Testing...testing...

Is this thing on?

Yikes - it's been a long time. So what has happened since April? Well, about a billion things!!

Here's a summary: end of May - moved to Amber Park Apartments; mid-June - Nathan graduated from Western Oregon; some time during the summer - went backpacking twice with the Langfords, which was mostly awesome; beginning of August - bought a van; mid-September - drove to Idaho to see Mom and Dad's new house; end of September - Nathan started school at Oregon State to get his M.S. in Statistics; beginning of October - planned to move to Corvallis; end of October - reserved an apartment in Corvallis and will move there the beginning of December.

Well, that's all you needed to know, right? What's that you ask - the boys?? You want to know about THEM? Hmm...I suppose that makes sense!

Well, Henry has been taking his sweet little time every step of the way, and stubbornly waited until he was 18 months old to start walking, but he is loving it now - still hesitant and not walking very far - but he'll get there. He's also talking up a storm, which is so fun! Obviously there is more to update about...but that's a little teeny bit.

Joshua is busy being Joshua...he spends his days pretending - going through all his different personas - lately the most common are Mr. Chief, Mr. Fireman, The Cookie Man, Norman the Cowboy, and The Guy with the Screwdriver. He cracks me up. He's a very good sport with all the busy-ness since Nathan went back to school, though I know it's hard on him. He's not so sure about moving, but I think he'll like being in our new home where Mama won't have to WORK anymore...we are all excited about that. He's still stubbornly avoiding new foods, and starting to reject a lot of the usual foods he'd eat every day. And potty training is a battle...which is so frustrating. Once we move and I have more uninterrupted time during the day, it's going to be more drastic measure time. Just taking away the diapers except for nap time and bed time, and sitting on the toilet every half hour or so...and seeing what happens. I'm tired of changing his diapers, but he's perfectly happy with it. *sigh*

The playhouse has been put on hold since we moved here in May...so sad!! All I've done since we moved is cut out the patterns for some pears. That's IT!! My new goal is to have the playhouse completely done by their birthdays (March 30th/April 3rd). I think they will love it, and hopefully by then Henry won't want to rip the googly eyes off the little animals. But if he does, maybe I'll just change them to felt eyes.

One question for everyone - those name letters that I made...do you think anyone would be willing to pay for me to make them? Not necessarily you...but anyone? They really turned out great, and they were my first try. They're hand stitched - I still don't know how to use a sewing machine. They're about the size of the 9x12 sheets of felt that you can buy in a bunch of different colors, then stuffed, and with decorative ribbon loops for hanging. Joshy's are rainbow colors, while Henry's are light blue, purple, dark green, gray, and I think...a teal-ish color. The boys are sleeping and there's no way I'll go in their room to check on that!

Annnyway - life is busy and super stressful. When I'm "just" a stay-at-home mom (which I'm super excited about!!), I hope to post more pictures on facebook and my blog, to finish my playhouse, finish some scrapbooks (all I have right now is Joshua's first year), clean the apartment more than once every...hmm...maybe I shouldn't say, and learn to cook more creative things. Also, take the boys OUT places more - there are a ton of parks in Corvallis, and I'm sure there are other cool things to do, too!

Ok I really should go. The mess in our bedroom right now is quite terrible. I was trying to work on sorting out things to be packed/stored/tossed etc., so the boys were playing with whatever they could find, and Penelope's (for those of you who know Penelope, you'll understand why this is a big, though I promise not gruesome mess) tummy came apart completely...and everything inside came out. Wow, that sounds super gross. I promise it isn't.

I'm starving. Sorry no pictures or videos. Patience and they will come! Have a wonderful day and thanks for sticking with my blog even after all this time :c)