Oh, those boys...

I have to share what Eli told me today before his nap: "I love you very, really hard a lot!" Is that some intense love or what!? :)

And for Mr. Noah... well... I'm not sure he shares that same kind of intense love for me. He's been totally into Eli almost his whole life. Now that we have a puppy, he has become Noah's obsession. The first thing out of Noah's mouth when he wakes up is, "Da, Da." (Dog.) He doesn't care about kisses or cuddling his Mama; no, he wants the darn dog! I'd say Snyder is his #1, Eli is #2, and then Mama & Dada. So not fair!

Home Group Boating Trip

We have such a fun home group! Yesterday after church we all met at Foster Lake. One family has a boat and spent the whole day giving us all rides and pulling us on the tube. It was lots of fun! Here we are. Noah was mad on the boat because he wanted in the water. He's such a fish! And the rocking of the boat put Eli right to sleep on my lap.

Here's everyone from home group... except a cupple little ones and two other families... including us. We had to jet out early to check on our Synder pup left home alone for the first time.

Snyder

Jonny finished his last day teaching his two week 'Adventures in Learning' program at OSU yesterday. Since we only have one car for the summer, the boys and I have been pretty much home-bound every day until 2/3ish when Jonny comes home with the car. It's really not that bad; I didn't go out much when we had the second car anyway. However, in an effort to mix things up a bit and do something to get us out of the house (something besides our usual neighborhood walk) we decided to go in to Corvallis with Jonny on Fridays. We had a lot of fun both days- going to places like the park, Petco, a friends house, the water fountains, the dollar store, the toy factory, story time, the animal shelter etc. (Curious George calls the humane society the animal shelter, so of course Eli does.) It worked out really well to tire the boys out doing fun activities, meet Jonny for lunch, and then put the boys in the car for their nap and drive around looking the beautiful big houses on the gorgeous green hills of Corvallis.

Yesterday Jonny and the other teachers had to do a 'show case' of their activities for the students' parents to see what they were up to. (And what they spent so much money on!) Jonny's table was a hit. He was experimenting with liquid nitrogen. I couldn't stand near him because there were always too many people surrounding his table. One parent told me Jonny's class was her son's favorite. Go Jonny! Anyway, it was pretty fun. I wish I had a picture of Eli standing next to Jonny wearing his saftey glasses. I guess you'll just have to take my word for it- it was super cute!



After about an hour of watching Jonny's experiments I decided to take the boys somewhere to waste time for the last 40ish minutes. The humane society was really close, so we stopped by. We had been there before, about two weeks ago asking if they had any puppies and how often they get them. And guess what!? They had puppies! They just got three lab mix puppies on Tuesday, and the adoption fee was almost $100 less than what we were looking at on the pet adoption network online. Jonny has really been wanting to get a lab, specifically a chocolate lab. Two of the three were already adopted, and one was left- a chocolate lab. To make a long story short, we went back to get Jonny, drove back to the animal shelter and left for home with a puppy. Jonny loved him! He's never had a puppy before, so he was really excited about the whole thing... along with the boys.

We've only had him for 24 hrs now, and I'm feeling a little... um... overwhelmed. I keep thinking we should have just had another baby. It's such a big commitment. And babies are so much better. I'd much rather be slobbered on by a baby than to have a cold dog mouth lick my arm. After holding babies, you smell good. After holding puppies, you smell like a dog. And then there's training! Ah! We went to Petco today to get some dog stuff... sheesh! $60 later I was scratching my head wondering what we got ourselves into. Okay, I'll stop complaining. Luckily Jonny is really, really into this dog. He's pretty much doing everything- including taking the dog out of his kennel three times last night to pee. The boys are both a little frightened and totally obsessed with the puppy.


So here he is. Meet the newest member to the Oelkers household. We named him Snyder, in honor of some good friends we have. :) Oh, and his birthday is the same day as mine.

Eli's Great Idea

I just had to post this tonight before I forget. I love talking with Eli. We have the best conversations. After we read our bible stories tonight I prayed and then Eli prayed.
"Lord God. Thank you for Jesus to come and die on the cross for our sins." Then he stopped and looked at me, "Mommy, Jesus is in heaven now?"
"Yes, He is."
"We will go to heaven, too! With Jesus!"
"Yeah! That will be great."
Then Eli asked me, "Mommy? How do we get to heaven?"
I thought he was talking about us physically getting there, so I responded..."Well, when we die, God takes us up to heaven."
Eli says, "Well, maybe God can put us in a airplane. Then we can ride the airplane to heaven."
"Oh, yeah. That's a great idea, Eli!"

Pet?

Okay, so Eli wants a kitty and Noah wants a doggy. Or so Eli says. We've been entertaining the idea of getting a pet for awhile now... since we will soon be home owners. It's so crazy because I've always thought I was a big pet person. I think from the day I was born, my family always had at least one pet in the house. During my middle school/high school years we even had ourselves a little three acre farm consisting of fish, dogs, cats, hamsters, horses, pygmy goats, chickens, ducks, and rabbits. I loved animals and couldn't imagine how people could be anti pet people.

