Last night we went for walk on one of the walking trails by our home. We were hoping that we could see a train to make Noah’s day…and boy did we ever!!! There was a path right off the trail that went straight up to the train track!!! Noah got to touch the train track and throw some rocks on the track while we waited for another train to come past. After about 15 minutes, we seen the train coming!!! Rick grabbed the video camera and I grabbed Noah (Faith was in the stroller) and there we stood, only about a few yards away from the track and watched the train go past!!! Noah was doing the “choo choo” sound and the arm action and the train honked back!!!

Below is a video that Rick but together of two of the trains that we seen on our walk last night. I think we’ve had to watch this video at least a dozen times already today!

We’ve been trying to get down to our neighborhood pool as much as we can before it closes for the season. I attempt to bring both kids to the pool by myself once in a while. For the first little while, Faith stays in the stroller while Noah and I swim, but it’s been so hot that I think Faith gets hot in the stroller and she starts to get restless, so I take her in the pool. But Noah still thinks he wants to jump in off the side and it’s a little harder to catch him while I’m holding Faith. So it is nice when Rick can come down with us!!! He gets one kid and I get the other!!

Faith seems to like the water, so that’s good. Noah LOVES going to the pool. He even gets all our swim suits and brings them downstairs when he wants to go. He must think it will hurry us up a bit! To avoid a breakdown when we are trying to leave the pool, we tell him that we get to go home and have a popsicle! Works like a charm…usually!!!

We had chocolate malts the other night and Noah seemed to like his. The bubbles made it even better!! This is a video and you might need to click on the image to watch it. Enjoy!!

Poor Faith was vandalized during her morning nap. She was just sleeping away and Noah was…yes, you guessed it…playing with his trains. I went upstairs to try to get the ink out of the load of clothes from yesterday (I’ll tell you more about that in a bit) and when I came back down, I looked around the corner and seen something on Faith’s head. As I got closer, I seen a sticker on her finger and there were a couple on her shorts too. I guess Noah wasn’t playing with his trains the whole time, he did manage to vandalize his sister too!!!

I told Rick to come and look and Noah came over too…we asked him what he did and he just said “Faith stickers” and then proceeded to pull them back off of her, and she slept right through it!!! Guess she must be used to being picked on by Noah!!!

Now, about the laundry…first of all, this is all Rick’s fault!!! I did a load of laundry yesterday morning and when it was done, I went to go put everything away. I pulled out the first shirt and there were spots all over it, so I hesitantly pulled out the next shirt only to see the same thing. I put my head in the dryer and started yelling at Rick right away. He had left a pen in his shorts pocket and it decided to explode all over. Now I ask, why does he not clean out his pockets before throwing it into the hamper? Second, how did the pen manage to stay in the pocket during the wash cycle (at least I’m assuming it did, otherwise one would think it would have been at the bottom of the washer or at least fell out when I transferred the clothes to the dryer. Third, why couldn’t I have at least kept the shorts out to air dry!! Luckily, it was a dark load of laundry, so you can’t tell if there are ink stains on some of our black shorts or black tshirts and there was also some towels that were in there that I happen to let air dry, so those were saved!! The other clothes have not manage to fair so well. I’ve tried hairspray, nail polish remover, rubbing alcohol, and we even bought some Goo Gone stuff and nothing has worked!!! Faith has lost a cute outfit that she only wore once, Noah lost a pair of shorts, Rick lost a good pair of shorts and some shirts, and I lost some shirts. Some shirts where not hit as hard and we could still wear them for everyday and there were also a couple bibs that only had a few spots on them, so we can keep those too. The dryer looks like…a pen exploded in it!! We did get most of it off the stainless steel drum, but the back of the dryer looks like a mess, but I’m sure it’s just burnt into it. Way to go Rick!!!

Yesterday was Noah’s 2nd birthday! He actually slept in until about 8 o’clock and then proceeded to play his drums. Glad Faith was awake already!!! Then he came downstairs and we gave him some pancakes with two candles in them. He got all excited and started saying “Happy Cake”. Then we sang happy birthday to him – which he didn’t like…is our singing really that bad??

