The Dieker's

Old Pics I meant to Post but didn't get around to until now....oops

2011-09-18T18:02:00.000-05:00

So these pictures are in reverse chronological order, sorry! I forgot the proper uploading procedure it has been so long!

These (above) pics are from Noah's trip with Jo and Pops to the Branson Scenic Railway. Good times!

Here on down are Cal's bday party and actual Bday celebrations!

New Big Boy bed! He has done fantastic in it!

4th of July 2011

2011-07-05T20:44:00.000-05:00

Cal and Ryan and Kurt eating sunflower seeds.

I love this picture! Calvin is just so cute and he loves that tractor!

Cal loves being in the lake!

Calvin loves the lake and jumpin' to us. We have to pay attention 'cause he will just go without warning!

Smoke bombs were the favorite this year, we went through a bajillion of them.

Grandpa crashed out in a lawn chair :)

Calvin loves tools and fixing things. He said the tractor was "broke" and went to work.

"What are you doing, put that thing down!"

Watching the 'works!

My gorgeous boy!

Goofball!

Fireworks!!!

We found a crawfish!

More fireworks with Uncle Kurt!

Oh Calvin.

The boys had fun playing with our "lake neighbors." I like that they have company.

I think Doc Hudson was racing around Cal's head.

Poor Noah can't go in the lake because of his cast. Apparently they don't want algae growing in there, poor kid! He spent a lot of time playing in the dirt and being a total trooper! Not one complaint!

Cal driving the jetski

Chillin' with Uncle Sam

I think my favorite pictures are the ones that are supposed to be posed and then everything goes awry. I love Noah's expression here. He is a stickler for the rules and following directions and gets very annoyed when Cal doesn't toe the line. For example, when Cal says something is "Shark" instead of "sharp," Noah goes nuts.

I need to figure out how to lighten things better on iphoto, I love this pic of Noah. He is just completely beautiful!

I think it has been at least 6 months since we have had a pic of the 4 of us snapped, so here it is, the Dieker's in all our unwashed lake-y glory!

Aaaaand a goofy family portrait ;)

Arkansas Trip and Easter

2011-05-12T09:27:00.000-05:00

The ladybug cupcakes on "Easter" were a big hit! Cal's turned into a porcupine :)

Dinner with the Walker side :)

We had fun at the Ellison's. Cal was determined to "fix" the pole.

Noah and Jade bonded over Angry Birds

The birthday girl and daughters :)

Kurt's Fancy Camera

2011-03-04T16:18:00.005-06:00

Kurt let us use his fancy camera, so that is what we took all these pics with. These pics involve 2 trips to Union Station to look at trains and a few pics I took at playgroup one day.

Cal and Cousin Carter

Carter and Uncle James

With Grandma and Grandpa

Rrrrrr

2011-02-25T14:30:00.002-06:00

I couldn't find any of the pictures of Christmas with the Thomas side of the family. They are there somewhere, and one day I WILL locate them!

Pics from the last few months

2011-02-25T12:30:00.009-06:00

These are pictures from our low-tech camera, pics from Kurt's sweeeeeet camera are coming next. :) I was hoping the new computer would somehow solve the problem of pics uploading sideways, but alas, not so!

I am trying a different layout....I think I don't like it. Just trying to mix things up! I think this has just affirmed my conviction that change is bad.

Hmmm

2011-02-25T12:15:00.001-06:00

Well it's been over 2 months since my last post. Last night Ryan asked me if the blog is officially dead. I say No! Now that we have our new computer and it's in a better spot for me to upload, let it begin again. As soon as I figure out where all our pictures are. They are in strange places in the new iphoto.

'Tis the season (to finally post some pics!)

2010-12-19T20:43:00.005-06:00

Here are the boys sick, but together :)

Bug!

Matching PJs!!

Noah picked out his outfit. Nice. He actually left the house in that outfit because I had to run a quick errand. This outfit plus grey and blue striped socks and blue crocs. And a black hoodie with spiders on it. Classy.

Noah enjoyed helping us Christmas-ify the house this year :)

After a long hard day of decorating, we kicked back wiht some hot chocolate and watched "Twas the Night Before Christmas" :)

This was Noah's favorite part of going to see Santa at Bass Pro. He humored me and sat on Santa's lap, but this was the big draw.

More late pictures

2010-10-31T21:10:00.005-05:00

The Thomas side got together for Halloween cookie making

This is one of my favorite new pics of Cal!

Our line of willing workers

Cal liked the sprinkles

a lot! Here he is licking them off his tray

Noah is also a sprinkle fan

Cal n Emilee

The delicious finished products

Cousin Jessica came up for a visit!

Jessica's visit called for a trip to Yogurtini.....mmmmmm

That is Red Velvet frozen yogurt on his chin, by the way.

