Girl Time

A sad thing about living this student life is that we are surrounded by students like us who will be in our midst on a very temporary basis. These little gals are moving this summer and I can't even imagine Cambridge without these good buddies.


We had Grace and Claire over to play on Wednesday to soak them in and do fun girlie things like do hairstyles and play dress up.

There has been some interest in mixing potions in our house and making experiments lately. We got out the liquid bluing and tried to make a crystal garden. So far I am thinking we added the wrong amount of solution.

Pres came home from school with a dinosaur that grows in water. She is so into that thing!

The Army Crawl

In a Nutshell

Once my kids are in bed and down for the night, I am always flooded with a feeling of appreciation for them. Right now Josh and I are listening to Noah and Presley chatting in their room as they try to fall asleep. Presley just said, "I love you, Noah." SO cute. She is real into saying I love your shoes, I love this and that. Very endearing.

Earlier today, I was getting lunch ready and Noah yelled from the dining room, "Mom, check out how far I can stretch Charlie's legs without him crying!" I run in there to see Noah trying to force Charlie into the splits! Charlie just adores his big bro, though. Noah pretends to body slam him and he just cackles his little head off. Charlie does anything he can to strain to see whatever wild and crazy thing Noah is doing. He knows that whatever it is, it's some funny stuff.

The other day I gave PK and Charlie a bath and realized I could actually let Charlie stay in there and play for awhile. He was loving it and has since found the joy of splashing. When he got out, he had the worst case of raisin toes!



Saturday we went on a walk to Harvard Square and got some dinner. It was one of those glowing, sunny afternoons. We watched the ice skaters at the Charles Hotel and talked about the idea of Josh playing intramural rugby. It might not be footballish enough though. Darn. Love those little shorts.

Charlie workin' his FUBU coat thingy! Keeping nice and cozy.
Then Josh at the Memorial Theater in Harvard.

At the square, Josh was asked to give a quick little interview, polling peoples' opinions on the stimulus package and how gas should be taxed.

Good weekend.
I spoke in church and talked about finance. I'm glad it's over. Now I am looking forward to sending Noah back to school this week. He is excited to see all his homies.

Karaoke at my House!

We had a spontaneous Karaoke Party at our house yesterday. My favorite thing to do with the kids is sing and dance. My friend, Eve brought over her karaoke stuff and we rocked out. I think even Charlie had fun {check out the bottom right corner}.

Week in Pictures

So much went on this week. Sorry this post is going to be information overload. The two cutest things this week were watching Noah and Presley perform in separate events. Noah in his school's winter concert and Presley in her ballet class.

First, here's Noah:

There seemed to be a lot of emphasis on cultural awareness. The kids sang this beautiful song about Peace in different languages (I'm sure it was a reflection of the Political views of out beloved Cambridge!) also this song about Martin Luther King that made the tears just stream for me! It went, "Just for you Dr. King, we will let our voices sing..." I need to wake up Noah to ask him what the rest of the lyrics are. They are so sweet.


Next up was Joy School at my house. We went on a nature walk to observe and collect scientific data (pick up sticks and refer to them as "treasures") and we mixed colors with jello then with paints.



Here is Presley at her dance class. I was GUSHING. It was one of those moments where I knew we did something right for Presley by sending her to this class. I could tell she was having the time of her life. She watched the teacher so intently and mimicked the movements pretty well. Look how cute:





Then Friday we had a Valentine's Day party here. I didn't know how many people to expect and it turned out to be a full house. It worked out well and the kids had lots of fun. I made cupcakes and heart-shaped pizzas--got that idea from Darby. People brought other yummy things. I have decided I like Valentine's Day so much better as a kid holiday than as a romantic thing. It's a fun, simple little holiday. I love the idea of making little cards and passing them out.






All in all I had a happy Valentine's Day. Josh took the kids so I could clean the house from top to bottom. We were showing it to future Harvard Students. It is so wonderful to have every nook and cranny cleaned! I get sick of looking at the same crumbs in the cracks in the floor. Another wonderful V-day treat was that Josh picked me up a sweet double jogging stroller. I think he felt bad for me because I was jogging the kids around in our bulky, clunky, regular stroller. It would start out as walks and then I thought, "I should take this opportunity to get in shape," so I'd start jogging, but I would be in jeans and regular shoes. I decided that a person running in normal clothes instead of workout clothes looks like a person in peril rather than someone who is a sophisticated exerciser. Thanks to Josh, I now fit in the latter category. Real jogging stroller and now I do wear work out clothes. It's a must!

Pardon the geekiness!I promise someday I'll have a cool picture of me on here. Oh, man, is that possibe?

Prima Ballerina

Introducing Presley! The princess ballerina. Here she is in her ballet clothes right before class last week. I didn't get to go watch her because my neighbor and I are taking turns carpooling the girls over. My week is this week so I can't wait to see what it's like. According to Jenny, Presley was a very attentive ballet student and was paying very close attention to every move the teacher made. When she came home, Presley was so excited. She showed me all her moves, floating back and forth around the room. 

Check out those twinkle toes. I don't think I've ever seen baggy ballet shoes until now! Target had 3 sizes for all young girls; small, medium, and large. I couldn't get the smalls on PK so we went the next size up which is probably a size and a half too big. Oh well, she feels like a princess, that's all I could ask for. 

Today was my first day teaching Presley's Joy School class. I'm a little rusty, but the kids kept encouraging me saying, "this is fun!" We are preparing for the big Valentine's Day Party on Friday. We are making heart-shaped pizzas and cupcakes with sprinkles. I think Presley had cupcakes on the brain because she was busy working on this drawing of a cupcake. 

She even wrote out the word on the bottom. The letters don't have to be in order do they?

She was a good noticer today too! We are learning about observing and went on a nature walk to collect treasures. It was heaven for her and her little buddies to be able to dilly dally around instead of rush a walk. 

As for the boys of the house, Charlie is letting me use the computer less and less. He is always grabbing for wires and pounding on keys. He's not nursing peacefully for long periods of time anymore. He's now a nursing snacker and is much more interested in finding the source of every little noise he hears.

Noah went on a field trip today to the great Boston Museum of Science. It was his first trip on a school bus. He was so thrilled he even remembered the bus driver's name! That's huge! He was real interested in bugs from this trip. Josh's love for science began with bugs. Noah mentioned he was grateful for bugs in his prayer last night. So cute.

7 months

Charlie was lucky enough to get a new tooth and his first ear infection for his 7 month mark. After the weekend o' pain for this little guy, he has definitely proved to be one tough cookie!

promises, parties, and presley

I am finding that every time I say I am going to do something on my status on facebook, I don't wind up doing it. I said yesterday that I was going to take some pictures outside. I had my camera with me as I picked up Noah from school, but got totally side tracked and hung out at my friend, Eve's house for a couple of hours. We were cracking up about our love for the band, Depeche Mode and Charlie's forced cackle when he is tickled. So I went to pick up Josh from the lab in Boston and saw my camera in the car and snapped this picture. There. That's my outdoor shot:).

We had a little super bowl party on Sunday. Just an excuse to eat junk food. Here is what the aftermath of a Mormon party looks like! Man we partied hard!

Last but not least, I must gush over my little helper, Presley Kathryn. Look at what a great job she does feeding Charlie. I think Charlie's going to grow up thinking he has two mommas. 

What a sweet gal. I said earlier that her hair is growing in curly, but I think it may just be wavy. Who knows, it seems to look totally different each day! It is just so thick now. I am excited for her to get some more length.