What I love... 10/2/11

Here are the moments of love and laughter I have enjoyed with my children these past couple of weeks:

Josiah:

* Saying to me, "Please stop saying that mom-- it is making my eyes twinkle!" (I kept repeating this sound he didn't like!)

* Letting Evelyn get the newspaper this morning-- I had asked him to get it but she really wanted to so he let her. Love seeing unselfishness!!

* Doing a wonderful job memorizing scripture-- even knowing the book/chapter/verse!

* Reading his first book to us-- a "Bob" book-- he is doing great! And he is very proud of himself!

* Bravely riding Space Mountain, Thunder Mountain, and Splash Mountain at Disney World-- and loving it!!

Evelyn:

* Doing twirl after twirl after twirl in numerous dresses and skirts. She loves twirling right now!

* Repeating "Jesus never sleeps or slumbers"-- Jason taught her that verse to help her not be scared at night.

* Talking about how she loves people-- "I love daddy." "I love Charles." "I love Laura." Too cute-- and it is often out of nowhere that she says it!

* Asking "Do you love my curls?" Oh yeah! And when asked who made them, she says, "Jesus did!"

Rebekah:

* Being such a little ham and giving so much joy-- I can tell she will be making us laugh through the years.

* Crawling backwards towards Jason but frontwards towards me-- explanation?! LOL!

* Throwing fits when she has to get out of the bathtub with Evelyn-- she only does this when she is with her sister/brother, not when it is a bath by herself!

* Always greeting Daddy at the door with lots of love-- she is always glad to see her Daddy. :)

The small things...

I overheard a young mom talking to a more seasoned mom today about writing down the little things that happen throughout the day-- especially what your kids say and do, so that they can look back over it when they are older. I *really* want to be more consistent with this, so I am picking myself up and dusting myself up and trying again! So here we go...

Josiah just turned 5!! Ahh! My baby is 5. I made him a Lighting McQueen cake and he threw a ton of sprinkles on it. He wanted chocolate cake with chocolate frosting-- a man after my own heart! We tried to light these color candles, but they wouldn't hold a flame, so we had a "3" and a "2" candle that we put together on the cake to add up to 5. So clever are we. :) He got a new bike and we are trying hard to learn to ride it without training wheels. Evelyn is also close to learning to pedal her bike. It is fun to see them reach these milestones. But anyway, in short he loves wrecks, messes, money, collections of anything, anything of daddy's, stories (to tell them and be told them), and his sisters (most days).

Evelyn is now 3, and today was a bit rough. She is the sweetest little thing, but she is also my most thick-skinned/hard-headed little child. I often have to ask her over and over to do or not do something. But, she loves her brother and sister very much (she really looks up to Josiah). She loves to help and do little "mommy" things. She is a sweetie. She still has long, sweet curls that get all the attention wherever we go. :) Today in the car she said out of the blue, "I love my daddy." So we called daddy and let him know that. Those little things melt your heart. She also likes to say uncoerced "Thank you, Mommy," and "Thank you, Daddy," at the dinner table.

Rebekah will be 10 months old in 2 days-- on our 9 year anniversary! Her middle name is true to her nature-- she brings much joy to our lives. She has been a wonderful baby-- she also loves her siblings, but can become quite concerned when they hover all over her. She really loves it when I carry her around and Josiah or Evelyn is following behind us--then she really starts to giggle. She loves her daddy to pieces too. She is usually always the first of the kids to greet him at the door. She makes a b-line for the door with a cute little scoot/crawl. She likes to keep one leg in a bent position and use the other one to move herself. She certainly has daddy wrapped around her little finger.

I am going to try desperately to start updating this again regularly. I must!

