I do it...

One of Luke's favorite phrases is "I do it," as he climbs onto John or my legs for a ride. It is a great work out for our legs and abs! Ab roller or leg press...

And now mat play... 

The First Day

Today was the boys First Day of 'School.' They've never been to any day care or Mother's Day Out program before so I wasn't sure how it was going to go. Noah is 3 1/2(Christmas Eve b-day) and Luke is 17 months. Their Grandparents volunteered to pay for Mother' Day Out after they saw what wonderful, joyful, active boys they are. Of course, I was thrilled at the thought of having a few hours to go to the grocery store BY MYSELF, read, take a shower, clean the house while two boys are not messing it up in another room, or whatever my heart desired.

I know it will be a great way to learn social skills...group obedience, group play, standing in a line, etc. for the boys. I've worked with Noah with the intellectual side of school but it is hard to teach him those socials skills without being in it! I think it will be a big step for him as next year he will go to school 5 days a week. Noah goes on Tuesday and Thursday from 9am to 130pm and Luke only goes on Tuesday.

Just for the record so I remember what he knew before school: Noah can say and visual recognize all his upper case and lower case alphabet, can count to 100 (perfect until #39 but then says 30-10 instead of 40 as well as the other 10's), almost visual recognize all #'s til 100-just printed them out so he'll get that figured out soon; visual learner!), knows all shapes until you get to more difficult like hexagon, octagon, etc., knows colors until turquoise and some harder ones, can sing several songs, knows how to spell Noah, Luke, and gets the 'a' and 'o' mixed up when spelling Dad and Mom, Can tell me every title of every book he's read even after reading a library book once (photographic memory like his Daddy), etc. He has pretty much learned anything I've every pointed out to him...Ok, on with all the fun pictures!

Here are the boys before their first day getting one last ride in. Love them!

Noah called this is angry face...he did it the other day trying to look like a gorilla walking around and know he loves that face!

Getting some more play time in while I get bags ready...

  Ready to go!

 A little sunny but here are our big boys!

 My little man looks just like his Daddy! Oh, I can't kiss those checks enough!

 My handsome men! Love them!

Noah, I am so proud of you! You are such a big boy! You have always loved doing school with me and have always asked to do school over other things...coloring an 'A' to learn the letter or finding any game piece that had the #4 on it; you are such an easy student! I pray you are a blessing to your teachers and those in your classes. I know you will learn more skills in order to become the man is calling you to be. Love you so!

Noah Drank the Green Monster!

Noah drank the Green Monster! For those of you who do not know, it is the THANG to do these days...in the health world anyway.

I've tried a few recipes (and there are a ton!) and I think this one was the best!

1 serving of the Green Monster:

1/2 frozen banana

1 full, full cup of spinach

1 mango

1/2 c. almond milk (Unsweetened Almond Breeze)

1 c. ice

Hold your breath...

 He is a fan of the 'Green Monster Mustache'

 but does he like the drink...he does! Yes!

OK, this kid does not eat vegetables, will not touch salad, and currently stopped eating corn, the only veggie he used eat. So, to get some baby spinach down him is a little short of miracle! Next step, try to put carrots or something in brownies?

The Fun of Boxes

 Let me see how you do that again...

 Got it!

A Woogie Kind of Morning

We typically start off playing in the house which includes pushing the shopping cart, riding their trucks, playing with balls, etc. I thought it was so cute to see that Luke had placed Clifford (the big red dog) in the shopping cart exactly where he rides. Who says they don't learn by example...

After that, we often head outside to swim, jump on the trampoline, slide and swing on the swing set, dig in the sand or dirt, play golf, and so on. The past several weeks, we also have watching next-door-back-yard-reconstruction. They are building a retaining wall and making two level surfaces instead of having such a big slope in the yard. We've seen lots of dirt work, skid steers, cement mixing trucks, dumps trucks, forms placed for the retaining wall, rebar placed, etc. They are both so interested and love it! This is Luke's spot. He loves saying 'watch' and couldn't say it more clear. I am amazed how fast his vocabulary is growing and how clearly he talks. He is a smart one like his Daddy and brother!!!

Sometimes we have different creatures visit us too...given that our backyard backs up to forest. This morning we had a ferret tromp around our yard. The boys loved watching it sniff around looking for food. It even played with their balls like a cat. Here it is peeking up at us.

 And of course, the ferret was thirsty and found our pool. We went inside at this point because I didn't want the boys touching it or getting near it...who knows what disease it could carry!

 We also saw the normal hummingbird that enjoys the homemade nectar (don't be too impressed, it is just sugar and water) we made. They kept coming back this morning and we had two hummingbirds hover over and over by the feeder.

 We also enjoy snack time. Luke is my veggie eater. He ate some homemade kale chips! I still can't believe God produced a veggie eater from us!

 Noah will not eat veggies and has recently stopped eating corn which was the only veggie he would eat. Noah ate homemade double chocolate chip muffins. :)

A morning at the Woogie house :)

Opening Ceremony

 We made Oreo shakes for the Opening Ceremony It was a fun family night! We enjoy watching the Olympics so it was neat to share that with the boys.

 They enjoyed the shakes too!

Yum! We have the closing ceremony taped...maybe we will watch it tonight...guess I need to think of another fun dessert!

The Murrell Home

 John and I traveled to Tahlequah for a wedding and discovered the 'George Murrell' home. Naturally, we were interested since my Dad's name is George Murrell. It was really neat to see it and look at all the cute furniture from the 1800's!

I haven't looked into it...but who knows, I could be related?

Best Buds

Our sweet boys!

Luke loves to do everything Noah is doing so he was thrilled when I got Noah's old backpack out. He insists on carrying it just like he has seen Noah do for so long. They are growing up so fast!

The Leaf Pile

 John raked the leaves from one of our trees this evening. Yes, it is already losing leaves from the heat but the boys loved it! They have only read about jumping in leaf piles and were excited to actually experience it!

 "Noah, that was so cool!"

Bath time!!!

After we hosed the boys off, we came inside for bath time. The boys had other plans...

Good night!

Pancake Tradition

I grew up with my Mom making pancakes for us any time we wanted. She would do fun designs, our names, etc. Now in our family, we have made a tradition to make pancakes every Saturday morning. We can make 12 at a time on this awesome contraption (see pic)! It sure beats only fitting 3 at a time in a regular pan! We make a lot and freeze them so we can now eat them any day we want! Dangerous...but quality breakfast! So much better than frozen ones from Walmart! Lately, I've also been into making this caramel syrup to go with it. Yum! My normal toppings are peanut butter, banana slices, and caramel syrup. All the males in our family typically do peanut butter with syrup but I think the banana adds a lot! Are you hungry yet?

Noah ate his name last time we had pancakes. What a cutie!

 Just had to add this fun picture of the boys in here.  I've been using disposable diapers on Luke for some time now but do miss our cheap reusable diapers (you save so much especially when they are given to you at showers and you use them for more than one kid!) but it sure is fun watching them enjoy the boxes after we open them!