Possibly Saying Goodbye...

So, as you can tell, I haven't been so great about putting anything on the blog.  It just takes me way too long to upload photos on here.  Maybe I'm missing something--that's quite possible.  I found that it's incredibly easy to upload photos directly from iPhoto (the photo program I'm now using with our new computer) to Facebook so I think I'm going to go that route.  If you want to keep up with us, please join Facebook and friend me and I will be adding pictures there more often than I have here.  I might still go on rants every now and then here at the trusty ol' blog, but at least for now I'll just be doing pictures on Facebook.  Enjoy!

Brotherly Love

I have a lot of pictures from various things we've done recently that I have to post, but I just couldn't wait to post this video that I took just a little while ago. I was in the kitchen and knew the boys were playing together so I went into their room and this is what I found :)

Isaac Scoots

As many people already know, Isaac does not crawl. He scoots. Here's a video of him in action!

A shout-out and some allergy suggestions!

First, a shout-out to my friend Kelli. Today she said something that made me very happy. She said she didn't think she'd ever seen two siblings where one looked so much like one parent and the other looked like the other parent. I have always thought that Nathan looks just like Jimmy and Isaac looks just like me. I don't mind when people say they both look like Jimmy or Isaac looks a lot like Nathan. But I did really appreciate her seeing them the way I do :)

I also wanted to let you in on some good information that my pediatrician gave me yesterday regarding seasonal allergies. We were celebrating Isaac's birthday with a trip to the doctor (just a check-up) and we were there for over two hours. That has nothing to do with it, though, I just wanted you to know what we (the boys and I) survived yesterday. Anyway, she told me lots of good seasonal allergy info. So here you go. Often, they don't show up until you're in your 40s, but if you have a parent with seasonal allergies, you're likely to develop them as well. My mom has allergies, so the doc suggested that the boys and I incorporate locally grown honey into our diets. Since my mom has allergies, I'll probably develop them too, and then there's the chance the boys will, also. Well, one way to build up your immunity to the pollen in your area is to eat honey that is produced in your area. I think the idea is that if we eat Missouri honey, since it's made from bees using the same pollen we're breathing in every day, our body will build up a resistance to that pollen. And when we go to the next state, we'll do the same thing with that state's honey. I doubt it's a cure-all for seasonal allergies, but it's at least worth a shot. You're supposed to incorporate two tablespoons of honey three days a week, and you can do it in lots of ways, including cooking with it. I don't think that baking counts, necessarily, but you could use it to sweeten tea, BBQ, or smoothies. Nathan really likes peanut butter & honey sandwiches. She also gave me a sheet of things to do if you have allergies. Apparently, the pollen is released at night so you should keep your windows closed at night, and you should change your pillowcase at least twice a week. Pollen gets in your hair and if you don't wash it before you go to bed, you'll be up close and personal with it all night, leaving you feeling horrible in the morning. Also, pollen sticks to your shoes so you should not wear your shoes around the house leaving a pollen trail.

Thankfully none of us currently suffer from seasonal allergies, but we're going to take the precautions anyway! I hope this has been somewhat helpful for some of you!

Happy First Birthday Isaac!

Today is Isaac's first birthday! He's been such a wonderful addition to our family. Isaac started life as an incredibly calm baby, which was a blessing because the first four months of his life were very transient! He is still almost always happy and smiley and bubbly, but he definitely has his own ideas about how things should be! Some of his favorite activities include scooting (he doesn't crawl--video to come once my camera battery is charged), loading up baskets or anything else with small toys, throwing things into the dishwasher and then retrieving them, playing with cars and other things with wheels, and doing basically anything that Nathan is doing! He says a couple of words--"mama," "dada," and "Tip Top," though none of them very often or on command. He can wave and at church he likes to clap and lift his hands to praise the Lord when he sees the people around him doing it! We are excited to watch him continue to grow and learn and become the little person, and then man, God has designed him to be!

When I told Nathan that it was Isaac's birthday, he immediately said "He needs a birthday hat!" As you can tell, these aren't hats. They are the boxes that some toys live in, but Nathan likes to pretend that they're hats (and Isaac likes this game, too).

And some pictures of the birthday boy. :) He was laughing and smiling the whole time I was trying to take his picture, but he kept throwing his head backwards so I never got a good face-on shot! Oh well, he's cute from any angle!

