Josie's First Driving Experience

My mom and step-dad got this jeep for Gabe when he was around 3 years old, and it's still hanging in there. We let Josie drive it herself for the first time, and it was hilarious. I really wish I would've had the video camera with me. Let's just say that Gabe was a MUCH better driver at almost 3 than she is. Gabe, however, was much more cautious in driving and everything else, than Josie is.



It wasn't long at all (maybe 20 seconds) before she crashed into this fencing surrounding our tree. She was not happy about it. She stood up to see what she had hit, and said in an irritated voice, "Oh, man. I crashed into this thing."


Finally, help arrived in the form of Seth. He was much more patient and encouraging than I expected, considering there were numerous crashes and plenty of whiplash, as well.

Funny Stuff 4

Sorry for the length...feel free to skip if you do not have a grandparent-level interest in my kids.

Gabe:
"Do you know what the bulldog represents?" In reference to Mug rootbeer, which I had never noticed before.
We had the Kampmans over for supper, and Gabe just loves Abigail, their daughter who is Josie's age. At church a few months ago, he said, "Abigail is such a beautiful little girl." This time as they were leaving he said, "She has a great mind." Glad to see he appreciates beauty and brains.
"Can I please have a drink? I feel like my body is dehydrated."
Nile's mom had bought Josie a few new clothes, and Gabe asked her if she bought him any. She asked him what things he needed, and he started listing off track pants, shirts to match the track pants, and on and on. I was appalled at his lack of manners in asking, and said "Gabriel!" Before I could voice my disapproval, he said, "Sorry, mom. I'm just trying to get her inspired."
The other night after supper, Gabe took his plate to the sink, as usual. As I began clearing the rest of the supper dishes and cleaning up, he said, "You don't have to do that, mom. I'll clean up for you. I haven't been cleaning up around here as much as I should."

Seth:
Josie had gotten a hold of Seth's gun, which is a favorite of his. They share a lot of toys, but there are a few special gifts that they can choose to keep away from Josie. We've been working hard on not grabbing something away from someone else, even when it belongs to you-you should ask nicely first, and then come ask for help if that doesn't work. He asks nicely, and it doesn't work :) That Josie can be a handful...I help him get it back, and he hides it from her, and then says, "I'm not gonna give her the opportunity to do that again."
On Easter morning, we needed to wake the boys so we could do Easter stuff before Nile went to church. Their bedroom is right under the kitchen, so Nile stomped really hard and loud on the kitchen floor. They came running up, and then Gabe told us that as soon as they heard the pounding, Seth (remembering we had said we would do an egg hunt first thing in the morning) opened his eyes and said, "That must be the signal."
I was thrilled because Seth finally let me pitch to him (last summer, he wouldn't even attempt hitting off anything but the baseball tee), and he was doing great. He even hit three or four over our fence, and I was tyring to really encourage him. I think he started to get scared that since he was doing so great, I would maybe force him to do Little League baseball, or something. He stopped hitting, and said, "I don't want to be an official baseball player. I just want to practice at home."
Seth, Josie, and I were playing at a park and there was a bratty little girl there. You all know what I mean...she kept running up to Seth and calling him a butty-buttface. I could see the internal war raging within him-he really wanted to say something back to her. It didn't help that this girl's older sister was encouraging Seth to call her a butty-buttface back. I could tell he was almost at his limit, so I quietly intervened, reminding Seth that God doesn't want us to repay evil for evil, and that this is a chance to practice showing God's love even to those who are being unloving to us. A few minutes later, I hear him whisper to the girl, "I have a lot of names I want to call you, but I'm gonna keep them in my brain."

Josie:
She wrote all over herself with marker, and even did her fingernails with it. She saw my face as I walked over to her, and said, "Sorry, mom, but I want to be a fashion girl." To which Seth says, "I think you mean fashion model, Jos." To which I am thinking, how do either of you know anything about either of those things.
"I think you earned a spanking, Seth." (love how she doles out the discipline for others)
"Oh, mommy, my cup overflows. That means I love you so much, mommy."
It was getting close to the time when Nile gets home, so I told the kids we were going to start tidying up a little. Josie said, "Is daddy not gonna be so thrilled?"
Me: When is your birthday Josie?
Her: June twenty forty. (close-it's June 10th)
Me:What do you want to be when you grow up?
Her:I want to be a spy dude.
We were at playland and Josie ran over and gave me a big hug and kiss, put her little hand on my cheek, looked at me adoringly and said loudly, "Does everyone have nipples, mommy?"

