Meet Snowball! He is our new pet. We believe that he is a westie-poo... half westie, half poodle!

Fun with Aunt Chels Chels

The other day Chelsea and Autumn came over for a little bit. Joselyn LOVES her Aunt Chelsea. This was a pile on. Baby doll sat on joselyn's lap who sat on Autumn's lap who sat on Chelsea's lap! Fun!

Walking Baby Charlie

Our little munchkin finally figured out that he already knew how to walk. Isn't it amazing how that works? I think all of us have these abilities that we don't realize we have, and the only reason we don't do them is that we don't think we can. And then one day, when faced with a challenge, we take a leap of faith and try it. Then we realize, "wait... I know how to do this! And I'm GOOD at it, too!"



That was Charlie today. After months of really being able to walk on his own, though he didn't have the self confidence to try it, he decided today that he COULD walk, and that he could walk WELL, too.



Watch and witness his amazing abilities!

We are proud of our little boy... and can't believe he's growing so fast. He turns 1 in just over a week!

Okay... Awesome news! I have a new laptop! I can blog, watch videos, listen to videos! Yay!!!!

Sleepover!

Kade has his first sleepover last night with a fellow 2-year old named Alex. He's in our ward, and we wanted to give his parents, who are good friends of ours, a night out on the town. SO, what resulted (before bed time) was mass pandamonium, with air-mattress jumping and ice cream eating and all sorts of other chaos. However, once bed-time came, it got quiet quickly, and they went to sleep rather smoothly. If this is what all sleepovers are like, we can do it! (Ha! I KNOW they're not like this most of the time... but maybe with little kids it is? If that's the case, our friends have offered to watch our two boys, and Aaron and I will get a night on the town. SWEET!) Here are a couple of videos of the boys in the house having fun on the air-mattress. Charlie did join in on the fun later... ;)

You may hate cats....

But how can you say that this is not adorable as can be?

Little Pianist

Joselyn got this little piano from her nanny (Adam's mom) and she quickly learned how it made sounds. It has now got to be her favorite toy! I'm tellin ya, this girl is going to be musical!

No more monkeys jumping on the bed!

This is one of Kade's many favorite books. He asks for it all the time. We read it all the time. I'm serious. And, perhaps like many other children, he memorizes his favorite books. Even after just a few readings, if he likes a book he can finish the sentance or phrase. In the mornings when Aaron brings him in the room for "jump on Mommy time!"-- yeah, talk about a nice wake-up call-- he'll say "No more monkey jumping bed!" And then, he'll jump on me. And on the bed. Jumping... another one of his FAVORITE things to do. Serious. I guess he doesn't think he's a monkey... So, maybe I need to start reading the book differently?

"Eight little Kades jumping on the bed.
One fell off and bumped his head!
Mama called the doctor and the doctor said,
'No more Kades jumping on the bed!' "

Naw... I don't mind so much, so long he doesn't jump on the furniture, little monkey boy!

So, some of his favorite books right now are:

Mother May I?

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, what do you see?

Anything with a train or cars in it

Cars

No more monkeys jumping on the bed

Scriptures (the scripture reader books with pictures put out by the church)

How do dinosoars say goodnight (this series is AWESOME!)

Bear wants more!

The board book version of "Where is my mother?" (he loves to say, "down down down, plop!" and "snort!" and "oh no!")

Green Eggs and Ham

CTR (he says, "Choose Right! Choose right!")

and others...

Let him laugh!

It's about nap time, which explains why Charlie is SOOOOOOOOO ticklish! LOVE IT!

Cute video of Joselyn laughing

Party in my tummy

Amaree... here is the "Party in my tummy" video... HALARIOUS. Get Charlie and Kade to watch this... This is one of Autumn's favorite TV shows so I watch it sometimes.

Out of the mouths of babes

Today Amaree and I were talking on Skype, both of us with our babies on our laps. Well, they decided they wanted to talk and have a conversation too, so we let them:

