BIG NEWS!!!

Big news, everyone!

Josiah has a for real loose tooth!

I wiggled it myself.
He is not nearly as excited about it as I am, since he's thought he's had a loose tooth for the last 4 months. But he is excited about learning to sew and making his own tooth fairy pillow!

Miss Me?

I know it's been a long time since I posted. Needless to say, we've been busy, as I'm sure are most of you--it's just that time of year!

Here's some highlights from the last few weeks:

The boys and I went to see a Peter Pan play with gramma. Josiah, especially, LOVED it! Micah really liked it, too, but he was so tired I think it put a damper on the experience. And ever since we went, there has been a lot of pirating in our house, with many visits from the fierce Captain Hook. (A little aside...did I ever tell you the story of Josiah asking Nana if she would be a hooker with him? He thought she'd make a great hooker (and he told her so). He MEANT someone with a hook on their hand and was, of course, oblivious to what he had actually said. I think he was 3 when that happened.) Anywho...When I asked Josiah what his favorite part was he said it was TigerLily. At the time he couldn't tell me what he liked about her, but from watching him play I think it was the indian dances they did. Micah liked the part when the crocodile tried to eat Captain Hook's hand! Here are pics:

After the play, all the kids had their first taste of Big Ed's pizza. By this time, Micah was waaay too tired to like anything, as you'll see in the pictures. Josiah liked it, but Emilia LOVED it. I was feeding her pieces of my crust and she couldn't get enough! I can tell you one thing about my baby girl--she LOVES food. Seriously. Anything, any time, just put it in her mouth and she's a happy camper. So here's the crew at Big Ed's...

I must've missed grampa in the picture taking...sorry Tom!

The boys rode on the Habitat for Humanity float in the downtown Knoxville Christmas parade and they had a BLAST! They thought it was awesome to get to be IN the parade! Josiah has already been asking when he can be in another parade. :) It was also the first time Josiah was on TV! The local news station was broadcasting the parade and if you knew where to look you could see Josiah hanging out in the Habitat float. Guess that means he's used up 1 second of his 15 minutes of fame. It was cold the night of the parade so I bundled the kids up before they left and had to laugh at Micah because at first he was walking like the Stay Puff marshmallow man! Here are all the boys before they went down to the parade.

We also went to the Nutcracker Ballet last week. How did the boys like it? Well, they liked the parts that told the story, particularly the fighting of the Mice King, but they got pretty bored in the second half when they were just dancing. Josiah spent the first 10 minutes asking when they were going to talk and didn't want to believe me when I told him they wouldn't. After a while, he accepted the situation settled in. Micah always wanted the ballerinas to be dancing WITH someone and didn't really like when they danced by themselves. Other than that, I couldn't believe how well they sat and watched the whole performance. I was VERY impressed! Here are the cousins lined up for the show:

I don't know what's up with the boys in this picture. They're boys, what can I say?

(I don't know why the computer is posting it sideways, either...)

I spent most of last week making some stuffed animals to sell in a craft show. The dolls turned out great, I thought, though apparently I should have made more lions! Here are a couple that I made.


We attempted to take some family Christmas pictures on Sunday, but none of the ones of all of us turned out very good. Emilia was over the photo shoot by then, I think. But I did get some great pics of the kids! Our Christmas card pics won't be much of a surprise to you, but I can't keep these to myself!




This one is my FAVORITE!


My little pirate-ess

So, there's a little of what we have been up to. We had a great Thanksgiving and are enjoying the whole holiday season. The boys are very anxiously awaiting Christmas and our road trip to Texas! That will be a fun one to post about! :)

What's Happenin' Here

I always said that if one of my boys ever cut their own hair, Micah would be the one to do it. He proved me right today. It's not bad, though. In fact, I can't tell where he cut it at all (one of the perks of the shaggy look, other than that he looks udderly adorable with it). All I know is we were crafting and all of a sudden Micah had a Chicken Little moment and was yelling, "Ahhhhhh! My hair is falling on me!" Not sure what he expected, but apparently, that wasn't it.

In other news, Emilia is "sqwinching." That's Josiah's word for it, anyway. I say she's scootching, but what do I know. In any case, I don't think she'll be "sqwinching" for long. She gets up on her knees all the time (and usually shakes her bootie while she's there). Today at nap she even pulled herself up in her crib, so I don't think it will be long before she's giving her brothers a run for their money!!

