Out of the mouth of babes. . .

I was so worried about Joshua's language skills even a year ago, but boy have things changed in a year! It's amazing to me how he was soaking it all in and now is spitting everything he ever heard back out! Joshua has been saying the funniest and craziest things the past few months, but I've been very bad about writing them down (you'd think I'd know better from my years of teaching preschoolers). Here are a couple of cute things he said this past week.

On Memorial day we told Joshua that we would be going to plant flowers at Nana's grave and we talked about how Nana lives in heaven (we've had this conversation with him many times). Joshua suddenly says, "You have to take a jet high up to get to your mom." Amazing and sad at the same time that this little 3 year old has a real concept of heaven. I love that Joshua is aware of what and where heaven is and who lives there. But, it still breaks my heart that he knows this because he has a grandma (Nana) who lives in heaven.

As I'm emptying the dishwasher this week Joshua is playing with the bottom and says, "Look, it's like a wagon for the dishes!"

Déjà vu

Yes, this is just about the same picture I took last week. However, this is actually our car this time! ARGH! Joshua and I went to help Grandma take care of Gabrielle, Allison and Sam today at her house. Grandma took a little spill last night and sprained her foot/ankle so taking care of 3 little ones today was going to be a bit tricky. So we played for a few hours and ate lunch together. I packed the car up and we were going to be on our way, but when I put my key in the ignition it wouldn't turn. I sat there for 10 minutes trying to get the key to turn and still nothing. Finally I took Joshua back inside Grandma's house and called roadside assistance to come and tow our car away (thankfully everything is covered under warranty). By the way, the questions asked by the automated roadside assistance line were laughable - "Is this an emergency situation in which you would like us to call 911?" Ah don't you think I would have just called 911 myself instead of dialing the 1-800 roadside number? Oh, and another favorite - "How many miles are on your car" Ah, I can't start the car to see the digital readout people and I certainly don't commit that info to my memory for no purpose! So anyway, the tow truck turned up within 20 minutes and the guy hops in my car after hearing what the problem is and after a minute gets the car to start! Ah, excuse me, I tried that and so did my mother-in-law and neither of us could start it. He said he tried a couple of tricks to get it to work. However, he did inform us that it needed to go in regardless because it needed a new ignition starter (or something to that effect) since it wasn't working properly. Besides that they need to figure out why our check engine light keeps turning on randomly. I opted to have the tow truck drop off the car because I didn't feel like driving it over there and I knew it would be highly entertaining for Joshua. Thankfully Grandma didn't need her car so we plopped Joshua car seat in and back to our house we went. I'm thankful we were at my in-laws house and not in some random place when this all happened! And a special thanks to my mother-in-law who without a seconds thought told me to take her car! Now the question is,when will our car be fixed?

Busy Memorial Weekend

The weekend seems to have flown by, perhaps because it was jam-packed with activities. Thanks to the beautiful weather God blessed us with we were able to not only get a little outdoor work done, but also play a ton! We went to a park with Papa Sunday night for a picnic dinner and some play time. Once we had grown bored with this park Papa suggested ice cream to which none of us could say no! With delectable cold sweets in hand we walked to another nearby park to enjoy the view while consuming way too many calories! On our walk back to the car at the end our evening Cory spotted an old fire engine in a nearby parking lot. Of course once Joshua heard that "Red" the fire truck (from the Cars movie) was there we just had to go explore! We started the day today by picking out flowers with Papa and planting them a Nana's grave. Joshua was a big helper reminding Papa of all the steps it took to get the plants in place properly, including putting the "salt" (bone meal) in the hole before the plant went in. We had a very busy, but enjoyable holiday weekend! Get a glimpse of our fun in the video below.

Click To Play

Entertainment for a Little Car/Truck Lover!

This was the view from our front yard this afternoon. (For those of you looking carefully at the picture NO, that is NOT our car, our neighbor two doors down has the same car we do.) As we were playing in the backyard we heard a large truck that sounded like it was very close to our house. We ran up front to see a large flat bed truck two doors down from our house! Much to Joshua's delight our neighbor's Torrent was being loaded on the flat bed and he was able to watch it all!

Pristine woodland setting. . .

. . . is the phrase we are going to add to our house listing. Not really, but we had a rarity last night - two deer standing in our backyard! Cory was in his office and happened to glance out the window to see these two deer staring back at him! He immediately ran upstairs and told me and Joshua to look out the back bedroom window. Thinking he was just trying to pull my leg, I didn't run too fast to check it out. Quite the sight in our backyard! Cory went out in the yard trying to get them to run back to the tiny little bit of woods by the school in back of us. They took off down the cul-de-sac by us and eventually made their way back safely across the school's field and back into the woods. Joshua summed things up quite well repeatedly saying, "That was odd! That was really strange!"

