Back in March Matt took the boys mountain biking for the first time. The boys had been doing really well on their bikes and were super excited to go. Poor Noah got going too fast down a hill and lost control. He was a little sore that day, but was back on his bike the next day.
Here’s a video of him riding before the crash:
“The sun is really hot. If I sit on the sun it will burn my booty.” – Ezra
Ezra, “can I have corn cheese?”
Me, “what are you talking about?”
Ezra, “you said corn cheese!”
Me, “oh I said no more cheese.”
Out of context Ezra, “I’m giving the chicks some weed.”
More out of context Ezra, “Daddy, daddy I’m gonna be your weed guy!”
Noah to Ezra, “I don’t want your attitude.”
Me, “boys can you help me pick up so I can vacuum?”
Ezra, “why? Is somebody coming over?”
Me: what did you boys talk about in Sunday school today?
Ezra: well me and garret were telling funny jokes in the bathroom
Me: okay what did your teachers talk about?
Ezra: I don’t know.
Ezra: Daddy, someone needs to chop these weeds and mow this grass
Me sarcastically: I know, who is in charge around here?
Ezra serious: I guess i have to everything around here
Me: Hey Boys, we need to paint the chicken coop today, can you help?
Ezra: Well, um… It sounds like a hard job, I’ll see what I can do. I may not be able to do all of it.
Ezra to me, “I’m gonna tell the chicks to stay away from our hammers and stuff so they don’t get hurt.”
Ezra to the chicks, “tweet tweet tweet tweet.”
We had a huge hail storm at the beginning of March. Pretty rare for us so it was a lot of fun. We also got a ton of rain with it and lost power for hours! Thunder shook the house then rain started pouring! We pretty much never have weather so the boys loved it.
Last week I snapped this photo:
and this week Nana painted this:
If you’d like to see more of her beautiful work, check it out here!
Women of all ages make up one of the most vulnerable populations in the world. They face violence, discrimination, lack of basic rights, lack of education and more. -FH
Tomorrow is International Women’s Day and we have signed up for the Walk to Empower Women. It is organized by Food for the Hungry and is this Sunday in Phoenix.
If you are in the Phoenix area and wish to join us we are team “Running with Scissors” (Meg I just had to borrow your blog title).
If you wish to support any of us, here’s our links:
This was totally a last minute sign-up and we would thought it would be a fun family activity. Any monetary support is just icing on the cake. Thanks!
Ezra has been able to pedal for a while, but he couldn’t get started on his own. He finally figured it out yesterday and is one HAPPY boy!
He quickly graduated to wanting to learn to jump things.
Remember the little pink-vanity-mirror-cabinets from the boys’ bathroom redo? We decided to repurpose them into jewelry cabinets. Matt made me and Abby one. 🙂
We also founds a large mirror in the ally and put it up in the boys room.
“I have the hook-ups.” both boys say this when they have hiccups.
“My finger is all rumbly.” Ezra
“Rumbly?” Me
“yea the water did that.” Ezra
“Wrinkly!” Me
Ezra, “mommy I don’t know how to sleep.”
Me, “well you start by closing your eyes and mouth.”
Ezra, “but they keep popping open.”
“Duty calls!” – Firefighter Noah
“No, we say booty calls!” – Ezra
I was informed today that vanilla frosties are for when it’s sunny out and chocolate frosties are for when it’s REALLY sunny out and eyes water from the sun.
“Hey guys stop it! I’m trying to be difficult.” – Ezra talking to his toys
Ezra is flipping a coin and calling either rock or scissors.
Ezra, “we’re too young to go to garden school.”
Me after thinking for a bit, “do you mean kindergarden?”
Noah, “All that pizza made my tummy hurt.”
Me, “Pizza?”
Noah, “yea, pizza.”
Me, “We didn’t have pizza.”
Noah, “Oh.”
2013 started off with a bang. January 3 our oven caught fire! Luckily Matt is observant or it might have been worse. I was in the kitchen cooking dinner (it smelt so yummy and I couldn’t wait to devour it!) and Matt came in to tell me something. He noticed light in the oven and I told him that I had some foil in there and he was just seeing a reflection. Luckily he hardly ever listens to me, so he opened the oven. Sure enough a bright white flame was on the element. I grabbed the extinguisher and used it, which made the flames flare up! We slammed the oven shut, Matt called the fire department, and I took the boys outside. They were thrilled that a fire truck was coming to the house! By the time the firefighters arrived the fire was out, all they did was unplug the oven and told us not to use it. They told us we did the right things by keeping the oven closed and smothering the oven with the flame retardent. While the retardent didn’t work on the element, had the oven been messy (shockingly mine was clean) the grime would have caught fire and then spread to the cabinets.
In the end all we had to do was replace the oven, we found a newish one on craigslist and now all our appliances match. 🙂
Lesson: Keep your oven clean and never leave the house with the oven on or you could have a big fire.
The house we moved into had the same owners for its first 43 years. Â I know they loved and cherished the house over the years, but the last updates they made were probably 15-20 years ago. Â Needless to say it needs some love, new paint, and sometimes new fixtures.
When we started the boys’ bathroom project it was going to be a simple take down the wallpaper border and freshen it up with some paint.  Of course, as with most house projects it quickly spiraled.  Part of the vanity was in disrepair, the plumbing under the sinks had to be replaced, and there was a little bit of mold.  We stumbled across a new vanity for half off at the local home improvement store.  Matt tore out the old one, put in a new one, and even tiled the top.
The old bathroom was PINK. Â The vanity was pink, the ceiling was pink (yes the ceiling!), the doors were pink, the trim was pink, the mirror cabinets were pink. Â Yea it was a lot of pink. Â We decided on dark grey (Valspar Mark Twain Gray Brick if your interested) with some red accents. Â We painted the doors, trim, and ceiling white.
Age 4 has hit me a little hard. Not in the “this age is so hard to parent” sense, because let’s face it every age has its hard-to-parent parts. Age 4 has really made me realize how fast they are growing up and how quickly my time with them is going by. Yes some days (okay maybe a lot of days) feel like they are never going to end, but man do the weeks and months fly by. I truly cannot believe I have two 4 year olds. They are now considered preschoolers and no longer toddlers. I am glad I have another whole school year before they reach kindergarden. I truly hope to treasure my moments with them before we reach school age.
I love watching them grow and learn and don’t want them to be toddlers forever but wow this raising kids time really is just a blip on my own timeline.
Okay we don’t get a lot of snow, or really any, but the boys really want snow. I saw an idea for an indoor snowball fight with paper balls and knew it would be a hit. We had a ton of fun and no one got cold and wet!
I try to let the boys help me in the kitchen. It isn’t easy for me, it requires a lot of patience and more planning than I’m used to, plus the kitchen gets even messier than when I cook (and I am a messy cook!).
They really enjoy cooking though. Making homemade pizza was right up their ally! They loved making the dough, smelling it, feeling it, tossing it, tasting it. They also added their sauce, cheese and toppings but for some reason no pics of that part.
The boys received these Straws and Connectors Kit
After daddy built the rocket ship in the picture, Ez insisted on some wings for himself. Noah likes to connect them to make letters and numbers.
Sorry Noah I have no idea why you didn’t make any of the photos.
Yes that is an affiliate link, doesn’t hurt to try make a couple of bucks here does it?
