Beginning the Goodbyes...

Well, as our move approaches, the rounds of good-byes start. This morning at the women's Bible study I am a part of, they had a good-bye luncheon for me and the kids. Cried a puddle of course. :) Tonight our home group had a good-bye dinner for us, cried another puddle. I am going to miss these people like crazy-- it's amazing how the Lord knits your hearts together in just a few years. Jason and I have both commented how much our hearts aches at the thought of leaving these precious friends. We will miss you all so much. We started taking pictures tonight of our friends so that we could have their pictures with us. We got about half-way through picture-taking when our camera died. But, we did get to take this precious picture of Josiah and Matthew:

We will miss you--- boy, we will miss you!

Pumpkin Train

A couple weeks ago, we went for a ride on the Pumpkin Train-- this is a real locomotive located in Noblesville, IN. They do the Pumpkin Train every year in the fall. You take a train ride to a pumpkin patch, pick out a pumpkin, and ride back again. I thought Josiah would LOVE to ride a train, since he loves Thomas the Train so much. He had a smile on his face pretty much the whole time! We got to go with Pop-Pop, Grandma, Aunt Courtney, Uncle Danny, Noah, Maya, and Keira. We all had a good time, and especially enjoyed our pizza dinner afterwards! :)

Fall Harvest Party

First of all, anyone reading this will have to excuse all of the underlining. It is automatically using underlining, and I do not see any button to change that-- the button has disappeared-- so everything is underlined! Oh well.... Anyway, here are some pictures from a couple weeks ago. We all went to a Fall Harvest Party at our friends, the Jordans. They live on a nice piece of land out in the country-- we had a great time with lots of other families. Everyone brought some stuff to eat, we had a bonfire, the kids took turns hitting a pumpkin pinata until candy flew everywhere, and Josiah took his first hayride! This hayride was a mini one for the kids-- it was a lawnmower hayride! Josiah enjoyed it-- even if he was the only boy among all girls! :)

Evelyn and Yogurt

Evelyn found some strawberry yogurt the other day that big brother had not finished...

(Hmmm... this tastes pretty good!)

(No, this tastes REALLY GOOD!!!)

(Mom, make sure to buy more of this at the store!)

Silly Sayings

Josiah is at the age where we hear so many funny comments coming from him. I love this time-- he makes me laugh quite a bit! I wanted to record some of these sayings so I don't forget them!

* One morning he says: "Gotta go get some work done. Gotta go to school and get some work done." (He often hears me say that Daddy is at school getting work done!)

* While riding in the car, I said that we should call Daddy and see how he is doing. Josiah says, "Don't bug him."

* While eating lunch one day, he says (in reference to eating the food): "Bigger and stronger, basketball high to the sky!" (He knew that he needed to eat in order to get bigger, stronger, and throw the basketball high to the sky.)

* He was fairly new to potty training when he started his second year of preschool. We were reminding him that he needed to tell the teacher if he needed to pee or poop. So, on the way to school with Daddy, Josiah keeps reminding himself: "I need to tell the teacher if I need to pee. I need to tell the teacher if I need to pee..." So Jason says, "And poop too!" And Josiah says, "And pee!"

* While riding in the car, Josiah picks up something to read (I think it was a phone directory). He says, "Mommy, are you listening?" I say that I am, and he says "Good-- you get candy if you listen." I say I would like that! He says, "When we get home-- you get candy when we get home." (I am often telling him that candy or gum is at home, and not with me in the car!)

* He is sitting on the couch one day and I ask if I can sit down. He says, "Yes, may I can!" (Too cute when they get their grammar all messed up at this age!)

* At least a couple of times now lately he has looked at a picture of himself and said "Too cute!"

There will be more to come-- I got some cute pics of Evelyn eating yogurt this afternoon!

This is delicious, Mommy!

I love hearing Josiah say words that he has never said before. Some words are just so funny to hear coming from my 3 year old. Today we picked up some bread from our local Great Harvest Bread company (good stuff!) and they give you a free piece of bread to slather with butter for your car ride. I got some sourdough and gave a piece of it to Josiah to eat. He took a bite and said, "Mommy, this is delicious!" I just couldn't help but laugh. I love making my children happy. Sitting here writing this, it makes me think of how much God loves to make His children happy. But even more, He loves to hear us say, "This is wonderful, Daddy. Thank you!" How much it warms His heart to hear us say thank you. I need to be doing this more.

