Farm Livin'

Every night before Henry goes to sleep he and I spend some quality time together. We read poems, read lots of scriptures, but lately we've been dreaming about our future farm. I usually start listing off all the things we will have at our farm, including goats, chickens, rows of corn, a huge pumpkin patch (in which we will grow giant pumpkins that will be be big enough for him to fit inside of), etc. I've recently added that we're going to have grapes growing all over the fence surrounding our property and a few of each type of fruit tree so we can pick our own fruit every year. Henry gets so excited at the prospect that he can't even control his body. He starts wiggling and yelling and exclaiming his excitement as he's coming up with his own ideas, like dogs and cats, a giant patch of colored carrots (see hohlfoods.blogspot.com for a visual) and rows of beets and Brussels sprouts. lol.

I'm sure by the time he grows up on a farm he'll be sick of all the work, even if he loves the produce, but I wouldn't be surprised if he became a chef someday. He surely loves good food and animals too.

Beach Vacation #2. Man is Henry spoiled!

Once again we find ourselves at the beach, this time in North Carolina. The water wasn't as warm as the Bahamas and the waves were larger, which was fun for us, but the kids weren't too keen on getting cold. Henry enjoyed jumping over the small surf but was most interested in digging in the sand and making giant sand castles. Henry also learned how to swim! It was basically a result of him putting on goggles and probably because he was watching Kaitlin swimming around all week. He still needs to work on technique and still has a hard time treading water to get a breath, but he finally will put his face in the water with his head down and do a general forward crawl. Yea! So once again I have to just make a list of the fun things we did because I hate logging every detail of long trips so here we go. Fun things we did....

Spent some time with our friends Sarah Morris and family in VA
Flew Henry's dragon kite for the first time on the beach
Went at night to the ocean to chase after casts of crabs with a flashlight
Climbed up a steaming hot lighthouse to see the view
Drank totally delicious regional light house root beer and decided that someday we would, instead of a wine cellar, have a root beer cellar where we kept many varieties of root beer ready to be brought up for parties and such.
Made giant sand castles with moats and waited for the tide to come in to fill it and I quote Kaitlin Chou, "Woh! I didn't know this was going to be so cool!".
Ate gourmet meals every night, including my favorite dinner, shrimp enchiladas and two of my favorite pasta recipes, caprese, and bacon squash
Actually read a book, "The new global student"
Attempted surfing again with no luck. Justin and I are getting really frustrated with ourselves. I mean, shouldn't two hard core snowboarders be able to get up?
Found one of the coolest houses we've ever seen. I just love the asymmetry of it all
Boogie boarded and body surfed as much as possible until they kicked us out of the ocean because the waves got too big(residual hurricane Bill) for you East Coast babies who don't know how to swim in real waves.
Spent countless hours in the hot tub and pool playing with the kids and getting Henry and Kaitlin to dive for grapes in the hot tub.
Found a local type of grape in NC called the Muscadine grape, yum, but the peaches were a totally let down. Big, but mealy with no juice. What a pity.

Caught two sticky tree frogs and a big toad, all of which Bea tasted
Got freaked out by the giant spiders all around the neighborhood. I'd seen them before in Japan, but not here.
Ran on the beach in the blazing heat with Courtney(because we were too lazy to get up early)
Had a photo shoot to try to get a decent photo of the family without much luck. Sorry Paige, I can't find one where everyone looks decent. Mostly Justin's fault as usual.
Unsuccessfully tried to take a photo of all the grandkids on the beach
Collected shells and jelly fish bodies washed up onto shore.
Rested, relaxed, played, slept, ate and drank delicious things. Thank-You Lynn and Burnell for the wonderful vacation!

I'm sure I missed a lot, but that's what I remember right now

Boys are trouble

So I know what you're thinking, why are my boys so much trouble. It's usually the baby who's to blame for trouble sleeping. Well, she is the only person in the family who isn't waking me up on a regular basis. She sleeps completely through the night and isn't cranky in the morning! Here's an example of what I'm going through...

3:30am Henry Screaming in Bed: I want gum! Waahhhhhhh.
Me, delirious from going to bed at 1am and running into his room: Okay, I'll
find you some. Just relax and go back to sleep
Henry: I don't want your gum, I want daddy's gum! (kicking and screaming)
Me: Okay, I'll ask Daddy when he wakes up
Henry: No, I want some now! Aaaaaaaahhhhh!
Me: Henry, you're going to wake up your little sister and Daddy and he's not
going to be happy about that. He's really tired.
Henry: Daddy!!!! Ahhh. Ahhhhh!
Me: Go back to sleep please, it's the middle of the night. Everyone is
asleep!
Henry still freaking out: My Daddy, I want my Daddy! I want gum! Aaahhh!
Me: Henry, if you don't stop screaming I'm going to throw your blankies in
the garbage!
Henry: No! Don't throw my blankies in the garbage!
Me: Then stop freaking out and go to bed! It's the middle of the night! If I
have to come back in here, I'm not going to be nice! (I leave the room)
Henry whimpering for the next hour or so and turns on the light. I can still
hear him so I don't every really fall back to sleep until he's in bed at 4:30
5:15am I hear the loudest crash ever. Justin's not in bed and it's still dark
outside. I run out to the hallway and frantically yell, "Justin are you
home!!!!???" thinking someone just broke down the back door. My adrenaline
is on overload.
Justin: few second pause, yes, I need some help
Me: I walk down to the kitchen to find en entire half gallon glass milk jar
with the full amount of milk in it smashed on the ground in front of the
open fridge, milk everywhere, glass everywhere, milk on the carpet, under
the fridge, down the wood floor slats, and Justin needs to leave for work,
can't be late.
Me: cleaned up milk and glass for an hour and start my day

This and other incidents including Justin crashing the baby gate down one morning after another night of Henry's fits are common occurrances in our house lately. I basically get no sleep. Now I'm sick in the middle of the summer and have a race to run in two days! Boys really are trouble