Week of Jan 15 (really Jan 17 - Jan 22)

Tuesday was back to school for all but Noah.  It was a super busy morning.  Seth's timeline project was due, but he left it in Katsu's car and so we had to make time for grocery shopping, working out, and going to Katsu's work, catching him between all his student interviews, and get the timeline.  Then, after doing preschool carpool, we dropped the timeline off at school.  Then, we went and picked up Logan's new glasses.  I wish I had gotten a good picture of him.  He has been really good about wearing them - much better than Seth.  At first, he wore them just a bit, but he wears them all the time.  I am worried they are going to get broken quickly - they already got bent a little today when Seth kicked him in the face (sigh) and the warranty only works once for replacement.  But they are cute.  The evening was busy again with a PTA meeting and then Andrew at cub scouts.  They are working on their race cars for the pinewood derby.

Wednesday - boys had tennis, but otherwise, it was a pretty unremarkable day.

Thursday - our first day in quite a while that Logan didn't have a ride to preschool.  So, Noah and I took him and I didn't want to drive back home (it's like a 20 minute drive - nice because it is close to my and Katsu's work, but inconvenient when I have Noah and have to go back home.  So, we drove to the new park downtown and tried it out.  The park was pretty wet with dew, but it was awesome.  Noah wandered around quite a bit, tried a couple slides, but then loved the zip line.  Since there were only a couple other kids there and no one else was interested, he got to ride it over and over for like 45 minutes.  The park is really amazing and makes me feel a little more hopeful for Greenville.  He and I both were coming down with a bad cold (I have it the worst, for sure, though), so I popped him in his stroller and went on a walk on the greenway.  It was the first time I had been on that part of the greenway.  At first, I wasn't sure because it goes through the neighborhood a bit, but then I got on the main part, and it was surprisingly really nice.  There are interpretative signs and long paths and it is just pretty, even for winter.  I was surprised to find out there is Spanish Moss in Greenville - I hadn't seen it before!  Noah fell asleep pretty quickly so I went walking for an hour or more.  It was really nice and relaxing and about all I could manage in terms of a workout with my cold.

We went to Andrew's science olympiad in the afternoon, but then they didn't even really have time to meet with me so it didn't seem worth it.  I don't know if we will go this week or not.  I feel like I am always at school lately.

I had book club in the evening, so I managed to make up some brownies, but no one ended up coming.  Oh, well.  I was planning on just giving up on the whole thing, but several people told me they were sad they couldn't make it, so maybe not.  I had a lot of work to do anyways as did Katsu, so  we had a fun working evening.

Friday - Katsu brought home a pizza because I was just not feeling up to cooking at all, and we were out of flour.  Then, the 3 older boys went to see Alice in Wonderland at ECU.  Katsu said it was okay - I guess they had only 4 actors which he didn't like.  I think the kids liked it.  Then, they went to McDonalds and played chess, I think, until they ended up coming home because they were fighting or something like that.  It was a late night for them.

Saturday - I finally got a chance to go for a run again, which was nice.  I was worried that between missing a week and being sick it would be too hard, but it wasn't too bad.  I think I should still finish the couch to 5k program before our 5k in March, no problem.  Then, I helped the kids pick up and Katsu did the rest of the cleaning (kids cleaned their bathrooms, too), while I went out and bought some new shoes and ran some errands.  Katsu was excited because he officially got his big R01 grant, so he celebrated by getting lots of Chick-Fil-A for all of us for lunch.  Then, we went and all checked out the new park.  Everyone enjoyed it.  I had a birthday dinner for a friend in the evening, so the boys had some homemade Japanese food, played video games, and watched a movie.  Another late night, bu tit was a good day for everyone I think.

Sunday - I really felt under the weather this morning - this cold is just something awful and all the kids but Seth have some mild variation of it, so we stayed home from church (Katsu went to most of it but came home early to get to the airport in time).  Of course, I felt awful, but the boys were only mildly sick and drove me insane today.  Anyday we are all home and don't leave the house the whole day, they are insane.  Constant begging for screens, rough housing, etc.  Totally driving me crazy.  Not a stellar day, but at least they are all asleep now.

Week of Jan 8, 2017

Sunday - due to the snow / sleet / ice cold, we were out of church.  The boys were kind of crazy, it just seeemed a bit like a crazy day, plus Noah was sick, so we watched some TV for him.  We watched the 4th wise man - which was a nice way to end the Christmas season. And we did a lesson on peace, our theme for the month - the boys were crazy, but we got through it.  Part and parcel for over here.  We also did loads of laundry.  Noah had been throwing up the night before from coughing too much.

Monday - ECU and the kids were out of school.  The roads were pretty clear though from melting on Sunday, so Katsu went into work the entire day, so just me and the kids again.  It seems like we have spent a lot of time at home lately with school off this year.  And the kids still haven't had a Monday in school in January.  The boys played a lot outside and nerf gun fights and such.

Tuesday - the kids still didn't have school and at this point, I was annoyed.  It was in the 50s, the roads were all clear, and I had things to do.  Boys played with friends in the morning, but in the afternoon, we had to run errands.  We started off with an eye doctor appointment for Logan.  Yes, Logan.  And yes, with all 4 boys.  They know us very well in there - I swear we are in there all the time.  Logan failed the eye part at his well visit, so in we came.  They did a very thorough exam, even including eye dilation which Logan was quite scared of.  It is somewhat hard to tell, when he is that little, but they said they could tell from looking at his eyes as well as just what he was saying from reading the charts.  They mostly did numbers, but some pictures at the end.  His eyes looked super healthy, but he was about 20/40, I think (past a -1 in both eyes), so they want us to try out eye glasses.  3 boys down in less than 2 years.  And just in case you wanted another reason to find Seth and Logan harder to tell apart at a glance ... although Logan picked out some dark plastic thick frames, so they will look a lot different.  He was too big to wear the little tiny kid frames.  We then had to go the library (fine, till we tried to check out and the boys knocked over the line barrier thing), and Target, and the grocery store.  Let me tell you - it was a doozy of a day.  I don't know if it will ever be easy to take all 4 boys out.  And just to round out the day, Andrew had cub scouts and I had to go to a committee meeting.

Wednesday - Finally started teaching.  Day went pretty well.  Boys had a good day at preschool - Noah was surprised when I came to pick him up and was sad that he hadn't had time to finish his snowman and couldn't wait for Friday.  And was feeling mostly better.  I keep having to put him off and on his inhaler this week with his coughing.  We were getting some dinner in the crock pot when Andrew called me on his teacher's phone and told me he was sick and I needed to pick him up ... like 30 minutes before school got out!  Surprisingly, they let me pick him up.  He didn't seem too sick - but he complains about being sick almost every day and it is so hard to tell if it's true or not.  In fact, he spends most of his time telling me that all the kids at school get all their sicknesses from him - when, he has missed like maybe one day of school to being sick.  Of course, they were rough housing and being crazy, so we ended up going to tennis and Andrew was just fine.

