Thanks

I went to the post-office the other day, and to my surprise there was a HUGE box for us. No one told me that we should be expecting a package, and usually they do. Anyway, this box was from the Kentucky Crisps and when we got it home the contents created a lot of excitement. Inside were lots and lots of Rescue Heroes. The boys didn't really play with them a whole lot anymore and Aunt Erin didn't want to move them again, so she generously sent them to my boy who is "Boy-toy" deprived! Thanks Elijah, Micah, and Isaiah for sharing your toys with us!

Garrett's thumbs up approval of his new toys.

His favorite hero, Cosmo the monkey. We didn't know the name of the monkey until Erin told me the other day, so our kids just call him Monkey boy!

Playing tug of war with two of the four-wheelers.

Even though they are boy toys, Olivia likes to play with them too.

Caught in the act!

I've caught the kids doing some things that make my heart happy. First is Garrett. Garrett is 100% boy, but because he and Olivia are so close in age he hardly ever plays by himself, and therefore doesn't do a whole lot of "boy" play. He really doesn't like to be alone anywhere, this includes the basement, his bedroom, and outside. Once in a while he forgets about who's with him (or not with him) and goes off to play on his own. Yesterday I caught him outside playing with two sticks. . .by himself. First he placed the sticks on the ground and said something to himself, than he picked up the sticks and swung them around like nun chucks. After watching that much, I ran for camera and caught the following.

Spinning around in circles with my sticks.

Walking sticks.

Banging my sticks together to make a cool beat.

Esther was the next one I caught. I've actually caught her a couple of times playing by herself lately. The other day, she was playing mommy and moved her baby from the jumper, to the swing, to the bouncy seat, to Gideons crib. When she came out of his room she told us to be quiet by putting her finger up and saying , "SHHHH!" Saturday she was also caught playing outside with her babies. Two babies and a bear to be exact. She loaded them all in her stroller and was taking them for a walk. She's quite the nurturer. The latest act was caught yesterday.

Esther was dipping her hand in the water bowls, then letting Jersey lick her hands. Jersey could easily reach her bowls, Esther just wanted to "help" her.

Gideon's "caught in the act" moment was a little posed by me - but I couldn't resist him, caught in the act of being CUTE!

"Whuz up ma?"

"I'm so tired from all this being cute, I think I'll rest right here on this ball-lookin' thing."

Manners matter. . .but not to dogs

This week we have an extra dog in our house. Buddy is the Jones' dog, and while they are gone we offered to dog-sit him. He's a good dog, other than this little habit he's got. He's a little obsessed with Jersey. I think you'll see what I mean by the pictures.



I guess they were tired out, Jersey from chasing Buddy to try to play with him, and Buddy for chasing Jersey around trying to mount her!

Gideon's friend

Gideon was one of three boys that were born in November at our church. Here are two pictures of Gideon and his friend Colton. Colton was born on Nov. 2nd, three weeks before Gideon. Colton is a big boy! He's also adorable, as you will see.

Gideon would not get his fingers out of his mouth, I think he's teething. Looks like Colton's teething too - Got drool?

I just had to share our sign of spring. This little guy sprouted up between the stone walkway at the church. I've seen lots of green beginning to sprout - but none that had color. What a beautiful sight!

My husband the Handyman

We had a great time in NJ, we always do. The only problem that we've run into taking vacations to visit family, is that Josh gets bored pretty quickly. He's not used to being in the house all day with me and the kids, and doesn't know what to do with himself at someone else's house. So, one of the stipulations of us visiting my family this time was that my parents would make a "to-do" list for Josh while he was there. The conditions were this, that he would have the options of projects that he could do or chose not to do, whatever, whenever and in which-ever order he wanted. To be honest, I didn't think that any of the projects would get done. Just the idea that he had things to do, I thought, would be enough for him. However, he proved me wrong, and I couldn't be happier (neither could my mom and dad). Here's the rundown of his projects.

Patching the garage roof with shingles that had come off. This job was much more dangerous than I thought it would be. It required two people and a lot of bending over and leg muscle. My dad was glad he didn't have to be up on the roof and Josh was thrilled to take the risk.

