Long overdue

Since my last post we lost the Internet, so I'm WAY behind. Well, we had a sweet little baby boy named Josiah! He is 3 months old now. Enoch and Noah just adore him, and give him a little tooooo much love sometimes ;) He is SUCH a happy baby: giving us great big smiles when we enter the room, sticks his little hands in his mouth and ducks his head in a shy smirk, coo's at the boys, clings on to Enochs shirts and try's to gnaw on our fingers. Despite coming down with thrush, being on medication for a month, being constipated for 4 weeks because of that, being fed a bottle with Karo in it to help cure it, throwing him off of his nursing game, and gagging himself at night because of his snuffy nose, he has been so content!

Enoch has been working hard on our first go around at homeschooling! Its a little difficult finding time between a newborn, a mischievous 2 year old brother, and mommy cooking and cleaning. But we are working with him on his letters: sounds, writing them, and recognition. We only have Q and V to go! He's doing so well! We have to work a little extra on his speech too. He gets jabbering a little too fast and everything blends together. So we are in the process of slowing him down and working on each word.

Little Noah has surprised us with what he picks up listening to us teach Enoch. He'll point to our shirt and say "W mommy!" or in while reading a book "dats Y" Noah definitely makes us smile with his funny faces and remarks. Like when Enoch gets on to him for making a mess, Noah will scrunch his face and make his mean face and say "shhhh, baby siah sweeping" or "I'm toming!" when you call for him, or as he's laying next to Josiah with his leg wrapped around him he'll say "gotchuuu." He's very independent, wanting to do everything himself.

(Yes, the beard is gone now =)

Enoch has been pretending to be a new animal everyday. From a lion or tiger, kitten or dog to pretending to be baby Josiah. He does not break his character for anything. He even crawled like a gorilla on his fists into the doctor the other day. Answering the nurse with "WO WO" lol, it was too cute to interfere.

I have been kindly pushing the boys out the door to soak up any bity of outside time before the coldness comes blowing in and we are stuck to 3 months of running around the house. I love my two little independent boys. Its nice to have time to get things done without having to turn the TV on for them. Enoch is in love with his "Big boy bike" and is such a good brother by offering to push Noah around on it since his little legs still wont reach. Then Noah returns the favor (pictured) They are best of friends, from playing in the dirt together, doing chalk, racing cars, playing with their digger, or tackling the dogs. I'm so glad we had them so close.

We are awfully excited about our big trip to Oklahoma coming up here mid November. We have our official countdown and that is all Enoch talks about. "Mommy, I'm going to eat a banana when we get to Mimi's house" "Does Mama Luci have cows or sheep in their backyard?" "I want to show Papa that" or my favorite, we were working on our letters and going over the sounds. We got to letter D and Enoch says "D says DAH and is for papa DDDDDDD!!! And jumps at me and knocks me over as he yells D. He's a little excited.

We went to Sarah's house with three dressed up little boys for Halloween. The businesses around the square in town were giving out treats before it got dark, so we hit that up to make sure we got something in before the night time fussiness arrived. My little tigger (Jo) wanted to be held the whole time while my pumpkin walked and my giraffe held little snow whites hand (Addi) all this while pushing a double stroller with no kids in it haha. But they had so much fun, Sarah's husband was there to help guide the kids in and out of the stores. I went as a "sleepy mommy" in my pj's pants, robe and sleeping mask =) After the first stop, Noah sat in the stroller and wanted to eat his one bag of M&Ms, and did not care to get out to get more candy, he was content with that. Even though I made him (mommy wants candy too :) Caleb joined us later for some amazing chilli after hunting.

Boys are growing

Enoch and Noah have been playing outside seriously every second they are awake. And its been nice having the windows open these cool days, so I can hear where they are and what they are doing even though im inside getting things done. I sat at the table and read this morning while watching them run around the backyard playing hunters with their guns, milly chasing them while they were chasing the chickens. It was slightly raining, but I really dont think they noticed. They've found mice, frogs, more baby birds, and will climb anything they can find. Today they climbed our white fence in the front, and had fun scooting their feet horizontally as far as they could go down the fence line. They climbed max's gate to the cows (up and down, up and down) they attempted the chicken cage, and then the big cucumber arch at grandma's garden. I was underneath it picking peas when I hear "mooooommy" and I had to look UP to see them both directly above me ontop of the arch just looking down and laughing. Soon they'll be on the roof, just like their daddy was at the age of 3.

