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! :)

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