Grass Heads

I made grass heads with my Pre-K class last week and then at home with Nathan and a few friends, too. I had never done it before so I wasn't sure how they would turn out, but after just a week, they look great! Here's the before picture...
...and a week later they have full heads of "hair"!
Here's Nathan's grass head. It ought to be a little heavier on top in just a few days. If you are interested in grass heads, you can learn more by clicking here. Have fun!

Breakfast and the woes of cuteness

So this is what Nathan does while I'm putting Isaac down for his nap! I heard a lot of commotion going on in the dining room and had prepared myself to see hot cereal all over everything (but didn't really expect it because Nathan has finally grown out of that, for the most part). I was happy to come out and find only this: Nathan had invited friends to join him for breakfast. :)

It must be difficult being so cute when your mom always wants to take pictures of you. Nathan and Maggie decided to share the chair but weren't really excited about being photographed.

Such a Big Boy!

Nathan is growing up so fast, sometimes I feel like it's all happening in a blur. How is he almost three?!?! Anyway, here are a couple of new things about him. In the picture below, he's sitting on our porch reading all by himself. I mean, he can't sound out words yet, but he does love to read to himself and can do it for a really long time. We were having some friends over for lunch o Sunday and we were preparing everything while Isaac took a nap. It was raining and he wanted to go outside. We gave him the choice of staying inside and helping or reading, or sitting in the chairs outside and reading to himself while he watched the rain. He chose to sit outside and read and we were able to get a lot done while he did so! (I'm sure the temptation to run around in the rain was there since we weren't right there with him--we were watching from the window--but he probably thought twice about it because it was kind of chilly!)

And this is Nathan's new-to-us bed! Gulf Drive (where we live) had a huge yard sale Saturday morning and we got this bed for him. He and I went to Wal-Mart Saturday afternoon to pick out sheets and get a bed rail. He had the choice of animal, Mickey, Thomas the Train, or Pooh sheets (or, of course, just plain ones). I'm sure if you know Nathan at all you don't have to guess twice about which sheets he chose. Animal, of course.

This picture is just a reminder of how much he loves animals. That poster on the wall extends the entire length of the wall--great leftover from my teaching days!

Nathan and Dotters, who was given to him by the Easter Bunny. :) (Isaac got a giraffe named Tip Top, and "Tip Top" is one of the few things Isaac says well!)

Big Announcement!

Well, not that big. But Nathan is definitely potty trained now! We started a few weeks ago and he really did get it in a matter of a couple of days. The first day and a half was really rough but once he understood the cause and effect (this is the feeling I get and this is what happens if I don't go to the potty...), he's been doing a great job! He's had a couple of accidents, but nothing too major and nothing when we've been out. He still needs help getting onto the potty and turning on the water to wash his hands, but other than that, he can do it all by himself! It makes me even more eager to get Isaac potty trained and get ALL of the diapers out of the house, but I'm not crazy enough to try that right now! :)

Toddler egg-dying party!

Last week Jimmy and I went temporarily insane. Neither of us had school or work on Friday, so we decided to host (OK, by "we" I mean "I" and he didn't disagree with it) a toddler Easter-egg-dying party. Then on Wednesday night we also agreed to babysit the sons of two friends because they realized that their daycare would be closed and they were both scheduled to work. The boys are 2 and 3. So, we had four boys under the age of 4 in our care from 8:00-4:00 and a house full of toddlers (the others brought mommies) for a while in there, too. Here are some pictures from the egg dying, including pictures of those either too young to dye, or not interested! It really was a lot of fun! (In case you're wondering, we all went to bed early that night because as you can imagine, naps didn't really happen, and we slept quite well!)

Playing Outside

Here are some pictures from a couple of weeks ago when Nathan and some of our neighbors were playing outside. It's so wonderful to have neighbors Nathan and Isaac's ages! The top is a picture of Noah who ran up to me when he saw my camera and said "cheese" and looked right up into the lens, so I guessed he wanted me to take a picture of him. :)

This sweet little girl is Peyton. She is about 14 months older than Nathan, and they like to pretend that they're mother and son (they like to call each other that, too). Right before this Peyton had been fixing Nathan's hair. Then he eventually obeyed his "mommy" and sat in her lap for a picture.

Blue-eyed Isaac

April Challenge

Well, tomorrow starts our April Challenge. Jimmy and I have been really challenged at our church by how we spend our money and in the process have been totally convicted that we can do a better job about not only how we spend it, but also how we view money. Our pastor has said that when we get our paycheck our first thought should be, "How can I use as much of this to bless other people as possible?" That is SO NOT the American way, but I don't want to do things the American way, I want to do them God's way. So, in April, we're going to save as much as we can and at the end give it to one of the missions that our church supports (we support some churches and orphanages in Africa and some missionaries around the world). Our $30--that's just one dinner out, by the way--can support an orphan at one of those orphanages in Africa for an entire month.

