Feeding time

These pictures are from dinner last night (pasta) and breakfast (blueberry pancakes) this morning. My Mom tells me I had the same etiquette as a child. ;)

The Cut

Here is Grace right after she cut her bangs. I couldn't find the pictures but finally here they are!

And the tooth Fairy Gets a 2 for 1 deal!

Yep thats 2 teeth down one to go! Her top front tooth is loose now too! She is so happy that she is turning into a big kids now. Meanwhile Im missing my little butt scooter who refused to walk until 15 months old! Sigh. Time moves so quickly.

The motovation was that Grace found out that the tooth fairy was running a Polly Pocket special! If you leave her a 2 teeth you get a Polly and your favorite treat! She laid down and said "Ok let's do it Mom!" My daughter knows better than to pass up a special!

Just Like Dad

Barnabas was cleaning the porch windows the ohter day (his experience as a window washer in the past comes in so handy!). And the boys were watching him work. A couple days later this is what I found on the front porch!

The New Plan

Asa got his birhtday present from Uncle Jed and Auntie Molly today. You can't tell buy the picture but he is very excited about it (his new favorite thing is to do the opposite of what you ask...gotta love 3! Thank goodness 4 will be here soon!).

He now has a new plan for his life...professional baseball forget Bob the Builder!! This is day one with the hat, I am going to keep count of how many consecutive days he wears it and post that later! Zeke got a miniture version of the hat but he has yet to keep it on long enough to get a picture (but when I do you will find it here!).

The Things you Let the Third Child Do....

Visiting 1890

Not sure if they like the horses or not.
The boys are ready for school!
Such beautiful kids! They must have an amazing mother!
Grace gets to try the fiddle!
Love of the horses has been decided by the time we left.

On Labor day we went to "Murphy's Landing" in Shakopee. It's a little town set to be in the 1890's, all the folks are in period clothing and the houses are open for touring. It was a great time. Here are the pictures from our mini trip!

Good O'l Games

Race of the raw egg!

They never did fall off the spoon!

The funny part about this game (the pan toss) is that Asa was afraid of the pans the first go round but he did manage to to play the next time around (2 hours later). On the way home Nanny (Barb, Barnabas' mom) asked him why he was so afraid. He said "Because the pans were talking and had arms and I thought they were going to grab me." Seemed logical to him.

My Beautiful Girl

This is a picture fo Grace as we enjoyed the beautiful weather at Murphy's Landing

Chalk...Mmmm tasty!

Look at those teeth. As you can see he tried all the colors!

Too cute!

Rub-a-dub-dub...

...Three Howard's in a tub!

New Friends!

Heaven, Zeke, Brianna, her brother Dajuan and Asa
Asa, Grace, Zeke, Brianna, Heaven, and Dajuan
Asa and Dajuan (DJ)

The kids have made friends with a family two doors down. They play together most days between our two houses. They have a great time and are bummed that come next week school will start and they won't be able to play as much. But after school they will be up to their old ways!

An Exciting 1st Birthday

We had Zeke's first birthday party last weekend (even though he will be one on Monday). As you can see he was very thrilled by his party. :-) He fell alseep directly after lunch and didn't wake up till everyone had left! My Mom has most of the pictures on her camera so I will post more when she brings down her camera this week (don't forgrt the computer cables mom!).

Zeke had a great first birthday (even if he couldn't stay awake for it)!

Camera Issues

Well, I write in attempts to create more of a word picture since our camera is on the fritz! These past 2 weeks have been pretty eventful! Barnabas got a new job working as a consultant for a company called Digineer (www.digineer.com) he is very excited and busy. His first contract is with Boston Scientific. I have no idea what he is doing there (for his credit he has tried to tell me but I cannot articulate it myself) but he is enjoying himself.

The kids and I are doing our best to survive the heat wave. According to the weather folks it is supposed to get up to 110 degrees (that temp includes the "Heat Index" the heat version of "Wind Chill") so we have been hanging out in our back family room watching movies and playing waiting for the heat to break.

As Zeke's birthday approaches he is trying to get caught up with other kids his age. Within 12 hours he cut 2 teeth and 2 more are on the way! He is pulling himself up on anything that will hold still long enough for him to try. I can't believe he is going to be one!

Grace is getting excited to start school in the fall. I will be starting a homeschool curriculum with her and she more than ready. She gives herself homework to "get ready" for the real thing. I guess according to the MN laws I need to come up with a name for "the school" that will be here, so if you have any ideas let me know. The more creative the better!

Asa is well...Asa. Still running about on his "horse" Gordy and saving the day when ever and where ever he can. The heat has been a little rough on his asthma but he is taking it in stride as always. He is getting so tall too!

This fall I will be attending VLI (Vineyard Leadership Institute). Its a course given through our church that is for training folks for leadership within the church-mainly like pastoral staff kind of stuff. I am looking forward to it but a little intimidated because I haven't been in any sort of school type setting for about 7 years now! But I think it will be fun challenge, I am looking forward to using that part of the brain that seems to go into hiding when one becomes a stay at home parent. If you'd like more info you can check out this web site www.vli.org.

Well, its getting to dinner time so I must go. Hopefully our camera will be fixed soon and you will se more pictures posted!

Hot Time, Summer in the City

This is Asa getting ready to get in the pool, it's only about 4 inces deep but at least he is always prepared!

This was Zeke's first time in the pool. You can't really tell by the picture but he is so excited he is kicking up quite the whirlpool! Everytime he gets excited he legs start kicking!

And my bathing beauty in blue!

My friend Kristina had mercy on us the other day and brought by her swimming pool (there isn't one left in the whole Twin Cities I swear!). The kids had a great time. As you can see our yard is still part gravel. The garden place told us to wait to seed till end of August. But they promise that by Fall we will have grass! Well I am going to go turn on the AC in the back room-stay cool y'all 100 degrees here we come!

Gummy Grin

I had some pictures sitting in the camera so I thought Id post 'em. Zeke is heading for his first birthday with no teeth!

Baby Bath Time!

A Little Daddy Love...

Super Asa!

The goggles are for his high speed riding!