Mommy: Dax, would you like to pick a pumpkin?
Dax: No, thank you. I have a rock.
Showing posts with label Church. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Church. Show all posts
23 October 2010
22 June 2010
VBS a la Julia
Our church is busy with Vacation Bible School this week. I'm working in one of the four-year-old classrooms and Julia and Dax are with most of the usual folks from their Sunday School classes. The theme is Egypt and "Joseph's Journey From Prison to Palace." The classes rotate through different areas with the little guys getting a less intense version of the big kid experience.
Monday was our first day and during the story time the kids heard about Joseph getting put in jail and the bad things that happened to him, but how God gave him hope that even when bad things happen, God will use them for good.
On the way home from the grocery store, I heard this come from the back seat:
"And, Dax, then we saw someone in JAY-UL!! And her friend put her in jail, Dax, and that wasn't very nice. But then God gave her ROPE and she got out!"
(When I told this story to Becca aka "Joseph" she said that Julia was so cute during the story time. Becca told the class that she had eleven brothers and "do you know what they did to me?" Julia piped up, "Yes, they put you in a hole!" She knows her Joseph story!)
Monday was our first day and during the story time the kids heard about Joseph getting put in jail and the bad things that happened to him, but how God gave him hope that even when bad things happen, God will use them for good.
On the way home from the grocery store, I heard this come from the back seat:
"And, Dax, then we saw someone in JAY-UL!! And her friend put her in jail, Dax, and that wasn't very nice. But then God gave her ROPE and she got out!"
(When I told this story to Becca aka "Joseph" she said that Julia was so cute during the story time. Becca told the class that she had eleven brothers and "do you know what they did to me?" Julia piped up, "Yes, they put you in a hole!" She knows her Joseph story!)
06 February 2010
Finally!!!
Saturday arrived!
Ever since we went to Penney's and Julia picked out her dress, she's been asking to go to "the ballerina dance." It only got worse when we headed to Target and got her "ballerina shoes." (with sprinkles! and a bow! and them pink, Mommy!) She would ask to go and then cry and cry when I told her that the dance wasn't until Saturday night. Then she'd tell me, "You make me sad, Mommy." This Mommy stuff is a rough gig!
But, time marched slowly on and Saturday night finally arrived. Julia got dressed up and headed out to dinner and the Father/Daughter Valentine Dance at church with her Daddy.
(and I know we've been gone for a while. I wish I had a ton of pictures to show what we've been doing, but I don't. I'll post what I have ... hopefully sooner rather than later, but I make no promises)
Ever since we went to Penney's and Julia picked out her dress, she's been asking to go to "the ballerina dance." It only got worse when we headed to Target and got her "ballerina shoes." (with sprinkles! and a bow! and them pink, Mommy!) She would ask to go and then cry and cry when I told her that the dance wasn't until Saturday night. Then she'd tell me, "You make me sad, Mommy." This Mommy stuff is a rough gig!
But, time marched slowly on and Saturday night finally arrived. Julia got dressed up and headed out to dinner and the Father/Daughter Valentine Dance at church with her Daddy.
(and I know we've been gone for a while. I wish I had a ton of pictures to show what we've been doing, but I don't. I'll post what I have ... hopefully sooner rather than later, but I make no promises)
16 October 2009
Not Finished
No, I didn't finish laundry or cooking or cleaning. I played with Photoshop instead. It's been so long since I took any pictures that I really like (or any pictures at all) that I couldn't resist. I know not everyone likes the edited look, but sometimes I do. I think it makes my pictures look all cool and trendy. My kids will know when these were taken simply by the various effects I've done. :)
We went to the Fruit and Berry Patch this morning for our church's Fall playdate. We went through the corn maze, rode on a "hay" ride (no hay) and picked out pumpkins. Julia was so excited to pick out a pumpkin. She walked around and around, looking at this pumpkin and that pumpkin before yelling, "I FOUND IT! THE PERFECT PUMPKIN, MOMMY!" Which she then picked up and ran to show me. A beautiful, round pumpkin with a big old rotten wormhole in the bottom. Ah, well. She sees a perfect pumpkin.
Dax was not at all thrilled by all the people around.
He spent a lot of time in my arms.
I let everyone else pass us through the corn maze.
After no one was following us, he was willing to walk on his own.
No pictures of Julia in the corn maze.
She took off, leading the pack through with her "frien" Maddie.
Apple picking.
Yes, I made her get rid of the wormy apple before she ate it.
