Sarah's "Spanish" Numbers

At preschool Sarah and Joseph are practicing writing letters and numbers. Joseph adores writing, but for Sarah it's more of a chore that she has to get through before she can go paint. Today she showed me a sheet with lots of spaces for writing numbers. She had written only a few, then scribbled in the rest of the squares so she could be "finished" and told her teacher that she had written her numbers in Spanish. She must have thought her teacher wouldn't know "Spanish numbers", and therefore let it slide.

It looks more like Arabic to me. Creative little gal.

3span01?


Here's Joseph's letters. He's working hard on them so he can earn a special writing workbook that some of the older kids use.

Birthdays and Moving

It's been a busy month. After returning from our trip to California we had just over a week to find a new place, pack and move out. We've been in this short term rental for a couple of weeks now and things are settling down. I'm still behind on the laundry - but what's new? I swear, I was just starting to get that all under control and had everything so well organized and then we had to move again. We're only here in this new place until mid-October at the latest because this house is being sold at public auction.

We found a house in our price range with 4 bedrooms all on one level and made an offer on it. After much price haggling, we've finally got a purchase agreement and we're hoping to close on the house by October 1st. Then, the first order of business is to paint and install new carpet. After that we'll move in.

Now, back to Joseph's birthday... let's start at the beginning.

August 8, 2006 - This little stinker took 4 hours to push out. =( He was 7lbs 12 oz and 20 inches long and had great lungs.

He also was rather jaundiced. Here he is getting a little natural sunlight (just for a few minutes) when he was a couple days old.

This is one of the best pictures we have of him between the ages of birth to about 4 months. Let 's just say that he didn't photograph well during those months for some reason...maybe because he was so colicky that if he wasn't crying when you took the picture he looked as though he would start crying at any moment. Poor kid. (Poor me, actually...I don't think I slept more than 3 hours at a time for a full 4 months).

By Christmas (4-5months), he was sleeping more, I was sleeping more, and he was getting a lot cuter too. =) I decided that maybe we would keep him after all.

6 months old -- look at those chubby cheeks and compare him to David -

Definitely brothers. (That's little David at 5 months)

Easter 2007 - 9 months old. Sarah is 13 months here.

November 2007 (I can't seem to find the files of pictures from his 1st birthday...I'll add those later if they show up).

January 2008

March 2008 (Easter)

June 2008. He got the smalled little scratch on his nose in June that year and picked at it every night while he was falling asleep. It would scab over, then he'd pick it off until the wound covered his whole nose. Bandages on his nose never lasted more than a minute, so we resorted to socks on his hands, with tape around his wrists to keep the socks on. It took a week with the socks to get the scab all healed - all in all, I think he had that wound for 2 full months. He still has a little scar there.

July 2008 - This is when Grandpa came to visit after Kathryn was born. I think it was the first time they ate spaghetti and it was so cute to see them eat it and try to say it.

September 2008

Christmas 2008

February 2009 (Don't ask me what Sarah is doing with that towel).

July 2009 - they discovered the chocolate syrup in Grandpa's fridge and he made that perfect little mustache all by himself while he tried to make chocolate milk and drink it.

August 2009 - 3rd birthday. This is a train cake...kinda hard to see in the picture, but my first attempt at a creative cake.

December 2009

May 2010 - that's his remote controlled car and a new shirt from Grandpa. I love how blue his eyes are -- too bad the picture quality is so poor.

Now, August 2010 - I can't believe he's four. Here's the whole story of his big day (we celebrated a day early, so we could celebrate Krista's birthday on the 8th. They share a b-day but both needed their own day).

Here's the birthday cake I made. Not your typical, fancy blogger fondant cake - but he liked it. That's regular, ol' made-from-scratch powdered sugar & cream cheese frosting.

Here's the poster that David drew using markers. It's a Wiseman family tradition to make a big poster for birthdays. As you can see, this year's theme was Thomas the Train.

On Joseph's big day we went to a huge "castle" park (the kind with wooden towers and bridges, etc.) Aunt Krista came too. Little David was glad to get some attention.

