halloween

Taking a little rest during the Halloween parade at Annie's school.


Annie was going to be a princess and Jonah was going to be Darth Vader until they got their matching pajamas. It's definitely more fun to trick-or-treat when you can glow in the dark!


Getting ready to hit the neighborhood.


Scary skeleton counting his candy.


Trying to decide what candy to keep and what candy to leave out for the Sugar Sprite.

zeke judah

28 October 2008
9:55 AM
9 pounds 7 ounces
20.5 inches

at the wurst fest

Which, incidentally, is the best name for a festival. Ever.

Jonah and the ever fabulous looking Soren.

Annie scooting up the rock wall.

and now for some random pictures...

Because it takes me months to upload pictures off my camera.

At the zoo with Dylan.

First day of 1st grade. It was a bad morning. Something about her shoelaces not looking pretty enough after being tied.

A week later. You can see we've switched to non-lacing shoes.

Blackberry picking.

and the winner is...

Barack Obama. According to the kids at least. Evidently, those kids are usually pretty accurate.

Scholastic released the results of their kids election poll and Obama received 57% to McCain's 39%. Of course, you can't leave out those write-in votes for Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers! The interesting thing about the poll is that it has been correct in every election since 1964.

Can you hear the cheers emanating from the IslandFourSoonToBeFive household? Obama! Obama! Obama! Obama!

Annie has been learning about the election in school this week and she's excited to go to the polls with us when we vote. We found a Electoral College map that we're going to print out so she can color the states red or blue as the results come in. We'll even work on those math skills as we add up to 270. It could be a late night.

i can't wait!

I am SO going to make this for Thanksgiving this year! I mean, honestly, turkey and bacon. What could be better? And while I'm at it, I think I'll make this for Joel. Annie and I will probably eat an entire pumpkin pie by ourselves. That's assuming I have any room left after stuffing myself full of that turkey, my grandma's wild rice dressing (I might have to add some bacon or sausage to that this year) and garlic mashed potatoes. Oh, I really can't wait.

In the meantime, Jonah and I need to go make banana bread.

my surprise weekend away

Michelle.
Andrea.
Dairy Queen.
Sequim.
No kids.
Sleeping in to 10:00.
Oak Table (French toast and bacon!).
Big leather recliner.
Watching the Michigan game.
Shopping.
Sitting around reading magazines in the big leather recliner.
Candy.
Going to a movie.
No kids.
More shopping.
More magazines.
Watching Tina Fey on SNL (while sitting in the big leather recliner).
Sleeping in to 9:00.
No kids.

moment of panic

Jonah is our computer hacker. Or, a cracker as Joel calls him. It's seriously scary. When he was 6 months old we caught him pulling letters off of Joel's work laptop. Joel had to type without the "m" key for two weeks. Then there was the time he managed to push a random serious of buttons on the Mac which turned the monitor into a high contrast negative (imagine your screen looking like an old photo negative - remember those?). It took Joel two days to figure out what he did and how to fix it. The worst damage was to my fairly new MacBook which took a blow to the screen with a sippy cup and has never been the same (we now have to look at everything through a sort of purpley-greenish haze). He has broken two keyboards and somehow managed to break the recharging port for a laptop so it can no longer charge (or therefore work). You'd think we would have learned our lesson by now.

I just left the computer for less than a minute and came back to see that he was about to sign up me and ALL my Facebook friends for some sort of game called World Domination. It seems I have rallied 500 infantry soldiers to my side and am now posed to start my conquest. Luckily, we caught him right before he hit the "conquer world" button. We hope.

new discoveries

Jonah and Annie were hanging out in the bathtub tonight when we suddenly heard Jonah scream in his loudest, most excited voice, "Oh my goodness! I TOOTED and it made BUBBLES!"

jonah's bff

Jonah and I were reading a kid's magazine tonight and it had an article about friends. It went something like this:

Name a friend who...
- is taller than you
- makes you laugh
- has long hair
- is good at sports
- likes to dress up
- likes ice cream
- likes to draw
- has a pet

Jonah's answer to every single question was, "Soren." Even the last one, though she doesn't have a pet. His answer was, "Well, Soren doesn't have a pet."

Then it asked who his best friend is. He said Soren was his best friend because, "She's nice. She doesn't hit me. I like to play with her with her toys. She likes me and I like her."