Yesterday I yelled out the door "NOAH-U OK?" and I hear below me "tay!" so I followed the little voice to find him hiding under the stairs of the back deck, sitting there petting Finney, who was under there too. I poked my head between the steps and he looks at me with a big smile and whispered "hiiii." He loves to hide. Uh oh! Then I yell "EEEENOCH-U OK?" and his head pokes out of millys dog house "WUP, im otay." How is it that I went from having a newborn and I one year old, to now almost a 2 and 3 year old! Make them stop growing! I love this age though. I just went to check on them tonight, and Enoch is sleeping on the edge of the bed on his side, and Noah is right up against his back, all cuddled in. You could fit another person on the other side, there is so much room. I love that they love each other! Oh and the other day, Enoch felt my belly while the baby was actually kicking (sometimes I pretend and bump it out to see what he'll say) but he felt the moves and kicks and smiled real big, and with a little chuckle said "I love babies everywhere."

My view from the door, yes that is Noah on the tire swing way out in the yard, with Milly watching over him.
Watching Looney Tunes in their seats. Enoch pretending to sleep


His new friend of the day fits on his head!

"Here, lay right here by Enoch" were the words I heard before I snapped this picture. Of course Noah ran over to join brother, in whatever he was doing. Im not sure if he even saw the frog there in the middle.

These are my climbers looking at the baby lambs


Long day-Goodnight my boys!

Things to remember

Nicknames the boys have come up with for people: DDD, Bumpy, ReeRee, Uncle Don, Mickey Mark, ADD, Mommy's grandma

Routines: Boys to bed at same time AND in same bed, Enoch stays in bed all night (he would sneak to couch in the night) When can you get out of bed? "when sun up!" So at the break of dawn he comes and lays with us in bed. Daddy gets up. Enoch wakes up again to get his sippie out of fridge. Comes back to lay down. Noah comes to our bed and Enoch gets up again to get his bottle from the fridge. And they both come back to lay with Mommy! I love this....Notice im not up yet =)

-"sandrich....peebudder" (Noah, hungry apparently)

-"Your NOT in your bed!" (I stayed in the room with Noah one night when Enoch was with Mama Luci. He woke up at his dawn routine to come lay with mommy, only to not find me in my spot. He busted in the door to Noahs room, glarred at me until I woke up and said this....then shut the door. I ruined his morning =)

-Noah is potty trained before two and sleeping in big bed-tasks accomplised before new baby!

-After a rough day of grocery shopping, going to the park, having pains, and being so tired, we come home to find bones all over the porch from our dogs, their food spilled everywhere and my flowers dug up. Then I walk into our house just to remember how messy everything was and how dirty our white carpet keeps getting. I sat on the couch and burried my face and just wanted to cry. Enoch came over and put his hand on me and said "Its otay mommy, Its otay. I'll sweep" =)

rewind to MARCH and APRIL

For Spring break we had family come down to spend it with us! The first half of the week Calebs parents came. We went to the Brazilian Steakhouse in Saint Joseph. We checked out the Nature Center there too, the boys LOVED it! They had so many animals (stuffed of course) and hands-on activities. Then we walked down the sidewalk along the river, chilly yes, but pretty. Can't wait to go back when everything is green! Went to a Steakhouse that had a horse Enoch could ride....He now knows the phrase "money please." They had an indoor water park next door we checked out, maybe to try for a later birthday? And of course we had to play our game of Bocce. This was definitely extreme Bocce, having to dodge chickens, boys and dogs.

The last part of the week my mom came up to spend a few days and help with the boys! The boys had so much fun with their Mimi. We played outside alot, went to a birthday party, went to my Aunt and Uncles to see sheep and play with Tony and Amos, Got a PUPPY named Milly who was 5 weeks old and 3/4 Great Pyraneese. When Enoch first saw her he said "Thank you DaddY!!!" He just fell in love, he wanted to take care of her, carry her, play and feed her. I stayed up the first night to take her out when she had to go. But she kept finding Enoch (who insisted on sleeping on the floor by her) and jumping on him and wanting to play. So after about 3 hours of sleep we woke up to 6 pee puddles in our house, she stayed in the garage until she was big enough to sleep outside and not be eaten. Finney didn't care for her at first, but now they are best buds.

