Arg Matey...

Wow! This has been quite the week! Monday was the first day of school. Noah woke up with a pretty thick runny nose, so he had to go with daddy. Jacob went to Miss Hicks, and mommy went to work. Good day. They actually ended up canceling school for Tuesday and Wednesday due to Hurricane Faye. No school Tuesday so we all hung out here at the house. They actually called school back on for Wednesday, so everybody had their first "normal routine" day. On Thursday morning I received a call from Noah's preschool. Apparently the little "curious george" decided to open the outside gate from the playground and see what life was like on the outside all by himself. Yes, he escaped from preschool. This preschool has been in existence for over 20 years, and my child is the first to EVER open the locked gate and escape... His Grandparents will be so proud..... Well, thankfully they caught him right away. We are now devising a plan for these "escapes". I was not shocked when the principal told me. Noah does this quite frequently. We will be in Chickfila or someplace and while I am throwing the trash away, he will run right out the door...Little booger. We are working on it. But please pray for us if you remember. My biggest fear of him starting preschool was the potty accidents. Hasn't had an accident yet and thankfully we got out of the whole, take-all-our-clothes-off-to-go-potty stage. We still need to master the whole, pulling-up-our-pants-by-ourselves stage. His teacher says that after he goes potty he hops all the way down the hall with his underwear and pants at his ankles to her so she can pull them up. He can do it. Just won't sometimes. His teacher has a hard time not laughing when she sees him coming down the hallway. Hopefully we will overcome this stage soon. Jacob is doing so great! He loves all the attention he gets from Nanny (that's what everybody calls her). He is learning alot too. Mostly that he isn't a baby anymore, he sleeps on a mat for naptime and plays with his buddy Michael. He colors pictures for us, and loves to play outside. So glad everybody is adjusting well.

Okay, on for the fun stuff. The PIRATE Ship! As most of you know, I am a garbage picker. Well, I don't pick through garbage, I am more of a see-it-on-the-side-of-the-road-hope-it-fits-in-the-van sort of a picker =) Well, we saw this on the side of the road and well, Yes, it fit in the van =)

This is our latest "treasure"- no pun intended...okay, it was totally intended.

The Boys Absolutely LOVE it! Especially Jacob. He doesn't quite love to pool yet, so while we are swimming, he can play in it and we can keep a close eye on him. I can forsee in the future, Noah making Jacob walk the plank into the water....how fun!

Okay, here are some pics of the boys. Noah has figured out a fish face and he does it ALLLLLL the time. He likes to show his muscles too. Jacob is still little pigpen. He makes a mess in whatever he does. We have been working with him on putting things away and wiping himself and the table off. He gets it. Doesn't like to do it, but gets it.

MUSCLE MAN!!!!
Messy Face!

Noah put his unnerwares on all by himself (inside out and backwards)
Fish Lips

Some Pictures from the Summer

Kara, Martie, and the Jake

Trying to get everyone in the picture! Gap Baby! Chatting on the steps! Beautiful Elk Rapids, Michigan
So sweet when sleeping....
Cheese!
Helping Pa Pa water the lawn
Right after he gave Pa pa a kiss...
Grandma Wyckoff and Jacob


Gavin and Noah
Best Buds


The Big Man just turned 3!!
It's a GREAT birthday when you get Thomas AND Dinosaurs!

Just an update!