Thursday - Typical day until we had to go to Andrew's science Olympiad practice.  It went pretty well although Noah was climbing all over me.  I forgot all the papers, but I was able to teach Andrew and the other participant a little bit anyways.  Seth was freaking out, but I guess the parents are supposed to go to science Olympiad most of the time, so I guess we will be going every week we can. We had an HOA meeting in the evening.

Friday - normal day.  School, playing with friends, Noah keeps trying to steal away Logan's Ziggle calling it "my yiggle".  Logan was just laying around and didn't look good.  It was super warm and the Kona Ice truck came around, so we got a couple with all the change we had.  Noah shared with Logan and Seth, but then Logan started getting sick and threw up all over the front lawn over and over.  So, he and Noah went upstairs to rest and  watch TV while the other kids had some epic nerf gun battles.  We put the little boys to bed early since they didn't feel so well and Andrew and Seth and us got to watch one of the new Unfortunate Series of Events.

Saturday - since it was a long weekend, we wanted to take a little trip, but we weren't sure (based on Logan yesterday), but he seemed alright by Saturday morning, so we did some cleaning, some packing, booked a hotel, and went off on a trip to Hampton Roads, Virginia.  We drove straight to the NASA museum.  Free (thanks to our pass).  It was different than I expected, but fun.  They had a lot of interactive things for the kids.  The kids loved the play area, loved the flight simulator and didn't want to leave.  We saw some moon rocks and learned about Langley's role in the Apollo missions, saw a live cast of the sun.  Played in a kid space station (until Noah got in trouble for hitting a little girl - ay ya yay!  Seth got scared out of his mind at the catwalk looking down at the space ships and planes.  The boys liked to pretend to fly the planes, learn how planes work, and look at some of the actual modules from some of the space missions.  It was overall pretty fun.  We still had time when it was done, so we went to the Virginia Zoo.  Noah feel asleep and he slept through the first half, but we couldn't find any animals, so it was just as well.  He woke up in time to see the giraffes.  We also enjoyed the bears and the lions, who were roaring up a storm.  We enjoy the zoo - you can see the whole thing in less than 2 hours, which is great, and free with our pass.  We drove to our hotel.  We momentarily tried to find Trader Joe's, but decided it wasn't worth it.  We stayed at a Best Western on the beach at Norfolk.  Our original room had smoke detectors without batteries.  They kept beeping and beeping and they wouldn't come and fix them.  Finally after an hour and a half sent batteries up, but the smoke detectors still kept beeping.  We finally switched rooms.  Lots of drama, but the boys were so busy watching TV and playing with their DS's that they didn't mind at all.  We had a hard time finding food - but Katsu got some dinner food at a 7 Eleven, so we cooked some food for dinner.  It was a good day - a little crazy at the end, but a good day.

Sunday - We woke up late, like 8, too late to be ready for church with our friends.  We had a large breakfast.  We went and walked around the beach.  Noah HATED it.  It was cold and windy.  The other boys didn't mind too much and enjoyed looking for things - we found several jellyfish, a horseshoe crab shell, and a skate egg case.  But it was pretty cold and windy, so we didn't walk around the seashore for too long.  We drove to a grocery store and stocked up on lunch and snack food and then got to Nauticus just as it opened.  Seth spent most of the trip whining about how he wanted to go home.  Poor Noah was also pretty upset about the trip.  I don't think he slept well the night before - I think he fell off the bed and then slept on the floor - so he kept asking to go home.  But other than that, we all enjoyed Nauticus.  We had been before, but it had been a couple years.  The boys especially liked the boat simulators and then a play area where you could run through water and then based on your shadow, sharks would appear and try to eat you.  Then, there was a fishing area.  Then, the boys enjoyed the water play area where you could guide boats through the water.  They liked touching the crabs in the touch tanks and seeing the sharks, but they weren't able to touch those.  Next, we toured the battleship Wisconsin.  Seth was freaking out about heights and crying his head off, poor thing.  But we made it through and saw all the rooms in the bottom without losing anyone.  They had more rooms open than last time, so we were able to see the kitchen area.  We spent more time playing, especially in the naval museum area where the older boys played several games of chess.  Finally, we watched a 3D movie about aircraft carriers.  Then, we drove over to our friends' house for dinner.  The boys all play really well together, and we had a delightful dinner chatting while they played before we made it home to the hotel.

Monday - We woke up, had another huge breakfast at the hotel and then packed up and drove to the Virginia Living Museum.  It was nice - smaller than I expected, reminded me of the NC Aquariums, but it was really nice.  We saw the special exhibit on wolves and then went to the touch tank.  We went outside and enjoyed seeing beavers, otters, birds, a big dinosaur exhibit (same one we saw in Dallas Zoo), wolves, coyotes, deer, and turkey.  Inside, they had the typical exhibits - underground exhibit, nocturnal animals, piedmont, coastal plain, swamp, mountains.  It was really nicely done with lots of interesting facts and easy to see animals.  We ate some lunch int he car, and then drove home.  It was a lovely trip.

Week of 1/1/2017

• Monday was another day off of work and school.  The boys did lots of video games until the fighting started and then it was time to put away the video games.  Up till this day, the break was really going great and I didn't want it to end but after all the bickering, boy, I was sure ready for them to go back to school on Tuesday.  Katsu had a celebration of sushi, tempura and sukiyaki.  Yum!
• Tuesday was back to school - Andrew and Seth were off.  Logan had preschool, too.  Poor Logan - he thought that he was starting kindergarten and he was so scared and I didn't realize it till that morning when he was wondering why Katsu didn't take him to Ridgewood!  He went to preschool with his friend Kate and seemed to have a fine day.  Then, we went to the library and picked out books (well, Logan mostly played on the computer).  Otherwise, it was normal day.  Katsu made some Japanese food and then took Andrew to cub scouts.
• Everyone was back to school on Wednesday.  I had a rare morning off - I had grand hopes to get a lot done, but after going for a run, going to the grocery store, and going to Target, it was time to pick up the kids.  The boys had tennis and they seemed to have fun.  It was getting cold by the end and we were glad to go home and have some yummy Japanese food.
• Nothing notable on Thursday except Andrew had Science Olympiad and his gifted class, so a good day for him.
• Friday was another morning off for me - I had lots of time to think, plan and organize and another run.  Noah was not excited about going to preschool, but I think it was because he was starting to feel sick and he wanted me to drive him there.  The boys were really excited for the forecasted storm - we were supposed to get lots of snow.  But it turned out to just be a lot of rain, and then sleet and wintry mix, and then an inch or so of snow on Saturday morning.  We celebrated Epiphany by doing a reading with candles and having some Three Kings bread.  Yum!
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• We stayed in all weekend due to the ice.  We cleaned the house, played games, watched movies, and took care of poor sick Noah.
• Sunday - church was cancelled, so again we stayed home and watched movies and played games and spent time together having a little lesson about peacefulness.

