Monday, February 26, 2007

Two questions to ponder...


#1. Why is it that no matter how many hundreds of toys are on the floor, the most fun thing in the house will always be the no-no corner?
And #2: Why is it that fat rolls are only cute on little kids? Seems unfair, don't you think?

P.S. Someone's going to be walking soon!

Sunday, February 18, 2007

Write me a song, Jake

Jake has been learning to sing lots of songs, and he's loving it. Those of you who watched the Jesus Loves Me video from a few weeks ago saw the very early, unpolished rendition. He's watched American Idol ("watch Americah Idoh, mommy, next on FOX") and he's heard Simon Cowell talk about making the song your own. So he's really beginning to put his own spin on various songs. For example:

After watching Veggie Tales: "yes, Larry loves me, yes Larry loves me...the Bible tells me so."

After being praised for going on the potty: "red and yellow black and white, they are precious in his sight, Jesus loves the little poops of the world! YEAH POOP!!"

We have a future lyricist on our hands, don't you think?

And just for the record, it may not be anywhere in the Bible, but I'm sure Jesus would agree not to descriminate against any poops, anywhere in the world.

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Deception

Some of you are reading this entry just because of its title. You're thinking, what kind of Deception is she going to share with the world? Is she going to finally be upfront about the Deception keeping her from posting on this blog? Yes I am. I have to be really honest. I haven't been posting because every spare second for the last week and a half has been spent on Deception. If you're irritated about me continually capitalizing the word Deception, don't be. It's not just because I want to be dramatic...though I guess I am already doing that. It's because I'm talking about...


Though this book is not available in stores until April 2007, because I have a few connections with the author, I was able to get my hands on it early. Wow, way to go Dad. It was an amazing read. For those of you who like a good novel, as I do, you are absolutely going to LOVE it. And for those of you, like my husband, who prefer non-fiction, Dan will attest to the fact that this book is definitely going to be worth your time. It is a complex murder mystery that has you hooked from the very beginning and guessing until the very end. (That sounded like an official book review, didn't it?) And of course there is a lot of spiritual emphasis that gets you thinking, whether you are not a believer in God, or have been for 60 years.

For those of you who have read some of my Dad's previous books, Deception is a spin-off on his first two novels Deadline and Dominion. The main character of this book had small parts in the other books. Here's a little taste of what you're in for, taken from the jacket of the book:

"Homicide detective Ollie Chandler has seen it all. Done more than he cares to admit. But when he's called to investigate the murder of a Portland State University professor, he finds himself going places he's never gone before. Places he never wanted to go."

And let me just add this endorsement by my Dad's good friend (seriously) Chuck Norris, because if Chuck likes it, you'd better like it too :)

"I've just finished reading Randy Alcorn's new novel. Deception is the same high quality as Randy's related novels Deadline and Dominion. All three are page-turners...Randy is a gifted writer. I strongly recommend that you read his books." Or I will roundhouse kick you in the face.

Ok, so I added that last part, but I'm sure he was thinking it.

I'm proud of you, Dad. You truly have a gift.

Monday, February 05, 2007

Morning coffee

Our little family (oh, minus Dan "coffee is the devil" Stump) is sure enjoying the new drive-thru Starbucks in Wood Village. Thanks to everybody who got me gift-certificates for Christmas, because it's made me feel a little less guilty going there so much!! My favorite is a vanilla latte, but Jake prefers the chocolate in a good mocha, and Ty just absolutely won't stand for anything but a decaf non-fat no foam extra whip sugar free caramel macchiato.

Monday, January 29, 2007

Dan's Turn

Since my wife has procrastinated on bragging about my new world record I thought I should let the world know that there is a new pop-a-shot champion. The old Giuness World Record was 139 points and about 2 months ago I threw down a 145. Unfortunately the people at Guiness weren't there to verify but I have plenty of witnesses. The in-laws bought the pop-a-shot about a year ago and some of us guys have been busy honing our skills ever since. Finally all my hard work paid off.

I also had put this Jakey video on here. It is a classic of Jake singing Jesus Loves Me. He even gives us some falsetto at the end.

Sunday, January 28, 2007

Finally...a new post

OK, I'm a slacker. But isn't that how New Years resolutions go? You're really good at something at the beginning of January, then you start to forget...ANYWAY. I'll try to be better. But trust me, this story was worth waiting for (like 300 people are checking this blog every day and have been crushed for the last 2 weeks.) Well, for those people who care, this is for you.

Just a quick disclaimer: this story is not for the faint of heart. If you are grossed out easily, you should probably just keep on blog-surfing. For the rest of you, especially parents of little ones, enjoy.

