I'm Back!

Well, everyone it's been a while since my last post! I'm sure you're all just dying to know what's going on in our exciting life!? (ha) Well, if you still didn't get the last post - we are expecting a new baby in October. We're very excited, but I've also been very sick! I guess it goes with the territory! I just constantly have that "feel like your gonna throw up feeling", which is always fun when you've got two very energetic boys sprinting around the house at all times. By the grace of God, so far I've survived and I've even felt a little better these last 2 days. I've figured out if I eat something every hour then I can curb the feeling a little. Which sounds like fun, but it's not as glamorous as it seems! I also have to constantly chew gum every moment I'm not eating just to help that sickie feeling. I'm also extremely tired, but I guess that's what happens when you're creating a person inside! One day at a time, right?
I'll post again when I have the energy and time to put some pictures on the blog too. Thanks for sticking with the absent blogger!

Pre-Valentine's Riddle

SEE IF YOU CAN SOLVE THIS RIDDLE?

...THERE'S MORE

...KEEP GOING

...KEEP LOOKING

...STILL GOING

...AND IF YOU STILL DON'T KNOW

...LAST BUT NOT LEAST

Official Letterboxers Now!

Today we had such a great time going Letterboxing. Some of you may be saying, "What is that?". Some friends of ours introduced us to letterboxing about a year and a half ago and it sounded like so much fine. The whole premise is that your whole family follows clues to find small boxes hidden anywhere in the United States (there are thousands of them). Inside the box is a stamp, and a little notebook. In the notebook, you put your stamp and write where you're from and the date and whatever else you want to put. Then you take their stamp and put it in your notebook and document any information that you want. The whole idea is to get families out of the house exploring new places, mostly outside at parks or interesting areas. We found our 2nd and 3rd letterbox today at a park in McKinney. If you're interested you can go to http://www.letterboxing.org/ to get clues or find out more about it. We have a lot of fun searching for the boxes and we get to try new trails and places we might not have otherwise explored. Here are some pics of our adventure:

Jonah and I searching for the box hidden in the hole of a fallen tree. They are very hidden, so that people don't take them who don't know what they are.

Jonah, Caleb and Adam searching for our second box. We were searching for four trees that together made a V shape.

We found the box! Notice the V shaped tree behind us!

Here we are stamping our books. Don't you like Jonah's "Safari" hat, as he calls it!

Afterward we explored the Town Lake Park, and even fed the ducks some Cheez-Its that we had stashed in the car. Some birds decided to join the fun and we threw the crackers in the air as they swooped down to catch it. Jonah just giggled away, and Caleb just ate the Cheez-Its!

Where does he come up with this?

I have to share an equally frustrating and cute moment from yesterday. Jonah had a hard morning at Wal-Mart to say the least. After a long, drawn out speech, I told him that he could not watch TV or play computer games for the rest of the day. You would have thought that I'd taken his whole world away, he was so distraught. When we get into the house he immediately gets a piece of paper and a marker and is drawing a picture. At this point I'm just glad that he's not crying or whining! As I'm sitting there fixing lunch, Jonah walks up and says look Mom I can watch this TV! Here's the drawing of his TV below:

It was hard to know whether to laugh, cry, or throw my hands up in surrender! We had a little discussion about attitude of the heart after that! And he agreed that he shouldn't get to watch his paper TV either!

Past Week

Well, I'm sitting here at midnight and for some reason I just felt like blogging, so I'll try to remember all the highlights of this week. The kids have really been keeping me smiling this week with all their funny little moments. I may breathe a little sigh of exhaustion before I begin laughing, but ultimately I've looked back on this week with a little grin in my heart.

This first picture is of my little adventurer Caleb. I was cooking and he was, as usual, exploring every inch of unknown space that he could find. I walked in the laundry room and this is what I found! He was so happy in there too! I think he thought it was his own little club house.

This is Jonah and his diorama that he and Adam made this weekend. I think Adam might have enjoyed making it even more than Jonah. It's a zoo, if you couldn't tell. It even has a light in the corner for the sun.

I also found a new recipe for spinach this week. We all love spinach at our house, but I have not been able to find many quick and easy ways to prepare spinach. Here's my new recipe and my little tester enjoying every minute. Jonah ate it up too! So mom's try this recipe for Creamed Spinach.

*Prepare spinach and drain (I used 2 cans, but you could use frozen or fresh) Put it in a saucepan with a a bar of cream cheese and a little parmesan cheese, salt and pepper to taste. Cook over medium heat until creamy and bubbly. It is very yummy!

It can even be used as a hair conditioner for extra shine! (Don't try this at home!)

Other great moments this week:

*Caleb kneeling down to pray at bedtime. It may have only been for 3 seconds, but he did it on his own!

*Jonah reading some of his first words on his own. He's really grasping the whole putting letter sounds together thing! Way to go Jonah!

* Jonah woke us up one morning this week - with a little sleepy voice he asks if he can read the story of Jesus feeding the people with Daddy again! (They had done this the morning before) What a sweet way to start your day!

*Jonah, on his own initiative, makes a book for a church member, named Dink, who has cancer. The book was titled "Dink and the Pokey Bush". The title pretty much sums up the plot of the story! Dink was so thrilled!

*Tonight, while several ladies were here at the house, Jonah was supposed to be going to bed. He comes back in and says "Mom, I can't sleep because I close my eyes and it pretends to make writing in my head. The writing just keeps on coming out !" I'm not real sure what that means, but it was cute!

*When we went to the park on Saturday, Caleb was so happy to be outside and free! There was a walking trail there at the park and I followed him as he ran around that track for a whole mile straight, literally! Maybe he thought if he just kept running we'd never have to go home! I think we've found our distance runner!