After breakfast we got the kids ready and headed to Little Monkey Bizness. Noah had a blast!!! He loved the bouncy slide thingy. I’d have to lift him to the top of the slide because the steps were a little too far apart for him to climb. He’d get to the top and yell, “Dada” to make sure Daddy knew that he was coming down. I think he was definitely the sweatiest kid there! His hair looked like he just got out of the shower!

After Little Monkey Bizness, we went to Fritz’s Railroad Restaurant. He loves to watch the trains go around delivering everyones meal.

We got home and he took a short nap and then of course, played trains and cars when he woke up. Every time we said happy birthday or I read him an email I got wishing him a happy birthday, he would respond with “Happy Cake”. We told him that we would have cake when the neighbors came over that night. So when there was a knock at our door last night, he ran to the door yelling “Happy Cake, Happy Cake”! I guess he was excited for cake!!

He did pick off all the M&M’s first and then want more “nummies”, but he did eat the cake…and ice cream too!

Noah is such a big helper lately!! The other day, I got Faith’s bottle ready and had it sitting on the chair while I was putting away dishes. In the meantime, she started fussing and Noah stopped playing, ran to get the bottle and then started feeding Faith. He was doing pretty good, until a little dripped out of the bottle, onto the exasaucer. He pulled the bottle out of her mouth and went to get a towel. This did not make Faith happy because she could see the bottle, but she couldn’t eat it! So I picked her up and started feeding her and Noah came over and had to hold the bottle – this actually lasted a few minutes. He kept checking to see if I was holding the bottle and if he seen I was, then he would push my hand away and say “Noey feed”. (He calls himself Noey all the time).

He still loves to check on his little sister. He wakes up from his nap and that is usually the first thing he wants to do. He also gives her kisses all the time too. We started her on some rice cereal, so now he sees me feeding her and I think, he thinks he can feed her too. I’ve caught him trying to give her some of his snacks, so now I have to keep an eye on him when he has food!!

We headed up to Iowa for the 4th of July weekend. We stayed at my sisters house on Friday night. I think Noah loved playing with his two cousins!! Saturday morning we got up and headed to Inwood to their parade. Noah didn’t like the parade too much and wanted to go back to the truck. We were surprised that how much he loves trucks and tractors that he was scared of them when they went past. Maybe they were too loud or just too big. I guess he is used to playing with the miniature version or seeing them in a book. We decided we have to come back to Iowa more often so he can be around that kind of stuff!!

Sunday we got up and headed to church and then we celebrated Noah’s 2nd birthday. I can’t believe he’s going to be two already! As Rick was grilling, Mom thought she would fill up the kiddie pool so the water could start warming up. Well, she just turned off the water and there stood Noah in the pool…shoes and all! I guess I shouldn’t have to worry about how warm his bath water is from now on! The four boys (Jack, Kahle, Noah, Bodee) played with the tractors, wagons, trucks and cars about the whole time. Faith and Nicholas got passed around alot…everyone wanted to hold a baby!!

That night we (Rick, Rachel, Noah, Faith, Janice, Renae, Micah, Kahle, Bodee) piled into our vehicle and drove around to look at the tornado damage. I can’t believe all the damage that can be done in a short amount of time. We stopped at my uncle and aunts house to see the damage down there and the boys loved looking at the machinery on the yard. I guess Noah just doesn’t like it when the machinery is moving!

Monday morning, Rick was up and out the door by 7 am to run in the George 5K!! It was his first 5K and he did great!!! The rest of us were waiting for him at the finish line…we’re not crazy enough to want to run for fun! He says he wants to do it again next year…I’m sure he’ll still be doing it alone!

The parade was early that afternoon and Noah did much better this time around! Aunt Renae held Faith pretty much the whole time and I don’t remember hearing a peep out of her…guess she must like her aunt (probably because Renae’s the one who keeps getting her the girly clothes!)

We were debating if we were going to go down to the school grounds to watch the fireworks or if we should go out to the farm…we decided the farm might be better – the boys were pretty wound up! We could still see the fireworks that they were shooting off in town and then we lit some of our own.

