Day One...

Mark left on his business trip to Las Vegas (of all places!) last night, so today was our first day with him gone. Having him gone on weekends is the hardest, since we're used to, and enjoying, having him around more! But the boys did manage to keep occupied today after church...Andrew built a "castle" that he was very proud of (out of all manner of toys), they spent quite a bit of time spinning Jacob in the office chair, and I let them have a "picnic" in the living room with a Thomas movie for dinner. They were thrilled...oh, to be so easily entertained! :) Before bed we put an X on today to mark it off...only 6 more days left!

Mark's Birthday!

Wednesday was Mark's birthday, and it was so neat to see how excited Andrew was about making preparations for it! He helped me with the cake and balloons, and both the boys made cards for him that they were very proud of. After dinner (Mark's menu choices...and no, we didn't have cheeseburgers-he wanted meatloaf), we had an impromptu party over at church before Bible study started.
We tried to get Jacob to join the picture, but he thought joining the picture would mean forfeiting the movie they had picked out to watch during Bible study. Oh well!

Marble painting

Andrew's friend Neil came to play on Tuesday, so we did a painting project! First I showed them how the three primary colors mix to make secondary colors, and then they had a marble in a tray to roll around through just the red, yellow, and blue paint. They had a blast!

Where babies come from...

A friend emailed us this picture the other day, to be sure that we know where babies come from. :) Looks like we'd better get a mailbox installed at our house before too long!

Forensics Team

Here's the forensics team that I've been coaching for the past two weeks. I really had the easy part...they already had their pieces prepared for the school competition, I just helped them polish up for the district-wide competition. Andrew and Jacob really enjoyed going to the school...they would eat their lunch and play quietly while I worked with students, or Erin, a parent of two of the forensics students and a perpetual volunteer, came to watch them at home for the hour I was at school.
They did a fantastic job at the competition...the team brought home 6 first-place ribbons and 2 second-place ribbons! These kids are a joy to work with, and I love being able to connect with them and their families!

Overnighter with Gramps and Grandma!

This past weekend, Mark had to be in Anchorage all day Friday through Saturday. And I've been coaching the forensics (public-speaking) team from the Moose Pass school, and the competition was Saturday at 9:30 a.m. in Kenai. Since Mark wouldn't be home and we would have had to get a very early start, we just went and had a slumber party at my parents' house! The boys always enjoy their time there...and although they find it tiring, I think mom and dad enjoy it, too! They took the boys to the kids' workshop at Home Depot while I was at the competition...pictures will follow after mom gets hers developed!

Andrew

Andrew was just too neat of a bean eater to get an action shot, but got a nice picture of him anyway!

Green Bean action

For dinner the other night, we had green beans that were longer than usual, and Jacob decided to eat them as you would a long piece of spaghetti! I went to grab the camera because he was looking cross-eyed at the bean going in, but he never did it again once camera was in hand!

A few Jacob funnies...

Jacob cracks us up quite a bit. Exasperates, too, but that's besides the point! He's just so exuberant about everything, which also translates into him trying to get his way very "exuberantly." (Call me a glass-is-half-full kind of person)! :)

Anyway, just the other day, as I was in the kitchen making dinner, he called from his bedroom "Mommy, is dinner weady yet?" Usually he waits to ask that questions till he's in the kitchen. And he's the one that doesn't eat all that much!

He also loves his Thomas (Pomas) the train, who some days does everything with him. For each activity he did one morning, Thomas did it with him..."Pomas read a book" when I read Jacob a story, "Pomas pet Abby," "Pomas play ball."
Thomas playing ball was when we ran into trouble. Jacob would try to catch the ball, but with Thomas in his hand, he just kept hitting it away. Finally I told him, "Thomas can't play catch...he doesn't have any hands." "Oh!" was his reply. So he put Thomas on the couch to watch, but Jacob had no sooner gotten himself into position to catch when he realized that he had put Thomas on the couch backwards...so he quickly turned him around so he could see!

Boys!

Andrew played at a friend's house today, and while they were outside they each found some pieces of wood that became a sword and a shooter for animals. It never ceases to amaze me how boys are wired! (Perhaps I have limited experience in the girl arena, but even in my years of teaching, I've never yet met a little girl who has found random pieces of anything and turned them into swords and guns)!

From catch to snowshoes...

Last week we had some new friends over for dinner (one of Mark's coworkers, Dustin, and his wife Christy), and the boys completely hammed it up and had fun with them. After he and Andrew gave them an education on all of the Thomas train engines' names, Jacob started playing catch with the net. Then the net became a face mask (I never could catch that on camera!), and then he put the net on the floor, declaring it to be "snowshoes" as he shuffled along!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Hope you all had a great Valentine's Day! The boys enjoyed the special cupcakes I made for the occassion, but I did have the thought that a girl will really appreciate pink heart cupcakes much more than the boys would! :)

The pink parade begins...

Early as it may be, the "pink frilly stuff" is arriving. A friend came yesterday with a huge box-full of girl hand-me-downs. Thank you, Heidi!
I had them all sorted by size and piled in the chair when Mark got home from work. His only comment?

Does she have to wear pink everday?

From the looks of the wardrobe, the answer is yes, with a few intermittent days of purple or yellow!

Funnies from Andrew

Andrew has just been cracking us up lately.
A while back, our friend Marge sent us pictures of her grandkids. One of the pictures was of Anna and Joey. When I showed Andrew the picture and told them their names, I mentioned that if our baby was a girl, we might name her Anna. His logical conclusion?

And then we'll have to call Jacob Joey instead!

The boys were with me when I saw the dr. the other day for the ultrasound. I was explaining to him that this was the same dr. who had helped him to be born.

Oh, yeah...I remember him!

We were on our way out to the van after the dr. appt, and I asked Andrew what he thought about having a baby sister. He is sooo excited...

I asked God if it could be a sister and He said yes!

There's faith for you!