Things are in FULL swing here! Especially this week! The players reported to school on Sunday morning, so it was a quick trip to the early service and new members meeting, then we had to pick up Lunch for the team at Sonny's BBQ and head over to school. The players started practice on Monday and things have been NON stop since then! Life for the boys have been far from normal as well! This week is Teacher In Service at school, which means everybody is frantically running around trying to find their books, get their schedules in order, get desks, you know all the stuff you need to run an effective classroom. So, as a new teacher, I am sitting back with my eyes wide open waiting for somebody to help me along in the process. I am going to love teaching piano fulltime. Just being around the people I work with is going to be great! There are some real warriors for Christ and Godly people who work at LCS. The boys started their new schedules this week as well. Noah started preschool and only had a little trouble when it came to nap time. See, whenever he takes a nap here at home, he takes his clothes off, I let him, I mean, why not? He's home, right? Well, they don't appreciate this "behavior" at school, so he's had a tough lesson to learn and that is to keep his clothes on. He didn't sleep yesterday at all, and I don't know how it went today, because Josh picked him up. He LOVES playing on the playground with all the kids! His teacher says that he shares well, and so far, he hasn't had any potty accidents! Praise the Lord! Jacob is going to a Mammy's house. That's what the kids call her anyway. He seems to love her and when we got to her house this morning, he went right to her. I got a call this morning from "mammy" and said that Jacob was running a fever. I rushed over there to find my little guy with his thumb in his mouth and his head on her shoulder. Poor Baby. After a pop of Motrin, he was a different kid, so he went to my meetings with me today. Hopefully he will feel better in the morning so he can play with his friends.

The boys had appointment a couple weeks ago and I forgot to post them, so even though this is boring to you now, I love to look back and compare my babies! So, here it is! Noah turned 3 the end of June he is 35 lbs, and 39 1/2 inches tall. He's a big kid, well, not big. Just tall and skinny! He is 90% for height and 75% for weight. He's in 4t for shirts and anywhere from 2t-3t in bottoms. Jacob weighs in a a whopping 24 1/2 lbs and is 31 3/4 in. tall. He is 75% in height, and 50% in weight. What do all these numbers mean? We have 2 very healthy active boys! I wish Noah would eat more, but oh well. Jacob is a garbage disposal. After I fed the boys the other night, I sat on the couch and was eating a salad. Jacob climbed right up next to me and "begged". Lettuce! What 15 month old eats lettuce?!?!? Whatever, at least he eats.

OH! I almost forgot! Our friends the Fryes came into town! Micah and Noah were reunited!!!! They missed each other so much! David, Tana, Savannah, and Micah were all staying with family in Orlando, but came over on Saturday night for some visiting time! It was so much fun and not enough time! Noah cried and cried when they left. He kept saying, Micah! Micah!!! It melted my heart! So sad! anyway, we love you guys! Thanks for coming over!!!!

Reunited!!!

My baby!


My other Baby!!

Cheese!

Serious Noggin Time!

We're getting there!!!

Can you say Palm Trees?!?

The Bathroom is actually in really good shape.

Well, we are definately getting there with the unpacking. We have a long way to go and that big hole in the backyard with all the water in it isn't motivating me to unpack boxes ;-) On another note, Noah is officially pottytrained!!!!!!!!! Yes, you read that correctly! We are super excited and proud of him! It took a tough little lesson which involved him having to clean up after himself, but after that, he's been going on the potty! He starts Preschool next Monday, so this whole pottytraining thing was just in the knick of time! More pictures to come as we finish rooms.

Visit with Grandaddy and Nana!

Josh's Parents we here for a little over a week. It was great to see them and spend time with them. In the midst of our move we were able to squeeze in a trip to Ikea in Orlando and Disney's Epcot while they were here. Jacob stayed back with a babysitter, but Noah went and had an absolute blast! he did so great! We don't know what we would have done if they hadn't come down this week. They had planned the trip back in May, we had NO IDEA we would be buying and closing on a house the week they had planned to be here. God is so good! Thanks for the visit Grandaddy and Nana! Come back soon!!!

The House

Whew! Sorry it's been so long since last post, but OBVIOUSLY we've been going through some changes! The boys and I flew into Tampa Wednesday the 23rd, Josh's parents arrived Friday the 25th, and we closed on a house the 30th. We are exhausted!!!!! Anyway, I thought I would put some quick pics up of the exterior of the house and then as we get rooms unpacked and decorated, I will post accordingly. We are loving our new house and the boys are Loving the swim time! Come visit!