December 2016

Well, the month got away from me between Christmas, family visiting, grading finals, and all the end of year festivities.  So here is how December went:

Fun Things

- Katsu and the boys took cookies to a widow while I had to go grocery shopping (cause you know, by Monday, the kids basically are dying from a lack of food!).  They had a good time.
- Andrew worked on the tool belt loop in cub scouts this month.  He always loves cub scouts and has a great time.
- Had a parent teacher conference with Seth's teacher.  She is back from maternity leave - is going to try to advance him in math, but we'll see how that goes.  She wants to video tape him explaining things in math because she thinks he does it so well.  I still am not loving her, though.  She sent home a long homework assignment over Christmas break that was too hard (requiring multiplication and division) and of course, Seth freaks out but won't use multiplication (which he knows) because "we aren't supposed to.  I also think a lot of the grading coming home is unreasonable and Seth is not being challenged.  Oh, well.
- Kids keep going on tennis and Logan especially loves it.  Noah has found a couple friends to play with while they have lessons and has been having fun.
- Noah & Logan had a birthday party and made some art work - they seemed to have fun, but I think it was a few too many people for Noah.
- Andrew was supposed to march in the Winterville parade, but of course, it was the one day that it was cold, so he didn't.  Instead the boys went to Buffalo Wild wings for a fun lunch (courtesy of the free gift card Andrew won at the 5k).  Instead, we went to see the Greenville Christmas parade at night with lights.  We brought hot cocoa and popcorn and the kids had a blast.  But then, Logan and Seth both had crazy.spewing vomiting spells in the night - we think food poisoning, but who knows.  We all stay home from church (except Katsu) to be safe and catch up on Christmas movies.
- Book Club at my house - it was fun!  We read a book about WWII - I didn't love at first, but ended up enjoying it in the end).
- The morning of my final, Logan was laying lethargically on the floor, and we realized he was running a fever and sick.  Katsu stayed home with him.  It was movie and pajama day for Noah at preschool, so he went anyways.  Logan slept all morning and I was able to grade my finals super fast while they rested and watched Christmas movies and get grades up by that evening.
- Logan was still sick and missed his preschool program.  We were able to make it to Andrew's orchestra performance.  He was pretty nervous and said he slipped and missed a lot of notes, but I think he did a good job.  So glad he is enjoying the viola.
- Friday we picked up a pizza and spent about 5 minutes at Chick fila seeing the live nativity.  Andrew was being a pill and sat in the car, but the rest went.  Noah was kind of scared of the animals if they were too close.
- Saturday, my parents came into town.  We mostly spent the week low key, though we had tons of parties in the evenings.
- Sunday, we went to Katsu's work party.  It has tons of good food.  Logan and Noah were tired and stayed home, but the older boys came.  I erroneously thought we could let them be and go and socialize together until the boys knocked over a lamp (!).  Then, Seth went outside and got soaking wet, so it was time to go home.
- Andrew and Seth still had school through Wed, but the little boys were off preschool.
- Monday night we had a Christmas family home evening at our neighbors and the boys acted out the nativity.  It was great and we didn't have to do it at home later in the week as they tend to get wild and it all goes off track.
- Tuesday, Logan had a dr. appt - which went well.  He is about 75% for weight and is pretty tall (75% - 90%), so he is growing well.  Then, we left the boys with my parents and went to the beach for a day.  It is the first time in almost 10 years that we have had a night alone without kids!
- We drove to Manteo.  The drive seemed fast without any kids.  The Inn we stayed out was on the waterfront and very cute.  We walked around and saw the lighthouse and all the decorated boats.  We had the afternoon cookie snack, did some Christmas shopping, had the evening cheese and crackers (skipped the wine) and then drove around trying to find anywhere open to eat.  Out of luck, we ended up at an Italian restaurant and slowly the other three sets of people staying at the inn all ended up there, too.  We ended up falling asleep at 8!  How boring are we!  We had gone so we could see the lights at the Elizabethan gardens, but of course, it was closed because it was too damp!  Isn't it always damp at the beach ...  The next morning, we drove down to the beach and went walking down it collecting shells for awhile.  We drove over to the Jockey Ridge state park and walked up the dunes.  Then, we drove up the outlet store and decided to drop by since it was deserted.  Then, we drove home.  The kids survived and it was fun.
- We got home in time to finish up our cookies to go to the caroling and cookie party at our friend the McCraes.  We delivered several plates of cookies and then came back to their house and ate lots of food.  It was lots of fun.
- My dad got sick the next day, so he took it easy.  I had a dentist appt and then we went to dinner at our friend's house that we were carpooling with.  The kids had a blast.
- The next day, we went to our neighbor's house from church for an open house.  Almost everyone else there was family, but there was tons of food.  It was great that we didn't have to really cook for a week!  We also had a friend over for Andrew in the morning and had nerf gun fights.
- Saturday, we went to Brother's Keeper in the afternoon and served the homeless.  Then, we had some Christmas Eve fun.  We watched Home Alone 2 before dinner, then we had some appetizers for dinner and did our Advent and caroling and opened our book/chocolate presents. Then everyone went to bed.  It was a great evening.  Perfect.
- Christmas morning was kind of crazy, but to be expected.  Lots of present opening ...
Katsu - big present was the PS4 and associated games
Amanda - big present was some painting and cookbooks.
Andrew - big present was Nerf guns and a circuit set.
Seth - big present was video games and a coding game.
Logan - big present was a dragon, nerf guns, and a telescope.
Noah - big present was a laser gun with lights and some super hero pajamas.
Also, we got a new Japanese game called Tookaido and Booche (a kid version that is pretty fun).
We went to church for an hour and then spent the afternoon watching Christmas movies, playing with games and toys, and having entirely too many screens.  Actually, a theme of two weeks - we bought a whole bunch of movies from Clo and Dick's Christmas money and have been watching one a week and then going crazy this week and the next week.  Plus the screen time - they got games for the DS which they love.
- Monday was the last day with grandparents.  We went to mini golf at the new place with lots of pirate and Christmas presents.  It was so fun!  Even Noah wanted to try but he couldn't really do it.  Then, we went off to Bojangles for some lunch.  And then, we had to say goodbye to grandparents.
- We wanted to do more experiences, so we got less presents and then, went and did something fun the rest of the week.
- Tuesday, Katsu and the older 3 went ice skating while I worked and Noah napped.  Andrew kept trying and had a bit of hard time getting it, but Logan and Seth really enjoyed it once they got the hang of it.  They are already asking to go back.
- Wednesday we took a little road trip to Wilmington for the day.  We are hoping the boys are more game for road tripping now that they have the DS to play with.  We went to the history/science museum (a lot more history than science), Cape Fear and the boys had a lot of fun, for the most part.  The museum had a lot of interactive parts, so that was nice.  Then, we went to a restaurant that was highly recommended - Amy's Flaming Burrito.  The kids were apprehensive, especially Andrew, because he didn't want to eat  there and Seth was whining since we got out of the car that he wanted to go home.  But in the end, it was awesome - great portions, cheap prices and fun.  I got the Flaming Burrito - which was so hot that my lips went numb and then I couldn't taste for awhile.  It was quite good then.  We stopped at a nature park next to the elementary school.  It had a carnivorous plant garden.  Wilmington area is the only place in the world where venus fly traps are native.  It was pretty cool to see them - there were hundreds everywhere.  We drove to the North Carolina battleship and took some pictures outside.  We didn't feel like paying to go in, especially when it is pretty similar to the battleship we saw in Virginia.  There were signs for alligators and the kids didn't want to leave until we saw one, but we convinced them to come back.  We drove to a National Park battelfield (Moore's Creek) nearby that was for the revolutionary war.  The kids had fun watching the movie and looking at the display (well, Noah loved the guns, Logan was interested, Andrew was doing the junior ranger program, and Seth wanted to leave the second we got there).  We enjoyed walking around the battlefield and then it was time to drive home.  It was a great road trip, though the boys would have been as happy staying home and playing on screens.
- Thursday, I took the older boys to Air U - a trampoline jumping place.  The boys have been wanting to go forever.  We bought them t-shirts so they can go and jump for $10 for two hours on special days.  Logan was crying because he didn't want to go by himself so I paid to jump with them for an hour.  It was fun, but a woman who has 4 children can just not jump that much!  We spent a lot of time on the obstacle course, some on the trampoline jumping, and also jumping onto the big balloon / cushion.
- Thursday was also Katsu's birthday.  Sadly, he was sick so we didn't get to celebrate as much as we would have liked to.  We had a little breakfast and sang with candles in his french toast.  He rested and played video games most of the time.  After Air U, we stopped and picked up an ice cream cake at Dairy Queen and sang again and enjoyed it.  He cooked up some steak for dinner.  That was about it ... too bad he didn't feel well and we didn't get to really enjoy it.
- Friday marker the start of celebrating New Years.  We watched movies during the day, Katsu made curry for dinner.  I decorated the house for New Years.
- Saturday, we cleaned the house nicely to get ready for new years.  We had udon for dinner.  We had some special cookies and made bread rolls that looked like 2017.  We had bags that we got ready, although then we pretty much ignored them.  We played a new game - Tookaido while I read books to the littler boys.  We played Just Dance and then we put on a movie, Naussica which is apparently our tradition, although it always puts me to sleep.  We stopped and did a countdown for Logan who was dying to blow the horn.  He promptly feel asleep, I feel asleep about half way through.  Noah made it almost all the way to midnight and Katsu, Andrew and Seth did.  I woke up for the last 3 minutes before the countdown.  It was a pretty good evening.

