Happy 5th Birthday Nikolas!

We celebrated Nik's 5th birthday with the standard Train Party. Why both of my boys can't seem to get out of the train party rut is beyond me. Don't they know there are other themes we could be doing? Mainly I just want to make something other than a train cake, like a rocket ship or something, ANYTHING but another train cake. At any rate, Nikolas was very excited about having a "Rocky" train party. If you don't know your Thomas the Tank Engine trains then let me fill you in. Rocky is a crane train. He can swivel around and pick up derailed trains or move downed trees and is, as are all the trains on Sodor Island, "very useful". (Except that mean ol' Diesel 10, he's always up to no good) Isn't that right Elly? (Another small train aficionado)

Mama's rendering of Rocky.

What can you expect at one in the morning? Thankfully I had just picked up my niece Alex at 10:30 that night so she helped me decorate and prep for the morning, as well as keep me awake while I frosted. Eating a large spoonful of frosting helped too. If you asked Nik what his favorite part of the day was he would answer with, "wrestling with my cousin and my friends". I love how little boys look up to bigger boys and young men so much. I love it even more when those bigger boys and young men will take the time to interact with the little boys, like my nephew Zachary did. He wrestled with them, played ball with them and helped them play video games. It made the little boys feel important. Thanks Zach!

One tired birthday boy snuggling with his daddy.

Estella's First Smiles:)

Our sweet little girl is smiling now, and it's not just because she has gas! I had hung a toy from her car seat handle and as I was doing something nearby I heard a little giggle. I looked at her and saw her staring at her toy and smiling and laughing. It was so cute!

Little Pink Riding Hood

What?! I'm in a picture!

Tone' and his little "peanut".

Nik's New Ride

Nikolas' 5th birthday is coming up and he was needing a new bike as his other bike was a 12" with teensy little tires that couldn't keep up with his pedaling. So off to Toys R Us we went and brought home a new "Shark" bike. He is one excited little boy!

Riding off curbs

and a video of him riding off the ramp Tone' made him:

He took to his new 14" bike with ease and is able to ride so much faster.

Tone' is about ready to take him on the bike path, though we're just a little worried about whether he will pay attention to other bikers so he doesn't get run over or end up in the blackberry bushes.

Then there is little brother Lukas.

Who, at 3, still only wants to ride his litte Retro Rocket that he started riding when he was a one year old. Once in a while he'll go out on a limb and ride a tricycle, but only when he's feeling daring. It really is cute though to watch him pushing that thing all over the place, especially since he has no clue that he is always last when he races Nik. They both say, "I won!".

And here is a video showing he does have a little bit of a daring side:

An Honest Answer

I was reading to Lukas from the Bible about Jonah trying to run away from God and being swallowed by a great fish. When I came to the part where Jonah finally obeyed God, Lukas said with big eyes, "OBEYED?!?!" I said, "Yes, he obeyed. Do you obey?" Lukas responded with,
"No. I don't obey."

Well, at least he's truthful:)

A New Bunk Bed and "The Rules"

The boys now have a new bunk bed, which happens to have been Kellie and mine, and they are quite ecstatic about it. Nikolas is the most ecstatic as he is the one who gets the top bunk, just like I did:)
They were both playing on the top bunk while I was changing Estie's diaper and I overheard Nikolas giving Lukas the "rules" for being on the top bunk.

Nik: Okay Lukas, rule #1: No jumping on the bed
rule #2: No rolling or you'll fall off
rule #3: no standing by the edge
rule #4: pause.....more silence....
rule #5: no throwing things off the bed
(apparently he couldn't think of anything for rule #4 so he moved on. Makes sense to a 4 year old I suppose)
rule #6: no breaking the bunk bed
rule #7: no using my blanket
rule #8: no scratching the walls with tools
rule #9: no taking my stuff out of my wall pockets
rule #10: no breaking the rules!

I walked over to their room to watch this unfold and saw Lukas' response after the last rule. He rolled, stood up and started jumping. Ha! I had to keep myself from laughing.

Hello Spring

Would you come out to stay please?

Snow Day!

Nikolas had so much fun playing in the snow making snow balls and throwing them at Tone'.

I wish we could have gone up to the mountain this winter to play in the snow,

but I was not wanting to risk going into labor up there

and now I don't want to take baby up there.

Next year.

Bombs away!

Lukas did have fun, in spite of his grumpy appearance.

Such joy!

My little snow baby.

Lukas was looking at the flowers trying to poke their heads up through the snow.

I really wish we could just have a couple days of snow. Like, 6 inches would be fun.

Come on Pacific NorthWest.

One Month Old!

Estella is a month old already!

I found these little owl stickers that have a number for each month up to 12 so we can keep track of her growth. Aren't they adorable?! I need to find a some other object to put her by so her growth is more obvious.

She now weighs 10 pounds and has grown 3/4 ths of an inch making her 20 and 3/4th inches. I couldn't believe she was 10 pounds! She is going to surpass her brothers for sure growing like that. She is in the 75th percentile for her weight. The boys have never been in that percentile so it will be funny to see where she is next time.

I'm loving having a little girl as there are just so many cute things to dress her in and to buy for her. I'm especially having fun decorating her room in owls.

She is sleeping well the first half of the night currently, unfortunately, she doesn't sleep at all the last half. I'm going to go a bit crazy if that doesn't change. She has two months and then it's training time.

No, We Can Not Keep Him

This little guy jumped out from under the couch at me the other day.

I was reading and holding Estella and saw something move out of the corner of my eye, and there was this cute little frog:) I screached to Tone' who was in the other room, "TONE', COME SEE THIS!" He was on the couch as he was in the midst of the flu and when he heard me he thought something was terribly wrong and jumped out and came running. When he saw it was a frog he said, "In the future, when I am sick, there are only three things you can screach like that for: a dead body, a meteor the size of Texas or a plague of frogs in Biblical proportion." Hmm, I guess I did sound like there was something about to eat me.

It was too bad that the boys were spending the night at John and Karen's, 'cause they missed out on seeing the little froggie. (Well, not really too bad. It was actually really sweet having the night off)

Then, Tone' asked; "Can we keep him?"

"No"

"We could put it in my aquarium!"

"No"

"Just until tomorrow so the boys can see him!"

"No"

So with sagging shoulders Tone' shooed the little guy out the door.