hoping today for a miracle

Yesterday Aaron took our computer in to find out why it just stopped working. Found out it was the hard drive. Not a big deal we had been backing up all our stuff after the last time our computer crashed and we lost all of Emma's baby pictures. Or so we thought. Turns out the backup to an external hard drive (im pretending to know what im talking about... aaron tells me and I just repeat) didn't work because of damage to "something". this is the last picture we have that was saved



That is Noah just days old. Everything else is gone. Aaron is taking in the old hard drive to (cross your fingers) see if anything can be saved.

I feel sick.

emma

Sometimes I wish I could see the world through Emma's eyes. She lives in this crazy care-free world. Emma does things her own way and she doesn't care what anyone thinks. She can't go anywhere without a little lipstick (thank you Grandma Vi) and the world is always so much better with a little glitter. Emma is crazy and spontaneous. When she comes home the first thing she does is start making some kind of "art". She goes through more tape than anyone I know. As soon as I empty a box (like a pasta box, or cereal) she HAS to have it for some kind of project.

Last week we had parent-teacher conferences and Emma's teacher said "emma is...emma" while laughing. I knew exactly what she meant. And its a good thing.

One thing I really love about her is she calls Aaron her prince and has since she could first speak. He will always tell her she is his princess to which she will always reply "you are my prince" and then they will dance while he sings "so this is love". The other day she didn't want him to leave to go to work. Its like that everyday, but this particular day she was determined to make him stay. She had me put the chain on the front door to lock it (i guess the deadbolt wasn't enough to keep him in). Then she stood guard at the door with her pink foam baseball bat. If he came close she let him have it. He somehow finally made it to his car. But she was fast and opened the back door and climbed in. After pulling her out about a dozen times and trying to tie her to a chair in the house and Aaron getting karate chopped while he dragged her back in the house she finally let him leave as long as he kissed her good-bye and promised treats on his way home. He was only about an hour late. but worth it.

I love her.

I also hope her lisp never goes away.

Sometimes I wish I could melt into the walls

Jonas likes to get up really early. Early meaning anywhere between 5-6am. Its fun. Not really. Sometimes Aaron and I are just way too tired and Jonas will entertain himself with TV. Yesterday he decided to treat himself with some apple juice. I guess at one point it became more exciting to just dump that juice all over the floor. Every inch of the kitchen. All the way down the hallway. Ending with a big puddle right in front of the front door. I didn't come across this until it had sat for a little bit because when I went to wipe it up the towel just stuck to floor. It took a few moppings to get it all up and im still finding some sticky spots.

While trying to get the girls ready for school while trying to get sticky off the floor Jonas and Noah found some markers. All I could do was say "really?!?!" and move on with my day.

Next was take Abby and the boys to Abby's doctor appt to get her cast off. While there the "joys of boys" just got better. Jonas just couldn't sit still. Go figure. He would promise to be a good boy then take the doctors chair and get on it laying on his belly and fly it across the room like superman.

Oh wait, did I mention we were not in a private room like at the usual doctors office? This doctor just has a large room in the back called the "broken bone club". Along all the walls are beds and chairs and everyone just hangs out in this same room watching each other get casts taken off and put on. So we were among a few strangers.

I tried threatening, bribing, holding both crazy boys on my lap for make-shift "time-out's". They didn't care. Jonas then stood in the very center of the room, legs apart, arms up in the air, paused, then stuck one hand down the front of his pants, then did this very weird dance. I hurried to grab Noah from crawling under a chair and tried to grab Jonas. He saw me coming after him to put an end to his hand down the pants dance and took off running. I was holding a struggling to get down baby while chasing my very fast little boy apologizing to everyone as we ran down the hall all the way around to the front desk. Where he ran into the area where they keep all the files and hid. Very embarrassing!!

We finally were ready to leave and while at the desk again making an appointment for Abby and talking to a nurse about physical therapy Jonas found his way to the printer. taking everything off as it was printed and handing it to the other nurses in the office. Awesome. I had to take the papers. Apologize again for the billionth time. And ran out of the office as fast as we could.

It was the same craziness at lunch and after stopping a mandarin orange throwing fight between the boys it was time for naps. Even for a boy that doesn't take naps.

Not by best moment.

Roly-Poly invasion

We moved to our home here in Virginia mid July and finally decided to cut the grass. It was a major jungle out there in our tiny backyard. Since we left our mower at our house in Georgia (with the hopes that our tenants would keep up with the yard) we had to borrow one from a nice neighbor. Problem was it didn't have a bag and so we had to rake and pick up the piles and piles of months of uncut grass. While Aaron mowed the bugs ran for their lives. We did not realize just how many roly-poly's were living in that jungle. They came by the hundreds onto our concrete patio. Our kids went to collecting. They loved it since they really haven't ever seen many of them before. They tried to see how many they could collect. There were so many that you couldn't hardly step without stepping on one and once an area was cleared and all the the rolies put in a bowl more would come.



Jonas thought it was the coolest thing ever that they turned into a ball.



Noah was happy to point to the bugs until someone came to collect. He did NOT want to touch one.




The whole thing was gross.

Aaron then thought it would be funny to put some black sprinkles into Noah's bottle and tell the kids they were some of the roly poly's. It was pretty bad. Emma kept saying "but they have a family!" and turns out they didn't find it funny at all. Don't worry once the kids had their fun all the Roly Poly"s were set free.

fashionista

Emma loves to dress herself. Do her own hair. Add some makeup (if I let her... she usually sneeks it). And yes, I let her go to school like this. She fights anything that isnt a dress or skirt which just adds to the fun. This particular day was when she finally figured out how to do pig tails all by herself and she was really proud. I have been meaning to take more pictures of her before school just so we can remember all of her creative coordinating... hopefully i can be better at doing that because she can really come up with some great outfits (this one actually matched) I just hope her teachers know that emma is dressing herself and not me. I guess its only Kindergarten and she doesnt care.

halloween

Lately Jonas has been obsessed with Mario Bros. It was obvious that he had to be Luigi (his favorite) for Halloween. I tried to do a whole Mario Bros theme, but once the girls saw these "princess" dresses at the store they refused to wear anything else. At least the boys are young enough to not have a choice. I ended up sewing the boys' costumes the day before the ward trunk or treat which is why they are without white gloves... I just didn't have enough time. Jonas cried when I wiped off his mustache when it was time to get ready for bed. The morning after the ward trunk or treat he demanded to wear his costume (mustache and all) all day.
Halloween was cold and the kids really lasted all of maybe 20 houses and they were done. Maybe next year I can convince them a theme is cool.