Erie and Tara

Zack and Nathan absolutely love when my friend Erie (we went to high school together and she was my maid of honor) and her daughter Tara come over. Zack just loves Tara - he loves to talk softly to her and stroke her face and make her smile. He plays peek-a-boo with her, and when she cries he is worried about her. He's being a big brother to her, too! We love to see them!

Isn't she the cutest ever??

A kind heart

I've always known Zack to be a compassionate boy and a great big brother, and today was just another example of his kind heart and compassionate spirit. Pete told the boys that if they finished their lunch that they could have half a cookie. Well this was a big deal, so Zack finished as fast as he could (which is not usually his style!) and got his cookie. Nathan decided he didn't want to finish his food, so therefore no cookie was given to him. Nathan was soooo sad. He cried for a while saying "cookie, cookie, cookie!" but we made our rule. Zack saw all of this and broke his cookie in half and gave it to Nathan so he would be happy. Doesn't sound like a big deal, but Zack really treasured that cookie. He rarely gets one, so that was a huge gift that he gave to Nathan. He's growing up to be aware of others and their needs too. I just love it.

Pictures!

I realized that I really haven't posted lots of recent shots, so here's some random photos that are really cute. :)

Nathan, say cheese!!

Zack wanted his picture taken with Grandma! How cute is that?!?!

Nathan wasn't feeling well, so he was laying down, and he fell asleep on the couch one day while I was making supper. What a cutie.

Singing with Daddy!

In front of the Christmas Tree looking really cute!

Nathan the cutie

So Nathan has finally (but I don't know for how long!) calmed down enough to start learning to talk. He actually will stop running sometimes to sit with us and read a book or talk with us! He's starting to stop and learn about something before moving onto the next activity as quickly as possible - imagine that! So one day a couple of weeks ago, we had his fisher price Noah's Ark out and were learning about animals. He loves that set and loves animals. He also loves that Noah and his wife look a lot like Grandma and Grandpa Heinbuch - it's so funny. I say, "Nathan, who's this?" and he says "PaPa and Grandma!!" But anyway, back to the animals... So I paired them up (being the organized person I am) with their mates and told him that these are the mommies and daddies of their species. He processed that for a while, and a few days later he woke up one morning and I came to get him, and he showed me his two stuffed puppies that he sleeps with. He held them each in different hands, and raised them one at a time and said "Mommy!" and "Daddy!" and then he made them kiss. It was so sweet. I'm so glad that Nathan can actually stop for a few seconds out of his day to cuddle - I've been missing it for so long now!

Nathan won't talk a whole lot yet, but he's really starting to try now, making it a whole lot easier to know what he wants. He only says 2 words in a row for a few things, but we're taking whatever we can get! He says "Juu Box" and "Haaaa Meeee!" (help me) and "Come Play". His favorite word is still "Car" and of course "McQueeeeeeeen" (from the movie "Cars").

Has it really been that long??

Wow! It's really been more than 3 weeks since I've written. Yikes, am I ever bad at this... No wonder - every time I've gotten a journal or a diary, I write for a few months and then all of a sudden there are just a bunch of empty pages at the end!

My boys have been such a delight to me over the last few weeks too - I don't know why I didn't write about them!!

Zack and I were sitting on the couch yesterday after his nap, just being quiet. He was looking at me, and then out of nowhere said, "Mommy, you have such beautiful eyes." Then he smiled and rubbed his nose on mine. It was so cute I almost cried. Just like when Zack and I were talking about some of our friends after praying for them. It's Nathan's idea to pray for everyone we know every time we pray. Our food is practically cold by the time we eat it because we say "amen" and he pipes up with another name that we forgot to thank God for! I'd eat cold food for a century to hear that every day!! So one day we were praying for some friends of ours that don't go to church. Zack had asked me if they knew Jesus and I said no. After thinking for a moment Zack said, "Mommy, we should take Kyle and Kendra to meet Jesus!" and after clasping his hands together and grinning dreamily said, "They would be SO happy!!!"

Happy Halloween?

So we decided that we wouldn't take the boys out for Halloween this year. Instead we went out for supper and to a friend's place for the evening. Our friend/neighbor Kyle asked if we would bring the boys by to get some candy before bed, so when we went to their door, Pete told Zack to say Happy Halloween. Zack got to the door and said, "Hi Kyle! Happy.... Birthday!"

