Crazy Friday! It started out well, we went to Ar's ballet lesson and actually had a functioning camera (although the pictures are no good!!). We came home and straightened up the house because Arwen had a friend coming over. I was feeding Josha and Arwen and her friend were upstairs playing in her room. Noah, of course, followed them up to play. Then I heard Noah yelp, and then like 30 seconds later the scream came! I ran upstairs and had to open Ar's door, because Noe's thumb was shut in the hinge part of the door. I was almost sick when I saw it. It had gotten smashed right below his thumb nail and was hanging there by a little skin. The nail was also just barely hanging off his thumb. I rushed him downstairs amd grabbed a towel to try and stop the bleeding. Then I panicked and called Aaron and asked him what to do, He said, " CALL 911!" (All the guys that Aaron works around looked up as he ran out. "I won't be back!!" He said.) Oh yeah, 911! So I did and the fire truck pulled up in only 2 minutes! They came in and wrapped up Noah's thumb and cleaned up all the blood so the ambulance guys could come in and not slip. Me and Noah rode in the ambulance to the hospital while the fire fighters stayed at my house until Aaron got there (he pulled up to our street right as me and Noah were driving away.) Aaron walked in to a fire man trying to change Josha's diaper because he had peed himself! They were about to put an IV in Noe in the ambulance to give him morphine, but the poor, tender boy fell asleep in my arms. He woke up when they wheeled us into the ER. Then his Doctor gave him a long lasting local. Poor Noah screamed when that happened! Then he fell asleep. Then Aaron and the kids showed up. I had to feed Josh so Aaron got to go with Noah to get an x-ray taken. That's when he saw the kids thumb. So you can ask him about it--I really am not exagerrating about how yucky it was!! Noah came back and I got to hold him again and we watched Sponge Bob. What a treat since we don't have cable! Lucky boy got to watch a whole hour of it! Then, of course, right when it got over the crew came in to re-assemble his thumb. He was completely numb, but he could see everything that was happening and he was freaking out! He kept screaming, "Owa, ouchie!!" They stitched the thumb back on and they stitched his nail back to his skin. Then the doctor took a little thing that got red hot and burnt three holes in the nail so that the blood could drain. All the while Noah kept saying, "All done?? All done??" Poor monkey. After it was all done he got two cups of juice and drank them so fast and had a couple of suckers. Now he has to take codeine every few hours and antibiotics. We have to go and see a plastic surgeon on Tuesday to see what's next. Poor sweet Noe! He was so brave and strong!! Arwen had the time of her life. The nurse's took her out into their work area and set a little place up for her to color, eat, and have treats. She was just chatting up a storm with them. They were sad to see her go! When we got home, our neighbors wanted to know what happened. They felt so bad for Noah. Then they asked if we liked halibut. Of course! Their son is a fisherman up in Alaska and gives them tons of fresh fish. He gave us a 3 lb fresh halibut fillet. We're eating good today!!

Thanks Peter and Pricilla for loaning us a camera! We don't have much to update everyone on though! Noah is talking like crazy all of a sudden the last two days! It's so fun. He says these cute little sentences. Joshua is all smiles! He cracks up whenever you tickle him--especially his neck! Arwen prances around the house doing her little ballet moves. All three are snotty and sick right now. They are okay, just kind of grouchy. Noahisms: He was trying to climb on the table the other day to play with some butter than got left there. I asked him nicely not to. You could tell he wanted so badly to be naughty and get the butter, but he also wanted to be good. So, he folded his arms and said, "Heavenly Father...this day...gibberish...amen." Then he put some butter in his mouth. Then he said, "Yucky...gross...ewww." It was hysterical!!
Noah has also turned into that kid that all the other moms hate. He is mean--to kids littler than him. And in order to be littler than Noah, you have to be a baby. He pushes, kicks, bites, and sits on them. I'm ready to sell him to the gypsies!!

I have no pictures to go with this post--all the batteries were dead that go in my 95 percent broken camera! Arwen had her first ballet lesson today. She loved it! But oh my, you should have seen all the other moms there. It was a huge popularity contest. They were all dressed up fancy and had themselves all done up like they were going out on a date. They all just kept telling each other about how much they spent on their daughters clothes...holy cow, they must be rich or something! Then they spent the rest of the lesson talking about how their faces are broken out and blah blah blah! And poor Arwen. She was pretty nervous to go. But when I told her that there were going to be lots of 3 year old girls there, she was so excited. She tried to say hi to a girl and the girl pouted and ran to her mom and wouldn't say hi back. I guess all the moms were friends and so were the little girls. They didn't want to have anything to do with Arwen. There is one lady there who is in my ward, so that was good. Her daughter is 2, but at least she said goodbye to Arwen! Arwen looked pretty cute trying to do what her teacher asked. She's very excited to go back next week. I have GOT to find a place for Noah to go though. He was so bad and even ran in the class once and stood next to Arwen. What a pretty ballerina he made!! I'll send out pictures next friday!!

