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.

Family Fun

So...

Yes, I know I'm late in doing so, but here are some fun pictures from our visit with Mimi and Pop (Josh's parents).  They were here a month ago.  We had so much fun being treated to lots of good meals as well as being treated to lots of cuddles, hugs, laughs and love.  Oh yeah, there were loads of birthday presents for all those September boys, too!

Mimi and the boys while we waited for our lunch.

Pop and Leo cuddling at First Watch.

Max opening up his Batmobile, which he 

played with ALL day, no kidding.

The little Finn man working on his present.

Pop and Finn doing some long-awaited cuddling.

We love you, Mimi and Pop!!!!!

Sweet Boy

Leo:  Mama, I want to give you a smooch.

Me:  Thanks, buddy.

Leo:  That was for my love.

Can you see my heart swelling?

For the Birds

So...

Yesterday, I was ever so proud of myself because I was doing something cool for school with Max. We are currently studying animal life in science, and as we have just finished up mammals (all the while with Max declaring that HE WAS NOT A MAMMAL!) we moved on to bird life this week.  I got really excited because awhile back my dad had sent us these little cards on a chain, a flip chart of sorts, with birds on them.  I thought it would be fun to get out and do a nature walk and flip through the chart and learn about what birds we saw along the way.  Well, as I was preparing to go, I discovered that what dad had sent me were plants and trees.  Oh yeah, I remember now.  Argh, plan B.  Not a big deal, right?  I then decided we'd take the camera and just snap some pictures of a few birds that we saw, and then we would come back and look them up online to learn about them.  That would be fun.  We took Leo along because Josh and Finn really needed a nap, and I knew he'd have fun.

Let me just tell you that we walked around the seminary and even to a nearby park for a solid hour, and we did not see one bird.  Let me repeat, NOT ONE BIRD!  I couldn't believe it.  I realize it's late in the year and birds have probably started migrating, but not all of them for goodness' sake!  You'd think we would have at least seen a goose.  They're everywhere here. Well, the boys and I decided that the birds were all hiding on our "bird hunt" as they called it, and we had fun anyway.  

I'm bound and determined we're going to study some real live animals during this section of science, though.  I refuse to make them learn everything from a book.  SCHOOL WILL BE FUN! I guess we could go to the birdhouse at the zoo since they're all in hiding where we live. 

At least I got some cute pictures of the boys on our "bird hunt".  You might notice we were able to find some sticks/swords.