Our goal in April is to give away as much money as possible, on top of what we're already tithing. Do we really need new clothes this month or should we save that money to give to people who literally have none? No, my shoes don't have holes in them so I'm not going to buy new ones and therefore maybe someone who doesn't own even one pair can acquire one. Do we really need to go out to eat, or can we eat that canned soup in the pantry we've been avoiding so that someone who doesn't know where the next meal is coming from doesn't have to worry for at least one day?

I used to think that spending money made me feel better--when I had a crappy day it felt good to go buy myself something special. But that's so empty. Things can't really make you happy, not in the long run. Maybe in the moment they do, but I bet you that one special thing isn't going to make you feel any better tomorrow when your job still sucks or your children are screaming at you. So you have to buy something else. And the cycle continues. So, we're hoping to do something that not only makes us actually feel better because we're hearing and following God's call from 1 John 3:17 (go look it up!), but that also helps someone else in a tangible way.

So...do you want to join the challenge?

P.S. Now that it's been about 12 hours since I wrote the above, I just wanted to add an addendum: It is not through our own strength that we are attempting this. I don't want this to sound like we are gloating over how generous we are (or attempting to be!). It is only through God's grace that we were convicted to think about how we spend our money and only through God's sovereignty that we are even considering this experiment. And it will most definitely only be because of God's strength that we are able to be more generous than we have been in the past.

Future Preacher

Translation: "Sin is not good! Obey Jesus!"

(Some) Potty Success! (And some pictures!)

Well, some things have changed since yesterday's pathetic post. Nathan has successfully used the potty several times, and has had no major accidents since then! Yesterday afternoon I was pretty irritated so I went on a walk and ran into my friend Lisa who suggested that I read this book about potty training in three days. I won't say that we buy the whole idea, but I did like a few things. Right away (after his nap) we stopped asking him if he had to go and suggesting that he go try. Until this point, he hadn't wanted to sit on the potty so we were bribing him with M&Ms just to sit there and not whine. Instead, we started telling him to check if he was dry and when he says yes, we just make a big deal about it. Also, we tell him, "Let mommy and daddy know if you need to use the potty," so putting the control in his hands. I kid you not, within a couple of hours he successfully used the potty for the first time! I don't know if it was because after a day and a half of accidents he just got the idea, or if the change in communication really worked. Today he has not had any full-blown accidents, and has kept on the same underwear almost all day! We're very proud of him, he's proud of himself, and I can tell that he's much happier. Yesterday and Thursday he was pretty grouchy but he's back to being himself now. I'm not going to say that we're done, but at least we've made some progress!

And, now that you've put up with my rambling (or maybe you skipped all of that...), you can reward yourself with why you really visit my blog. :) (I don't remember what I've done in the past but each caption goes with the picture below it. Also, click on the picture for a bigger view.)

Isaac, as cute as ever. :) This kid will always smile for the camera!

Isaac riding the firetruck we got Nathan for his first birthday. In this picture, Isaac is almost the same age Nathan was when he had his first ride!

Nathan decided he wanted to give Isaac a push, and Isaac loved it!

Two cuties :)

The big day has arrived! Nathan throwing away his diapers on Thursday morning. Do not be alarmed, though, we're not crazy enough to actually send unused diapers to the dumpster (though perhaps Nathan thinks that's where they have gone). They're in a clean garbage bag hiding in the basement.

And today! After some potty success and feeling great about himself, Nathan brings me the camera and asks me to take a picture of him laughing. :)

Potty Woes

I should have taken a picture of Nathan with his Cookie Monster underwear on his head, but I was downstairs and the camera was upstairs, so I didn't. I think that's about how he feels about using the potty--might as well wear the things on his head.

Needless to say, today and yesterday have not been the most successful days of potty training. We're now at naptime on the second day of being diaper free, and Nathan still has yet to produce anything in the potty. Not one little dribble, at any point in his life, has entered the toilet coming from his body. I can't decide if he just doesn't know the cause-effect relationship of the feeling he gets and then what happens, or if he's scared of doing it, or if he's willfully disobedient. Thankfully, I'm pretty sure it's not disobedience. I think that he's afraid of failure and therefore doesn't want to sit on the potty. We've given in from first offering him ain M&M if he produced anything on the potty to now giving him one if he'll just sit there without whining. And I'll read a book to him while he sits there.