We went to a pumpkin patch/apple orchard with Aunt Courtney and Grandma! Noah loved this bee hive. Lots of bees milling around in there!

Aunt Court and the kiddo's

Pumpkin patch!

We weren't sure what that thing was, but it was huge!

Cal had fun chasing the chickens...not sure if the chickens had as much fun.

We finally convinced them to bathe together, woohoo! That cut down our night time routine :)

And they have fun!

Cal got into a container of cranberry flavored instant drink mix. He had fun until I caught him. It was not an enjoyable cleanup!

Really late pictures

2010-10-19T16:54:00.001-05:00

It has taken me forever to get these pictures up, so sorry!!! I have tried several times and it has crashed several times and I cannot get the pictures to flip right side up. Argh! So sorry I tried and this is the best I could do. I am going to try to put up more pics tonight. I am so far behind!!!

Noah's first goose-egg.

We went to Weston to a couple of apple orchards/pumpkin patches with the Thomas side of the family.

Bug!

Playing with cousin Carter

Another bug!

Spider!

We found a local park with a real caboose that the kids can crawl around on. Noah was enthralled.

Firsts and Lasts

2010-09-10T18:09:00.000-05:00

I was packing up for our last trip to the lake for the summer and I guess Calvin thought he was going to be left behind and wanted to stow away. Out went Noah's clothes and in went Cal.

We brought some friends to the lake with us. Here is Noah and a buddy fishing :)

Ryan taught Noah to hold his mouth right so that he would catch some fish. It made us laugh.

Cal loved the baby pool!

Calvin read "A Thousand Splendid Suns" over Labor Day weekend. I tried to get him to read something a little lighter, like "Go Dog's Go" but he is captivated by the plight of the Afghan women.

Daddy was the hero and caught Noah some grasshoppers for his bug box.

Ok, a bunch of these pics loaded sideways and I'm way too lazy to fix it...sorry. It's taken me weeks to get them up and it would take me another few weeks to flip them all...

Noah found a bug in the paddle boat and it is firmly held in his right hand.

Getting ready for his first day of "school." It's really Kid's Day Out, but we won't tell.

First day of school breakfast, chocolate chip pancakes with sprinkes!

All ready to go! Noah loves school and is doing great, except for his refusal to stay on his mat during rest time. We have been working on it at home, we'll see what happens on Thursday. When I dropped him off last week, his second time, as soon as the door open he just ran in, no goodbye or anything. I guess that's a good sign. :) He is also playing soccer, I should probably use quotation marks around that too, lol. He goes straight from KDO to a Happy Feet program. He seems to love it and has started throwing balls and kicking them all over the house, which wasn't much of an interest before.

So we decided that maybe, just maybe it was time for a haircut. Cal did great! He giggled and had a good time. This is a sharp contrast to Noah's first haircut!

Ta-Dah! Beautiful.

Calvin has turned into a blanket kid, he goes and pulls his blankets through the bars of his crib and carries them all over the house. He snuggles with them, it's so cute. He also loves balls, he walks around all day saying "ball...ball...ball..." He likes to drop them and say 'Uh-oh!' and then go get them and repeat the process. He is a pretty wonderful little guy!

Calvin's First Birthday

2010-08-26T09:59:00.008-05:00

We had Calvin's birthday party on Saturday, August 14th at the lake. We arrived at the lake Friday night about 7:15 in the beginning of a storm. There was lightning everywhere. I didn't make the connection at the time that it was a dark and stormy night on Friday the 13th! Unfortunately about 7:45 the power went out. Eek! Once again, really glad I didn't make the Friday the 13th connection! We spent a mostly sleepless hot and sticky night at the cabin, we kept expecting the power to come back on any minute, but not so much. At the lake no power also means no running water and after a while, no phones. So it was an interesting and memorable birthday. We just used lake water to keep the toilet going and had our party anyway. Luckily I had baked the cakes and made the icing before we got there, so we still had a cake. This first picture is of the cake decorating team, minus me.

Ta-Da!!! I think the cake turned out great! And it tasted very good, too!

It's the Very Hungry Caterpillar, in case you don't know of the beloved kid's book, which is shown in this picture.

Snacks

Here is the only family picture we took that day. It was hot, we needed to cool off a little.

Lunch!

Isn't he a beautiful almost 1 year old? A perk of the humidity and no air conditioning was that Calvin's too long hair curled and it was gorgeous!

the festive decorations were done by Uncle Neal and Aunt Courtney

Presents!

Finally, Calvin got his own chair, it has REALLY cut down on the fights in our house!

Can't you tell he's thrilled? I love this pic. He just looks tired and hot and totally cute.

He loves his new Lightening McQueen! So does Noah...

Cake time-there are lots o cake pictures because I'm very proud of it.

