We had more swim lessons this week. Unfortunately, they didn't go quite as well. Arwen was feeling pretty comfortable I think and her true colors came out. All I ever heard was, "Arwen, don't....." Oh well. At least she likes the water. Thursday, we went to our little county fair. First we stopped and saw all the animals. Arwen called just about all of them camels. Then we went and let Arwen ride some rides. She was so cute. She loved them. She was even brave enough (and tall enough with her tennis shoes) to ride the mini roller coaster. A girl from out ward was in line too so she sat by Arwen. Poor little girl looked scared to death the whole time (I think she was too scared to cry or anything!) When she got off she told me that she wanted to ride THAT ride--the not scary ride. It was really fun. Then we went and played game and popped a couple of balloons and won her two little care bears. She sure was excited! Saturday we went to Tillamook to the cheese factory to get little Noah an ice cream cone. It was fun--Noah of course loved it. Then we went up north to Seaside beach with the intentions of buying and flying a kite because it is usually very windy there. On the way we stopped and got lots of taffy. There were about 2 million people at this beach and no wind! Oh well. Noah loved eating the sand and Arwen had a blast in the water. It was a beautiful day! On the way home, we stopped at a tiny little place and got some clam chowder and halibut. (The chowder was okay, better than Mo's, but not the greatest.) Our sweet little Noah has a high high fever today and is so sad. Aaron just quadrupled the size of his Deacon's Quorum so he'll be even busier lately!!

Arwenisms: "Look, chocolate. Chocolate! She's chocolate." She said this at the cheese factory while pointing at a black lady. Arwen loves to call Grandma Carrot. (She got confused when my mom told her she was Grandma Karen and now says carrot instead!) "I just trapping Noah." When I came down stairs, she had her little plastic chair on top of Noah. He gave a "PLEASE SAVE ME!!" look.

Noahisms: He army crawled for a toy. He's does really good at mimicking me. He claps and makes a funny noise if I do. Love, NASA

We had a great week. Arwen started swimming lessons. They offer them here at our little community pool. She loves her teacher to death and does a pretty good job. You should see her do a back float. It's so funny. She puts her little hands on her belly and totally floats. She looks like she is dead though--she kind of has a grimace on her face. She loves to jump in from the edge too. After lessons they have mommy and me time and I swim for a half an hour with Arwen and Noah. Noah likes the water too.
Yesterday we had a busy day! First we went to the Farmer's market and got some blueberries and raspberries. Yummy. Then we went over to a couple's house in our ward. They have an online Halloween business where they sell costumes and stuff. Anyways, they bought a page in Women's World magazine and needed people to come and wear costumes for the page. Aaron and I got to do it. (Arwen would not keep her costume on--it was a rooster and she kept telling us that it was too scary for her! Noah freaked out too, so they won't be in the picture.) When it comes out you can all go and look at it. Since we did it for them they said we could each pick a costume out for free. Yea!!! After that we went to our ward barbeque. It was fun. The old bishop took all the kids on a tractor ride. He was driving it down a gravel hill and the trailer in back lost control and slid and looked like it was goin! g to tip over. Poor ARwen was on at the time and FREAKED out. She told me she didn't like tractors anymore. Poor kid. After the party we went and saw Willy Wonka. It was really fun. Arwen loved it!! She stayed awake till midnight to finish it was was soo good.
Church was good. Emily, Aaron made a really yummy carrot ginger soup that you'll love. You need to come and try it!!

Arwenisms:
"Mom, I'm gonna care bear tare you down!!" She was mad at me and had just gotten done watching care bears and decided to give me the care bear stare to make me be nice--except she still can't do s's very well and she tared me down!
Later I told her to care bear stare Noah and she said she couldn't because she didn't have a heart on her belly. I got a marker to draw one and she said," Oh mom, we ONLY draw on paper." Great, the one time she remembers one of her rules!

