Baby Bubble Blower

When Cruz gets a hold of a bubble stick he starts blowing.  Cutest bubble blower I've ever seen.

Big Shot

After leaving Oshyn alone for a bit at the table this is what I found...

When did he learn to write his name without any help?!

The water is warmer on the East Coast

This may only make sense to me and those who were there, but I am so behind on my blog life--this is the most I have energy for...

Click here to see a load of pictures from Cape Hatteras 2008

Thursday: A little standby adventure. I stress the word little (especially after the flight home). We only missed 1 flight! Wahoo! Oshyn and Kobe reunite, the Miller clan.

Friday: Oshyn's 1st time in the water "I'd like to call it the 'sea'" (instead of the ocean...didn't last too long). The salt water in my veins felt at home...ahhhh!

Saturday (and every other day): Swimming ALL DAY---did I say ahhhhh yet? Uncle Chad, Aunt Marcy and Lidi made it along with the May-Millers and Mr. and Mrs. Mars, some nighttime Wii action

Sunday: visiting Cape Hatteras Light House "Bye lighthouse, thanks for letting us visit you!"

Monday: Cruz--a shell connoisseur and sand sifter, Oshyn on a 10 minute bike ride, "I miss Ggma and Ggpa!"  (Wearing his Superman pj's) People we passed by would call him Superman.  "Everyone here knows my name!" 

Tuesday: More shell eating, Oshyn braving the ocean with some swimming, lazy pool day, Cruz a champion floater

Wednesday: "Can I take these to the lighthouse?" Oshyn wanted to bring some silverware to the lighthouse museum...he saw some shipwreck silverware when we were there and thought he'd add to the collection.

Thursday: Cruz's birthday, the super-duper 3 layer "daggie" cake, Oshyn lost at the beach for two minutes=two hours in my heart...Chad running along the ocean yelling "Oshyn!" he he...Oshyn found--he wasn't wearing his glasses so he couldn't see the group.

Friday: Having to put water in every pail when building sand castles & tapping on the sides--I promise Oshyn, Grammie just did that because it was DRY SAND!

Saturday: End of a great week spending the end of the day at the beach--PERFECT water, PERFECT waves, PERFECT weather, and the beach all to ourselves.

Sunday: trek up to Newport News...just kidding, to Yorktown. The Mars took us in

Monday: Longer than they expected :) Didn't even attempt standby, just swam and played with Kelly and Randy (looks like we've successfully birth controlled yet another young couple--dang it)

Tuesday: We missed over a half dozen flights, spent the day in Atlanta crossing our fingers and after a really good prayer, made it on a flight home--after 21 hours of traveling by myself with two little boys and an extreme lack of sleep I vowed never to fly standby again (at least until next month :) It was more than worth it.

Boys night out, Girls night in

The more recent generations of Nobmann's are not what you would call hard core outdoors men. I think we much more enjoy going shopping for camping gear and buying all kinds of toys and gadgets that we will never use but will set us apart from our more primitive camping competitors should we be forced into unchartered territories. But we rarely end up with any competitors at all; b/c camping rarely meets the 2 C's. ( "catered and comfortable"). With my new 4 year old and our two man tent (that I strategically placed on our wedding registry list, to pull at the tender heart strings of my soon to be wife who has fond camping memories with a loving grandfather) we loaded up Daddy's loud truck and found ourselves headed to the deep wilderness. So, about 7 minutes later we pulled up to Tower Park Camp Grounds. We quickly found our spot and planted our Flag. Oshyn was so excited about the tent, he was the best little helper. It also helps that the tent poles closely resemble long swords and spears. We threw up the tent and rolled out the plaid carpet; lets be honest who really wants to step out onto cold damp grass! You say "C'mon that's camping" I say "Just because I'm camping doesn't mean I need to be stupid too". With the tent up and the sleeping bags rolled out Oshyn was ready for bed. He was so excited about being in the tent and in his cozy sleeping bag that at 6:30pm with the sun still blazing and no dinner in his belly, he said: "Dad, lets read some books" which is just another way to say "lets go to bed! " I told him we needed to have dinner first and then we could read Curious George goes Camping; what else do you read when you go camping? After some excellent sausages and some tri-tip tacos we went exploring. Up the hill and out to the dock to see how the fish were doing. Then back to camp to chop some 4x12's for the fire. This blog is brought to you by today's world class lumber yard Golden State Lumber, who provides me with the best possible scraps for firewood and pays me 5 bucks for every-time I mention their name in one of my Blogs. This was the Inaugural father-son's camping trip for us, so Oshyn stayed up until 8:30 and then it was off to bed. I stayed up and talked story around the camp fire and roasted some marshmallows with the rest of the campers. Oshyn woke up with the sun and quickly found the left over marshmallows in an open bag. 9:00 at night or 6:00 am you can't beat a good roasted marshmallow!!! Watch out "Man vs. Wild" here comes the Nobmann boys!

