Toothless

So...

Max is 6 now.  He's lost a few teeth and been cool with that, of course.  Lately, his front teeth have started loosening up, and he lost one a few evenings ago.  However, the way he lost the tooth was less than desirable.  

I was in the kitchen fixing dinner, Josh at the computer, the boys running around.  Max runs into the living room, dives onto the ottoman and smacks his mouth on the arm of our chair, which is really hard below the cushion.  Big thud.  Painful crying.  Josh jumps up and goes to him.  We both think he must have broken his arm because it looked kind of funny in between the chair and the ottoman.  Not the arm.  He looked up at Josh with his mouth full of blood.  I believe Josh's words were, "Oh gosh, Buddy!"  We took Max to the bathroom and had him swish around some salt water and got him cleaned up all the while trying to keep him from freaking out because he was spitting out so much blood, and he could see himself in the mirror. After slowing the flow, he bit on a rag for awhile and watched a movie and appears to be okay for now.  Here are some lovely pictures for you to enjoy.  Josh also blogged about this if you want to read his interpretation.  It has a bit of a different spin.

My Husband

So...

I just wanted to say how much I love Josh. 

We had an unexpected date tonight.  Our friends that live across the hall asked us to watch their boys for them last night, so they watched our guys tonight in exchange.  It was great!  We went to St. Louis Bread Co. (known as Panera everywhere else) for dinner, and then we did some Christmas shopping.  The reason my husband is so great is the fact that he went Christmas shopping on a date.  You must understand that finding Christmas presents is my favorite thing about Christmas (the material part of it).  I love trying to come up with the perfect gift for each person.  I really hate it when I can't come up with that gift, though.  

I digress.  For those of you who know Josh, shopping is really not fun for him, but because I wanted to, he did.  It's not just the fact that he went shopping that makes him wonderful obviously, but when I thought of how he was doing something just to make me happy, I started thinking about how great he is overall.

Josh is an amazing man.  I'll just list some of my favorite qualities about him.  He's a man of God, which to me means he leads our family in worship, studying God's Word and teaching it to his family, being an example to our boys of God's grace and love, having faith in Christ, loving us all unconditionally and on and on.  He's extremely intelligent, which not only comes in handy when we're playing trivia, but he keeps me informed of important things.  I'm not saying I'm stupid, but he's certainly a level (or ten) above me sometimes.  Of course, he's a hottie.  I love those blue eyes and dazzling smile.  He's the best daddy around.  I couldn't ask for a better father for my little guys.  He's so sweet and tender when they need him to be, yet he's still able to dole out the discipline when necessary as well as being a wonderful example to them. He is the perfect fit for me.  God new exactly what he was doing when he put us together.  I can't wait until he gets home from work so that I can just melt into his arms, before my belly gets too big for it that is.  Yes, I'm pregnant again for those of you who didn't know.  I'm delighted that Josh and I will be having another little one to love and nurture.  Thanks, Lord, for my wonderful husband.

Halloween or Reformation Day As We Like to Call It

These pictures are in reverse order.  Our day started at the bottom and completed at the top. We went to the Magic House earlier in the day with some friends, which the boys loved!  Then, of course, we went trick-or-treating with everyone's favorite superheroes.  I am well protected; I assure you.

God Is So Strong

So...

Today Max and Leo were sitting at the snack bar checking out our pumpkin from our Fall Fun excursion.  Here is a script of their conversation:

Max:  This pumpkin is so heavy. 

Leo:  This pumpkin is not stronger than God. 

Josh:  Yeah, God is so strong.

Leo:  Yeah, God could sit on it and smash it with his bottom!

Ensuing laughter by Josh and me.  I wonder aloud to Josh, "Does God find these comments by little ones as funny as we do?"  I have to think so.

My Evening

So...

My day started out nicely.  Today was Mom's Morning Out day for the boys, which let Josh and me have our Monday morning date that we are so thankful for.  Picked up the boys.  Had some lunch.

Here it begins. 

