A Birthday Prayer

Burt brought home a wonderful dinner tonight for my birthday, plus a chocolate molten lava cake. Nicholas was very excited about it being my birthday as he knows you usually have cake. When Burt came home Nicholas immediately asked if he brought cake home. One track mind for sure. He said he did and that he could have some after we ate dinner. As we sat down for dinner Burt asked if Nicholas wanted to say the prayer this evening and he agreed. This is how it went.

"Thank you God for Mommy's Birthday. Thank you God for Daddy bringing her a birthday cake. And thank you for it being closer to my birthday. Amen."

I was smiling from ear to ear and trying not to laugh. He knew what he wanted and what he was thankful for. His friend at school had a birthday Thursday so he is eagerly anticipating his. Little does he know he has six more months, his daddy's bday, his brothers bday and many more friends before that, but each time he will get cake and can be thankful it is closer to his birthday. Too precious. I love this boy. All four of us gathered around the cake, on one plate, with four spoons, and dug in. Joshua mainly played with it. Boy was it good. Happy Birthday to me :-)

Dinner Disaster

So, all was well. I had dinner in the oven and was washing up some dishes when I heard what sounded like one of the oven racks falling. I turned off the water and opened the oven to find this........


Needless to say I was dumbfounded. How did the dish break???? It was not cold to begin with so I am not sure what happened. Then I realized one, that I had to think of something else for dinner and two, that I was going to have to figure out a way to clean this up once the oven cooled down. Fun times. We ended up having cheese quesadillas and popcorn. Healthy don't you think. Oh well, gotta do what you have to in these times right. But now I have to cook tomorrow night too. Ugh! Hopefully the meal will turn out better this time.

Labor Day Weekend

We packed up and headed to Florida for the weekend. On Friday night we stayed with our good friends the Carter's and their kids. The boys loved all the attention and new toys they were able to play with and we enjoyed visiting with Melanie and Ryan and even got to play games with them this time around. It was great. Saturday morning after breakfast we headed to the bay. We stayed there until the storm came in. It was breezy, but beautiful weather to hang out in the water or in the sand. We then made it home for lunch and naps. After naps we hung out a little more before heading over to the Hemphill's. The boys loved playing in their backyard and Burt lounged in the hammock. Rough life.

Burt and Ryan with seaweed for hair.

Too cute.

Our boys have no fear of the water. Just chilling.

Ahh!

I love the waves.
Rose was content hanging out in the sand with the gals.

We made it to the Hemphill's in time for dinner and bedtimes. Brandon ended up having to go in to work early Sunday morning. So, Burt took the older boys down by the beach to fish while Brittny and I took Sophie and Joshua to the playground. We then all met up for lunch and naps. After naps we played inside and outside and wore the children out. We had dinner and were able to get all the children in bed by 8pm. Wow! Then us adults sat around and watched tv and talked and laughed so hard we could hardly breathe. It was so much fun. We miss having them closer that's for sure. We finally called it a night around midnight. Monday morning we all had breakfast together and then Burt and Brandon went fishing for a little bit while the kids played. We then ate lunch before heading back to Montgomery. We made a potty break at Priesters Pecan Shop. We enjoyed some samples, ice cream and a horse swing ride before getting back in the van. It was a fun pit stop. Definitely a short synopsis of our fun, but you get the point. It was great to see everyone this weekend and enjoy some relaxing fun and catching up with our friends and their children. Thanks for having us over!!!! Sophie and Joshua were not happy they couldn't go fishing with the big boys.

Sophie and Joshua said cheese for the camera, but Christopher and Nicholas were too zoned from not napping. They were busy watching tv and vegging out before dinner. Joshua loves to swing. Nicholas decided to push him along a little.

