Zoo Trip

Last week my friend Angela and I took our kids to the zoo. I think a trip to the zoo is great.......
once a year. It is exhausting to go to the zoo with 5 children under 5 years old.
The kids were excited about the animals, though, so it was worth it. This better be the only time i ever see these boys behind bars.

Nik is signing "hippo" here.
What Nikolas was most excited about was the excavator being used to build a new lion area. He heard and saw it from afar and took off into Africa before i could stop him causing me to ditch Angela and hunt him down. He kept trying to get closer and was looking for a way through the bushes.
This is Angela and her darling daughter, Audrey. I have to post pictures of them as Angela hasn't updated her blog since, oh, about March I believe. Isn't her family cute? She should post about them, don't you think?
And if there weren't enough of her cute kids yet, here is her youngest, Nathan, who happens to be one of Luke's best friends. This will be one of those graduation slide show pictures. Just look at their chubby little cheeks:)

My Top Ten Favorites

My friend Kate had a post on her blog in which she stated her top ten favorites, so now i am doing the same as it might be fun for you all to know the little nuances of Rebecca. So here they are: Jesus, family and friends are assumed of course!

1. Magazines - I have a slight addiction to magazines. I think i currently have at least 6 subscriptions.

2. Starbucks - specifically the Eggnog lattes only served in December, but any other latte will do.

3. Rock Climbing - naturally.

4. Checking things off my "ToDo" lists - I am such a list person, i have at least 5-7 lists going on at one time.

5. See's Dark Chocolate Nougat - Mmmmm, these would make my Valentine's Day. (Hint, Hint, to a certain Husband...)

6. Yardwork - I know, strange, but i have always loved hard work and being outside and since i don't live on a farm anymore, the yard is it.

7. Berries - of any kind, but raspberries are THE BEST.

8. Going barefoot - Oh why do i live in the Northwest?

9. My Canon Rebel XT - I can now never go back to a point n shoot, toddlers are much to quick for them.

10. Learning everyday - which isn't too hard since i am a new mama and knew absolutely nothing about children, cooking, cleaning, gardening, etc. 2 years ago.



There you are, now you know everything there is to know about me. Well, at least the important stuff:)

So if you have a blog or even email and feel like sending me your 10 favorite things i would love to see them!

Helping Daddy

I have heard that two year olds like to help their parents and Nikolas is no exception. He helps with the laundrey, throwing things away, fetching diapers for brother and washing the car.
He loves spending time with his daddy and since Tone' has started college in the evenings the time they get together is limited. That makes together time even more important so i love nights where they get to do something "tough" together.
He takes all his jobs seriously and wouldn't crack a smile the whole time.

On Having Fun

Fun.
It's such a relative term.

When i was a child Fun was building forts, playing in the creek, climbing trees and slip 'n' sliding. It was carefree summer days in which school was far off in the distant future.

As a teenager, Fun was being a part of my cross country and track teams, hanging out with my youth group, riding big roller coasters, working around the farm and trying to be better than the boys at every sport i could.

Entering into my young adults years i found Fun on a much grander scale. Fun was living in my truck at Smith Rocks and rock climbing everyday with strangers, traveling to foreign countries, taking road trips around the US to rock climb and trying every new extreme sport I could.

Now i am a mama and fun has taken on a different meaning.

The other day after camping, Tone' asked me if I had had fun. I paused and said, "I don't know if I would say I had "fun", I had a good time, but camping really isn't fun anymore when i have to take care of two tiny beings the whole time."

There was a pattern to my fun no matter what stage i was in before children. It always consisted of the outdoors, adrenaline and hanging with friends. Now, as a mama, there is a new pattern. Not bad or less fun, just a different pattern. It's "fun" for me to see Nik riding his trike around the campground a hundred times because I love that it gives him such joy. It was "fun" to go on a boat ride with our friends and all our children and watch the daddies jump off the rocks even though i didn't get to and would have loved to if i hadn't been holding a baby. It was all "fun", just not my original definition of fun. It is like my fun has transfered to my children. It is no longer about me. Wow. I don't know that i ever would have been okay with that a few years ago. Like, 3 years ago to be exact. I'm okay with it now, though. I know that my children won't always be small and in need of my constant supervision. One day, i will be able to have my definition of fun again, and the best part is that....my children might join me. And that would not only be fun, but would bring me great joy as well.

All Camped Out

We have been camping the last two weekends in a row and I am all camped out. Camping is a bit more difficult with a toddler and a baby, though not as bad as some might think. (really Kate, it's not that bad:)) It is a bit dirty and getting naps and bedtimes to work can be a bit tricky, but good memories are to be had which makes it all worth it.

The first weekend we camped at the beach where it was cold at night, so the boys were bundled up nice and warm. They actually slept better those nights than at home!

