Out of their mouths . . .

I just remembered two more things that I meant to right down on the last post:

My dad taught the boys the I'm Down by the Beatles. They loved it (for some reason) and sing it in the car all the time. This cracks me up in general since I grew up listening to lots of oldies in the car. It also makes me chuckle because Parker will use the phrase from the song almost every time that he uses the word "down". He will say, "Mommy, can you help me get down, down baby down from this chair". I try not to laugh :)

We were talking about dinosaurs in our Children's Encyclopedia the other day and we were talking about what extinction means. They were trying to understand why there used to be dinosaurs and now there aren't any dinosaurs. The book gave several explanations for why they might have become extinct, one of which was the flood of the Bible. I was asking Davis, "can you think of anything that you know definitely happened because it is in the Bible that would have been BIG BIG enough to kill all those huge dinosaurs??" He thought about it for a while and then said, "Ummmm, Goliath?" Oh, it still makes me laugh a little.

Today Parker got a shot at the doctor and he keeps telling me his arm hurts but he keeps saying, "the shot really made my feelings hurt" while pointing to his arm :(

Valentine's Day

This is "my valentine" :) Sadly I had to go back to November to find a picture that was just the two of us . . note to self . . more photos with less children! We aren't usually big "valentine's day" celebraters but since the kids celebrated at a party, thought it was fitting to include a picture of MY valentine!

The boys and I are at a fun Valentine's Day party at Aunt Lissa's house. She went all out! They had a festive lunch, decorated cards for each other, decorated cookies, exchanged valentines and ate yummy treats.

My pretty momma with Evie Grace

My little sugar!

Davis putting his valentines in his cousins' mailboxes. They had so much fun with this. It was so cute to me to watch him find each person's bag and put in their card. He looked so big!

Alaska Cousins Visit!!!!

I apologize for the FLOOD of pictures, but a visit from our Alaska family is a highlight of the year. You can not even imagine how much my kids anticipate this visit. They love their cousins so much. It has always been my priority that my kids would really esteem and value the relationships they have with one another, as brothers, and then also with their cousins and extended family. While they don't see them nearly as often as we would like, they are really best buddies and I love that! The ten days seemed to fly by, as usual, but we jammed as much as possible into them. The week was filled with park play dates, a Valentine's party, a sleep over, playing at our house, hiking together, celebrating birthdays, more playing, and even some adult time (imagine that!). While we jam a lot of random fun stuff in that we would never normally do, my favorite part is just having them around for the day-to-day stuff like church together, Sunday night dinners, watching our fave reality shows together . . that type of stuff. I wish that was a reality more often :( I think we even did more together as adults that we usually do and it was so, so fun. Here are some of the highlights.

Park play date - Kara and Parker

Kara and Hugh

Clay Clay and TJ

Pretty Kara at the Valentine's party - cute Evie in the background :)

Clayton beating down Logan with a bat - he was laughing hysterically and for the record he hit Clayton first!

Clayton and Hugh - check out the aviators on that pilot . . hahaha

April and Eli

The kids together in dress up clothes the morning they stayed the night at our house

Eli and Clay

Clay, Kara, and Davis

All the cousins together - man I love that group of kids!

Davis loves his cousin Kara in a big way!

Sweet girl - love her!

Parker and April at dinner after church

Out of their mouths . . .

Parker has said some things lately that have really made me laugh.

I had to go to the bank the other day and asked which boy wanted to come with me. Parker got to come. When we are walking inside, he said "Where are we now? I thought you said we were going to the piggy bank??" Made me laugh.

A new thing for our house is playing on a mat for a period of time. When we started a couple weeks ago Parker asked what he was supposed to do. I told him he had to stay on his 'play mat'. Now when ever it is time for that activity he tell his brother, "Don't forget to stay on your placemat".

Parker asks to pray for most of our meals (Parker actually wants everyone to pray with him even if he is sitting down with a couple of crackers). Everyday for months he prays, among other things, "Thank you Jesus for hiking, thank you Jesus for sleeping at Aunt Lissa's". For New Year's Eve we let the boys sleep there until we went home . . . made QUITE the impression I guess.

I was reading them a story out of their Bible book and Parker said, "Was Eve a girl? Does that mean she had boobs?" Well, I would guess so. I suppose he wouldn't be a boy if that distinction wasn't important to him :)

Parker's Birthday

Parker got a big boy bike for his birthday. He was so excited. It didn't occur to me that he would have to learn how to ride it (a first in our family and yes it has training wheels) but after ten days on it he is doing really well!