Other Notes

- The most notable thing is how fast Noah is growing up and how much more he is talking.  He just talks and talks and it is so interesting to see what he is saying all the time.

Week of 11/27/2016

Last week wasn't too exciting.

Monday - tennis.

Tuesday - Andrew wasn't feeling too well, so we picked him up and he came home early.  He mostly rested and all the boys watched a lot of movies.  Seth got picked up from school by a neighbor and was happy to go to Sonic for a treat.  Andrew must have been worn out because he went to sleep super early.  Cub scouts was cancelled (again ... sigh), so he didn't miss it.

Wednesday - Boys were up super early (before 6) with nerf gun wars, so Andrew obviously seemed like he was feeling better but he told me he couldn't go to school since he'd thrown up the night before.  But obviously, he wasn't sick enough that someone needed to sit at home with him.  So, Andrew came to work with me.  He sat reading his Battle of the Books books underneath my desk while I lectured, and mostly sat quietly in my office afterwards while I graded projects.  Logan and Noah had a fun day going on a field trip at preschool to the library to watch the puppet show of Jack and the Beanstalk.  They even got to sit next to each other.  The rest of the day was a lot more movies unfortunately.  Tennis was cancelled due to rain.

Thursday - Andrew and Seth had performances at Barnes and Noble, although Andrew had no idea about his.  We got there just to find out that he didn't have a performance, but we saw Seth's class sing Feliz Navidad.  His teacher was finally back this week after maternity leave for having twins (and she has a 1.5 year old!).  I hate Barnes and Noble night because it is super crowded, but we only lost Logan once, so I guess it was a success.  Andrew spent most of the day trying to answer questions on his battle of the books site online to get enough points to ensure his place on the team.

Friday - I spent a busy morning at work confronting people who cheated on their projects (ugh), but had to leave early and pick up the boys at preschool because our regular ride was out sick.  Andrew found out in the afternoon that he made the Battle of the Books team, which was great.  We had pizza and opened an early mystery Christmas present - Home Alone - and watched it.  The boys were rolling over in laughter, even Noah.  So fun!

Saturday - we started out the day making cookies.  This continued over 2 days and we finally finished right before church - sugar cookies with frosting (everyone wanted to help with this one and it was chaos and yelling about turns), gingerbread cookies, nut cups, and candy cane cookies (Katsu and the boys made the candy canes, he is 1000x better than me).  We were going to go out for ice skating, but the neighbors had an emergency so we had to watch their boys for about 6 hours.  So, it was a lot of nerf guns and games and they watched a movie at the end.  Finally, we went to our church's Christmas party - Night at Bethlehem.  It was fun.  The boys were excited to run around and get food, even Noah.  Andrew and Seth spent most of the time running around at the end trying to gather all the extra coins so they could buy one of the booths.  Two hundred coins later, they finally bought the drink stand from Katsu's PhD student.  ha ha.  We were supposed to sing "O Little Town of Bethlehem" as a family, but Seth had been refusing to do it and at the end, it was just me and Katsu singing a little duet.  Oh, well.  We drove around and tried to find Christmas lights on the way home, but really the best we found was in our neighborhood.

Sunday - we finished the Christmas cookies right before church.  After church, we had our second Advent Sunday with lots of screaming by Logan because he wanted to light one of the candles - he gets next week.  We somewhat compromised and he was appeased because we played with his new dreidel.

Amanda - busy with grading (finally caught up!) and confronting all the cheaters.  Some really hilarious (but sad ones) this time.  Tried to get back into my workout team.

Andrew - worked on (but procrastinated till the last minute) a STRIDE assignment for advertising about candy lights.  Also, very busy working on Battle of the Books and also working on his Science Olympiad.

Seth - had almost nothing to say about his teacher being back.  Lives mostly to tell me how I am the worst mom ever as I want him to practice the piano and won't let him watch screens all the time.  When he does his work and there is time, he is on the computer game Prodigy learning long division - he is ahead of where Andrew's class is.

Logan - lots of screaming and fits this week.  I keep putting him to bed early, but it isn't helping too much - maybe a growth spurt.  Thank heavens for preschool where his teacher says he is delightful.

Noah - lots of cuteness, but also lots of hitting and whacking his brother.  He knows how to stand up for himself, I guess.  He is talking so much more and it's amazing to hear what he says.  He was sitting on my lap today while I was playing Christmas songs on the piano and singing along - but the words he was singing (Bring me toys!).  I guess he gets Santa.  Everytime he sees anything Christmas he says "Oh ho ho ho" - always an oh at the beginning - or Halloween.  And he still wears spiderman everywhere.  He wore it to the ward party, even (no Bethlehem attire for him).  I realized it actually is pretty functional when we were at Barnes and Noble - harder to lose and easier to identify and notice if we ever do lose him.

Week of 11/20

This was a really busy week with Thanksgiving and prep, but we spent lots of time together and not too much time working.

Monday we had tennis. Logan is loving it.  Andrew is bummed to be in a group with younger kids than Seth, which is hard for him, but hopefully they'll all learn a lot.

