Princess Missile

So Ana is definitely a girly-girl. She loves to do girly things. But she has an older brother, which affects how she plays girly-style. Like she likes to dress up as a pirate, she loves to say she's a bad guy, all while holding her dolly.
The other day I caught her coloring on our walls. I went to investigate the damage and realized she wasn't really coloring. She was pretending to color...with a rocket. I guess it's good that she won't end up ultra-girly, but it's kind of funny at this point.

You're Not My Mom

Ana really likes to act like the mommy. Yesterday she kept wanting to hold Brooklyn, give her a bottle, and feed her M&M's. JM

Technology

My kids love portable LCD screens. Noah likes to watch videos on youtube and Ana likes to watch Shrek. This is pretty much how every night goes down. JM

Snow Day

Noah and Ana played in the snow for the first time together the day after we got here. Ana liked to stand on the driveway and walk up to the snow, but hated being in the snow. After I had placed her in the snow, she kept falling down. After falling down for the fourth time, I helped her up and she yelled "I want bye-bye" in a panic-stricken voice. It was really cute. Notice Noah's fountains of snot running down his nose. He liked making snowballs and throwing them at bad guys. JM

Not Brooklyn

I've called Brooklyn "Ana" at least 20 times today. Here's Ana. She's a lot bigger. And a lot sassier. JM

NYWC - Seminar #1

I went to the "dark side of teenage girl world" seminar by Ginny Olson. Great information. Basically it dealt with sexual promiscuity, sexual identity, self-mutilation, and relationship aggression. Ginny did a great job of balancing information to create awareness with strategies for empowering healing. I have her book, but I haven't read it yet. After this seminare, I'll probably make it the next book I read.
It made me sad to think that Ana is going to grow up in this girl culture. I hope she's able to see herself as a beautiful, confident, unique girl of God and that Eryn and I will be able to help her develop into the woman that God wants her to be. JM

Trick Or Treat

Below are some pictures of Noah and Ana in their costumes and trick-or-treating. The Darth Vader mask isn't really part of her costume, but we couldn't keep it off of her. She kept grabbing for it and putting it on. Here's more. JM

Halloween

Tonight was Halloween. Noah and Ana were so cute. I'll post pictures and video soon. JM

Pumpkin Patch

The pumpkin patch video has finally been edited and uploaded to youtube. Enjoy. JM

Pretty

My daughter ate pasta tonight. She refuses to be fed, but has to do it herself. She's only 19 months old. All of these preconditions equal one messy girl. (You can see the image giant-sized by clicking on it.) JM

Pumpkin Patch

If you want to see more photos of the pumpkin patch, then go here. Video will be uploaded soon, but don't hold your breath. It takes a while. JM

Pumpkin Patch

More pictures from the pumpkin patch. More petting zoo and making bracelets. The boy you don't know again is Landon and the girl you don't know is Makaylee. JM

Pumpkin Patch - Petting Zoo

So here are some pictures from the pumpkin patch petting zoo. The kid you don't know is our neighbor Landon. JM

Bedtime

My kids are bad about bedtime. Well, really just my daughter. Noah's not so bad. I'll ask my daughter if she's ready to go to bed and she'll say "No!" and then run to her mommy. Tonight Noah and Ana fell asleep in our bed. Noah fell asleep about 20 seconds after he finished his sippy cup and Ana fell asleep laying across my wife's leg. Just before she fell asleep she was trying to do "cheers" with Noah and then she was out. They're fun. JM

Clothespile

We get lots of clothes for the kids given to us. Mainly because people know we're poor and most of the people around us have money, so we get the clothes. It comes in pretty handy. We've let it stack up for like a year in our laundry room. Until today when we finally went through it. A lot of we kept. Some of it will go back to the people who gave it to us (not being rude, they wanted it back if we couldn't use it). And then some of it went to Goodwill.
One of the things we found was a Minnie Mouse outfit. Ana wore it proudly during lunch and then promptly fell asleep in her high chair. Here's a picture of her sleeping and then a picture of my wife going through a portion of the clothes.
Right after I took this she said "I'm not in it, right?" Of course she was, so I edited her out of it. I think she always looks beautiful, but you know how girls are. JM

Powdered Donuts

Ana loves powdered donuts. We gave her like 3 for lunch today (how bad are we at parenting) and she devoured them. Powder went all over her. Notice in the second picture it's all over her left eye. We're just trying to fatten her up for winter. JM

Typical Behavior

Here's some pictures of the kids we took the other day. This is pretty typical for how they play. Noah loves his guitar and running around, Ana loves her cat and sitting down, and the last picture is the kids trying to pick out a movie to watch. They're so much fun. JM

Ana Growling

So my daughter can sound like she is possessed by a demon. That's good, right? JM

High School Musical 2

HSM2 is a pretty big deal around my house. Noah and Ana both like to sing and dance to it. Tonight when it came on Noah dragged his couch over and he and Ana sat on it for a little while. You may also notice the playing cards scattered around the floor. That's thanks to Ana. She grabs the box out of the end table drawer and pulls them all out one by one. It's really kind of cute. JM

Kids Dancing

Here's the kids dancing to Interpol. JM