Kylie was telling me yesterday morning about a conversation she had with her AWANA leader this past Thursday.

Awana leader: - Ms. Kylie Hoben, do you have your book?

Kylie: -Yes.

-Do you have your vest?

-Yes.

-Did you go to Sunday School?

-Yes.

- Do you have all your teeth?

-NO!!

My kids are growing up too fast...

I am feeling a little bit of nostalgia today.

It could be because I was looking through some "old" pictures.

I think my kids are growing up way too fast... I just wish I could stop time.

Here are some of the pictures I was looking at...

My sweetheart!
Colton! I guess Cotlon doesn't look that different, but still...:-)

Oh Brayden, I love you!

My beauty!

Brayden standing up holding a basketball. He was still learning to walk here, but he could stand up holding a basketball. Strong boy!

Oh yeah, I thought my husband is growing up too... I mean look at this picture from 2003! Bryce, his brother, looks quite different too, those of you that know him, would agree, I think.

My goal in life is to stop time... and since that's an impossible goal to achieve, I am just going to enjoy every minute of it, or at least make an effort to do so.

That being said, I am off to play "house" with my kids.

Authentic Chinese food

NK is a Chinese student that is studying to get his Masters in Business at University of Dubuque. The University has a program that connects International students with faculty members and their families. Since I was once an international student, this program was something that Brett and I thought it would be fun to be involved in. We found out at the beginning of the school year, that "our" international student was NK, from China. He speaks broken English and it's hard to communicate with him sometimes, but Brett has built a good relationship with him and he has visited our church a few times, plus he is one mean cook!
This Monday night NK came over and cooked authentic chinese food for us!

NK

We also invited Victor over.

Victor comes from a missionary family in Japan; he is now studying at Emmaus and goes to our church.

*Victor's parents, older brother and sister-in-law are in Japan right now. They are safe and are trying to help as much as possible in this crisis--if you don't know what I am talking about, watch the news :-)

Brayden and Colton are trying out chopsticks!

Chinese soup

Yumminess!

Thank you NK for a delicious dinner!

No, thanks.

Brett and I have been teaching Colton how to politely decline an offer, how to say "No, thank you." instead of a screeching"NOOOOOO!!"

What we meant to teach him was to politely refuse to do something that he has a choice about, like: playing with a certain toy, or if I offer him something to drink and he is not thirsty, etc.... However, he has now mastered the art of politely saying "no" in a very matter-of-fact, calm tone for everything he doesn't want to do.

For example:

"You need to eat a few more bites of your food before you have dessert"

"No thanks."

" Colton, please share with your brother!"

"No thanks"

"I need you to be sweet and gentle"

"No thanks."
...and the one in the video is the classic
"It's naptime/bedtime!"
"NO thanks."

AWANA Grand Prix 2010

Last Thursday was the annual AWANA Grand Prix and we were all at Emmaus watching Brayden's and Kylie's cars race. They did not win the 1st prize for speed, but Brayden won 1st Place for Original Design in Cubbies and Kylie won 1st Place Patriotic Design in Sparks!!! And with that they won 2 blue ribbons to add to their "collection."

This was a "daddy and me" project since it involved trucks.