That's why I felt I had to keep the wormy pumpkin!
Dax was brave enough to pick up the corn.
He even fed the sheep once (with Mommy holding his hand)
Julia loved feeding the sheep.
She fed them way more than her allotted four times.
The hay ride back.
Dax was pretty much D.O.N.E. at this point.
We went to the Fruit and Berry Patch this morning for our church's Fall playdate. We went through the corn maze, rode on a "hay" ride (no hay) and picked out pumpkins. Julia was so excited to pick out a pumpkin. She walked around and around, looking at this pumpkin and that pumpkin before yelling, "I FOUND IT! THE PERFECT PUMPKIN, MOMMY!" Which she then picked up and ran to show me. A beautiful, round pumpkin with a big old rotten wormhole in the bottom. Ah, well. She sees a perfect pumpkin.
Dax was not at all thrilled by all the people around.He spent a lot of time in my arms.
I let everyone else pass us through the corn maze.After no one was following us, he was willing to walk on his own.
No pictures of Julia in the corn maze.She took off, leading the pack through with her "frien" Maddie.
Apple picking.Yes, I made her get rid of the wormy apple before she ate it.
That's why I felt I had to keep the wormy pumpkin!
Dax was brave enough to pick up the corn.He even fed the sheep once (with Mommy holding his hand)
Julia loved feeding the sheep. She fed them way more than her allotted four times.
The hay ride back.Dax was pretty much D.O.N.E. at this point.
If the measure of success of an outing is how muddy your boots are upon returning home, then I'd say we had a successful time :)
We Had Fun Today
and maybe when I'm done with laundry and cooking and packing, I can tell you about it. Let's just say the kids should nap well this afternoon ... I need one, too :)
12 October 2009
Two Things
1) We are saddened to announce that Julia no longer refers to letters as "BCDs." She doesn't call them "letters" or "the alphabet", but she has now put that pesky letter "A" back in its rightful spot. We do still get a little thrill by how excitedly she exclaims, "Look, MommyDaddy! ABCs!!!" whenever she sees letters, but we loved her little quirky way of referring to them. Since we can't grab hold and stop time or even slow it down, we have these little bittersweet "Do you remember ..." moments instead.
2) It is definitely fall here in East Tennessee so when we got dressed for church yesterday, it was time to break out the tights for Julia to wear. I told her we needed to put on her pantyhose instead of socks because it was cold outside and the pantyhose would help keep her legs warm. The tights were pink which definitely helped convince her as did the "boo-ful" new pink dress she got to wear. She was eating breakfast after all this and chattering away about seeing her friends when she commented that she wanted to show her friends her "sock panties." I really couldn't figure out what she meant and kept asking her to repeat it. Finally, she got so exasperated with her dense mother that she said, "You know, Mommy! SOCK PANTIES" and grabbed her leg. The light finally clicked on in my brain.
Now, the real question: Do you correct her or refer to the item in toddler-speak because it's just so darn cute? We tend to go with her words for things and based on our experience with her "BCD" reference it does no harm. We passed through that phase much faster than we would have liked even without our help.
And a bonus item ...
3) Dave takes his last exam today. Or as he refers to it, his "last in this first round of tests." We now have the nail-biting wait for test results. Pray for him this morning.
2) It is definitely fall here in East Tennessee so when we got dressed for church yesterday, it was time to break out the tights for Julia to wear. I told her we needed to put on her pantyhose instead of socks because it was cold outside and the pantyhose would help keep her legs warm. The tights were pink which definitely helped convince her as did the "boo-ful" new pink dress she got to wear. She was eating breakfast after all this and chattering away about seeing her friends when she commented that she wanted to show her friends her "sock panties." I really couldn't figure out what she meant and kept asking her to repeat it. Finally, she got so exasperated with her dense mother that she said, "You know, Mommy! SOCK PANTIES" and grabbed her leg. The light finally clicked on in my brain.
Now, the real question: Do you correct her or refer to the item in toddler-speak because it's just so darn cute? We tend to go with her words for things and based on our experience with her "BCD" reference it does no harm. We passed through that phase much faster than we would have liked even without our help.
And a bonus item ...
3) Dave takes his last exam today. Or as he refers to it, his "last in this first round of tests." We now have the nail-biting wait for test results. Pray for him this morning.
29 September 2009
Growing Up Babies
We've been having such fun times around here the past few months. So much fun that we haven't had time to take pictures!! Or that's my excuse, anyway. These little ones of ours are growing up so fast. Dave and I have a hard time keeping up with them. But it is such a blessing to get to watch them grow and mature.