I think I just need to reorder my thoughts about this whole process. I thought the 1-3 day approach was best, where you just jump in all at once, no more diapers, only "big boy" underwear. But maybe that's not best with him. We'll see...hopefully I won't still be blogging about this in a year! :)

If you have suggestions, you're welcome to leave them!

A Challenge

Tonight at house church (a small group of people from our church who meet weekly to study scripture, pray, etc.) we discussed the passage that our pastor preached from on Sunday. This verse struck me, and is a major theme at our church, New City Fellowship:

"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth." 1 John 3:16-18 (bold mine)

We worry about owning houses when we have brothers and sisters in a sister congregation in Congo who are orphans without a dwelling place. We worry about not getting to go out to eat when we have brothers and sisters in a sister congregation in Togo who say that they will go home and not know where their next meal comes from. We worry about getting the best education for our children that money can buy, and yet there are Burmese children living in refugee camps in Thailand who will possibly be there their entire lives, never getting an education and never working. What is frustrating to me is that most of us rich Westerners have not really bought into God's economy; we are still pursuing the American dream. We make sure that our perceived needs are met and then give from excess to those truly in need instead of living sacrificially, to the point that it hurts. God's idea for our lives might not include owning a home, going out to eat, or buying an expensive education for our children. It might include renting, shopping at thrift stores, and public school so that we can do just what 1 John 3:17 says we should do. We are indeed Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger, and if we were really all doing what 1 John 3:17 says we should do, we wouldn't have starving brothers--that's right, fellow Christians--around the world.

This blog post isn't intended to point fingers away from myself onto other people. It's meant to point to other people, for sure, but also to myself. Though Jimmy and I feel like we live sacrificially because we do give generously to our church, there are so many ways I can think of in just the past month that we should have not spent money and perhaps used that money in ways that would fulfill the call from God to give to those in need. So my challenge for you and for myself is that we make a conscious effort, maybe for just a week or two, to think about all we spend our money on and think about whether we should instead invest it in God's kingdom by serving those who need it most. That's how God's economy works, and it doesn't crash.

Potty Training!

Well folks, hopefully tomorrow is the big day. Nathan has been excited about the prospect of using the potty and wearing "big boy underwear--like Titus and Silas and Samuel!" for a while now. I bought him a package of Sesame Street undies about two weeks ago to get the dialogue underway, hoping to do the potty training this week (spring break for both Jimmy and me). I had hoped to start on Monday, but since both of the boys were so sick, I thought that would be torture for everyone. Nathan seems to be fine now, so we went to Target today to get some more supplies and hopefully tomorrow we'll be diaper free! We got: a potty seat, a stool, an Elmo potty coloring book with a sticker chart, a new book that he picked out that he can have the first day he uses the potty all day with no accidents (not counting sleep time), and Thomas the Train big boy underwear. He is really excited about all of it, and Jimmy and I are certainly excited about the prospect of no more diapers (though he will use Pull-ups during nap and bedtime), but we're not all that excited about the process. Hopefully in the days to come, I'll have some very positive updates!

some things we've been doing

Well, I found the camera cord so I decided to put up a quick blog post of some of the things we've been doing recently. This is a picture of Nathan and his friend Maggie playing hide and go seek. I don't think they quite realize that one of them is supposed to go hide!


When it was so cold outside, we had a lot of indoor playdates. Here is a picture of Isaac and our neighbor, Asher, who is only six days younger than Isaac. Hopefully they'll get to play more together--until now one of them seems to always have an ear infection but maybe that will stop now that the weather is getting warmer!


This past weekend we went to Texas for Jimmy's grandmother's funeral. It was a very beautiful funeral, and a great time to see family at a time we wouldn't normally. On our trip there he got to sit in the pilot's seat while we were on the ground. It was very exciting for all of us :)



Here are some pictures of this amazing playground that we played on in Corpus Christi, Texas (near our hotel). It was this huge maze of playthings. Isaac came along, but as you can see, was a little too out of it to participate in much of the running around. This is another picture of three generations on the train at the playground.



This last picture is of a trip that the boys took to the zoo today. During our trip to Texas Nathan and Isaac got really sick, bu they are feeling better. Unfortunately, I am now not feeling so well! So, Nathan and Isaac and Daddy along with our friend Zach, who is visiting from California, went to the zoo and gave me some time to rest. It was much needed.

Well, now that the camera cord is found, I guess I have no reason for not posting very often. I'll try to be more up-to-date with my posts, that is, if there is anything worth posting about!