Wow!!

Well I guess the third time is a charm (or fourth, fifth, sixth...whatever I'm on now) at trying to keep a blog up to date. I don't know why I think I'll be able to do it this time, maybe it's because I feel like we're up to more now that seems worth sharing.

Check back soon for...

* homeschooling ideas (We're smack dab in the middle of Owen's homeschooling Kindergarten year and have had loads of fun with some neat activities)

* my attempt at DIY projects (In no way am I the most crafty person, but I like to try)

* yummy recipes! (Most of them aren't my original recipes but I love to share a winning recipe with my friends and family so I'll share the link I find them on along with our family review)

* and of course, our family updates for those of you who would like to know! (Aunt Libby!)

My goal is to post weekly at the end of the week as to what we've done in school/cooking/crafting. I hope you find some ideas to try out with your family!

Spring & Summer - Busy Day's Part 2

Ok, well it took a week but I'm back to finish my last blog about our upcoming Spring/Summer plans. But of course first I have to post an update on how our Neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt went. Despite the cooler weather and lack of sunshine we did have a few neighbors show up! We got the chance to meet two families on our block. One was a retired couple who have been on this stretch of Greenwood for the longest amount of time and the other family was a husband and wife with a set of older elementary-aged twins. It was great getting to know some faces on our block. In addition to our neighbors some friends of ours (Dan & Jenna) brought their little girls (Morgan & Haylie) to the hunt as well. The kids had a lot of fun running around the backyard finding the eggs. The best part of course was sitting on the back steps eating their loot.

Owen & Logan helped fill the first 50 eggs!

Logan was very serious about helping fill the eggs.

Owen, Logan & Morgan before the neighbors arrived.

Morgan, Owen, Amanda & Logan showing their loot!

Owen, Logan & Haylie eating their loot!

Now moving on to Summer...

In late July Curtis and I will be leaving for a Mission Trip to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. We will be shadowing some missionaries from our church that are stationed there full-time. We're getting really excited as our departure date comes closer and closer. The boys will be staying with my mom and sister for the first half of our trip at our house and staying with Curtis' parents during the second half of the trip over at their house. They are looking forward to lots of swimming and boating time already. I'm sure they'll be so busy with their Nanas, Aunt & Papa that they'll hardly notice we're gone for a while...I hope. I'll make sure to blog about our time in Rio when we get back.

I better go for now since naptime's end is looming in the near future but make sure to check back soon for a neat way to store all those ideas you find in your favorite magazines! Yes, I'm starting yet another project...don't we all have multiple projects going on at one time?

Spring & Summer - Busy Days!

Well Spring is officially here which means busy times in the Noteboom household. Between Curtis' traveling for work, teaching preschool to 4 kiddos, planning a neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt, fundraising for Ruth Harbor's Walk for Life, preparing for our mission trip to Brazil and anticipating the birth of our next nephew...this season will fly by!

For those of you at all curious about how our homeschooling for preschool is going you should know that it's going AMAZINGLY well. I co-teach with two of the most awesome women who happen to be close friends of mine. Our kiddos were all born around the same time and are really close to each other. As moms we experienced entering motherhood for the first time together, figuring out sleep habits of newborns together, shared the frustration of potty training woes and of taking little one's pipe away together...so why not enter the domain of homeschooling together as well? God has truly blessed me with two amazing friends to go through this new journey with.

We started last Fall and decided to go through the alphabet with the kids one letter at a time. With each letter we did letter recognition (upper/lowercase), letter sound and letter structure. It seems like it's taken a long time to get here but we finally finished the alphabet last week with the letter Z! Yay! When the 2nd semester started we decided we wanted to focus more on different skills so we added daily calendar time, patterns, number counting/recognition, learning stations & weekly thematic units. I think it's safe to say that everyone had a lot of fun during our first year of preschool! There is no greater joy than seeing your children learn new skills. Being able to remember where they came from and see where they are now and know you had a role in their education is such a blessing and encouragement!

I wish I did a better job of capturing our journey this past year with photos so you could see the fun things they've done. I do have some pictures of the kids having fun learning I'll post soon, along with a list of fun activities we've done over the past year to help teach & reinforce the alphabet!

Ok, onto another brand new thing for our family. This year our church decided not to throw the gigantic Easter Egg hunt with hopes that the families of the church would host their own neighborhood hunt to get to know their neighbors. Let me just say God is amazing at answering prayers! The week before this new plan for the egg hunt was released Curtis and I had met with our Small Group where we are currently reading and going through a 4 week study on witnessing to & discipling others. This particular week the author highlighted the importance of building relationships with your neighbors & showing them the love of Christ. Well, Curtis and I left thinking, "how in the world can we do that? how would people feel being invited over to a complete strangers house "just to get to know them?"" I prayed that God would give us some idea as to how to get the ball rolling with just meeting our neighbors, let alone inviting them over. God answered that prayer a week later when we found out that JEFC wasn't hosting one but instead donating plastic eggs to those who wanted to throw their own neighborhood hunt! Amazing timing Lord!

On Monday of this week the boys and I walked up and down our street handing out invitations to our neighbors. We plan on having a chocolate-filled egg hunt in our back yard this Saturday morning. The boys are really into it too. When choosing our candy at the store Owen insisted on telling anyone else within ear shot that "we invited our neighbors over for our very own Easter Egg hunt, even a firefighter is going to come!" So now we're just praying for a good turn out and dry/warmer weather!