He needed a little help getting started.

Look at his hair! I think this picture is totally and completely sweet and adorable, but it doesn't really look much like Calvin :)

Calvin was dancing to Lightening McQueen's music.

Noah needed a little quiet time after all the excitement, so we put on Cars for him on our portable DVD player that luckily still had some charge. He pulled Lightening McQueen over to watch the movie with him.

We came in and found him like this. I love this! It's such an incredibly sweet picture and he doesn't look too big, right? He still looks like a little guy.

Boat Ride!!! Doesn't Cal look super-comfy in that life jacket? Sorry Little Man, those are the rules.

Noah spends a lot of time swinging at the lake (well being pushed on the swing). He gets really high!

Calvin and Great-Grandpa bonded at the party :)

The rest of these pictures were taken on his actual birthday! Happy Birthday, Cal, we love you!

He started out the morning playing in the tent and in typical Cal fashion, went in through the window :)

Jo made banana pancake men as a special birthday breakfast treat :)

After breakfast we headed to the zoo to meet some friends.

Noah has been very huggy lately with Calvin. :)

Noah is feeding Calvin Cheerios in this pic

The kids lined up watching the chimps. The chimps marched right down to the glass shortly after we got there.

I guess Cal found the Prevost's Squirrels to be very interesting

A couple of hot, tired little ones ready to go home.

We stopped back by the polar bear exhibit on our way out. The polar bear, Nikita, was hamming it up! He would swim right up to the glass then come up out of the water, plant his back paws on the glass and push off. Cal started to back up as he got closer :)

I the zoo just took it out of the little guy. I love those cheeks!

Several weeks ago we asked Noah was he wanted to get Calvin for his birthday. Without hesitation Noah said "A blue Colorado Express." The Colorado Express is an engine that we got for Noah last year in Estes Park. It is his favorite toy. He loves it, and you can tell, it is mostly held together by screws and glue at this point. Luckily my parents were going back to Estes Park shortly before Cal's birthday. Unluckily they discovered that the store that sold the Colorado Express had burned down. So, rock star Daddy to the rescue! He found some numbers on the bottom of the Co Express and was able to find a website that sold them. We had to buy a case of 12, but it came in a lot of different colors including blue and yellow (the original). I ordered them 3 days before Cal's actual birthday, so I didn't think they would get there in time. BUT, when we arrived home from the zoo I saw a box by our front door. Hooray! So now we have 11 extra CO Expresses, but we figure they will be GREAT rewards! I love Cal's expression in this picture, he loved it!

Our smiley guy :) It was a good day.

2010-07-26T14:25:00.007-05:00

We took a trip to the zoo with some friends. It was hot...we almost melted.

I promise he really did like these birds, he just seems terrified in the picture

Noah n Cal with Conner and Collin

Cal really wanted to pet a monkey.

Riding the train! YES RIDING the train! After 2 years of trying to get him on, Noah finally rode the train, twice, and he really enjoyed it!

All smiles (once we pretty much forced him on)

Calvin and I bailed on train ride #2 and found some air conditioning. Hence the smiles

These are my poor attempts to get some pictures on his 11 month birthday.

Cal loves to read! I'm so happy!

Isn't he so cute and big? Can you believe 11 months???? And yes he will get a haircut someday...I'm just not sure when someday will be.

He's a KID...crazy

Before spaghetti....

After!

For Ryan's birthday we took Noah to see his very first movie, Toy Story 3. He had to bring Woody and Buzz with him. These are Ryan's Toy Story toys from back in the day :) Noah was so excited! He did pretty well, too. He got a little restless, but wasn't too noisy or anything. I think he's a fan of going to the movies!

We ate a bite before going to the movie...with Woody and Buzz.

Noah and Ryan (and Woody and Buzz) right before the movie started

And of course, we had to go see the trains since we were at the Great Mall.

Ryan made us a yummy dinner of breakfast on his birthday. I think he was wanting a break from some whiney kids I know.

Wrestlemania 2010

Calvin uses Noah's red chair to climb up onto the loveseat. He spends a lot of time up there then he usually yells for us to come get him down. He has gotten down a few times on his own, once or twice he didn't even land on his face :) Today he crawled down the stairs for the first time. He wanted to get to his ball. He loves to play ball with us. It's fun, he's started doing so many new things now! He meows at pictures of cats and moos at pictures of cows. He can say all kinds of words now, mama, dada, Noah, fish, bye-bye, night-night, ball, nana (banana) and several others, I'm tired and can't think since SOMEONE got me up at 6 this morning. He is starting to try to put things back together and will pick up the phone and hold it to his ear and babble. This is just a really fun time! He is a climber and gets into and onto everything. Noah was so easy, we've got to watch this one a lot closer.

