Funny Things

I've noticed a lot of people telling me I need to be more grateful for things everyday. Not people telling me to my face, but talks at church, stories in magazines, etc. I've also noticed that my Aunt Pam likes to put on her facebook things she is grateful for. I like that, so I think I'm going to try to start doing that on a regular basis as well. To start off with, I want to mention that I am thankful that my son, Joshua, says funny things. He thinks things through, and when you think about the limited information he has, his statements really make sense. But they are funny when added to the additional knowledge of a few more years of experience. For example....

The other day, we were talking about the German language. I told him that in German, they say "Nein" for "No." He thought about that for a moment, then asked, "What do they say 'five' for?"

He is so bright. And I am thankful for the smile that he always manages to bring to my face.

Follow The Prophet

Today, we had our ward primary presentation. It was Joshua's first program to participate in. He did a really great job. For his part, he was assigned "Jesus Christ is my Savior and Redeemer." He decided, though, that he wanted to say "Jesus Christ is Our Savior and Our Redeemer." We talked about it, and he wanted to make sure that everyone knows that Jesus Christ is the Savior and Redeemer for everyone, not just him. So thoughtful and knowledgeable.

One important thing to know about Joshua. He can project his voice with the best of them. He's the type of kid that will never NEED a microphone. When he got up to say his part, it was clear and loud enough for all to hear. It was really wonderful to hear. Because of his projection talents, we were also able to delight in his contribution to the songs. I don't think most people noticed, until we got to the song "Follow The Prophet." This is a song with a really fun to sing chorus. All the kids know the chorus line very quickly. Joshua, even as a Sunbeam (first year in primary when you are 3 on the 1st of January), knows it VERY well. He sang his heart out. Not exactly WITH everyone else, but definitely LOUDER than everyone else combined. This song has 9 verses. The kids sang 8 of them. Each time through the chorus, he became a little more obvious. The entire congregation was rolling by the end of it, and Peter and I were in tears from laughing so hard. He was able to keep up the volume for each of the subsequent songs. People throughout the congregation kept glancing at me and winking. I think they wanted to reassure me that I shouldn't be embarrassed. Thank you for your concern. I do appreciate it. I think if I hadn't seen another little girl do the exact same thing several years ago, I may have been mortified. But, as it is, I was just proud of him. Proud of him that he knew his songs. And proud of him that he loves the gospel enough to want to make sure that everyone knew that he knows that these things are true.

Emily is still in nursery, and will be there for another year. In our church, the kids get to go to nursery when they turn 18 months. Then, when they are 3 on the first of January, they move up to a class called Sunbeams. The Sunbeams meet with the rest of the primary, who are the children ages 3-12. The nursery kids don't participate in the program, so Emily was sitting with the rest of the family for the presentation. As she was sitting there listening, not so intently, she suddenly stopped what she was doing (she was playing with a nice girl who was sitting behind us) when she heard Joshua singing, and said "That's my boy." She likes to say that Joshua is her boy and Jessica is her baby. She is so funny. But even Emily recognized her brother's voice as he sang with all his heart, and at the top of his lungs, with all the other primary children.

Good job, Joshua. I hope to be able to hear you sing each and every year you are in the primary program... even when you are 11 years old. I love you, Joshua. Follow the prophet, and you will always be where you need to be.

Jessie turned 1!

Okay, so it probably didn't need the exclamation point in the title, since it was a couple weeks ago already, but it was exciting. 1 year ago, on October 22, this beautiful little girl joined our family. She is the most cuddly little person I have ever met. I couldn't ask for a happier child. We are so blessed to have her with us.



The pure joy that is my little Jessie

Apparently, when you have older siblings, you don't get to open your own presents. :) She didn't seem to mind too much, though.

Here she is figuring out how to tear open presents... Okay, so she already knew how to tear paper, but that is beside the point.