My brother J had asked my dad to make his dog Jonnie a dog bowl stand, so that he wouldn't have to bend over so far to eat his food. Lots of pet stores sell them, but are pretty pricey, plus we all like hand made things from dad. Well, here's a hand made dog bowl stand from Josh. Josh used dad's handwriting to carve out the name. I think it came out awesome. Josh was sad that he didn't have enough time to make Jersey one. Just a side, most hand made items from dad are finished off with stain, paint, or cross-stitch by mom, this is no exception. Mom did the staining.

Mom had been begging dad to put in a peep hole in the front door so she could ignore people that she didn't want to talk to, like the Jehovah's witness that came knocking 2 weeks ago. For some reason dad didn't want to take the 2 minutes (I'm not joking) that it took Josh to put it in.

The last project he got done was putting up the fence that my dad built for Ange and Andrews wedding. Mom wanted it to separate the backyard from the front. Josh dug the holes, nailed the 2x4's together to make 4x4 posts and put up the fence. Josh got many splinters doing this job, I dug at lease 4 out yesterday on the ride home. He had already gotten two out the day before. The price you pay for family!

The finished fence.

Camden Aquarium

Thursday we took a trip to the aquarium in Camden. My parents only live 4 blocks from the Riverline Train that has a stop at the aquarium, so instead of driving, we took that. The kids ride free and adult tickets are $1.35 one way. The train was a big hit with all the kids and adults. The aquarium was a big hit too. Olivia really didn't like anything ugly, the eels really freaked her out. Garrett had no fear and was ready to hold a baby crock, if he was allowed, which thankfully, he wasn't. Esther liked all the touching pools, where you could touch a shark, sting-ray, and star fish, but only because she wanted to splash in the water.

The kids in front of one of the tanks of fish.

The highlight of the trip was the new baby hippo, Buttons, and his mom. When we got to their tank, we thought it was all fish. However, as we moved around, we saw two rock-like mounds in the water that we quickly found out were hippos. We showed the kids the backs of them, I don't think they really understood what they were, until they moved. Buttons decided to put on a show and swim circles in the tank. Soon after, mom followed and began swimming and spinning all over the place, making sure to swim right up to the front of the glass and look us straight in the eye. I think we all could have stayed there all day!

Waiting for the train. Daddy was keeping Garrett and Esther warm in his fleece. We were calling them the three-headed monster, so Garrett was making mean faces.

Mommy and Gideon waiting for the train.

Avery waiting for the train.

Fun with Avery

One of the best parts of visiting New Jersey is getting to spend time with family, especially Avery. She is so much fun and adorable too! Olivia and Esther really like to "Mother" her, which she tolerates fairly well. Here's some of the fun we're having so far.

The kids in their matching frog PJ's.

Look at those beauties!

This is the kids looking out the front door at Mr. Softie, the ice cream truck that drives though the neighborhood. Avery can't quite squeeze her way through, it won't be long until she's knocking them over!

Olivia and Avery playing their favorite game, Snood. Avery likes to watch it before she goes to sleep and Olivia has gotten really good at playing it.

Esther and Avery sharing the car. Sharing isn't something either of them have learned yet, so it's been interesting to see them interact.

This One's for J

J, sorry that this is so short and that there's not that much action, but our memory card is a little small, so we can't do anymore than 20 seconds at a time. The action was a lot better before this, but I didn't get there in time. This is when they are getting a little winded.

Easter and More

We traveled all day after church on Easter Sunday and made it to New Jersey in just under 12 hours. The roads were a little busier than normal, but it didn't stop us from making great time. The kids and dog did great in the car, we really are blessed to have such great travelers. Here's some highlights so far.The kids Easter morning. Getting the kids ready by myself on Sunday mornings is always a challenge, but Sunday went extremely well! We had been emphasizing to the kids what Easter was about and when we asked them this Sunday morning they both screamed, "Jesus is ALIVE!"

In New Jersey we are enjoying nice spring weather and able to play outside for long amounts of time without gloves, or boots, or sometimes, even coats!! Here's Esther and Aunt Ange on the swing.