After a hike in the morning, we all went to Jason's Deli for birthday lunch and ice cream! Parker was thrilled to have ALL his cousins around for his birthday lunch.

Parker got this knight costume for his birthday and he absolutely loved it (above). He also got this quilt from Aunt Amy (below) another hit of the day!

Parker is a very, very special gift to this family. There are certain things that were on my heart when I prayed for my kids as babies. When Parker was a newborn, I happened to be reading a lot in Psalms. The great love David had for God was on my mind a lot. I prayed over and over that Parker would grow up to love Jesus the way that David did and that he would have a soft, loving heart. Not that I have seen this come to completion or anything, but I tell you this is the sweetest little boy. He has a very compassionate little attitude and he is such an encouragement to me. He speaks very sweetly most of the time. It is very common for him to see me sitting on the floor and to come over and snuggle me or just sit down next to me and start to rub my back. He is also quick to say encouraging, sweet things to his brothers. "Good job G! . . You look so nice today Davis . . . ect" Three years in and this kid still doesn't love to eat . . good food that is. A bowl of ice cream or some other kind of treat goes down in abundance but dinner time continues to be a battle for him. This hasn't hindered his growth however. He is the biggest (on the scale) of all the boys. He hasn't been to his dr. appointment just yet but the last time they checked he was still off the charts for height and weight and looks to be almost the same size as Davis. His very favorite things to do are dress up (pretty much anything, but the two current favorites are a cowboy outfit and a knight outfit - both bday gifts). He dresses up everyday! He also like clothes in general. He wants out of his pj's and into his clothes for the day within minutes of getting up in the morning (trust me this is not modeled for him by me:) It is also common for him to want to change clothes throughout the day - not mommy's favorite. He loves super heros. He plays in a much more imaginative way that his brothers. He will play for a long time with his figures, imaging some kind of an story with them. Parker has a characteristically deep voice. Almost everyone that talks to him is surprised at first how low his voice is. I can't imagine what it will be like after puberty! However, when he says "I love you Mama" it is always higher - like he is being gentler with me or something. He does the same thing when he talks to Evie and Hugh - this is just sweet to me for some reason. Most of the time Parker seems so much older to me than he is (probably because he talks like a six year old) but sometimes he will do something that makes me realize that he is still just barely three years old. He still wants to be snuggled when I read to him, (he still uses a nuk - don't tell my dr:), and he still wants me to help him eat. Parker loves to sing together. Again - this is something more particular to him. Davis loves songs, but Parker actually want to sing along. I love his little - very out of tune - voice. His very favorite song is "Nothing but the Blood of Jesus" but he also regularly asks for "Lord I Lift Your Name on High", "If You Are Happy and You Know It", "Holy, Holy, Holy" and whatever the current car CD has on it. I really need to record his voice - it is precious. I love this little boy so much. He is a great, great joy to me. Happy 3rd Birthday Parker.

Davis

I hesitate to put this on the www because I can't control how it is read but I really want this documented in our family journal so I hope that my tone and context isn't lost. I want to cushion this story in the reality that this has been a particularly hard week with Davis. I know it goes in phases with the whole child rearing process but what happened tonight made me so grateful. God reminded me that lots of opportunities for discipline also means LOTS of opportunities to tell your kids the gospel over and over again. (Consequently Davis has heard the gospel ALOT the last couple of days) It should also be said that Davis very rarely chooses to pray. We have chosen not to "require" our kids to pray with us or before meals because we want it to flow from a personal desire not obligation (just our choice). Anyways, he doesn't very often ask to pray. Parker on the other hand is eager, eager to pray before meals - another story for another time - but it is very sweet too. Tonight the boys were having a snack at the table before bed. Parker asked to pray (he prays for ALL food consumed - very thankful little boy - good reminder for me!) He prayed and I started to walk away from the table and let them eat their snack. Davis said, "Wait, can I pray too?". So he prays:

"Jesus, will you please change my heart. Will you please help me to obey my mom. I want to obey You. Please make my heart obey. I love you Jesus. Amen". I'm still a little shocked as a type this that his heart was so soft tonight AND that he chose to pray that out loud. Not sure what God is doing in his heart exactly but I know that God in His grace GREATLY encouraged me that He alone is in control of my boys and their hearts and that in His time he will reveal truth to them and that I need to just continue to be obedient and tell them the good news of Jesus. This is huge for Davis. He is not easily swayed into praying and praying something like that for that matter. Thank you, thank you Jesus. Please, please give him a heart that love You very much!