[4:32:19 PM] Marissa Noe says: b y ahbxu hh
[4:32:41 PM] Amaree says: i8,lk tytc, cbhby5bv6b6bvhg768v7u777777
[4:32:45 PM] Marissa Noe says: YY YYYYYYYYYY J
[4:33:01 PM] Marissa Noe says: BK6YHJKM H7KL99999999N887UHYJ
[4:33:03 PM] Amaree says: b yvgf bnb cbk gvfnm bbgf gn nniovfj,.vf vbvfmk l m, bi b ;
[4:33:10 PM] Marissa Noe says: U 7B
[4:33:13 PM] Amaree says: / b hjnnmknnjbff fc rev vf trg
[4:33:28 PM] Marissa Noe says: MIIY7IO NUUJY
[4:33:29 PM] Amaree says: jhj bgnmvm ,kmkkihjumj,gyiukkhmi uom,hy79-i8n798EVVRGE;-[4:33:29 PM] Amaree says: =
[4:33:34 PM] Amaree says: JKB J,MU,DS4N
[4:33:45 PM] Amaree says: i0 pkm yyght itbg4fA
[4:33:50 PM] Marissa Noe says: JN,MU
[4:34:02 PM] Marissa Noe says: HB NNNNNNNNNNNNN
[4:34:03 PM] Amaree says: hHQ HHHHHHHHH/FFF [RT /
[4:34:07 PM] Amaree says: ;[
[4:34:16 PM] Marissa Noe says: J, T TY INUI L;HUT66
[4:34:18 PM] Amaree says: INB IK,ytyg g
[4:34:25 PM] Marissa Noe says: MN
[4:34:28 PM] Marissa Noe says: UHMKL
[4:34:41 PM] Marissa Noe says: MLOLUYGYIK,
[4:34:47 PM] Amaree says: gh 77rdo. b sdfasdvn as ndas mefabnas asduidasbnasdbyasdbhjmkl mvsdg nam sd
[4:34:49 PM] Marissa Noe says: (yawn)

We may not understand what they wrote to eachother, but babies have their own secret language. They know what's going on.

Snorting Charlie

SNORT!!!!

Kade being canned!

Kade likes to play on our balcony. We have some #10 cans that he decided to stack. However, playing on the balcony has been rendered impossible now that the wind broke our plexiglass preventing the boys from crawling under or between the railings... You'll have to twist your head to watch the video. Sorry...

"Baby Bubble Hat"

One rather successful bubble bath resulted in "bubble hats".



















Please also note Charlie's "bubble goatee" as well. He likes to drink the water/bubbles (yuck!!!) and so ends up with a goatee every time we have a bubble bath! SO funny! Kade now asks for "baby bubble hat" with great frequency!!!

Daddy Toot!

Mom always said that she had "Sweet Toots!" Yeah, right, whatever! Kade has learned the word "toot" and so whenever I toot (on those very very rare occasions) or anybody else toots, he'll always announce, "Mommy Toot!" or "Charlie Toot!" or "Kade toot!" or "Daddy toot!"... Yesterday as Aaron and I were playing with the boys before bedtime, I will admit to passing some gas. Shocking, I know. Kade was apparently rather shocked, too, because he said, "Daddy toot!". No matter how much Aaron tried to convince him that it was me that tooted, Kade was adamant... "Daddy toot!"

And I didn't even bribe him!

As promised...

Here is my recipe for Lemon Bars/ Chocolate Orange bars. The lemon bar recipe is one of my favorites.

1 cup butter or margarine, softened
1/2 powdered sugar
2 cups flour

4 eggs
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp lemon zest
1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

1/4 flour
1/2 tsp baking powder

Preheat oven 350 degrees

1. Beat butter and powdered sugar until smooth. Gradually blend in flour, just until a soft dough forms. Press evenly into a 9x13 pan. Bake in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown.
2. In another bowl, combine the eggs, sugar, zest, and juice, beating until blended. Gradually blend in the flour and baking powder. *important-- if you add the flour/baking powder in with the other ingredients at the same time, the chewy upper crust does not form.
3. Spread evenly over cooked base, and bake 25 mintues longer. Place on wire rack to cool completely. Sift powdered sugar over top.* The lemon bars will cut more easily and keep their shape better if cut when cooled completely.

*Orange zest/juice or lime zest/juice can be replaced for the lemon juice if desired.

*To make Chocolate Orange bars, replace the lemon zest/juice with orage. The crust recipe follows:

1 cup butter.margarine, softened.

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

2/3 cup cocoa powder

1 1/2 cup flour

Autumn

What a cutie she is...

Potty Training Video from Japan

A friend of mine has been following my blog about Kade potty-training and saw this video on YouTube and sent it to me. HYSTERICAL! AND so typical of Japanese people. I LOVE IT! So, since I can't easily post videos on my blog, here we go!




Maybe I should start singing this song to Kade when he needs to go poop. Already we do a cheer for him (if I try to do it without Charlie moving his hands like a Cheerleader, Kade ALWAYS asks for "Baby Ra-ra!")

Ra-ra ree-ree! you can go pee-pee
Ra-ra roop! you can go poop!
Ra-ra ree-ree! you can go pee-pee
Ra-ra roop! you can go poop!
Yey! (cheer madly like a muppet)