Noah’s favorite thing of the night was when we looked at the cows when we first got to the farm and one of the cows was farting…so now Noah keeps saying “Reids cow toot”. It makes Rick so proud that Noah is fascinated with farts…I, on the other hand, wish he would have just liked that the cow went moo.

You can see more pictures from the weekend, here.

Well, Noah has officially graduated to a “big boy bed”!! Sort of anyway! He doesn’t actually fall asleep in his bed, he tends to look at books or play with the register for awhile until he falls asleep on the floor. After he’s asleep, I’ll go in his room and put him in bed, but I usually need to go in through the bathroom because he’s laying in front of the other door so I can’t open it.

It is a little weird now that he can get out of bed. I’ve found him laying in the hall way a couple of times and one morning I heard him coming up the stairs…not sure how long he was downstairs or what he was doing!!

I took the crib down yesterday being that he doesn’t even want to get in his anymore – he still likes to get into Faith’s crib and check on her in the mornings! As soon as he hears that she’s awake, he looks and me and says “baby check” – so we need to go check on her. He wants up and as soon as I put him in the crib, he’ll either lay down next to her or give her a kiss. Oh, if they could any get along like this forever!!!

Happy Father’s Day!!! I’m not sure how much of a holiday it was for Rick – but it was a productive one!!!

It started out by trying to find the leak in our big kitchen window. With all the rain we’ve had lately, we noticed that it leaks when the rain is hitting it from a certain direction. We didn’t have any luck on finding the leak, but being that he was messing with the window, he decided to clean them all on the outside!!! Then while he was doing that, he thought he might as well take down the satellite dish being that we’re not using it anymore. When he was on it way to putting the ladder back in the garage, he thought he might as well clean the front window and the entry way. Being that the entry way was cleaned, he thought it would seal it, so he got a fan to really dry it out before sealing, which lead him to notice that the outlet by the front door isn’t working, so he we went downstairs and switched out the breaker outlet that was causing the problem. And being that he was doing that, he thought he’d change the outlet in the garage that wasn’t working either. By this time, the front entryway was dry, so he sealed the slate. Which then lead him to clean the patio and seal that also.

I think that is everything he did!!! I felt bad being that he was doing this all on Father’s Day, but it was all his idea…and I figured I shouldn’t stop him if that is what he wanted to do!!

Noah had a BIG day yesterday!!! We went to “A Day Out With Thomas” in Baldwin City – just a little south of us. He got up and we started getting ready and then we made the mistake of asking him if he wanted to go see Thomas the Train. Well, being that we said it, he wanted to leave…NOW! He had like two bites of breakfast and a sip of milk and he wanted to get going. Our neighbor was going to watch Faith and she wasn’t even to our house yet and Noah wanted to get in the car, so him and Rick sat in the car for about 15-20 minutes before we actually left. Rick said he just kept asking to go bye-bye and where’s Thomas.

We got going down the interstate and there was a train next to the road, so Noah was excited about that. Then we parked at the high school where there was some construction vehicles and then got on a bus to head to the railroad. So Noah is already excited and then we pulled up to the train station and Noah (and the other kids on the bus) started pointing and saying “Thomas, Thomas”. I thought he was going to pop! And to top it off, there was even a fire truck there too!!

Our train ride was at 9:45 and we were there about an hour ahead of time, so we got to go around to the tents they had set up. One tent had tattoos that they were putting on and Noah has been pretty proud of his. I think he’s shown about everyone his tattoo already – I’m not sure what he’s going to do when it rubs off!! There was another tent that had tables with trains that you could play with. Another tent had storytelling and videos. There was a magician that put on a show, a bubble station and a little petting zoo. They also had a sand box area and a little maze made out of straw bales.

We weren’t sure how Noah would do on the train ride, but while we were standing in line, he kept pointing to the train, so we thought it might be good. THEN we got on the train and he didn’t like it. He kept wanting to get down. I’m not sure what was really wrong, but as soon as the train started moving, he was fine.

He seemed to have a great time and didn’t want to leave. It did help that we got to ride the bus back to our vehicle!! I forgot how load buses are!!

There are some more pictures here.