Tuesday, Logan had his Thanksgiving feast in the morning.  Katsu went and basically watched him eat in his cool outfit and say a little prayer.  I really wanted to come but couldn't get a sitter for Noah.  Oh, well.  Then, we grocery shopped, made a cherry pie, and cleaned the house for our pie night.  I was kind of worried no one would come, and no one did, at least for the first 30 minutes, but then it was packed afterwards and a lot of fun.  Everyone just brought a pie and chatted.  The boys were upstairs playing with nerf guns and kids were on the drums and running around and it was just crazy and a nice way to start out the weekend.

Wednesday, busy cooking most of the day and trying to watch key Gilmore Girls episodes.  Boys had a half day of school and spent lots of time playing outside and watching screens, but fun was had by all.

Thursday, we started the day at the turkey trot.  Katsu, Andrew, and Seth ran.  It wasn't too cold, but it did rain near the end.  There was lots of other people we knew there from the neighborhood, ward, and work, so that was fun.  We told Seth he could run as fast as he wanted, so he did and Katsu and Andrew ran together.  Seth ran the entire time and finished in 26 min 38 seconds.  We were at the finish line and got him when he finished.  He felt pretty sick for the first couple minutes and told me he didn't want to do that again, but then after that he was just proud.  He ran faster than any kids his age or younger.  Out of the kids under 10, he was 4th.  Not bad for his first race.  Katsu had to motivate Andrew some, but he finished in 42 minutes or something like that, so a good 5+ minutes faster than his last race.  Good for him!  There were lots of his friends from running club running too, so that was fun.  And Seth was just proud of how fast he raced.

We went home, threw the turkey in oven, and watched the Macy's Day parade, and then finished cooking dinner.  It was just - kind of anticlimatic - and we had way too much food because the boys don't really like any Thanksgiving food.  Next year, we need to have less or more people to share it with.  We had turkey, stuffing (sausage, pecans, and apricots), gravy, rolls, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, apple pie, chocolate pudding pie, and pecan pie squares.  We rested and then had dessert.

Friday we put up the Christmas tree and decorations and tried to play games together, but each one ended up in fights and chaos.  Andrew was particularly awful and spent a lot of time in his room.  We had the elf on the shelf out and we played the elf games he brought with him.  The boys loved it and were making up their own games of hiding the flashing rudolf nose outside - until they broke it!

Saturday, we spent most of the day with me taking the kids shopping individually to buy presents for the rest of the family members and then wrapping them up.  We also went with Brother's Keeper to feed the homeless/poor.  The boys just played at the park, but it was a good time and the stuffing we brought was gone in a flash.

Andrew - lots of trouble as always.  He loses his temper like crazy and then will lash out verbally and then physically attack to the point where he hit me this week.  Not good.  At all.  But when he's good ... he's good.  He has worked hard on getting ready for the battle of the books because they are making the team next week.  He really enjoyed decorating the tree and then putting toys around it.

Seth - super anxious to open Christmas presents.  He was the one insistent on buying them and then has been giving out clues, so basically everyone already knows what his presents are.  He has been loud and whiny lately, but also spending lots of time outside with friends.  His main thing is complaining about how everyone he knows (including the smart kids!) get more screen time than he does and how I am the meanest mom ever.

Logan - he seems really tired this week and has been having lots of tantrums.  On Saturday, we cleaned up in the evening so we could finish getting everything done.  He hates picking up, so before we knew it, he had put himself to sleep and was already asleep.  This is not the first time it's happened either!  He spends a lot of time playing with our neighbor, riding his ziggle up and down the driveway or playing in the sand box.

Noah - he was happy to be at home a lot this week and wore more costumes than I can count.  He is always dressed up as something!  He is talking a lot more and has been enjoying talking about the parade in Raleigh and how he saw Spiderman.  He is loving all the Christmas decorations and presents and wants to open them already!  He bought his brothers' Christmas presents - ornaments - so he could give it to them right away and I think he got the concept of giving.

Recent pictures and a video from Logan's party

Fall - Oct & Nov

I can not seem to get enough time to blog, so I'm going to do the last month and then I'm going to try just a little weekly update.

We have been really busy the last month with Halloween, Logan's birthday, Katsu out of town, and then Logan's birthday party and just normal busy-ness.  So, we didn't get a lot of reading time in.  We need to get back to reading, too.  Plus, Seth has been sleeping with Andrew and so we are all in different rooms and haven't gotten into it.  The boys have been doing lots of reading.  Seth has finally started reading chapter books and taking tests on them for school.  He read the Poppy books from Avi and just finished them all.  He also read one of the Battle of the books books - he really wants to be just like Andrew.  Andrew has been reading the Tennis Shoes books and another series.

