What did you say?

My boys say the funniest things.  Here are a couple of recent comments to share:

Me: "Nathan, get your foot off the wall."
Nathan:  "I like to."
Me:  "Well I'm sorry you feel that way because you may not put your feet on the wall.  You will make black spots on the wall."
Nathan:  "Some people have black walls."
:-D

Dropping Joseph off at school:
Me: "I love you kiddo.  Have a good day at school."
Joseph: "I love you.  I'll miss you."
Me:  "I'll miss you too sweetie."
Joseph:  "I was talking to Hannah."
ROFLOL!

I love those little cuties!

Joseph is a 1st Grader

Before school

I can't even believe it.  My "baby" is in the 1st grade!!!  How did that happen?!  It seems that just yesterday he was learning to crawl.  *sigh*  He has had 3 days at school and so far seems to really like his new teacher.  She is a first year teacher.  At first I was kind of iffy about that, but then a friend of mine reminded me that as a first year teacher, she still likes her job and isn't cranky yet.  =)  I also reminded myself that all of the great teachers were first year teachers once.  I have noticed that he is growing up to by the "typical" man.  I have to spoon feed him to get any information.  Here's an example of how our conversations have been going after school:

Me: "How was your day?"
Joseph: "Good."
Me: "What did you do?"
Joseph: "Um. We played and ate lunch."
Me: "Did you learn anything?"
Joseph: "Learn?"
Me: "Yes. Did you learn anything when you weren't playing or eating?"
Joseph:  "Oh. Um.  We did some worksheets."
Me:  "What kind of worksheets?"
Joseph: "The kind you work on."

I give up.  I figure that if he has any news, he'll tell me.  =)

Even though Nathan isn't in school yet, he still needed his picture taken =)

In his classroom.  Such a big boy!

A time to celebrate

A Time for Everything

 ¹ For everything there is a season,
      a time for every activity under heaven.
 ² A time to be born and a time to die.
      A time to plant and a time to harvest.
 ³ A time to kill and a time to heal.
      A time to tear down and a time to build up.
 ⁴ A time to cry and a time to laugh.
      A time to grieve and a time to dance.
 ⁵ A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones.
      A time to embrace and a time to turn away.
 ⁶ A time to search and a time to quit searching.
      A time to keep and a time to throw away.
 ⁷ A time to tear and a time to mend.
      A time to be quiet and a time to speak.
 ⁸ A time to love and a time to hate.
      A time for war and a time for peace.

 ⁹ What do people really get for all their hard work? ¹⁰ I have seen the burden God has placed on us all. ¹¹ Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end. ¹² So I concluded there is nothing better than to be happy and enjoy ourselves as long as we can. ¹³ And people should eat and drink and enjoy the fruits of their labor, for these are gifts from God.

Ecclesiastes 3: 1-13 

What a great weekend of celebration!  Saturday, August, 21 was Faith Lynn's 8th birthday in heaven!  It's such a bittersweet day.  It is a reminder of her life, her death, and her eternal life with our Father.  The celebration started out on Friday when my grandparents came to town and stayed in a local hotel.  We went to visit, had fried catfish, swam, and just had a whole lot of fun!  The lighting was AWFUL at the pool, so I only have this one pitiful looking picture to share. =(

Of course I had to get one of Hannah enjoying the pool too...

Can't you see her excitement?

Saturday morning was a little difficult for me.  I was sitting there with Hannah, looked at the clock, then realized at that exact same time 8 years prior I was holding Faith.  Even though it was a tough moment, I'm so grateful for God's gift of memories.  We went back to the hotel and had a yummy waffle breakfast with my grandparents.  Hmmm...didn't think to take any pictures.

After breakfast, we caravaned to the cemetery where we met my brother and sister-in-law, their 2 girls, and my dad for Faith's birthday party.  For some people that might be weird...but it's a wonderful celebration of Faith's brief life here on Earth.

After we had our cupcakes, we headed over to our traditional restaurant and met my mom, sister, and niece for lunch.  Here's the whole crew:

Hannah

Ava, Joseph, Emma, Jill, Claire, & Brian

James & PaPa

Mom, Dad, & Nathan

Grandmaw & Lindy

Me, Grandmaw, Lindy, & Mom

All in all, it was a great day remembering our sweet Faith.  

James & Faith

Faith,

We love and miss you so much!!!  Eat some of heaven's special cake for us!  We can't wait until we get to see and hug you again.  Thank you for being our special baby girl.

XOXO,

Mommy, Daddy, Joseph, Nathan, & Hannah

  

Summer's Coming To An End

This is the last week before Joseph goes to school and is an official 1st grader.  *wiping a small tear*  I can't believe how fast the summer has gone.  I know several moms that are doing the countdown to when school starts back.  They are ready for the kids to be back.  Maybe I'm weird.  I don't want him to go back.  I enjoy him being at home.  He and Nathan have had so much fun together.  Don't get me wrong, they have had their fair share of arguments; and I have had my fair share of being totally frustrated with them.  But in all, we've had a great time.  Tonight we go to meet Joseph's teacher.  I have been earnestly praying about who he will have for this school year.  I pray that he will have someone that will love him almost as much as I do, that he/she will be able to teach him well, and that he/she is someone that he will have fun with.  We'll see tonight!

Here are some pictures from a couple of weeks ago.  We had a whole Saturday at home to just be together as a family.  It was so nice!

Joseph being pushed down the slip-n-slide

Nathan being pushed down the slip-n-slide

Do you get the feeling that Dad is having more fun?

Me going down the slip-n-slide

Me trying to remember why I thought that was a good idea

Nathan making me feel better

Joseph and James having fun

Nathan getting ready to take a ride

What can I say?  They love their daddy.

God's artwork for us while we ate our dinner outside

And of course, Hannah after her nap

Kids Say The Darndest Things

It happens to every parent at some point.  It happens to some parents multiple times.  You are out in public and your sweet little angel opens their mouth and says something inappropriate...very loud.  My sweet little angel, Nathan, did that very thing Tuesday.

I had to go get James' car registration taken care of because I was too lazy to put it in the mail before it was due. :-/  So I loaded up my brood in the grand ole' suburban and we went to the tax office.  We arrive and while we're still in the car I gave them my normal warning speech.  You know the, "Stay with me.  No screaming.  No running. No climbing on things. And for the love of Pete, PLEASE don't do anything to embarrass me." speech.  We made it in the building without any running, screaming, or climbing.  VICTORY!  We waited in the line with minimal discipline needed.  VICTORY!  I got James' new sticker without any problems.  VICTORY!  At this point I'm starting to feel just slightly cocky.  We start our walk down the hall, to the door.....we're almost there!  I can see the car through the glass.  A successful mission!  I'm good!  Three young children in tow and no issues!  Then it happened.  This very kind, much older gentleman opened the door for us.  My sweet little Nathan went through the door and started to laugh and said, "Look!  It's an old man!"  Ugh.  But that's not all.  No, if that was all it wouldn't be so bad.  He had to finish it off with, "Is he going to die soon and go to heaven to be with Jesus?"  *Shaking my head* I don't know if the man heard him or not because I was too busy rushing across the parking lot before he could ask any more fun questions.

When we got to the car, I tried to explain that those are things that you shouldn't say.  But he's 3.  He's not going to get that concept for a long time.  I just better brace myself for more.