Julia's our sweet, tender-hearted cheerleader. She is constantly telling us "Good Job!" or "Good Work!" Our favorite is when we pull into our driveway and she cheers, "Good job, Daddy! You got your babies home safe!!"
She is Dax's Little Mommy. Often telling him "No, Dax!" or "You'll get in trouble, buddy!" When he's hurt or just been reprimanded, we'll hear her in with him "Aw, buddy. You not feel good? You sad? It okay. I help you. It okay, buddy."
We hear lots of repeated snippets of things we say. One of my least shining moments came when I was trying to get the DVD player to work. I was having no luck after several tries and was just going to tell Julia we couldn't watch when I heard her say, "Damn it!" Dave came in from the kitchen and asked her, "What did you say?" And she said, "To the TV, Daddy. Damn it!" Oops. That's her Mama's fault. (It's a phrase that goes way back in our family. Back to when I was about Julia's age. I can't tell you how much I wish I could tell my Grandpa Steele that story. He would be laughing so hard.)
She is a voracious TV watcher. She loves it and would plop herself down on the couch and not move until bedtime if I let the TV be on that much. Her current top requests are "the buggies" (Miss Spider), "the princess movie" (Little Mermaid), "the zebra movie" (Madagascar) and "the fish movie" (Finding Nemo). She loves to play games on my iPod and already knows as much about how to navigate around on it as I do.
One of her favorite things to do is take pictures. She'll grab my camera and click away. We end up with a lot of pictures of toes and headless people.
Dressing up as a princess is one of her favorite things to do. She will often pick out an outfit and wear it all day long. One of these days I'll have to paint her toenails.
She is still a Daddy's Girl. We have long conversations during the day that go like this:
Julia: Daddy working? Daddy working hard?
Me: Yes. Daddy's working.
Julia: Daddy working in office?
Me: Yes. Daddy's working at his office.
Julia: I go work at office with Daddy?
That gets repeated many, many times in some variation during the day.
We also have an odd routine that happens when we put her to bed. She needs multiple reassurances that "Mommy come get me when I wake up?" Often times she'll cry out an hour into naptime just to double check that "Mommy come get me when I wake up?"
She is doing a wonderful job with potty training. She is so persistent and proud of herself.
One of her favorite things is to run around naked. She gets great joy in both the action and the announcement: "I NAKED!!"
And Dax? He is All Boy. Dave nicknamed him "Bulldog" because when he wants to do something, he hunkers down and gets it done no matter who or what is in his way. He's just as stubborn about NOT doing something he doesn't want to do. Plus, he drools. A lot :) He is so active. No sitting around watching TV for this boy (unless there's a snack involved). If he is awake, chances are that he is moving!
He's fearless when it comes to acts of physical prowess and I nearly always return to a room to find him on top of some piece of furniture. But he's shy around strangers and doesn't like loud, active crowds. He prefers hanging out with men over women with the exception of his Mommy.
He pesters his sister to distraction and is always right in the middle of what she is doing ... unless she wants him there. If she goes somewhere on her own, he wanders around looking lost until she returns. He's been enjoying her potty training as well, trying on princess panties and begging for M&Ms. They really are best friends.
He loves his blue blankie and any type of ball. He has to have both in his bed to sleep. Recently he has fallen in love with books. He will now sit still for an entire picture book and often times more than one. He loves to sit and flip through the pages. His favorites are books with animals, especially dogs.
He is in both a clingy and independent phase that is driving us a little nuts. He can't figure out if he wants to cuddle or run off and do his own thing. Often this results in a whiny little boy that is upset that whatever is happening right now is not what he wanted at all. Even if he asked for it.
His feet look enormous to me. They really aren't that big (size 5 or 6), but I guess compared to his tiny baby feet they are huge.
Good grief these babies are growing up fast!! I can't believe how quickly time is flying. Whew!
On a different note, and to make the post even longer, we had pictures made for our church directory. We spent enough to get the CD with full-sized images which means we can do prints for other family members that don't get one. If you want, you can go to our Flickr page with the pictures and then e-mail us which one(s) you want and what size.
Julia's our sweet, tender-hearted cheerleader. She is constantly telling us "Good Job!" or "Good Work!" Our favorite is when we pull into our driveway and she cheers, "Good job, Daddy! You got your babies home safe!!"