A Morning at the Zoo

Our good friends, Kim and Ally are in town one last week so we planned another special day together. Even though the weather wasn't as nice as we had hoped we traveled to the zoo for the morning. Joshua and Ally were little troopers as we traipsed through the zoo checking out all the animals. Even the sting rays are back so we ponied up with $1 each and let Joshua and Ally have the sting ray experience (if you want to call it that). Unfortunately, there little arms are just too short to reach to the bottom of the pool to touch the sting rays, but they had fun just sticking their arms in the water! After a long morning of exploring the zoo we ate a picnic lunch and ended our time together by playing on the nearby playground.

What's Growing On?

When putting Joshua to bed last night I reminded him that we had to go see his doctor after breakfast in the morning. He immediately asked me, "What needs to be fixed? My cheeks?" Think the child's been to the dermatologist too many times to figure out what is happening on his cheeks?!?! I proceeded to tell Joshua that this was just a check up to see if he was a healthy 3 year old to which he said, "oh!" The pediatrician's office moved recently so we got to explore their new waiting room before our appointment and then were placed in the perfect room equipped with a window so Joshua could see the cars and trucks (and even some construction vehicles) going by. It's an awesome new office and it's closer to our house! Sorry, I digress! So the stats for our three year old are still not fantastic, but the good news is he is a healthy and growing just fine! Joshua is now up to 30.4 pounds (the 5oth percentile) and 36 1/4 inches (the 25th percentile). This is better than the previous years 20th and 10th percentiles respectively that he landed in last year! The pediatrician did warn me that the 3's (whiny) seem to be worse than the 2's (just plain naughty) for many children. I'm praying that is not the case, but already the whine and the faucet of tears have turned on over the silliest of things. Oh, and according to the pediatrician we get to look forward to the argumentative 4's! Goody, goody!

Fun with Friends!

The past couple of weeks my friend Kim and her daughter Ally have been in town. Kim has been my friend since around the 6th grade so it's great that we have remained friends through all these years! Even though Kim is still working from her parent's home while they are here we have been able to get together and let the kids play while we get some time to chat. With the weather cooperating today we finally were able to take the kids to the park and have some play time and a picnic lunch! It was so cute to see Joshua and Ally interact. That little girl has NO FEAR and some great gross motor skills! I'm hoping a bit of her fearlessness rubbed off on our overly cautious boy! What a wonderful day to spend having fun with good friends!

Joshua and Ally swinging together!

Ally practices her balancing skills.

What's better than a picnic lunch with friends?!?!

A Weekend of Celebrations

Our weekend was jam-packed with celebrations of birthdays and Mother's Day. Glad every weekend isn't this busy! Saturday was Cory's dad's birthday and Nicholas' birthday so we headed out to the VanWesep home for a little party. The kids had a blast playing with each other and enjoying the beautiful weather. Since Mother's Day was the next day we celebrated Cory's mom Saturday evening too. We gave her some of that lovely Vera we got a couple weeks ago! On Sunday after church we spent most of the afternoon at my Uncle Steve and Aunt Cher's house. It was a blessing to celebrate my Grandma as the past couple weeks she has had some health issues. Joshua enjoyed "helping" Great Grandma open her gifts. I must say, I'm not a huge fan of Mother's Day - I truly believe people should be appreciative of their mothers every single day, not just one day a year. This said, I told Cory to get me absolutely nothing to which obliged even though he did want to do/get me something. I must say, my dad did sweetly surprise me with a new teapot for my kitchen display, thanks dad!!

Just a little side-note: The highlight of Mother's Day for Joshua was seeing my Uncle Steve and Aunt's Cher's cars, ha, go figure! They have a new Saturn Sky that Joshua was very drawn too. He even asked my uncle to open the hood so he could see the engine, to which my uncle kindly did. What a little car nut!

"Bobert" opens his birthday gift.

Nicholas liked his Planet Hero Moon Buggy we gave him.

Special gifts for Cory's mom.

The birthday boy strikes a pose.

Joshua helping Great Grandma open her gifts.

Oh the stress is just beginning. . .

The last week has been filled with many questions and decisions! Our house is now officially for sale by a realtor (who is also a builder) rather than for sale by owner. We have also put money down on a lot that this same realtor/builder owns which happens to be an acre out in a really good school system (our main reason for moving in the first place). At our meeting this week the builder brought a really nice house plan (fun) with him as well as a budget (not so fun). He has been working hard to see if we would be able to build a new home within our budget. Even though the number he came up with is a tad bit more than we were thinking we are going to adjust some things and work with him to build a new house. Of course the catch is that we will not begin building until our current house sells. The realtor/builder is pretty confident that our house will sell quickly, but in this market I'm not sure what will happen. This has been a week of huge decisions and a leap into the unknown for us. Please pray with us that our house will sell quickly and that we will be able to forge ahead into the project of building a new home for our family.

