August In A (large) Nutshell

Once again, I find myself in need of catching up.
I need to be so much better at this.
Urg!

We've had a good August here at Hozians, Inc.
We got an amazing FREE swing set through the Realtor that has helped us with both of our moves.
Can you believe this thing?
And for absolutely FREE?!

Noah is in heaven!
Thanks to all the fellas of the fam for helping us to move this beast.

August 18th was my late father-in-law's birthday.
We had planned to get together with Chris's mom and brother and his family,
but, unfortunately, Chris got hit with a vicious stomach virus so
we were unable to get together on Phil's actual b-day.
My mom had come to get Noah so he would be one less thing for me to worry about while I was taking care of Chris and Eden.
I called her and asked her to have Noah make a birthday card for Grandpa and this is what she came up with.

Isn't that the sweetest?
Chris was really touched by the little poem.
Thanks Mom!

What did you do with your little ones during the week that it rained like nonstop?
We crafted.
Noah is absolutely obsessed with Diego.
Besides Diego, his favorite character is Click the camera.
So, I indulged the madness.

We took Click to Garden Club and she was a huge success amongst the cousins as well.
I believe I saw her around the neck of just about every kid there at some point or another.

We also made a Circus train...

we played with buttons...

and magnets...

and we painted...a lot!

Mommy did some crafting too. Remember those baby food jar lids?

The lids, along with a Pringles can, got turned into a color matching game for Noah.
My mother-in-law bought the kiddos these aprons.

Cute, right?
But, I knew I could make them cuter. How right was I?!

Any Ideas?

Does anyone have any ideas on what I can do with about 28 empty baby food jars without lids?
I'll be posting soon to show you why these jars are missing their lids.
Stay tuned.

Noah?! Where is your ARK!!

I have stolen this post from my sister, Dawn's, blog. She was able to capture and express the craziness, and the humor, of the moment perfectly!

Today was our Garden Club at my house. It was hot and then rainy so all us gals brought sewing projects to work on. We love visiting and the kids play so well together, it is the highlight of my week.

Then Debbie, clever mommy that she is, noticed that she had not seen Taylor in a while... so she went on the hunt.

The hunt ended in my master bedroom, standing in front of the master bathroom doors, with water coming out under those doors onto the hardwood floors, EEEEEEK!!

Debbie urgently called us all into the bathroom for 'backup'.

Can I please add a disclaimer on Taylor and Noah's behalf? Anytime the nieces and nephews come to Aunt Dawn's home, they always ask to go swimming in the bathtub. The tub bubbles, it can fit MANY cousins, and the best part is the handheld shower.

Seems Taylor and Noah felt they would go have some good, clean, fun with the handheld shower hose.
There was water everywhere! I did not know that the shower fixture could get enough pressure to shoot water to the ceiling, good to know.

Noah and Taylor were very thorough and made sure everything got a good cleaning. No vessel was left unflooded.

From the looks of things, Noah was the head shower controller. At least we think so since he had at least a tad bit of dry spots left to him....

Where as Taylor, was soaking wet! When we all barged up into the bath... there was not an itty bitty ounce of guilt on either of their faces.

Aunt Dawn wanted to give them creativity points... their moms?... not so much.

I think Noah and Taylor were sadden by our haste in mopping up all the glorious puddles.

Am I a terrible Aunt that I laughed and laughed and laughed, then grabbed my camera. Am I mean for thinking this precious, wet, gal is adorable when she cries?

The water was nothing a few dozen blankets and towels couldn't handle. The wet bandits even helped with the clean-up. Now my window sills, windows, walls, baseboard, and every nook and cranny is clean. Absolutely sparkling.

I've got several loads of laundry ahead of me, but it was worth the excitement. Hopefully Noah and Taylor's mommies will forgive Aunt Dawn finding this all so hilarious. In the future, I promise to give a little more instruction to all the nieces and nephews of when and when NOT to play with Aunt Dawn's swimming pool bathtub sprayer. Slight oversight on my part, oops!

And little Miss Eden seemed quite entertained by the commotion. She is mobile now but picked up on the clear vibe that she should just stay put, and dry.

As for the other kids in the house...

the fabulous Murphy gals were here and thought the whole thing quite scandalous!

Bella was happy the whole time viewing the craziness from her mom's arms.

Kena was none the wiser.

Lil' Nate seemed a tad bummed at the fact that Taylor and Noah did not include him in the merry making! Poor Nate, there is sure to be plenty of future fun amongst the cousins... no worries!

What Do You Do?

What do you all do to help your kids be reverent during the sacrament
and help them focus on the Savior during that time?

I Am Going To Count It As An Apology

Tonight I was holding Noah during our family prayer and was surprised with a series of sweet kisses while my eyes were closed.
All of the craziness that is the day to day just lifted
and I was reminded how very blessed I am.
I love that kid!

Ever Had...

one of those days when your house looks like this...

your To-Do list is about a mile long,
you have this going on...

at the house across the street AND the house to your left at the same time,
one kid won't stop doing this...

and the other kid won't stop doing this...

and you are just counting down the hours until it is time for them to do this...?

Introducing

I have been trying to get Noah to say Eden's name. He pretty much just calls her 'Baby'. We have been practicing a lot the past few weeks. This morning I had a small measure of success. I asked him to say 'E'. He did. I asked him to say 'den'. He did. I asked him to say 'Eden', he said 'Deedee' and has been calling her that all morning.

Deedee it is.

picture stolen from my sil, Alisha's, blog.

p.s. This post is the 1st of 5 posts. I had a little, okay, a lot, of catching up to do.