I loaned my digital camera out to a guy that is doing some field work for me, but I have a few pictures from the last couple of weeks.

Nolan is still very into building and he's very creative with blocks. He is very particular about his building and gets frustrated at times, but it's interesting to watch.

Caleb says some really cute things now. One of my favorites is "right" instead of "yes". He's getting to know his colors and numbers pretty well and even said prayer at meal time once.

We got to go to drive out to Nolan's buddy's birthday party. Cole turned four and we got to enjoy a day in Willow Creek.

The party was on a beautiful piece of land near the river with lots of fun stuff including a pool with slide and a large sandbox.

Nolan got the first chunk off the pinata. He's got quite a lot of practice hitting things with sticks unfortunately.

Everyone enjoyed the big payout. Taking the sucker from Caleb was the hardest thing I've ever done. I know a whole new meaning to the phrase "taking candy from a baby"

...... and more sugar.....

The roof got put on the house earlier this month. I told Nolan to look at the crane in the yard and he informed me it was just a truck with an arm on the back of it.

The house looks quite a bit different now, but here is was when they stacked the material on the roof
and after started applying it. I'll get my camera back tomorrow and add more recent ones and hopefully some cute pics of the boys.

We got to ride the Skunk Train and see our great friends in Fort Bragg last weekend. It was a really nice vacation and wonderful to see old friends.



Nolan was very excited to ride the train and even wore his Skunk hat!



Caleb was very disappointed that he couldn't walk onto the track and climb on the train before we boarded.

We got the boys to hold still for a minute for a picture.





We had lunch at Northspur on the Noyo River.

The boys had a great time throwing rocks in the river.





Caleb slept well during the trip thanks to "banky" the magical velvety blanket.



We had to take Thomas the train with us, and Caleb showed his gangsta style with daddy's hat.



We even got to bath in a bathroom that didn't smell like funky trailer!



Ninja Nolan demonstrates his scary face (generally used to irritate Caleb).



Caleb is still infatuated with hats and glasses, but has developed a new shoe fetish as well (photos soon!)

It's time to pick fruit again! We've been using whatever free time we have to pick our apples and blackberries. Hopefully today we'll be able to make some preserves. I'm going to try to make some apple cidar vinegar this year too.

Nolan has been very helpful this year, and loved being able to climb up the ladder and help. He's very parrticular about which apples and berries we can pick. Nothing that is not ripe, blemished or "squishy".





Caleb isn't nearly as picky and definately not as helpful. If he does manage to stay in one place long it's because he's eating everything we pick.



The boys are still remarkaby different. They fight quite a bit now. They seem to try to irritate each other all day long and both get irritated by the strangest things. Nolan will complain that Caleb is "looking at his eyes" at breakfast and Caleb will scream if Nolan comes anywhere near him most of the day. They antagonize each other on purpose throughout the day.



Caleb is still very into painting, music, throwing balls (and other objects).




Nolan loves to build and is very inventive and meticulous. He loves things that fly and go fast including spaceships, airplanes, and race cars. Like all the other boys his age he's obsessed with Lighting McQueen from the Cars movie right now.
He's also been getting into playing some computer games. I got some preschool computer games from a lady and although it seems early, he's been enjoying playing them.

Not much time to write, but here are a few new photos of the house.
This picture may have been posted before, but here is the two story high family room. You can see into the master bedroom and closet since the drywall isn't up yet (or roof at that point).
His and hers shower! =) Mine's the tall one obviously.
Another photo of the back. The covered porch area is almost framed up but the deck won't go on for quite awhile and we'll add some more trim lumber to the porch roof design.

Another view of the two-story room. Our friend offered to help us put a mural up on this big wall. You can see into the attic of the first floor and also the heating registers. Kind of a strange place for them, but the furnace is in the attic.
Here is a view of the front right now. The front porch is being framed up and the fascia is going on today.
Here's James putting up the lumber for the porch.
On a random, note...Nolan made it into the Times Standard on Sunday with his buddy Cole. It came out later than we thought it would but it's very cute!

I'll post some pictures of the boys and our berry/apple picking adventures later today!

We finally got to do some real camping. It was a short trip and last minute, but very fun. We ventured up the South Fork of the Smith River with Matt, Amie and Acacia and had a great time.

Caleb was happy to just throw rocks in the river the whole time, but the kids also swam, watched the fish and dug with toys in the sand.
The boys slept in the tent and we slept under the stars. There were a couple of good shooting stars that night, and we could see a lot more than we can on the foggy coast.
We had a couple of nice cliffs to jump off of into the deep, bright blue water. The river was clear and gorgeous with large rocks and bedrock.

Caleb never wandered far from his blankey and it was in need of a good wash when we got home.

I don't have to bend down too far to be at Nolan's height anymore!

All of the kids spent some time playing in the river. It was a little cold, but hard to resist.

The fair was really fun for both of the boys this year. We got to see a model train set and all of the fair animals.

The goats were the friendliest and easiest to pet, although they tried to eat our clothes.
Most of the rides were for bigger kids and Nolan was still afraid of some of the smaller ones, but the car ride was definately a hit. We also had fun on the giant yellow slide, although I had to go down with both boys.
The biggest treat was the Caterpillar display of all of the tractors. Nolan and Cole even got their picture taken by the Times Standard newspaper, but we don't get the paper so I'm not sure if they made it in there or not.


Nolan got to play on the "digger-thing tractor" at the park last weekend too. Our friend Riley turned one and we had a great time at his party.
Looks like our favorite color is blue. The boys enjoyed hanging out with dad. Nolan is especially enjoying time with dad and is generally upset on Mondays when Dad goes back to work.
Caleb is very independent and very much in to slides. Although this slide was safe enough for him to go down alone. He snuck off to a very high dangerous slide and was up to the top in just a few seconds. I made it there in time to catch him at the bottom.

I had to post this great picture of Riley and his first birthday cake. It's great to see a one year old stuffing cake in his face.