Noah loves to run and jump and is still obsessed with trains. Our house is always filled with the sounds (some very loud!) of train whistles. He chugs all over the place. He loves to watch TV, which we have to limit or he would do nothing but sit in front of the TV all day. He loves movies and to watch train videos on Youtube. He figured out how to work the laptop, he's a smart guy. He's not into snuggling or reading or coloring right now, but I'm hoping it's just a phase. He will be going to a one day a week kid's day out in the fall. I think it will be good for him, but I can't believe he is already big enough to be going to "school." I think I am going to be a mess the first day I drop him off.

The last couple weeks

2010-07-07T10:05:00.004-05:00

Calvin thought the phone cord was totally novel...and delicious!

The boys are touching each other more without Noah freaking out. Ryan is teaching them to wrestle, oh goodness.

I think this picture look so much like the pictures I've seen of Ryan as a kid...

Cal and Noah fight over this red chair about every five minutes. Calvin will be getting his own chair (blue!) for his birthday from Jo and Pops....that kind of makes me wish he would hurry up and turn 1 already ;)

Noah and Jo got it in their heads that they needed to bake a red cake with chocolate chips and chocolate icing...so they did and I have to say, the results were delicious!

mmmmmmm

The after :)

LET US OUT!!!!

I went to get Calvin up from his nap last week and he had grabbed everything that he could reach and tossed it in the crib with him...including a box of wipes, and he proceeded to pull out 35 of them

4th of July weekend!!!! This was on Saturday, the only day it didn't rain all day.

Noah loves to watch fireworks!!

and help light them...eek!

I have warm fuzzies for pictures of Noah walking on the dock with Ryan...I'm not sure why, but I have lots of these pictures....I think this is the first one with Noah wearing an inner tube, though.

The wind sock stayed this way about the whole weekend, it was WINDY...and rainy....and not warm. We spent A LOT of time indoors

A pic of the weather...on the 4th of JULY!!! Nuts...

Noah is using his new Lightening McQueen aqua socks to remove copious amounts of hair from Ryan's leg in this picture

Peek-a-boo!

Due to the cabin being rather full, we brought a wee camp chair inside for Noah. It worked very well....except when Cal wanted in, too.

Fireworks!!! Noah got to stay up late and shoot off some fireworks and watch the big display at the lake (in the rain...well drizzle...but it was wet)

This part of the fireworks is where I had to bite my tongue...I'm not a fan of them and I am convinced they blow people's hands off on a fairly regular basis. Perhaps I would see more one handed people if that were true...I still don't like them very much.

This picture makes me laugh because it perfectly captured Ryan's "Noah is in trouble" face

I think Great Grandma Dieker kind of likes Cal :)

Father's Day, the lake, Calvin's 10 month pics...

2010-06-21T21:51:00.001-05:00

This is Cal covered in heat rash...poor little guy. I think you can see it better if you click on the picture and enlarge it...that is if you care to...

I love the new huggies jean-looking diapers! And you can see head to toe heat rash. It really didn't bother him at all, but I felt bad for the little guy.

Once again, look at how adorable he is!

Noah always manages to get in the water with all his clothes on

We have to watch this one! He's all over the place! Cal is definitely a climber, eek!

This is what Noah does when it rains

Grandpa put up a swing for Noah (Cal is still a little bit little)

Grandma to the rescue!

Noah's 1st jetski ride

His second

We had a train-tastic father's day

Lunch at Oklahoma Joe's...notice the pop and french fries. We have devolved into terrible parents.

Noah in his new tool belt. I love his expression

These pics of Cal in just a diaper were my attempts to get some 10 month pics...he just never stops moving!!!!

Ryan and the boys on Father's Day

In the pool at Jo and Pop's house. Noah has started swimming in nothing but water wings, go Noah!!! That is much easier on my arms :) Calvin seemed to like the water, too after we got all the sunscreen out of his eyes. Sorry wee man!

Uncle Neal's Wedding Weekend

2010-06-14T10:04:00.007-05:00

The night before we left on our trip Cal was up all night teething. He woke up looking pretty rough, but not as rough as I did. That is why there is no picture of me from that morning :)

Noah n Neal at the rehearsal. Noah was very excited about being the ring bearer and he practiced and practiced and practiced. They he told Ryan that he had that aisle down and needed to practice on the other aisles, too.

Yes, I put the boys in matching outfits....and you know what? I kind of liked it!

I love this pic!

The boys started playing with each other, hooray!

The gorgeous tables at the reception

My boys getting all tuxed up!

Cal looked pretty snazzy too!

Calvin looked so adorable in his little suit!!!

It was probably a combination of all the sugar (we totally bribed him to stay in his tux) and the late hour, but Noah definitely let loose and danced and danced and danced...and chased the lights across the floor. He was cracking us up!

