Sargeant Bill and Bill Magaboo

Johnny and Jimmy in disguises. Cute mustaches!
2019-07-30 13 44 24 from anna fowler on Vimeo.

Dinner detective

Johnny came to dinner the other night and as the meal ensued, he pulled out a magnifying glass from his pocket.  He pursued to take a detailed look at the contents of his dinner plate.  He said he was searching for "poison".  When asked what poison was he replied "onions"  "tomatoes".  He also came equipped with rubber arrows for personal safety.  Who knew dinner could be such a dangerous place in the Fowler household!

poison food from anna fowler on Vimeo.

Air band

The kids love to jump around the living room and on the couches whenever I put music on.  This was a cute moment- all 3 of them lip-syncing.  Poor messy-haired Alice kept on getting elbowed by Johnny.  There is definitely some sibling rivalry that goes on daily between those two...
Fowler living room lip-syncing from anna fowler on Vimeo.

Forts

Massive fort: Jimmy is an incredible fort builder.  Johnny and Alice also are great assistants, but Jimmy is usually the mastermind.  I look forward to someday having a playroom where he can build and not have me nag him about cleaning it up right away (he loves to build in the living room, which is okay, but because it is our living room, I always make him pick it all up shortly thereafter).  Sometimes I think I should relax and be a more spontaneous mommy.  Like next time we have company, I'm going to let them come in, and tell them "please sit down"...
..."here, crawl in this little fort door, and sit down on this cushionless couch.  Thanks for coming by today...".

Here's a mansion he put together last month:

Biiiiiig fort from anna fowler on Vimeo.

And here's a video that shows some of his younger days when he was just getting started as a builder:


Professional Fort Builders from anna fowler on Vimeo.

Will-do's

Will was born with a full black head of hair.  When he first was born, his hair reminded me of a beatle hair cut.  Fittingly, I decided his little personal lullaby song (I have one for each of the kids) would be The Beatles "I Will" song.  It fits perfectly with his name and hair :)  And I sing it to him often.  Here it is if you haven't heard it before (sung by someone with a much fancier voice than mine):
Since Jimmy and Johnny were born with old-man-mullet hair, and Alice was born with no hair (which didn't grow in until she was 2), I have felt the need to get all my baby-hair-fix out on Will.  Sometimes I style his hair while he's nursing, or playing in the bath, or taking a nap.  James and I think up different characters/movie stars and play guess who.  Today during Alice's nap, Will and I played hair-do.

Here are few "Will-do's", (if you will):

Will-Do #1

Will-Do #2

 Will-Do #3

Will-Do #4

 Will-Do #5

There was a lady at church that told me that my baby reminded me so much of an old man in her old ward that had a toupee.  Nice.  This is what Will's hair looks like, it has fallen out on the sides, and is coming in much lighter, but is going strong and still dark on the top:

 His little toupee is what I style with :)

100 Legos

Johnny had his 100th day of Kindergarten today.  He was so excited to bring in this lego creation he made with his dad last night to school today.  I was actually sick with what I think was the flu all day yesterday, and was so achy and feverish I couldn't get out of bed.  James took over last night and went through the kid's folders, saw the reminder about it being Johnny's 100th day of school (a day when a kid can wear a piece of clothing with 100 things on it, dress up like an old person, or create something with a 100 theme), and went to work.  He and Johnny worked on this for about an hour!  And Johnny really did most of it, with a little guidance and help from James.  They made it so it has 100 pieces. Pretty cool eh?

Let's just say Johnny was lucky his mama was sick last night.   I'm not nearly as creative and probably would have made him do something he'd thought was a lot less cool like glue 100 cotton balls on his shirt HAHA..

AWF

Arm Wrestling Federation

For FHE last week, we had an arm wrestling tournament.  The boys loved learning this new art of competition. It proved to be much cooler than thumb wars.

James and I didn't play easy.  Hey, I've got to revel in my victories while I can.  Soon these kids are going to pass up their momma who's arms are slowly turning into Jello.  If my boys grow up to have the physique of their father, they will be Superman's someday, and I will never ever be able to beat them at arm wrestling again.  I'm only making them stronger by giving them tough competition right now right?

Johnny took the above picture.  Look at my zitty chin!

 

Johnny had a hard time though at the end with his losses.  He cried for a bit.  Then James told him "it's okay John, you can lift weights with me, you'll get stronger, your muscles will get bigger".

The next day Johnny got started:

 

He did a bunch of push-ups in the morning before school, and then got James' weights out after school and did some lifting.  It was so cute to watch.

