Sayings

"I DID bring rain spray--it sprays the rain away!"

(while reading from his baby bible)
"Mary and Joseph couldn't see but the sun was coming up. And the giraffe was eating a wire. And some mulberries? That's funny!"

My Cowboy

(thanks for the pic, Andrea!)

My little cowboy has had SUCH a good week at Vacation Bible School this week. He continues to call it "PBS" despite our corrections. Oh well.

Debby has been his teacher and she is amazing. He LOVES it. He LOVES her. (and Miss Jill) And I am so relieved that he may do really well at preschool this fall!

The stories he tells probably are a bit different than what Miss Debby is actually teaching--somewhere between her words and his ears, things get a little tangled:

*The first day, he explained that he learned that some guys went into God's car and drove around and then they got in the back of his truck.

*Yesterday, 'Zaccheus climbed the tree to see Jesus, but then fell out of it and bonked his head when Jesus called to him.'

*Today he told us that he learned about someone throwing something at Jesus' eye and then he couldn't see.' (But judging by the 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish, I think he learned a different story...)

I know he's learning though. I just heard him singing "This Little Light of Mine" to himself in his room. SOMETHING'S sticking in that head.

The REAL reason I married Joel...

Was for his sister. I LOVE having Karla take the kids' pictures! She is amazing and even when they DON'T cooperate, she still gets really cute pics!!!




Unfortunately, Lily was NOT in the mood for pictures this day...so we got a couple. For most of them she was rather somber.

Candy and Santa

Sounds like Christmas, doesn't it? Well, it felt like December here this morning. We were enthusiastically greeted by none other than SANTA CLAUS! When he appeared, he shouted, "Ho, ho, ho! Merry Christmas to all!"

And then, just like that, he was gone.


**************************************************************************************
Then later, Ollie was sucking on a piece of candy.

He said, "Mom, ask me what I'm chewing."

(sigh) "Ollie, what are you chewing?"

"A saver life."

Lily Mae

Lily is 18 months, as of yesterday. It's hard to believe. Mostly because it seems she's so much OLDER than that! But other times, it's amazing that she's been with us that long.
(after a nap. That hair is something else!)

She is the funniest thing. (And we thought Ollie had personality!) She might now weigh 20 pounds, but has the spunk and attitude of a much larger child. :-) We often get comments about how little and 'sweet' she is. And she is! But she has been known to pick on children much bigger than her!(Lily's "cheese!" face)

Her nicknames are "Silly Lily", "Lil" (from Ollie), "Tiger Lily", "Wandering Lily" (because she IS such a wanderer), and lately, "Hurricane Lily". She can be the quietest, sneakiest little thing. She often leaves a path of destruction in her wake.

(watering my zinnias)

She is also becoming quite the talker. "NO!" is her new favorite word. Unfortunately, she uses is quite appropriately. She loves asking Ollie, "Why?" In fact, just this morning, they were standing at the door and she made a barking sound. Ollie responded, "No Lily, there aren't any dogs out there." "Why?" she asked. "Because, they're all dead" was his reply. But at least he gets to field the 'why' questions--and not me.

(yes, she's almost naked. Truth is, my kids play outside almost-naked most days. They always end up wet and dirty, so why not?)

I absolutely love her spunk and personality. I do worry a bit though, that it may be the source of some conflict when she's a bit older. Hopefully, we can help guide that strong will and attitude into some really positive things!!!

Life Lessons #526

I read Micah 6:6-8 a couple days back. It talks about what God really wants--sacrifice, or true obedience: loving your neighbor, being compassionate, walking with God.

This morning, I was talking with Ollie after a time-out. I began thinking about this passage: How humorous and sad would it be if, instead of obedience, Ollie wanted to just give me stuff. If, instead of learning to love and enjoy Lily (aka: stop hitting her on the head every time she comes near him) he'd just flippantly say 'sorry' and offer me one of his matchbox cars? He'd miss out on the tremendous blessing of family--of learning to love and be loved, of a trusting relationship with me, and would be crippled in his ability to live with people.

And what would I do with his stuff? The idea that his things are of any value to me is laughable! What do I desire of him? A relationship. I want him to love and trust me enough to see that these rules and boundaries we set for him are pure love--keeping him safe, giving him a loving family in which to learn, fail and grow. Someday, when he's a little older, a little more mature, he'll get that.

Once again, God uses children to help us (finally) understand our own Father a bit better.

Call me a bad mother if you want...

But yes, I do let my 18-month old daughter play with the Homer Simpson version of Operation.
Hey, she likes it! And we haven't had any eating-little-parts catastrophe's yet.


And she copies the sounds he makes and it is FUNNY. Take a look. I wish I had a longer video, but she just wouldn't cooperate on camera!

Look!

I have a pot FULL of beautiful, pink zinnias!


One of summer's BEST surprises!