Josiah is definitely saying words and phrases left and right. I wish I could remember them all to write down. We recently (finally) bought a used train table for him. My hope was to move all the tracks off the floor and on to the table. But nonetheless, at the end of the day, there is track *everywhere*, table and floor. Jason told me it wouldn't make a difference mess-wise having a table or not, and I guess he was right! Josiah likes to have messes with his trains. He loves to make train wrecks. It is amazing at this age how much they try to role play what they have seen on TV/movies. They have such an imagination. Today Josiah was drawing, and I could see that he was really progressing with his drawing. He drew an apple slice, and it actually resembled an apple slice! I was impressed.

Evelyn is such a sprite. She has an a-t-t-i-t-u-d-e if she doesn't get what she wants. She and Josiah have been fighting over these ducks I just bought, and if he takes the ducks away from her, get ready to hear some high-pitched screams. My goodness, my ears just can't take much of those screams. Like nails on a chalkboard! But she is just so sweet. She gives sweet kisses (just leaning in with an open mouth) that you just love to get. For a brief time, she would say these cute "O! O!"s when she would get excited about something. I hope when I am 50 that I still remember what those sounded like. Too cute. She is climbing on everything these days. One day I found her squatting next to the TV on the tv stand. She just climbed up the side of it. She is on the table, on the end rail of Josiah's bed, everywhere. She also is starting to form her words more-- she is saying a quite recognizeable "more." It is neat to see her beginning to talk. And lastly, she gets very excited to see Daddy when he comes home. I know Jason feels good when they are excited to see him!

July Happenings

Well, once again it's been awhile since the last post. Guess I know now that I will probably be posting about once a month now-- if I get more posts than that it is icing on the cake! Speaking of cake, Josiah had his 3rd birthday party yesterday at Dobbs Park here in Terre Haute. We had lots of family over for a cook-out and cake. Grandma Bette made a Thomas the train cake, which Josiah has been talking about for several weeks now. He was super excited about it-- but when it came to having a piece of it, he was too interested in the unwrapping of gifts to care about eating cake. He was adorable as ever, and pics will be following soon.

Just wanted to share a couple of cute stories lately. Josiah is in the stage where he says stuff that is so cute, and many times you are left wondering, "Where did he come up with that?" So I just wanted to share some cuteness. First, he fell down one day recently in our apartment. As he's getting up he says "I'm okay!" He has never said it before or since. Another day he brought out one of mommy's belts and wore it high on his waist like mommy and said, "Too cute!!" Tonight we went on a walk (all four of us) with Nana. Josiah and Evelyn rode in strollers. Nana pushed Josiah, and Daddy walked next to us. We walked across several roads on our walk, and each time Josiah looks over at Jason and says with concern, "Be careful, Daddy!" Josiah was concerned because Daddy wasn't holding his hand while crossing the street.

Evelyn is loving boxes and other containers right now that she can sit in, such as Josiah's suitcase. She made herself a little perch in there the other day. She also likes any of the buckets in Josiah's room that have toys in them. She'll make herself at home in one of them and play! She just loves checking out what mommy is doing. I bought tons of diapers the other day (great deal!) and I had them all stacked neatly on mom's coffee table. She was so excited when she saw them, and started taking them off and carrying them around. In no time they were everywhere on the floor. She found one package that looked comfortable and had a seat. She's just a little mommy in training in many ways! Too cute!

Well, in a little over 5 hours my two year old will officially be 3 (at 4:56 am). He was only 3 weeks old when we moved into our tiny apartment in Purdue Village. At the time I thought, "Wow-- he will be three when it is time to move out of here. That seems so far away!" But the time has flown by, as any grandmother will tell you. We love our little man so much. He is such a blessing to us all.

It's about time!!

Life just has a way of going by so fast... and another month has passed since my last entry! Evelyn is now 13 months old and Josiah will be turning 3 in just a couple months! Evelyn is close to running-- those skinny little legs walk as fast as she can make them! She is a busy little girl. She is getting into most of the things that Josiah got into at this age, such as taking books off the bookshelf and pulling stuff out of the trash can (yuck!). She is babbling quite a bit, and is trying to repeat sounds that we make, such a book, squirrel, puppy etc. She also tried to copy mommy and daddy tonight as we were whistling. She looked so cute doing it-- of course there was no whistle, just air coming out! She usually likes to either be in Josiah's room playing with all of his toys, or at mommy's side. One of her favorite things to do is play with the dryer-- she'll remove the lint trap, take out the lint, etc. So whenever I am over doing laundry, there she is with me! Today she got a hold of my cell phone, and she was just babbling on and on about who knows what! If only we knew what our children were thinking at this age! I'm sure there is so much they are wanting to express but just can't.

