I'm Thankful For...

One of the things we want to instill in our children is gratitude and gratefulness. So every night each one of us says something that we're thankful for from that day. It can be as simple as what we had for dinner to something really special that happened that day. Recently Micah has decided that he is big enough to join in this ritual. It's not possible to skip over him because he will get this adamantly angry look on his face and say, "No Mommy! Micah's turn! Micah thankful!" So, we ask him, "Micah, what are you thankful for today?" And he always says, "I'm thankful for..." then he pauses to think about something. The thing is, he pauses so long that he forgets what he was saying and we have to ask him again. Then he starts over, "I'm thankful for..." pause. We go through this several times. Every. Night. If you try to suggest something to him, he gets the angry look again because he wants to come up with it himself. It can be really cute, but it can be really painful as we wait every night for him to think of something he's thankful for. He used to get on a roll and say the same thing every night. For example, for weeks he was thankful for Uncle Mike. Now he's more into a varied response that takes forever to come up with. Oh well. We press on in our pursuit of grateful children, I guess.

Happy Birthday, Luke!

Luke is the first of our summer birthday season. He turned 4 on May 12th. It's strange to think that the last time we came back to stay in America for a while was to give birth to him. That was 4 years ago now! Luke is my energetic one. Not that all 3 of my boys are not energetic at any given time, but Luke seems to possess a greater amount of energy than seems humanly possible at times. He just can't contain himself sometimes. I used to think it was just the age that he was at, now I just think that's the way God made him. :o) Along with the energy God has given him, Luke also possesses a sweetness about him that so often blesses my heart. He will often just walk up to me and tell me how pretty my shirt is or that he likes my hair. And he loves to give hugs and kisses as well as snuggle. If you're reading a book to him (which he greatly enjoys) he will snuggle up next to you and twirl your hair as you read. When he's not in Tasmanian Devil mode he can be very gentle and tender, especially around babies. He's often a very good helper to Mommy when the table needs to be set or cleared; he can rise to the challenge to do a good job for me. Luke's favorite color is still yellow and he likes pretending that he's a super hero. Sometimes he'll just be running back and forth and tell me that he's Flash. Or if you want to engage him in some wrestling, watch out! He loves to beat up bad guys like Superman or Spiderman do. Luke can be very silly, too, making up words and "jokes" that don't really make sense but crack him up at least. :o) Lately he's shown a real interest in t-ball and will hopefully be able to show his stuff next month as his games begin. He likes playing outside and getting dirty. When we went to the amusement park in Branson, Luke was the first of all the little kids to ride some of the "scarier" rides. He can be very brave. He also likes to do school with Mommy or Daddy. We've been going through some preschool workbooks as we spend time together each afternoon. His tracing and coloring skills are impressive and he's really getting into cutting and pasting these days. Recently he's discovered "Tom & Jerry" and can't get enough of it. He just sits there and giggles and giggles as he watches it. It's really fun to watch him. He also likes Super Why, which is a cartoon that comes on PBS. It's a great cartoon as it teaches them skills to read. Luke likes to pretend that he is Super Why with the "power to read"! That's the theme we went with for his birthday party. Here is Luke dressed in the Super Why costume he got from the Morriss family.


Since the cartoon is kind of not well known we couldn't find any party supplies, so we had to improvise a little. Aunt Stacey came through with the cake decorating again this year. The cake was a book with a little Super Why figure on it. And we decorated the walls with "super letters" like the cartoon. Luke loved it all!


We had a fun party with family and friends and Luke's favorite foods. Luke enjoyed every bit of it. Here is Luke with one of his new Super Why puzzles. He got several new puzzles and loves putting them together. He's still a puzzle fiend and will do them several times every day.

Happy Birthday, my sweet Luke! I'm so glad that you're 4 now, and I'm so glad that you were born!

Mother's Day

I love being a mother. Though it is certainly more difficult than I ever dreamed, I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. Raising my 3 little boys is one of the greatest joys I have ever known. This year on Mother's Day we were still in Branson with the extended family, but we had a great time together. My boys made special cards for me and Daddy helped them give me a gift certificate for a pregnancy massage in the very near future. Totally looking forward to that! Here is a picture from that day of the wonderful reason I get to celebrate Mother's Day!