We had a really fun time on our big hike this past weekend! We went to a place called Eagle Creek up in the Gorge. It was really pretty. It was a hike that kids could not come because you walked next to a cliff the whole time that dropped hundreds of feet into the water. Noah would have died for sure! There was even a cable on the side to hold onto so you didn't die! (Actually, the cable was pretty ridiculous. You just had to be kinda careful!) We went with two other couples that also have baby boys that are Joshua's age. All the hippies on the trail (you know--hard core hikers with their hiking poles, short shorts and smell like they hadn't showered in weeks) were so amazed that babies were there. It was pretty funny. Our plan was to hike 6 miles in to a water fall. We only made it 5 because we had to make sure and get home to relieve our babysitter. That and those boys sure liked to stop and eat a lot! Joshua was in Heaven. He ate like 10 times that day! It was a really pretty hike. There were lots of great places to sit and feed the babies and rest. And of course we found a couple of banana slugs. I even talked one of the guys into licking it--and convinced everyone else that I am crazy! I almost died when we got finished. I was pretty sore. Poor Aaron carried Josh 9.75 miles. I think I carried him only a quarter of a mile. What a wimp! Josh was sure a trooper. He was such a good baby and even had a few naps! Anyways, I think Aaron enjoyed his birthday hike. It was a great day!!

Happy Birthday Aaron! We did Aaron's party last night since he has Young Men's tonight. We went and got some helium balloons so we could tie them to his motorcycle for when he left work. We had hot wings for dinner with corn on the cob that tasted like water--gross! Then we made chocolate lava cakes--of course--Aaron's favorite! Arwen was quite concerned that he didn't have a big cake--just little baby cakes. By the end of dessert, we finally had her convinced that little cakes were okay. We finished off the evening by putting the kids to bed and starting season 2 of Lost. We didn't get to watch too much though, because Aaron had a work meeting he had to call into. Overall, I think it was a pretty fun party!

Squashy Joshy sure loves being outside. I don't think he'd cry at all if we left him outside all day! I am beginning to wonder about him--he gets these horrible crying fits and can cry for hours--he's pretty colicy. I have this medicine for him called Gripe Water. It has fennel and ginger and is supposed to help their tummies. It seems to help really well, I think. But it's strange, because I give it to him the minute I see that he's in pain and the minute it touches his tongue, he swallows it up like a little kid in a candy store and then is better. Has he gotten smart and just cries for his candy water, or does it really help immdediately? Maybe I should slip some sugar water into his medicine dropper once and see what happens. Anyways, he sure is a sweety!!

Hello everybody! We've had a fun weekend thus far. Friday night we made Aaron come home early so he could open his birthday presents--we just couldn't wait! Then we went over to some friends' house for a potluck and had yummy chicken. Noah even ate some. He ran around with his half gnawed on piece of chicken growling, "Animal!" to everyone. Silly boy. Then we went to our friends the Dickenson's house to play games. It was really fun! Saturday we met up with lots of families and went to the Zoo. We lasted there almost 4 hours I think--that's a record for us! We saw parts of the Zoo that we didn't even know existed! There is a really cool section devoted to native Oregon wildlife. It was neat. Then of course we rode the train. It was a great day! Arwen and I went to the mall to do some shopping for a baby gift. We had lots of fun and spent too much money! (We'll get that off to you sometime soon Jen!!) We are celebrating Aaron's birthday a few different days this week. Tomorrow we are going to make him his yummy dinner. Tuesday we will buy him LOST and have lots of fun episodes to watch! Wednesday we will make him cupcakes to bring to Young Men's so they can help him celebrate. Then on Saturday I've planned a big 12 mile hike that we'll do in the Gorge. Some friends and their babies will go with us. (We're leaving Ar and Noah at home with a sitter. Yea!!) It should be fun!

Arwenisms:
I asked Arwen to go and get me Noah's tennis shoes. She looked at me and said, "Tennis shoes? But Noah doesn't even play tennis."
We went and had lunch with Aaron and he had some chili. The chili had these beans that were the size of Joshua's ears. They were huge. Arwen saw them and said in this cute, sweet, very serious voice, "Those are awfully large beans, Daddy."
Arwen found this dried stick and dug a hole in the front yard and planted it. She named it Bee Bee. Noah pulled it out the other day and I swear you could hear Arwen 50 miles away. "BEE BEE!!!! BEE BEE!!!!!" She was so mad!
Noahisms:
Noah loved the beans from Aaron's lunch. He would wave them on his fork in front of Arwen's face and growl. Arwen freaked out. It was so funny to watch him pester her.
We were in the family room and heard this noise like someone was pouring water on the carpet. Me and Arwen figured out what it was at the same time, but she yelled what it was first. "Noah is peeing on the carpet!!" He had taken off his diaper. I didn't know this because he had on a new shirt that was too big and hid his bare little bum.
Noah can count to ten. I didn't teach him, but have heard him do it multiple times. Thanks Sesame Street!