Josiah is getting to be a little boy now, and not so much of a toddler, even though he still seems to have the "terrible 2's" tantrums every now and then. He likes to help out a lot more-- he tries to feed sis some of his food or drink, and will help her get something that she has dropped. He enjoys tummy time with mommy. He is quite fascinated with my belly, and he likes it when we pull up our shirts so that our bellies are showing, then he puts his belly on mommy's belly. He can lay there on mommy's belly for quite awhile-- it's comforting to him, I guess!! Within the last few days his latest word has been "What?" For example, "Come here, Josiah." "What?" (As in, what do you want?) We can repeat this exchange several times. I'm guessing I say this quite a bit and he is copying me or something! Josiah is still playing a lot with his Thomas trains. He just loves his trains. I am hoping to find a good deal on a train table soon. It will be nice to have all of his tracks up off the floor!

Evelyn turns 1!

It is hard to believe that my little baby girl is one year old.  She is a precious little girl, who loves her mommy, daddy, and brother very much.  She usually always has a smile for you, and is full of spunk.  Evelyn is always on the go these days, seeing what she can get in to.  Cabinets, books on the bookshelf, rolls of toilet paper, trash cans, and even big brother's potty seat.  We are enjoying watching her grow and her personality develop.  Her first year has been full of joys (lots of love and smiles!) and trials (nursing and weight gain issues), but we wouldn't trade any of it!  We look forward to the days ahead with her-- we know the babble will soon turn to words, and the walking to running!  We love you Evelyn, with all of our hearts.  We thank the Lord for the gift He has given us in you!

Fun with Worms

We have been preparing our garden, and Josiah has been "helping" us out there recently.  While digging around, we came across some worms.  It was his first exposure to the little slimy things, and he was very interested in them, as most little boys probably are.  He wanted us to keep finding him more.  He would pick them up, carry them around, and then find a new one to play with.  I really do not like worms, so Jason was teasing me by telling Josiah to let me kiss one of the worms.  Unfortunately, he didn't get the "teasing" part of it.  If it's good enough for mommy, then it's good enough for me.  So, he kissed a worm.  At least he didn't eat it!

"BigGirls"

Today was the teacher appreciation luncheon for Josiah's preschool.  One of Josiah's teachers was chosen to give a little inspirational talk.  She started out with some funny stories from their classroom.  She talked about a little boy that came up to her and said "I biggirls." (That's what it sounded like to her.)  "I biggirls."  She knew that couldn't possibly be what he was saying, so she asked him to show her.  He stuck his finger up his nose and said, "I biggirls, see?"  I automatically thought it was Josiah who said this, but I wasn't sure.  This evening we were driving home from Chikfila, and I told Jason this story.  He said he really didn't think it would have been Josiah.  So I decided to test him. 

"Josiah, say 'Boogers'." 

"Biggirls."

Laughter.  "Biggirls."  More laughter.  "Biggirls!!"  The more we laughed, the more he said it.  Well, now we know it was him!  :)

Sis and her chocolate pudding...

Time to practice using a spoon... but the mess comes very quickly!  

Chocolate pudding makes a great hair mousse:

And here a cute and clean Sis holding two different "Georgies" as I affectionately call them (Curious George).  Sis loves the little one-- he frequently visits her mouth.  She has recently started to hold stuffed animals, like the big George you see here.  We have several stuffed Georgies in our household.  Josiah calls the biggest one "Daddy George."  

Spring Fest

Last weekend we all went to Purdue's Spring Fest.  It was awesome!  I have never gone before, even though we have been here for years!  But, the weather was great, and Josiah is of the age that he can really enjoy it, so we went.  If anyone reading this lives near Purdue, I definitely recommend going-- in my opinion, it is better than going to the fair.  Lots of animals (especially baby ones!),  lots of bugs, plants, tractors, reptiles, science stuff, etc!  So here are some fun pics from the day.

Josiah touching a snake.  

The guys checking out the tractor.

Sis riding an old tractor, while savoring her first taste of a dum-dum pop!

Big brother's turn.

Kids had the chance to take a "ride" on a seat made for handicapped farmers so they could still access their tractor.  It lifts the farmer up and over so they can then get into the regular seat to drive the tractor.

This is a piece of equipment for spinning honey out of honeycomb.  They let the kids spin it if they wanted to, and Josiah enjoyed the opportunity!

Checking out the bees as they are making honey.  They had a room dedicated to bees, and if you wanted (we wanted!) you could taste test 8 different kinds of honey.  It was neat to taste kinds that I had never known about and may never taste again!  

Here we are in the Insect Petting "Zoo"-- and Josiah is petting a huge cockroach!

There were lots of baby animals-- including this adorable baby duck!  I want one!  :)

What a fun day!  Summer here we come!  :D