Catching up

It has been so long since I have posted-- life just gets ahead of you. I just keep putting this blog off with all of the other daily business of life getting in the way, and then before I know it several months have passed! I also get so overwhelmed by all of the stuff that I have not written about yet, and so I just avoid the blog!! So, I guess it is time to just "let go" of all the small things I have not written about yet, and just move on. So here is a quick update:

I am 8 months pregnant with our baby girl-- we are trying to decide on a name, but it is proving to be hard this time around! Josiah just turned 4-- he is a very active little guy, still saying lots of funny stuff. Evelyn turned 2 in April, and she is just a little cutie. Loves to dance and sing (especially loves Miss Pattycake right now) and has excellent vocabulary. She and Josiah frequently get in fights, even though I know they love each other. She still loves her little baby (dirty as it is-- and she never keeps the clothes on it!), and I think she will really love her new little sister. We also moved into our first house at the end of June. Many things need to be done to it is still (lot has been done already) but slowly things will come together. We have now lived here in Virginia for 8 months. It is beginning to feel more like a home to us. I have been trying to get together for playdates with other moms from our church, and it sure does help to form those friendships. Jason is also taking part in a men's meeting at our church every Saturday, and I know he is found that to be invaluable.

Here are some sayings I wanted to write down that Josiah has said recently:

"When I was really little, I got married, and Daddy was upset." (???? What is he thinking???!!)

(We were talking about "Junior" and how you are usually called junior when you are little): "So, when you are little you are junior, and when you are big you are Josiah!"

He was reading to me the story of Adam and Eve recently, and instead it sounded like he was saying "Madam and Leave!"

Hopefully I can stay up to date with this blog from here on out. I really want to keep these memories here so I don't forget them!!

Life in Pictures

I will be posting some pictures from the last couple months whenever I have some free moments!

I just thought this was a cute picture of Evelyn standing next to Grandma's legs. She looks so contemplative.

Josiah and mommy giving some cheeses.

Grandparents enjoying kids unwrapping gifts.

"Christmas Chaos!"

Maya sitting on my lap while I took pictures of us-- I think she could have sit there for hours!

Keira and Evelyn checking out a book together-- dressed like twins!

Josiah got into mommy's makeup bag!

Catching up...

It has been a busy last couple months with moving, graduation, and the holidays. But I will be trying to catch up over the next few days on what has been happening around here. To start, I'll begin with some Josiah and Evelyn stories.

While Josiah and Evelyn were taking a bath at Grandma and Pop-Pop's house over Christmas, Josiah was doing his own version of "This little piggy" on Evelyn's toes. Here's his version: "Popcorn... candy... popcorn... candy... popcorn, candy, candy, candy, CHICKEN!!"

Josiah and I were at gas station recently when Josiah saw someone go into the gas station. Josiah asked why he went inside, and I told him that he might have wanted to get a pop. Josiah asked, "Or juice?" Yes, maybe juice. "Or milk?" Maybe milk. "Or Noodles!!"

Yesterday we were heading home from the grocery store with some free balloons. Josiah somehow rolled down his window, so the balloon of course flew out the window. Josiah started crying hysterically and was holding on to the string tightly, trying to get the balloon back inside. I was on the highway, so I couldn't help him get it back inside. All I could think of to do was roll up the window. The ballon stayed outside our window for about 2 miles, but then broke from the string and flew away. We don't have much luck getting our balloons home. Oh well. It was probably funny to see a car driving down a busy highway with a balloon outside its window.

Evelyn is starting to say more words, like baby, mommy, daddy, Josiah, and most other words she will attempt. One phrase she says is "Me-Mu". It took awhile to figure out that this is what she says when she wants you to pick her up. :)

Yesterday Josiah and Evelyn both got their flu vaccinations. It has been awhile since Josiah has gotten a shot, and he really played it up (like his mommy does.) He was walking around like a little old man-- limping really carefully. He dropped something and asked for me to pick it up-- "I can't bend over-- I got a shot!" Thankfully, he had a miraculous recovery once we arrived at Chickfila.

I was saying goodnight to Josiah and told him, "Good night, sugar!" He replies, "Good night sugar too, Mom!"

Recently Josiah has been wanting to have "talks" before bedtime. The last several nights he has talked about everything that lives in the water. "Sharks live in the water. Goldfish live in the water. Alligators live in the water..." He has quite a list. One night he was listing everything and added something that actually doesn't live in the water: "Sharks, fish, jelly fish, jelly doughnuts..."

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! :)