Mini Birthday Celebration with Eli

On Sunday we met up with some family members from Cory's extended family at a park. The women stayed at the park with the kids while the guys used their brawn to help do some moving. Cory's cousin Missy, her husband Jon and son Eli were moving all their stuff from their house that finally sold to a storage unit until they find a house to live in here. We had a great afternoon filled with beautiful weather, lots of playing and some eating. Missy was kind enough to get a cake so that Joshua and Eli could have a little birthday celebration together (they were born just 2 1/2 weeks apart)!

Joshua and Eli swinging!

Eli, Noah, Joshua, Lexi and Tori

The birthday boys and their cake!

Joshua's 3rd Birthday Party!

The big celebration took place Saturday night when our house was overtaken by lots of family and presents! I unveiled the cake to Joshua just minutes before people started arriving. We had talked about it at least a month so Joshua knew he was having a Jeep cake, but he had no idea what it would look like. A friend of mine did a FABULOUS job making this a special, one of a kind cake that Joshua would always remember! (She was our own personal Duff Goldman for this occasion!) Joshua LOVED his Jeep cake! Once all the family members arrived we had dinner and then it was time for presents. Joshua was one lucky boy this year receiving some great surprised like a bike and a Plasma car! The night ended traditionally with cake and ice cream. Joshua got a few more presents from us over the next couple of days too. So instead of a birthday Joshua had a full-fledged birthday weekend! Happy 3rd birthday Joshua, we pray God blesses you with many more!

Click To Play

Happy Birthday Joshua!

Dear Joshua,
It's amazing to me that you, my baby, turn 3 today! People told me that the time would fly by and now I realize it has! Just three short years ago you were my little 7 pound peanut and now you are becoming an independent little boy. Joshua, you've been a joy in our lives (for the most part)! You've become a sensitive, loving, observant, smart and strong-willed little boy. Following in dad's and my own footsteps, you also like things organized and in their rightful place.

You are a busy little guy with lots of interests so let me tell you about a few that come to mind. You love cars and trucks and amaze us daily with the number of cars/trucks you can identify by model name! You have a strength in all things sports which you didn't get from either me or your dad. You adore books and love visiting the library to pick out new books every few weeks. You can still spend hours looking through books and having them read to you. Much to our delight your Jesus Story Book Bible has become a favorite of yours! It is obvious to us already that you do not have an affinity for art - getting you to color can sometimes be a chore.

Boy have you grown in many areas this last year! You have pushed past many of your sensory fears/issues and now happily play with shaving cream, finger paints, goop, dirt, etc. Being clean all the time isn't such a priority for you - remember jumping in the mud puddles at the farm?!?! It's hard to believe that not so long ago you had a language delay as now your language has exploded and it's hard for anyone to get a word in!

What a blessing and a delight you have been (most days)! We thank God for giving the gift of your life to our family! We love you loads and loads!
Love Always,
Mom & Dad

Girl's Get Away!

A couple months ago Erin and I decided we were going to try to go the Vera Bradley warehouse sale in Fort Wayne, Indiana. We have wanted to go for the past couple years, but it has never worked out. This year we decided not only should we go experience the Vera Bradley sale, but do some outlet shopping as well and have a little girl's get away. As odd as it sounds, we actually purchased tickets to get into the Vera sale for $10 (all ticket proceeds went to a cancer research foundation). We blew town Wednesday afternoon as soon as Erin was home from teaching and raced our way down to the sale. We made it right on time (thanks to some one's lead foot). After 20 minutes of waiting in line with tickets in hand the doors opened to a large convention hall and hundreds of women flooded in to stuff various Vera Bradley items into garbage bags (the picture posted to the left doesn't do it justice). It was a bit insane! Things were well stocked and the crowd was manageable, so we took the approach of throwing whatever we liked in our bags and sat down at the end to sort what we were actually going to buy. What a FUN time! We got some fantastic deals for ourselves as well as others! Today we hit a couple of outlet malls and burned through some more cash, but got some really good deals in the process. What a delightful experience to actually look at clothes for ourselves first of all and without a little child tugging at us repeatedly screaming "mommy" no less! It was non-stop girl talk and fun for a day and a half! Love having a sister-in-law who is more like the sister I never had and getting some quality girl time in! Our Vera Bradley goods!

Two women + two outlet malls = A VERY FULL CAR!