Zack the reader

Zack has decided that he wants to read. He knows how to read every individual upper case letter by itself, spelling everything he can see in books and on signs, and he knows how to spell his and Nathan's names without seeing the letters. He's getting close! Zack loves to guess what things spell, and it's easy for him to read things like stop signs because the symbols are easy to guess. I love that he has his own name for certain places. We have a Lafrentz memo cube, and he knows the big orange "L" on it is the symbol for daddy's company. He calls the company "Daddy's Big Truck" and fully believing that it's the name of Pete's work. Pete was trying to get him to spell the name of it and say "Lafrentz" but instead he said, "L-a-f-r-e-n-t-z spells Daddy's Big Truck!" Zack relates the names or symbols of places we go to what he sees or does there. Whenever we pass a Wendy's, he sees the symbol and relates it to what he eats there. So we hear from the back seat, "Look! Cheeseburgerandfriesandketchup!"

A Family Moment

On Monday, we were all at my parents' place for my birthday. Pete and I and the boys were there with Josh and Jenny and Forest and my parents. It was so fun to see all three boys hang out and play. My favorite part was when Forest and Zack sang the ABC song together, and then Nathan joined in with the very last word "Meeee!!" I just loved it!

Friends

Zack is learning that the people we love are our friends, so now every time he's pretending to talk on the phone or if he's talking to a real person they are his friend. I'll ask Zack,
"Who are you on the phone with?"
"My friend Great Grandma!"
He loves to pretend to talk to his friend Great Grandma (Doell) or his friend Auntie 'Manda or his friend Grandma. It's so very cute!

Zack is also learning about the bible from Beulah on Saturday nights when he goes to sunday school. If you ask him,
"Zack, what did you learn about the bible?"
"The bible is TRUE. The bible tells us about God! The bible says Jesus loves us."

Cars and Trucks and Things that Go!

One of Zack and Nathan's favorite books right now is Richard Scarry's "Cars and Trucks and Things that Go". It's all about different vehicles and they both love it. The first page is one of their favorites because it has a mail van on it. Zack opens the book and says, "Look, Mommy! It's a JoshandJennyandForest van! Wow!" Zack knows that uncle Josh is a mailman, and he also knows that Josh and Jenny and Forest all go together. I just love it. So every time he sees a mail truck, he says the same thing. Nathan's favorite part of the book is the road building and earth moving equipment. He points at every thing and says "Sheeeeeeen" (for "machine") and gets so excited. Nathan was thrilled when our friend Kyle brought home a mini track-hoe and let him sit in it. I couldn't have bribed him out of the cab!

It was so cute - the boys were at their friend Emma's house yesterday, and she did the cutest thing. Some might think of it as a little strange, but I thought it was very sincere. She was taking a few of her animals on a picnic, and one of them was a dinosaur. As she was packing the fake food up for the rest of the animals, she added an animal to the picnic basket. I asked why she had that one in the basket, and she said that it was lunch for the dinosaur. Apparently they went to a dinosaur exhibit and Emma saw a video where one of them ate an animal.

So so sad

Just as predicted, Pete got called out of town last weekend for a job in BC. I wasn't sure how well the boys would deal with it, but they started to act up on Thursday. Pete had been gone for 5 days, and I had to stop by his work to drop stuff off (I work there too, just from home). We drove into the parking lot, and there was Pete's truck. The boys were so excited - until we left without seeing daddy... I explained that daddy's truck was there but he was gone on a long trip and would be back soon. It was a sad drive. Amanda, aka "Auntie 'Manda", came over on Friday and Zack was sad. He looked up at her with tears in his eyes and said, "I lost my daddy". I cried. I told Pete on the phone and he cried. :( It was so so sad.

Like a little child...

I never thought I could love my children even more every day! After church on saturday night, Zack and I were talking in the car. I asked him what he did in sunday school, and he said that he sang songs for Jesus. I said, "how do you sing to Jesus, Zack?" And I never want to forget what he said. "It's like a flower, you just open your heart and sing." I asked my mom about what they sang and where he got these words from, and she said that a lady sang a song for the kids about opening your heart to Jesus and there were flower puppets singing in the background. So there we go. I wanted to make sure to write down exactly what Zack said before I forgot it... I just love how he said it.

The Star of the Show!

