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Sushi.

You all know I am a big fan of food, so you can imagine the giddiness that overtook every cell of my body when I walked into my sushi dream.

As luck would have it, I was invited to a sushi party on Friday. The hostess, Jennifer, simply blew me away with her sushi selections.  She not only had a table full of all different kinds of handmade-on-the-spot sushi with labels and coordinating tableware, but she also had a menu and we could have our sushi made to order.

It was beautiful and I am kicking myself that I didn't take any photos.  I told her that I enjoyed her sushi as much as I did when I went to Nobu in London, and I had a great time with the people at the party too.

Here are a few of us after the party:  (Natalie, Annie, Me, Terri, Amy and Jhna)

Saturday we spent time with the Steinkes and the Martins (Melissa bonded with Mr, Finn), and we got some great potential Christmas card shots for the Steinkes.  Here is a sneak preview: 

and a fun one of Jack and Ella:

  ..and of course, the stars of this blog ('cause I know ya' all come here to see their cute faces and not my annoying attempt at being witty. LOL) Yes, Finn is THAT happy most of the time, and Kian's hair is that crazy.  Another one of our names for him is "Crazy Hair Johnson." 

Bone Dry

It's been dry for photos around here.  My computer is having some issues and is in need of some doctorin', so playing with photos has been a nuisance. 

With the school year underway, I am busy.  It is Homecoming week, so I was able to wear PJ's on Monday.  Teacher secret #43: The next best thing to a snow day is Morning Monday LOL. 

I still like my Freshmen.  My Sophomores are keeping me on my toes, but my student teacher will be taking over soon.  He is my first practicing teacher.  I am quite sure he is amused by me.  I am different (alarmingly different?) than my co-workers he is working with now.  Wish Matt luck.

The boys are also busy.  Kian is so proud of his cruising abilities.  He crawls up on everything, and Finn is starting to catch up.  He is not only crawling, but he is also just starting to pull himself up too. They continue to amaze me everyday.  They continue to make Bob and me question how we could have made such cute little guys. 

RIGHT: I had to share this photo from a different perspective.  I love how everyone is looking at them.  This is really such a typical view for me.  I need to scrapbook about this since I know it will pass ::Sigh::: I WILL scrapbook again someday!

In other new: I did want to share a few from my last visit with John.  He is still hanging in there, and Amy says he is in good spirits and doesn't look as bad as the doctors say he is.  Please, if you have a moment, keep him in your thoughts.  As you can tell, they are some pretty special people. 

FIRST:  Amy, John and Amy's childhood longtime friend, Annie.

SECOND: In love and the family looks on. 

THIRD:  Great-Grandpa (John) holding the newest member of his family (with granddaughter).

   

And one last one of the boys:

Magnets

After they eat and get dressed in the morning, I put them back in the crib.  Most days they play for a while and then nap (while I get ready).  A few days ago, this is what I witnessed when I came in to get them up.

They are like little magnets.  I put them down apart and no matter what, every morning they are touching in some way.  Not usually like THIS though.  I think they were playing and just got tired.

Too cute.

In other news, they are both crawling now.  Finn usually only crawls at daycare though.  When he is home, he knows mommy will pick him up if he sounds pitiful enough, and if he is picked up, Mommy will probably give him kisses, blow raspberries on his belly and tickle him until he squeals. That sounds like a pretty good idea to Finn most of the time.

Kian is just everywhere now.  He just started following me around.  He is a sucker for the tickle mommy too.

I took this last weekend.  It was about a five minute photo shoot.  None of us were into it, so this is the best I got. 

 

Could you keep John in your thoughts?

  John, is my friend, Amy's, dad.  He has Cancer and his family doesn't have a lot of time left with him.

I took the above photos back in May. Here is the entire book of photos from that shoot.

Bob, the boys and I went back down to Albert Lea again last weekend.  I haven't been able to get through all the photos yet though.  He has taken a more dire turn.  I know that John and his family could use all your good thoughts and prayers as they head into this uncharterd territory.

(in happier news)

I don't have any new photos of the boys edited, but I did want to share Riddley again.  I took his photos back in the spring and now I just took his one year photos.  He is really a loveable little guy.

        

The Chub-Cherbs turn 9 months.

Uh huh, that is Bob's latest name for the boys.  I still hear the occasional Taybies...usually by me, but Chub-Cherb has taken over.  Don't ask...'cause I don't know where it came from.  Bob is strange. Oh,:::EDITED TO ADD::: it isn't a typo.  It is Chub CHERBS not cherubs.  I know. He really is weird.  I asked him how it is spelled.  Not C-h-u-r-b-s but C-h-e-r-b-s.  Just so you all know. 

Yeah, I get to live with him. ;-p

The following are boring stats and a couple of cute recent photos.  The stats are really for me...see, I can't seem to be able to keep up on the baby books, so I figure if I type it here, I will remember in my old age.

There have been many changes in the last couple of months and recently they have been growing so much.  They are still little guys.  At their nine month appointment last week, Kian was 18lbs 11 oz and Finn was 19 lbs 4 oz., but Kian was in the 10% for height and Finn was in the 2 %.   

Photo below:  They are wearing their daddy's baby clothing again (the red one fit perfectly and the white one is still too big) and the Tupperware is an homage to their grandma's profession.

Barb, when you read this, I am making you an 8x10 of this.

At this time our tally is as follows (it is amazing how different two boys who shared the same space can be so different):

Kian: 

• 2 teeth FINALLY coming in
• crawling for two weeks
• pulling himself up on EVERYTHING (he has been pulling up for about three weeks or so)
• a little cruising and walks with hands held
• took a couple of steps last night...not REAL steps...but those faltering "gotta get to Mommy" steps.
• doesn't care for finger food much
• Sleeps great most nights

 

Finn:

• 6 teeth and no new ones for over a month
• no crawling...loves to scoot and roll.  He seems to feel there is no reason to do more than rock back and forth on his hands and knees.
• Doesn't pull himself up.  He does stand holding to the crib if we get him set up.
• no real cruising
• Likes finger food and has great pincer grasp skills.
• Wakes up every night...but much better than a couple weeks ago when he decided he wanted to be up for four hours each night.

...and I don't post a lot of snapshots, but this one was just too cute to pass up posting:

 

Bacon on a stick, Pork Chop on a stick, Fruit on a stick, Hot Dish on a stick...

Gizmos, Fried Cajun pickles...

Well, in my long absence from this blog, I have been spending a lot of time with the boys, getting ready for school (tomorrow is my first full day with students), taking photos and going to the State Fair, twice.

Yeah, we went twice and ate our way through it both times.  If you are from Minnesota, you get this....if you are not from MN (or perhaps Iowa/WI or maybe Texas), just understand that this is like our Mecca.  A strange Mecca with sheep barns, random stick food, all you can drink milk for a dollar, tractors, free yardsticks, numerous booths with water softeners, water testers, water recyclers, water cleansers, etc...

It is usually hot, humid, extremely crowded, and overpriced, but we still go.  It is in our blood.

Beautiful weather both nights and the boys were troopers as usual.  They are such little flirts...young girls, old men, middle aged lesbians, newlywed heterosexuals, mothers of twins, twin of twins, black, white....they love them all.  I hope they are just as charming at 17 as they are now.

 

Oh, and whatever you do, skip the hotdish on a stick... vomit inducing.