Thanksgiving Weekend

 Jen played Monopoly with the boys. She quickly learned that the boys have their own rules for monopoly, which she tried to change, and then learned that the rules they have make the game shorter. I bet she wishes she had gone with their rules! :)

 Brian got the turkey ready while the boys watched and kept exclaiming "gross!".

 Jake made pilgrim and indian hats and placemats for all the kids that were coming. As you can see, Noah didn't want to wear his.

 Noah and his friend, Averie. They go to school together and are the best of buddies.

 Jake and Olivia passing the time after dinner

 We had two other families over for the day. One from our squadron and one from church. Everyone is watching football in the picture. We really had a great time!

 Instead of shopping on Black Friday, we went to the beach to fly kites. It was much less crowded!

 On saturday we stopped at the downtown park to let the kids play while Jen, Brian and I hung out on the swings watching the boats and trying to spot a dolphin or two (no such luck!).

 I know this jumps ahead of thanksgiving, but  we did get the tree set up and this is where Noah ate his breakfast this morning. :)

Out of order, but while we were at the beach we took advantage of Jen and had her take some family photos for our christmas card. We got some good ones, and this is not the one we picked! You'll have to wait until you get yours in the mail! It was funny, there were multiple families there doing the same thing!

I hope you all had a great thanksgiving too!

Somebody is getting big!

 Soccer is over and we can finally enjoy some lazy saturday mornings. Hooray!

These boys can't get enough of their new sister. Except when she cries - Jake calls it "annoying"!

That's an awfully big bed for such a little girl! She's four weeks old and already taking command of this house! :)

Veteran's Day

Jake and Daddy

One of my favorite pictures....

Emma Kate Blomquist

On October 14th we welcomed our new addition into our family. Emma Kate Blomquist was born at 7:18 am weighing in at 8lbs 7oz and 20" long. She is precious and we are head over heels for her. She never lacks attention thanks to her brothers who are always giving her hugs and kisses or putting her pacifier back in or coming up with new nicknames for her (grunter/spitter/pooper have all been mentioned!). She is going to be one protected/spoiled/loved little girl. I can hardly believe that I have a daughter! What a precious gift from the Lord!

Happy Birthday Noah!

I know, it's a crazy birthday week around here! I can't forget Noah's big day though. Yesterday (the 21st) he became a big 5 year old! He is quite excited about  this and told me that he's pretty sure he grew in the night before his birthday. Poor little guy has had strep throat all week - the worst I have ever seen it for him. He managed to rally a little bit on his big day - with the assistance of some Motrin. :) He was worried that his birthday might be canceled since he couldn't go to school with cupcakes like we had originally planned. We assured him that nothing could cancel his birthday and woke him up to doughnuts and a new buzz lightyear toy, which made his day. Good thing because I did not have the energy to celebrate all day long! Happy Birthday Noah. We love you!

Happy Birthday Jake!

Well, we have had alot going on here lately. There are many posts I could put up. Some I'll get around too, others I wont. But I didnt want to skip this one. Last friday was Jake's birthday - our big 7 year old! He has grown up so much and we are so proud of him - this was made so clear to me on his birthday. See, his big day got overshadowed a bit due to the arrival of his new lil sister the day before (post to come later). We were still in the hospital and couldnt celebrate with him like we wanted to, no favorite dinner, no cake, and a rushed trip to wal mart to get a present. Our good friend, Sarah, worked hard to make the most of it for him and she did a great job, but I still felt bad. But Jake never once complained - he was content with the way it went and it made me see a little side of maturity to him. His one request was that the baby not come on his day - so I guess he got what he wanted! Happy Birthday Jake - next year we will let your day be yours!

Jake's world cup

This is a recent project that Jake did at school. It says "when I'm a little older I plan to...". He drew a picture of the World Cup. That's him in the middle and all the other people are kids in his class (the player and cheerleaders anyways). Yep, he wants to go to the world cup someday. He hasn't talked about the World Cup since it ended early in the summer, but apparently it made an impression! I just thought it was super adorable and wanted to share. I love getting glimpses inside that brain of his!

Labor Day Weekend

We spent the first half of our labor day weekend at the beach and boating with friends. It was wonderful. We spent the second half recovering from the first half of the weekend. Now the backpacks are packed and the kids are heading to school again tomorrow. Although they've been in school for a couple of weeks now, I think I can say that summer is officially over. We ended it on a high note. Now, if only the weather would cooperate.....

The hawk whisperer

Noah has a new talent. He has informed me that he can speak "hawk". No, I don't mean Brian's squadron, I mean the actual birds. He's convinced that one day he was squawking at them and they answered him back! He's not quite sure what their conversation was about, but he's convinced. Much to my surprise, the other day he headed out to the back patio. He stood there, started squawking, came back in and said "hmm, no hawks out there today". It was definitely a moment where I suppressed my laughter. He'll figure out one day that he can't speak "hawk", but for now he's our little hawk whisperer. I love it!

1st day of school

Thursday was the first day of school for the boys. Jacob started 1st grade and Noah started preschool - his first day of school EVER.  I didn't realize how much we had been "building up" school for Noah until I got him there and settled at his desk. We were a little early and he looked around and said "when are we going to DO something?". Ha! That boy does not like to be idle! They both did so well - I only cried a little when I got to the car. :) When I told them that I had missed them at the end of the day Noah said "well, at least you still have Hansel (the dog)"! Yes, I still have the dog, but I missed my little boys that are growing up way to fast....

Another hot day in Beaufort

On a hot sunday afternoon in Beaufort we went looking for some entertainment. We saw fish, we saw birds, we saw........................................Daddy!

Hi Daddy!!!!

Cucumbers anyone?

Well, we know that we can grow cucumbers in our garden. Everything else that we have planted? Let's just focus on the cucumbers.....

On a side note - the wrist band Jake has on is from the pool. For the first time he was able to pass the swim test and is now free to swim in the deep end and go down the waterslide. He is SUPER proud - although I'm still nervous and watch him like a hawk! But he doesn't know that. ;)

Happy 4th of July

Hope you all enjoyed our country's Independence Day. We sure did!

Summer Vacation

We recently spent a week of vacation up in Minnesota on Spectacle Lake. It was such a great, relaxing vacation. It was really hard to pick just a few photos to share, but here are some tidbits. Maybe I'll get some more on here later - for now this is the best I could do!

All three of my "boys" went skiing!

Peter and Noah tubing

Lots of swimming out to the raft and plenty of fishingMost important was time spent with family. Love the picture of Brian and his brothers. Such goofballs. My family was there too, but I didn't seem to have my camera out when they were there. Hmm.

Oh, and Noah catching fish off the dock - for some reason this picture ended up down here and I've given up trying to move it!I'll do another post later - just too many good pics to share all at once!