moms teaching for 2 hours once a week. I was VERY nervous about him going from that to being gone for 8 1/2 hours 5 days a week.

Luke has done great considering...

Monday I went with Luke to school for just one hour. I walked in with him and left with him. The parents left the kids in the room with the teacher for about 1/2 hour while the parents went to the gym to listen to the Principal. This was about the very best thing the school could have done on the first day as far as for Luke. It was very comforting to him to have be go with and leave with him.

Up until Monday afternoon every time I'd ask Luke if he was excited about Kindergarten, the response was always NO. Monday, after we went to school, he said he was excited about school and he wanted to go back. This

made me feel really, really good!!!

We found Luke's seat that had a red star on it, his backpack hook with his name on it and his mailbox slot with his red star on it. This was very exciting for him and I think really made him feel more comfortable being in the classroom.

Tuesday, we got up and got ready. I had the lunches ready and we were getting the lunches in backpacks and shoes on when we heard the bus pull up - 5 minutes early. Either the school told me the wrong time or my clocks were way off because the bus has come about 5 minutes earlier every day.

We missed the bus that first day (Tuesday) and I had to take the kids to school that day. I dropped the boys off at the school. There was a teacher there ready to help them find where they needed to go and they both went right in. This is where I lost it. I pulled into the parking lot with a full van load and left with just Linz and I. I couldn't stop the tears from rolling. (Remember the pregnant woman excuse, more hormones in me.) I'm not sure if I would have cried it if were just Ethan going to school, but my little Luke....I just couldn't help myself.

Thankfully Luke came home Tuesday (after ALL day at school) and was very excited. He had lots of fun and really liked his teacher. That's why I was SO surprised when Luke had a hard time getting on the bus Wednesday morning. He would not even go outside, Nate had to carry him to the bus stop. This is where I had to carry him on the bus and set him next to Ethan. Good thing for an older brother to take care of him. What would we have done if Luke would have come first (I guess Heavenly Father knows best.)

Once again Luke came home happy and loving school on Wednesday. This reason has been the only thing keeping me going, helping me to send my crying kindergartener on the bus every morning. If he would come home hating school and having cried all day, I don't think I would be able to continue sending him.

Nate had to remind me that Luke did the same thing in nursery at church. To this day he still has hard time going to Primary some Sundays. We had to just push him in the door to nursery and walk away; this is how he did best. When we tried to stay with him in nursery and then sneak out, it made the matter much worse. Remembering this has helped me a ton in having to carry Luke crying onto the bus every morning. He stays on the bus and goes to school and has fun every day, so I will continue to "force" him to go to school. It has been hard for me though to see him so sad, especially when I wasn't even sure I wanted to send him to school this year.

I know that school has been really good for him so far and I know that he will grow a lot this year. I just hope he walks willingly on the bus soon!!!!

Luke with his teacher Mrs. Pickett

The boys in front of their Elementary school.
The best buddies.

Tuesday when I sent the boys to school, I have to admit I really enjoyed that day. After pulling myself together I had a disaster house to catch up on. I took a nap first thing that morning though and then had energy to tackle the house. We had had a crazy weekend and Monday, starting school and being Luke's birthday, so I had a lot to catch up on.

Wednesday and the rest of the week was hard for me. I have really missed having my boys home!!!!! I never realized how much they did for me and what big helpers they were until they were no longer there to do everything I asked them to do. Many times I wished Ethan would have been here to help me with this or turn on a movie for Linz. I haven't had to turn on a movie for the kids for what seems like years, the boys always just do it themselves. Well, Lindsey can't put a movie on for herself yet.

They have been so brave, both going to school ALL day for the first time and at a brand new school, where they know NO ONE!!! It has been hard to see them be gone all day. They really don't have much time to play anymore. They get home from school and they really, really play well together. I guess they aren't around each other enough anymore to bug each other, they just want to play and have fun. Between doing homework, eating dinner and playing with daddy when he gets home, they only have a short time to play together anymore.

Their new favorite is playing with Legos (thanks to my mom.) They pretty much do this every morning for a whole 2 minutes and every night. They have also enjoyed Luke's birthday gifts of Star Wars characters, his new scooter and playing catch outside.

I'm sure Linz and I will adjust to not having the boys around all day and then I will have a new baby born that next week:) No, we are getting used to how things will go here and I'm glad the boys are enjoying school.

Happy 5th Birthday, Luke!!!

I can't believe my little guy is 5 years old!!!!

Ethan is the photographer here. Not too bad...

Posing at the park

Luke's Five Year Old Stats:

Height: 41.5 inches Weight: 36.5 lbs

Shows: Now that he is in school he doesn't really watch TV much. He loves to watch the Star Wars movies and High School Musical.

Color: Green

Friends: Ethan, Gavin, Ethan Rasmussen, Treyton and Wade, Steven and Andrew and Gabe and Avery

To Do: Play Legos, play with Star Wars guys, swim, write notes to his mom and make books of animals like he does at school. Luke also loves to skate and ride his bike.

Food: Luke's initial reaction to almost anything I put in front of him is, "I don't like that." Usually we can get him to eat most of his food, but he definitely is a picky one. I have learned that even my Luke is a good eater after eating lunch with him at school and seeing how some of the kids there ate, or don't eat. He loves pizza, hot dogs, shells and cheese and meatballs.

What we love about Luke: Luke is a very sweet, caring and tender boy. He has the cutest smile and I just love to hold him (when he lets me.) Luke loves me to scratch his legs, arms, back and belly at night while he is in bed. Luke is a GREAT big brother to Lindsey and plays really well with her. Luke often thanks me for the food I give him (even when he didn't even eat it.) I love this about Luke and I hope he always says thank you for everything.

What Luke has learned this year: Luke has learned that school isn't so bad, he has gotten SO much better with his writing, especially his numbers. Luke has learned to read and is doing really well with that. Luke is learning how to make friends at school and is learning to ride is new scooter.

Luke, We love you so much. We love you cute smile and your goofy personality. We appreciate your thoughfulness and thankfulness. We love to see how you have learned and grown this past year and we look forward to seeing you be a great big brother in a few months.

_______________________________

For Luke's birthday we thought we'd take him to Chuck E Cheese's this year since we just moved to a new place and don't have many friends yet for a birthday party. Nate isn't a big fan of the pizza at Chuch E Cheese's so he said we had to get pizza elsewhere first and then head there for fun.

So, we got Papa John's and ate it at a park. Apparently we haven't taken the kids to a park for a long time. As soon as they ate a few bites, they were off to the park and we couldn't get them to leave. We even threatened that we wouldn't have time to go to Chuck E Cheese's, but they were just having SO much fun we let them stay and play.

So this year for Luke's birthday we just ate pizza and played at the park. We then went home for cake and ice cream and PRESENTS!!!

My little monkeys


The boys doing what they love to do best...

Here is our little dare devil. She will jump from anywhere and constantly jumps all day long.
Back at home for cake and ice cream

Ethan kept tyring to talk Luke into have a High School Musical birthday and Luke would even say that he wanted a High School Musical birthday cake, but I knew that deep down he REALLY wanted a Star Wars cake. Kind of lame this year, but this is what we came up with.

So, I got the BEST trick candles for Luke's cake I have ever seen. I didn't even realize they were trick candles until Luke kept trying and trying and trying to blow them out. They were THE BEST ever. Somehow the words "Magic Candles" right on the package didn't clue me into them being trick candles. I was in a hurry at the store...

And here are Luke's Five year pictures. Can you believe I have them done and SO close to his birthday. I have yet to past Linz' 2 year pictures (6 months late) but check back, those will come soon.