moving on

now that the booster seat is gone ...

alex has found a way to kill time.

the little filler pegs come out of the posts on our railing. alex figured this out and his free time now consists of taking them out ... and putting them in .. and taking them out .. and putting them in ...

the nice thing is that this obsession doesn't require my assistance.

ole!

we went out for mexican tonight.

it is now apparent that i need to find more restaurants with mariachi singers. it was so perfect! they even came to our table and played a disney melody for the boys! all 3 boys - including alex - were distracted and spent the entire time watching them!

well ... almost the entire time.
alex still found time to find the buckle on his high chair.

either way ... their tummies are full ... they're now in bed ... and i'm sure they're dreaming of some cute little men playing instruments bigger than they are :)

update

ok .. the only update i have is that owen is (obviously) done with his surgery and stable.

we should know more today.

(sorry i didn't update last night. i was scrapbooking! WOO HOOO!!!)

babies babies babies

i've already mentioned josie - and have asked you to pray for their family. thanks so much for all of the thoughts and prayers you've sent their way!!

tonight ... i'm asking that you stop for a second and pray for yet another little baby that's been brought into our lives. my sister in law (stacey's brother and his wife) had a c-section today to welcome another little boy into their family. this little boy (who i don't have a name for yet) has a problem with his heart that caused them to do open heart surgery immediately upon bringing him into the world. thankfully, they knew about the problem prior to his birth, so the team was ready and waiting. i'll update more when i know more.

until then ... congratulations troy and liz ... we're praying for you and love you lots!

**update -- baby OWEN is in surgery. it is a 7 hour surgery, so we won't know more until the morning.

i'm cuckoo for ...

every day alex starts his morning out in the same way.
it's not really the healthiest of cuisine.
nor is it the cleanest.

BUT ... it is something he will eat!!
and that's rare!

he is officially SERIOUSLY cuckoo for cocoa puffs!! :)
(3 bowls just this morning!)

on a side note -
1. you'll notice these pictures were taken a few days ago - before we banned him from the booster seat.
2. you'll notice that just like drew and ben - alex insists upon having a cereal box in front of him "to read" while eating :)

one, two, buckle my ...

as of yesterday, alex no longer sits in a booster chair.

is it because he is such a clean eater? NOPE
is it because he sits so well and so patiently through dinner? not a chance.
is it because he is so big that he doesn't fit in it anymore? wrong again.

it's because he is so fascinated with the buckle that nothing gets done when it is in sight.
by me or by him.

he won't eat, because all he wants to do is get down so that he can buckle .. unbuckle ... buckle ... unbuckle ... buckle.... and so on.
i can't do anything because he can buckle .. but he can't unbuckle on his own.
so the chain of events actually goes more something like this -
buckle ... "HELP ... please .... MOMMMMY" ... unbuckle ... buckle ... "HELP ... please .... MOMMMMMY" ... unbuckle .. and so on.

SO ... after many days ... and a fascination that never died ... the booster seat has found a new hiding spot.

pray that a. alex doesn't find it and b. that he doesn't realize there are other things in our house that buckle and unbuckle as well.

what is stress?

stress = the 10 minutes between when we leave our parenting with love and logic class, pick up our 3 crazies, and get out to car. hoping and praying the entire time that they will not do something that makes them one of "those kids" that we just talked about.

creative devotion continued ...

after seeing how effective these ear muffs were while he read -
drew must've decided they would assist him in sleeping as well.
we walked in to find ...



i'm thinking i might need to take a turn wearing them.
they could be an effective tool in getting alex to stop waking up at night ;)

creative devotion

drew has been asking us for a while to buy him a "real Bible".

yesterday he and i finally went and picked one out.

once we were home, all he wanted to do was sit and read it.

well ... sometimes it isn't easy to just sit and read when you have 2 crazy brothers that think you should be playing with them instead.

it's then that you need to get creative ...

welcome to this world ....

on thursday, my good friend elizabeth was 30 weeks pregnant.

on friday she had her baby girl.

josie is 2 lbs 14 oz. and 15 inches long.

she's doing well - but if you can, take a second and pray them. the next few weeks are probably going to be quite an adjustment for everyone!
(keep in mind they have 3 other little kiddos at home)

i put a few details over on elizabeth's blog. when she finds the time, i am sure she will share even more. it's is actually an amazing thing that things happened the way that they did.
God has once again proven himself to be completely amazing, and have absolutely perfect timing.


welcome to this world little josie!!