And Thank You For Our New Deck

Sam says our prayer at lunch. It's his "thing." I'll ask if he wants to say the prayer at other times and he always asks, "is it lunch?" If it's not, he doesn't want to. Strange.

Anyway, he always thanks God for our new deck. It's new in the sense that Bob tore down the old and rebuilt a bigger deck, but that was last year so some of the actual new has worn off. Still, to Sam, it's the new deck.

And on days like, oh wait, all summer...when it's 8,000 degrees outside and the kids still want and need to go out, I'm so so thankful for it too. (I'm even more thankful for it on cool nights and in the Fall when we eat dinner out there. Thanks Bob!)

So, you probably want to know what they do on the deck.

Boys who love playing with construction equipment
+
a desire to "dig" everything
+
some stale granola
=





After the chocolate chips in the granola started melting, I tossed that and pulled out some spiral pasta for them to use. And by the way, that granola definitely did not stay inside those containers. Most of it got dustbusted.

Who dustbusts outside? We do.

They Act Like This Roughly 10% of the Time

The rest of the time it's like our house is an anthill that someone stepped on...

He's a Toy Whose Batteries Never Need Replacing!

Here, you'll see Bo is being tucked in because Sam is all done playing with him and he should go to sleep.

A New Kind of Self-Discipline

Let's get this out of the way...we spank our kids. Not a whole lot and not real hard but for select "offenses" we spank. The spankings are for things they have been warned about before, they get talked about afterwards and we hug and reassure them after the spanking.

So...moving along with the story.

We were in the car today, on our way home, and Sam committed a spankable offense. I told him he would be getting a spanking when we got home. A few days ago I warned that a spanking was coming if he did something again and he told me I would forgot by the time I got him. Awesome.

Anyway, we were close to home today so I didn't forget. We got home and he started crying saying he didn't want a spanking. He then proceeded to head on inside. When I got the other two in, he was standing in the kitchen kind of crying, pulling his pants up...telling me I didn't need to spank him because he already spanked himself.

Please know I was trying my hardest to stifle laughter here.

I asked him what he used (we normally use the spanking spoon). He used his hand.
I asked him to show me what he did. He pulled his underwear down and popped his bottom a couple times.

Again, stifling the laughter.

I'd love to tell you that I let him get off with no actual spanking...

Any of you guys have a 3 year-old who disciplines themselves?

The Onwy-ist

Sam has been so sweet the last week or so. I'm talking, out of his way to tell me he loves me, tell me I'm sweet, say "thank you" with this precious little smile because he knows how much I appreciate when he's grateful, kind of sweet.

We were laying under the tent yesterday and the following conversation transpired:
Sam (rolling over to look at me): Mom? You're da onwy-ist girl in da world.
Me: The only-ist? What does that mean?
Sam: Da onwy-ist! Yer da onwy-ist.
Me: Can you use a different word? I don't know what only-ist means.
Sam: Mom! You.are.SO.weird.

I'm gonna assume onwy-ist is an awesome thing that everyone wants to be, but good gracious when did this one



start talking like a 12 year-old girl?

I Know Where I'm Taking My Next Nap

I read something the other day that talked about making life as fun for your kids as you can. As I read that, I thought to myself, "I don't necessarily do that. I could be more intentional about having fun."

I mean I try to do fun stuff, but too often I'm trying to rush them on to the next thing or teach them the correct way to behave, etc. Know what that sounds like to me? Not fun.

With that in mind AND a little boy who is constantly asking me to build a cave, I got Sam to help me build this tent yesterday.







I think I'm gonna leave it up for a while.

7 Years

Bob, I remember the morning you proposed and how I was giddy, thinking a proposal might be coming because you were acting different.

I remember finding our first house together and imagining making it our home.

All that has led to 7 rich and full years, which sounds like a lot but then not so much when I look ahead at how long I hope our life will be together.

Did you think, then...

that things could be so much better?!

I feel indescribably blessed to be your wife, your friend, and the mother of your children. The Lord truly gave me a gift when He gave you to me and I am frequently overwhelmed with how good my life is.

You are an amazing man. You make me laugh. You push me to be better. Your strengths compensate my weaknesses.

You're my favorite and I love you!

7 Months - Bo

See that tongue? It's always, always out.

Mmmhmm. 6 month and 7 month posts up on the same day. Where did Bo's 6th month go?! Seriously...it flew by.

This little fellow, who is still super sweet and very happy most of the time, has gotten to that opinionated stage...meaning he's gotten a bit more demanding, especially when it comes to pears. The child loves pears. He also wants to be held when he wants to be held.

He's still quite content to sit or lay on the floor and watch his brothers roughhouse. I'm sure he's planning his own little attack.



He's doing a little army crawl, popping up on all fours and rocking back and forth crawling, so basically he'll be walking in a month. (Between the time I typed this up and actually got it posted (approx. 2 days), he started crawling. Sheesh.

I'm still nursing but I supplement his rice cereal with 2 oz. of formula twice a day and he's getting baby food, so he has put on some weight. Yay! He's looking better to me although I can't actually tell much of a difference in all these pictures so I don't really expect anyone else to be able to either.

We love ya, Bo!

6 Months - Bo

Apparently with each kid, time flies by even quicker.



It really seems like Bo was born just a few days ago. Or maybe that day is just burned into my memory so well...

Either way, Bo, you are still super, super sweet. You're an observant little fellow. Who can blame you though with all that's going on around ya?

You love to chew on your toes, grip onto my shirt when I'm carrying you around. You grunt like crazy to get more food (learn your sign language!) and you still sleep like a champ. Your dad and I go check on each night before we go to bed and it's so cute to see you laying there clutching your blankets with your legs raised up...that or you're rolled over on your side.

We love you little bub!