Things to remember of all of our family four wheeler rides-exploring, new way to mound city on dirt road, dirt chunks flying everywhere, finding the owl graveyard, tree fort, boys throwing rocks in ponds, finding dead cow in pond.

My Grandma and Grandpa Schroeder came down to spend a few days with us (March 28th). It was so great to see them, and the boys had fun with "gandpa and mommy's gandma" They still enjoy writing on their glow chart we hung in their closet, and playing with pop-up elmo!

*Helped Grandpa (pop) and Caleb plant 1500 onions, unfortunatley I wasn't much help due to fussy boys not liking the wind. So I really only helped with about 30. We then spent a morning chopping up and sorting 10 bags of potatoes for replanting. The boys did great helping with this!

*We played at the Quicks-the men watched the game, Ella and Enoch did princess dances (?) yes, he was being a good friend lol, and then of course played their favorite game of chase. Noah ate a blue stamp under their table and made a mess, what's new! (April-4)

*Playdate at Addis house: Played on John Deere tractor riding toy for hours, Jed (Dad) watched kiddos while Sarah lent me some maternity clothes. Came outside to hear the kids yelling ABC song and twinkle little star while swinging. Enoch didn't know his name so he kept calling him Dad, after hearing Addi say that over and over.
(april 6) Noah is talking so much now! "Big tactor" his "nothankyous" have a couple more syllables but so cute. He still yells everything. He's our mucher, wanting everything on our plate "BIIIIITE", smeared poo-poo mess all over crib sheets and books, pillows and toys. After clean sheets-threw up next nap. Any noise he here's outside he gets still and whispers "airpane" Loves eggs, gets them from hen house, only cracked a few. Sometimes in morning he'll grab shoes first thing and bring them to me "bye bye!" Getting more independant, playing outside with out mommy's help, climbling up stairs and riding tricycle, milly jumps all over him because he's so little. He's still my little "chunker" though since he's small, I hope our next baby is really big so I can call him tiny. "Eintine" to watch the Little Einsteins show "mi mow mouse" for Mickey Mouse. He can say on, off, eeeeat, up, down, i sowy (alot), pop-ar (pop-tart), owwie, det do (let go), bom bine (combine), and pretty much everything he hears he trys to repeat. Except for his name, we haven't heard to attempt that yet.

Enoch and mommy also count to 10 before our house- "weeee're hooooome!" Loves his alligator in bath, and tractors in playroom. He's our little helper, Taking care of Noah (washing his hair in bath, getting diapers or sippies for him, making sure he's okay when he's crying) so sweet to see them hug alot. Noah yells "EEEEyA" when he gets up, ready to play. And Enoch is always asking to go wake up Noah if he's sleeping to long. We do have brotherly fights, but they get along so well other than that.

Thank you Gma!

Thank you Grandma for the needle point animal magnets! The boys alway love opening them up, playing with them, and then finding a special spot for them on the fridge! Enoch even took the Robin with him for nap time and laid it on the pillow next to him. We sure appreciate all the time you take in making those, but its definitely time well spent and enjoyed. We love you both!

False Spring

Some time after my last post (probably around Feb 7th or 8th) Caleb made a HUGE snow fort for the boys, Enoch called it his Lions Den. And Noah never got to play in it, I think it got in the 50's the next day and we lost it. Also, our friend across the street had one of his sheep give birth to a baby lamp and said we could bring it over for the boys to pet. So here are some pictures!

Well just as we thought Spring was in the air, we are graced with the presence of more snow. The poor geese were just as confused as we were. After watching thousands of them for days, flying north right over us, the snow storm just sent half of them back south.

We had Brittany (sissy) and Curtis come visit us a few weekends ago, which we enjoyed so much! They brought the boys some electric construction toys and a Tickle Monster book which they thoroughly enjoyed, especially having new things to play with until we can go OUTSIDE =)

Im so excited to announce that I finally saw my first musical! Liz has season tickets for the music hall in Kansas City, which meant, I got to see Grease with her! It was so much fun and I can't wait to add more theatrical shows to my list of do's.

I have finally been to the doctor, only for paper work and exams. They gave me an appointment 3 weeks away for a sonogram. So March 15, please hurry!

If you look closely you can see the geese all the way down into the peach sky...and this was just to the South. This image covered the whole sky East to West as wellNoah didn't care for the lamb =)