Blog overload coming soon...

In no particular order--just the posts that blogger lets me add pictures to first.

A 356 Weekend

We just got back from a weekend at the "cabin"--Oshyn likes to call it the "cab" and I like to call it the "resort".  If you've been there, you know what I mean.  We got to spend some QT with Beau's Dad, Pop Pop, and his stepmom Susie, Ya Ya, which is always fabulous.  This made our travels complete.  We officially saw all 7 of Oshyn and Cruz's grandparents in the last month.  Crazy, but very cool...(not crazy grandparents, the travels).

Pop Pop entered his 356 Porsche in the West Coast Holiday show in Squaw Valley, Lake Tahoe 

So Saturday morning the boys got the car all presentable and then we 

spent the afternoon checking out all of the vintage Porsches.  

Oshyn informed me that you said Porsche--"Poorsha not just Poorsh".  Thank you.  Pop Pop pointed out some snow that was left on the mountain top nearby.  Oshyn said, "How do you know that it's not bird poop?"  Gotta love him.

Beau's fav

Oshyn's fav

My fav

Other than that, we spent some time at the pool...

playing "bear hockey"... {yet another Oshynism}

(Yes, his mouth is open like that the entire time and yes, we have other pj's--he just won't wear them unless the superman pj's are being washed).

celebrating Pop Pop's 61st b-day  (P.S. His Porsche took 3rd in its class--wahoo!), and just relaxing--with 2 kids that is.

Until the next "ah-cation"

ONE

Cruz turned one on June 5th.  We can hardly believe that a year went that fast, but we are loving his personality and smarty pants that are in full form.  For those of you wondering if he was forever going to be the one-tooth wonder, his top right tooth has finally popped through, making him a 4-toothed man.  Cruz is 99% happy to be a little big man, 1% mad that I've started cutting him off from the food source--at 12 and 4pm those percentages reverse.  I love that you yell "MOM!" to get my attention and when you want to be close you put your back up against us.  We love you--Happy Birthday Cruzer!  

P.S. To all of you paparazzi at his birthday party, send me a CD of your pics--I am lacking for the week and know you have tons.  

Aloha Oe Panttaja's

Just needed to send a tribute to the Panttaja's.  Whoever said in-laws were a bad thing didn't know these guys...and 2 gals.  We love you (even though you will probably never read this) and we already miss the fact that instead of minutes, it takes hours to get to your house. 

Walkie Rockie pants

Cruz is officially a little walker. He really started taking off in the beginning of May, but as we

near the end of the month he is on his feet more than his knees. Cruz acts like he owns every

joint he enters and just runs his mouth blabbing the entire time...a little "daggie" here and a shrilling shriek there (please tell me if I ignore that sound that it will go away?!?!). He is a climber, a ball-carrier (and dribbler), an oven-turner-on-er wanna-be, a gardner, a dirt connoisseur, a basket rider, and a little cuddler with almost anyone. I love him to pieces. Oh yeah, and he STILL rocks himself to sleep...literally.

King of the Ring

Oshyn had the honor of being the ring-bearer for my cousin Kelly and her husband Randy's wedding last week. Here are some highlights:

Mr. Turtle being used for rehearsal.

Uncle Chad letting him pump the gas. "I NEVER get to do this!!"

Everyone thought that someone else was the parents to my kids. I tend to have half a dozen nannies on hand when I vacation with family...it wasn't until the last day that even the mother of the groom knew I was the Mommy of the 2 boys. (You may be thinking how easy it is to mistaken kids and their parents. I was the ONLY one with kids.)Seeing Oshyn with a little skip in his step carrying the pillow. He was soooo proud.

Yep, you guessed it...Oshyn caught the garter. Most of the guys agreed he really would be the next to get married. Lucky for me they had him put in on the pretty ladies arm. Whew!

My cousin Kelly (and Randy too) making Oshyn feel like he was the best ring bearer there ever was...over and over and over again. Thank you.

