She's a safety girl

Because washing the car is dangerous business.

'Bout time!

I was having some serious blog anxiety, I haven't been able to get the pictures off of my camera card onto the computer for some reason. It's probably because there are 4 trillion pictures on the computer already and it's full. I realize that I could have made a blog post with no pictures, which I did not too long ago but lets face it - a blog post without pictures is like peanut butter with no jelly. Or something like that.

AAAAANYway, on to the post. We had our first pack meeting of the new school year and the boys earned all sorts of belt loops. They're these nice shiny metal things that slide over the belt. They each got one for: BB shooting, archery, art, soccer, mathematics, map and compass and ultimate. Ultimate is this football type Frisbee game. They earned all of those during the camp they went to this summer.

We also got all of our popcorn selling information. Hint hint, relatives. Be afraid, be very afraid. A uniformed Cub Scout will be appearing on your doorstep very soon. They'll ambush out of town relatives the first chance they get. There are prizes you know, for selling a certain amount of popcorn. They've looked them over with much interest already. One of them is a marshmallow shooter. I'm just sayin'.

"Hi, I'm Jacob/Jonah with pack 119. Would you like to buy some popcorn?" I mean COME ON! How cute are they?!?!

Showing off their hard earned belt loops.

In Ziploc bags. That's right, that's how we roll.

Take your baby to the gym day

You just stay here and find something to do while Mama works out. After I have my snack that is.

What's that? You're only a week old, don't have your eyes open and can barely walk? Jeez, you're such a complainer.

Oh alright. Here, I'll fling you in the wheel and get in after you.

Just hold on while I do my morning run. Try not to flap around too much, I might drop you. Can't a sister work out in peace? How am I supposed to get this baby weight off? Hmm?

I'm not sure why we always end up with the psycho animals. She ran in the wheel for an hour while the baby was dangling out of her mouth, hitting it's head on the wheel every so often. Motherhood has obviously claimed her sanity.

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I know how she feels. ;)

Not much to report

We've settled into a nice routine now that school and activities are going full swing. Jonah had strep at the beginning of the week but so far (KNOCK ON WOOD!) nobody else is sick. Their teacher is out with the flu so that can't be good. Jacob and Jonah have much improved attitudes this school year which makes things so much easier. They're easier to get up in the mornings and just generally more pleasant. I'm hoping that they've figured out that they have to go to school whether they like it or not, so they may as well make the best of it. Emily still thinks that it's all great, I sure hope that lasts. She's eager to tell me all about her day, whereas I have to drag things out of the boys and then I still don't get many answers. The bus riding is fabulous, I'm so glad I don't have to wake Caleb up anymore. I wish he'd show a little appreciation and try waking up in a decent mood every once in a while. He's generally pretty pissy after his nap, nothing makes him happy and he just wants to throw a fit. He asks for something then pushes it away when you try to give it to him. He's also learned to spit which is just lovely. Not spitting to be mean, just taking a sip of something and then letting it run out of his mouth and all down his shirt. Age two is fantastic, just really really fabulous. Despite that though, he's a sweet affectionate boy and I'm really enjoying our time together. I know it'll be over in the blink of an eye and then he'll be in school too so I'm trying to not concentrate on the spitting and fits and instead on the hugs and kisses. There are plenty of those too.

The baby hamster is still alive, despite us trying to kill it. Not intentionally of course. We split them up and gave the mom and baby a cage to themselves, but I missed the obvious and moved the mom and baby when I should have moved the males. She was not happy and had about three hours where she went pure psycho, trampling the baby and trying to run up the walls of the aquarium. I finally had the sense to put her and the baby back into the original cage and put the males in the new cage and it's been fine since. It's actually not looking so ugly now. I still wouldn't use the word cute, but it's coming along. I'm not sure I got her and the males separated in time though since they can conceive again pretty much right after birth. Ewwwww. We'll know in a few weeks I suppose. The kids would be thrilled but I could do without more babies. Obviously.

So his name isn't Cecil...

HER name is now Cecilia. Or however you spell it. Psh. Just what I wanted to do, breed hamsters.

It's Jonah's hamster, and he's WAY beyond proud. It's sweet, really. If the baby turns out to be a female we'll probably just keep it since I have to split the other three up anyway. If it's male, we'll find somebody to give it to (anyone interested?!?!) or just bring it to Pet Den and give it to them to sell.

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So there's your daily dose of ugly. Hamster babies don't make for the cutest newborns, do they? Jeez.

Jacob's pictures

We put the camera on the tripod and had a hummingbird stake out this past weekend. Here are some pictures that Jacob took:

I love the camera setting where you can just hold the button down and take a trillion pictures in a minute. Jacob did too, these were his favorites.

He has a bird thing, he loves ALL birds. Hummingbirds creep me out a little bit, they're like the cockroaches of the bird species. Twitchy, spastic little things. They're pretty but I don't want them buzzing right over my head making me duck and flap therefore embarrassing myself in front of the neighbors. I'll watch from inside from now on.

Something new!

Look what the new school year brought...bus riders!

Only on the way home from school though, I still drop them off in the morning. The bus comes WAY too early (7:05) because we're one of the first stops. We don't leave until 7:50 so that's just too early. We're one of the first in the afternoons too though, so they get home by 3:15, the same as when I go fight traffic to pick them up. The main reason for us switching is because Caleb is a BIG napper and is always still asleep at 2:45 when it's time for me to leave. He does not appreciate being roused before he's ready, so this was the perfect solution. I go wait outside and they're dropped off pretty much right in front of the house.

YAY!

There's only one word to describe it...

SASSY!

I'm talking about the outfit of course, but the word applies to the child in the outfit from time to time too.

She started her dance classes this week. Ballet and jazz on Mondays, tap and tumbling on Tuesdays. And starting soon she'll have CCD on Wednesdays. Busy girl, that Emmy. She told me yesterday that she'd also like to play softball. I told her maybe next year, her plate is full right now.

Saying goodbye to summer

I can't believe how fast summer flew by this year. We made the most of it though and had a blast!

We....

Rocked the goggles on a daily basis:

Spent enough time out in the sun to make a few freckles pop out...

Spent hours and hours hunting for frogs, lizards, bugs and snakes...

Jumped off of the diving board 1,325,678 times...

And now we're just plain worn out.

We'll need the whole school year to rest up for next summer!