Fun Things

• Katsu and I went to see the Parsons Dance Company and really enjoyed it.  So nice to get out!
• Noah had lots of fun carving pumpkins in preschool.  He loved Halloween so much and loved to see all the pumpkins and say "Halloween".  He keeps saying Halloween all the time.
• Noah & Logan went to a truck birthday party.  Noah didn't warm up till near the end because there were tons of kids there, but then he didn't want to leave.
• Trunk or treat.  They had a carnival first and the boys liked that - Seth and Noah were too scared to do the spooky room, but they liked playing the games and getting little treats.  And of course, they loved getting treats at the trick or treat.  Someone took pictures of the families, so I'll have to get one because that is the only halloween picture we have of us.  Whoops.
• We were going to try out a couple other trunk or treats, but Katsu had a migraine, so we ended up just having a quiet night at home.
• Noah and Logan had Halloween parties.  I brought the treat bags for Noah's party and had fun making them - glad it's done, though.  They both got to wear costumes.  Andrew had a party at school, too.
• Halloween - we had people over for dinner which was a little crazy!  They came earlier than I expected and I had laundry everywhere, but oh, well - I just kept folding it.  The last year or so, it has become really hard to stay on top of the laundry.  The boys didn't want to eat the chili and at one point, Seth's chili "accidentally" flew over the fence ... finally, they went out trick or treating.  They were so excited.  They wanted to do the whole neighborhood.  The whole family went out most of the time, but Katsu felt sick near the end.  We should have all gone home, but the boys were demanding to see more, so I took them, but they were too tired to even stop and ask for candy. Monday on Halloween is a little crazy and not my favorite.
• Wed. was Logan's birthday.  He had a little cake and got his presents - some Imaginext Batman things from his grandparents, which Noah promptly decided were his and we fought that battle for the next week, and we got him a Ziggle and a sticker book.  He loves the Ziggle and wants to play with it all the time.  Then, Katsu took him and Noah to school, and then left on a business trip to Phoenix.  We brought in cupcakes for Logan's class.  We got a pizza for his birthday and maybe watched a movie - we took it really low key.
• Saturday while Katsu was gone, Andrew had his running club race.  It was pretty chilly and I wasn't thinking and didn't bring chairs, so we were standing there waiting for a long time.  But Seth found his friend and they played his video game thing for a while - poor Logan and Noah were more bored.  I was so proud of Andrew - he finished the 5k!  And he wasn't even the last person!  The boys have been so excited since then they are planning on running a 5k for Thanksgiving and want to go running all the time. We went to Chick-fil-a afterwards to celebrate.
• Election day was busy.  Andrew ran for student government president (he made his class representative and barely even told us!).  He had made some posters and made a speech.  He didn't win (he told me it was because some of his friends didn't vote for him ... poor thing), but he didn't seem too sad about it.  He is so busy already with being a representative, running club, battle of the books, leadership, plus all his gifted pull-out programs, it is probably for the best.  Seth and Andrew voted for president at their school (Clinton won).  Logan voted for president at preschool, too.  His classmates were trying to figure out who to vote for, asking questions like "well, who is the boy?" or voting for whoever's name they liked best.  Then, apparently, Logan said "Well, let me tell you what it's all about it.  There is a boy and he wants to build a wall.  And the girl does not want to build a wall."  The kids were so fascinated (they thought it was a lego wall) and his teacher was impressed he had a clue what was going on.  Their class voted for Trump.  Noah went with me and voted with me - no lines.  I should have done early voting, but I procrastinated forever who to vote for in all the 30ish positions I had to vote for.  Katsu and I stayed up for a while watching election coverage ... I am still not too happy about the results nor are the kids.  Today they told me that they think the popular vote should win, not the electoral college.  At least they are learning some civics ...
• The next morning, Logan had his postponed (from the hurricane) trip to the pumpkin patch.  Katsu went with the first part while I gave my class a test, and then I was there the second half.  They had tons of fun at Briley's.  I went to see the little animals and on the hayride.  They only had the big pumpkins (all the little pumpkins were destroyed in the hurricane flooding) and we each picked one out.  We never got to actually carving pumpkins this year (whoops!), but they still are going strong as decorations outside.  It was fun to spend some one-on-one time with Logan.
• Boys got a couple days off school for Veteran's Day and parent-teacher conferences, but no scheduled any conferences, so they just played and had a babysitter when I went to work.
• We had Logan's birthday party on Nov. 12, because I figured I really didn't want to do it without Katsu home.  I was worried that no one was coming when there were only 2 people after 15 minutes, but almost everyone we planned on showed up.  It was a fun party and went much better than last year.  The boys ran around for a while and Andrew/Seth led them in some Jedi training, I think.  Then, they did nerf gun shooting of death stars.  Then, we did donuts on a string (that was a hit!).  Then, the kids ran around for a while.  Then, we did the egg race (eggs colored like storm troopers).  We also did little lego guys frozen in ice and they had to try to break it with a spoon.  They LOVED that one.  We had cake and chips.  Logan insisted on a darth vader cake, so Katsu and I cut out a stencil out of a file folder and then used it to powder sugar the top of the cake.  It looked pretty good - even better in pictures for some reason ... ha ha.  Then, we opened presents.  Did a Darth Vader pinata.  And then played some more games - we tried volley ball with a huge ball, but the boys all started to fight.  And so the party really ended up at just an hour and a half long, which was just perfect.  It was pretty fun and I am always so glad when they are done!  We went to Chick-fil-a for dinner because the boys got free nuggets with their report card and we were worn out.  A nice evening.
• Monday we had to bring healthy snacks to Logan's class, so we sent in a sampler of 4 or 5 different kinds of apples, which they loved.  The boys also started tennis.  Logan, Seth, and Andrew are all playing.  Logan is LOVING it.  He wants to practice all the time and is doing a pretty good job - you have to be 5, so he was just old enough.  Seth got moved up on Wednesday to an older group, which is harder for Andrew.  I hope it won't stay like that.  I love tennis because it is not too far away, they are all at the same time, and it's not evenings or weekends.  Hopefully, they will enjoy that and running as life-long fitness pursuits.
• Tuesday, Seth had his awards day at school with a little party since they didn't have a party for Halloween.  Seth got all S's on his report card with weirdly only like 3 other people.  He has had a sub for about a month now while his teacher is on maternity leave.  His sub loves him.  But it has sure made some weird dynamics at school for Seth.  Supposedly he was supposed to be pulled out for some enrichment, but that has still not happened.
• I also had my Book club and it was fun with like 5 people.  We read Serafina and the Black Cloak, so it was a quick easy read.
• Andrew had his award day on Thursday and got an award for all A's.  He also started Science Olympiad.  Originally, his teacher didn't turn in the paperwork on time, so he didn't make it, but she talked to them, and now he is on it.  He is doing the competitions for data crunchers and one about earthquakes and that kind of science.  He is excited.
• Friday was a play for the boys and Katsu took all but Noah to see it - Skippyjon Jones - Snow What.  They enjoyed it mostly, but mostly just like seeing it together and then going to McDonalds for ice cream and playing chess.
• Saturday we drove to Raleigh to see the Raleigh Christmas parade.  We hit random traffic, but got there in time and sat at the end of the route which I really liked.  The weather was fabulous - like 70s by the afternoon.  Unusually warm for the Christmas parade.  It had 3 balloons - a penguin, a shark, and Shrek.  We could see them coming from far away, so that was fun.  They made the shark go into the crowd, which was pretty fun.  The boys sat and ate cookies and enjoyed it, even though there was no candy.  Lots of bands, some cars, lots of floats and dancers.  Noah loved the people dressed up in costumes, especially Spiderman (he showed off his ever-present Spiderman costume) and the star wars characters.  Everytime he sees someone with a Santa hat he says "ho ho ho".  Then, we ate a picnic lunch by the Duke Energy center and walked to the natural history museum.  There was also a Native American festival going on, so we looked at the dancing and the amazing costumes.  It was really fun.  The boys were a little crazy at the natural history museum, but we survived.  We stopped at Trader Joes and picked up our favorites and some holiday food and then drove home.  After some bickering, we finally picked a Japanese restaurant and went to Osaka to celebrate Nichi-go-san for boys who are 3 or 5 or 7.  It was a buffet, sort of.  It's one price and then you mark off which food you want to eat on a little sheet and they make it and bring it out for you.  The boys LOVED it.  Katsu and I were not super impressed with the quality of food, but, it was a fun experience.

Fall 2016 - Fun Things

It's been a while, but let's see what we can remember ...

Books -

• Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe - we are going to the play next week, so we read this one.  Logan sometimes got bored, but eventually he really wanted to hear it.  Can't wait to see the play.
• Emil and the Detectives - just finished this one.  An older book, and the kids weren't sure at first, but they LOVED it.
• Jenny's Moonlight Adventure - a cute not too scary Halloween book.
• Andrew and I have been reading in bits and pieces Tennis Shoes Among the Nephites.
• Katsu and Andrew have been playing chess in lieu of night time reading.

