Life lately for the Huffs...

Gosh... with the new year for me came a resolve to keep my house cleaner. Most of the time it is "picked up" but I really wanted to keep it clean. Organize all the files, have a schedule for the major stuff (bathrooms, sheets, windows, etc) and it has been going great! It took me about three weeks to get completely organized and clean out all the rooms, closets, filling cabinets, desk, but once I was done it has been pretty simple to keep it up! I am so loving that if I just keep up on the little things, do one big item a day, that the house stays clean! AND it all become worth the work when this week Ricky got home from work and sat down on the couch and said "Honey, I think this is the first time, since we have been married, that I feel like our lives are more organized and less chaotic, the house looks amazing, the kids seem happy, we are getting to spend time together, thank you". I was so sweet of him to say and I could tell he meant it. While we have been super busy these last couple of weeks, it does not seem to have taken the chaotic spin that it normally does.

And now for an update on my boys:
Jake is growing up so fast I can barely stand to take my eyes off him for a min... afraid he might go away to college or something! His thought process amazes me daily! He can remember things that happened in our day to day lives like no person I have ever met... His tender heart blesses me daily. We have been attending SMILES. Its a bible study on Thursday mornings for Moms... they have a children's program and Jake loves it! Last week he made a bird on a paper plate and was so proud of it! We work three times a week on his letters, numbers, colors, matching items, etc. I have been able to see him grow in that area so much lately... like the light bulb went on. Its so special for me to be able to see his little brain growing, learning, and desiring to learn!

Carter... where to I start... he is my pistol! He is as crazy as Ricky! He has a funny sense of humor and now that he can pretty much say anything it has come out full force.... he thinks Jake is the best thing to ever come around. He wants to do everything brother does, go everywhere brother goes, and play with everything brother is playing with! This alone causes some tension but we have been able to break through most of the horrible temper tantrums with consistent time outs... basically for a while there Carter spent most of his day in time out! lol..now its much better! He has 14 teeth now... which makes me happy since I was getting scared that maybe he would only ever have 6. He got all the other ones at once and while we were on Vacation after Christmas.. I know... SPECIAL HUH?

Noah... oh my sweet boy... he has such a sweet gentle spirit about him. He rarely cries. He loves to watch his brothers play and really loves to snuggle with his momma. He is my momma's boy. He has 2 teeth on the bottom and his top two are on the way in... thus we are no longer nursing! He has taken to a bottle well, while eating solid baby food has been a challenge. He just spits it at me... and thinks its funny! I think because he has teeth and is sitting up now I am just going to put him in a high chair with mashed up what ever we are eating and let him go at it! We will see how that works out! This morning he started "scooting" along the floor in the play room and really seems to have a desire to get moving... probably to keep up with Carter and Jake. I can't believe he is already on his way to being a big boy! Where did the last 8 months go???

I am working on some pictures right now so as soon as they are done and ready I will post them. Such cute ones the last couple of weeks of the boys playing and us just be us!

Hope this post finds all of you well and enjoying 2009!

A little update...

I am finding it hard to blog these days... so that is why it has been a while. Carter on most days in sick (ears and teeth) and is a real handful for me. Noah is getting to be such a big boy now too... I have almost weaned him completely (due to his two bottom teeth... can you say ouch!) But still trying my hardest to get him to take solid foods. He is almost 8 months old and really shows no interest in it at all.. in fact he mostly enjoys spitting it out because Jake and Carter think that is so FUNNY!

Jake is becoming such a big boy as well... already he is talking about going to school and how much he would love to go to Gramma Jean's school. It amazes me the things he remembers and talks about. He can remember things from a single conversation from months and months ago... but somehow can't remember to flush the toilet?? LOL... BOYS!!

It has been so sweet to see the relationship between Carter and Jake develop into one where they truly want to be with each other and PLAY!! Just this morning Jake told Carter "Your my bestest friend Carter.... I love playing with you" to that Carter said "Ahh..." and hugged him. It was so sweet.

Carter has become such a little talker in the last month too. Oh my.. he can basically repeat what ever you say (careful mom) and often is able to communicate what he wants now with words not just throwing a tantrum. That is nice.