We decided to make a quick trip to Target to get Max some new pants because he keeps growing out of all of his.  This trip of course takes longer than expected.  We finally get back home at 3:00 or so and realize we need to have the oil changed in the van before our trip to West Virginia this week.  We think this won't be a big deal because we have a coupon for a dealership that we frequent that's close by.  Coupon expired Friday.  Okay, we decide to put off school until after dinner, so Josh can go to Wal-Mart to get the oil changed because we're sure it will be cheaper there than going to the dealership without the coupon.  Keep in mind this Wal-Mart is in the same area where the Target is that we just left 15-20 minutes away, as opposed to 5-10.  I get chicken out of the freezer for dinner, work on getting some clothes ready for the trip while Josh is gone, change two poopy diapers, do a load of laundry, fold another load and check my e-mail.  Josh gets home a little around 5:15 after paying more at Wal-Mart than he would have at the dealership.  Lesson learned.  I start making dinner while he takes the boys outside.  Dinner takes longer to get ready than anticipated, so we don't start eating until 6:50.  We eat, some of us.  One parent, I won't say who, has to go to the bathroom. While he's gone, I finish feeding Finn while repeating to Leo about 200 time to finish his dinner and griping at him for putting his cup at the edge of the table where it could spill easily.  He then proceeds to put it where it should be and knocks over almost all of it.  Trying to contain my instant anger, because Josh and I just had a conversation about being more gracious to the boys, I go get a towel and make myself not be mean.  Start cleaning up the kitchen.  Josh starts giving the boys a bath.  Must relieve Josh in bath-time duty because he's having intestinal distress.  I get to the bathroom, and Leo is sitting on the potty waiting to be wiped, Max is finished in the tub waiting to be dried, and Finn is standing in the tub pooping.  "Hurry and get out, Max, before Finn's poop gets on you!"  Max is dried.  Tub is drained.  Poop taken care of. Leo wiped.  Start running new water for Finn as he starts peeing.  Drain tub again.  Just wash him while water is running.  Finish and he poops again.  Clean his hind quarter and feet and also his hands because of course he touched his rear and dry him off.  Thankfully, with Josh getting the other two washed and them knowing how to dress themselves, the next few minutes were sane.  Get Finn diapered and pajamatized.  Clean up second poop.  Josh starts bedtime ritual.  Thank you, God, for that man.  Start another load of laundry.  Finish cleaning the kitchen.  Start water boiling to make a pitcher of tea.  Go look at my closet and find nothing that I want to take to wear for the trip.  Lay down.  Kettle whistles.  Pour boiling water on my hand.  Curse.  Confess.  Run water over my hand to make it stop burning.  Go lay down because my back hurts from holding Finn wrong earlier today.  Pray.  Burden easing.  Sit down at computer as Josh leaves for work and hear Max and Leo both in the bathroom.  Threaten them to get up again.  Blog for sanity.  Check on boys, all asleep!  Going to work for two hours.  I will survive.  

Now that I've purged, it's actually funny.  Lord, thanks for a laugh.

It's Officially Fall!

So...

Pickin' punkins, ridin' ponies and camels, playin' with friends and makin' smores.  That's what happens at Eckert's Farm.  We love going there each year to pick the perfect pumpkin and let the boys do some things they don't normally get to do.  It was super fun, as usual!  Not until the boys started melting down did we finally pack up to leave the fun.

Oh, Leo.

So...

This is the second post in one night, but I had to put up a series of pictures Josh snapped last night that I thought was funny.

Just as an aside.  I don't love Leo more than my other sons, but he just seems to do so many funny things that I have to post about.  For example, he got out of bed this evening to tell Josh something while I was in my room unaware that he had gotten up.  When I passed by the boys' room, he was standing in the middle of the room.  I asked him what in the world he was doing, and he said that he had to tell his dad something.  I said, "Okay.  You need to get back in bed now."  He then states, "I can't tell you what I told Daddy, but I'll tell you something." "What is it?" I asked.  "What did one poop say to the other poop?"  I, of course, came up with nothing for an answer to that.  His answer was something like "Pee and poop smell."  Um, okay.  I then came into the living room and passed "the joke" onto Josh.  I think Josh actually felt sorry for me because he was hesitant to say that what Leo got up to tell him was, "I love you."  Great. Josh gets declarations of love, and I get poop jokes.

Here is the cute series.