My Zack is such a performer - he just loves to sing songs and make speeches to everyone! We were playing outside yesterday in our backyard, and we have a manhole cover in our yard (which is really not nice to have, by the way). Zack thought it would be a great stage. So Pete and I sat on the grass and Nathan and Zack took turns doing little performances for us - Nathan went first and did the actions to the Itsy-Bitsy Spider. Then Nathan came off the "stage" and sat with us and all of a sudden Zack says, "And now, ladies and gentlemen, Zack will sing Jesus Loves Me!" Pete and I clapped and smiled. Then, after he was done singing, we all clapped and said yay and Zack took a bow and said "Thank you, thank you!" We have no idea where he got it from, but it was hilarious and sooo cute. Zack's favorite songs to sing are Jesus Loves Me, the ABCs, the Itsy-Bitsy Spider, and Twinkle, Twinkle. I wish I could just have a video camera implanted into my head where I could just tap the side of my head and it would tape what I'm watching the boys do. They act so differently in front of a camera, so it's hard to get their true personality on tape. I really wish I could - Zack would have hours of footage for his wedding!

I felt like Fraulein Maria...

Well, we sure had a fun time on Saturday! We had seven kids for the day, and boy was it busy. My friend Rienna was in a pinch and so we offered to take her 5 kids for the day. So between all the kids we had seven. Perrin, Kylara, Caedmon, Lael, Arwen, Zack, and Nathan. Wow. We had a great time though, despite the state of the house afterwards! :) The kids had a great time, and the older ones especially liked playing Gamecube. The little ones felt so left out without having a controller, so Pete dug out the Playstation and the younger 3 played pretend video games. It was so funny watching them play - we started the nintendo after lunch so everyone was quiet and staring at the TV, all sitting in a line with their controllers. Then we went outside for the rest of the afternoon and Pete had an awesome time horsing around with the older kids. Arwen took quite a shine to Zack's tricycle and she rode it up and down the street while I walked with her - she's quite a chatterbox when you get her by herself, and she was hilarious to talk to! She asked me why I didn't have any girl babies, and I told her that Jesus chose to give me 2 boys and no girls. She said, "I'm gonna have a girl baby when I'm big." I asked her if she would like any boys, and she said no. There was a long pause in the conversation and then she asked me, "Mrs. Heinbuch, why do people get dead?" I told her that if someone loves Jesus, Jesus wants them to come home to heaven. She said "Oh.... I'll go to girl heaven." I asked if there was a boy heaven and she said, "No. Heaven is only for girls."



We had such a fun time with the Nagel kids - they were so well behaved and fun to talk to. Perrin is the oldest boy, and he reminds me so much of my brother Josh when he was that age. My grandma often tells the story of when she and grandpa were driving up to the lake with Josh in the back seat. Josh talked the whole 2 hours. It rained, and Josh got louder. Then it hailed, and he got louder again. Well, Perrin gave us an up-to-the-second play-by-play of every event, especially the MarioParty game we were playing... "Hey Yoshi, it's your turn, press A. Okay, how many did you get? Oh, 6 spaces. What will you land on? Oh, a blue space. That means you get three coins. Now it's time for a mini-game. Which game will it be. Oh, what's that one? How do you play?" It was pretty much non-stop - I laughed to myself the entire time.

Sharing is not fun.

My Nathan is such a funny little boy. When he and Zack are taking turns with their favorite things to play with, it's interesting to watch how they deal with the emotion of losing their toy. The favorite these days is a home depot hard hat with a mining light on it that we got them for Christmas. Well, whoever grabs it first in the morning rips the light off the hard hat (it's got a big elastic that goes around it), and they turn the light on. Then they run to everyone in the room and tell them to say "aaaah" while shining the light in their mouths. It's so cute. When I tell Zack that it's Nathan's turn with the light, he politely gives it up and goes to play with something else or read books with mommy. Well, when it's Nathan's time to give back the light, he very nicely gives it to Zack. Once the toy has left his hands, however, he stomps and cries and then falls on the floor face down. I try so hard to be sympathetic, but it's so hard not to laugh when he does a complete emotional 180.

Just a tad emotional...

When we sang my favorite hymn this morning in church and I cried yet again, I decided I would look it up online to see if there was maybe a history on how this song came to be. Most hymns were written by people who had just gone through trials or had experienced God in such a way that they could only express their emotion musically. This is from the history of my favorite hymn "The Love of God" by Fred­er­ick Leh­man.

"the lines had been found pen­ciled on the wall of a pa­tient’s room in an in­sane asy­lum af­ter he had been car­ried to his grave, the gen­er­al opin­ion was that this in­mate had writ­ten the epic in mo­ments of san­ity."

