faith like a child.

After our bedtime stories each night we pick a Bible story to read out of one of our many children's Bibles.  Tonight the story chosen was from 1 Samuel where David sings praises to God for King Saul and it makes King Saul feel happy.  It talks about how it pleases God to sing praises to Him.  So we decided to sing a few praises to God after our story.  I started in on "Jesus loves me" and Isaiah joined me.  Then Levi in the right tune sings "blub, blub, blub blub" and starts laughing.  He then says, "God is laughing right now, He thinks I'm funny.  God likes it when I'm funny to Him."  Levi kept laughing which brought a smile to my face -- and I bet he's right, I bet God was smiling too.

kindergarten roundup.

So I know this is the first of many days that will bring tears to Mark and my eyes as our oldest son is growing up so quickly and starting school.  It is bittersweet to watch him become a boy - full of life and excitement - part of me wishes he would stay little forever--and the other part of me is so anxious to watch him become who he was meant to be and how he will change this world.  I know God has big plans for this sweet boy - bigger plans than I can even dream up - and it feels like we are starting that journey now...

Isaiah was beyond excited the morning of kindergarten roundup - he woke up and was dressed before he even came out of his room.  He will almost always fuss or whine if I tell him he needs to wear jean or khaki shorts instead of athletic shorts, but this morning I didn't even have to tell him - he just knew and did it.  He could hardly contain himself until 8:45 came around so we could actually leave to go to school...

It was the morning of kindergarten roundup that Mark found out that we were leaving Isaiah at elementary school all by himself with teachers we really didn't know for a few hours.  He thought that we were going with him and when he found out the reality of what was going on, it hit him hard that our baby boy is really getting big!  (Unfortunately Mark had to miss the parents meeting about kindergarten this winter due to work)

 When we got to school, Isaiah had absolutely no reservations about going in or being nervous about us leaving him there, he was nothing but excited! 

 And when he got in the building he walked up and signed himself in just like that.  

 We took him to the library and with nothing more than a quick goodbye that was it.  Our little boy was at kindergarten roundup and the rest of the family just left.  After a few hours we all went back to pick him up and he was ECSTATIC about it.  He said he had so much fun and loved it.  He couldn't wait to wear the new school t-shirt that he was given and said he liked all the new friends and teachers he met.  It was a great preview for him - and maybe more importantly, a good preview for Mark and I.  I'm really trying to prepare myself for my little boy to be a school aged kid - and away from home for a good portion of each school day.  Oh my, here we go! 

Mother's Day.

My boys made my Mother's Day this year so memorable and special.  I woke up and laid in bed with Titus for a few minutes before Levi joined us.  There is nothing like cuddle time with my youngest two babies.  I had no clue that Mark and Isaiah were on their way to get breakfast, a special Mother's Day cake for me...and to leave me a beautiful plant on "our spot" at church.  After church we spent most of the day at my parent's house with my sister and her family too.  We enjoyed the beautiful weather and Mark taught us all how to play ultimate Frisbee -- Isaiah loved it and actually was a great team member--and Titus was a happy baby watching from the swing until he decided to take a snooze!  What a great day!

planting the garden

The boys and I worked together to get the garden planted this year.  Mark made me a small boxed garden a few years ago in the sunniest part of our yard and I like to fill it full of tomato plants so that I can enjoy cherry tomatoes for the summer.  Most years I've also planted some carrots, onions, peppers, lettuce and sometimes peas, but this time around things have been so crazy busy that tomatoes and lettuce were the only things planted.  Isaiah got the camera to take a picture of me, Levi and Titus (in the sling) and then things turned into a photo shoot for Titus once he made it to his jumper thing.  In the past couple months I've let Isaiah start taking pictures with the camera and if he had it his way he'd take pictures all day long! :)  So here you have it - a picture of the garden with all of its weeds and then many pictures of a happy baby Titus in mid-May.

puppies and fun

I hope that my boys will always have a special place in their heart for the adults in their life who love them as if they were their own.  One of those people is my friend Laura (remember the friend who was my job-share partner and we swapped kids for about a year and a half).  I'm happy to say that we still fit in playdates about once a month (give or take) and the boys still consider Jayda and Jonah (Lo's oldest 2) to be a few of their closest friends. Laura's family lives out in a bunch of trees next to her parents and their dog just had puppies!  We went up to see the brand new babies when they were just a few days old.  Isaiah looked at them for about a minute and  that was enough, but our little animal lover Levi spent some time with them and even held one! 

After visiting the puppies we had to stick around for some more fun out in the trees!

And I love these two buddies.  It's a bit sad to say that their interests are developing and Isaiah is definitely a boy and Jayda is definitely a girl so their interests just don't match up most of the time anymore.  (Like before these pictures Isaiah wanted to get down in the dirt to play and Jayda wanted to stay clean and water the plants).  But put them together, they still have lots of fun. 

Can't wait to go see the puppies again before they all go to their new homes!

baby update - first week of May

During the first week of May baby Titus...

Figured out that he has feet...

 learned to jump in a Johnny Jenny jumper

 wore his first little cap 

and stuck his tongue out a lot!