Proud Mama and the groom :)

I spotted a tall, handsome man across the room and had to snap a pic. Don't tell my husband :)

Noah n Neal

Memorial Day weekend/Noah's actual birthday

2010-06-02T14:54:00.008-05:00

Mmmmm popsicles!

"Noah" caught a lot of fish with his new Cars pole!

Calvin is trying to eat flowers in this picture. He tries to eat pretty much everything. I have gotten pretty good at sweeping his mouth with my index finger and popping foreign objects out of it.

The boys with Grandma and Grandpa

We started out like this....but the water was really warm...

Please ignore my fat tummy and look at my cute little boy! Next time I will suck it in.

This is how our splashing ended :)

Calvin had a great time splashing around!

Noah got a new bug habitat for his birthday (a day early) and it came with this little magnifying glass (that is now lost, eek!). He ran around on "bug hunts" with it and had a great time!

On the dock with Daddy

On the dock with Grandpa

It was hard, but we saved one present for his actual birthday.

Playing with his new favorite toy, WALL*E

Watching WALL*E with WALL*E

Birthday cheesey eggs with WALL*E

So he's wearing a Cars hat, a Toy Story tshirt and watching WALL*E. We're a Pixar family, no?

Beautiful Calvin

WALL*E, Noah, and Daddy on the swing

We tried to get Noah in his swimsuit but he would tell us he didn't want to get in the water and end up getting in fully clothed. Boys!

Birthday Brownies!!!

We had dinner at Fritz's to watch the trains (by the way, the Shawnee location doesn't have nearly as many trains as Crown Center)

Then we went to get frozen custard at Sheridans. Noah seemed to like the gummy worms from Ryan's Dirt n Worms better than his ice cream. Now we know next time we can get ice cream and he can eat our worms and be happy :)

Frozen Custard 'stache

We ended the day with swinging...one of Noah's favorite pass times. He will swing for hours. I can't wait until he figures out how to go all by himself. Speaking of going by himself, Noah has FINALLY started using the potty for #2! Hooray.

Noah's 3rd Bday party!!!

2010-05-27T15:22:00.009-05:00

I know these are not flattering pictures of me, but I wanted proof out there that I had a hand in making Noah's fabulous cake! I got the idea off the internet, but I didn't really think I could pull it off. But, with help from Jo and Terry....and some pointers from Ryan and Chris, I think it turned out GREAT. Sorry there are so many cake pictures on here, I am just terribly impressed with us.

This is a groggy Noah checking out his cake for the first time. Here he's pointing out all the features to Ryan. He loved the cake!

Look at the steam!

3 years old!

The singing....

The blowing out of the candles and....after a whole morning of waiting....

EATING!!!

And another blowing out the candles shot...they loaded weird

What was left after the party...so sad

He kind of took all day to open his presents, so they are scattered throughout the post..

Noah got a new set of REAL golf clubs....for 3 year olds! The next Tiger (minus the sex scadal!) in the making??? Time will tell

The boy loves the swings!

Noah's new tractor...he had a great time "mowing the grass" but he kept looking down at the wheels instead of where he was going...he'll get it soon!

Noah had a GREAT day on party day!!!! I can't believe my little guy will be 3 on Monday. He is such an amazing kid...he blows me away all the time. He is just so loving and smart and crazy and wonderful. Noah....you are a delight.

Cal's 9 Month pics

2010-05-27T15:07:00.004-05:00

I can't believe the little guy is 9 months already! He's been on the outside as long as he was on the inside. He army crawls all over the place, but hasn't really crawled yet. He's so close! But I think it's just easier to flop down on his belly and scoot. Calvin is always into everything! That little boy never stays still. I think we're in trouble. He always wants what Noah is playing with, too. Eek! He loves to walk around holding onto our hands and he is starting to pull up on things, too. He says "Dada" all the time along with "du" for duck and "Ba" for ball. He is just a total joy, we love you Cal!

Mother's Day 2010

2010-05-17T15:09:00.005-05:00

Cal's new swing! If only it would stop raining so he could enjoy it some more!

Noah's new swing. I had to show him the ropes :)

But then he got the hang of it all by himself!

Our tomatoes

Our peppers

Cal is so cute!!!

So is Noah :)

Here are my attempts to get a picture with my boys on Mother's Day...sigh...it didn't go so well.

Late April/Early May

2010-05-05T21:14:00.003-05:00

Jam session with Pops

Noah puts my headband on like this to be David, as in David and Goliath. Then he takes off the headband and swings it around and hits us with it. :)

These pics were all taken at Emilee's birthday party. The boys had a GREAT time at the gym! Noah giggled and smiled so much and loved the trampolines and the foam pit and the big slide. He wouldn't go down the slide without me, sometimes life is just rough.