Branson

We had a great vacation in Branson with my husband's family the first week of May. Sorry I'm just now posting pictures. I have great intentions and all kinds of posts in my head to put on this blog, but alas. So, here is the incredible house we stayed in for the week. It was in the mountains and was just a great place for us all to stay: 7 adults and 8 kids (6 who are age 5 and under). Fun times.



We went to this butterfly palace where you could enter a room with literally thousands of butterflies flying around you. It was very cool. They had these cute little safari hats, binoculars, and magnifying glasses for the kids.



Here are the boys doing their best not to fall in this fountain, though I'm sure they would thought that was great fun. We had a good time visiting Ben & Shauna and their 3 kids down at Branson Landing one evening.



We spent a whole day at Silver Dollar City - so much fun! They had great rides for the kids and Daddy got to ride lots of roller coasters with the bigger cousins. Pregnant mommy was not allowed on any rides, but I had a great time watching the kids enjoy themselves. :o)




And, last but certainly not least, we just had a good time being all together in the house. Lots of late night games for the adults after the little ones went to bed. And LOTS of fun times with the cousins and grandparents. What great memories for us and for our boys!

Catching Up (Again)

So, I guess the fast-paced American life makes it more difficult for me to keep up with this blog. We're doing so many fun things and the boys are having so many new experiences that I want to record it all, but there never seems to be any time to do it. Today is Mother's Day and I've had a wonderful day so far. Because my terrific husband is letting me laz around all day, I actually have a few moments to at least catch up a little bit...

After our fabulous trip to New England and week in Richmond, we've been pretty much home for several weeks. Daddy had to make another 5 day trip by himself, but my parents came up from Plano to hang out and give us a little help while he was gone. We had a fun week with them! We've also been doing some catch-up homeschool every day. Joshua has shown great progress in his writing ability and his reading is incredible. Luke has enjoyed working through some pre-K workbooks with Mommy. One day each week we've gone to the library, which is only 4 blocks from our house. That's been a really neat experience for the boys and I to have together. You don't really get to take your kids to the library when you live in foreign countries. :o) It really has been great to just be in our house and have a normal routine every day. We've had meals with friends around town and from our church, and just been being a normal American family while we can.

This whole past week we've been in Branson, MO on vacation with my husband's family. Two grandparents, 2 aunts, 1 uncle, 5 cousins, and our family of 5 have been here since last Monday and we've had a blast! We're heading back home tomorrow, but I have lots to write about from our week here. When I get the pictures off my camera, I'll be sure to post about our fun week! More to come soon...

Forgetful Fireman

Okay, this is my last post for tonight. We are trying to start a new family routine and I'm already supposed to have gone to bed. But I'm on a roll, so I'll go ahead and finish this last story up now. Last week Joshua was in a class with other friends his age and the fire department came to visit them. This was Joshua's first time to see a real firetruck and fireman up close, so he was pretty stoked. After the fireman gave his fire safety chat to the kids, he started to take them out the back door to see the firetruck up close. Somehow he realized that the firetruck wasn't parked in the back, but in the front of the building, so the whole class had to turn around and head for the front door. The teacher told me later that when they turned around, Joshua put his hands on his hips and said, "You think he'd remember where he parked his firetruck!" The teacher and the fireman heard him and got a kick out of his outspoken comment. You really just never know what that kid is going to say these days.

Punishment

Can you tell that I'm trying to catch up? This is my 4th post tonight. Just trying to get it all down before I lose the memory somewhere in the recesses of my pregnant brain. A funny thing happened today. Luke was about to be punished for doing something (as often happens when a child is 3). As soon as Daddy pronounced the punishment Luke began to say, "Okay, Daddy, I'll do it now! I'll do it now!" So, Joshua is standing there and he pipes up saying, "Daddy, remember when the Israelites were wandering in the desert and started to disobey God and God punished them and then they decided it was time to obey, but then it was too late and they had to be punished because they had already disobeyed? Remember that story? Maybe you should tell that to Luke now." Thank you, Bible teacher Joshua. :o) He really was trying to be helpful. Of course, Luke did get punished for the crime he had already committed. I'm sure that Joshua felt as though justice had been served.