Wow. Here's my favorite verse:

Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade,
To write the love of God above,
Would drain the ocean dry.
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky.

Chorus:
The love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure
The saints’ and angels’ song.

That means that if we tried to write down how much God loves us and all the water on earth was ink, and the sky was paper, and every piece of wheat and grass was a pen, and every person on earth was a writer, that we would drain the ocean of ink and we couldn't fit all of that writing on the sky because it wouldn't be enough paper. I can't even write it without feeling amazed.

Pete the Patronizer

Sometimes Pete likes to bug Zack because it can be so easy... Well, yesterday, Pete was bugging him more than usual to get a rise out of him. I said "Pete, don't patronize him!". Zack turned to Pete and said, "Yeah, daddy, don't paint your eyes!"

Rocky IX - revenge of the crabby babies...

Well, everything seemed wonderful on Saturday morning when we left for Rocky Mountain House. Going to my in-laws place for the weekend to visit with them and to see some family friends. We were so excited to go! But not as excited as we were to leave... We tried to pack a week of visiting into two days, and boy was it tiring. It was easy for Pete and I to handle it, but it's so hard on Zack and especially Nathan. As crazy as he is, Nathan likes his own bed; his own blankets, his stuffed puppies, his comfortable room. So when he was told to go to sleep in dad's book room with Zack right next to him and a party upstairs, he decided it was not cool. I think he probably slept for about 5 hours Saturday night (which doesn't sound that bad, but when you compare it to the 14 hours he normally gets...) and the rest of the time he cried. Sunday, Nathan probably napped for a half hour then cried for 45 minutes... So after being overtired and disobedient and crabby and sad, Zack took my hands on sunday after supper and said, "Mommy, go a car to Zack's bed?" So we got their jammies on and headed home. This is what Nathan looked like after being in the car for less than 5 minutes. He was exhausted.

Pete's first unicycle injury...

Pete was a boy who did flirt,

With danger - he hadn't been hurt.

His uni did fly

Up high in the sky,

But poor Pete was left in the dirt.

Last Christmas I bought Pete an offroad mountain unicycle, and he's been riding it in a big way. He's doing jumps and stairs and bridges, you should see how crazy he is! I'm so glad he wears a helmet. Well, a few days ago he decided it would be an awesome idea to jump some blocks by our house and he hurt his foot. His friend Kyle (who also has a uni) drove him to emergency, and after about 6 x-rays they discovered that Pete had chipped the bone on the outside of his foot. It's always funny to find the lighter side of these kinds of injuries, and it was hilarious that while the doctor was looking at his foot, Pete was wearing his shirt that says, "I do all my own stunts." Hmmm....

Diary of a Smitten Mommy

I have never been so smitten by anything as much as my two little boys. They are just so cute and funny, not to mention hilarious! Their personalities are so different, and that's what makes them even more loveable. Zack is so neat and tidy - everything is in a line, it's sorted and controlled. Nathan is the destroyer - he doesn't care what things look like, he just wants to have as much fun as possible.

Zack is such a caring boy. He puts his arm around people when he talks to them and makes them feel so special. We were out for supper the other night, and the waitress crouched down beside him to take our order. Zack quickly put his hand on her back and said, "Zack like cheeseburger and fries and ketchup please." Then he rubbed her back while she took the rest of our orders. He was telling Pete something yesterday and gently put his hands on either side of Pete's face and said, "Look at me, daddy." He comes up to me and sighs a big sigh and says "I just love you mommy." It's so cute.

Nathan is finally just learning to talk. He is so busy that he doesn't have time to learn words, but now he's realizing it would be easier to get what he wants that way. He loves to copy what Zack says and does, even when Zack is crying or having a tantrum! Nathan will just fall on the floor and pretend to cry - then he laughs hysterically. We had taught Zack sign language, and so he says I love you in sign language and voice, and then we hear Nathan say "Ooooooooo" (for 'you') and he puts out his little thumb and forefinger. I love it. Nathan's smile lights up the world - his whole face smiles and that dimple on his cheek is the icing on the cake. He's such a ham. If you ask him to make a funny face, he just scrunches his face up and smiles extra big.

My Amazing Little Boys

Zack and Nathan, my two favorite boys.

They love to play and make some noise.

You can tell they love to play and share,

You can hear them laughing everywhere!