Cruz found his own best friend--Uncle Robb. There was a point in which I was holding Cruz and when he saw Uncle Robb, he reached for him. Who doesn't want a little buddy?

Urkel or Einstein?

I have been out of town physically (and/or mentally) for the last 2 weeks...I have a lot to catch up on and will do so.

Blog UNDER CONSTRUCTION--Sorry for the inconvience :)
2 down...1 to go

Eight is probably enough

We wanted to reminisce about the good 'ol days (2004, that is) so, May 5th thru the 7th, the Nobmann family moved back in with the Panttaja's. (Actually Nicole and Ralph just went to Carmel for a few days...by themselves!)
A bit different from the last time we lived with them...we both doubled the number of kids we had back then. Six kids now ages 7, 5, 4, 3, 1 and 11months. My days were filled just keeping everyone alive (and having a bit of fun too). I brought over a little scrapbook to do at night when everyone was in bed...yeah right--that never happened. After the 3 days were up I felt like I returned from another planet. I hadn't really talked to any adults (Beau came over after work to help put everyone to bed, but then went home to prepare for seminary in the morning) or been too many places--there wasn't enough time! Funny I didn't realize how much I need adult conversation in my day.
Here are some of the quotes of the day and other funny stuff...probably mostly funny to me, but then again, this is my "journal" right?
Monday:
Walking in to pick Isaac up from Preschool with the two babies--neither walkers...one in the sling and one on the hip and two "big" boys. The teacher said, "If I would have known you had your hands full, I would have met you at the door!" I decided drive-thru preschool would have been the best bet.
After eating scrumptious, warm, freshly popped popcorn from the
Beau's old popcorn popper for our FHE goodie I heard, "Can we have our REAL treat now?"
Tuesday:
Waking up at 6:30a to get a shower, get breakfast for everyone, motivate people to get dressed, eat, brush their teeth, go to the bathroom x 6 kids=leaving the house to get Dean to school at 8:35am shouldn't be too hard right? So I thought it would be nice to walk being that they live about 2 blocks from the school. Well, looking back I think the mistake was feeding the babies breakfast before we walked to school because as soon as we got the 2 in the stroller and the rest with shoes on and peeps in the potty, we heard a faint dinging sound.
Dean, "That was the bell for my school."
Me, "That's just the 1st bell, right? Hurry everyone!! Get in the car!" As we were driving up, 'like a race-car' they told me, I told him to tell his teacher his crazy Aunt had never taken him to school before and didn't know what she was doing. He kind of laughed and then RAN to his classroom. When Dean got home from school he told me that he and another kid had to go to the office to get a tardy slip (Come on! We were there at 8:37am!) I asked him if that was kind of fun...to get to go to the office and all. He said, "No." I said, "Alrighty...we'll be there on time tomorrow!"
I swear Millie said "Z-bar" at the park.
Wednesday:
We went to the park after dropping Dean off at school at 8:20am--thank you very much. Everyone that came through on their morning run/walk would just smile and stare at all of us. I heard a bunch of these..."Those aren't all yours are they?" and "Wow you have your hands full!" One lady took off her head phones and commented, "You must run a day-care!" I just laughed and then played tag some more. We left a few minutes after O-dogg ran straight into a pole--ouch! Sad to say, but I was hoping that he didn't break his glasses more than I was hoping he didn't break his nose. All was well, no breakage either place.
After Cruz took half a dozen steps, Dean said, "He's a circus baby!"

Some daily happenings and sayings:
"I'm going to spend some alone time in the toy room"
"Can I have a treat?" aka Z-bar
"What?"
"Can we buy some ice cream from the ice cream man?"
"Our Mom lets us _____" (I had to decipher when they were trying to pull some fast ones on me)

I always welcome a good challenge and having all of the munchkins by myself was definitely a challenge, but by the 3rd day I was getting the hang of things. I would have to say though that eight family members is probably enough...at least when 6 of them are 7 yrs. and under.

P.S. If you are planning on having this many kids, the Honda Passport is a dream. We all fit comfortably...3 CARSEATS and 2 BOOSTER SEATS!

Comic relief Saturdays aka Tiny Tots Soccer

What a difference a year makes...I can't believe how much Oshyn's grown.  Last year he was the smallest on his team--this year the tallest.  Still the same stomach ache on my part from laughing so hard (minus the huge baby...he came out last year).