Hair Cut

A simple haircut is not typically blogworthy, but this boy's hair was seriously long! He was growing it out to look like a spy (not sure where he got the idea that spies have long hair), but I couldn't take it anymore. My dad has always referred to Seth as the boy with a thousand faces, and you can see why. Lots of silliness going on here.

Some "before" shots that don't even do justice as far as showing the length of this mop.

Some "after" shots...much better. I am not joking when I say that cutting his hair dulled my scissors. He wasn't thrilled after looking in the mirror, thus the meloncholy look after his bath. He actually said, "What could be worse than this?" as he looked at himself. That was a few days ago, and I think he's forgotten about it. We'll just keep him away from mirrors until it gets a little longer.

Easter Part 2

Couldn't resist putting in one of my husband's beautiful blue eyes. He is out of town for three days, so I am going to pray he doesn't see this blog entry considering there was one other time I called him handsome on my blog and he made me delete it immediately. Join me in prayer :)Love you, babe!

Josie is super excited and Seth is in his pajamas-not sure why we let him, but hey, it's Easter.

Uncle Joe helping Gabe find his Easter loot.

Listening intently (at least Josie is) to Nana's instructions.

Gabe was so thrilled with this 5 dollar shirt. He is SO into baseball right now.

Seth finding eggs, and as always, he is very zealous!

Josie studying her little doll.

Easter...finally!

Josie and Nana (Nile's mom)

Josie and Aunt Sarah

The clan

For you, mom. Not a great pic of either of us, but the only one that really showed Josie's whole dress.

My boys!

The best I could get...

One of those days...

Just a quick story I wanted to post so I never forget how precious and challenging these days as a mom are...it had been one of those days (this was last week), and I was worn out, frustrated with my precious children :), wishing my husband were around to help put them to bed, emotional-you get the point. I hadn't handled disciplining the kids very well towards the end of the night, and had to ask for their forgiveness as I was tucking them in to bed. They graciously forgave me, and I began to pray. Somewhere along the way, I started crying and couldn't continue my prayer. I had my head down, and was trying not to show my tears. I choked out, "Gabe, could you pray for us?" Right away, he starts tearing up and asks me why I'm crying. Busted. Then I feel his little arm around me and his head on my shoulder, followed by sweet little kisses from Seth on my forehead, cheek, other cheek, lips, back to forehead-there must have been 20 of them. Their concern and love was so sweet. I told them I was starting to feel better already, and Seth grins and says, "I just knew my kisses would work." Josie was in the boys' room this whole time reading books, and I was surprised she didn't say anything because she is typically very concerned when someone is upset. She often cries if someone gets hurt or even if someone has hurt feelings. When I brought her upstairs for bed, she finally noticed I had tear marks on my face, and asked if I was sad. I said, "Didn't you see mommy crying? That's why Gabe and Seth were hugging and kissing mommy." Then she starts crying hard, and says, "I didn't see you crying and I didn't give you hugs and kisses when you cried. Can you cry again?" Hilarious. So I fake cry, she gives me hugs and kisses and all is well. God is so good.
This really spoke to me, taken from Sacred Parenting, by Gary Thomas.
"Parental guilt can actually encourage us to rest in God's providence. It's no accident that we have the children we have; God made them and placed them in our care. When he did so, he knew our limitations, but he still entrusted us with these children. As people of faith, we need to trust God and let some of the responsibility fall back on him. This doesn't mean we become cavalier and fail to fully engage ourselves as parents to the best of our ability. But it does mean that we have a place of rest-it's called trusting in God's providence and in Christ's sufficiency. All of us come up short as parents-but Christ promises to make up for what we lack." And I, for one, am so thankful for that.

Fun in Pella

We had a fun time in Pella last weekend. The kids had an Easter egg hunt, got to play a lot with Uncle Jerod (thanks!), and I was finally able to play with and totally enjoy Cayla, my niece.


My mom and step-dad (love how Josie is holding on to "Grammi's" arm)...the kids are enjoying the Easter egg hunt loot.

Having loads of fun with Uncle Jer

Josie could not get enough of Cayla...