After I had Johnny flash me his muscles:

Wowzers!
And Jimmy:

As soon as James walked in the door from work, they demanded a rematch:

 

Chocolate Chips

 This morning, while changing a diaper of Will's, Alice sat by my side and exclaimed "Woah!  Will pooped chocolate chips!"

We have 2 jars in our kitchen- one is full of nickles and coins.
 
It is called the "I scream" jar.  Anytime someone (mom/dad included) screams, they owe a nickel to the Jar.  I wish I could say it was empty, but it is getting quite full.  In fact, to be honest, I counted it today and it has a whopping $2.94.  (a penny short!).  That's a total of 59.8 screams. (eek don't judge!)
 
To try and make a positive outcome out of it all, we've decided to try and turn the "I screams" into "Ice creams" and with the jar proceeds, we will go and buy some ice cream certificates from Braums to hand out to homeless friends we come across.
 
The other Jar is a "Chuckles" jar.
 
Because kids really do say the darnedest things.  This jar is where we write down and place little notes inside that describe funny sayings or doings that the family members do or say.  My plan is to fill it throughout the year, and then on New Year's 2013, we'll crack it open and read them all and maybe glue them into our family journal.
 
And so the chocolate chips quote is goin' in the chuckle jar. 

These 2 at home

 Winter break is long gone and now it is just Alice and Will and I at home.  I love being able to concentrate on special times with Alice more throughout the day while Will naps or with Will while Alice naps.  Or sometimes the stars align and we all nap!

 

I thought this above picture was so funny!  Look at Alice's face!

I'm still not on much of a schedule with Will.  He's still sleeping in our room, and wakes up 1-2 times a night.  James is ready to put him in his own room, but I am not.  But Will does take 2-3 naps a day, which is when I can catch a bit of time to get things done (like right now).

Alice is asking "What?" galore.  In fact, as I just sat here and typed that sentence, I was mumbling out loud and she said.... "What?".  She wants to understand everything.  Sometimes she says "What?" all the time.  Like 40 times.  In a row.  Not kidding.  I've found the only way to get her to stop (even after incessantly answering her question), is if I ask her a question back "Alice, what did I just say?"

She's very independent.  Wants to do everything on her own.  This includes putting on her tights, getting up on the toilet, getting cups down from the cupboard, filling her glass up, buckling herself into her car seat, doing her hair, walking around at the store (sigh, sitting contained in the cart is a thing of the past).

 

Those are her natural rosy cheeks!  No blush no kidding!

She is such a good little girl who tries hard to do what is right.  For the most part, if she's rested, she won't throw tantrums (except for the tantrum she threw this morning when Johnny was fighting with her over a bar stool to eat cereal at).  And although she does fight with her big brothers, she is such a little mother to Will.  She literally smothers him with kisses, tugs, and hugs.

Will has 2 teeth on the bottom. He got his first one on December 3rd, and the next door neighbor tooth came soon thereafter.  None have come in since then.  His handsome full head of hair, has kind of changed into a au naturale mo-hawk.  The dark "toupee" looking hairs on the top are still full, but the hairs on the side and back have all fallen out and have come in a lot blonder.  Makes for some entertaining styling.  We sometimes make him look like Moe from the 3 stooges, or alfalfa from the little rascals, or the singer mo-hawk guy from neon trees.

 He likes to blow raspberries with his mouth and is found saying "Bababababa" "Lalalalala" or "Mamamamama" lots and lots.  He also has become very mobile.

He was so large and chubby there for awhile, that all he could do was roll (his belly was too heavy to lift off the ground to crawl).  Now he is up on all 4's and all over the house!  And he's so quiet too.  So much so that if I don't keep a constant eye on him, he slyly sneaks off.

Things I need to blog about:
FHE arm wrestling/johnny lifting weights
Jimmy's baptism, grandparents here
Egg crack day in backyard: "more joys less toys"
Christmas

Grandparents

There were  a couple more pictures I wanted to share of when Grandparents were here for Jimmy's baptism:

My moms lips are upside down in this one :)

My mom bought us these funny wax lips/mustaches that we had fund taking pictures with:

 

 

Haha, like mother like daughter, now my lips are upside down!

 those are her real cheeks! no blush!

We took everyone out to eat at a new favorite Chinese Restaurant we've come across here (Hunan Manor run by a Taiwanese lady) on Friday night:

(Johnny took these ones):

 

For FHE on Monday night, we went for a walk/bike ride and explored "slaughter pen".  The boys had a blast on their bikes.  My heart about stopped with little Johnny taking some pretty steep hills, but we all survived:

 Here's Tutu playing Queen of the Mtn (I love her youthfulness):