Jersey was able to meet her cousin Hugo (my sister Corrie's dog). They hit it off right away. Here they are playing outside.

Here they are chillin' inside. Don't be fooled by their relaxed positions, Josh had to sit them down and quick take the picture. They WOULDN'T stop playing unless we physically stopped them. However, by the end of yesterday Hugo didn't want anything to do with our slightly higher energy dog.

Gideon with his Aunt Corrie

More fun from New Jersey to come later!

Garrett's photography

Garrett asked to take pictures by himself the other day and this is what he did. I think he did a pretty good job.

Jersey

Gideon

Mommy

Daddy and Esther

Olivia smiling for the camera without ever taking her eyes off the TV. Who said kids can't do two things at once?

Garrett turns 4

I can hardly believe that my "biggie" is now 4 years old. You brings such laughter and smiles to our faces. You are a good reminder of what not to say - because even when I think you're not listening, you are, and will eventually repeat it. You're good for a tough wrestling match where anything goes - your favorite tackle move right now is to hang off of daddy's neck with anything you can. It's a little painful for Daddy, but hilarious to watch. You are always good for a random, "I love you mom." You are learning the skill of self-control, when what you really want to do is rage. You are such a detail guy, that a coloring page takes you forever because you take such care to color everything in perfectly. And after five minutes of that, you turn the page because you can't stay on any one task too long. You loves having Gideon to sleep with in your room. You love playing with Olivia. And you love to antagonize Esther. I love you buddy - you will always be my "biggie." Here's looking back over the last 4 years.

Garrett, one day old, coming home from the birthing center.

Garrett (with the bib) and cousin Micah - one year old.

Garrett - 2 1/2 years old.

Garrett on his 3rd birthday last year. He ended up getting really sick the night of his birthday. That's the reason for the stoned look on his face.


Garrett, too cool for a portrait this year. You get the message.

Litttle Miss Helpful

The kids are really into the new show on Cartoon Network called "The Mr. Men Show." All the characters names are adjectives describing their mood and/or personality. I remember reading books with some of the characters when I was a kid, like Mr. Happy, Mr. Grumpy and Little Miss Chatterbox. Olivia likes to call herself Miss Chatterbox, which she is. However, lately she's been Little Miss Helpful, often and without being asked. I was in the middle of dressing Gideon this morning and was detained momentarily (probably by the two year old needing to potty) and when I returned Olivia was halfway through dressing him - all by herself.

Olivia doing a job not may kids would want to do - holding the poop bag for daddy while he picked up the mine field of poop we found in our backyard when the snow melted.

Olivia and Esther "Spider swinging" in the back yard this morning. Olivia got her up there all by herself and spun her around for a long time, so sweet. It makes me so happy to see the girls getting along so well. The kids have all been getting along well lately. The two who fight the most, Garrett and Esther were walking hand in hand in the church parking lot the other day - a sight to behold. I pray my children will live in peace with each other as they grow and appreciate and value their God- given differences.

Olivia walks Jersey

This is a picture of Garrett's squishy lizard. The kids had fun sticking it to the ceiling and Jersey had fun trying to catch it when it fell off. Garrett really liked his squishy lizard, until it disappeared. No one knew it was missing. . .until Josh came home from a walk with Jersey. . .

Josh: "Have you seen Garrett's lizard lately?"
Jess: "No, why?"
Josh: "Jersey just pooped it out on our walk."
Jess: "Really! How could you tell?"
Josh: "It was whole."
Jess: "What?!? That's crazy!"

She must have a really good digestive system - hopefully everything she eats from the house will come back out.


This is Olivia showing her "pack leader" walk with Jersey. I think she does a better job than me!

Cinderella

The most popular song in our house right now is Steven Curtis Chapman's "Cinderella." Olivia really liked it the first time she heard it, but told me the other day that she didn't like it anymore because it was a princess, not a a daughter and her daddy. I explained to her what the song was about, but she didn't say anything. This evening Josh danced with Esther to the song when it came on the radio, it brought tears to my eyes. I would have had a picture, but our camera needs batteries - darn it! Josh almost always cries when he listens to it. Just click on the title below to listen. You better grab a tissue!