My, how things have changed. I wouldn't exactly say I've changed into an anti pet person, but I haven't had a pet in seven years, and now that we're thinking about getting one, I'm a little nervous. It's a lot of responsibility. And there are so many things to consider. Do we get a cat or a dog or both? What breed of dog? A boy or a girl? How much is this going to cost? What if it gets sick & needs to go to the vet? What if it sheds? What if it pees on our brand new carpet? What do we do with it if we go on vacation? What if it hurts our kids? What if our kids hurt it? What if it's loud? What if we don't like it? How are we going to find time to train it? Gosh, it just seems like a big commitment. I keep telling Jonny, maybe we should just have another kid. That seems like it might be a little easier. :)

On the other hand the boys are stinkin' cute when they are around animals. Noah just loves dogs. "Da! Da! Da!" is what he repeats over and over with his little pointer finger showing us exactly where the dog is. :) And I have to admit that Becky and I learned a lot about responsibility and taking care of others when we had all those pets to care for. (Especially when it was in the middle of winter and we had to feed & water the animals before we caught the bus!) But.... we were teenagers. It's not like Eli & Noah will be of much help. Hmm... see, so much to consider!

Yesterday I took the boys to PetCo. (Its kinda like taking a trip to a little 'domesticated animal' zoo. The boys love it when we take little field trips there.) We got some information on pet adoption, and last night Jonny and I spent some time looking at pictures of puppies that are up for adoption. Oh my gosh! We saw some cute puppies! It turns out kittens are pretty cute too, and in very good supply. :) So what do you think? Are we crazy? Should we go through with it? What's your vote? Dog? Cat? Baby?

P.S.> Happy Birthday, Becky!

This weekend

On Friday night Jonny, Eli & I went to the Corvallis Knights baseball game with some friends. Eli is a very on-the- go, curious little boy, but if there is one thing he'll sit still for its a sports game. He loves baseball, basketball, soccer, you name it. He totally loved the game, and it was so cute to see him get all excited & ready to catch a foul ball with his glove. After the game there was a fireworks show, and it was great! It was so much fun. Eli said, "Fireworks were too loud for me." We didn't end up leaving until a little after 10pm & Eli conked out in his car seat on the way home.

On Saturday, we walked over to Timber Linn Park for a 4th of July festival. It was stinkin' hot! We got to see Ian, our college pastor's band play, Eli got do a project at the home depot booth, Eli & I did a water balloon toss together, and probably the most fun part... the boys got to play at the park.

After we put the boys to bed, Jonny & I climbed up on the roof (using Jonny's b-day present-a new ladder!) to watch the firework show at Timber Linn Park. The show wasn't as great as the one at the baseball game, but it was still fun because people all over were setting off big fireworks. There were about 10 different groups- all in a 360 degree radius around our house. There were fireworks going off in all directions. It was a pretty cool show from our roof top, that's for sure. :)

Today, Jonny's birthday, we've just been relaxing at home. Jonny got to sleep in this morning and take an extra long nap this afternoon, and then we went to the playground at Clover Ridge Elementary. Noah is such a good sport! He's so brave... a little too brave sometimes. :)

Sports & Dance Parties

Noah learning how to be a baller'

Eli practicing his game, too. (FYI: He dressed himself... shirt with pajama shorts)

This one's for you, Becky! :)

Dance party! That's right, we were gettin' down Hanson style to a little MMMBop- thanks to Aunt Becky & her 'Songs from our childhood' C.D. mix.

Have a happy 4th of July!

Enjoying the summer

I'm totally loving that Jonny is home for the summer! I'm taking advantage of the sun, Jonny's help, and extra time we have by keeping busy this summer. Earlier this week, we went to the coast. It was so hot here in Albany, so I was picturing a nice day at the ocean building sand castles with the boys. I was so wrong. I've lived here long enough that I should know the coast is almost always cold and windy. It's nothing like the California beaches I used to play on as a little girl. I miss that. I was so lucky to have that fun experience growing up. We were always at the beach or the river. I want my boys to experience that fun too! Anyway, I don't have pictures of our day at the coast, and it's probably just as well because it wasn't much fun. However, we did end up going to OSU's Hatfield Marine Science Museum, and that was pretty fun.

Wednesday we went to the waterfront in Corvallis to play in the big water fountains. That was great fun, but, again, I forgot the camera! The boys were adorable! I guess that was just a memory for Mommy & Daddy. We brought a stroller for Noah & packed Eli's bike in the trunk, so after getting soaking wet in the fountains we went for a walk/bike ride on the waterfront. It was a beautiful day!

Then, yesterday we went to Salem to do some shopping, and afterward we went to the Olive Garden for dinner. Yum yum! I recommend the chicken Alfredo pizza- its delicious! Eli was pushing his feet on the table all through dinner, despite our constant reminders not to. Right before we got our bill, CRASH! Eli's chair, (which is on wheels... yeah, imagine the momentum he picked up) smacked down backwards on the ground. Sitting across from Eli, I looked in horror to see his chair flipped over and his legs sticking up in the air. Then came to blood curdling scream, followed by loud wails, stairs from strangers, and a visit by the restaurant manager. He did get a bump on the back of his head, but about three minutes later Eli was laughing and giddy over his ice cream sunday- compliments of Olive Garden. They even offered us an Olive Garden gift card, but we assured them it wasn't their fault. We'll see if he ever pushes against the table like that again... well, it might be worth it if you get a free ice cream sunday out of it! :)

Photo shoot with Eli

On our anniversary last Saturday we wanted a picture of us, and thought Eli may be big enough to take it for us. He's watched us take many, many pictures, so he knows how it works. I thought he did a pretty good job. Here's his work:

A practice shot with Mommy's help. Pretty tree.

Good job! This time, try to wait for Mommy to sit down with Daddy.
Oops. A little to low & to the right.

Better, Eli... but still a little too low.

Alright! Try agin just like that, but get our whole body in the middle of the screen.

Perfect!