She is Dax's Little Mommy. Often telling him "No, Dax!" or "You'll get in trouble, buddy!" When he's hurt or just been reprimanded, we'll hear her in with him "Aw, buddy. You not feel good? You sad? It okay. I help you. It okay, buddy."
We hear lots of repeated snippets of things we say. One of my least shining moments came when I was trying to get the DVD player to work. I was having no luck after several tries and was just going to tell Julia we couldn't watch when I heard her say, "Damn it!" Dave came in from the kitchen and asked her, "What did you say?" And she said, "To the TV, Daddy. Damn it!" Oops. That's her Mama's fault. (It's a phrase that goes way back in our family. Back to when I was about Julia's age. I can't tell you how much I wish I could tell my Grandpa Steele that story. He would be laughing so hard.)
She is a voracious TV watcher. She loves it and would plop herself down on the couch and not move until bedtime if I let the TV be on that much. Her current top requests are "the buggies" (Miss Spider), "the princess movie" (Little Mermaid), "the zebra movie" (Madagascar) and "the fish movie" (Finding Nemo). She loves to play games on my iPod and already knows as much about how to navigate around on it as I do.
One of her favorite things to do is take pictures. She'll grab my camera and click away. We end up with a lot of pictures of toes and headless people.
Dressing up as a princess is one of her favorite things to do. She will often pick out an outfit and wear it all day long. One of these days I'll have to paint her toenails.
She is still a Daddy's Girl. We have long conversations during the day that go like this:
Julia: Daddy working? Daddy working hard?
Me: Yes. Daddy's working.
Julia: Daddy working in office?
Me: Yes. Daddy's working at his office.
Julia: I go work at office with Daddy?
That gets repeated many, many times in some variation during the day.
We also have an odd routine that happens when we put her to bed. She needs multiple reassurances that "Mommy come get me when I wake up?" Often times she'll cry out an hour into naptime just to double check that "Mommy come get me when I wake up?"
She is doing a wonderful job with potty training. She is so persistent and proud of herself.
One of her favorite things is to run around naked. She gets great joy in both the action and the announcement: "I NAKED!!"
And Dax? He is All Boy. Dave nicknamed him "Bulldog" because when he wants to do something, he hunkers down and gets it done no matter who or what is in his way. He's just as stubborn about NOT doing something he doesn't want to do. Plus, he drools. A lot :) He is so active. No sitting around watching TV for this boy (unless there's a snack involved). If he is awake, chances are that he is moving!
He's fearless when it comes to acts of physical prowess and I nearly always return to a room to find him on top of some piece of furniture. But he's shy around strangers and doesn't like loud, active crowds. He prefers hanging out with men over women with the exception of his Mommy.
He pesters his sister to distraction and is always right in the middle of what she is doing ... unless she wants him there. If she goes somewhere on her own, he wanders around looking lost until she returns. He's been enjoying her potty training as well, trying on princess panties and begging for M&Ms. They really are best friends.
He loves his blue blankie and any type of ball. He has to have both in his bed to sleep. Recently he has fallen in love with books. He will now sit still for an entire picture book and often times more than one. He loves to sit and flip through the pages. His favorites are books with animals, especially dogs.
He is in both a clingy and independent phase that is driving us a little nuts. He can't figure out if he wants to cuddle or run off and do his own thing. Often this results in a whiny little boy that is upset that whatever is happening right now is not what he wanted at all. Even if he asked for it.
His feet look enormous to me. They really aren't that big (size 5 or 6), but I guess compared to his tiny baby feet they are huge.
Good grief these babies are growing up fast!! I can't believe how quickly time is flying. Whew!
On a different note, and to make the post even longer, we had pictures made for our church directory. We spent enough to get the CD with full-sized images which means we can do prints for other family members that don't get one. If you want, you can go to our Flickr page with the pictures and then e-mail us which one(s) you want and what size.
29 June 2009
Busy
Things have been busy around here lately. I've chosen not to take any pictures of the madness because I didn't want to exhaust you vicariously. That's not true ... I have a couple of pictures from last Sunday(!) when we went to our church's VBS kick off party.
Dax found a ball ...
Julia found a hula hoop ...
BUT ...
Then the band started ...
And Julia DANCED ...
DaxMan still had his ball ...
Julia forced random strangers (Hi, Melissa! :P) to dance with her ...