Cal, Pops n Cousin Carter

Sometimes it's hard to get Noah going in the morning, but on the plus side, he's cuddly :)

working post

2010-05-05T16:19:00.003-05:00

Warm Weather!!!

2010-04-19T15:05:00.005-05:00

Sorry it's sideways, I'm lazy

Look! A picture of the boys together!!!! AMAZING!!!!

This was my attempt to snap a second picture....I was not fast enough

We had an impromptu picnic the other day and I got some pics of the boys in the good natural light. Calvin had just feasted on blueberry yogurt and a vegetable chicken dinner. Yum.

Look at those teeth! He's got 6 of them now.

I know I have posted a multitude of pictures like this of Noah, it's hard to get him to stop moving...and I LOVE his lashes!

We took a trip with some friends to Deanna Rose, a park/petting zoo type thing. It's tons of fun!

Some Easter pics...more to come when I get pics from my folks, I temporarily misplaced my camera...

2010-04-14T14:20:00.006-05:00

I have to put a pic or two of me on the blog occasionally just to show that I still exist.

Egg dyeing fun

Cal looking a little bored with the festivities

Doing his Hulk pose

Noah helped Uncle Neal unwrap his presents and really hammed it up :) Happy 21st Uncle Neal

Ok, it's egg hunt time! Noah and Uncle Dave set out on their quest.

Uncle Neal showed off his new iPad. Cal feigned interest :)

New Thomas movie and a new train book for Noah that he didn't really care about, however...

I think Noah's favorite Easter basket goody was Cal's train book. Hmmm...maybe the bunny made a little mistake. Good thing Cal is willing to share.

Here is a sick Calvin. It's easy to tell he's sick because he's actually sleeping on someone. He never falls asleep on us anymore....it's kind of sad.

Calvin actually stayed on his tummy for a few minutes to check out Mr. Scrambles. Cal hates being on his tummy. I think it will be a long time before he crawls.

Noah brought Cal's new train book over to read it to him. You can tell that Calvin is enthralled.

Daddy and Cal watching a storm roll in.

Recent pics

2010-04-05T13:18:00.001-05:00

Cal really wanted the butter, a boy after my own heart :)

Cal n Carter n Pops (not in that order)

Noah on his top bunk

Look at those big blues!

Everyone got in on the egg dyeing action

Noah thoroughly enjoys eating sprinkles.

That's my boy!

More Easter pictures to follow, I misplaced my camera, but it has been located!

More pictures

2010-03-27T20:28:00.003-05:00

Noah has started hammin' it up for the camera

I love this picture!!!

Videos

2010-03-21T21:05:00.002-05:00

Finally more pics

2010-03-18T21:55:00.003-05:00

A sick Noah...just moments before he vomited all over me. I took a picture because he was still...and all the pictures I get of him these days are terrible because he's never still.

Noah wanted me to take a picture of his train, so here you go, now you can all see his train.

I love this picture of Ryan and Noah! It's blurry but good!

Here is a picture of Cal with an undiagnosed ear infection...sickness has been a recurring theme around here lately.

This is what I mean when I say that almost all the pictures of Noah I take are terrible

I can't believe how much Calvin looks like the baby pictures of James and I. Since Noah is just a mini-Ryan it's nice to have one that looks like me!

My smiley guy

We have moved Cal to the big high chair. He looks so tiny in it!

Here is Noah drinking his antibiotic-laced chocolate milk. He got an ear infection, too. Isn't this kid beautiful. I know that he's mine and I'm totally biased, but he's beatiful!

What you lookin at?
We have all been sick lately. It started with Cal, then Noah, then Ryan, then Cal again, then me, then Noah again...I THINK we are all on the mend. I am blaming this big gap in posting on us all be ridiculously sick. The boys are doing well other than having been sick. Noah still LOVES trains. I'm glad he has a passion :) He also loves running and jumping and making beds for us so we can pretend to sleep. Calvin is sitting up very well on his own now, such a big boy! He doesn't seem very interested in mobility, which I am perfectly happy with! Our lives are going to get a lot more complicated when he can crawl! Noah has a lot of toys with little pieces, we are going to have to watch Cal like a hawk!

2nd post today, be sure to look below for more new pics!

2010-02-25T10:58:00.006-06:00

This is a pic of Cal in his fancy Children's Mercy getup. I had to take him in last night b/c of a high fever and difficulty breathing. But he's fine, it's just a virus, they suctioned out his nose and did a lot of tests and sent us home.

Cal

Noah-just similar-ish pics. They look more alike in my mind, when I put them together, not so much, so just indulge me :)

Noah n Cousin Carter hanging out. They have gotten to be good buddies!

Look at Noah's fancy haircut!

The rest of these are all of Cal's 6 month photo shoot.

