Thanksgiving

 We hosted Thanksgiving again this year, but this time we were able to have all of my family come down and stay with us. We were packed in, but we had a great time! I don't have alot of pictures since I was preoccupied in the kitchen (I now have a new appreciation for my mom and all the time she spends making meals for us when we visit), but we were able to snap a few.
  Thanksgiving day the weather was beautiful so we put the boys (plus Keilah, poor girl!), out on the deck to eat.

 These boy cousins sure do have fun together!

 Brian is pretty much a constant jungle gym!

 Emma shared a "moment" with her uncle Jared :)

 I just love Sophie's grin (and her cute turkey dress)

Maddie made this hat and scarf for Emma! Didn't she do a great job!

We are thankful this year for family and the shorter distance that they are from us!

Apple Orchard

Emma was a little unsure about the corn pool at first

 Yes, it has been awhile. Since my last post we have moved and the computer that i usually blog from is no longer working. I just figured out how to locate pictures on this computer, so hopefully these posts will be a little more routine. Yes, my 3 faithful followers should be excited :)

We are now living in Des Moines, Iowa! Iowa?! Yep, I never pictured myself here, but here we are! These pictures are from a day we spent at the apple orchard. May I say, Iowa knows how to do an apple orchard! We spent 5 1/2hrs there and never did anything twice. The kids loved it -and I think I loved it just as much as they did. Apple picking, pumpkin picking, tractor rides, corn pool, a corn maze scavenger hunt, a slide, a bouncing "pillow", animals, whimsical storybook sets (think Alice in Wonderland and the 3 little pigs), plus the crisp autumn weather that I have so missed over the years.

Noah making a "corn angel"

Everyone loved going down the slide on potato sacks

I think she tried to take a bit out of every apple that she got her hands on

Jacob relaxing on the tractor

The perfect pumpkins :)

Vacation

Last week we took an impromptu vacation to the Blue Ridge Mountains in  Asheville TN. It was wonderful to get away and enjoy some rest and relaxation for awhile. We had a busy July and August is looking even busier. Lots of changes and decisions to be made. So, for one week, it was great to only think about which fun activity we should do for the day. I have more pictures to share, but I can't find them on the computer :( So, here's what I could. Enjoy!

Methods of torture

Jacob and noah's top two ways to torture an intruder (overheard while driving in the car)

Jacob: make the intruder watch a girl movie!

Noah: take the intruder to school!

Hahaha! Oh how I love these two!

Yep, they're always listening...

I'm not trying to be political with this post, nor am I looking for a political debate. I just found this conversation to be very funny and it reminded me how much my children pay attention to what's being said around them. Yikes!
So, we were driving in the car on the way to school today and this is how the conversation went:
Jacob: "Mom, George Washington is my favorite president"
Noah: "But Jacob, I thought Barack Obama was your favorite president?"
Jacob: "No. Barack Obama is NOT my favorite president. Daddy said that Barack Obama does not know his right from his left or his up from his down!".
Noah: "Really?!"
Hahahahaha! Daddy got a good laugh out of that one when I told him the influence he has had! Now what else have they overheard?! :)

Work in Progress

Yes, I know that those people on the top of my blog are not us! I'm trying to figure this thing out so, enjoy their good looks while I work on getting our mugs up there!

Does anybody know how I could change those pictures on top? Apparently I'm not "template" savvy.

It's been awhile

 Yes, it's been awhile since I last put a post on here. Sorry about that! I've been trying to be faithful about sending pics of the kiddos to their daddy and that is about all the picture uploading I can find time for!

 We went to the zoo in Columbia a few weeks ago, which is where these pictures were taken. Jacobs grin makes me laugh in this picture. He did not enjoy having that Lorikeet on his arm, but he plastered this grin on and kept asking when the bird would be done eating. Such composure!

 I told Noah we could NOT buy the $200 stuffed Giraffe, so he settled for a picture with it instead. This was after he got to feed the real Giraffes that day. A pretty impressive thing, considering his big brother wouldn't even do it!

And this little girl is getting quite big! She is accomplishing all sorts of new things these days. I'm always amazed how fast they grow and change the first year. She is such a good baby - God is good!!

As a side note, thanks for all your prayers for Brian. He is safe and nowhere near radiation, earthquakes or tsunamis at this point. But don't stop praying for him!
And now you are up to date. Hopefully it won't take me so long to post next time!

A whole heart

 I'm thankful to the Lord today for my sweet Emma. Not many of you know, but when she was born the doctors detected a heart murmur. After a trip to the cardiologist and an echocardiogram they told us that she had a small hole in her heart. It was too small for surgery and would most likely close up on it's own, but she would live a healthy, normal life even if it never closed. I was, of course, troubled by this news. Even if a person can live with a hole in their heart, I didn't want my baby girl to have one! However, I kept reminding myself of the words in Psalms "you knit me together in my mothers womb" and I was comforted knowing that God made her heart that way and that He is in control of her life. So, we trust in Him. Yesterday Emma had her follow-up appointed. I wasn't too concerned about things, but the doctor listened and listened and listened to her heart and from every single angle. I started to worry and thought "uh-oh, this is bad ". He finally sat up, looked at me and said "well this is good. The murmur is gone, the hole has closed up and her heart is completely normal."! I almost hugged him! And today I am reflecting on how thankful I am to the Lord for knitting her heart together - even outside the womb. She is a precious bundle of joy, and I can't imagine our lives without her.

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.....