This precious girl is VERY loved!!

Child Training 101

Had to show a stubborn look to go with my story!

So, Josie has been a bit of a pistol this week. I decided I better step up my child training before it goes any further :) I have really been trying to be extra consistent with her, and loved this excerpt from a book I read a while back and have revisited, which talks about the importance of Eph. 4:22-24 (the putting off and putting on stuff). I haven't been taking the time to train her with the "putting on" part of the verse lately, it seems, so I cracked down this week.

"When we correct our children for the wrong behavior but fail to train them in righteous behavior, we will exasperate them because we are not providing them with a way of escape. This sort of neglect will provoke them to anger. There will never be a situation where this does not apply. As a rule, anytime you correct your child for wrong behavior, have her walk through the right behavior. This is how we train our children to walk in the righteousness of Christ. This is what the Bible means when it says to 'train them in righteousness'." (from "Don't Make Me Count to Three", by Ginger Plowman).
Long background story...my apologies. Anyway, tonight Josie was laying on the dog's head again, and Cooper gave just a little warning growl. I told Josie to please get off Cooper's head, and she did, but did so with a very loud and exasperated sigh and pouty attitude. We had already had some consequences for this very thing. We went into her room and I asked if she obeyed with a joyful heart (she said no) and I asked her how she should have answered me (she said, "Yes, mommy"). She had a consequence, we hugged, prayed, loved on each other, and came back out. I totally forgot to have her practice the right behavior, and had moved on to something else when I heard, "You forgot to have me say it the right way, mommy! I will lay on Cooper's head again, and you say 'Please get off Cooper's head, Josie. Then I will say, Yes mommy'." Praise the Lord that something is getting through to her. I'm sure tomorrow will prove me wrong :)

Flashback Friday

Seth and his first set of stitches at 18 months old. He was chasing a balloon around the living room and bent down in mid-run to reach it, hitting his head on the fireplace ledge.

Funny Stuff 3

Sorry this one is heavy on the Josie comments...she has been so funny lately, and turned into quite the ham. Also, we spend a lot of time together while the boys are at school. Here is a small sample of what I hear in a day...
"Oh, that was a close call!" (barely made it to the bathroom to go potty)
"Look, mommy! There's Josie and Codi together! We're together!" (looking at the JC Penney store and noticing the J and the C were right next to each other)
"Can I have a NOT healthy snack? Like buh, buh, buh...it starts with a B." Don't be impressed, though, because she went on to pick a snack that did not start with a B :)
"I want to watch a cartoon. What are the choices are?"
"I will be obedient now, mommy."
"Don't say buttocks, Seth. That is inappwopwiate." (inappropriate)
"Can you sleep with me for, like, 40 minutes?"
"I wish I had a baby sister like Gabe haves Seth." (in a very pitiful voice)
She had stolen a drink of my Diet Pepsi out of the fridge, and confessed it to me, then followed it up with "I had a drink of your pop. What do you think about that?" (she was very serious-not disrespectful)
"What does o-t-s spell, mommy?" I tell her it spells ots, and she says, "Oh, ots, I knew it!"

Seth:
"Let's do another kiss goodnight. I think you got off track." (We had bumped each other and I kissed part of his nose instead)
His new phrase is "We never often get to..." followed by a request to do that very thing.
He had a play date and came home SO excited. "Mom, they have a food service lady at their house!! She makes their food for them every day. Is that so awesome?" He then sweetly asks me, "Do you wish we had a food service lady so you wouldn't have to do all the cooking for us?" I tell him I LOVE to cook and do stuff for our family, and he puts his hand on my cheek and gives me the most precious smile ever. That, of course, makes all my work worth it :)

Gabe:
Poor Gabe-he has had a rough week. This is a kid that almost never gets in trouble at school, and he got a couple of check marks this week for various things, mostly talking. Big surprise there. When I picked him up on Thursday and asked him how his day was, he started crying and said, "This has been the worst day ever." It was so sad. He bounced back today and had a super day with two stars, so life is good again. :)
Seth had a friend over to play at our house this week, and Gabe got home from school only to notice they had changed a few of his Lego creations. I hadn't seen them do it, so I told him not to get upset if a few things were moved around and that Seth and his friend were probably just looking. He looks at me and says, "They were not only looking..."