Cheap Swimming...in Fountains

I mentioned soemthing a few posts back about staying tuned for a post with water fountain pictures. When the boys want to swim and we don't feel like making the drive to our other coveted swimming holes, we go to the water fountain in downtown Nampa. The best part is, it's free and it keeps our boys busy and happy for 30 minutes or so. Some may call it "ghetto" or whatever but you can't beat FREE!


Noah still isn't comfortable with running through the entire fountain yet. He walks up to a spot where some of the water is spraying up, touches the water, then runs back to us as fast as he can screaming like a wild man...every time. In the picture he looks like he's making a made face but believe me, it's enthusiasm.


(Timo is really afraid of water. You can see this in my post from a few days ago. "Swimming" in a water fountain is perfect for Timo since there is no pool...meaning, no life vest or pressure from the entire family to actually swim. However, we still had to talk Timo into running through the middle of the fountain, not just the outside. He gets better every time.)





Sometimes, Eric and Timo bring footballs to hold onto as they run through the fountain. It's as if the water is some type of defense they bust through every time they run.


Mikey usually chill-axes on the sideline making cute faces at us.

Recent Pictures

As always, one way I keep busy is taking pictures. Lately we've been going to a lot of parks and doing bike rides and such. Yesterday, my seven year old Eric went on a 17 mile bike ride with me! We rode along part of the Boise Greenbelt. I kept asking him if he was sure he wanted to keep going. He adamantly said YES every time. He finally burned out the last mile or two. Anyway, here's some random pictures from the last few days:

Here comes Timo!!



Noah peeking around the corner.



On Eric's second to last day of school, he had his field day. He was very excited about this. Here he is clearing a hurdle on an obstacle course.



Mikey keeps busy at the park by examining things such as my water bottle.




I always encourage the boys to jump off of random things. It's something both Eric and Timo love to do now. So, here's two pictures of Timo jumping. I think the shadow looks pretty cool.



This is the hill, or the camels back, from camels back park in Boise. The steps don't look quite as intimidating as the steps at The Great Wall of China, but if you're on the husky side it can feel that way.


As you can see, we've been pretty busy the last week or so. I have many other pictures I could post but I figure I'll spread them out a little.


In Other News:

I shaved my goatee yesterday. My chin is completely bare. If you know me, this is almost as rare as a lunar eclipse. Becka tactfully informed me my chin hair was getting too long and "out of control." It's too bad because I was going for the world record. I could take a picture of my new round hairless chin and post it but I don't want to scare the women and children.

A smile and some dope

Today I was browsing through some pictures from our Tacoma days. I found a couple pictures I've deemed as blogworthy.


First, we have a goofy picture of Noah. He's about 7 months old here. This picture still makes me chuckle but it also scares me a little if I look at it for too long.




Next, is your neighborhood drug bust. I couldn't help but notice the DEA swarming around a house a couple doors down from our own back door. Then I noticed the DEA members walking out of the house with several pots of reefer. Yeah, I prefer the name reefer. If you enlarge the picture and look behind the van you'll notice these fine citizens had quite the operation growing inside their home. Those aren't potted ferns you're looking at.

Picture Outtakes

I take a lot of pictures. I may have mentioned that a few times before. You could call it a hobby I guess. Of course, one of my favorite things to photograph is my boys. Normally, I'll take some pictures, then if I decide I want to blog a picture or two of them I'll sort through all the pictures till I find a good one to post. If you have kids (specifically little kids) you know how challenging it can be to get them to all look at the camera at the same time. Yesterday, we went to the park and I naturally brought the camera. It was very bright outside. Also, Timo and Noah are battling colds right now. So, today as I sort through the pictures I took at the park, I decided to do something a little different with this post. Instead of finding the perfect picture to post, I'm going to post some of the "bad" ones. I find these pictures a lot more entertaining.
















You can see Timo was struggling the most. His eyes are really sensitive as it is, then you throw the sickness in there and it's the perfect storm for a miserable and monotonous five minutes of fake smiles for a picture. As always, Timo was a good sport.

I did however, get a good picture of him before that.

Eye See

I was fooling around with the camera this evening and I took some cool eye pictures.
Take a look:

Here's Eric. Even with the shadow around his eye, I still like the way it looks.

Here's Timo. I envy Timo's blue eyes.

My left eye and Eric's right eye.

I realize this isn't an eye picture like the others but it's my blog and I can do whatever I want with it. Actually, I love this picture too so I thought I would include it.

Noah at 11 months

It was this moment when I realized what kind of personality we had on our hands with Noah. I knew I would someday have a kid that would match my bad temper (when provoked of course).
Noah is only 2 1/2 now and his temper has shown no signs of letting up. He can be challenging but that's what makes this little guy unique from the other boys. Well, that and his huge belly.
A boy after my own heart. No wonder I love this kiddo so much.

New pictures, with updates!

OK, I fixed our camera...sort of. It's good enough to take some pictures at least. It just requires a little more patience...I'm working on that part.
Here's a some new pictures.



Here's little Timo. He's always full of personality as you can see in his smile. Timo is well rounded when it comes to his likes. At one moment he's helping Mommy make dinner, then the next moment he's playing football with his brothers.




Chunky little Noah. He's our little bowling ball. Always full of love and he already loves making people laugh.



Here's Eric, the oldest brother. Despite being a star athlete, he still has time to take pictures. Oh, and practice his penmanship.




The best Mommy and 7 month old Mikey. With Noah being 2 and Mikey at 7 months old, a future without dirty diapers is slowly becoming a reality.




To the untrained eye, that may look like a kids toy I'm holding over my head. If you look a little closer, you'll clearly see it's a halo.

Happy #2

Yesterday, our third little boy, Noah, turned 2. We've been lucky so far with Eric and Timo, so we don't really fear the "terrible twos." Although, Noah might be the first one to install that fear.
He's usually a good little boy. He always lights up our day with his love and infectious personality. Only he and Jack Black can make 50 different faces per second.

Noah's 3 favorite things:

Cake (of course)
Showing off his round belly
Boise State

We start the Boise State brainwashing early around here.

Happy Birthday Noah!!


After a long day, Mommy and birthday boy need a well deserved nap.