One other little tidbit from here, I'm almost certain Micah is going to be left handed. I've speculated about this most of his life, but I'm getting more and more certain every day. We've been doing "workbooks" the last few days and Micah is always writing left handed. Ok, not always, when he does "scribble scratch" he'll use his right hand, but if he's trying to follow lines or do something in particular like railroad tracks (his current fave) he uses his left hand. I'm fine with that, in fact I think it's kinda cool. I just have one question...how in the WORLD am I gonna teach this kid to throw a baseball?!??

The Hidden Stash

What is it with boys and boogers? I don't know, but here goes...

Tonight we were "just foolin' around," as I used to say for nonsense play when I was little. The boys were trying to get me to kiss their noses, promising they had no boogers in them and I kept saying no because I KNEW they had boogers in them.

Me (to Josiah): I KNOW you have boogers in there. I see you picking them out with your thumb every day.

Josiah: NO! I didn't even do that today, not even once!

Me: Then for SURE there are boogers in there because you didn't pick them out.

Josiah: NO! Well, okay. I did, but just once.

Me: Where did you put it?

Josiah: I put it on the window and every time I put a new one there I say, "NEW CUSTOMERS!"

Oooooh, I started laughing and laughing! It was so funny the way he said, "New customers," as if he was calling from a road stand or something. Because this struck me as particularly funny, I went to tell John about it. I'm telling him the story and Josiah is standing there soaking in the attention when something about what he says or how he says it strikes me as suspicious, so I ask him, "We're just joking around, right? You didn't really put any boogers on the window, right?"

Josiah: Yeah, I did.

Me: But just for pretend, right?

Josiah: No for real.

John: Which window?

Josiah: The one thats next to me, but just a little bit down.

(I'm thinking in the car, so this isn't making sense. He must just be joking.)

John: In your room?

Josiah: Yeah, the one that's next to me, but just a little bit down. There's three of them there?

John: The window looking out to the backyard?

Josiah: Yeah, but just a little bit down.

Me; You mean you really put boogers on the window for real?

Josiah: Yeah.

John: Boy, do we have a project for you later.


And, yes, I will make him clean his own boogers off the window. I'm not doin' it!!

Tradeoff

Yesterday, Emilia was holding a strike against naps. I think she MAYBE slept a grand total of an hour to an hour and a half during the day. To some, that may seem sufficient, but this girl has always been a sleeper, from the day she was born and quite frankly, an hour and a half just doesn't cut it for her. Yet, every time I tried to lay her down for a nap she would lay in her bed and scream her little head off until I came to get her. I can already hear my mom, "Well, if she was really tired, she would sleep." Oh really? Then how come she wasn't really happy when she was awake, either? She cried when I tried to play with her, she cried when I held her, she cried at her brothers, she cried in her saucer...she was one unhappy little munchkin yesterday. So, for those of you who may say she didn't need the sleep, to you I say, "Pbtttttt!"

The bright side of this is that there was a tradeoff. She may not have slept during the day, but buddy, when she fell asleep last night she was OUT FOR THE COUNT. The girl slept from 8 pm until 7 am without waking up once. WHOOPEE!! I got the longest night of consecutive hours of sleep in over a year (because I really didn't sleep well when I was pregnant). I felt like a new person this morning. Was it worth it? If you had asked me yesterday, I wouldn't have hesitated a second before I said, "NO WAY!" but if you had asked this morning, I would've had to think about it, though in the end I would still go with a "not really," but hey, that's just me. Yesterday really stressed me out, what can I say?

Halloween 2008

This Halloween was the first year that Micah chose his own costume, which ended up being a harder decision than I thought it would be. Josiah had decided to be a Power Ranger and, as we all know, Micah ADORES his big brother. So, the dilemma was this: be a Power Ranger like big brother or be what HE wanted to be (a monster with big eyes and grass coming out of his ears). Be a Power Ranger...Be a monster...Be a Power Ranger...Be a monster...He went back and forth and back and forth for a week before we came up with a solution. He was a Power Ranger during the day for lunch at grandma's house and then he was a monster with big eyes and grass coming out of his ears for trick or treating at night. Personally, I loved the monster. I mean, he makes a cute Power Ranger, too, but I love getting to see the parts of him that are truly HIM and not just what Josiah is doing. So I loved the monster. But I also understand the awe associated with older siblings, so I get why he struggled with also wanting to be a Power Ranger and I'm glad he got to do both.

All the boys at grandmas

The Micah Monster

This was also the first year we went trick or treating and I can tell you our children will not let us go back to the old ways! The boys had SO MUCH FUN walking around their friend Kate's neighborhood, ringing doorbells together and getting candy...lots and lots of candy! They'll never eat it all and I'm sure I'll throw half of it away before the Christmas stocking candy comes in, but they had fun getting it. Micah was the brave one and went up to the house that no one else would go to because it was too scary. Emilia didn't want to miss out on any of the fun, so she managed to stay awake in her stroller the whole time--until 9:00! Yikes! We all had lots of fun and I already warned the Hemricks we'd be back again next year.

