Arya's pasta adventure

Arya loves to eat big people food. I could barely cut the angel hair pasta before her little grabby hands were reaching for it. She was covered head to toes and required a shower afterwards.

Bowling in the Buff

OK, this is probably one of the funniest things Vance has done. Zoie decided they should have a beach party in their room. They had the umbrellas open, a brown blanket for sand, she had on a dress cause her swimsuit was in the dryer, and Vance was naked. When the beach party idea fizzled for Vance, he took up bowling in the back hall -- in the nude. The lighting for the back door gave me a chance to photograph him without "seeing everything".

After each strike, he would carefully put the pins back up for another round.

Zoie and Vance are masters at the Ipod Touch.

The video game King. The massive headphones are so he is the only lucky one who can hear the video games while he is playing. He hears nothing else. No me, no kids, no nothing.

Poor sick Vance :(

Halloween 2009

The Wednesday before Halloween, the Youngren was has been plagued with illness. Zoie was sent home from school that Wednesday and told not to come the next day due to a high fever. She did not go back to school until a week later. Halloween night, Vance started running a high fever too. He was ill for the next 6 days and still has a cough. Now baby Arya has new teeth popping through in addition to feeling yucky. Ty has been also feeling down for several days. I, too, have a stuffy nose now. Ugh. No better feeling that being a mom and having 3 sick kids, each who wants you to hold them and lay with them.

Fairy Zoie . . despite the high fever. . she got on her costume with sweats and a coat and we went to 2 friends houses. Then back home for bed.

Halloween 2004

Since I did not have to work today, I took advantage of the time alone to start some holiday projects I have planned for each kid. In my search for photos, I came across these of Zoie. In October of 2004, I thought I could make Zoie a simple bumblebee halloween costume. Yeah right. It was cut crooked and it was so skinny to get her in. Now, I know that fleece does not stretch. I love the first picture . . .it is so "Yo Yo, What's up". Enjoy . . .

Vance's health

At some point in time, moms will have a 2, then a 3, year old boy. Now I hope others can learn from my parenting difficulties so you can avoid them.

#1 -- Choose a different battle than the one about your child not eating.
#2 -- Don't muddle in their pooping business.

Vance has not had a serious poop for more than 2 weeks. So I took him into the doctor after trying what I thought was everything. She just said more Miralax & mineral oil. She pushed on the boy's tummy and sure enough she could feel a clogged system. We will see how the next several days ago and if he is able to get cleaned out. She even spoke off a clinic in Seattle that specializes in kids pooping cause of the stress if causes families. (Oh I'll tell you about the stress if you need me to.)

Vance likes familiar places. We had visited the doctor's office about 6 weeks ago (he seriously bumped his fingers on the trampoline). Today, though, we patiencely waited 50 minutes before being called by the nurse. I was very irritated. Vance played, then we played fishing with a measuring tape in my purse, and found other things to pass the time. He was a difficult fish to catch. Then after 50 minutes, we waited longer in the room. We were in there for 2 hours!!! Thank goodness my mom was able to help me by taking Zoie to dance and taking Arya home otherwise I would have had to leave.

It was stressful. All in all, my stress did not get to Vance. He did such a wonderful job for a 3 year old who just desperately wants to get the poop out. Poor thing.

Skagit Valley Farm

Of course we live in the best farm land. . . here is proof. Check out these 2 HUGE carrots Ty brought home from work.

The carrot is nearly twice as big as a can of soup.

And bigger than Zoie's head!

(Check out Arya in the back reaching from something on the table.)

Star of the Week

Last week, Zoie was the "Star of the Week". She was the teacher helper, line leader and was able to bring a snack and a show-n-tell item (a stuffed dog named Penny & a stuffed cat). When I came to school to take a photo of her star of the week board, I surprised her in the cafeteria while she was eating breakfast with her "big kid" friend.

Lunchtime . . . so everyday when Zoie comes home from school, I check her lunch box to see what she eat in her lunch. Lately, she has been eating nothing. So as we confronted her daily, she finally admitted that all she does for the 20 minutes at lunch is TALK!

Support your local fire station

The first weekend of October is always the local fire stations "all you can eat" meals. Burlington, where I grew up, has a pancake feed from 6am to noon. Pancakes, ham, & drink. And our local fire station, McLean Road, has their annual spaghetti feed from noon to 8pm. So I took advantage of their cooking and attended both. It is fun to see community members supporting the fire stations and it is good food.

October Pictures

We have a plentiful squash and pumpkin crop this year in our garden. The kids loved collecting the squash & pumpkins and driving them to the front door in the "monster" truck.

Vance turns 3 ! ! !

Vance turned 3 on Thursday, October 1. I got him some new Cars crocs and gave them to him in the morning. After work & dance, I picked up the kids at my mom's and much to their surprise, Vance found a new Spiderman bike & Hotwheels race track in his room from Ty when we got home.

Vance was so happy. He grinned from ear to ear.

When you have a BIG house, your kids have enough space to ride their bikes from on end to the other without crashing into anything.

Pumpkin Festival

A local farmer, whose kids I grew up with, now holds a pumpkin pitching contest in the fall and boy do the pumpkin get tossed far! There were lots of free pumpkin activities, all free, for kids. It was a fun morning for the family.

Homemade fries.

From Vance's point of view.

From Vance's point of view.

Vance would not bowl, but look how into it he is. Zoie is bowling a pumpkin.

Arya

I love this shirt -- "Chillin with my Homies". Notice there are 3 snow people, one for each kiddo.

At 8 months, Arya can crawl quickly. Over the past 2 days, she has gotten very good at pulling herself up so she can stand on her feet and see oh so much more. Like Vance in the bathtub. She likes to try to reach his legs or toes. Or grab the trains on Vance's train table.