The next weekend we were at Cresap Bay in Washington with a 3 other families. Here are 7 of the 10 children getting ready for one of the many rides around the campground that we did...over and over and over again. There were 8 adults and 10 children ranging in ages from 6 months to 5 years. A tad outnumbered were we? Why yes, we were.
One of the families brought a boat for everyone's enjoyment and it amazingly held all of us. Nik had a blast on the ski tube with his buddy Wyatt and daddy. He also went with mama who kept asking the driver to go faster. We were going out of the wake and bouncing all over the place, good thing for the infant life jacket handles! Crazy Mama.
The rest of the time the kids found various ways to amuse themselves, and us.
This little guy is one of Nik's new buddies. They were cracking us up with their belly bumping:)

Fun times, but i think i am done getting up in the cold of night to nurse a baby in my sleeping bag. There is always next year....unless i am pregnant again.....which i am not....but one never knows.....

6 Months Old!

Today was Luke's six month birthday! He is so stinkin' cute I can't help but kiss him all day long. It is fun to look at the pictures of Nik at this age and see the differences in these two little guys. Luke still has the baby face while Nik was already starting to look like a little man. Luke is always so happy and carefree while Nik has that mischievious look in his eye. Some things never change...

Somehow i lost his 3 months shirt:( It probably has a stain and i put it somewhere to clean it and now i don't know where that is. It is hard to tell by the picture, but Luke is huge compared to Nik at that age. I just had to pull out the 12 month outfits as i have been cramming Luke into the 6 month and 6/9 month outfits. Nik was still wearing his 6/9 month clothes at 12 months.
I can't believe Luke has only been in my life for 6 short months, yet i can't imagine my life without him. I thank God for lending me these little boys, they truly are blessings from above.

A Kiss Makes It All Better

This is Darth Vader.

Darth had an owie on his head due to being dropped on the cement and then stepped on by a two year old.

Darth would have been fine had he been wearing his helmet.

Lesson learned.

Said two year old felt bad for dear Darth.

Said two year old said, "Mama, kiss"

What does a mama do, but kiss the plastic deformed Jedi on the top of his head.

Over and over and over again...

Do mama's of two year old girls have to kiss ugly action figures?

Cleaning up

I recently discovered that my links to my favorite websites have been incorrect. Apparently it makes a HUGE difference whether one adds ".org" versus ".com" at the end of the web address. Arg... The crazy thing is that the links did go to sites that appeared to be the real thing, but were not, in fact, the real thing. I think someone had made the ".com" sites to confuse people so they wouldn't find the real sites as they are somewhat controversial. Okay, quite controversial. Two are about creation science and one is about child training. The other one is about berry picking, not sure about the reason to confuse people with that one....
The reason i just discovered this is because i always just link to the sites from my favorites side bar. So, sorry for the confusion, but, now is the perfect time to check some VERY COOL websites out.

Nik's Hero

My nephew, Zachary, plays baseball (obviously) and is currently on an All Stars Team in Tacoma where he lives. So for the Fourth of July we all went up there for the Freedom Festival and also to watch Zach in a couple of his games. It was fun to watch him, though i sadly put my camera away to carry Lukas when Zach caught a ball in outfield to get someone out. ( i am so ignorant when it comes to baseball terms, i'm sure there was a better way of saying that).
Nikolas absolutely adores Zachary and wants to be just like him. After the game Zach and his friends played ball with Nik which was HUGE for a two year old to be playing ball with BIG 12 year olds! He was really hilarious as every time he would throw a ball his little leg would come up like so. He had a little crowd watching him and smiling as it was too cute:)
This is him sliding into the base as he saw the big kids do during the game.

All By Myself!

Luke is enjoying some new freedoms lately now that he can sit up on his own. He has yet to roll over, perhaps he is going to skip that altogether. He just doesn't seem the slightest bit interested, though he may just be too round to even attempt it.
He is continuing to be a constantly happy baby which makes mama happy as well. Even if he is hungry or tired I can always get him to smile.
"Look at me!"
The swing is great, he will swing there for awhile and I just work around him and he is perfectly content. Even when he stops swinging he is happy to watch Nik playing around him.

In the Library

Like his mother before him and her father before her, Nikolas enjoys reading a good book (or 4) in the "library". Is this behaviour hereditary or learned? At any rate, it keeps him occupied a little longer than normal, which for mama, isn't a bad thing...

Nik's First Trike

It has been so fun to watch Nik try new things, such as learning to ride a tricycle. He received a shiny red Radio Flyer tricycle from Grandpa Gibson for his birthday and each nice day he would ask mama to go outside and ride his new "bike". At first he just sat on it rocking back and forth, then he could push one pedal half a revolution, then he could go backward a few and then one day, he was off! Now he is doing acrobatic tricks on it like he has been triking for years.
One of his favorite things to do is ride around buck naked with all of his favorite things on the back of the trike. Currently his favorite things include: books with fire engines, his turtle bag full of cars and his nerf gun.
This may be the last year for his naked trike riding as next summer he will be moving into the questionable stage of 3 where it may not always be appropriate for him to bare all. Though next year Lukas will be running around naked so maybe it will be "only okay at home". In the meantime; I am going to stock up on bare bottom Nik pictures:)