Forrest's Birthday

Look Who's 2!!

Our Birthday Boy!

We are having a fun day with our precious 2 year old!

We love you, Forrest!

Easter

We had a wonderful Easter celebrating the resurrection of our Savior. It was a sweet morning at home. I loved having Wilson with us all morning and then all riding together to church. We even were able to take a few pictures of the children before we left. Forrest wasn't really in a picture taking mood, but we were just happy to have all 3 in the same frame! And 2 out of 3 smiling is pretty good, I think!

Then we went to May May and Bubby's for lunch. May May always sets a beautiful table, complete with special "favors" for each person at their place. Andrew can never wait until meal time to see what "surprise" is at his spot. I think it's because of May May that he loves "parties". She always makes special days extra-special.

Sweet Baby Girl

I loved having a little girl to dress for Easter! :)

A family picture

"I found one!"

This boy was all about the egg hunting this year! And he was great at it!

But he was also very sweet to share the eggs he found with Forrest. Forrest did a little hunting, but he had to open each egg when he found it to see what was inside. This slowed him down a little, so Andrew had to help him out. :)

Forrest and Bubby

(or should I say, Little Forrest and Big Forrest)

They are big buds. Forrest is holding Felipe in this picture, but he was most likely trying to convince Bubby to take him to the storage room to get "screwdrivers". He likes to carry Bubby's screwdrivers around and "check batteries".

My kiddos

Forrest Sledding

Then it was Forrest's turn. He loved it, too! Check out how in the pictures he is completely hidden by the sled! He came out with a big smile! We loved playing with our neighbors... Caroline is helping me get Forrest ready.

Andrew Sledding

By far, the most favorite part of the snow for the boys was sledding. They went down the hill countless times! By yesterday afternoon, Andrew could get himself situated on the sled, give himself a push off, and head down by himself. He had it all figured out. They went back out this morning to sled... until it turned too muddy. Boy, was it fun!

A Beautiful Day with my Favorite People

Is that Jesus' cross?

On Tuesday morning, I was driving the kids to "school". Right before our church, there is a baptist church that has a small cross on its sign.

Andrew said, "Look Mama. Is that Jesus' cross... that he died on to save us from our sins?" (This has been a frequent question lately as we drive by church crosses.)

"Yes, it is Andrew." I responded, so excited to hear that my little one is thinking about Jesus' cross and beginning to understand what the cross is a symbol of.

I continued, "And if we believe that Jesus died on the cross to save us from our sins, then God will take us to live in heaven one day. Do you know what heaven is?" I continue describing heaven.... and by this time we are in the parking lot. When I finish my "3 year-old-appropriate" heaven description, I pause waiting to hear how Andrew will respond...

He says, "Mama, will you turn it up?" Referring to the Christmas Kindermusik CD that we are listening to in the car (Yes, this is February and we're listening to Christmas music still.) The conversation that I had been so excited about having with my son was over almost as quickly as it had started.

Andrew's first observation was great and I loved the opportunity he gave me to share. But it's also a bit hard to start the conversation but not really get to take it that far, do you know what I mean? Do you ever have moments like this? You get a glimpse of spiritual understanding from your child and then minutes later they are onto something else... Or maybe your toddler says "no" when you ask him/her to say a prayer with you? That happens at our house.

Here is a link to a brief, yet very encouraging blog post about teaching our children spiritually...

I think I'll be referring back to this one.

Sinking Stones and Evening Devotions

p.s. The Big Picture Story Bible mentioned in the blog is great! We have this and love it.

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Hats

I just love to sit and watch my little ones interact with each other. Now of course there are times when they aren't nice.... and I don't love those times. But when they are sweet, it's precious!

Forrest has become a fan of hats lately. He has especially enjoyed this straw hat. It was a birthday party favor from a couple of years ago, but I think it has spent more time on someone's head this week then the times from the past 2 years combined. Here's how the playing went between Forrest and Ann Evelyn.

Forrest - Puts the hat on his head and shows "Sissy".

Now, he thinks, I wonder what this hat would look like on Sissy's head? Puts in on her.

Forrest and Andrew check her out... Smiles from everyone!

Hmm... Forrest thinks he needs to put it on again.

Now, back to Sissy. Forrest looks proud of his work. Sissy looks happy to be wearing the hat, doesn't she?

A very cute interchange between these two without any spoken words.

Forrest LOVES his Sissy.

A few days later... Forrest and the straw hat once again.

Andrew has been having fun with the cowboy hat. Here he is riding the horse and yelling "Yee Haw!"

January Highlights

I couldn't let January get too far away without posting pictures of some fun highlights of the month...

We had our own little New Year's Party at our house - complete with party hats, horns, and beads. No one was more excited than Andrew! (Except for maybe May-May who supplied most of our party goodies. Thanks, May-May!) He and I made cupcakes to eat after our dinner. Then, he INSISTED on Wilson taking him to get some RED sparklers. What a fun night!

"Camping!"

The boys got a cute Curious George book for Christmas, and one of their favorite stories in it is "Curious George goes Camping". Needless to say, this has sparked a huge new interest of camping in Andrew. He is SO ready to go camp, and climb a mountain, and sleep in his sleeping bag, and roast marshmallows... He's READY!!! Do you remember all of those cold days in January? Well, we set up a little tent in the den a lot and the boys pretended to camp. They brought their "bitty" pillows, sleeping bags, blankets and books in, and we ate a snack of chocolate chips, mini-marshmallows, and graham crackers. It was a great way to entertain my stir-crazy boys. The only problem is Andrew still wants a snack of chocolate chips and marshmallows every day when he wakes up from his nap. :)

The 1st picture right above is of Andrew roasting a marshmallow on a stick. Wilson pulled out his small camping burner one cold night for he and Andrew to roast marshmallows over. Poor Forrest was sick and was miserable having to watch thru the window. But, they did share some with all of us. The 2nd is the boys in the tent. Neither the boys nor the camera were being very cooperative... but we had to catch the memory.

Forrest is sleeping in a big boy bed!!

We made the transition about 3 weeks ago. After watching the boys do acrobatic tricks from the top of the changing table into the crib, we decided that for safety reasons we just had to make the change. He's done great! Proud of our big boy!

And sweet baby girl is rolling! She's been rolling for several weeks, but how funny to leave her on the playmat and come back a few minutes later to find this! She looks so excited, doesn't she?! I took pictures today of her sitting up by herself. I just can't believe how big she is getting. She'll be 6 months old on Saturday!