Aaron and I decided that the kids watch too much TV....so....they aren't allowed to watch it anymore during the week. And, they are only allowed to watch one movie on Saturday. As you might imagine, it's been hardest for me! I have to be so creative now. Arwen and Noah fight like cats and dogs if I don't have something planned for them to do every minute of the day. Anyways, we decided to build a fort under the kitchen table. The kids had so much fun in it! They read books, and played under it most of the day. I was reading the kids Harry Potter after lunch, and Noah snuck away and this is where I found him, fast asleep! No TV is going well, but boy does my house get unbelievably messy!

Arwenism: This is an artsy picture Arwen has drawn of Joshua. She cracks us up! Arwen's ballet teacher had to miss a class, so Arwen had to take a make-up class. We got to ballet and I told Arwen to have fun in her make-up class, and of course she did. We got home and she was talking to Aaron and then she came over to me was kind of confused and said, "Mom, when do I get to do my make-up class?" She thought she was going to learn to put make-up on.
Aaron installed a pull-up bar in our bedroom and the kids love doing pull-ups with him. Then I told Arwen we needed to go to Costco to get some pull-ups for Noah at night time. (Pull-ups are night time big kid diapers) Arwen was so confused. She didn't understand why we needed more "pull-ups."
Noahisms: I got the kids some of those things that you put in water and they grow 600 percent. Noah had a monkey. He convinced Aaron to take his out of the water and let him hold it. It looked so gross. It was so slimey and wet at first. After it dried out, it was pretty cute to see Noah carry this funny little monkey everywhere he went. Then Arwen tore the legs off (don't worry...it was just payback since he tore the head off her dog), but Noah still loved it. I haven't seen it in a while...poor little monkey! Noah comes up with these funny words sometimes. He likes to tell us about his scary dreams full of scary animals. Well, once he was telling us about the scary floooor hooooles. You'll have to call and hear him say it. It is hysterical. It sounds so funny and he has to really concentrate so hard to say it the way he wants it to sound. Another of his funny words is "hone-ty." Apparently it's the name for the holes in the pretend pieces of wood that go to the kids work bench toy.
More Arwenisms: You'll have to take a look at this picture full screen to truly appreciate what Arwen has done to herself. Noah gave her a pair of "clippers" as they call them and together, they cut Arwen's hair. Of course it is right in the front center. When I caught them, she said, "Don't mind of it mom, I don't." Then she heard me tell a few people the story and she didn't like that. She yelled at me, "I do mind of it now, mom!" She looks pretty silly. The only time it's not horribly noticeable is when her hair is down and snarly. Way to go Ar!
We went to the coast on President's day to fly this really cool new kite we got. It rained pretty hard the whole time though, so we couldn't fly it. We did have a fun time enjoying the view and eating our ice cream cones and taffy. Aaron talked me into buying the kids rain boots. They look cute in them...the only problem is that Noah can't walk to well in them and they always fall off.

I could hardly believe it myself...but Joshua loves sugar cookies! (don't worry--it was unfrosted!) Joshua is so silly. He likes to eat, but he didn't really get the concept of picking the food up with his hands and giving it to himself. Anytime I would give him little snacks, he would sit there with his mouth wide open, like a little bird, waiting to be fed. But recently he has discovered pretzels and cookies, so he managed to figure out how to use his hands! As you can see the poor little guy has a rash on his face like little Noe. Great. What is it with the boys in my family and allergies?? Oh well, he sure has a big, cute smile!

We had our Ward's annual Sweetheart's Ball this past Saturday. The youth put it on for all of the adults. They fed us dinner, acted out skits and then had a dance afterwards. It was really fun this year. The dinner was really yummy. We had grilled chicken that was barbecued on this HUGE grill. Dessert was really good too--brownies and ice cream. Aaron was pretty busy helping with his Deacons, but I managed to steal him for a few dances. Joshua was my main date though. He was such a good boy!

We had a celebration extravaganza today!!! Noah is potty trained. I can hardly believe it myself...I didn't really have to do anything. I just pulled his potty out on Wednesday and he has been using it since. It was such a different experience with Arwen. Anyways, we went to Chuck E. Cheese today to celebrate...too bad we forgot Noah WILL NOT eat pizza. He had a great time spending his "money's" though. Arwen and Aaron were really good at hitting the jackpot on lots of the games so the kids had lots of tickets to buys cool prizes with afterwards!

Noah found Arwen's little stroller and brought it down the stairs and wanted me to put Joshua in it. The boys had a fun time strolling around the kitchen. Noah was "Daddy" and Josha was "Baby." I tell you, Joshua is the only thing in this universe that Noah loves unconditionally. It's funny, because he sure was not fond of him at first! Now they are best friends. At least that's what Noah tells me...Josh may have another tale to tell when he learns to talk!