My Favorite Boys

Ollie and the girls went to a Daddy/Daughter campout on Saturday afternoon and I was keeping Landon on Saturday night so I got to spend my evening with two of my favorite little boys. Joe planned out our night and wrote out the schedule as you can see above. We did everything except eat the lemonade ice cubes. They weren't frozen yet when it was time to go to Landon's so we had to go to Chick-fil-a and get Banana Pudding milkshakes (yum!) instead. The drive thru line was super long and I didn't want to get Landon out to go in so I parked right by the door and sent Joe in by himself. He was so cute and did a great job ordering and paying and bringing out the milkshakes.
Landon has 4 dogs--a Basset Hound, a Morkie, and two Great Danes. Joe loves the dogs and was looking forward to hanging out with them. I missed getting a picture of him cuddling with Hula (the Basset Hound) but got a picture of him with both Danes. I originally was sitting in the seat where the brown dog is but I got up and he took advantage and jumped right in my seat. He was being so cute though that I let him have my seat and got my camera. :0) Joe and I watched the movie, "Brother Bear." It was a cute movie, not the best Disney movie but cute nonetheless. After the movie, Joel and Amanda got home and Joe and I went home and went straight to bed. It was a great night and reminded me how much I enjoy spending one on one time with my kids. I don't get that very often but I'm going to work on making it happen more.

And...a few pictures of Landon....

Happy Birthday to Joe!

Joe's birthday was last Sunday. I didn't get any good pictures of his birthday celebration at home but I can tell you about it. He got to open his presents right when he woke up. He had a couple from us and some from some out of town family. He loved every gift and got super excited every time he opened something. After presents we went to church. He asked us not to tell anyone that it was his birthday but Hannah slipped and told one person--the children's worship leader. So, he brought Joe up on stage and everyone sang happy birthday to him! He was pretty embarrassed and later got back at Hannah by hanging her panties all over her loft bed. :0)


We had a normal day at home but in the early evening Harriet and Billy came over for birthday dinner. Joe decided what we were going to have. Here's the menu--Sloppy Jims, tater tots, spinach, corn on the cob, and for dessert banana fritter with blueberries and white chocolate sauce. It was a yummy birthday dinner. Landon, the baby we babysit a lot was here too and was kind of crabby and between managing him, dinner, and dessert I didn't take even one picture. Ugh! Those memories will have to live on in our minds only.
On Wednesday we had a birthday party at the park for Joe. We had donuts instead of cake--so easy! Joe looks a little pale and queasy in these pictures because he was on the spinny thing right before it was time to have donuts. Poor guy! The present opening pics are courtesy of Hannah.




Joe had a great birthday and is very happy to be 8! I am thankful to be Joe's momma. He is a very unique child. He is super smart, a deep thinker, a collector, passionate, thoughtful, kind hearted, hard headed, funny, and willful. He has never been easy to parent and we have had many hard days...weeks... but in the challenges he has taught me so much. I have to lay aside my own ideas and sometimes ideals and accept him for who he is--struggles and joys, highs and lows. He really is a great kid and will go on to do great things. I can't wait to see what God has in store for him.

A Little Bit of This and a Little Bit of That

• Joe finally lost a tooth, well, two teeth actually. He lost one of his bottom teeth yesterday and the other today. His top two middle teeth are really loose too, he's going to be really snaggletoothed pretty soon.
  

• Joe has two new favorite books that I thought I'd share here in case you haven't heard of them. They are both by Kevin Henkes, a wonderful children's book author and illustrator. These two are "Owen" and "Wemberly Worried." I read these to the girls all the time when they were younger and didn't realize that Joe didn't remember them. I saw them at the library the other day and checked them out and Joe has fallen in love with them. I've read them each about half a dozen times already. I've got some of Kevin's other books on hold and am sure Joe will love those as well.
  

• This is what my sister had the nerve to wear down to breakfast yesterday morning. I was so embarrased. She does look seriously skinny though doesn't she? Let's give her a round of applause for working very hard to lose all this weight. She was so fat before! :0) Kidding!!
  

• Now, this is a coffee mug! I love it--the caption says, "Behind every successful woman is a substantial amount of coffee." We found it while browsing at Cracker Barrel yesterday. Of course I didn't buy it, just took a picture.
  
• We are working hard around here this week! We've had two busy weeks where we didn't accomplish much on the homeschooling front and we have a couple of busy weeks after this one so this week is a serious schooling week. I'm excited and I am determined to guard our time and not let interruptions take us away from school and home time. We are in the home stretch of a productive school year and I am determined to finish strong and finish the math book (and every other goal I set for us for this school year...).
  
• I only have one thing to say about the world of politics (well, maybe two)--one, God is in control and is bigger than any situation and two--If you're going to pray, why worry? If you're going to worry, why pray? Panicking is not a good Christian witness, just sayin'.
  
