Mini-Me Project

Peter and I worked on his mini-me project for preschool together. The project is suppose to reflect the child's likes and interests. We were talking about this project the other day and I threw out some good ideas....baseball player, football player, construction guy, etc. But, my attempts were futile. He was set on making his a Jedi...no surprise.

I had my reservations...just seems like the 3 yr old's project should be free of weapons.... especially at the Christian preschool...at our church...where Aaron is a pastor. You see my point. BUT, then my cousin sent me this link to a blog where the mom made light sabers out of balloons. Balloons are pretty harmless, right???

So, here's the final project. Peter loves it and can't wait to take it to school tomorrow to hang up.

I wanted to add a warning label that says, "Warning, this child is obsessed with Star Wars. No, he's NEVER seen any of the movies, but has an extensive knowledge of ALL characters, planets, etc due to the absurd amount of books at our library, toys and his equally obsessed older brother. My apologies to the parents of the child who's mini-me project is the very lovable, non-violent Elmo." Aaron thinks this overboard and forbid me to do it. Fine. I actually think project is quite adorable.

3 letter words...

Three letter words better watch out for the amazing READING powers of our 5 1/2 year old! After hearing that his cousin was starting to read, Luke decided to put a little more effort into his reading. (Can you say competitive??? We have no idea where he gets that from.) Sure enough, he can do it, he can READ, and he's great at it. It finally clicked and he read 3 books to us tonight. There I was, beaming with pride as Luke read the entire 12 pages of "The Sad Cat." He's so proud of himself, too.

This is the beginning of a lot of fun for him. Unfortunately, it's also the end of Aaron and I spelling things back and forth to each other that we don't want the kids to know. There you have it...the gap between Luke's intelligence and our's is closing fast. Pretty soon he'll be doing fractions and he'll leave us in the dust! Way to go, buddy!

Personality +

Natalie is now 19 months old. She is FULL of personality! She has so many expressions and opinions. She desperately tries to keep up with her brothers, and she's tough because of it. She has recently discovered sunglasses and as you'll see below she wears them all of the time. So, here's quite a few pictures of Little Miss Natty Pants....

If you live at our house, you better know how to wear a cape and handle a light saber.

What do you mean my hair isn't perfect???

And everyday we fall more and more in love with this little girl!

Long overdue ear update...

By now, pretty much everyone knows....it was a popcorn kernel. Yep, Peter stuck a popcorn kernel in his ear and then forgot it was in there. How does that happen???? Had I known it was a piece of popcorn, I would have gotten the hairdryer out and popped that popcorn right out of his ear...ouch!

And so, we add this to the list of funny stories that we will torture our children with when they are older. Peter can hear again...now if we can just convince him to listen!

We survived...

Aaron had another 2 week trip to Iowa for school at the beginning of January. The kids missed him like crazy, and so did I! We're so glad to have him back. It's never easy to have him away, but this time was much easier than the last. Thanks to all of the family and friends that helped out, invited us to dinner, and made the two weeks fun. This is a picture from one of the nights that we snuggled up in bed and watched a movie.

Must be in the genes...

When Luke was little he loved to throw a blanket over his head and run full speed ahead. It was hilarious, terrifying and and a picture of things to come. Luke has been crazy from the beginning.

Well, it appears to be some sort of genetic condition, because Natalie thinks this is pretty fun too. Crazy kids!

The first piggies...

If Natalie had been our first child, I'm not sure if her first pig-tails would have been deemed "blog worthy." But, after two little boys with buzz cuts, a little bit of cute curly hair practically brings a tear to my eye. So, here is a picture of Natalie's first pig-tails...adorable!

PS...this post reminded me of this POST where I was equally as excited about putting a bow in Natalie's hair for the first time. That was just over a year ago.