I found a picture of the first time Soren and Jonah met. She doesn't seem to be too impressed with him:

final countdown

Only 4 weeks left. (The freaky floating alien baby on the right is technically wrong since we'll have a c-section at 39 weeks.) Anyway, 4 weeks. Crazy. We need to figure out how to shove his car seat in between Annie and Jonah's. We need a middle name. (Any ideas?) Jonah needs to start staying in his bed all night. (We're really not holding out hope on that one.) We need to update this blog. (There are pictures sitting in the camera from August.) We need to find Z a Michigan shirt. (How 'bout that game on Saturday, huh?) Can't believe we're going to have 3 kids. Annie is practicing putting diapers on every stuffed animal and doll she owns. Jonah is still certain the baby will share a bed with him. I'm attempting to stockpile sleep. Joel is crazy busy and ready to trade work for sleepless nights. 4 weeks seems like a long time right now.

the things jonah says

While playing with his Star Wars Legos:
"I'm gonna build this ship and it's gonna be so cool. Watch me. It's gonna be so freakin' awesome!"

Later, at dinner.
Joel, referring to Jonah's horrible haircut and wondering if we should have it fixed:
"What do you think? Should we take him back?"
Jonah, with a look of horror on his face and not understanding Joel was referring to the hair salon:
"You're going to take me back?"
Joel, not catching on:
"Yep."
Jonah:
"Don't take me back!"

nevermind

Annie was helping me put stacks of CD's back in their cases tonight when she came across a Nirvana case. I thought she would have some comment about the naked baby, but all she had to say was, "Look mom! There's money in the water!" Jonah wanted to know if it was a picture of him.

Speaking of that album cover, Joel heard this interview on NPR a few weeks ago and thought it was pretty interesting. Joel has fond memories of that album. Nirvana introduced him to Seattle, kept him away from hair band music and helped him survive volleyball road trips (it was that or the "Christian rap" that was playing in the van). Incidentally, the top 3 events that have shocked him the most are:
1. Space Shuttle Challenger
2. 9/11
3. Kurt Cobain's suicide

goggle girls

Annie and Soren hanging out at Halle's 1st birthday party. I love this picture!

today

Up at 5:30.
Get ready.
Pack lunches.
7:05 ferry.
Meet Tony & Rachel for coffee.
Worship at 9:00.
Run to the car in the middle of service for a change of clothes for Jonah (who has directional issues on the potty).
Teach Sunday School at 10:45.
Lunch.
Drop Joel and kids off at bookstore to hang out.
Kids go crazy in the bookstore.
Go shopping for Annie's birthday presents and camping trip junk food.
Grocery shopping at an overcrowded Trader Joe's.
Run into Fred Meyer to find shirts for the kids to tye-dye at day camp tomorrow.
Quick nap in the car.
Dinner with friends.
9:45 ferry.
Put away groceries.
Catch up on the blog. Finally.
Midnight - really, really tired.

beach day

My arm is just barely long enough


Sand dollars everywhere


Searching for crabs...


Joel caught one


Heading back to the car


Picnic stop on the way home

lazy saturday...

with friends.


Jonah and Soren enjoying the pool


While Halle enjoys the sidewalk paint


Dinner and a movie with Dylan (we're high tech!)

mustache

half way there...

The freaky floating alien baby on the side of our blog has officially passed the half way point.

jonah's movie review

Joel took the kids to see King Fu Panda today, something they have been looking forward to seeing ever since we bought a box of Rice Krispies that has pictures of the characters on the back. When they got home I asked Jonah about the movie. These are his thoughts.

How was Kung Fu Panda?
"It was great! The big tiger jumped on panda's tummy and he throw him into the sky. And the other guy was a boy and the other one was green and black and purple and yellow and was like this tall."

Who was in the movie?
"Mantis. Oh, oh, oh and the rhinoceros fell down onto the ground. Viper and Mantis."

What was your favorite part?
"The nice tiger but not the bad one. Mommy, you know panda? There was a rocket thing and he crashed it into his head and that was really funny. But I was being too loud because people were being in the movie and my daddy covered my mouth like this so I wouldn't talk. Oh, and tiger fell down, but not rhinocerous, and ::shooting rocket noise:: up into the sky and on the big rocks."

What did Kung Fu Panda do?
"He eat lots of cookies in his jar."

Who was your favorite guy?
"Mantis. He was the tiny guy and oh, he ate soup and was like this tiny. Oh and he ate soup and that was really funny. Oh, oh, oh, and the big guy was white and blue and black but he was not being really nice to panda and he crashed into those things and ::shooting rocket noise:: that was really funny and he fly with wings like this. Oh, oh, oh, and the big guys ::crashing to the ground down effects:: into the sidewalk into the road and that was really funny."

Is there anything else you can tell me?
"It was the best one."