Kiddos

We all know THAT charming smile! AND a cute smile even with crazy hair!

This is our favorite pasttime these days...biking! Caedmon is quite a biker, he has gone 3.5 miles with us! I wonder if we'll be able to keep track of him once he learns to ride without trainers!

Jonas has recently gotten really muscular legs. He loves to ride his train everywhere and can almost keep up with Caed on the bike!

And introducing the precious newest member of the Samuelson clan, my nephew MICHAEL SETO NOREN! He was born July 2nd, our anniversary, because I'm his favorite aunt. I love this little man!

Projects

One day we decided to spray-paint the hardware in our kitchen. This is the before picture of the kitchen, with the cabinet doors already off. The handles, etc. used to be a strange blue and the cabinets were a dirty cream color.

Practical Jason said, well, while the doors are all off anyway we should decide if we want to paint! So we painted them white.

After remounting our black handles on white doors, I impulsively decided to paint the background from the sickly green to yellow. Yeah, it turned out REALLY yellow!

I like it! It is definitely not what I pictured, but I don't dislike it enough to repaint it. So our kitchen has become much brighter in color, and, I think, cheerful! None of those subdued earthtones for us! :-)

My wonderful husband repaired the worst part of our roof to try to buy us a couple years. When we do replace the roofing, we hope to replace siding, windows, and add insulation as well. So we are hoping to put off paying for all that!

This is the dead tree that had been leaning on another tree for a few days. Jason was contemplating what to do with it, when one day I watched it fall before my eyes. It was during naptime, and watching the strength and power of a falling tree made me drop to my knees thanking God that my children weren't outside playing in that very spot, where they constantly play. So this is a project in progress, Jason plans to borrow his dad's chainsaw and get us some free firewood!

We are enjoying all the work that goes into keeping this place running!

Progress

Yes this is a picture of pictures. But it is new to our house and it is fun to see each new thing we add! These first two are in our "formal dining room" aka music room. Jason is very proud and happy to have his other babies mounted to drool over and have more accessible. It is nice to not have the cases strewn all over, but we need a solution for the big amp! If I were crafty like my sisters I would sew some cutesy (and very manly!) cover for them.

Finally, my favorite artwork! A great way to display the kids' work and be able to change them out periodically! My good friend Shannon got me this creative idea along with supplies, and my boys of course provided the featured pieces. I have stuff to make another larger hanging like this for another wall, but, one thing at a time!

Bible stories

Before bed each night we have gotten into the habit of telling the boys Bible stories (when we have the energy!) I am the narrator, Jason is the marinette, and all the stuffed animals are the characters.

This has led to some hilarious story-telling and acting. My personal favorite was one night when we did Noah. Thanks to Jason, there was a lot of noisy lumberjacking, banging with the hammers, and loud, explosive thunder as it started to rain. I said after they had gotten out of the ark, Noah and his family said, "Thank you, God!" for keeping them safe. Jason proceeded to slaughter the piggy bank. As funny as it was I looked at Jason with a disapproving look, wondering if the beheading was necessary.

I encourage this tradition. It amazes me what the boys retain, including minor characters (Sham, Ham, and Japith-the sons of Noah) and I often hear them retell the stories with their little people during the day.

Last night was Lazarus. This was a very hard concept for the boys to grasp! We kept getting interrupted by the boys as they wanted to embelish the story. Finally, when we were done and "Wazarus" was raised from the dead, Caedmon told his version. "One day Lazarus got really really sick. So Mary called an ambience to take him to the hospital. Wee-oooo, wee-oooo. So they took Lazarus to the hospital and went and parked the ambience."

feel the love

There sure is a lot of love going around in this family! It is very sweet.

Jonas loves to put his face up to yours and scrunch up his nose and say quietly, "I wuv you!"

When I asked Caedmon what he was going to do today, he said, "I think I'm going to hang out with my daddy." He always does that, talks about "his daddy" instead of just "dad." In the store once he was really excited to tell Jonas, "Jonas, tomorrow we're going to play with our daddy!" Like we're separated or something.

Yesterday I saw Jonas wandering back and forth as if lost. He was saying, "Where IS my Caedmon? Where is my brother? Where is my special brother Caedmon? CAEDMON!"

As I write this Jason took the boys on a home-remodeling shopping trip. I love them all but it's nice to be home alone!!! So what do I do with my free time? Blog about them. :-)

His Favorite Part

Jonas sure gives me a lot to blog about regarding eating! When we had Caedmon we thought we were perfect parents, at least in teaching our kids not to be picky eaters. Even to this day, Caedmon prefers salads and vegetables to sweets. He often doesn't finish a dessert, and a special treat to him is fresh vegetables cut up, particularly raw tomatoes.

Jonas, on the other hand, loves anything with white flour, sugar, and fat in it. He will literally fast for days if all he is offered is meat and vegetables. Only recently have we seen him accidentally eat some greens and meat. For awhile we tried to force him to eat at least a bite of everything, until he developed the capability of gagging until he puked it up. That battle is no longer worth it!

A rule we have in our house is the kids have to ask before they're excused, carry their dishes into the kitchen, then hug and thank the person who made the food. I started making them tell the cook what their favorite part was, so they were at least thinking about what they were thanking the person for, and not focusing on the part of the meal they DIDN'T especially appreciate.

Jonas is hilarious at this. Often he just mimics Caedmon and says his favorite part was the same thing Caedmon says. Other times he just says the first food that he remembers from dinner. When he says, "Thank you, Mom, my favorite part was the salad...the rice...the beans..." I just want to say, "LIAR! Maybe you'd have a favorite part if you had actually eaten a bean!"

My favorites though are when he is honest. "Thank you, Mom, my favorite part was the chocolate milk. My favorite part was the dip-dip. My favorite part was the cookie. My favorite part was the sugar on top. My favorite part was please be excused." Fair enough.

Jonas dreams of a day when he gets pancakes, sweet rolls, and juice for breakfast, PB&J without the bread and peanut butter for lunch, maybe a cookie, graham crackers and a smoothie, and ice cream, pudding, and chocolate dipped bananas for dinner. Those would be his favorite parts!

Kids

Some of my favorite recent words from Caedmon are "egg-zylophone" for xylophone, "inshtruments" for instruments, "geetar" for guitar, and "pofe office" for post office. Jonas can't say his "R's" properly, and I'm sorry to say we make fun of him to hear him keep repeating things. It is so cute!

The other day I heard Jonas lament, "Mom! I have to go potty AGAIN!" Such an inconvenience when one wants to play! Welcome to my world, Jonas!

Caedmon has developed the habit of constantly reminding me what I said. He will tell me where I was when I promised him something, what I was doing, and repeat my exact words. Needless to say I don't make vague promises anymore hoping he'll forget!

He is still the boss of CaedmonandJonas. The other day Jason said, if you hear your first name, don't spank Caedmon. He's talking about racecars. So, since Caedmon isn't allowed to call us by name, he decided to name two racecars "Beth" and "Jason." It is hilarious. Beth and Jason converse and fight and race and do everything together. Jonas gets to play with Beth and Caedmon gets Jason. And they get to say "Beth" and "Jason" as loud as they want! The latest thing he has tried is to pick favorite parents. i.e."Jonas, you like Mom and I like Daddy." Jonas will consent, "I like Mom and you like Dad." I have even heard him say, "Jonas, Mom likes you and Dad likes me." Ummm, well it's true. But we have not picked favorites like Isaac and Rebekah.

I love my job! Never a dull minute.