Friday morning I decided to give the boys a bath. Ty's face was crusty after breakfast and he hates it when I scrub him with a washcloth unless he's in the tub chewing on a rubber duckie. And I knew Jake would freak out if the baby was the only one getting to enjoy the new Elmo bubble bath. So I fill the tub and watch as my two little angels play together. Well, really it is more like my two rough-housing boys fighting over the best bath toy, but they are really being quite good.

It is time to be done, and I realize I need to take Ty out of the tub first because I can leave Jake in there by himself as long as I can still hear him jabbering away about who has what car and what color it is. So I have Ty on the changing table, and I've just put lotion all over his naked body and I hear Jake say "uh oh, Mommy." Some of you are realizing, like I did at that point, the words "uh oh, Mommy" from a potty-training 2 1/2 year old can only mean one thing. Disaster. Sure enough, I go into the bathroom to find Jake huddled in the corner of the bathtub with poop floating all around him. Here's where some of you should stop reading because this is only the beginning. I'll assume you can all figure out what I mean when I say he had evidently eaten too much fruit that morning. I can not just put on a pair of rubber gloves and take care of this.
Before I can figure out the best way to handle this, I realize the baby is still on his changing table, and he's just about ready to stand up and fling himself off, so I run in there and just put him down on the floor without really thinking about the fact that he is still totally naked. Ty was the least of my concerns, right?

I grab Jake by the armpits and put him on the toilet and tell him not to move until I tell him so. Of course he's dripping with nasty water that is now running off his legs, down the toilet and on to the floor. We'll deal with that later. I start to drain the tub water and I am now grateful for the excess fruit consumption, as it all goes down the drain. I turn around to get some cleaner out from under my sink and I see the baby crawling into the bathroom headed directly for the pool of filth around the toilet. I grab him and realize he has pee running down his legs, and I notice that instead of waiting til he was in the bathroom on the already nasty floor, there's a huge spot on my carpet right outside the door. Figures. I move him out of the bathrrom and towel him off and at least I'm relieved that now he really doesn't need a diaper immediately because I can't do it right now. Jake is still freezing and horrifyingly dirty and needs another bath in a clean tub. I pour half a can of Comet into the now empty tub and start scrubbing. Oh, it's not over.

I am just about to rinse out the tub when I feel a hand on my leg. It's the baby, pulling himself up on my leg, then standing next to the bathtub. I put down my scrub brush and am about to take him out again and shut the door this time, when his face turns red and I realize Jake isn't the only one who had eaten too much fruit. I have poop all over the bottom of my pants, it's running down Ty's legs and into a pile on the bathmat. Unbelievable. I knew I was eventually going to laugh at this, but not soon. It's still not over.

I can't let go of Ty because he'll just crawl around spreading more poop all over the bathroom, and the bathtub is still filled with cleanser so I can't just drop him in there without rinsing it out first. I turned the water on, but it wasn't reaching the back of the tub and I only had one hand because the other was holding on to Ty. Our shower head is one of those that you can take off and move wherever you want it, so I grabbed that with my free hand and turned the shower on. Well, Ty started to slip out of my grasp, so I dropped the nozzle to make sure his head wouldn't hit the floor. Let me remind you that the shower is still on. Water is spraying everywhere, mostly in my face as I tried to get it back under control. I finally put a very slippery Ty in the tub and just hosed him off, then was able to get Jake back in there and start the whole process over again.

It was naptime before I dared to open the bathroom door again to clean it.

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Let it snow...



...let it snow, let it snow! Isn't it beautiful? Dan had to go into school this morning because originally his school was 2 hours late, but then after he got a few things done, he turned around and drove (slowly) home. I'm remembering how much we all used to pray for snow days while we were in school. Now I'm doing it again, and will until Dan retires!

It's nice to have a day off, and be cozy in the house. But of course we had to check out the snow. Jake is still having trouble with 's' so he says "no please, outside in the no please." I realized we don't take very many pictures of anything except our children, so we got some Dad and Mom shots. Ty was taking a nap, which was good because a crawler in the snow is not my idea of a lot of fun!



Wednesday, January 10, 2007

10 months old



Happy 10 month birthday baby! You're only getting better (not just the sleeping part, though that's nice, too!) I pray that God will keep you healthy and happy and most importantly loving Him (and your mom) always.

Thursday, January 04, 2007

Life with two

Congrats to my sister Karina and friend Faith who just found out they are pregnant!! I'm so thrilled for both of them, and can't wait for them to add to their little families (both have a 2 year old already).