We had a wonderful Christmas. Decided to head up to Carson City (close to Tahoe) the day after and spend some time with my grandparents. It snowed just two days before we got there so we had a nice two feet or so to play in. Ricky and I built the fastest sled run ever! OK well maybe not ever... but ever in terms of ones I have been on. It even had a jump on which I totally bruised my tailbone. Leave it to me right? We got some great pictures and I will do my best to get them up on here as soon as I can.

Right now I am in the middle of re-organizing my house. I need more storage so that has become a priority for us. Usable storage space. Also in a few weeks we leave for Iowa where Ricky will be the best man in Lee's wedding. I have never been to the Midwest before and I am looking forward to it. Well most of it... not the -43 degree weather with wind chill... not that at all!

Hope this update finds you all well...

SNOW DAY!!!

Yay! It snowed all day yesterday here and we have almost a full foot of snow! Jake loved every second of it and played as much as we would let him out there... it was so cold his little face was red but he did not care.. he had a blast. Carter really hated it... which did not suprise me since he does not like water all that much either. He was upset that he had to wear gloves and did not like his shoes either so he stayed on the porch most of the time. After building and then jumping on a snowman we went to my parents to use the sled and go down the lawn and driveway since theirs is pretty steep... man was that a good time! The kids and I can't lie Ricky and I had a blast!

Below are some pictures that we took of the day.. the progression of the snow fall and the kids playing! Hope you enjoy them as much as I did taking them.

My baby got a tooth today....

Today I made a discovery.... my baby boy got his first tooth!! It is the bottom right one and I am totally shocked! You should understand that my other two boys have not gotten a single tooth until right before their first birthdays... and you see Noah is only 6 months 3 weeks old! He does not even eat baby food yet and he has a tooth! I just can't believe how fast this last baby is growing up. God is so amazing to bless me with the most amazing boys anyone could ever ask for.... truly they are. While some days can be chaotic most of the time I am truly honored to be their mom. So little by little I think my shock is giving way to sadness... that he is really going to get bigger and grow up and not be a baby anymore. But I am excited to see what God is going to do in their lives!

Mojave Narrows...

We had a really nice time yesterday... we went to Mojave Narrows with the Kulhs and got to hang out and meet Wendi's sister and her family! Wow do they look just alike! LOL... anyway, the kids had a great time. I was not going to let them get into the water but Jake really wanted to so trying to be more layed back I agreed! He had a blast running in and out of the water.. I did not get any good shots because Noah was crying at this time so I missed the water shots... but I got Jake playing Star Wars (what new right??) and Carter eating his Oreo..

Carter was not in a playing mood yesterday... not sure if he was just overwhelmed by the bigger kids or not feeling perfect. Anyway, he hung out with me and Noah most of the day which was fun.

On the way out of the Park Jake asked to stop and see the Camel.. so we did... and the Camel as you can see.... saw us too!! LOL!! What a good day... we missed Daddy though.. he had to work.. ya I know on Venteran's Day... STINK!

Pictures from the last couple of days...

The NEW clean play room!!

and my boys being silly while I am trying to clean!!

What an amazingly weirdly amazing day!!

LOL... anyway, I have been wanting to clean out our play room for some time now but it is such a SCARY task to undertake that it has been getting worse and worse for months now. This weekend Ricky built me a storage unit that I could store boxes of toys in and since he finished it so quickly I wanted to get my end done fast too. So today I took the entire play room apart. Went through every single toy... gave lots away, threw some away, and labeled and stored the rest of them in the new unit. I then took everything out of the entertainment center in the play room, dusted and re-arranged it all, took the small couch out and sent that over to my moms for the guest bedroom, and cleaned off the the piano...all with two little people wanting to touch and play with all the toys I was trying to clean!!

I took some pictures of the aftermath so you could see how wonderful it turned out but since its 1:30am I might wait until tomorrow to upload and show them.

Tomorrow (rather today.... ) I am going to take the boys to the park with some other families... since its Veteran's Day all the daddies will be off.. but Ricky has to work... how does a military contracted company who is run by a former Navy Seal not observe Veteran's Day??? Ug!!!