There are other things I would like to post updates on but alas nap time is over and little boys are once again stirring. Hopefully I can get another post with those updates up soon. Bye!

Walk for Life 2011

Walk for Life 2011

It's Been Too Long!

Wow, to say "it's been too long" since my last blog update is an extreme understatement. Owen is now 4 1/2 and Logan is 2 1/2. Not that too many people follow this, but to those few I apologize and will try to get better. I'm hoping to use this blog to give family updates/pictures, humorous quotes only a mother of 2 young boys could share, yummy "family approved" recipes, and my attempts of DYI projects.

This first "come back" blog won't be long but I have to share a great little article I found in "Thriving Family" magazine. It made me laugh out loud each time I read it and made me realize that with 2 handsome young men I might just have to adopt this mind-set in the not-so-far future. Here it is:

"Seven Rules for Dating my Son" by Phil Callaway

"Have you noticed that girls are chasing boys now? Just the other day, one called looking for my son. I asked, "Is this Jill, Mary or Sarah? There are so many of you, I get you all mixed up." Believe me, this works Go ahead and try it.

Since my son is receiving calls from lovely girls who will make fine wives for someone in 20 or 30 years, I have decided to issue a short edict to help them out. Later today I will be posting it on the front door with an electric staple gun.

Rule 1: If you would like to talk with my son, please do so in the church foyer. Bring your Bible

Rule 2: If you call my house to talk with my son, your conversation may be monitored by a customer service representative. Rule 3: The following locations and activities are acceptable for your date:

Rule 4: My son cannot use my minivan to drive you to a mall. He has a bike. You can ride on the handle bars.

Rule 5: Please do not touch my son. Do not lean against him unless you are falling over and are in danger of plunging from a cliff. Do not even pick lint from his shirt. He can do this himself.

Rule 6: I am aware that is is considered fashionable for girls your age to wear Fergie-style "shirts" that do not reach their low-slung pants. We want to be fair and open-minded about this so you are free to show up in such attire. We will affix it properly to your body with a glue gun.

Rule 7: Above all else, remember that we've been praying for this boy since God gave him breath, and we will continue to. When he chooses a godly girl, we will be overwhelmed with joy. Until then, we'll pray that you'll chase Jesus first and watch everything else fall into place.

Wow! What a great reminder that as parents of young men we need to start praying for their future friends and wife now! Praying God will lead them to Himself at an early age!

Owen - Almost 3 years!

It has literally taken Curtis and I back just thinking about Owen turning 3 in a couple of months. We can't believe that the years have gone by so quickly. Everyone tells you they do, but you truly don't understand it until it's gone by.

You would have to meet Owen to truly understand his creativity and uniqueness (well, understand him as much as someone could understand a toddler). He has a large vocabulary and sense of humor. He makes Curtis and I laugh everyday with the things that he says.

He is a very busy little boy. Here are somethings that he enjoys doing as an almost 3 year old:

1. Sing songs - Jesus Loves Me, You are My Sunshine, Mary had a Little Lamb, Adolvice (from The Sound of Music), and the ABC's to name of few of his favorites.

2. Play outside in the backyard - He can his a ball being pitched to him, he doesn't like using the T anymore. He can really hit a hard one.

3. Playing at the Splash park and Papa & Nana's pool - he LOVES the water!

4. Riding his big boy bike - He learned how to ride it at a near by school parking lot. He loves wearing his bike helmet. For days we couldn't get him to take it off.

5. Listen to and tell made up stories - His stories usually start out "Once there was a little boy named daddy" and end in some activity that he likes to do. He loves hearing Curtis' elaborate stories about Thomas the Train, Daddy and Owen.

6. Playing magician - Making things "disappear" by throwing them across the room. It's hysterical. He loves seeing your reaction when you pretend to be surprised.

Most of all he loves his family. He loves playing with Logan and showing him how to use toys. He's very protective of him as well. He makes sure he doesn't get too close to the stairs, cords or anything too heavy. He also tells him to hold on tight to the shopping cart so he doesn't get hurt. He loves his baby brother. He likes to crawl into Logan's crib with him and sweet talk to him in the morning and after nap times.

Owen tells Curtis and I "You're the best mommy/daddy in my whole wide world." How can you not love such a loving little boy. He's growing up so fast, we pray God would continue to bless

him as he grows and that Owen would accept his 'Big Jesus' at an early age.

Logan - 8 1/2 months

Our little baby is growing up so fast and isn't 'little' anymore. We haven't measured or weighed him lately, but at 6 months he was 22 pounds. He's also already wearing 12-18 month clothing. He's following in his big brother's footsteps for sure.

In the last month he started sitting up from a laying position, pulling himself up to his knees to play with toys, army crawling, occasionally regular crawling, and a couple times he has managed to pull himself up to a standing position in his crib. He has been very busy! He hasn't slowed down since he started rolling over at 6 months. We have to watch him very closely because he likes to get himself stuck in tiny places and play with things he isn't supposed to. He's a very curious boy.

It seems as though Logan has been teething for months now, but is still only has 2 front teeth. His favorite thing to chew on is....well, everything. It's hard to put into words how happy Logan is. He is such a joyful baby boy. He loves his big brother, daddy and mommy so much. He smiles HUGE when any of us walk in the room. He enjoys talking with us and making us laugh. He's got his own little personality and humor already. We are truely blessed to have such wonderful sons and we look forward to seeing how God uses them in this world.