Joseph thought this park was awesome. There were so many new things to see and do. Next we went to feed the ducks and geese, then he got to open his presents. He got soooo many presents because we were at Grandma's house.

The other kids got something too, and that helped them to not be so jealous.

The doll in the lower corner is not one of Joseph's gifts...just thought I should clarify that. =) He got Lincoln Logs, Cars, new Buzz Lightyear shoes and........ (drum roll please)......

A train track set complete with a Thomas engine, of course. =) Grandma and Grandpa had it all set up and did a fun reveal at the end of all the other gifts. Naturally, it was the favorite gift and he quickly forgot about everything else.

In the afternoon everyone went to see Toy Story 3 (except for me and the napping babies). Then he had his birthday day dinner and got stage fright when it was time to blow out the candles. He did NOT like having everyone sing to him while he sat there as the center of attention. He literally crawled under the table in the middle of the Happy Birthday song and refused to blow out the candles until Sarah and Daddy did it with him.

Since I'm posting this on September 8th, (maybe) I have to throw in a picture of little David, because he is 6 months old today!

Over the River and Through the Woods...to Grandmother's House We Go!

We left on August 3rd for the long drive down to Redding, CA to visit David's parents and grandparents. Actually, it's only 700 miles, which is less than half the distance from Nashville to New Mexico, so I'm not complaining. We split the distance in half and spent the first night just south of Portland, OR. This was the first time that I had traveled through Oregon. It's a lovely state with wide rivers and densely wooded mountains on western side (we won't mention the eastern side, it wasn't quite so awe inspiring). What's with the gas station attendants who pump your gas?! The first time, it was charming, but after that, it was a bother to wait around for them.
For this trip, we changed up the seating arrangement in the van a bit. Sarah moved up to Kathryn's place, and Joseph moved over to Sarah's old corner. Kathryn occupies Joseph's former space. Sarah kept little David entertained the whole trip -- she enjoys making silly faces at him and talking to him non-stop. For the most part, David appreciates the entertainment. Joseph and Kathryn got along quite nicely in the backseat - they kept mostly to themselves and were relatively quiet.

Mt Hood River, along I-84 through Oregon

Before passing this dam, I thought the massive river was a lake - it was so wide and still.

It was easy to tell when we were getting close to Portland -- suddenly there were trees everywhere... 

and they kept getting thicker and taller.

And Sarah got sillier...

Day 2, new coloring books keep them entertained for varying amounts of time.

Sarah: 10 minutes, Kathryn: 20 minutes, Joseph: 2 hours

One more improvement to the seating arrangement: 

Move Sarah's chair toward the door. 

Now she can still entertain the baby, but can't poke him in the eye or pull his arm.

See Joseph and Kathryn hiding under their blankets?

Little David chewing on Sarah's stuffed dragon's tail - she learned very quickly not to hand him anything unless she wanted him to put it directly into his mouth. Mom and Dad learned to not give Sarah anything that shouldn't be in David's mouth.

Road trip sing-a-long, anyone? We sang a few rousing choruses of "Old MacDonald" and other 2 and 3-year-old favorites along the way. 

Getting close to Medford. Less trees and more brown.

Can anyone name that mountain in the southern skyline?

Still smiling after two days on the road??

We stopped to visit David's grandparents in Medford. Grandpa Asay is around 92 years old and still walking around on his own. He loved holding the baby.

(I caught him blinking - sorry Grandpa!)

Sarah is chatting away with a second cousin who called while we were visiting.

Eating lunch with Grandma Asay. She is 89 and she seemed to really enjoy chatting with David.

The last 2 hours driving down to Redding were the worst. I was sandwiched in the back between two car seats and a very cranky Kathryn. So, we took lots of pictures with the camera on my phone.

It's such a small space that I couldn't sit all the way back.

Story time with Grandpa Kent. I love all the kids' facial expressions, especially Kathryn's.

Check back soon for Part 2: Joseph's Birthday and the trek home