Fun Things - 

• Odd Squad the movie - this was a major event for the kids this summer, but they loved it.
• Noah had a little birthday party.  We had a few kids over for a play date and sang and then had cupcakes.  He even got a couple presents.  It was fun and felt somewhat festive.  And then Katsu came home and we gave him our big present for him (a sand / water toy).
• OLYMPICS - we had a little opening ceremony party, though the kids got bored after awhile - let's be honest, I got bored after awhile.   We spent a lot of time watching the Olympics.  The boys loved the diving and the gymnastics.  Seth and Logan want to take gymnastics classes now.
• Katsu went to the youth baptismal trip, so we all drove out to Raleigh and dropped him off and then we went to the natural history center.  I was kind of grumpy, but the boys really enjoyed it since it's been a long time since we went.  Then, we picked up Katsu and drove to Chapel Hill.  We ate some yummy food at McAlisters and then went to the Planetarium.  We looked through the exhibits and then we watched a Magic Tree House Planetarium Show.  The boys loved it, except Noah who had a hard time sitting still.  So, I had to take him out at the end, but then I brought him back in for the Night Tonight.  Now, Logan wants a telescope and stars for his room.
• Birthday parties
• Andrew got new glasses.  His prescription changed quite a bit and the boys were somewhat well behaved during his appointment.  In fact, the doctors commented that this was the first time kids were there that they didn't have their eyes twitching by the end.
• Aunt Sarah came in town for several weeks to help with the kids while school started and to have fun with us.
• All the kids had dentist appointments.  It was pretty traumatic for Noah - he cried the whole time - but they all did fine and Logan is getting much better.  No cavities.  No concerns.  Seth still doesn't even have any wiggly teeth.
• Ward movie night - we watched Good Dinosaur.  We thought we had a party beforehand (it turned out not), so we ended up eating at Sonic beforehand.
• ECU started!  I am teaching two classes.  I lecture 9-10 M, W and 8-12 on Friday.
• My birthday.  It was a busy day - the kids had their open house at school.  But Sarah cooked dinner (chicken cordon bleu and cake) for me while I was at that, so that was nice.  I got 
• Watermelon Festival - we went to the parade and it was pretty fun, but so hot and humid.
• Elementary School (Andrew) - the kids started a week after ECU.  Andrew is in Ms. Zell's class and is also in the gifted program.  Ms. Zell seems to be a good teacher for him, but really Andrew is gone for the gifted program so much, it seems like he is hardly there or catching up on things all the time.  He goes to STRIDE (Gifted program) all day Monday.  He also has enrichment math (Thurs), enrichment reading, and super enrichment reading and super enrichment math (I think those are all on Friday).  So, he is gone almost 2 whole days each week.  Plus, he is taking orchestra and learning the viola in place of his regular music class.  It is supposed to be twice a week, but then he was missing all his PE (due to STRIDE) which isn't allowed, so it's just once a week for now.  He is doing pretty well at keeping up with practicing and also piano, though heaven forbid he practice when you tell him.  He does it whenever he feels like it.  He is also doing Battle of the Books (read 18 books and then answer quiz questions on them as a team), Leadership (helping the PE teachers again), and Running Club (they practice twice a week after school for a 5K next month - he is not very good or fast, but he is getting better and seems to somewhat enjoy it).
• Elementary School (Seth) - Seth is in Ms. Herring's class.  She is a new teacher this year.  She was also pregnant with twins boys (in addition to her one year old boy) and just had them a week ago.  So, he now has a permanent sub.  I am still not sure how I feel about her.  She seems fine, but I don't think she is engaging him as well as he should be.  He hasn't had any enrichment for math even though he is super far advanced.  As far as I can tell, the only thing that he has done is get a sign up to play the computer game Prodigy at home.  He LOVES this game and is always begging to play.  It gives math problems and then it is kind of like Final Fantasy type game.  The problems have been super hard - long division, greatest common multiples, graphing with coordinates, but he seems to be picking it up.  He didn't get a good grade in writing, but it was based on only one assessment, which I am not very happy about.  He is advanced in reading and has been loving to read Geronimo Stilton books.  They have been doing AR now in second grade, although the teachers don't seem to really know what they are doing.  Seth had a hard time taking the test on chapter books, but got to his goal super fast.  He always tries to take out the very hardest books that they will let him.  He has been learning about sound and music and just turned in a project making an instrument.  He had lots of ideas about using cleaning bottles and made some sort of blowing thing.  He worked on it all by himself and really didn't want any help or input.  Seth is still doing really well with piano.  Both boys are in the book 2B of Alfred Premiere Course.
• Seth went to a birthday party at AirU - a jumping trampoline place and he really wants to go back all the time.
• A couple football parties.  Aunt Sarah even came.
• I don't think we did much for Labor Day.  I don't really remember.  Maybe Katsu painted the walls?
• Sarah went back home.  Andrew was glad to get his room back, but Noah was really sad to miss his little buddy and cried about it for a couple days.
• Noah and Logan had their tea party at the preschool to meet their teachers.  Noah had a rough few days at the beginning of the year, but now he loves preschool and always talks about his friends at preschool and is sad when it's a day when Logan goes and he doesn't.
• Logan is in Ms. Shelley and Ms. Kim's class in the pirate room upstairs and goes 9-12 five days a week.  His room has pirate toys and all kinds of pirate decorations and has had several pirate crafts.  They even celebrated and dressed up for talk like a pirate day.  Ms. Shelley loves Logan and just thinks he is delightful and easy.  Logan is really enjoying the class and seems to be making friends and having fun with the other kids.  He also seems to be learning the letters they study at school pretty well.  Hopefully he will know all the letters by the time he starts kindergarten.  It has been a long slog (he knows all his numbers, though ...)  He keeps getting more literary skills and has started really picking out beginning and ending sounds in all the words he hears, so I am not too worried.  A funny thing from his preschool class - there is another boy who moved into his class who is named Logan F too.  So, Logan goes by Logan Funai.  He especially loves playing in the sand and I finally figured out why - his teacher brings back lots of shells and hides them there.  It's like a treasure hunt.
• Noah is in Ms. Jennifer's class.  He is in a 2 year old class that meets Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  He really loves the class now.  He plays and has circle time and reads stories and brings home simple crafts.  He plays on the playground for a long time and really enjoys that, too.
• Ward picnic - we had to pick up the meat, but it was at the wrong barbeque place and so we had to drive all around town.  It was kind of crazy and stressful, but the food was good and we brought home tons of leftovers.  Too bad the kids don't like north carolina bbq - more for us!
• High priest breakfast.  They remembered how much Logan liked bacon and got a whole pan full for him to bring home!
• Soccer - Katsu is coaching both teams (Logan and Seth).  It has been a little crazy, especially when it was so hot and we were worried about Katsu getting migraines.  But he has mostly enjoyed the teams (even though so many games have been cancelled due to weather).  And they have basically won all their games for both teams. Kind of crazy.  The season is almost done now - last games on Monday and then there will be a tournament for Seth's group.
• Curriculum Night & Preschool Orientation.  Lots of busy school meetings.
• Andrew had a cub scout activity at the nature center and went hiking and had lots of fun.  Noah and I ended up joining them in the nature center after their hike.
• Talk like a pirate day - Logan dressed up for school and then Logan and Noah and I went to Krispy Kreme with the boys dressed up and each got a box of donuts.  It was a fun day.
• We celebrated Angel Moroni Day by talking about how he appeared to Joseph Smith and then finding little scripture treasures made of chocolate.
• General Conference - we went though the 72 hour kits and ate up all the expiring food (probably a bad idea since the hurricane went through the next week ...) and the boys listened to a couple of the talks even, especially when they played bingo with the M&Ms.  It was a pretty fun weekend and nice to all be together at home.  Soccer games were cancelled due to rain, so we didn't even have to go anywhere.
• US Marine Band - Katsu took the boys.  Seth and Logan both fell asleep almost instantly, but Andrew really enjoyed the band and was very interested in the music.
• I have been in charge of the walking school bus - and we had our walk to school day.  The police accompanied us in the morning and we had banners.  The kids were a little wild, but they had a lot of fun.  They got goody bags and snacks in the afternoon on the way home.  Low key, but fun.
• Noah went and saw the puppet lady at the mall.  He didn't want to go, but he enjoyed it in the end and wants to go back another time.
• Andrew had a field trip to go and see an orchestra performance.  He enjoyed it.  We were supposed to have a performance that evening, but it was cancelled due to the hurricane.
• The hurricane blew through on Saturday Oct. 8.  Everything was cancelled, of course.  We sat at home and waited and watched.  The wind and rain were something treacherous.  We brought in everything from outside, thankfully, because it was much worse than we expected.  I have never seen such a storm.  Poor Noah was so scared - he was just wandering around saying "Rain hurt me" over and over again.  The other boys were a little nervous, but not too bad, but Noah would not go to sleep at all unless he was between me and Katsu.  He is still scared of any rain or storms, poor thing.  Our neighbor's trampoline flipped over their fence, but thankfully, other neighbors tied it down before it could have caused any damage.  We didn't lose power or anything harmful.  There was a huge amount of flash flooding in town, even the road behind ours was flooded badly in parts and many many roads were closed on Saturday and Sunday.  We did get a bit of water damage from rain coming through around the outdoor outlet cover, but thankfully nothing too bad.
• We just had a combined sacrament meeting service on Sunday.  Kind of crazy to see the damage from the storm.
• School - all of them - was cancelled for the entire next week.  We didn't venture far beyond the store and once to the library.  Many streets were closed and then Greenville started flooding from the Tar river through the whole week before finally peaking water levels on Friday.  Far from us, but not too far.  The whole region was flooded really.  Craziness.
• Preschool finally started the next week, but Andrew and Seth were still out on Monday.  We finally got our piano tuned (which the boys found somewhat interesting) and then we played a rousing game of Monopoly.  Boys finally went back to elementary school on Tuesday with a 2 hour delay.  And ECU started as well.  Katsu couldn't go to ECU the very first day it was closed (Monday the 10th), but he went into the lab most days the week it was closed, though sometimes came home early.  Thankfully the weather was good the week they were out, so they spent lots of time playing with friends and outside.
• The fire truck came to preschool.  According to Noah's teacher, he was petrified of it and refused to get on it.  I guess it was a little too big - he loves looking at them from afar.  Logan seemed to enjoy it.
• Thursday, on the way home from preschool, the car broke down.  Thankfully, Katsu could come and help out.  And thankfully, we were able to drive the car to the shop without needing a tow truck and the shop could look at it right away.  They had to order a part and the car could just stop anytime, so we have been down to one car, but hopefully it will be done on Monday.  We'll see!
• Friday, Katsu took Andrew, Seth, and Logan to see ECU's family fare production of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe.  Katsu wasn't super impressed, but the kids enjoyed it and enjoyed spending time with him, of course.  They went to McDonald's afterwards and played checkers and had ice cream.
• Saturday, ALL the boys went and cleaned the church, then a full day of soccer boys, and then ALL the boys went to a church's fall festival.  We drive by it every day on the way to preschool or ECU and decided to try it.  The boys LOVED it.  There were 8 bouncy houses!  Plus cotton candy, hot dogs, and games and candy.  They stayed for a long time and loved it.

