Okay, so I've been a slacker. So, what's been happening in good ol' Baltimore since the last time we posted (can't believe that was 4 months ago!)?
First of all, we moved. Our previous landlords were selling their home to their daughter, so we were pretty much forced to look for another place. That was quite a process- to find a house that we could afford- in a safe area of Baltimore. We ended up not having to go far, just a few streets away. It's almost harder to do it that way, as the move seemed to drag on forever. We just brought a carload here and there. But we're here, and getting used to our new place. We miss our old neighbors, but the boys like being around more kids.
John has been keeping busy with school and his calling in Young Mens. He has been working hard on a paper, and has barely missed submitting it twice. He doesn't quite have it polished enough. He is still working on his Ipod games, in his very sparse free time.
I am doing the same old things, trying to keep up with three very active boys, trying to keep the house decently together, and serving as Primary secretary. I started playing in a rec volleyball league with a friend from our ward. It's fun to play semi-competitive volleyball again! It's been several years.
I still can't believe it's October already! The summer seemed to fly by. We spent a lot of time outside at playgrounds, at the practically-free splash park, and exploring with friends.
Adam will be 5 in December. He's growing up so fast! He will be in kindergarten next year. He's a really good kid- very helpful and very aware of people around him. He is thoughtful and is so good with smaller kids (including his baby brother, Aaron, whom he likes to make laugh).
Adam started playing soccer a couple of weeks ago. He is having lots of fun. He just runs around, chasing the ball, and the other kids, but has a smile on his face the whole time!
One of Adam's very favorite pastimes lately is playing games- Memory, Uno, Mastermind, and his new favorite game (probably because he can play with dad) is chess.
Jacob is three now (just celebrated his third birthday a couple of months ago). I need to get a picture of Jacob's Lightning McQueen cake from Kelli! :) He gets more and more goofy every day. He loves his big brother, Adam, and follows him around everywhere.
He has started really liking to play with Aaron, which is fortunate, as Adam will be in kindergarten for a full day, and I think Jacob will have serious withdrawals without someone to play cars with.
We are doing a co-op preschool for kids Jacob's age this year, like the one we did last year with Adam's age group. Jacob is one of 6 kids in this group, and the only boy. He seems oblivious to that fact- his favorite thing is to chase the girls around, roaring like a lion, growling like a dinosaur, and whatever other boy noises he could possibly think up. I think Jacob is liking feeling grown-up!
The boys are looking forward to Halloween: I think more to wear costumes than to get candy. I don't even think they remember that they get candy at Halloween! We just found out that some schools in the area take candy that kids donate to the hospitals around, for kids who cannot go trick-or-treating. So, I'm going to have the boys take some of the candy they get and give it away-- is that mean? I just remember last year having their Halloween candy for months, and eventually just throwing some of it away.
Aaron is just growing fast. He's almost 8 months. He likes to sit up, is reaching for things, and trying to pull himself up on whatever he can grab. He isn't crawling yet, and I don't know if he ever will!! He doesn't like to be on his stomach at all, he'd much rather sit. He loves his brothers, and stays awake as much as he can- hates to miss a minute! He likes being held and he loves being tickled (didn't get that from me!) He smiles more than any other person I know. He's a really happy baby.
Let's see: some fun things we've done in the last couple of weeks:
1) Big Truck day at the Baltimore Public Works Museum- see the pictures. The boys got to sit in all sorts of trucks. We saw a fire truck, a backhoe, a sidewalk cleaner truck (don't remember the technical name for it), a boat that collects trash from the water (don't remember that technical name either), a helicopter, an excavator... I get some points for remembering the names of some trucks, right? The boys had so much fun and were very disappointed when we had to leave before they had the chance to sit in all of the trucks that they were displaying. But, that was the week of general conference...
Look what the excavator scooped up!!
2) Free day at Baltimore zoo- we met up with some girls in our ward. The girl in the pictures with Adam and Jacob is in Adam's Primary class.
3) One of the county libraries here has a pretend town, called Storyville, that is a real hit with the kids. It has a miniature grocery store, a lighthouse, a construction zone, a kitchen, a garden, a post office, a theater, etc. We've been there a few times, but a couple of weeks ago, the boys were so excited to take their dad with them.
Pilot Adam and construction worker Jacob...
Not in your mouth!! It's just pretend food (how many times did I tell him that?)
I want to end our blog posting with some funny things our kids have said that I have been wanting to record, so I can look back and remember these things that made me smile.
1) For the past couple of weeks, Jacob has prayed every day - 'please bless that we'll go camping.' Unfortunately, we didn't make it camping this summer. But he has been asking to go-- just seems like we're busy every weekend, or the weather was not good the weekends we could actually go...
2) Jacob told his Nursery teachers a couple of weeks ago that he got bit by a leopard at the zoo. Luckily, I don't think the nursery teachers believed him. He has quite an imagination. Last week, he was telling me about the time that I left him at the store. That's never happened, by the way. I think I'm going to get in trouble with social services someday, and for something that never happened.
3) Adam talks pretty much nonstop, everytime we get in the car. Jacob likes to ignore Adam sometimes- just to push his buttons. This time, Jacob was ignoring him. After a while of Adam trying to get him to respond, Jacob tells Adam that he can't talk; he can't move his mouth, because he's a statue. Quite the imagination our little three year old has.
4) Adam says everything is his 'greatest idea.' Let's see, what was his 'greatest idea' today? Oh, yeah, he wants to finish the pan of brownies, but for breakfast. He was trying to talk me into it, and thought maybe if he said it was a great idea, I'd go for it? Like he needs more sugar! These boys have enough energy and go nonstop!
5) My sisters and I grew up making wishes on dandelion seeds (we called them wishes), you know, those white things that float around in the air... Well, Adam made a wish on one recently and when John asked him what his wish was - he said, I wish our car was faster than a taxi.