So I won't lie to you girls, 2 is harder than 1. (But obviously SO worth it!) The first few weeks of baby #2's life is a huge adjustment, but soon you'll get into a rhythm and life goes on. That is, until #2 starts crawling. It's nice that Ty loves Jake (and vice versa), but not so nice when he gets into the same trouble big bro does. Let me give you a little insight into my life with 2 boys only 19 months apart:

A few days ago while I was on the phone, I start to panic because it is suddenly much too quiet in my house. I peer down the hall, and see that Jake has discovered the extra bottle of shampoo in our hall closet. Because we're potty training right now, Jake didn't have any pants on and had poured half the bottle down each leg. So there he was, in nothing but some tighty-whities, working up some serious lather on his legs.

Dan was home, so I asked him (calmly, with pleases and thankyous) to start a bath. So while I was dropping a very slippery #1 into the tub, I realize #2 is out in the hall eating the shampoo off the carpet, making nasty faces, then slurping up some more. He's still hanging on to a cold, and I am absolutely not lying when I say he coughed out a bubble before I wiped his mouth out.

Moral of the story: you can almost guarantee that one problem becomes two problems when you have 2 young kids. The people with more than 2 under the age of about 5 have my deepest respect!

Here's some pix I've taken just in the last 2 days of my boys literally getting into things they know they shouldn't:



Monday, January 01, 2007

New Year's Resolution:

BLOG MORE THAN ONCE A MONTH!!!!
I need to be better about taking pictures, and just posting the little things. I feel like I need to have something life-changing to share every time I blog, but looking at everyone else's boring stuff...just kidding!!! I love seeing the every day things in peoples lives, so now I'm going to start sharing mine.

Don't be expecting 7 posts a day, though, give me some time!

Why post this picture? Because it's cute, that's why!

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Happy Birthday Jesus!

We had a great Christmas...besides the fact that every male member of our little family was sick. Dan missed out on Christmas Eve lunch at Alcorn's (barfing at home, even before the nauseating performance by the Seahawks), but his family was able to come over later that evening to open presents.

The kids, of course, were spoiled rotten by grandparents and aunties/uncles, and even though Jake became obsessed with some fun toys, he still remembered to say "mimi timtus" (merry christmas) and "appy birfday Deeduhs" (happy birthday Jesus). I'm sure Ty was thinking the same thing with every mouthful of wrapping paper he attempted to swallow.

Christmas morning was just the four of us, and it was a lot of fun. Between wiping snotty noses and reminding Jake to cover his mouth when he was hacking up a lung, we opened some great gifts and ate some wonderful food. Oh yes, and took some cute pix:

OK, anyone else have issues with getting two kids #1 to look at the camera and #2 smile at the same time? This was the best one we got, which was actually the first of at least 392 attemps. But now...check out the last one:
Honestly, how many more times are we going to do this, Mom?


Can anybody guess what Jake's favorite thing is these days? (Besides cars and trucks, that is.) Why is Elmo the coolest thing imaginable to every kid everywhere?


Ty keeps trying to sit on the Elmo chair like big bro, but can't quite get his body to cooperate with his brain. He's very determined though...it won't be long!

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Sunday night traditions

Every Sunday night (during football season) we go to Alcorn's house for dinner and football with a great group of friends and family. The Sunday before Halloween, the kids all dressed up so we could get some cute pix (and one more day of use out of those costumes!)
Left to right is Joel Moffat, Jenna Wood (thrilled to be in costume!) Jake, Ty, and Kari Moffat.


Batman loves to play basketball at "Mamma and Poppy Ha-torn's" house. They have a Pop-a-Shot which has not only become one of Jake's favorite things, it's also become quite an obsession with the big boys of the group. Be sure to buy the next edition of the Guinness Book of World Records because these guys are seriously good.

Friday, October 27, 2006

Baby's growing up!!


We can't believe it's been almost 8 months! What a babe, huh! These pix are too cute to not share with the world!

Saturday, October 14, 2006

Pizza, pizza




The latest craze is called "Pizza," and...well, you're missing out. Because Jake learned how to say the word pizza correctly while jumping on his bed, now when he screams out "pizza" it's not only a favorite meal, it's also an aerobic activity.

Friday, October 13, 2006

Pics of the boys

Who are we? Dan and Angela Stump. Happily married since July 20, 2001. Happily Daddy and Mommy since August 3, 2004 when Jake arrived, and again when little brother Ty joined us on March 10, 2006. Seeking to love God and love each other more every day.


Jake enjoying every lick of his birthday ice cream from Auntie Jane (Jeen) and Uncle Curtis (Too-toos).
Happy baby Ty, crawling in search of his latest adventure.

Jake loves getting down face to face with Ty to teach him all the important things a big brother should. Like his numbers (nun, two, tee...) and his ABC's (including beeble-boo, ets, y, and z.)