Six Months of Calvin :)

2010-02-25T10:30:00.003-06:00

Avocado Boys

2010-02-19T15:13:00.002-06:00

Noah

Calvin-this pic of Cal reminded me of one of Noah, so I hunted it down. These pics are of their first taste of avocado.

:)

2010-02-19T14:47:00.005-06:00

Cal is doing great sitting up by himself (with a boppy). He can sit a minute or two completely unassisted before slowly toppling over.

Noah loves to wear summer clothes in the winter. I think it's a boy thing.

This firefly is yummy!

This kid is SERIOUSLY cute!

Calvin and his cousin Carter like to take turns trying to poke each other in the eye.

Noah chowin' down at our Valentines Day Party

Calvin and his buddy Elizabeth at the Valentines Day party. When people say that Cal has a lot of hair, I always say "you should see our friend Elizabeth"

Opening his book at our play group Valentines Day party

Funny Faces :)

Videos!

2010-02-05T16:29:00.003-06:00

Some interaction, I love it when Noah 'hugs' Calvin

Noah was just figuring out his whistle...now he is MUCH louder

Cal talkin' and first bites of cereal!

Lots of pics of Cal and a few of Noah...I gotta balance things out!

2010-01-27T14:11:00.006-06:00

Noah wanted to check out his cool new underwear. He will probably hate me later for this pic, but it makes me laugh.

Watching the bread machine go.

Go Cowboys!

Calvin tried to eat his iguana

DROOL!

Sleepy Baby....how adorable. These next shots are of Calvin's first experience with solid food (well, semi-solid food). He made some GREAT faces!

Oops! Sorry it's been so long!

2010-01-16T13:29:00.005-06:00

What a face!

I think he looks like Noah...if you turn your head sideways, sorry!

Where did this long KID come from?

Watching train videos on the laptop

Sorry this one loaded sideways, but it take too much time to fix it, so just turn your head :) I think he looks freakishly similar to pictures of Ryan that I have seen from around the same age.

Seriously cute kid!!!! If I do say so myself!

Noah would spin this toy, Calvin grabs it and does his best to eat it...

Calvin lookin like his older brother at this age

Look at that chub! I think Calvin looks like Noah in this picture, too!

We have to wrap Noah up in a toga every night after bath to brush his teeth, it cracks me up.

Here is Calvin, cutting those first teeth on Daddy's finger, his favorite chew toy. Calvin now has 2 teeth! His two bottom middle ones are in! He is still drooling like crazy and chewing on everything so I guess more are coming! Cal is rolling over all the time (no more tummy time for him!), and can even sit up by himself....for about 3 seconds. We are thinking about starting solid foods next weekendish! Calvin is doing so great, a little fussier lately, but we blame the teeth. He is also getting up 2-3 times a night again (ugh!!!) which we are trying to discourage. Noah has been waking up 2-3 times a night too, suddenly, he has always been such a great sleeper, it's kind of crazy. So, Ryan and I have been awakened about 5x a night for the last week and a half/ 2 weeks. We look like zombies!

Noah woke up a week and a half ago and announced that he wanted to wear his Thomas underwear, so we are potty training! He is doing great! He is having about one small accident a day (when Mommy pays attention and doesn't keep doing laundry in the basement when Noah starts yelling for her upstairs....). Ryan stumbled on a great way to get him to use the toilet. Noah has decided that his little plastic one is a potty and the regular ones that you and i use are toilets. After he uses the toilet Noah gets to throw some sunflower seeds in and the watch them get flushed down. It's great entertainment, I guess. I am just disgusted by watching him practically put his head in the bowl and the flushing...shudder...but it's working!

Now that Calvin is getting bigger, Noah is playing with him more, which is tons of fun to see! Noah will copy what we say to Calvin, so we're hearing Noah say "Calvin, when did you get so big?" and "Tell us all about it, Calvin" a lot. It's so cute.

I'll try to do better about posting...I've been too tired to take pictures, though....

Silly amounts of Christmas Pictures

2009-12-28T10:12:00.009-06:00

Noah n Jo decorating Christmas cookies...the start of our holiday extravaganza! The next day we headed to Wichita for Christmas with the Diekers the weekend before the actual holiday

Here is an unflattering picture of Noah in reindeer antlers :)

Noah had a great time stacking up all of his presents

Calvin in his adorable hat with Aunt Courtney

Noah showing Calvin his new train pjs

Fixated on Calvin's pj's

As soon as we got the wrapping paper off the box Noah said "Steamer's inside." How did he know? The box is pretty plain, no pictures or anything...Steamer was inside. Can he read? Lol

Noah playing with Steamer

Adorable!!!!

Calvin is seriously CUTE!!!!

Noah helped pass out the presents, this one was heavy, so it got pushed

He's really digging down in that stocking! He wanted his Mix!