Noah in July 2016

Noah - turned 2.  I can't believe he is so old already.  I brought him into the doctor when we went to Logan's ear appointment and the nurse asked where the baby is - no one can believe he is so old already.

And, oh, boy, is he 2!  I swear, from the day of his birthday, he has been throwing the biggest fits ever.  I think they are maybe the worst of all the kids.  Or maybe not quite as bad as Andrew.  He will scream and writhe around on the floor for like 20 minutes and nothing will calm him down.  It could get interesting.  And, in typical toddler fashion, they are for ridiculous things, like when we couldn't figure out what he wanted for breakfast, so I let Andrew eat the fish because I thought Noah didn't want it, but in fact, he just wanted it cut.  He is a handful.

Noah sleeps pretty well.  He doesn't wake up every night anymore, maybe just every 3 nights or so.  It is so nice to pretty much have everyone sleep through the night.  Thought that would never happen.  He is pretty resistant to going to sleep, though.  Unless he is really tired, it can take a good hour of laying next to him to get him to sleep.  If he had his way, he would read 10 million stories, but I am trying to get him into a pattern of 3 books only.  He takes naps at least half the days.  But often, after laying down for 30 minutes, he still won't sleep.  On the days he does sleep, he will take a long nap usually and sometimes we have to wake him up.  So, kind of a weird schedule.  Maybe when school starts up again, it will be better.

Noah still loves to eat.  He also knows exactly what he wants to eat.  He can eat more fish than almost all of us.  He is done with sippy cups and does pretty well without spilling.  He is also done with his booster seats, so he pretty much eats like the rest of us now.  He just needs help with cutting things, which he is very demanding about.

Noah is starting preschool next month.  I am a little worried about him being in 3 days a week, but it will be better for my work schedule.  He is loving nursery finally.  They said he is talking and playing and laughing and just participating really well, so hopefully preschool will be good, too.  We have been talking it up a lot, so we'll see.

Noah is really good at playing by himself.  He also loves to play with his brothers.  He loves to run around in costumes and hats and swords and rough housing with everyone.  He likes to play with trucks and trains and little animals and people and blocks.  He is obsessed with guns.  He loves any and all guns.  He also loves ducks (which are any birds), so he had the best time at the farm.  He loves baseball and soccer and really any sport.  He loves to walk around with a bat and a hat on - all the time.  He likes to talk about "foul ball" and is starting to say baseball, too.

Noah loves reading and wants to spend a long time reading with me every day.

He loves to look at letters.  He calls them all "s", but he is interested in how they work.

He is talking more.  He has a pretty big vocabulary, but he isn't really putting words together in sentences.  They said if he still isn't in a couple months, call for a referral, but I think he might be starting to put some words together in the last couple days, so hopefully not.

Noah is a really sweet boy.  He kisses and hugs, but he is going through a huge Mommy phase.  He loves Katsu and runs to say goodbye to him in the morning and runs to him in the evening when the garage door opens.  He also really likes Seth - I think because Seth is athletic and they are a lot alike.  He talks about Seth all the time.  He will probably be sad when school starts again.

I am probably going to have a go at potty training with him this week to see how it goes.  I got annoyed when Noah was pooping in his swim diaper, so he started telling me when he needed to go to the potty and he will.  So, he will poop in a potty, at home or away, probably every day.  He is interested, so maybe it will work.  We'll see ...