• I hate those Perler bead things. We have two unironed Perler bead crafts that fall apart everytime they get bumped. I guess that would be a good reason to bust out the iron and get 'em done!
  

Pictures

Amy from Snapshots of Grace was the official photographer for Joe's birthday. :0) She is an awesome photographer, I LOVE these pictures! Here is Joe above with two of his closest friends. One of his closest friends is missing--Levi. We have soooo many pictures of those four boys who have known each other since birth. Even though Levi moved a year and a half ago I still can't see a picture of these three without missing him.
A few of the girls--there are about 5 or 6 other girls missing from this picture. We have a big group of girls who are all very close.
The birthday boy! This could be the last picture of him with all his baby teeth. He has FOUR loose teeth right now!

This last one has nothing to do with Joe's birthday but I wanted to share it. I just love this picture! All my pretty Fiestaware in one place. We trash picked a new cabinet thingy and the cabinet at the top has glass doors. My Fiestaware looks so pretty in there.

Happy Birthday Joe!!

My little guy is 7 years old today!! I can't believe it has been 7 years since he entered our lives. He has been such a blessing. Truly. I didn't say easy, or always pleasant but a blessing nonetheless. He makes me laugh and cry--sometimes daily. When he was born Hannah was 3 and a half, and Grace was almost 2 and I had my hands full. The girls were relatively easy and obedient though. I had it going on in the mom department. If you had a parenting question, you could have asked me, I had read all the books and my girls were proof that I was successful at this mommy thing. Then came Joe...he was a needy baby, he practically lived in the sling. He was happy and sweet as long as things went his way and he was the focus of all of my attention. He moved into the toddler years and the preschool years and I was humbled. I endured many, many embarrassing public displays of his temper and strong will. I cried, I yelled, I listened to people give me advice--lots of advice. I also laughed at this little guy and adored him like you wouldn't believe. He has grown up and matured so much. He still has fits but they are not daily or hourly. Maybe weekly at this point. He is a really great kid. He is loving and respectful and thoughtful. He is friendly and kind and adores his sisters and his friends. He still has a strong will but he has more control over his impulses and his temper and is using that strong will for good. I am proud to be his momma and can say that he is such a blessing to our family. Happy Birthday Joe!!

Blast from the Past

Ollie came across this old video that he made from Joe's second birthday party. Fun memories! I love the part where he's throwing a fit at Pop and Pop just throws his hands up.

Happy Birthday to Joe!

Joe is 6 years old today! I decided to do a photo tribute to Joe's past 6 years for his birthday. Well, let's just say I got a little carried away. I have a file on my computer of all my favorite Joe pictures from the past 6 years because I recently did a photo album for him. So, I had way too many to choose from. Sorry I posted so many! We are blessed to have Joe in our family. We would not be complete without him--maybe a little more sane but not complete. Enjoy the pictures, in no particular order...

Happy Valentine's Day...

...from this adorable stranger. I was told that if I showed this picture to anyone I needed to tell them that it was a stranger and not Joe. He loves this wig and actually wore it into Walgreens the other day. Well, for a few seconds anyway before Hannah ripped it off his head in utter humiliation. I think he really thinks he's unrecognizable when he wears it.

I've made it almost 9 years...

...before having my kids find out that shit is a bad word.  Well, Hannah has made it 9 years, Grace 7, and Joe 5.  Ollie and I don't swear, well, Ollie doesn't swear and I don't swear aside from the very occasional "dammit."  We also aren't really around anyone who swears and my kids watch very little tv.  So, they really don't know what the bad words are.  Well, tonight I was watching "The Bucket List" when they got home from a neighbor's house.  It seemed benign so I let them sit down and start watching.  Well, then one of the actors said the word "shitty" about 4 times in a row describing the weather.  So, I felt the need to tell my children that "shitty" was a bad word and they were never to say it about anything.  Then Joe innocently says, "only when there's a storm, then we can say that it is shitty."  I say, "no Joe, that is a bad word and we don't say it at all.  We can say that it is a bad storm, or a terrible storm." I can't remember the rest of the conversation but I can tell you it took some convincing to get him to agree that we weren't going to use the word "shitty" to describe a storm.  I tried to hold it together but ended up laughing after he said "shitty" very seriously about 5 times.  This kid is going to make me go completely nuts....

A Small Step Toward Independence

Joe decided to make his own Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich the other day. This decision came after he told me how hungry he was, I was laying on the couch and told him that I wasn't getting up and that we would be having dinner soon--get some nuts. He didn't want nuts so he got out all of the stuff to make his own sandwich. I told him he could give it a shot and he did a great job. He even put away everything when he was done, dragged a stool to the sink, and washed his knife. Where in the world did he learn to be so thorough in his clean up??? Enjoy the pics. He was so proud of himself.