And then Dave, Jenny and Grayson showed up and I didn't take anymore pictures. Really. We had them here for three days and had an awesome time watching the babies all play together, but my camera stayed off. Then we all headed to the Atlanta area for the Cochran family reunion and ... my camera still mostly stayed off. I have one or two photos I'll post once I get around to unpacking the camera, but that's it. Sad, but true.
However, even without pictures, I have a few stories to tell, but those will have to wait. (This is a nice way of saying that my next post will be all wordy and stuff without anything to break it up. Feel free to skip it.) Today, I have to cook a bunch of stuff from our freezer since I apparently didn't get the door shut all the way last night and woke up to find a lake in our kitchen and a lot of food that needs to be cooked RIGHT NOW!! I am focusing on the positive and seeing this as me cleaning out the freezer and not just cleaning up after a silly mistake :) Plus, I can put off unpacking for another day!
Dax found a ball ...
Julia found a hula hoop ...
BUT ...Then the band started ...
And Julia DANCED ...
DaxMan still had his ball ...
Julia forced random strangers (Hi, Melissa! :P) to dance with her ...
And then Dave, Jenny and Grayson showed up and I didn't take anymore pictures. Really. We had them here for three days and had an awesome time watching the babies all play together, but my camera stayed off. Then we all headed to the Atlanta area for the Cochran family reunion and ... my camera still mostly stayed off. I have one or two photos I'll post once I get around to unpacking the camera, but that's it. Sad, but true.
However, even without pictures, I have a few stories to tell, but those will have to wait. (This is a nice way of saying that my next post will be all wordy and stuff without anything to break it up. Feel free to skip it.) Today, I have to cook a bunch of stuff from our freezer since I apparently didn't get the door shut all the way last night and woke up to find a lake in our kitchen and a lot of food that needs to be cooked RIGHT NOW!! I am focusing on the positive and seeing this as me cleaning out the freezer and not just cleaning up after a silly mistake :) Plus, I can put off unpacking for another day!
13 April 2009
Happy Easter!!!
Uh, no, I don't have a picture of our precious family all dolled up in our Easter clothes.
Why?
Because during the 11am Easter worship service at our church, I worked in the toddler room at the nursery. And David worked with the three-year-olds. And when we got home ... we were tired! Exhausted, really.
Thankfully, I had prepared our lunch casserole that morning. Unfortunately, I forgot to turn on the oven before we left for church. So when we got home, I turned on the oven and we heated up some leftover pizza for some Very Hungry Kids and their Very Hungry Parents. And while Dax napped (cranky!), Julia entertained her Uncle Christopher.
She hunted for eggs in the yard ...
Please note: The basket is purely for decoration purposes only.
One, maybe two, eggs made it into the basket.
None for longer than five seconds.
Mom, it's bright! Don't make me look up!
Yum! Chapstick!
And stickers!!!
Mommy may regret the foam swords :)
(Aunt Jamie, we missed you!!)
Why?
Because during the 11am Easter worship service at our church, I worked in the toddler room at the nursery. And David worked with the three-year-olds. And when we got home ... we were tired! Exhausted, really.
Thankfully, I had prepared our lunch casserole that morning. Unfortunately, I forgot to turn on the oven before we left for church. So when we got home, I turned on the oven and we heated up some leftover pizza for some Very Hungry Kids and their Very Hungry Parents. And while Dax napped (cranky!), Julia entertained her Uncle Christopher.
She hunted for eggs in the yard ...
Please note: The basket is purely for decoration purposes only.One, maybe two, eggs made it into the basket.
None for longer than five seconds.
And each time she found one, she carefully carried it over to her Gathering Spot and put it in line ...
EchoDog didn't care much about the eggs, she preferred her ratty, old tennis ball ...
Once Julia got all her eggs lined up, she spent some time jumping back and forth over the line ...
After Dax woke up, she shared a few eggs with him ...
Mom, it's bright! Don't make me look up!Of course, we had Easter baskets ...
Julia's had her two favorite things ...
Yum! Chapstick!
And stickers!!!Dax liked his stuff, too ...
Mommy may regret the foam swords :)
And then there's this picture. Which I include not only to show you how big our boy is growing (He can stand up! And bend over to grab something without losing his balance!), but also to show off his new shoes that he wore all day without whining!
And afterward we all sat down to eat Easter lunch/dinner ... which turned out to be more of a soup than a casserole. Ah, well, I tried. The kids ate off their new trays (oh melamine plates and bowls and divided trays from Target! I am powerless against your cuteness!) Then everyone relaxed for the rest of the evening!
(Aunt Jamie, we missed you!!)
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