Playing with Calvin's new ball popper train...Noah seems to be having a lot of fun with all Calvin's presents, too. Look at my terrible posture!

Noah and I at Union (onion) Station on Christmas Eve eve

Noah and Daddy spread out reindeer food in the yard so they could find our house on Christmas Eve Eve. We did our family of four Christmas a day early.

Noah kept telling us that Santa was going to bring him a red present with a green tie (bow), and look, he did!

Santa brought Calvin a little kitchen, he seemed sort of interested, lol...he did LOVE the spatula!

Me n my boys (I SERIOUSLY need to work on my posture!)

Calvin going to town on his spatula

Noah spent most of Christmas Eve morning like this...Santa did good!

We were planning on spending Christmas Eve at our house all day, but the weather had different plans. We set out for Jo and Pops' house just in time. By the time we got there it was sleeting and then the snow began...

Calvin and Jo

The adorable Carter, I love this picture!

Noah and Santa Pops

Noah examining his new train pajamas. He LOVES them

Calvin and cousin Carter, what a bunch of cuties!

Ryan getting attacked during present opening

There's my smiley guy!

Noah showing Jo his train pjs

Here is a big snow drift on Jo and Pops' porch

Making snow ice cream, it's so very yummy!

Noah gobbling up his ice cream

He loved his new hat and mittens

Look a those beautiful blue eyes! Noah really enjoyed playing in the snow. He lasted a lot longer out there than we thought he would!

Waving with Daddy

Look at those lashes!

Here is another huge drift at Jo and Pops'. We finally loaded the kids up on Sunday morning and headed back home...we were afraid of what we would find, and there was TONS of snow! Poor Ryan got to work right away shoveling off the driveway. He's a good man, that Ryan Dieker.

The end!

Some Pictures of the Last Few Weeks

2009-12-16T15:34:00.003-06:00

Here is our playgroup at Union Station watching the trains, it was a big hit!

Here we are indoctrinating the boys...they must love "Twas the Night Before Christmas." Thanks Uncle James!

eThis is a cute pic of Noah...not so much of Ryan, sorry!

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Noah waiting to see Santa!

The train going around while waiting to see Santa...Noah wanted that for Christmas...sorry Charlie

He didn't cry!!!

Here is my adorable nephew who just turned 1! Way to go big guy!

This is maybe my favorite picture of Noah and Calvin together, lol. It just perfectly captures their interaction. Noah wanted up in Cal's crib, so we put him in there with Calvin...everything was going fine until Cal accidentally touched Noah. Calvin is completely oblivious to the drama (because he's not quite 4 months!) and Noah was saying 'He's touching me, he's touching me!"

This is Noah being "froggy-boy" after his bath one night. Isn't he adorable?

Calvin is getting quite good a sitting in the Bumbo...and still always has his little fist in his mouth :)

Noah at Union Station

2009-12-09T21:37:00.002-06:00

I'm tired

2009-12-05T22:34:00.001-06:00

I'm sleepy so this is it for now!

Hmmmm

2009-12-05T22:23:00.000-06:00

so I'm trying to change up the blog again and can't figure out how to get rid of the background...please be patient :)

2009-12-04T16:09:00.004-06:00

I will come back later and make comments. Just don't want to lose the picture upload.

On our way to Union Station, he likes his hood up now...hmm...

Looking at trains with Daddy. Union Station has a huge display of model trains running everywhere during the holidays

Lunch at Fritz's

This is Calvin with both of his great-grandmothers

This is Cal trying to shove both fists in his mouth, a common sight since the poor kid is teething

Calvin Laughing at Nikki and Noah

2009-11-30T19:14:00.003-06:00

Something about the combination of Nikki singing, shaking the inch worm and Noah jumping made Calvin completely crack up! He is struggling mightily with his teeth today, but has also been full of laughs. A mix of the great with the not so great.

Calvin is 3 Months Old!

2009-11-20T13:13:00.006-06:00

Calvin is just starting to sit in the Bumbo, this pic was a few days before the 3 month mark, but all the rest were on his 3 month birthday. I went camera-happy...sorry...trust me, I did weed out a lot of pictures and I only chose my favorites :)

Um...Mom...I think the iguana is eating my wrist....

This is what Noah was doing during all the pictures, watching Dinosaur Train. It's a new show on PBS that combines 2 of Noah's loves, dinosaurs and trains, GENIUS!

Baby Noah, just for comparison, I think Noah was closer to 5 months in this pic, but I could be wrong.

This is Calvin staring at his toes, he thinks they are fantabulous!

Noah and I went outside to play during Calvin's morning nap and got dirty. I like these pics :)

A 3 month birthday can be exhausting! Calvin weighed in at 14lb 11.5oz that morning, he has more than doubled his birthweight! He also slept 10.5 hours straight the night before, Nice!