Noahisms:
It's begun--and it's so funny! I was eating icecream the other day and sharing it with Noah. Apparantly every other spoonfull was not enough for him and he threw his head back and bared his teeth and made fists and threw them behind himself and shook! Yea, another rage baby!! It's so great. I love it when he does it (which usually only happens with icecream!)

Love, NASA

Happy Anniversary mom and dad!!!

Our poor little girl managed to come down with a double ear infection this week. She's getting better. I got a new calling as the compassionate service leader. I'm excited. It should be fun. Me and Aaron have been making jersey topping eating it on black walnut icecream with carmel and hot fudge sauce. It's sooo yummy.



Arwenisms:
She was in a bad mood and we asked her to do something and she said, " I don't even care about anything." So much for all the care bear movies she watches.
Every time we would be in public, Arwen would say real loud, "Oh mama, let me see your pink eye. That's so sad." Thanks for announcing to the world that I had pink eye again!
We were getting out of the car and I told Arwen to stand far away while I got Noah because the man in the car next to us was smoking. She said, "Bad man!" and pointed at him.

Noahisms:
Noah was playing on the trampoline while me and Aaron were playing catch. He managed to roll to the one spot on the thing that is missing and spring and rolled right through it and landed on the ground. Poor boy. He had another really nasty fall, but once again it's cause we were negligent parents and it's way too bad to write of--but he's fine!
Me and Arwen make these really yuumy pizzas in our electric skillet with whole wheat tortillas and lots of veggies. One day, Noah ate more of Arwen's pizza than she did!
I found a lady bug when we were out playing and put it on Noah's hand so he could see it. Well, before it could even crawl on him, he put his little hand to his mouth and ate it right up. You should have seen the look on his face as the brown drool came from his mouth. Yuck!!!

Love, NASA

Man! It's been a long time since I've written one of these! Sorry. All is well up here in Portland. We've had fun since Aaron got back from Scout Camp. We went up to Fort Vancouver in Washington on the 4th and watched the biggest firework show west of the Mississippi. Anyways, it was pretty good aside from all the dirty smokers. We all wore glow in the dark glasses and braclets and were the hit. We celebrated my birthday on Tuesday. We went up to the gorge and hiked through freezing cold water to a water fall. Actually it wasn't too bad this time (remember mike, heidi, matthew, and bethany. It was only up to our waists this time and I didn't fall in!) We stopped and took a break by the falls and ate yummy cherries. We left kind of early and gave our kids to a sitter and went to Benihana's and then to see War of the Worlds. It was really fun!
We went to the Farmer's Market on Saturday and got lots of mushrooms and made a really yummy fungi pasta! It was so fun and good--even homemade noodles. Arwen HATES mushrooms by the way--at least that's what she told us before even taking a bite. What a silly girl.

Arwenisms:
We were at the park and Arwen yelled down from the slide, " Hey, remember me? I'm Arwen!" She says her name so cute She enunciates the AR and then draws out the wen. "I'm ARweeennn."
Aaron asked her to sing a song with him and she looked at him and said, "I'm just too busy."
We were waiting for Aaron at church on sunday and a lady from a different ward walked by and I thought Arwen said, "A pretty princess." (She calls dresses princesses.) Then she corrected me and said, "No, a BIG princess." The lady was pretty big. Luckily she didn't hear Arwen.

Noahisms:
Arwen likes to grab Noah and roll all over the floor with him and "wrestle." I about die every time they do it, but they LOVE it! Noah shrieks for joy which Arwen loves. It's so cute.
The little kid can get his butt in the air in attempts to crawl (well only when we set up the car track and let the car race. He REALLY wants to get that car.
He rolled himself over to Arwen yesterday and started to bug her. He kept kicking her really hard to get her attention. It was so funny. She kept telling him to stop and he kicked harder!
I just walked in on them and ARwen was sitting on Noah and he was giggling. What a beast sister!

Love, NASA

PS Thanks grandma for my birthday money! Love you lots!