Fun words/thoughts by Nicholas

I wanted to share a few of the funny things Nicholas has said lately and the next post I am going to add random pictures since I havne't been good about blogging about our activities. Currently he is using the words "beautiful, delicious and wonderful" quite often. He will say, "wow this is delicious" to a dinner I made which always makes me smile, "that's beautiful" or "how wonderful" to various things. It is just funny to hear him say sentences with those words in it. The latest funny story goes like this. Usually at bedtime I go in to read Nicholas a story and then Burt comes in to pray with us. Once Burt leaves I hang around for a few songs and Nicholas plays with my hair a little. This particular night Burt was laying down with us. After the prayer and when Burt said, "Goodnight, I love you", Nicholas turned to him and said, "Goodnight Daddy, I love you, now go away." It was the funniest thing. He made sure Burt knew he didn't want him to lay down with us. Too cute.

Potty trained!

Nicholas has finally decided that he is ready to use the toilet. Praise the Lord!!!!! Thanks to all our friends, family and Nicholas' church prayer partner for the prayers lifted up the past couple of weeks. It has certaintly worked.

Two weekends ago Nicholas told Burt that he wanted to wear his underwear. We told him sure, but that meant he needed to use the toilet. He of course said ok, but only once did he use it in the time span of Friday to Tuesday. I was trying not to get frustrated again this go around and did pretty well with it I think. I did get him to sit on the toilet a few times and coerced him with lollipops and stickers which seemed to work this time. I was up for anything that would at least get him to try. The only downfall to that is Joshua "needs" one everytime too. Oh well.

So, finally on Wed I think something just clicked for him. The first time he went for the whole day was at 4pm. That is weird in itself, but at least he told me in needed to and actually sat on the toilet. He was very proud of himself and I was proud of him too. He wore his underwear to church that evening. He went with me to try a couple times, but nothing. When we got home around 8:30pm he said he had to go. By this time he had already started, but we were able to make it to the toilet to finish. Progress. Then, on Thursday morning when he woke up he went straight to the bathroom and from then on he has told us when he needs to go, goes in there, does his business, comes out yelling "come see what I did" and then yells "bye bye pee!" when he flushes the toilet. It is cute. He also gets his lollipop. I am trying now to cut down on that, but we will see when. It has now been five days with no accidents and he has even pooped twice on the toilet. Burt and I are very excited and I know Nicholas is too. No turning back this time. My big boy has finally had the light switch turn on for him. What a huge milestone.

Regret?

Now, before you read any further, if you are expecting some profound and deep thinking message here, stop reading. We finally decided to get Joshua a haircut after much deliberation. I was okay with having it done knowing it would grow back, but I think it might have been a mistake once it was over with. We loved the curls and now he looks like such a big boy. sob sob.

Joshua's very curly hair after being in the pool and letting the sun dry it really fast. This is how I liked it the most. The ringlets were too cute. They would be adorable on a little girl.

Before
After

He kept the same dumbfounded look on his face the entire time. He did very well sitting by himself in the chair, but I am not sure he knew what was going on. And, the haircut is growing on me now. It has been a couple of weeks now and has had time to grow slightly or just lay better. There are also some waves still and the back of his hair is starting to curl up again. Fun times. Maybe this time it will grow out the same length so we can keep the curls. The mullet look when wet was just not good.

Hey, what's the big idea?

Now, this phrase can be used in many instances, with many different parts emphasized. Just imagine this coming out of a three old now, funny isn't it? At least I think so, but others might not when they hear him say it and take it out of context. This phrase comes from the show Imagination Movers and never is used in an "ugly" way, but sometimes when Nicholas uses it, it is almost in a context of, hey, why are you doing that. I find it too funny. It was especially funny this morning at 3:30am. Now, normally I would be not so happy, but first of all, he didn't come in our room just because, he actually had a good reason. His diaper had leaked and he was all wet. So, Burt brought him to our bed and turned on our bathroom light so he could change him and this is what I heard.....Hey! What's the big idea? Hilarious I might say. Oh out of the mouth of babes.

And, don't you love it when you go to see what your child is doing and he looks at you and says, "I'm just pooping" before you even say a word. Why on earth will he not go on the toilet???? I might have to start trying again with him because waiting on him after our first go at it is taking forever. Hmm....I will have to think on that one.

Lastly, the other night Nicholas told Burt that he wanted two Annie and Clarabels and Joshua needed two Annie and Clarabels (trains). When Burt said it was bedtime and plus that required money and we didn't have any, he responded with, "Daddy, you need to go get money". Okay then.