Noah turns 5

Noah turned the big 5 on Saturday, the 16th. Uncle Lief drove over from L.A. Friday night. He got in super late, then Laura and Lief had some good brother/sister bonding time before we called it quits at 1:30am. Noah and Jodi woke up at 6am on Saturday with nasty croop-like coughs. Not a fun way to start off a birthday. The boys had so much fun playing "show- and- tell" to Uncle Lief all morning. They had to show him everything they own and make him play with everything as well. Dustin spent the morning helping the missionaries move an investigator into our building. SHe seems super nice and now I have to keep contact with her. Noah opened his presents and had cake and the boys got a sugar high from the frosting. I left Dustin in charge of the camera and am now regretting it as I saw how few pictures he took of Noah's big day. What a bummer! I am going to take some this week of him playing with his cool toys.

Here's what he hauled in this year:
His first Erector set- which he loves, he helped Dad build a fire truck
His first Lego set- (Thanks Grandma!) He liked having Uncle Lief build stuff with him.
A Hot Wheel trick set which he and Daniel love to play with together- Jodi likes to destroy it!
An Army bucket with 2 colors of men, with mountains and trees, drawbridges, forts, tanks, helicopters, the works. He loved them all!
And as tradition, a few books.

We had a great time with Uncle Lief. Noah was happy to have him here with him. Uncle Lief also made a buddy out of Daniel by getting him an Optomus Prime Transformer which Daniel has been dying to have. It helped alleviate some birthday tension.

Jodi the climber

Jodi has gotten very daring the last few times we have gone to the park. She has begun to climb the monkey bars- by herself! She then climbed the bookshelf, as my family knows. Yesterday, Noah came running and screaming at me that Jodi was on his bed- the TOP bunk. I asked if he helped Jodi get up there and he said No. She did it all without help. Then, I actually had the privilege of witnessing it myself! The little daredevil!! She has also found a new past time- JUMPING off the couch, and the ever-popular wrestling Noah. What a tom-boy!

"Laura" News

I usually only talk about the kids and Dustin on the blog. I am changing it up a bit today and talking all about ME!! My Christmas present to me was a membership to the Arizona Flute Society. As a member, I had the benefit of joining a flute choir. We had our first rehearsal on Saturday. I was in absolute HEAVEN!! The flutists are amazing. My new flute fit right at home in this group. There are about 20 flutists- at least 4 alto flutes and 5 bass flutes and the only contrabass flute in AZ. It is so large the end reaches down to the floor! It felt so good to do something for me. It has been a long time since I performed with such a professional group. I was a little concerned about the length of the rehearsals. Because of the fibro I have only been able to play about 30 min. The rehearsals are 2 hours and the concert is about one-and-a-half! I did surprisingly well on Saturday and was able to take it easy the remainder of the day- thanks ever so much to Dustin for watching the kids and keeping them off of me! Our performance is Jan. 27 in Phoenix. I am SO EXCITED!!!

I am also happy because the new Masterpiece Theatre season began on Sunday. They are showing all of Jane Austen's major novels of which I am a true Austen fan!! If you have never read one of her books- you should! They are fun to read and true love wins in the end!! She makes my heart go pitter- patter for her heroes.

Big Girl

Jodi hit a few milestones this last week. She is trying hard to talk and her first word, besides Mom and Dad, is down. She also said Hello to Dustin on the phone this week. She tries very hard to sing the Super Why song and loves to dance to the Big Fun song. She can almost say Big Fun- thanks Aunt Elisa for the CDs at Christmas!!

Uncle Lief, Laura's brother, came for a short visit. We put Jodi in Daniel's bed at night. She did so good that we couldn't keep her in the crib any longer. She now has her own toddler bed. We swore we would never get a toddler bed, but we didn't have room for a twin size. Jodi loves her bed and loves the freedom. She gets up on her own and watches PBS with her brothers while Mommy gets to sleep in. Very nice!!!

Jodi also entered the nursery in church. She loves it!

We had a great visit with Uncle Lief. We went to the Farm park and captured many good photos and memories. The boys wouldn't leave Uncle Lief alone the whole visit. I got Lief hooked on the PBS production of Charles Dickens "Bleak House." We had a wonderful time and look forward to more visits from him and other family.

Camera Happy

We are totally loving our new camera. It helps that our kids are so stinking- cute (No bias of course)! We have been taking the kids to the church parking lot nearly every day. Noah rides his bike and finally had his first major crash. He got into a spin and scraped his lips on the pavement. He got up and rode for a few minutes more. We FINALLY got Daniel to ride his tricycle. We had to put a belt on it to pull him. he goes slow because he is afraid of falling. He can jump off the top bunk onto Mom and Dad, but he's too scared to ride a bike. He cracks me up. Jodi loves the tricycle and will ride it all day while Daniel scoots around on her bike! The things kids do!!!

We also took a picture of Jodi's hair in the bath. It is so long when it is wet, but it sure curls up. She is becoming quite the little person. She starts nursery on the 13th. I don't think she is going to have a hard time at all. I think she is going to go in quite easily. SHe is VERY independent.

Big Boy

Ok, Yesterday was Christmas- Today Noah can ride his bike all by himself- no parent and no training wheels! We took him to the church parking lot and 2 seconds later he was off on his own. He crashed a few times- a couple into Daniel. Noah thought that was great and wanted to run Daniel over some more. Noah almost took out Jodi a few times too. Noah loves his bike and thought it was the most wonderful thing in the world. We still have to teach him how to stop without dumping the bike or running into curbs, but that won't be as hard as the riding. We still can NOT get Daniel near a big boy bike. He is MOST content just sitting on Jodi's push bike for which he is much TOO big for. I'm sure the bike bug will get him sometime- I hope!