Jessie also happens to have figured out how to eat her cake without too much mess. Too bad... No great messy pictures this time. But we do have a video of her eating just the flowers in the bear's hair... and then her brother and sister promptly joined her when they realized they were going to miss out on all the pretty purple icing. In this picture, she had already begun destroying those nice little flowers. That is what she is putting in her mouth.


Happy Birthday, Jessica! We love you so much and can't wait to see what your next year has in store for us all.

Paynes Prairie - Adventures With Alligators... and banana spiders

One beautiful Saturday in September, we decided we would take our first trip to Paynes Prairie. Okay, so it's our second trip, but our first trip was to the wrong place in Paynes Prairie. Sorry, Nathan, there was nothing to speak of there. Except a tower I thought would fall over. If you're curious about that story, click here to read it. But this time, we found the right spot to go view the alligators and were not disappointed.

After parking, it's about a 1/2 mile walk to the viewing pavilion that is set up for your convenience and comfort when looking at gators. How nice. The end of the walk is along this board walk. Nicely raised and caged so you feel more secure when staring at an alligator down in the water. Here is a picture of the daddy and the kids taking a look at an alligator swimming down below.

Here is Jessica taking advantage of the few minutes she was allowed to get out of her stroller. Looking around, checking things out. At this point she wasn't walking, but she could sure get where she wanted anyway.

When you get to the end of the boardwalk, there is a little pavilion so you can sit in the shade and see a lot of alligators. It's apparently positioned in a very popular area for the gators to rest. As we were gazing to our hearts content, we noticed there was a ginormous wasp nest in the roof of the pavilion. We also noticed that the wasps had come down to check us out. Needless to say, we did not make anymore use of that small building. Too bad, it was quite a warm day, too. But leaving the pavilion and walking over into the grass allowed me to get this really good shot of a gator sunbathing. What a relaxing way to spend the day.

On the way back to the car, we first had to sprint through the pavilion. I was quite weary of the wasps by that point. And then walked all the way back along the boardwalk and on a path through some meadows and some woods. This tree was quite interesting. It looks super old. And it is huge. This picture definitely does not do this tree justice.

One other interesting thing we noticed on the way back was that we were surrounded by all these banana spiders hanging in their webs up in the trees above the path. Yuck! We have them all around the complex here where we live, but I think these ones may have been even bigger. For those of you not familiar with these creatures, they are not really aggressive, but they are grossly huge. I'd suppose some of these could be compared to a dollar bill for size.

By the way, I am NOT a spider person, but these are interesting to look at.

11 Monthday Present

Yesterday was September 22. It was also Jessica's 11 month day. She got a special present.

Her 1st tooth! Yes, it is FINALLY here.


Congratulations, Jessie! I know you'll make good use of them in the times to come. :)

Dissertation Update

Just wanted to post an exciting little update for all you out there. Peter has finished writing his dissertation! Yes, it is complete. Now he has taken it to the printer. He will get it to his committee and the grad school (who reviews it for formatting issues). His committee will review it and then he will have to defend the dissertation hopefully in the first or second week of October. Yeah for us! After defending, he will be all set for graduating in December. Life is GOOD! :)

Think, Think, Think

Joshua has found a way to nearly always get what he wants from Emily. He has become VERY good at this manipulation technique. For example....

When it comes to shower time, we have Joshua and Emily take turns going first, in theory. Jessie always gets in with whomever is first. However, Joshua loves to play a game with Mommy or Daddy, whoever is not giving the baths, while both the girls are in the shower. Of course, he has to go second in order for this to happen. So, when it is his turn, like tonight, he asks Emily if she wants to shower first. Here's an example of the conversation.

Joshua: Emily, do you want to go first?
Emily: No.
Joshua: Do you want to think about that? For longer than you thinked about that?
Emily: No.
Joshua: Think, think, think. Do you want to keep thinking about that?
A little time elapses
Joshua: Keep thinking about that. Do you want to go first?

Half the time, he gets her to finally say yes. It really is quite amusing to watch.

Outcome for tonight? Emily thought long and hard, and took the first shower. Boy is he good. :)