9 months already????

Weighing in at 22 lbs, Titus turned 9 months last week. He's insane. Jonathan swears he took 5 steps last week, but I'm in complete denial. It's like we never had a little baby. He is doing everything so fast.  At his well child check up today, the dr. said "You know, physically he is way ahead of the curve."  I just shook my head and told him it made me sad. 
I took his 9 months pic and this progression cracked me up. I promise this was the order the pictures were taken in, I did nothing to rearrange them.  I'm sure you could come up with better captions, but here goes....

Sweet boy, cooperating for mom!  :)

Wait a minute, the deal was just one picture.

I said just one picture!

That's it, time to do something about it.

We are done with this photo shoot.  I'll show you!!!!

So thankful that God entrusted our family with this joyous gift.  Titus continues to make us laugh on a daily basis.  He is working so hard to catch up to his big brothers, much to my dismay.  He has such a joyful and laid back personality that is going to suit him well in our crazy family!



Because we live in Texas

I try to do bluebonnet pictures with the kids every year.  Last year we missed them because of the major drought, but with all the rain we've been getting we had great bluebonnets this year.  These are about a month old, but better late than never, right?!?!

 

Happy spring, y'all!



Remembering Easter

It always seems so easy to prepare for and remember the reason we celebrate Christmas.  It is fun to celebrate the birth of our Savior, but His death was gruesome and graphic.  It's hard to talk about death, especially with kids.  However, Paul reminds us that if Christ had no been raised from the dead our faith is in vain (1 Corinthians 15:14). 
I want Easter to be a special time of year for our family.  I want our boys to know that without Easter we have NO faith!  It is what sets us apart from all others.  So this year thanks to a good friend that already had worked out a daily reading plan, we did more of an advent (similar to the Resurrection eggs) the two weeks before Easter. 

So we washed each other's feet after walking through shaving cream.

We remembered that Jesus took the nails in His hands and shed His blood for us!  This one brought Mom to tears.  Making those marks on their little hands was a very visible reminder to me.  I cannot save my boys.  I cannot make them love Jesus, but His sacrifice was for them too.  He did, what I could never do for them, paid their penalty for sin and death so that they too could spend an eternity knowing and loving Him more.

On Good Friday, we made Jesus' tomb (out of paper plates), wrapped Jesus in His burial clothes (a Kleenex), placed Jesus inside, rolled the stone (brown construction paper) in front, and placed the soldiers in front to guard it.  As boys are boys, they were pumped about playing with the soldiers. 

Then on Easter morning, the tomb looked different.  We celebrated that Jesus was no longer in the tomb, but He was ALIVE!!

I am eager to watch all three of the boys' grow in their understanding of what Easter really means.

The Adventures of the Bug Hunters...

The twins have become incredibly fascinated with bugs!  So thanks to the dollar aisle at Target they are now official bug hunters fully equipped with a bug net, magnifying glass, and critter container.  Currently, June bugs and "rolly pollies" are the daily captures.  Each morning they collect a new family complete with mommy, daddy, and babies.  They proceed to build a home out of the finest leaves available and even bring them special treats (usually dirt or rocks).  The best part is we are never in short supply of these creatures around here for a new family the next day. 

Looking back I knew there was a reason I took entomology in college (besides the easy A)!  It has proved to be very helpful in a house full of boys.  I'm sure there are many more adventures to come. 

Rocky Turtles & Squeaking Mice

Last week, I had to take T to the dr. for a check up in Houston.  So I loaded up all 3 boys and headed in during the morning rush hour.  Sounds fun huh?!? 
The boys did great, but as we were cruising Levi requested a song.  His exact words were "Mom I want to listen to the mouse squeaks song." 
Currently in our CD player are 3 Veggie tales CDs and a CD called Seeds Family Worship.  The worship CD is simply Scripture put to music.  Now, these same four CDs have been in our van for months (I'm really bad at changing them out), and as far as I could tell there was no song about a squeaking mouse on any of them.  So I asked what song he was talking about, and Luke quickly responded that it was after the "Rocky Turtle" song. 
It was at this moment that I began to understand how their little three year old minds were working.  Let me give you two verses of Scripture and see if you can figure it out.
Matthew 12:34  "Out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks." (Mouse squeaks)
Isaiah 26:4 "Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord, the Lord himself is the rock eternal." (Rocky Turtle)
I laughed so hard and now, much to my dismay hear those words every time the songs come on.  I guess in my attempt to hide God's Word in the hearts of my kids, I can't just rely on what they are hearing even when it is Scripture itself.  As funny as it was, I was quickly reminded that "training a child in the way he should go" requires work.  Training never is and never will be as simple as popping a CD in the car and letting it transform the hearts of my kids.  Needless to say, I know a couple of verses we need to work on memorizing correctly!  :)

Zoo Day

Our zoo passes are set to expire at the end of the month, and we haven't utilized them like we should.  So we took a family day last week to go check out the zoo before the spring break rush.

Checking out the sleeping tigers with Dad! 

My budding musicians showing off their drumming skills.  They look so serious about their performance.  :)

This was Titus' first trip to the zoo.  He rode along in style and loved the animals.  I think the fish were his favorite, but he didn't really say for sure.

Before we headed home we all rode on the carousel together.  The boys loved picking out their animals to ride.  We had a great time, and the big boys really enjoyed the animals and even wanted to draw zoo pictures in their "journals" when we got home.  It was such a fun morning for all 5 of us! 

Picnic weather

Days like today almost make the Houston summers worth it (someone please remind I said that in August)!  It was a  perfect today, high in the mid 70s and not a cloud in the sky. 

As spring begins to arrive I try to have as many picnics as possible.  My reasoning is simply this...it cuts down on the number of times I have to clean the kitchen oh and the kids think it is so much fun!  :)  Here's our first picnic in months & T's first picnic ever. 

And what better way to end a picnic than on the swings?  The twins are so excited they have learned to swing themselves on the double swing.  They are just so big!  Little man still loves to hang in his swing too, although the way things are going he'll want to swing with his big brothers in no time.

Here's to many more "spring" days in Houston!