Dressed up for trick or treating


Josiah must have gotten something good at this house!


John and Micah

Have You Been Waiting?

Here they are--the pictures!

This first set is Emilia playing in the sunshine one morning. One of her favorite "toys" right now is an empty water bottle.

In my family, I am well known for teaching my cousin Emily to stick out her tongue at an early age. I suppose I would be in big trouble if I didn't teach the same skills to my own children.



Somedays, after putting the kids to bed, I walk back out to the living room and am greeted with this picture. I can't even explain the feeling it gives me. *sigh* I'll admit, somedays I just leave it looking like this.


These pictures are from the Shriner's circus. We all had a lot of fun at it. Did I tell you about it already? The boys favorite part was the human cannonball, in part because of the anticipation of it. We sat right by the cannon so during the whole performance, the boys were asking when they were going to use it. The cannonball was, of course, the very last part of the show. They also liked the motorcycle ball. When it was first brought out, John said, "Are they really going to put 3 bikes in there?" Ha! Not only three, but SEVEN motorcycles were riding around in it! It was LOUD but the boys were fascinated.
This was taken before the show. We were happy to be there...honest!


Emilia hanging out in her seat...check out those bottom teeth!


Down by the elephant ride before the show (proof I was there)


Micah's maternity picture...this still makes me laugh.

this is the post that never ends....

These are some pictures from Josiah's last soccer games. He played his last game on Saturday. He really enjoyed the season, but as he said on Saturday, "I know it's my last game, but I'm not sad." Are you ready for a break? "Yeah, but not just a little break, but kinda a long one."

Pre-game team stretching. Josiah looks a little funny in this because he is intentionally falling over with every stretch. I caught him mid fall.

Micah stretching on the sidelines


Emilia hanging out in the stroller..."High five, man."


Oh, right, soccer pictures. Soccer star!


The soccer star pouting.


Emilia's new face. She makes it a lot, but especially when one of her brothers first walks in the room or when she spots one of the cats.


And now, I interrupt this photo montage for a story that happened this morning on the way back from the park. My grandma was in the car with us. Micah said, "Mooooommyyyyyy! Josiah's picking his nose!" I said (in a rather silly voice), "Ewwwwww! Don't pick your nose!" The boys thought the way I said it was funny, so they kept pretending to pick their nose and then they would say, "I'm picking my nose!" Repeatedly. Over and over. Seriously, I bet they both said it at least 10 times. My sweet grandma was trying not to laugh and kept saying things like, "Oh! Look at the trees! Aren't they pretty?" Finally, I called an end to it. I said, "That's it. No more picking your nose. That's gross." To which Josiah said, "I'm not really picking my nose. I'm just pretending. Because usually when I pick my nose for real I use my thumb. See?"
Boys, boys, boys.

Back to the pictures...

I don't know what Emilia's thing is with eating grass...


To be honest, I don't think she understands it either.


Cool dude at the park


My big kid (I still can't believe he's five already)


i just LOVE this grin of Molly's


Of course, this one is pretty darn cute, too.

yes, it goes on and on, my friend....

At the nature center with Gpa


The boys played in this little house the whole time. We never did go for a hike! I should have gotten a picture of all four of the boys, because they all had on their Okoboji sweatshirts!

This is an extreme close-up of Emilia's belly button. It is blurry because, of course, she wouldn't hold still. But can you see it? It's a little star in there! :)


And finally the pumpkin patch...This first one is best if you click on it to make it bigger so you can see our faces. The boys were complaining that the sun was too bright, so I told them to just close their eyes and make a funny face. This is what we got!






The hayride




My little pumpkins






Attitude? We has it!


Oh, wait...one more thing. The decorated pumpkins, complete with scary faces




One last, last story...
We were driving the other day. It was cloudy outside, the kind where the clouds cover the whole sky...except for in one spot so that you could see the sun shining through just that one break in the clouds and it looks like you can see the rays of the sun. Josiah sees this and says, "Look, mommy. Do you see that one spot where the sun is shining in just that one spot?" Yes. "That means that God is talking. Because every time he talks, there is just one spot of light." I wonder who He's talking to? "Us. I think He's talking to us." What's he saying? "Why can't you hear Him, mommy? Why can't you hear what He's saying?" Hmmm...I've been wondering that myself...Ok, I didn't really say that. If only I could be like Eli Stone without the aneurysm.

THE END!!!!!!